The National Register. — London, England, 1819-12-13 00:00:00

'Or tiationali itittr+ Our iting, Con4titution anti it ab3l. No. 233.—V0L. XII.] Urtrozinct. Tr our readers will do us the favour to refer to our l'ostcript, penned ten days before the opening of Parliament, they will there find the anticipation of ofall those melancholy topics which arc now forced on our attention by-the tremendous accuracy of their fulfilment. It is now our mournful duty to announce the speedy extinction of that glorious con stitution, which the great philosophical historian of Rome declared it to be impossible to establish, or which, if established, could not, from its great purity and excellence, be of long duration. Fuit Ilium et ingeos Gloria Fueror " Yes, the illustri ous fabric in which we have revelled with delight, and contemplated its massy pillars, its envious work manship, and its wonderous fitness for the comfort, the happiness, the security. and the prosperity of all who dweil within its walls, is now doomed to crum ble to the dust and ashes from which it was reared with so much difficulty. and gradually cemented with so muchsbloOd. A revolution is no longer a a thing to be talked of, it has already begun.— When we hear and see such men as Lori Grenville and Lord Wellesley falling into that horrible strain, which we had until now hoped had been the senti ments and language of either crude inexperience, or besotted ignorance, or the rottenest corruption.— That Englishmen must no more look for the free dom of their forefathers - that society is become more ungovernable, and therefore the reins of government must be proportionalhy strengthened and drawn tighter, we really know not where we are, nor which way we turn. We know not where to east a glance in the hope of meeting with a friendly and protecting hand to guide us safely.— The old opposition, the Whigs of fonner days have unquestionably, nobly performed their duty. We thank them as Englishmen, and we wish that the people of England may be as true to themselves as these admirable defenders of national freedom hay; in an hour of severe trial been true to them.—The Bills divided into five, which are non in progress, and hurried through their respective stages with all that precipitancy which belongs to measures of that " sort, have been battled, and argued, with an ability on the part of the opponents seldom equalled, and never surpassed even in our best times. If in any cause truth and argument could have prevailed over party spirit and party influence, we should have hoped that instance would have been the pre sent. But alas! the conduct of the Magistrates of :Manchester has not been justified—and yet that con duct has feet► approved and sanctioned without enquiry Opinions of the highest and most unim peached integrity have given their testimony, and silledged the authorities upon which that testimony rested, against the panic studiously excited, and yet it could nut be held as furni,hing any ground even for a day's inves:igation. The inquest at Oldham, so often referred to by the enemies of inquiry, has been dissolved as illegally conducted by the Coro ner's own misconduct and neglect, and yet tha t inquest is refused to be again instituted, or those errors amended. A Noble Lind declares that there areloo,ooo men armed and united in the North, and prepared for insurrection ; another Honourable member io the house of Commons, whose connec tions are most intimately blended with the very quarters and district, in which this formidable array is said to be organized and established, firmly asserts his confidence that no such thing exists, assures the House that every possible enquiry has been made by .iNDAY, D n. :11 \II3E It -847 ]Bl9. EC: him, that the persons cliargetl with this treason are his own constituents, anti= yet all this is no groond for enquiry ; the case is established upon noloriely alone, as ifthe world did tfot know that there may be such things as notoriotis falsehoods as well as notorious truths. As if our History had fur nished no meal-tub and no green-bag plots.— Blasphemy and sedition also , are abroad, therefore blasphemy and sedition must be checked by new laws, and a Bill restricting'' of the press is now in progres ; and best remedy under the present State Directors taxation, this grand, this universal remedy, is applied, and a tax, as we stated last week, is on all those cheep journals which , accessible to the public, uixio the they have been the principal - which is said to hive infected society. we are no friends,: as our -readers well know to impiety towards God, or disobedience to ly discharging the high duties of impiety and sedi. tion are things not , any more than a libel against a ival with a libel against the State, and yet, these things were identified. one Bill them all again. A tax -- equally affect and connect ion that union dissolved.— I government protection of 1 also to carry their senti society shall or its rulers with is is a those think unfitted should established some alteraiton even of an more then of any the writing° against ministers, for this is in fact the whole ques tion, be more eagerly read and more easily circu lated than those in their defence, it is only a proof that those ministers are not in possession of public confident* (however the House of Com mons may vote,) and that a change of Councils is called for and required. But indecency and calumny,and falselitxxl,and all those vices which work into the licentiousness of the Press, are not confined to the cheap trash of Messrs. T. Wooller, Carlile and Cobbett, and little is the idea coma.