The Sun. — London, England, 1815-01-20 00:00:00

Till SUN REVIEW. (No. LXIV.) The NlAsx.r.as Of Mooamt,ost a Vis;r. By the late itiv- TlintiY GRIFFINIzow, Pent. Elino. pp. 87. - price 3s. John Milkr, Bow-street, Covent-garden. This is a satirical trifle, which, under the fanciful picture of a great Annual National Masquerade in Moorfichis , takes a rapid glance at many of the public ~ch:rractei•s who. figure in the common places of the passing time. Highly to the honour of the Writer, he does nut permit his humour to invade the re- ce-ses of private life ; he aims no anonymous blow at what is good, and great, and estimable in the enuntry ;—what he has set down, no man need be - ashamed to acknowledge—and while the Maskers of Moorfields may serve to amuse an idle hour, it is not calculated to inflict a personal pang, nor injure aught that is deserving of the veneration of every true Briton. It is no disparagement to the Author to notice, that his assumed name did belong to a very clever Satirist and able Humorist : it might have been as well to avoid the contrast, and trust to his own merits for public favour, instead of -striking at a catching appellation ,which would have better, be come a worse writer. AVe are aware of the dan ger to which nameless talent is exposed; many still-born, sheets have passed under, our almost solitary notice; and we are not sitrprized that any, one should aim at the captivating magic of a fa vourite nante Once borne aloft by the puff of popularity, the joyous Scribbler - may announce his own, and ever after be sure of being at least read, should he indite whole tomes of folly. and stup:dity. - We shall not enter into. any analysis ''of this further than to note that great Law and Poetical Lords, great Lake and other Poets, great Pamphlet and Newspaper Editors, great Patriots and great Orators, great Rogues'and great Fools, come under its lash, and are in some instances tickled with considerable skill.. Truth is more apparent in the similitudes than we generally find in, productions of the sort, and a little exaggeration would probably have added to that' whitusicallity which is expected where the form and nature of the performance does not require the strict adherence to accuiacy:which is congenial to more serious EE. says. We have room for only one extract—after ridiculing the Psetdo-Statesinen,.wtio are as thick noishrooms'in this " thinking" Country, the Author has the following just observation : " 'What .you now. tell me, Signor Be:llamado, said 1, interrupting hint, puts me in mind of the observation of an ancient Philosopher, who says, " Although no one undertakes even the meanest without some previous education, every one thinks himself at once qualified for the art of go verning, so much more difficult than any trade." Very true, replied nny - conductor, and this Country affords, perhaps, greater encouragement than any other to the delusion. The number of•ehartered 'companies, the constitutional right of holding popular assemblies, and the frequency of public meetings of 'every-description, conspire to sprea•l this delusion like wild-fire through the _comunt nit ; and it becomes, in consequence, a very hard matter, if not wholly impossible, for a poor tradesman to keep himself in his sober senses, to say nothing of the numberless bankruptcies that 'may always be traced to this source:' The Author has here passed his fingers lightly Over a chord which might be made to discourse excellent music—but we cannot now undertake to . play out the tune. We have only space left to take leave of the Maskers, and to express • our conviction, that he who produced ths 1 - ,nantasy is capable of much higher labours in the service of ~ LiteNtura ',is Colintry. LIVERPOOL MEETING. A Meeting was held'at Liverpool on Tuesday, when a Petition against the Property Tax was arced to. This Meeting has been distinguished from those which have taken place elsewhere tlroughout the Country, by the elucidation it has given to the Letter from Lord Liveapoot. to Mr. CLADSTONE, of which so scandalous a misrepre sentation appeared in the Morning Chronicle. The Itev. Mr. SHENIERD brought this subjeet before t he Meeting. Ile acknowledged being the an. thor of a communication but disavowed any knowledge of the paragr,:ph which pointed out 11Ir. G. as a devcited and opectant friend of the Treasury, and