The National Register. — London, England, 1817-02-24 00:00:00

u~~ IIEPOR7' of the COMMITTEE of SEC. The report made to both Houses of Parliament, evil -he read with painful interest by every well-wisher of • the best interests of the countrv. Our readers will probably differ as to the extent of the mischief disclosed in evidence to the Committee. Whilst some will doubt of a traitorous conspiracy, more %till hesitate to believe, that disaffection prevails to a considerable degree amongst the low( r orders of the people. The distresses of the times, by whatever -cause they arc occasioned, whether from a sudden transition from War to Peace, ns some contend, by the operation of the elements, 1w excess of taxation, by what has been termed, a delusive paper currency, or by whatever other assignable cause, the distresses of the -atuntry have fanned the flume of &sweat:lit, and ripen ed the public mind fix the reception of those mischiev ous doctrines, which scent to have taken deep root, and propagated with such malignant avidity, the unhappy fruits of which are demonstrated in the tumultuous and seditious proceeding's now in evidence bethre the Com mittee. Whtther these proceedings amount to the character of *I ligh Treason, or not, we have as yet no means of determining ; but that the most culpable meetings have been held, and illegal measures organ ized to effect an alteration in the state, that secret combinations of individuals in different parts of the empire have existed, that illegal oaths have been ad ministered, and arms fitbricated, with a view to carry these iithrious purposes into effect, no man who has mead this report with an unprejudiced mind, can hesi tate to believe. If to these facts we add the charge of endeavouring by systematic ridicule, to undermine the props of religion amongst the lower orders, to destroy whatever has hitherto been held mmit sacred amongst men ; we must be endowed with more than stoical.' Itpathy, not to be alarmed by this determinate and -organized attack on a nation's virtue, and a nation's ',happiness. To the consolations of religion in adver sity, men have ever looked with fund and fluttering lope—this is the sheet-anchor to which suffering hu manity in all ages has clung, as a preservative from the -worst of evils that can happen in this life, by opening -to us the bright prospect of a bet ter beyond it, but if we ealke up our minds to believe that the " be all, and the and all" is here, then indeed if we happen in this sub" . lunary state to berniserable, we are " of all men, most oxiserable," haiing nothing beyond to look forward to. We terniiaate all our views by the cloudy horizon pre senting itself; and is it extraordinary, that in so dismal -a view of thins, man should consider himself as eman cipated from the common obligations of duty, and should Le ripe for every mischievous impression which Ilse art and malice of the worst enemy of the human race can communicate? To this miserable condition are men reduced who by the prison of infidelity renounce their hopes of a better and happier state ; this conserpienee those who adminis ter the .deadly poison are full aware of—they argue flirts—eon we tut once remove the pillars of honesty, *id that . sense of right so strongly im i eicated in the human breast, we render men capable of any mischief, ripe for any innovation and change, fit in short for any monstrous -undertaking—the transition from religious despair to political desperation is easy and natural. Men who ha ye nothing to hope, nothing to fear, andevery thing to gain, will under the influence of such deli rium act the part of madmen, and join in the senseless -schemes of any bold and unprincipled leader. In our last paper we commented on the dangerous tendency of those schemes of ref o rm advocated by the patrons of universal suffrage, and annual Parliaments. We stated, that universal suffrage and annual Parlia ments were unknown in the history of the country— that - property bad ever been held, tind most wisely held, to Le the,parent of taxation, that no persons not directly subject 'to the payment of taxes ought to have any vote in the election of their Representatives—that annual Parliaments would open a wide door to bribery and corruption, and would present. an annual recurrence of the most disgraceful scenes of riot and confusion. These arc the pernicious schemes of amendment and reform which are recommended by the affiliated societies of the Hainixlen and %Secret .many members of these Societies really entertain such visionary notions, and deceive themselves into a belief that they may be realized, we arc ready to believe ; but we be lieve that many avail themselves of the pressure of the times and the distress so generally prevalent amongst the lower orders ; of the credulity of some, and the discontent of others, to lay the foundation of mischief, to stop and undermine the construction of society, and to involve every establishment in disorder and «infusion. Yet the wicked hopes and designs of such men are merciful when compared with the doc trines of another society now in evidence before the Committee, that of the Sptnceans, whose tenets avow edly lead to the destruction of all property, who arc plca!A, with singular modesty, to consider »tll the land in the country as the " People's Farm," the present Land and Farm-holders as so many trespassers and in truders on the property of the people, and subject to the people, who, they contend, are the only true and Tightful