The National Register. — London, England, 1819-06-07 00:00:00

,0 7 ;yr,f. 14)ft ejN alixinaf Our iitq, C.borcititution anti t aiucS• No. 1188.—VoL. XII.] ' THE PITT CLUBS. The societies which call themselves •" Pitt Clubs," hare just held their customary meet ings in celebration of the birth-day of him whose name they has borrowed as a sanction. In 'the few observations we have to offer on such to sub ject, we must begin by stating that we neither claim the right, nor kel the iodination to 14ect to any man, or lively of men, stewing by such means their veneration for whet they deem to be splendid virtues, or their respect for the nutmeg and memories of those who possessed and displayed them. Nor, again, are we disposed tiequestion their full liberty to adopt whatever public principles they may ho nestly deem in their hearts and • unteciences to be best. Still, however, eve have both the right, and feel it to be our doter, when we see a set of persons, professing one object, but in feet pursuing another, plunging themselves, and trying to draw ethers other them, into the grossest inconsistencies, both to dis cuss Sit..! value of •the principles thus acted on, and to expose the folly of such a conduct. No one is ig norant, or even labours to conceal that the real abject of the Pitt Clubs is simply the support of his Majesty's present Ministers and all their measures, it is, theretime, perfectly open to us to compare the public policy of these Ministgrs, and the palitia3l tenets of the Pitt Clubs, with the avowed opinions wad political conduct of that distingeished individual under the banner of whom they profess 'themselves enlisted, and to whose name they pretend an anxiety to do honour. When, howerer, we are about to prefer this charge of inconsistency, it may be neces sary to premise that we do so upon the assumed ground that he was an honest man, that he really meant what be said, and sincerely wished that whatever prineip!ee he professed should be fairly noted on, and that whatever measures lie advocated should be eaceitel eleid•thisussumption, we hope, will be 'readily allowed us, because otherwise the =raters of the Pitt Chits would have to confess that they celebrated the birth-day of a monstrous and guilty hypocrite, and paid their aderation at the shrine of Bella], rather than in the temple of virtue. In the first place, then, Mr. Pitt commenced hie political life as a bold and strenuous assertor of the rights cud lilierties of the people. His first speech in Parliement n as in favour of Mr. Burke's bill tier re trenehment in the civil list. He resolutely opposed both the principle, the conduct, and the continuance of the American war. In the first session, also, he lent his ulready powerfel aid to a bill for parlia mentary rerre, end sebseeuently, whilsta private member, either supported or originated again and neein the same important question. Even his ac ceptance of office did not induce him to abandon it. lu 1.7:43, he brought thrward himself, as a Minister, an eeprees and specific hi% for adding 100 members to .the .eountieN, and abolishing a proportionate neteii small and obnoxious boroughs; for admit ting the tywholders to an duality with the free- Leiden:, and for extending the elective franchise its populous limns to the whole body of householders. This bill failed, but gill he (lid not despair. in 1785, when he thonght his strength utigmented, he twin reesesd upon the Hens:: of Commons the pro itts•, • the eeeediency, and the justice of e.refiam in its representation, but was again destined to feel, with how little chance or being listened to, a cor rupt body can hem exlierted to cleanse and purify itself. Toe trial of fleeting:4, the King's illness, and the stormy period of tie Frerch revolution, which filled tip, with very little interval, Mr. Pitt's eventful life, gate both to the ptblic ciind, and to his, tither objects of still more cieniuntoling importance, and 'efficient to absorb the v, : hele miereiee of his soul; but the Mr. llet; • original ideas of the justice and necessity of re‘ortise.ere ever ehangeel, we believe authority whatever can be fiemii; and if honour, and conscience, and consistency, had any share in his character, it is not tiereasiemble preseme that, if now alive, his pleee would be umengst the foremost of its supporters. Thu next great measure of his life was the