as one of its known agents - ,prget is jug insidious artifices, exp ress i tvg - • his respect for Mr. G. and paying him various compliments. Gladstqne stated in reply, that his letter to the Morning Chronicle was confined to the p.ira gvaph ciuntion, and that he again had no tation in stating that he considered the co»tedts as / c a se (211(1 nzatinant ; "that Mr. Shepherd hi d brought no evidence to support the statement he had made to show that Mr. G. had received such a letter as the paragraph described/ and there fore as the public had no right to call for private letters addressed to him, he might on that ground safely rest his complaint 3 MR as so much had heen said and written on the subject, and misrepresen there, that on the 28th December he bad received a note or commimicatiou front Lord Liverpool, the first part of which was marked privl!e, the latter part cohfitientird; that he had in the exer cise of his diseretiOn made such communications from. the letter (and in particular to the Mayor) us he judged proper ; that for the exercise of,- . this discretion he was accountable to Lord Liver Pool, .but 'to none else ; that from this letter being private and confidential, he could not read it there. or give it to the public; but though - he • could not tell them what the conteftts of the let- ter were, he could tell them that they were not what was stated to be the contents in•the Morn ing Chronicle, and that he had not received such a letter as was there represented : that the point •of view in which his Chnduct wasimeld up to the public by the Morning Chronicle in representing hint as the devoted and expectant friend of the treasury, their known agent practising insidious artifices, ,was false au& malignant ; that he felt and declared himself as independent of the Treasury or the Go vernment as any of the Gentlemen whom he was then addressing, that his public conduct was the best test, and that he called upon any man to state an instance to time contrary, or of devotion, expec.- tancy, agency, or artifice ; that he had given, and always would give, his humble support- to the 'measures of the Government when he thought them right, and oppose them if he thought them not calculated to promote the best interests of the. Country. Ile heul done so in that Hall last summer,' iri •opposing the measure of increasing the stn ' port average price of corn, which was supported - by the Government.—Mr. Gladstone then propos ecl to Mr. .Shepherd to name two Gentlemen then present, ti) whom he would confidentially :deliver the communication which he had had the -honour to teceive from Lorci Liverpool. For this purpose he named M. Birch and Mr. Thomas Earle, for whom, thou 7h he did not always agree with them in poti!ical opinion, Mr. 0...110 the highest respect, and to Mr. Earle he liati confi dentially communicated the contents of the note the day he received it, and the ifubstancerif `.:Lr batty to Mr. Birch in a day or two after, in conse quence of these gentlemen applyin g t o him ; :that' Mr. Shepherd might imanve two others to meet' these - gentlemen ;. tha:( he would tie ready to answer any questions they might think proper to put to Lim, and he was ready to submit to their opihion. wh e ther 'b ewas not correct, and fully, justified in the language of the 10- ter he had athiressed to the Editor of the Morn ing . Chronicle, Mr. Shepherd %%mid do the, Saint'. This proposal, was declined by Mr. Shepherd, who said, that a.,‘ he had appealed to the public, by the public he would be judged. Mr. G. also stated, that aftex be.had received the communication re ferret' to, Istrowiug,,as he did, that the sentiments of . many Gentlemen in Liverpool on the subject 'Of continuing the Property Tax, for another year, agreed With his own, he took upon himself to inquire of Lord Liverpool whether it was the , inteution of 'Government to abandon the Tax front Aunil, 1c:16, should it be continued until - then—that his Lordship had .favortred . him with an account which he thought it his duty to communicate ,to the "Alayor, marked " pri vate," as his Lordship's letter was so marked to Mr. G. this letter the Mayor was requested to communicate to fhb Meeting ,by Mr. Casey, to which the Mayor consented, when it was read by the Town-Clerk : it Was dated the -Ith G. stated, that having had the honour to - receive a