owners. They t-onsitit r Parliamentary Reform 4 pad-ostensible pretend !Ur association, but as only THE NATIONAL REGISTER. I an innisfaeOtt.ce, Abe rol end and object of their scheme ' being a resutuiptistpufaß property not unlawfully with held from them. - To this system the Agrarian Law, so long and Obstinats4y contended for in the time of the Roman Commonwealth, was child's play here is a plan fin. the direct cutting of thnrats! for man rising against man, and butchering his more opulent neighbour without mercy. Could Utopia or Bedlam produce a more compendi ous system of robbery and murder ? and yet men have been found base and wicked enough to lend themselves to the distresses of the times, to the failure of the sea-' sons, to the temporary calamity of the country, in order to propagate amongst the lowest and least instructed orders of the people, smarting under the present imme diate pressure, and on this account less able to discri minute or judge impartially, these monstrous doctrines, at which the sober mind recoils with disgust and abhor rence. With a view to disseminate those odious plans by means of cheap tracts, and publications, funds have heen created, and a system of communication organized. Happily for the country these several schemes, souse more seene less formidable, are now clearly developed, and in possession of the collected wisdom of the legisla turc. What steps will ultimately be taken on the occasion, it would ill become us to conjecture or anticipate. We arc free to confess we deprecate the suspension of the labeas Corpus, that bulwark of the liberties of English men. We should be sorry to see the constitutional pri vileges of the people endangered, or for one hour sus pended, in consequence of the folly or madness of a few misguided individuals. We still hope that the heart of the people is sound at bottom, that they love and re vere the laws and constitution of their country, and that in despight of their artful and malignant adversaries, they are not to be seduced from their allegiance.-- Notwithstanding this well-grounded, hope, as we trust it is, it would be unpardonable folly, when the Spirit of mischief stalks abroad, not to take measures of precaution. Common prudence suggests the necessity of opposing an active and unprincipled enemy whose designs are now made apparent, and who spares no pains to disseminate his principles with the most ener getic and malignant industry. This is due to the sound and loyal part of the community. When they sec the Rulers of the State vigilant at their posts, deluding the sophistry and exposing the absurdiiy of these persons terming themselves Reformers—repressing acts of se dition, and preventing their recurrence by wise provi sions—when added to this, they see them seriously en gaged in plans of retrenchment, and setting the example by voluntarily imposing on themselves a tax on their own incomes, they must consider them in no other light, than that of faithful stewards anxious to perform their duty to the public, and giving a pledge of what may be expected front them, which ought to be hailed with gratitude, and accepted with confidence. SUNDAY AMUSEMENTS. OBSERVATIONS ON THE RETURN OF "THE AGE or REASON," AND ON CERTAIN LATE BLASPHEMOUS PARODIES OF THE CHURCH sERVICk. The Age of Reason appears to be returning upon ue ; and another attempt is making to laugh us out of our Religion. It is almost dangerous to speak of the great truths of Christianity, lest some disgusting and bias phemous parody should be cast in our teeth. The' Litany ?four Church, concerning which even the unbe lieving Hume spoke with respect ; and which has been copied, more or less into the religious services of almost every denomination of Christians, not even excepting the Unitarians themselves, is held up to public scorn and derision, by the new-fangled RefOrmers of the pre sent day. The grand and truly eloquent language of the Te Deem, has been tortured to the purposes of faction, rebellion, and infidelity. An attempt to mur der the first Magistrate of the State, or at least the Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of the lira Magistrate, our venerable and afflicted Mo narch, has been made the subject of a blasphemous joke, in a miserable two-penny pamphlet, entitled The Bullet Te Deum. These wretches 'probably do not no derstnnd the meaning of the word they have, in this', title so profimely prostituted : but if they had under stood it, they would not have restrained their licen. tiousness. That incomparable " form of sound words,"•! The Lord's Prayec, has not escaped the ridicule of these Reforraers:—.even this sacred address, -taught us by the Son of God himself,—an address which not even the " Free Thinking Christians" —no, not even the . renerend and doubly licensed dedlers in gin, have hi therto ventured to ridicule, at least, we presume it has not yet become the subject of a Sunduy debate at the " Church" behind Jewin-street, whatever it may have been at the Chapel of Ease in Holborri--Yes: even this form of prayer, aoknowledged and used by all sects and all parties throughout Christendom—which we have taught our children as soon as they could lisp the words " Oar Father"—even this has been travestied, panxliLd, and treated with derision. The hallowed tables of the. Dtwalootte also have been touched by the profane hands of the ;dvoeutes of Hunt and Cobbett ; and by those who, while they lift their rebellious weapons against the venerable fabric of the Constitution, are devoting