esteblislertent of a sinking fund, MONDAY, JUNE 7, 1819. to be kept sacred and inviolable, us the grand and only adequate instrument dour salvation from na tional bankruptcy and ruin; a measure greeted with tl.e loudest plaudits of the whole ienatee anti front which Mr. Fox, who had cordially assisted in its rummies) and enactment, never to the day of his death withheld his praise. The country, tißwithin these few yerrs, held it in al the veneration of a sacred palladium.' We went on, not unalarmed at the rapid accumulation of public debt, but yet with those alarms soothed by reflecting that we possessed a resource .accumulating also, and were flattered with the fund hope that whenever the bleasings of Peace should *naive, that its whole premeds would be fairly and fullynvailable to the diminution of our public burthens. this resource no man relied with a prouder sitisfaction than Mr. l'itt. Amidst the deepest labyrinths of ti-uncial intricacies and embarneements, the sinking fund still supplied a thread to guide him through their nem s. and when every ether pert of the horizon seemed obscured in clouds and darkness, in this point he could still dis c cern a friendly beam of light which might guide his vessel to the wisheefor harbour.--- . 1 he next great measure of his public policy we shalledlude to is; the admission• of theeornan Catholics to the rights and privileges of tt.e Constitution. For this measure Air. Pitt uniformly exerted all the powers of his tdoquence, fur this he pledged himself in the strong est manner at the time of the union, to Ireland, anti of his sincerity in which he gave the strongest proof by quitting the helm of the State, when he found his Royal Master inflexkbly opposed to the course in which he was steering. It is true the love of place and power did afterwards predominate ever both the love of justice and Wit sense of honour ; for he returned to the same post he had before abandoned, and ender a condition not to nesi!ate a question which he had before often and so facibly ussertel to'be, in his own mind and conscience, essential to the well-being, and even the safety of the State. But excepting this single point, and it is one which the friends of Mr. l'itt's memory would surely be very willing to forget, what is there in all or ney cf the topics we have mentioned which either his Majesty's Mittistere, or the members of the P.tt Clue, profess in • common with hint under the sanction of whose 11:1111C day have set up their banners? What is the state of the civil list %thick Mr. Pitt contended and voted fur retrenching, and how does the grant of 10,0001 a year to the Duke of York sqltare with the sentiments expressed by him on Mr. Thirke's celebrated Bill? What is t:te language of Minis teas am! of these gentlemen on those plans of reform which Mr. Pitt himself originated and ereposed? Ask Lord Castlereagh what he thinks of the destruc tion of his favourite trade ? Ask Mr. Canning, who has deemed his jests and buflitenery epos reform an essential ingredient of every speech le has made, mum whatever question for the last eight years'] Where are now Mr. Pitt's hoecs respecting the Sinking Fund so long and warmly.eket ished, where are now the happy froi F of this darling child of promise! '! We ten:emit:it.. got Last year, in the House of Lords, when Lord Liveriseel, without the least ceremony, in stating the provision for the curs rent service, merged the whole preithwe of this fund among the items of supply, etiat Lord Grey nue anti begged to be informed whether the Sinking; Fond was to be thencelhrward considered as to tally anahilated and gone, iensinucit as even its distiartion crom the orditiare sooners of rove. Me VPIS no more acknowledged. Where are tem those mighty projects of fitetnce, wleele Ibteigh we ratty believe them to have been, in smite iestanses, the curse, :ma still t a threaten in their effects the nen of tha country ; yet us no menthes. of the Pitt Clubs ran entertain such sentiments or admit such alarms, we shoulq think they would at hest mourn to see them tan?. n'ii append, and pace, in their *immortal of those teeier whose eeitience their Mom has been oecupieti by a state tit :leauttii:l eieltereinsaneut, and inef fwient.y wnidt. in the fifth year of pewee, we will venture to asssrt never was equalled With respect te the Catholic Question, l e ed curler( atilt a