The National Register. — London, England, 1819-12-20 00:00:00

' • . ter, • e-e "1/ 6 1.-7,1 / - r . •.0 • 9,-Tfibt L No. 23 S—VoL. XII.] VoliticAt itettospect. Tx our l'ostcript of last week we offered a few sibm:vations on ; the new Bill relative to Seditious and Blasphemous publications, a Bill which we sincerely pray that it way ? rather than hope, that it will be eflectual to itt object. If the additional burthen arising from the increase of our standing army, can be thr v.vit only upon the shoulders of Radical Ref°, n. rs fled infidel writers, who would, some fir mane..., but .inure from ignorance, destroy both our peace in this life, and our hopes hereafter, it will indeed be well, and we slsill theretere now dismiss this topic, and leave our judgement upon it to be tried by tha effects it may produce. The Training, or Dn.ling Bill, as it is called, seems liable to uo other objection than the new question whether any ucw law fiur such an occasion was absolutely needed. Any superfluous legislation is a thing to be carefully avoided, The multiplication of statutes and enactments already constAutes a .subject of much just complaint amongst all our best and ablest lawyers, and innumerable instances of the uncertainty, the inconsistency, and the mischief attaching to our legal decisions from this sole cause might easily be furnished. But alas ! whilst a sevision of the whole Code thus accumulated is daily and loudly called for, we go on adding to the heaps, furnishing fresh matter for error, and fresh fuel for contention. It is a sound maxim that " few laws sal well adesiniabered are best." Now it would be prestraistiosa in ea oe plasm any opinion of our own iu emispetitient with the high legal authorities of the land whobave framed the Bill in question, but we cannot help asking whether any person ever doubted that a body of men meeting together by ninon-light in unfrequented places, and preparing themselves by military tactics and discipline for military opera tions withuut any ostensible legal object, were guilty of an overt act of the most seditious and even treasonable kind? If the state of society amongst us has been until now destitute of any self-defence against such practices, our system of jurisprudence has been more defective than we could have possibly con. eived. But this defect does not appear to us to have been proved either in theory or in practice. No demonstration has been satisfactorily laid down, that we have seen in argument, no trial has bees had and failed in our Courts of Justice upon such a charge. New statutes against treasonable proceed ings have always been most numerously introduced and enacted in the worst periods of our Musty, sad therefore may always be said to furnish a wrier prima facie evidence against the sulministnitiontis which they respectively belong. They wtte never o multiplied as in theanfortunate reign of Richard ! the Second, sad yet, after a melancholy mos a , troubles, notwithstanding the devotion of !his Per- Laments, one at which acquired the acme pf seer ciktr, so little effect Bove violent laws to prevent crime, this stery Prince himself was both deposed end murdered, and two Rears afterwards thes/bole! mass of those laws upon which he relied Air will security repealed sad swept away, as haVias . Only. contributed to augment and aggravate tie evils•they were meant to cure. .To this awful watinterestits portion of •our public unites we wou§litistnestlly . .recommend the attention of our rulers and of elf those who are so eager to support their aysteru of ' force and coercion in preference to any endeavours to remove the causes of discontent and ferment. The last measure we have to notice, and by far the vrora, is the Dill to regulate, or rasher we t • . • f rump 94d. appointment, will not every Government expect, and will not every Lord k.ieutentutt be prepared' to second those expectations, that those who are; admitted into the commission shall be persons not likely to ficilitate any censures being cast upon the . , :iisters of the Crown. It is true the evil iney not` (Ni..t in its foil force at present, but it will be every day encreasing, if thehurrible bill betiostinued. What applies to ouct county applies generally to all,: ;:u1 enough of that sortolexclusive patronage sdready has been felt in Norfolk-, as Mr. Coke asserted. The charge has been most awkwardly attempted to be ngtated, but every effort of that sort has only more and more tended to expose its truth and application. What is the present situation of the two divisions of the county in which the Lord Lieutenant himself resides ? In one we believe there is net • single acting Magistrate whose opi nions are not in unison with his Lordship's, and in the other, when his Lordship is not at Gunton, we have heard that malty parishes are test or twelve miles distant from any magistrate of that division, a fact, which if true, amounts in a thottaani cases, and particularly in those for which the care an& protection of Magistrates is most needed, we mean cases of infirmity, and sickness, and old age, as well as petty offences, and oppression, to an absolute denial of public justice. ls there then no person of eallkeeat claims, in every other point but politica, in the former of these divisions, and no fit person whatever conveniently situated in the latter, for discharging the Magisterial duties? If them be any Inch person, why Isar not. his Latialtipi boasted impartiality in one ease, and his care of the public justice of the county in the other, led hint hitherto to supply and correct this apparent contra diction to his own letter and iteelarations? This is 6i question which the defenders of his Lordship's impartiality are bound to answer; and if this be the state in his own neighbourhood, and amidst his own