The National Register. — London, England, 1808-04-11 00:00:00

APRIL 11. their experiment a class of people highly respectable and worths of the greatest consideration, but unfortunately little able to judge ter themselves on great questions of political expediency. d The people at large in this country , as well as those few en value's, who compose what are called the higher ranks of so ciety, are very much disposed to mistake flattery for friendship. and to believe every impostor• who, from folly or for profit.. perpetually tells them how far their treatment falls short ie their desert. That there are abuses, even in the British Con stitution, we do not pretend to deny : but that the great mass of the people in this kingdom are endowed with as many privilege as are consistent with their good, and protected bet he free exer cise of those privileges too, is a general position, that in our opinion admits but little reserve. The only persons, on whom the laws, or the mode of executing the laws, can be said to fat: heavily, are the middling class of society. The poor have been generally considered with respect, by our governors, as well a, by the framers of the Constitution : for our own parts, standia unconnected with any particular party, we feel the necessite acid the justice of consulting the benefit of the multitude, but we do not see the propriety of tickling their pre jutlices. Their prejudices will be some day tickled into madness : and if there be any reason to complain of a constitution framed by the wise and good, and coneluctec usually by the rich and great, what must our lamentations be, when an uninformed and rapacious .nultitude shall have con stituted another code, and placed the executive power in the hands of its needy and ignorant demagogues ? Surely, when madness is periodically preached, and honesty misled by am bitious vulearity, it is not going too far to say that the Libert, of the Pre i s is abused, and that principles are foisted upon the people which may corrupt them into revolutionary restlessness. The common people are desired to think for themselves; but wily do they allow bockheads or flatterers to think for them Ana if they do think to any purpose, fur themselves, they will conclude, that to exercise their franchises, to enjby . the liberty of their words and of their persons, and to reap with -security the fruits of their industry, must be sudicient for them, as free men and men of sense. It is no imputation upon their under standings to say that they are generally incapable of forming a just estimate of political propriety : for the incapability does not arise from their want of good. sensee but from their want of .t•aliicient information on such abstruse subjects. The plainest man in this kingdom knows that lie served a seven years ap prenticeship to his business with a tailor, a shoemaker, or whatever other artisan or tradesman he may have been placed its ; and surely, if he allows himself to reflect for a moment, he cannot suppose the affairs of a nation are more easily under stood than the proportions of a coat or a pair of boots. Yet he has served no apprenticeship in politics, he has never been engaged iu its practice, and, generally speaking, a e may add, he has never read any of those authors who explain the prin ciples of government, and supply the science of theory to those professed politicians who have never had opportunities of learning by practice. All that a plain man usually knows, is w hat he has acquired from the newspapers; and his on n sense, eVOII though it be naturally of the strongest description, can Leer enable him to form accurate estimates from the statements of a Newspaper. For the newspaper writers themselves, for tee most part know very little wore tar the science on ss hich they treat, than their readers do. These writers are chiefly at tached to some set of men, to some party, who have taught them to entertain particular prejudici!s, or bribed them to distribute particular prejudices through the country ; so that notwith standing the imposing ; air which they assume, they are in fact nothing better than blind and ignorant men, who collect the Hews of the day, who gather the opinions of their chattering aaociates in taverns and debating societies; and Who then square their own reasoning, mat to their principles, for they are too stupid to have auy, but to their party, because thus they 'say sell their paper. An unprejudiced person may indeed form some sort of judg ment upon public Weirs, if be reads several opposite papers, and seeks carefully for that truth which eenerall-, lies in the midst, at an equal distance from every one of them : but the lower class of the people in this country, to ys boat these obser vations most particularly apply, seldom see mere than one paper, and that paper is temall • a Sunday Intelligences. Let ask their o wn reason , a nd then declare, whether they think y that t h e Sunday paper they see and believe, for though all