The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-07-30 00:00:00

OM TIM PRESENT DISCONTENT

OF THE COUNTRY.

The people of England. above all other nations
of Europe, have been ever distinguished fur sincere
and steady 'loyalty. In the few instances where
they resisted the authority of the Crown, it is re-
markable that the people were entirely in the right.
Charles attempted to subvert the constitution of

England, awl James, sin.lared by hie fate, fulloweJ

in his footstep,; in both coves the people were
driven to the painful alternative of choosing between
their Sovereign •od their country ; they preferred

the bitter, and they banished the Stuarts from
a throne which their •ices lisd di.graced and their

crimes had forfeited.

In the succeeding reigns, notwithstanding many
unpopular acts, and indeed a serious departure
from the principles of the Revolution, we find the
people preserving a uniform attachment to the
Throue. During the greater part of the reign of
his present Majesty, that attachment increased to

• degree of enthirdasm--inost of the measures
of the Court were sanctioned by the people. We'
fear the people reposed too much confidence in
their rulers—and that many of the evils which they
now deplore sprung from measures which they
had formerly applauded. That their sentiments
in this respect have underg me a decisive change,
i 4 a fact which can no longer be disputed : it is in
vain for the supporters of Administration to con-

Call the fact—it is verified in a thousand instances;

wherever the people have had an opportunity

of recording their sentiments on the state of public
affairs for the last few years, we find them in sip.
loot opposition to the Court—we find them de.
cidedly hostile to the men sold measures of the pre.
sent day. This opposition is construed into dis.
loyalty. The chargenf disloyalty, which of late years

the adherents of M toioefs hive brew so food of bring.

iug against the people, appears to us to he falsely
aud unwisely in ide. It is very impolitic thus
to brand the people with the crime of divloyaliy.
If Ministers succeeded iii establishing it, they would

only prove that the great body of the people are
disloyal to the Government of the country. Minis.
ten should recollect that a free Government main.

ly rests upon opinion, and if you succeed in 'hew..
ing that opinion is in opposition to Government,
you go a great way to undermine its security, and
endanger its power.
The writers of the Court in ty denominate the
people as fancy, as folly, or as malignity dictates—
they may call them miscreants, wretches, traitors,
yet still they are the people. Look at their num-
bers, fifty thousand assembled in Smithfield, thirty
thousand in Llinuineham, thirty thousand at
Leeds, twenty thousand at Stockport. In fact, it
would be an endless wink to go through the different
meetings held throughout England, attended as
they have been by the great bulk of the popula-
tion, aid affording as they don striking and prim.
tient proof of the public discontent.
The ministerial writers tell as, that the discontent
of the people proceeds from their restleuners, their
vices, their ignorance of political affairs, and their
incapability of comprehension, from the pressure of
temporary distress—the influence of seditious writ-
ings, sod of aspiring demagogues—in a word, to
any shill but the teal cause, to the uogrucious and
unfeeling matiotr in which their former complaints
were treated—to the suspension of the Constitution
on pretences frivolous and false—to the monstrous
state of representation, and the abuse and corrup-
tion which follow—to the audacity Ministers--
and the inffction of an excessive, grinding, and,
indeed, we may add, intolerable texation.
These are the true sources of disaffection—it is
worse than folly to talk of any other. As to the
imputed ignorance of the people, thanks to the
labours of a free press, Englishmen, even of the
humblest cast, are better informed on political
subjects than their enemies would wish to acknow-
ledge. That many of them indulge in visionary
and impracticable views, we know and lament;
but that they know and feel their situation, the
causes of their distress, amt the misconduct of
Ministers, is evident from all their proceedings.
As to the influence of demagogues, it argues a
strange and absurd inconsistency iii those writers
who talk of the ii.fltierice of these men over the
public mind of this country, at the same moment
that they desciihe them us mere adventurers—low
as vice sod ignorance can make them.
Indeed, there is nothing of novelty or of truth in
the argument which goes to impute to the influence
of leaders the discontent of the people—it has been
made use of a thoosand times before—it is the
common resource of the advocates of Ministers,
when they are not able to meet the question fairly.
The character of a demagogue in these days is
pretty well understood. lie is not as he is falsely
painted, the demon that conjures up the storm, but
a creature brought intu hfe by the heat of popular
discontent, who appears to lead by always follow-
ing the impulse of the people.
The present discontent has been produced by
far more efficient and lamentable causes—by the
extent of public grievances—by the dangerous,
and, we hope, unfounded opinion, that Govern-
ment is not disposed to redress the misery of
the people. The people on ntger oppose confi-
dence in their rulers—they fiod, or thiult they find
that the demand for Reform has been only an-
swered by fresh abuses—that the prayer .fur relief