Ail [PRICE Dad. Mr. Canning's regard to honourable consisteucy pot the whole body of the Pitt Clubt absolutely to the The former totally declines attending then, - and the latter has publicly sated be would not be present at u meeting, convened under the *lamina of such a name, to drink such a toast as " Prates. tent aseendatscy," knowirg the sense which that toast implied, und.the spirit it was meant to animate. Mais n'intportel the.glorious revolution of 684--. down with Popery---Pitt for ever—his Majesty's Ministers—Hip ! Hip ! Flip! Hurrah I!! But it may be said that there is one point yet unnoticed, sad apon which hinge rests that Politi cal Fame which is alone sufficient to entitle biro us the grateful remembrance and admiration of him country, vii. his resolute aerl umlaut:het resistance to French Philosophy and tke whole train of revo'hi tionary doctrines connected with it, and which threatened to overthrow all our ancient Institutions whether moral, political, civil, or religious. We are neither the friends trf 'anarchy nor the advocate.; of irrelE g ion. The different ranks and orders of society arc agreeable to the dictates of nature her self, and essential to the very existence of man in his social state. But whether the revolutionary war was just in principle, whether it was indispen tibly necesh:wy, ivithont which no war can be just, whether we might not by a 0 strong and vig orous • domestic polity have effectually guarded against every tiam ; hr whether from shititin ur wilhout, whether oar engaging in the war did not :lineally contribitte to consolidate the strength' and fihee the revolution, and divert them from quarrelling with each other by furnishing another object, anl thus lead to all the calamities which have ensued from it, are piestious which may be denied if was should now assert them, but which posterity can never fail to estimate justly. In foci, the Pitt Sys tem, as this part of our national policy is particu ltrly called, is already fast emerging from the false glare with which it was to lung surrounded. Its evils are now felt, whilst its pump aid pride and eircurastaore are vanished. The measures adopted to support it are now pathetically deplored ewe by' the great-_.st, and we will silt! the best, of those ori ginally associated in moviog and upholding theet. B u t, however this may be, his Mlijhoy's Ministers live bat very little to do with the policy we aro now discussing. Lord Grenville, Lord Spencer, lord Fitzwillium, Lord Wellesley, and Mr. Wind ham were the efficient coadjutors of Mr. Pitt, during this extraordinary era, and every one of these have declined every connection with those who are now in power and with very good reason as far as ,consistency is concersedi; for whey Lord Sidmoutli, with his present associates, succeeded to die Administration of NI r. Pitt, the-very first act of tliAr °dice was to make peace with that very enemy whom Mr Pitt had so per everingly pursued with the most inveterate hostility. The l'eas'e of Ainicus is tar too memorable to be forgotten. It acknow•. letlged in the fullest extent the Legitimacy of Bi: • naparte's Government, and the flow that oppietof this Peace were to a man the late friends of the Ex minister. Nay, what is :roost ' extraordinary in these Pitt Clubs is, that Mr. Pitt kisssed and ultis mately turned out, as incompetent to their situation and unworthy of public confidence, those very men by whom his n.'me . is now borrowed as the instrument of cumin ttiog support. " But, they terminated, and gloriously terminated a war," soy these dceihreasoniog and patriotic Societies, " which .Ir. Pitt begun.' Hoar they once terminated t we have already noticed, snit with respect to its JAW termination. they might just as w e ll a s s e rt ti m e L a m hiveriviol had hem I avested with the controul of the Elements of Heave", :Ina that the rest of his associates had spit Erma their own at uttlis the feests a:tl snows of Rohde. Eshn the Doke of Welliag ton was not the obj•ht of their choice. hie was fihhool spoo them, potty by thiheitatic:s t'f femme, an? patsy , by his own msteldes.s skill old valour. It is true. Mr. Pitt intrtslochl the Prop.-rty-Ta7, but it was tally at War Tax, mil his Majo , l v's Ministers would have contrived+ us a Peace-To m if they mull But Letitia:at was as awl;warti 4.16;tk 1 i I 0: : 7 1 1 .41 ‹r at I°'‘'\..7...