The National Register. — London, England, 1820-05-07 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER 1 PI ON TUE PRESENT SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. Tat subject which first attracts our attention on the opening of a new Parliament, and of a new reign, is what is termed " The King's Speech," although we both (of course) constitutionally, and in some measure personally, consider the same as the speech of the Ministers. We are glad to ob serve some notice there taken, at last, of the dis tresses of the people, and some expressions of commiseration for them; but we are sorry to learn that all the comfort offered to us is, the old song of Castlereagh and Co., that they are but temporary. Now if they are temporary (which we have been told these five years, during which things have got worse and worse), they must be temporary from one of these two reasons:—l. Either the fugitiv' nature of the malady ; or, 2. From some radical measures likely to be soon adopted, with every fair prospect of alleviations to the thing complained of. And yet we find the wisdom and flrtnness of the late Parliament panegyrized ; a Parliament which contri- Fated, by the wisdom of their Counsels, not one individual measure to fill the hungry mouth, or com fort and aid the empty belly. To frighten and deter they did "possit quod vivida virtus," all they could ! But whether wisdom and firmness, amid public distress, be simply shewn by measures of coercion alone, we shall readily leave Lord Castle reagh's friend, "Posterity," (to whom he has left his treaties of peace as a kind and benevolent legacy —" with all assurances of his high and continued consideration)," to decide. What supple kind of a thing posterity may be, cramped and hood-winked, as the animal will be, i.shered into the world under the midwifery of that astonishing accoucheur, Doctor Sidmouth Sangrado, and dandled by Lord Castlereagh, we cannot ima gine; but we must own this ministerial manifesto and panegyric, under a new reign, does not augur any thing very good. The answer of the Commons and Lords is, 'as usual, an echo of the Speech; and while to forms of civility and respect, the expression of great truths is to be sacrificed, we cannot much wonder that Princes who live at a distance from the bulk of mankind, and have only a bird's eye view of things below, are continually misled.. We are sorry to observe, that it is not Parliament alone, but public meetings called, upon the accession of his present Majesty to the throne, which have abstained from addressing the throne in that language which the times imperiously require. It is the misfortune of the age, and the peculiar disgrace of our opponents in public matters, that the cause of humanity and truth, if advocated by an oppositionist, is stigmatized with the imputa tion of party motive, and we know that an unwil lingness to do any thing which could be imputed to so narrow a spirit, and which, from such imputation, might have lost its practical effect, alone hindered some individuals from making comments upon many of the complimentary addresses lately presented to a.. .1...... Pcipottlal ulr p./aition looks like ob stinacy too often, instead of what it ought to be deemed, against error, manly perseverance. In sonic such language as the following we should with the throne to have been addressed " Sire,—We approach the throne, not to flatter, and much less to insult yea, but us addressing a Sovereign who ought to consider himself as having no rights acrd nu interests separate from his people, but whose political existence ought to be identified, as our father and our friend, with the interests and happiness of the community, over which, with regal power, you arc called to preside. "Do not deceive yourself, Sire, you have suc ceeded under trying circumstances to the throne of your ancestors! and as new situations have actually some effect in mcdi:yi»g our proceedings, we derive hopes ,on that score to the public councils of the country. But, S►re, we cannot conceal from you that, in our judgment, the true spirit of that free Constitution, of which you are the executive head, has been under your predecessor's reign, front one cause or another, much impaired. Not that we would blame your predecessor, who has paid what Kings like subjects must pay, the debt of nature, and with whose reign we join the recollection of some particular acts grateful to us as freemen, and the remembrance of distinguished