acquaintances and friends, w!tat may we pre. mune it to be in the quarters of those whom he contemplates as his enemies! A new list of Ma gistrates is now said to be forming for recommends. tion to the Lord Chancellor; we shall see what are its names and the bearings it is calculated to have on our public measures. It is highly important iu such a period as this, that the character a our Me.. gistrates should not be impaired fir independence. But if they ever come to taste themselves, or suffer others to make them, the mere tools and servants of a ministry, every evil we now deplore will be In. creased ten-fold, and every irritation now existing will be proportionably excited. Force on one hand) and hatred on the other, will be the order of the day between one class of society and another. The Lady Louisa packet from the Brazils has just arrived, having sailed from Rio Janeiro on the 14th of October. The intelligence from Buenoi A. and Chili is not of a later date die Meridian, though the letters was then omitted. Admiral k.d been degraded from his cite fur having without orders abandoned s' Callao, and left-Lord Cochmne,dt to Payta, exposed to an attack fl e et, has been- reinstated as weer that at the sukgestion and with Cochrane himself. This mesa sacrifice he had previously made prize- nuailey ,to the exigencies of the state, had - refl. dared Librd Cochrane extrenidy' popular at Chili. Commerce tit . ; Rio Janeiro is - described as more de presied, and emziod da with greater diaa j tivantage, than o'er. 11. •• .. te 4106-4:xue . • h L. ence from Buenos Ayres late than that brought by - ~ ... ;,- ~. letters state a fact wh . • ....t -..' al Blanco, it appears, whe - : 1.,2 -:-?-:•;,' rani in tlieChilian nett, ' -;,y; - .1 lb:taloned the blockade 'l ir ~y; anc,during Isis expeditir. , ' ,€ • . attack from the Spanis \2 4* ''' o ' • i second - in contained, • 4 t rt : p; with the sanctioner , ~.._4r ..,A measure, joined to the ‘/../ made of the. whole of his .ies of the flute _ I • ' o vv.', ta ' _ . tol oft'. Our TAinig, Condtitutioniutti a atoss. MONDAY, DECE\IBER 20, 1819 t - should say annihilate public meetings, fur to this end must the restrictions now unposed be assuredly considered as tending. Assemblies of the people for the expression of public opinion on matters of state, is a circumstance mentioned by Tecitus as dis. tinguishing the policy of our forefathers, even in our yet uncivilized slate, and Iros always been er , • sidered tae laying the great foundation of our free loot. It is the best and only way in which a Novereign can become, generally speala4T, fully avg. iain:ed witch the e edition and sentiments of his s thjects, and should therefore be cheris'ied by a Prince as a privi lege egnally dour to himself as se those he governs. That a s-t if had Ministers should make it their very first and leading object to set such meetings under their own controul is kith taunt-ad cad likely, beesnse their own unpopul trity msy bythis means be at once concealed from their ;baster, and perhaps, to a given extent even from their minions and sup porters. It is for these reasons that the freedom of meeting, with no other restra;nt than the condition of preserving the peace inviolate, has been ever asserted as the undoubted right of Englishmen, and the privilege of petition, mixes Sual terms, to both Houses of Parliainent and toile Throne, hal bean contemplated as another indispensable bulwark of oar liberties. These coupled with the rights to equal law, " freely without tab, fully without any denial, and speedily without delay," and to the possession of arms " to visage these sights, when actually violated and attaekek(says a great writer on the British Constitutima)lris ear birth l right to enjoy entire." Is it sot laseeeenble . Ile ohierve that every one of theme great hinges . are new to be new modelled, and the freedare a' their movements @Welled as the only means to pies t eving the power of an administration, or a a system which u u =ol4 has gone on fur five and years, loading us ' year by year with fresh d ' ' add* 'year by year to our parish paupers by t sad tens of thou sands, augmenting tax in the same exact proportion, and what is sdil worse, preparing the timid and the lake-warm for an absolute and unconditional surrender r whatever can render life honourable, or our Country happy. The fir conversation, rwe sup we should describe it by that name, which pasted between the Norfolk members, 'and the letters 'produced upon it, both diem the Lord Lieuteart and from the Lord Chancellor are an admirable comment upon the obstructer of the tr.." 'we are now discussing Meetings are net in • be held without the , ,repetion of the Lord L' tiosant, or five magistrates Of the county, upon mil t:rs connected with our A public policy. m we consider that the Lord Lioutesumes itiehoot only appointed by . s.• Ministers, bsit tlimaissoltillisey Oppose them, and that magistrates .are' lOW &Fides; as to their appointment. tappet *h Lord Lieutenant for his recommenclatlne, endisiass a Cabinet Minister for Nis eassnissisn, what. is the laeguage of common "pee is 'his. but a illweetweraing that no public , 'aseetlags abaft be Greta at all . far any object not suited to the wished ***pinions of those Ministate to whom built Clue Lard. Lieutenants awl kisita.l trates antjtbus sabseinvient for the offices any Wait It is travail a paiitier.da is net qaitavtby coal.. asses stsree, laxatairip* as amenable to eithOrity 411501 to be at liberty to exercise his judgment upon political questions, but when the office is thus eon- Inected with pelitieal influence anti necessarily a i a party to political discussion, will it not naturally I operate upo.o the tubule of political partisans in the • . .ot4.4m22...lieftliibtq.-k • . anal . '• t