The National Register. — London, England, 1808-01-03 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. JAN. 3 REVIEW OF POLITICAL DECLAIMERS. No. I. CORBETT'S POLITICAL REGISTER. We have ever looked upon it as a crime, ignominious in itself, and very heinous from its effects 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 will 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; which actually practises that impartial, candid, and manly mode of discussion, allowed by our boasted privilege, the freedom of the press; which does not systematically m rest 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 nets simpers, not so much with a view to gain true In formation, as to hear Is bat is said by a particular party. They know, for example, that the Morning Post will always be on one side, the Morning Chronicle always on the opposite; and it may be amusing to observe the strange coutrast of appearance which the same fact presents, after having passed through their rival manufactories. But few have the opportunity, and still fewer the sagacity, to develope 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 a; the newspapers of ditlerent factions always give --. ditferent representation of the same transaction, there is tot a single political es ent with regard to which a large • onion of the people are nut misled, abused, and de eived into dangerous errors. No wonder that the honest and nsuspicious become ready dupes to these deliberate propagators .f political fraud; to nien who pcomulTate their unprincipled alsehoods, wish the sante des otion and enthusiasm as if they ad actually felt the inspiratiou of patriotism, and the impulse `' f conscience. Surely, if there ever was a duty incumbent en a political writer, it is to open the eyes of his countrymen to those delis ions so artfully thrown before them ; to extriciste them from rrors which may be fatal to their own peace, fatal to the pros erity of their country ; and to c x 'rose, by reason or by ridi ole, those ignominious speculators in falsehood, ss ho deli .erately resolve to lie themselves into notoriety 21111 allitience. We undertake the task with pleasure, and shall execute it with fidelity ; ceascious that, in doing so, we discharge a real duty to our conotry. %Ye know well the fate that awaits its : Those writers is ho Smart under oar indignant strictures, will, at tirst, pretend to treat our rcinarks with contemptuous silence : M . hen they Mid that the public cannot be brought into the saute humour, they is ill commence their disguised attacks on a certain csnsoriuus Suntlay Proper, but carefully avoid to name The Aational Rtgisler, lest they should, forsooth, promote our 1 notoriety : but when, at length, these subterfuges can no longer asail them, and when the public voice loudly calls upon them to stand forth in their own vindication, then are we prepared 141 meet every species of to din, w bich detcsted impostors can 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, when 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 uniningled contempt. The declaimers, whose corrupting labours we shall endeavour to expose, are not cvnfined to the mere interested supporters of the two great contending factions, to the retained abettors •f the outs and the ins, to the men with as little. soul u conscience, who dare neither praise nor blame, nor refuse to praise nor to blame, unless as they are licensed by the sovereign nod of their masters. There have lately appeared certain political writers who vehemently affect the praise of impartiality, who actually lash both the outs and the ins when it suits their occasions, and who certainly shew abundance of intrepidity in their political declamations. nut when we open their pages to look after these political novelties, truth and candour, we find ourselves as far removed from them as ever : we find misrepresentations as gross, invectives as virulent, designs as pernicious as those from 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 be the devoted tools of s party : while their iniquitous glosses are far more dangerous from their lofty pretensions of impartiality, and their evident intrepidity in alt.!rnately traducing both our great political fac tions. At the head of this class of professed impartialists, stands . the author of The Political Register. This man is possessed of very uncommon merit of a peculiar kind. Without any educa tion beyond the elements of reading and writing, and without a systematic knowledge of any subject, lie was led by the ardour and energy of his mind to adventure into the world as a political author. The fury of his declamations forced atteltion : and though his ignorance and outrageous via,nre hale frequently brought him into contempt :ma disg race, he has at length-succeed ed, by invincible perseverance, in raising himself, solely by his political writings, from poverty and obscurity, to very con siderable affluence, and very great notoriety. With solid In formation, with a soucd judgment, with confirmed principles of truth and honesty, such a character would have been invaluable: he might have proved the terror of political profligacy, and have improved the age by his vigorous chastisements. But de:ai tote, us we shall hereafter spew him to be, of all these re quisites ; his ardour, his intrepidity, his perseverance, serve only to ditrAlse more widely, and to impress more deeply the dictates of his ignorance, his prejudices, his perverted passions. The middling and lower classes of the community, who read to be lies.c, and who have neither leisure nor inclination to sift fallacies to the bottom, base The Political Register constantly in their hands, and swallow down its weekly banquet with amazing eagerness : It is, therefore, of importance, that we should bring to some test Oe infallibility of this gospel, to which seine magi implicitly pin their faith. Mr. Cobhett knows, that to speak with perfect assurance is a certain way to Lapse upon a great part of mankind; and that, whatever is asserted with dauntless confidence, whether right or wrong, will meet with man, believers. Ile, therefore, puts this art in pructice on all occasions; and makes no scruple to challenge implicit belief to his present assev;on, though there is scarcely a political opinion. which he has not successively maintained and reprobated, searcey as eminent statetwat. NS Alit 1U 904 M•,T \ f _ ::. `t. r