The National Register. — London, England, 1819-12-06 00:00:00

,~~ tea= 7r,„, • •-• • tort 4) d _o4 tit tio nal( toti v• 771 Our Itincil eontititution anb awl. No. 2.31.—V0L. XII.] Political tirtrospra. As the Legislature is now assembled, •and assem. bled upon a crisis so extraordinary and important, it is natural that tae eyes and attention of the coun try should be directed to their proccedirw with no ordinary degree of earnestness and anxiety. The‘ Speech upon the opening of•the Session was filled with nothing but topics of lamentation and mourn ing and woe. Discontent and Sedition, and Bina phomy, and fluctuation in the Revenue, formed the grand expose prepared and submitted to Parliament by the Ministers of the Crown of the actual state of the country. Now we can only observe upon -ouch a statement in finalise, that if there be any one means of government more unexceptionable and in. tangible than another, it is that ".Every administra tion or set of rulers, be they who they may, are answerable, strictly and unqualifiedly answerable far the condition both external and internal of the country therpresume to govern." you may say this measure is good, and that is bad, but if the ge neral result of the whole body of our national counsels be productive only of national calamity and universal snaring, where is the man that can be so wanting to common sense and to public justice us not declare the Government, we mean that ad ministration, to be a bad one. A large part of the community are equally unfitted and ind.sposed to • trouble themselves with questions of public policy, and an implicit belief in the authority of term to whom the management of our public interests is .committed, is thought to be, by many more, the sale and great .criterion of English loyalty. But we may now appeal even to Ministers themselves -fn. a judgment on the fruits of their own adminis tration. All charges of calumny and detraction and fuetious opposition are now at once wiped away. Those who were attached to Ministers and unwil ling to believe a single word of the evils that exist amongst us may now refer, not to Lord Grey and Mr. Tierney, to Mr. Brougham and Mr. Waith man, but to those unquestionable sources of truth and veracity, to Lord Liverpool and Mr. Vansittart, -to Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning It was loudly objected to the Whiga that in one short year of power, with a war, which they bad uniformly op posed, raging, with a weight of taxation which they had never acquiesced in imposing, but now become indispensably necessary to meet the common expen diture witb obligctions left by their predecessors, wbich the public faith pledged and compelled them to discharge ; they had done but little for the pub lic good. Whut have these awes done in the same cause during a course of so many years as they have been now in power, and with every opportunity, every facility, every enjoyment of Parliamentary support Which the most meritorious could claim, or the most imbecile pray for ? If these men ran yet retain the reins of that paver which they have thus used, and the guidance of that chariot whiele upon their own chewing, is every moment in peril of being dashed to atoms, at least act us hear no more of the danger of unsettling the public mind. mai .leusening the bonds of obedience due to rulers. But what strikes us as the nmst extraordinary part of the open iug of the present Session is, that • the Parliameut, has been expressly and notoriously convened in con sequence of the Manchester transactions; yet that this great, amlave may safely assert, sole cause of ifs assetublin i :,. VS nut even once mentioned as a subject of ormsideratiea, or even hinted at in the Speech of tltp Prince The ceatmeet tun lac but this, MONDAY, DECEMBER 6,181 f. that it is a sore rattled, about which the less that is said the better. This silence might also be meant as a significant intimation to the Ministerial party, that it was a topic to be kept out of sight of Par liament, and that no investigation, which it was possible to ward off, should be admitted. This, however, was a hopeless view. The Blood of Eng lishmen cannot even yet be spilt without enquiry. It was said by the friends of •Government, that they possessed information which it would, till Parliament met, be premature to disclose, and that .the magistrates of Manchester were equally ready to prove their justification. Now what has been really -done towards this ? Why, his Majesty's Ministers have protested in the first place against all enquiry by Parliament—in the next place they have in lieu of it printed and dia. tributed to the Members the letters and protestations of the Magistrates, both previous to and soon after the 16th of August, but without any of their own instructions, and without one single atom of evi dence on the other side, and without affording any opurtutiity of its being offered,. Lord Castlereogh `has made his own statements to the House of Com mons. and Lord Sidmouth to the House of Lords; but it is quite clear, as Lord Nugent most justly observed, with what degree of regard such evidence as this is to be rcceive3, which in the first place is only hear-say and not. evidence in chief, and, in the next, comes from persons actually charged as abet tors and participators in the guilt. But then comes the statement of Lord Stauley, who, as foreman of the grand jury at Lancaster, and son to the Lord Lieutenant or the County might of course be sup posed to give an accurate and impartial statement. iu a speech of great candour and good sense, aid indeed exert every sentiment which friendship could dictate, and every hope that charity could suggest, that the case had been exaggerated both against soldiers rand magistrates, and pre the at count he had himself received of the transactions. But with a sense of justice paramount to every other consideration he voted for an enquiry ; yes, the foreman of that grand-jury which ignored the Bills at Lancaster, now votes for Parliamentary investi gation, in the House of Commons, and frith respect to his statement of the occurrences, which Lord Castlereagh had greeted as a final and complete triumph, he avowed that it was a statement fur. nished by the Yeomanry themselves. 