private virtues, but that we lament the general tenor of the public course's to which it was nut surprising your prede cessor should be favourable, when he saw them sanctioned by those Parliaments, which were sup posed to represent the feelings and the judgment of the British people, but which appear to have been too compliant to the feelings of sycophants or min. taken men, who either to flatter power, or through some fatal error in judgment, contributed to give both to their Sovereign and the Parliament erro neous views of public affitirs; and who, in partici'. lar, have dared to avow, and act upon a notion, that the interests of a community are chiefly confined to the existence and well-being of particular classes, and not in the feelings, interests, anti happiness of that multitude of reasonable beings, with the shape and intellect of man, who are those subjects which the King, as the great executive head, is designed to govern. " What is the consequence of such counsels? You have great shew, in certain classes of society, of riches and prosperity, but amid these appearances, those classes of the community, whose industry maintains us all, are oppressed, and a large portion of them utterly deprived of those comforts to which even the humblest walk of honest industry is en titled; while thousands, beyond those who belong to professions, or who follow salaried employments naturally vowing out of a civilized state, fatten on the labour of their fellow-creatures, amid opulence which has accrued to them out of public pedlary and extravagant dissipation of the public burthens— burthens intended in their nature merely to supply 'the necessary wants of Government, and not to op press the people; we are told that these incon veniences resulted from wars which have saved us from revolution, of which, if there ever has been really any just apprehension, that apprehension might have been much more easily removed by timely concessions to the wishes of the people in political matters, and which ultimately, we are per suaded, will be made, when the necessity of those concessions stares us in the face, amid general ruin. " Sire 1 These great truths have not been suffi ciently pressed upon your predecessor ! and instead of measures of public relief, the attention of Govern ment seems wholly to have been directed towards suppressing by force the effects, and not relieving the causes, of public uneasiness. " The legislative bodies, and especially the repre sentatives of the people, were intended to establish that communication between the people and the Government, which should hinder such a state of things. Exercise, then, we beseech you, the con stitutional power which you possess, by calling around you men who shall take every step to identify those bodies (which were intended to attach and link the people to the throne), with the feelings anti the interests of the community, and which, by modifica tions and changes no way endangering their exist ence, it is both possible and easy yet to accomplish before an entire distrust of those who govern, arises in the hearts of those who obey." Such is the language which we think ought, under present circumstances, to be addressed to the throne, and we shall pursue, in our next number, the thread of our idea. IVe have iittle to add at present but to look back with pity (while we acknowledge the necessary jus tice of their fate) upon those unhappy men who, goaded in their minds by a sort of insane despera tion, would have snatched the rod of vengeance from the hands of God and their country, against those whom they deemed objects of their vengeance.— Thank heaven! bad as things are, there is no reason yet to despair, that public delinquency will, wherein it really merits, sooner or later meet with punish. ment, without invoking the hand of the assassin to supply its place. But what must be the feelings, if any feelings they possess, of those who have been, and who still persist, the supporters of the Pitt system, when, as now, they view the effect of their measures, in having reduced Englishmen to such a state of poverty and distress, phrenzy and t:espair, afforded such food for discontent to brood upon, that thirty or forty individuals (if first accounts be true) Englishmen, could be found worked upon, by a sense, however shamefully directed, of public injury, so as to handle the dagger of the assassin ! We shall drop the subject, content with remind. log Pittites, wherever they remain unshaken by the remonstrances of truth, of this aphorism, " OppreF.