vary , " ea ch believes his on n," can be the infallible oracle they are accustomed to suppose it. Does it follow, that because their Editor talks largely, his thoughts . are eulaxged ? Is it likely that a set of scribbler, who cannot write Lug lisp or THE NATIONAL REGISTER. grarfimar, can have had an education sufficient to At them for the discussion of political philosophy ? Is it likely that the constitution of the country, which must be good only inasmuch Ls it ensures good government, can be as good as their favourite writers acknowledge it to be, if the givernment be as bud as hose writers wish to prove ? Is it likely that they can do as much good by insurrection and discontent, as by a quiet sub ciission to those laws, which prove their own liberality by the impunity of the wretches who calumniate them ? if the people !lave any just grounds of complaint, every election atinrds them the means of procuring a constitutional redress of their griev ances, by the choice of representatives who will obtain that redress; but until the majority of the country shall by such clnduet declare that they feel themselves aggrieved, it will be evident that all violent complaints come from a few discontented people, whose interests being at variance with the interests of ie majority, ought of course to give way in the consideration if rational men. For the good of the greatest part of the country is the real object of a wise government, and not • the ;ratification of a noisy minority, composed of newspaper writers lad their disciples. In some future numbers of this Paper we shall particularize ..ertain flagrant instances of the folly and wickedness of the ccts'spaper Revolutionists; in the mean time we recommend it to tuodest and sensible men to entertain a distrust of their ..eriodical guides, and a diffidence of their own judgment. If all persons were competent to judge upon polities, a rPßublic would be the only just form of government ; but the British Constitution, which-all concur to praise, has taken the incompetence and inconvedience of poi:Oar j , faignient as the oasis of its structure, and ss bile it leases to the people an is:C mate right of redressing their grievances, and benefiting their country at the elections of their represeutatibes, it has given to .iose representatives the principal power of deciding on those particular questions which really require to be viewed with a 'ittle more information that can be gleaned from a Sunday oaper. And when the people arc entitled to deride, as at the ,eriod of their dee / Boos they certainly are, let them follow Letter guides than anonymous writers : let them believe those persons who having a reputation to risk, may be a little eau• tious in advising : and when they are not called upon to assent de in a coustituQonal meeting, for election, or for deliberation, ,vhere they may tear the opinions of rational and well-informed men, let them abstain from forming any violent opinion at all, remembering that their reason is unassisted by information, and chat he who, wanders in darkness must always be liable to mitt. , take his path. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. PROM ViaRaNCM, GERM/IN, 4NIIO 11.13.1 BURCH PdP21111• GERMANY. FRANKFORT, D 1 t nett 18.—The changes projected among the Courts of the Confed•fricy of the [thine begin to be carried into elkct. On the i7th of this month the Bavarians *ill take definitive possession of the principality of Bayreuth. W'irtem• berg will take possession of the town and territory .of Ulm. The Duke of IVortzburg will have the town and territory of Swinton, in exchange fur land ceded to rrtutsia. DENMARK. COPCN HA GEN, MA n 3.—The fermentation of the public mind is very great in Sweden, if we may believe the reporty of travellers, and of certain writings, which are circulated ijelpite afall prohibitions. Among others, one uamphiet isgeoted which is said to be very bitter; it' has the followiug title, Why are nut Iwo Swedes worth an o.r :+ 1 This neestison Oaks to a treaty by which Gustavus the [Yth sells his subjeCts:,to the Lngl6h Ali niito at 141. sterling per head, while the lE:owlish themselves t w ice as much for an os. We cannot denje that it must be very humiliating to so brave and spirited a people to be assitni• fated to the cattle which serve for their ;ood. :i• ,ALA acts I.—We perceive no part of tle Sound which is not covered with ice. At Llsineur, where tin: passage ,s tacircw, and the current snore rapid, the masses of ice ate - .A.eu collecting from day to slay, so that should the frost continue a week oui j , it would be possible for the foot soldiers to cross *he ice and march into Sweden.' AV heti Charles Gustavus, hong of Sweden, passed the two Belts on the ice, he caused a medal to be struck with this inscription, N sTu IcA. 1104; DE in UNo—Naturi s oloed this to One alone : .• 11e heartily wish that nature wools!, unite wills fortithe in giving Charles Gu-itavai the lie. ~e . t ~' 7 , '41 . Y- 3,141