communication from Lord Liverpool, stating time sentiments of Government respecting the contithz. once of the Property Tax, he considered it his duty to hand a copy of it' to the Mayor, that be might make such use of it as he might judge pr o p er in corninunicating with those who might present the requisition for a to - wies meeting to hhn. The - extract . dated the 2d January stated, that his LOrdship had no difficulty iu acquainting Mr. G.,- that is was not the intention of Government to propose that the Ploperty Tax Shwaid continue beyond the 5t.11 of April, 1816; tit that this tax should be resorted to, except in the event of the renew a l of war. This letter Mr. G. sent to the • Mayor on' the forenoon of the sth instant. A strong desire was expressed by Mr. Casey and others to know from Mr. G. what he had.written to his Lordship in alms wer to the first communi- . catich, alleging that he bad taken upon him th state, that the town of Liverpool would agree to the renewal of the tax for another year, which Mr. G. positively denied. Mr. G. stated, that the note he had been honoured with from Lord Liverpool on the 28th December was wholly unexpected on his part, though he .had the honour z-o be pel:- sonally known to his Lord Ship. LADIES' BOARDING-SCHOOL, near t h e, City road.—Mrs. Coss respectfully informs the Gen try; Merchants, and her Friends in ~iienerK i , t hat her School will recommence 11 , 1 f - o4ty next, the 23d inst. and 'that . she vacaucies for three more,young Ladies as tottiders. She hop s that the•flattering succr she has met with for these 30 years, in educating the Daughters of sonic of the first Families in the City, to whom references may be had - , will be no small recommendation to those Ladies and Gentlemen who may honour her With their pntronage. Terms :—The Young Ladies are boarded, and taught the English and French ,Languages with grammatical purity awl corr ec t ness, History, and the Needle W or k s , for thirty-fire guineas per annum, washing. included. Parlour-boarders se •venty guineas a year. Day-hoarders three gui neas and a half and Day-scholars two guineas. No entrance-mon e y expected, either front Board— ers or" Day-scholars. Writing, arithmetic, music, dancing, drawing, Italian, geography, the u se of the globes, ;-mil astronomy, _taught by professors ,of 'eminence and established merit. Wanted t young „Ludy of a docile dispositiOn and genteel address, as an apprentice. Terms, 100 guineas for three years, masters and -extras in cluded, drawing and books only excepted, which, if required, must be paid separately for. Fi.he will enjoy_inany ailantages which are not to•be me: with in the, generality of schools. Mrs. Cross nurAy be spoken with, or flirected.to, at her Seminary, 'No. 11, Clarks's-square, near the City-road. By referring to the account of the Liverpool Meeting-, which we have copied from the Liver pool Courier, a Paper as independently and ably conducted as any in the kingdom, it will be seenthat Government have no intention of proposing the continuance of the Propeky Tax _beyond April; 1816. Upon • this subject we shall to-morrow offer a few observations, and in the mean time recommend the honest and impartial Report of the proceedings at Liverpool, as an antidote to the garbled and party misrepresentations contained in the. Morning The'Faction, defeated at the last Election, tried to smuggle in a note of disapprobation on the ah- Sence of Mr. CANNING, and the Chronicle assures us, that had the resolution been put, " it would have been carried with a gfeat majority, for he has totally lost his influence in Liverpool,"— We do remember that,the smile Oracle told us , during the sitting ot: Varliament, that it was well for Mi nisters the Opposition did not push ;heir triumph in oratonjto a triLunph in numbcrs—when the "puffed men" t tied the experiment arid mustered, prodigious crowd about two dozen against as Many hundreds —So would it be in Liverpool, and the Talents had better stick to their trade of noise and speech making, which does not expoc them so.dktinetly to the ignorant as figures do on a dis ieion or poll. We have this day nn Poreig'n intelligence.