'lf we hod now time for the discussion, we could show from the letters even of the magistrates of Manchester, that it was both their previous lineation to arrest *Mr. Hunt in the very midst of the meeting, and to em ploy, in the first instance, the military for that pur pose. On these points, then at .leas:, evecy must allow the first to be highly imprudent as well as (Intim:v.:try, and the second a direct violation of the law and constitution, as inithieg but %positive resistance stand everrender such a measere justifia ble. Faigiishinen may do wrong, but the sword is neither the remedy, nor the punishment appointed for their inisdoings. Mr. Hay admits - that the Riot Act was only read " in the mean time," whilst the military were arresting Hunt and his associates on the hustings The House of Commons bas, however, voted in a very considerable majority against Mr. Tierney's amendment, but the queslon will not rest there. 'Other means of yet eliciting investigation are nut thereby excluded. One hun dred and fitly of those, whose names and characters are equal, if not superior, to any similar number ever [Psicz W. ranged together on apolitical question, voted fat enquiry, and amongst those who . did not, there were several who merely abstained, from the motive 'that other opportunities would arise of shcwing their sense upon it, without mixing it with oppposition to the Address. A motion has been made in each House Ter an inquiry .into the Manchester business, and into the present state of the nation. It would natu rally enough be thought by the small number of those that place any reliance whatever in tl:e pro testations of Ministers, that this was what they wished, but it is no such thing—they exerted them selves to the utmost (and, we regret to say, success fully) to obtain oblivion for the past—they have introduced several Bills for the purpose of putting down what they call sedition, but which is, in fact, only a spirit of discontent arising from their mal. administration. The only one part of these Bills that is tolerable is that which imposes a tax upon the . publications which have been properly enough termed Twopenny Trash ;" this is what ought to have been done long ago. As to die:Bill regulating public meetings, it is precisely what such•men!might be expected to originate. If any stranger to the parish be in such meeting, a magis rate will be empowettsi to order him to depart, and in half an hour disperse the meeting. How easy will it be to send one of their own myrmidons into the crowd so assembled, and on that account disperse immeCtiately any and every meeting that may take place, stifling thus all the complaints that would otherwise be made of lavish expenditure and improvident extravagance. ne shall pursue this subject hereafter; in the meantime we should be very glad to see a Cull df the house. An occurrence that is now fearfully anticipated would render a new election necessary : 4 ; attil.the people ought to know those who are traitor* to their trust, from those who honestly di charge dicir duty to their constituents. Mr, Stock*, late surgeon of the Conqueror, wee tried on ten charges- He was accused of having, contrary to his instructions, indulged in conversa tions with the Ex Emperor and his attendants; or havino , delivered to General 'Bonaparte a lilxa (O'Nfeara's statement) reflecting on the Nutt:uct ulr Lieut. Gen. Sir Hudson Lowe; of having disobeyed the orders of his commanding Officer, in not re turning to his duty on board the Conqueror at the hour specified in his instructions ; of having wriltrii bulletins relative to the health of General Bona parte, though such conduct was diametrically op psite to his orders ; of having, in a bulletin, de clared.'that the life of General Bonaparte wonldlie in great danger, should he sonar a relapse of his disorder, without being in possession of immediate medical aid ; thereby insinuating that the said Gcn„ Buonaparte was destitute of proper 'milieu' at tendance •when necessary ; and of having repro tented in such bulletin that the health of Gen. Bonaparte was in a much more alarming state that; it really was ; he, Apr:-Suxkoe having waited four hours at Longwood before he was admitted to the presence of the General, at the time when he gated the. General was d•mgeroasly ill. The court found the.ten charges peeved ; and is:menet:a Mr. Stockoe to he dismissed his majesty's sorvice,; but in con sideration of his turner faithful services and his excellent character, recommended him to the Lords. of the Admiralty to be placed out the half-pay According to advice* from Spain, received on Si. turday, the fever in - Cadiz Law u far tlis.apy earett. that it is considered no longer formiaable ; r. nu the lath of the prestnt In' nth had been named as CI st day for the pertot mance of Te Denim nod gt octal thanksgiving for the deliverance of the city from this signal calamity. The letters are doted the .tilt just. the number of sick is given at I,teiO, end tLe deaths nt 3N. 40, and 31, for the S days itree.rtlin,;. st;%illc is riiid.to be tentircly free Siam 4lac reCcr.. • 4 4 AP, • ~ of <•.; 1 . N.‘