The National Register. — London, England, 1808-01-04 00:00:00

JAN. 4. igr ' l ; • REVIEW OF POLITICAL DECLAIMERS. No. I. COBBETT'S POLITICAL REGISTER. We have ever looked upon it as a crime, ignominious in itself, and very henious from its erects on society, to sit down and de liberately misrepresent the nature of political events. In a country where so much depends upon public opinion, where popular delusions may either disconcert and ruin the best laid measures of government, or, on the other hand, enable design ing and unprincipled ministers to barter the prosperity and-liber ties of their nation for the attainment of their own selfish ends, — such misrepresentations appear to us tenfold pernicious, and ten fold criminal. Yet—(we make the remark with a deep feeling of national degradation)—it m ill be difficult to point out a single political publication, printed in a periodical form, which is not tainted with this very base and mischievous crime ; i hich actually practises that impartial, candid, and manly mode of discussion, allowed by our boasted privilege, the freedom of the press ; which does not systematically wrest every occurrence to its own particular purposes, and wilfully pervert the clearest truths by its malignant glosses. Those who are aware of this universal corruption of the periodical press, read the political essays of newspapers, not so much with a view to gain true in formation, as to hear what is said Iry 4 n:*rficular party. They know, for example, that The Mor • I , %.111 always be on one side, The Morning Chronicle rpposite; and it may be amusing to observe the str; of appearance which the same fact presents, after havin, .ed through their rival manufactories. But few have the opportunity, and still fewer the sagacity, to develupe the impostures of these corrup tors of public opinion : most men take their political creeds, without farther inquiry, from the newspaper which they usually read; and as the newspapers of ditrerent factions always give a different representation of the same transaction, there is not a single political event with regard to which a large por tion of the people are not misled, abused, and deceived into dangerous errors. No wonder that the honest and unsuspi cious become ready dupes to these deliberate propagators of political fraud; to men who promulgate their unprincipled ialsehoods, with the same devotion and enthusiasm as if they had actually felt the inspiration of patriotism, and the impulse of conscience. Surely, if there ever was a duty Incumbent on a political writer, it is to open the eyes of his countrymen to those delu sions so artfully thrown before them ; to extricate them from errors which may be fatal to their own peace, fatal to the pros perity of their country ; and to expose, by reason or by ridi cule, those ignominious speculators in falsehood, who deli berately resolve to lie themselves into notoriety and affluence. We undertake the task with pleasure, and shall execute it with fidelity ; conscious that, ill doing so, we discharge a real duty to our country. We know well the fate that awaits us : Those ricers who smart under our indignant strict►:res, will, at first, pretend to treat our remarks with contemptuous silence: when they find that the public cannot be brought into the same humour, they will commence their disguised attacks on a certain cenlarious Sunday Paper, but carefully avoid to name The Natianal Register, lest they should, forsooth, promote our notoriety : but when, at length, these subterfuges can no longer avail them, and when the public voice loudly calls upon them to stand forth in their own vindication, then are we prepared to meet every species of reviling, w hid' detected impostors can THE NATIONAL REGISTER. , • _r T • • pour on The National Register. Yet, however loud these rail• ings, we do not despair that the contest will ultimately termi nate in real public good. The propagators of falsehood, whets, fairly detected in their practices, lose their influence over even the most credulous. Calumny, when fairly refuted, recoils with double force on the inventor; and virulent invectives, when uttered by impotent resentment, serve only to convert in dignation into unmingled contempt. The declai►ncrs, whose corrupting labours we shall endeavour to expose, are not confined to the mere interested supporters of the two great contending factions, to the retained abettor, of the outs aad the ins, to the men n i►h as little soul as con science, nho dare neither praise nor blame, nor refuse to praise nor to blame, unless a• they are licenced by the sove reign nod of their masters. There have lately appeared cer tain political writers who vehemently 'street the praise of impartiality, who actually lash both the outs and the ins vk ben it suits their occasions, and who certainly shew abundance of intrepidity in their• political declamations. But when we open their pages to look after these political novelties, truth and candour, we find ourselves as far removed from them as eve, t we find misrepresentations as gross, invectives a virulent, de signs as pernicious as those I'ro►n which we turned away in disgust. We discover that pride, malignity, or the mere love of notoriety, may lead men to act as villainous a part in poli tics, as if they had sold themselves to he the devoted tools of a party : while their iniquitous glosses :'re far more dangerous from their lofty pretensions of imp t.id their evident intrepidity in alternately traducing at political fac tions. At the head of this class of pi uto tialists, stands the author of The Political Regi3tei. is possessed of very uncommon merit of a peculiar kin... SS ',bout any educa tion beyond the elements of reading and writing, and without a systematic knowledge of any subject, he wa► led by the ardour and energy of his mind to adventure into the world as a political author. The fury of his declamations forced attention : and though his ignorance and outrageous violence have frequently brought him into contempt and disgrace, he has at length succeed• ed, by invincible perseverance, in raising himself, solely by his political writings, from poverty and obscurity, to very consi, derable affluence, and very great notoriety. With solid infor mation, with a sound judgment, with confirmed principles of truth and honesty, such a character would have been invalua. ble : he might have proved the terror of political profligacy, and have improved the age by his vigorous chastisements. Lot destitute, as we shall heretifter stew him to he, of all these re quisites; his ardour, his intrepidity, his perseverance, serve only to diffuse more widely, and to impress more deeply the dictates of his ignorance, his prejces, his perverted passions. The middling and lower classes - the community, w ho read to be lieve, and w ho have neither leisure nor inclination to sift falla cies to the bottom, have The Political RcAisler constantly in their hands, and swallow down its weekly banquet w ith amaz ing eagerness : It is, therefore, of importance, that we should bring to sonic test the infallibility of this gospel, to which :mg men implicitly pin their faii b. Mr. Cobbett knows, that to speak with perfect ac ui-mice i- a certain way to impose upon a great part of mankind; and that, whatever is asserted with dauntless confidence, whether ritlit or wrong, sill meet with main belleyeri. lle, therefore, pul this art in practice on all occasions : and makes no scruple to challenge implicit belief to his own present as , ertion,thnugh three is scarcely a political opinion, w biA he has not staressively maintniued and reprobated, srari:cly an cniineut statemaa . • • es I • I ,11 • 1 1 • 1 ! . I ~s I . , "? ; J L