—A report, which Was s circi.lirted about the be iunir:g of the week, that the Congress had broken unsatisfactorily, irasi been revived by a Morning I , Paperof,tto authority. The Times, we believe, has been threatened With a prosecution by the .Father of a Young Man in the Navy, whom One of its Corre.poodents has, as he thinks, endeavoured to injure by% state men of gross, palpable, and malignant falsehOmls; respecting a Regulation of the hi with re gard to Midshipmen, which does not, and never eNist—a Regulation which could. only have .- entered the minds of those who were once the Pa— trans .of that Paper, and who -yet, occasionally', vent their venom through its coLtmns. Whether. their apologetical ppragraph of .to- , day will be sufficient to s - at', , sfythe Father of the Young Man who threAtened them with a pro secution, we canne.,t pretend to knoW, We will tell them, .;t" any rate, , that their " Cor respondent,., :or whoever he may he that nra• nufacznred I,fie paltry paragraph, is _at, ignOr ant, scarn i ,alons 'an:d malicious libeller;_ ,one, we will ve'Arturc to say, ,of those tvorthless fttllows who bas been turned out of a service for which 1 - te was utterly disqualified and to which he was a disgrace. • . The examination of witnesses, on the part 'of the prosecution in Sir J. AizzattAY's trial, is ex pected to close th►s day, when the Coutt will ad journ to "Monday, to afford- Sir JOHN MURRAY time to prepare his defence. The defence will be . of considerable length.' The Court %Val SO much . crow:. 4 .ed yesterday, that the rail which was erect ed to•scparate the auditors from the• Court, broke down by the pressure, and nearly endangered the limbs of many. Happily, howevt:i-, no serious accident occurred. Until we read the observations to which wc,are about to rt.quest attention, tve could scarcely have supposed; that any English Newspaper, and far less one, generally moderate and judicious, could have undertaken to maintain principles so unten able in themselves, and so distinctly hostile to the clearest and best interests of the British Empire. The Writer in Beirs Medspnger, correctly antici pating that our Navigation Laws are on the eve of a complete revisal (though with a vice: to the re-establishment of a system cntirdy opposite from that which he recommends, viz. to the return to the practice of good , times, and not to_ a re-modifiction according to the theiiries of the new school) ; thinks if a suitable time to enforce his opinions In favour . of what , he, with a confidence Somewhat overs t e ppi ng wisdom, styles the AMENDM T " of these Laws ;—the policy of which, he says, he doubts, and then goes on to demonstrate thlit it is un donbtedly bed. It is curious to observe how cautiously he areas I and bulwarks of our greatness "No one," he observes, ",is less wiling than 1V( t ' ) encourage any thing like innovation ; iu nine. times nOt ("i( ten, what is ancient is only so because it is reasonable; a 94 though the reason, perhaps from the usage, t eing thC may of an evil which it has removed, may not appear wllilst the usage continues, it beco;es immediately manifest in the mischief consegnent upon the removal.". • What a pity so sensible an observation - shota. be the prelude to a c‘ but," . and that the wit° . should immediately thtow behind -him the dis' cerement which led to the acknowledgment 010 just a general principle, only to eXetnplify the folly of making an .exception to it in one of thi strongest cases .that could have been chosen to ti lustrate its irrefragable truth. But such is the pride of experimental dogmatizing, and thus clod hypothesis warp those points which are strange st against it, into the strongest arguments in its support. . . The gist of the Navigation Laws is concisei stated in the following summary-: - " Ist, That the vessels shall be built at home-2dly, that they shall be manned at honie—and ;idly, that they shall 10 Gened at home." • Three most important national considerations It Must lie - acknowledged, even were they attende d with inconveniences----inconveniences n•hich o' c utterly deny to this Writer to " overweigh the good on the other side." _ Far, far - from it ! tl l6 good on the other 's:de is incalculable ; it is tiiC vital source of our strength and - political great' nets ; it has made us the mighty State we are , and without it, We should decline not only ffoll l ire eminence, but sink below the level of a rtiliU Power in Europe. • It is, however, but fair to the Author of the ° projected amendments to discuss the