The National Register. — London, England, 1812-11-01 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. tiv Ittinz, Constitution, ano Xztus. PUBLISIILL) AT NO 3 . 17, STRAND, CORNER OF L'XkTVI 'CHANGE No. "5 3 SUNDAY, NOV I.: NIDE R 1, 1812. Pn CF. 9(1. POLITICAL 1)1S'211ISITION. 1311' AWE OF POWER IN THE CONSTITUTION. The beauty and excellence of our Constitution have been ackiwwledgeil and admit ed by all nations. The checks formed by its three branches upon each other, are considered ca pable of insuring the solidity of the edifice, and the seem ity of those who live beneath its shelter. The Peers on the one band, and the Commons on the other, compose two scales which the Regal Authority, as the head of the balance, keeps in a just anti salutary equipoise. The sovereign power and aspiring majesty of the Throne, the amhition of the Nobles, and the turbulent reqlessecss of the Peop!e, encounter exlt other at every point, and oppose impassable bartiers to encroachments on their respective privileges. But although the proportions of our Constitution remain the same, its frame, like every other work of man, has a ten dency to decay, the first symptoms of which, without join in,; in the unfounded clamours of pretended Reformers, it behoves every honest man to point out, in order that it should be checked and remedied. A palace. may retain. all its external grandeur, although the oak that originally sup potted the structure has, in occasional repairs, been replaced by deal ; but the cautious architect will no sooner ascertain the weakness of the substituted beams, but he will restore the oak to its place, and to the fabric its pristine solidity. The equipoise maintained between the three legislative weights in our Constitution, must be impaired by any increase or deterioration which may happen to any of them. The first subject of inquiry is, diet efore, which has experienced that en crem or deterioration ? The Crown, notwithstanding the wild outcry against the alleged augmentation of its patronage, has (lily acquired a degree of additional influence (if any) pro portionate to the augmented power of its opponents, and therefore wholesome and even necessary to the health of the State. Otherwise it would have sunk into a tool of the proud and overbearing Aristocracy lately headed by two Opposi- Ilan Peers, and stiengthened by the accession of a Noble Marquis, of different principles, but of equal vanity and am• bition; or it would have become the sporting toy of mobs and their leaders. The Peers, encreafxd in numloers, but too divided among themselves to pursue any common object, leave not attained any superior weight in the constitgtioual scale. The Commons, or rather some of the parties of Which they are composed, have struggled hard for power. Availing themselves of the temporary weakness•of the ruling fLuthority, they have endeavoured to turn the calamity which afflicted their Sovereign to their own advantage. For that Purpose they have directed the popular clamours which they raised, dtainst the pretended encrease of Crown influence., 21 x1 preached up the necessity of a particular kind of reform re: F r . iiiro.-%;(7CLUT. which, by placing greater numbers of their friend, into the Senate,would have enabled them to acquire the mastery (JIM!' the oilier °triers, whose unimpaited prerogative c:.11 :done maintain the integrity of the Constitution These attempts, however, have failed, and their unpopular i:y or:en clearly displayed by the triumph of men of other nrinei!Ot's, in the general election now closing. But though the views of factions have been defeated, and the empire re“-ued f , oln the fangs of a bold and. rapacious Democracy ; though the influence of the Lower House in the State is not become so powerf:l as to bear down the Throne or the Nobility, et it is in that branch of the Legislature that changes have occut rvd, which require the eye of inquiry, if not the hand of cor rection. Reformers, active in the propagation of their political tenets, and eager to attain their longed-for pre-eininence, created imaginary or doubtful grievances, which they wt'll knew a skilful and daring tongue could clothe in pl .usibility. Against these children of their own imaginations, they wee , d a most unnatural war. They represented them r,s tie sole causes of the weight of taxation, and of the distress ex hti nz in various parts of the country. Political sharp-shooter s, they made them the marks at which the bolts of their eloquence were hurled : but instead of fulfilling their premises to the people, and satisfying the expectations they had raised, by effecting the correction of abuses and the cure of evils, they have incurred the contempt of their followers, through their own imprudence iu directing the full tide of public ind!gna tiou mostly against abuses or evils which no human rower could remove, as they chiefly existed in their representa tion=, or in the imaginations which these had distempered. llod they been contented with pointing out real defects, - the'y would still retain their credit ; for these might have been exposed too clearly. for all the power of sophistry to conceal or justify there But they went beyond reality, and no wonder then they should have been lost on rocks and , lioals of their own seeking. The chief evil which, in their pretended zeal for the public good, they thought proper to pass over in silence, (probably because, although dangerous in its tendency. it could not be attributed to Government, but rather to the improvidence of the People,) is the rapid decrease, in out national representation, of the old landed interest, whirls forms the real basis and reservoir of our strength. Mer chants from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South ; officers whose principal s%nrce of revenue is their sword, and who are called by the occur rences of war away from the performance of civil duties;' law yers, whose profession demands their chief study and attention, are becoming the kpresentatives of a people. whose intere-ts frequently clash with their own, to the prejudice of the old ILL