* that the mischief should be stopped be cause it is placed within the grasp and addressed to the capacities ti' the lower orders. We know nothing which should authorize a man to administer poison to a rich man rather than a poor one, or to labour to excite by libellous and infamous productions, though they may cost five shillings, odium and de testation of those who oppose a bad governtuent, whilst those who support it are to be praised, en couraged and rewarded. There is tiir instance a pamphlet, than which nothing more scurrilous, more false, more libellous has firer several years issued from the Press, now circulating in Norfolk;it is read and swallowed by many as truth and treason, and conies from the pen of a clergyman of theiestablished Church. If it was in opposition to Government, instead of being in support of it, the Attorney- General would long since probably have felt it his duty to settle his author. Nor can you say that these things do no harm to society because they aro only read by those who can detect their errors, and ~~ . . _ laws, and a Bill restricting the liberties of the 1 is now in progres ; and as the best remedy u the present State Directors is taxation, this gr this universal remedy, is to bt applied, and a as we stated last week, is t imposed on all t cheap journals which have most accessible the public, upon the gro that they have the principal vehicles toison which is to hive infected society. we are no frit as our 'readers well know, to impiety ton God, or disobedience to Rul lawfully dischar the high duties of their offi ut impiety and, lion ate things not necessaril nected, any i than a libel against a private individual with a against the State, and yet, as if these things identified. one Bill is supposed 'to cure them all al A tax upon cheap publication's will equally I good and 'bad, and if the fre of discussion e the prosr ot :f knowledge'- e any mune with pu : and public - . elfare, that tt is here disci:tinted and as far ible dissolve Further, also, we may obser ve tat all govern' is a delegated trust, delegate d' the protectia those who live under it, and &It gated also to, into effect their wishes, and ent thei r a reit ments and opinions. lithe bu • any society think its government a bad tile, or its r unfitted for their office, it is thole some alter should be made in both. It is true even c established religion itself, and obeli more the any political minor meafures. If then the writ [PRICE 94d. are less likely to be led away by their assertions. The pamphlet we allude to abounds in tire grossest indecency, the grossest calumny, the grossest igno rance, the most absurd nonsense, and yet u second edition is now announced to the public, We db not make this charge lightly, as perhaps our readers will allow, with► regard to intlency at least, when we quote the following sentence from several others of the same complexion. "Of older time, when Jove had no other game in view than to amuse him self with impregnating the sir." How does this Reverend Gentleman, a wag might ask, amuse him self in similar moments? Thecalumnyof the public::• ' tion we shall instance, only from a private letter sent by Mr. Cole's ►teward to his tenants on she subject of their leases, which this infamous libeller has procured from some quarter or other, printed in his task of scurrility, with the comment in one page that it was fit only " for the honduaen of Egypt", and yet in the next, as if stung by con. science, subjoined in a note " that it does not appear to him so very tyrannical." His ignorance as well as the value of his politics may perhaps be suffitiently determined by the simple fact, that though quoting the history of Hume over and over again, and his essays also, he believes and proclaims that historian to be a Whig, ignorant that Le wrote his history to .defend the Stuarts, ignorant of the character Hume drew of Sir Robert Walpole, ignorant that the cele. brated dialogues of Bishop Hurd were written as an answer to his Tory principles, and with respect to ancient history, ignorant whether Sparta was a monarchy or a republic. His nonsense we shall leave to be judged by the inconsi►tencies and contra dictions every where apparent, as we shall leave the private chnracter of such a miter to the report of his own parishioners. All we complain of is that whilst Government is thus buried iu and calling upon what they deuominate the loyal and peaceable part of the community to put down two-penny essays upon politics, which we neither approve nor defend, five shilling productions quite equally infamous are tolerated and praised. We shall notice the other Bills hereafter. By accounts from the Island of St. Thomas, it appears that the Viceroy of New Granada, after his expulsion from Santa Fe, had escaped to the vici- nity of Carthagena, where he bud encamped on nn elevated spot, with a flrce of no more than about 100 men. General Latorre was with 250 men, all that remain of the five regiments of Navarre, at Cucuta while General Nlorillo was stationed with about 600 men, at St. Carlon, about 100 .mites weft of the taraecas, where he appeared to be waiting the arrival of reintOrcements. Sir Henry Wellealey, awording to report, has eagerly pressed the Spanish Government fur a free trade in favour of British vessels with the colonies of South America. ANBCDOT6.—Lord Lynleton, and his friend the cele ltieed Gilbert Vest both inen of acknowledged talents, liad int:Utter! the principles of infidelity from a super ficial view of the Scriptures. Fully persuaded that the B.ble was an imposture, they were determined to expose the chrai. Mr. Test chose the Itesurrection of Chris*, and Lird 1-vitletim the Conversion of St. Paul, rut the sup j •ct of fictstile criticism. Both sat clown to their/ respective tasks, full of prejudice and contentpt fry Christianity. Toe results at their separate attempts were truly t xtraottliiiary. They were both ctitiverted by their attempts to overthrow the truth of Christianity.. kitty came together, not ac they expected, to exult rues' an im p,,, t ,ire, exposed to ridicule, but to lament their lolly, and to cow4iattila:e each other on their joint coo. v whim, that the Bible is the. Word of Gail. Ana enquiries base forim.hed .wit must valuable tree- ices nt f avour of it lat lute eontled,—" Observations rut the Cotiver,ion of St. Paul." and the other, "Observ4- tions oil :he ittsurrtcttuu in Christ." X • ‘ 't ' k ( 1 1/4 l " t L• 07 11 1 t• %C--: POW °. • • • 4'..) • 4 1 1 I N :01.1