principal ar ginnents upon which he attempts to establish hI theory. ern fhe first point he says•- "-- If our ships were not required to be built in England , 'our vessels would be built where timber is cheapest,--it ) Canada, in Sulitiam, in Halifax, ece. This would occasioa some emigration of shipwrights tu these countries abounding' in wood, a mere rapid colonization. of them, and the ca a' SeqUent extension of our market I,r produce and maprifac' tore. It 1-.oldd-occasion, likewise, some diminution in 'O., kigii price Of timber at home; and thereby a greater facilitt fm . our naval supply. The tizn)er of. the ships would L4'7' wise be More suited to the voyages, and teak shipping would be chosen for the hot climates, in which our fir and oak ves' sell are so rapidly destroyed. It would occasion likewise/ the frequent purchase of foreign vessels, and thus mitre,: tll‘ heavy price of ships. It 'Would be .tantamount to the ren' Bering the whole world a ship market, and thus establishio4 the price of shipsitY one country, at the general -price of tit' labour and materials employed throughout the world," It is not surpriling that a person who coati ( resort to reasoning of this kind, should underf, value the benefits derived from t h u Na-ri g ,o-;f7i l Laws, and esteem the national adetitinges duoible from the glorious fabli,<- - of the wisdchh of our forefathers w . !;icit tests thereupon, to h e of light consequence and easily outweighed ! With the first part of his premises we are not dispose ( to quarrel, because we hold it to be sound Hid to identify the interests of our colonies with those of the mother country, and, therefore, what th 6 one gains is - not lost to the other. Neither shall we at present question the more con' - trOversita assertions respecting home and teak timber; though we more thank 'doubt the ae' . curacy of the statements on these, important topics. But when the Writer tells us of tho advantage of the frequent purchase of fa" reign VeSsels," and speaks of the excellency of his plan as contributing to render " the whole woricl'- a Ship larket," we cannot bring ourselves to be lieve that he is in earnest ; but rather imagine that he is reasoning ad absurdnin; to expose the fallttcY of 'the doctrines he pretends to espouse. - This Island, of some ten millions of N1)(11 . 4 1 ;011, has fro° it maritime superiority,, ti liltilt.ittle of its s hip.- ping, and consf.;lT. - .Z:nt extent of its naval means, risen to 'tile rank of a first rate Power ; and lo ! the' , Innovators of•the new philosophy would, for the paultry s sAving of a'trifling sum in freights, and in the purchase Of vessels, overturn 'thu very lottodtv lions of our strength, and at one master stroke, destroy all that the measures• of the brightest Statesm an - that ever adorned the land, have bets e4licient - to buildup. They would buy their ship from foreign huildeis, that they might teach theft ) to rival British industry in this important branch Of political economy—and theywould render the whole world a ship-market, forgetful that by the sane encouraging means they would egalt other nations into the competitors of Britain's naval greatness; , . and probably successful conipetitors too, for O a ' new theory which would give them marithu e strength, would ruin that of our native Isle. 'The same remarks apply, and if possible augmented force, to the arguments by which ~thef second head df ,the subject is 'in o ' 4 ' Messenger. , " If English maimed ships were nut entitled to a t e privi 4 leges of the Navigation Acts, sailors, as well as ships , tie procured where they could be hired cheortst.--,For climates,. Lascars,—for northern climates, Danes arid wegians might be engaged in common with our own sailc 44 who might thus be chiefly Considered as 1m:104414 to a". bun, 1 Ilaiabnrg - li, 1 1-jotlatO, 1 llnbi..n. •;.; nithlin, A'aterfor, nci F.--i Piaitdd i 'SA • PRICE OF SIC CiCS TIIIS DAY AT TWELVE D'CIDCE. OADii 1,. Alin. 1(1 7-inhi l s India Bonds, 17s. 1 6 / 4 . pr, es . ss. pr. Oinnioo, 1,1 dis. - • Ct'ins. for Fcbruary, e6l. Bahl, Stock, 3 per Cent, fled. 3 per Cent. Cons. lisl µ 4 per Cent. Cons. 83 , 5 per Cent. Navy Ann. 93 HIGH IVATFAI. Ivr LONDON BRIDGE TO-MORROW. Nlorning, 51 minutes after 9. I Evening, 16 minutes after 10, A LSUN . ;I. QUIS FALSUNI 'AUDRAT ? LONDON, F I D.l Tri A' 17,4 RY 20, 181 5.