a por tion of their energies to the destruction of the sacred prilnuAny t 4. altars of our God. The Psalms of David—" the sweet singer of Israel' *—The Calechim of the Church—the Benedictions of the author Red Ministers of Religion— the concluding Doxologies of our public prayers, bor rowed front the inspired writings thentselves—are all enlisted into the ignoble services of sedition and infide lity. The Creed ?Rh Apadlex—the very attributes of ROOVAII himself—the heavenly titles of the SON of Gon—Nay, whatever our forefathers have held sacred, whatever constitutes the hope of the heavenly-minded, the consolation of the distressed and the wretched, the joy and the comfort of the wise and the good—all, all, is turned into ridicule, and made the subject of indecent sneer and sarcasm. Oh ! but we must not say a word about all this— " No harm is meant, no mischief is intended ; the writers have the most profound regard tier the institutions of religion : they are all good church-people ; quiet in. offensive Christians; and all they seek is Retiorm—the correction of :Anises in Government. They seek only Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights, Saxon laws an 4 Saxon institutions, Atmual Parliaments and liniver. sal Suffrage !"—" MI fiiir and above board here."-- " Fair play's a jewel." Yes, yes ; this is all they want, if we believe them. But are we to be thus duped out of our religion under the mask of Reform? If this is, indeed, all they want, let them seek it by other means than that of blasphemy and profaneness. Let them meet—let them make long speeches—let them indulge as much as they please, in what Mr. Brougham so aptly called their " little nostrums and big blunders ;" but, even as friends to a rational constitutional reform of actual abuses in the government of the state ourselves, we entreat these men to tbrbear to debauch the minds of our servants and children, by their sacrilegious at tempts to bring the institutions of religion and ino• rality into contempt by their " cheap publications." Mr. Cobbett, in his " pamphlet" of yesterday, harp with evident chagrin,but with themost pettrile childish ness, upon the word "cheap" In the Report of the Secret Committee, as applied to the "inflammatory and reditiout works" " the end and intention of which is to root out all feelings of Religion and Morality"—lnstead of either himself promising to refraim from uttering his own " seditious" publications, or of, at least, entering his so. lemn protest against the " /eliminatory" cheap publics. tions which it is the object of this article to reprobate, he chooses to dwell upon the word cheap, as if any one could possibly be stupid enough to believe, that the Committee objected to these publications merely on the ground of their cheapness. In the compass of little more than half a column, he introduces this word cheap, with an inviduons sneer at its application, nearly half a score of ti...ies---what eggregious trifling ! what contemptible sophistry ! " If," says he, " a law were passed to make lay writings of high price, the people would club their Iwo-pen ces to get at them." We have heard of a poor drunkard, whose wishing that ale were a guinea a quart, replied, if so, the first guinea he could lay his hands upon, he would buy a quart with it. Pm bably some such feeling as this may inspire the refined . taste of " the people," who read " Cobbett's weekly Political pamphlet," of which he boasts that " more than a MILLION have been sold within the last silt months; and though," he adds "the people are tortured with the gnawings of starvation, (which surely cannot be the case with those who have money to spare for the purchase of this same book of Cobbett's), though this is acknowledged and proclaimed in parliament as well as out, not one riot, not a single breach of the peace, has occurred . at any one of those numerous multitudinous ( where did Mr. Cobbett pick up this hard u ord asseniblages where the principles if my little book- have been held forth and acted upon !" Oh ! the consummate iinpadelace of this man ! It is -a Let worthy .of par ticular observation, that Cobbett's Register has been translated into the Welsh language cad sent down for distribution among the "multit odinous assemblages" at Myrther Tydvil. And has there been uo breach of the peacethere? Doubtless Mr. Cobbett will reply, and with just about as much truth, too, as Macbeth did to this ghost of Banco, Tbsu eanst not eay I did it In the next " pamphlet" it seems, Mr. C. will " cor rect an error as to the enure of the diAturbonces in Wales." The press waits, and the latter part of this ar ticle bears ample internal evidence of its having been drawn up •.vi!ltout much previous conSideration : Cob bett himself is but just out. General Francis Dundas ie .appointed Governor of Dumbarton Castle, in the mom of General Drum mond, decease , l ; and Lieutenant General B. Leighton succeeds General Dundas as Governor of ( ar.id fergus. The Duke of Marlborough, in consequern e being elected High Steward of Oxford, gave a hand o en tertainment to the Freemen of that city ; 4s public houses were opened for their aecommodulion, and y 0 persons partook of Grace'slibemliLy. I NNOCITLA T 1 ON son TIIF: .—A German 1 1.,..- siciaa, k De Ro;enC2. l .), is stated in the French ps,,, , rs to have hem recently innoculatea with the ping , ' at C-nstuntinnple, and to have subsequently exposed sell to all the contagion of that disease without being 3:1 the least affected by it.