- sion and misery are the parents of crime;" because, though they can never drive a good man to bad deeds, yet they drive the evil to acts of wicked desperation. One more topic solicits our attention this week, and it is " the Civil List ;" npon which we shall briefly say, that we arc greatly surprised (heedless of public opinion as Ministers appear), that they have nut, in the name of their Royal Master, offered some diminution of the public burthens connected with this article, rather than put into his mouth that he will be content with what was settled in the year 1816, when it is by no means clear that the same grounds exist for the different items, and when, if they do exist, the hourly craving necessity of the times cries out, that great sacrifiees must be made somewhere, and where can they begin so well as at Court? FRO.II LAST NIGHT'S GAZETTE. This Gazette notifies the appointment of Charles Woodcock, of Coventry. in the county of Warwick. Gent. to be a Master Extraordinary in the Court of Chancery. BANKRUPTCIES SUPERSEDED. W. Matthews, Birmingham. Warwick, upholsterer. It. Kay, Bury, Lancashire, cotton spinner. BANKRUPTS. .1. Nowill, Cheapside, stationer. Solicitor, Mr. Abbott, Mark Lane. J. Oglethorpe, Liverpool, porter merchant. Sol. ,Ir. James, Ely Place, Holborn. T• Benson, Sheffield, grocer: Sol. Mr. Hindmarsh, Jcwin, Street, Cripplegate. R. Fry, Leicester Square, linen draper. Sol. Mr. Chipchase Bow Lane. Cheapside. J. E. Collins, Wood Street, Cheapside, cloth factor. Sol. Mr. Leigh, Charlotte Row. Mansion House. T. Moore, Lullington. Derbyshire, dealer. Sols. Messrs. Alexander and Holme, New Inn. J. Hobbes, Titchfield, Southampton, drarcr. Sobs. Messrs . . Alexander and Holme, New Inn. H. Billinge, Liverpool. printer. Sols. Messrs. Adlington and Gregory. Bedford Row. .1. Leverett. East Denham, Norfolk, innkeeper. Sol Mr. Yeates. Temple. J. Featherstone, Worcester, victualler. Sol. Mr. Berle, De vonshire Street, Queen Square. T. Creasy, Chelmsford, Essex, draper. Sol. Mr. Bond, Ware, Hens. J. Beck. Sweeting's Alley, Corrihill, watchmaker. Sol . Messrs. Mayhew and Co., Chancery Lane. J. and J. Silver, and A. Boyson, Size lane, merchants. Soli. Messrs. Kearsey and Spurr. Bishopsgate Street. DIVIDENDS. May 30, B. Wells, GrAcechurch Street, hosier-21. E.Bource- Austinfriars, merchant—Y7, J. Blake, Parson's Green. brewer -27, W. Hodge, Great Hermitage Street, ship owner—l 6, W. Parker, W hitechapel, oiknan-4, M. Buckland. Bayswater, victualler-27, J. and J. Coombe*, Shadwell, coopers--20, (;• Brown, Broad Street. Westminster. upholsterer—So. J. Citniaii, Sun Street, Bishopsgate, tallow chandler-20, W. and H. Munro, Upper Thames Street, merchants-30, W. Cross, Lom bard Street, banker—lli, W. Nicholls, lluntingdon, sack and rope maker-27, W. Davis, Newbury, Berks. upholsterer-2U , G. Upton, Queen Street, oil and colour merchant-21, J. Cut bush, A ylesford, Kent, barge builder-30, W. E. Browne, Stock Exchange, stock broker-4, J. Day and J. Spratswell, Tavis t2ck Street, Covent Garden, drapers-27. It. Crunibie, Chelsea, victualler-30, G. Ridge, Reading, Bettis, millwright — ll, J. S. Manfredi. T. Luff, and H. lienshali, Norton Falgate, silk dyers—June 6, T. A. Minchin, W. G. Carter, and A. Kelly, Portsmouth, bankers. CERTIFICATES to be granted May 27. D. Chettleburgli, jun. Norwich, wine merchant—S. Hould, Laytonstune, Essen, Featherstonliangh, Bishop Wearmouth, Durham, coal fitter—J. Bone, Truro. Cornwall, linen draper—T. Salisbury, Preston, Lancashire, grocer—H. Myers and I'. Holmes, Newcastle upon Tyne, linen drapas— A. Shaw, East Smithfield, victualler—W. Ilissix. Bristol, pipe maker—G. Iludd, Norwood, miller—J. Macintosh, Kingcml, Surrey, maltster—W. Flear, Turnagain Lane, Flcec Mark:, painter—N. Parker, Compton Street, Brunswick Swale, Till I , chant—S. Nestle, Leeds. flour sellet—J.ll ells, Newport, Mon mouth, boat builder—T. Griffin, Trentham, Suefford, dealer — H. and J. Hosking, South Brent, Devonshire, yarn makers —T Leadbitter, Newcastle upon Tyne, linen draper—D. Lalumn Liverpool, on:reliant—S. George and R. Webb, Bristol, sugar refine:*. PRIVITE PETWONS.-It will be seen by our report of the proceedings in the House of Commons on Thursday night last, that the time for receiving private petitions, which was originally limited to the sth of May, has been extended on the m otion of the Speaker to the 12th instant. .1.