The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-06-13 00:00:00

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To Tat tnitOß t3F. Pfl r. VitA .
Ste —The majoritikif tliglewtpapers whicfi' daily
issue from the previ, atiateso venal and cottar, that
their ohjed a p peara toible!iht; to render the pt inc
i-
pies of political virtue'sdissierient to the ilaituation-
which so frequently cherafterize the conduit of their
patrons. than strentiopsly ind'ihdiscritisinately to
impress, on the minds of public men, of all parties,
the indispensable necessity of invariably and impli-
citly regulating their conduit, by the unchangeable
principles of true political reititade. Whatever
theory may be inculcated, whatever line of coo-
dud adopted by the friends of Administration, or
the partizans of Opposition, their respective adhe-
rents indefatigably strive to ri tv,esent the sentiments
of each party, as alone compatible with the attain-
ment and support of the grand ohjeds of all poli-
tical controversy, the prosperity, dignity, and hap-
piness of a powerful nation. Thus the political
world is continually divided into two irreconcile-
able parties, each infallibly right in the estirnation
of its own adherents, and each obstinately erroneous
in the opinion of its respedive opponents.
Amongst the various Newspapers which thus
prostitute their talents to the unqualified support
of the partisans, whose cause, from motives of in-
terest, or prejudice, they may be induced to
espouse, stands forth, pre-eminently conspicuous,
Tire Mooring Cheoniek.
Deeoy as it is to be regretted, that intelligent be-
ings should thus, from interested motives, be in-
duced to forego the free and unbiassed exercise of
their reason, yet there is cause for still deeper regret
in the refledion, that there are pulalishers of a yet
more degraded natare, who, stimulated by the al-
lurement of reward, hesitate not indiscriminately to
become the medium of circulation to the most scan-
dalous invedives against men of all charaders, and
of all parties. And, let me tell you, Sir, that in
this ignoble class, you have thought proper to en-
rol yourself, by the publication, in your Paper of
Wednesday, May 27, of an anonymous address to
lir:Roscoe ; a man, whose purity of moral conduit,
patriotism of public charadlee, assiduous attention
to the duties of hia,:parliamentary profesiion, and
conscientious unditiating ad:a-rence to the dis-
cint-ge of those duties, to the true principles of the
British Constitution, should at least have secured
him from the hostility of a paper, which, but a
few days since, made use of his name, conneded
with -the ungrateful treatment he experienced on
his return to Liverpool, as a weapon of attack
on the present Administration, for exciting the
insensate clamour of No Popery ;" I say, should
have mewed him from the attack of your pub-
lication; because I consitier that by giving admission
to this ano ,yrnous address, you have become its fos-
ter-father. anti have adopted all those sentiments,
and sanctioned the belief of all those fails, to the
bare assenion of which, even the e. Titer himself has
not dared to affix his name. It cannot for a mo-
ment be supposed that you could have been induced
to take this step uninfluenced by the alliiremiint of
scrn.s very considerable remuneration. Thus, there-
fore, Sir, have you at once proved to the world,
that you are not only ready to embrace the cause of
whatever party may be inclined the most liberally to
inward your services ; but that, in &lea violation
of all implied engagements, you may also be incited,
by pecuniary temptation, to speak in terms of harsh
and unjust reprobation of the most virtuous sad in-
dependent &miters, however nearly conneded by
similarity of sentiments at. f lawsuits. with the
avowed patrons of your publication. Had you
thitight proper, in that part of your paper which is
allotted to promiscuous
oisservetiati. to express your
disaperobation of the chat sifter ni condoak of Mr.
Roscoe, the public would at least have given yen
vein li.r saying what in that cast, must have been
considered as the result of unbiassed conviition ; but
to have been induced by mercenary motives
to adopt
and widely to circulate the sentiments of an anony-
mous libeller. reduces you to a state of ignominy to
which even your bittet est enemies could never have
indulged the hope of seeing you degraded. Since,
however, you have thought proper to assume the
ftsponsibility ahich attaches to this libel, you cer-
tainly claim the privilege of being noticed by the
friends of Mr. Roscoe, a privilege much beyond the
desert of the disingenuous writer. whose insidious
conduit in disseminating, at a time when animosity
was again lulled to repose, the anonymous effusions
of his malevolence, for the rile purpose of vilifying
and traducing an unblemished and most exalted
charaaer, can only be compared to the base, the
cowardly, the treatcheronf stab of the assassin, who,
justly dismayed by the open, the manly, and the
dignified countenance of vi: tut, shrinks from a pub-
lic avowal of his rancour, and avails himself ot. the
dark, the silent, the unsuspicious moment of mid-
night. to perpetrate his horrid deed. You claim the
privilege of being publicly informed, that through-
out the whole of this elahot ate prof/bairn, there is
scarcely a single position which is not grdunded in
misrepresentation, and supported by falsehood. That
its commencement is defiance, it. progress sophistry,
iti conclusion imbec lily.
You have afforded to Mr. Roscoe's ft lends an op.
poitunity of proclaiming to the world at large, that
Mr. Roscoe, no his approach to Liverpool, tar from
experiencing any reason to regret the loss of popu•
laity, was spontaneously met and ai.cora,yanied into
his native town, by such a body of freemen and in-
habitants, as struck dismay into his antagonists. and
seemed to establish, in ineii minds, a conviaion that
v.olence and outr ige were the only aliened vee to
which they could recur, for the support of their tot-
tering cause. That the desperate band of assailants,
whom the Independent Eledot" d peuienetels de•
nominates a the few persons who were accideotally
assembled at theF.xchange"were re;•Allarly i.tganised
for the express purpose of insulting and outraging
the persons of Mr. Roscoe and his friends, and of
preven-ing Mr. Roscoe from obtaining a hearing.
at whatever risk such an °bk. was to be accom-
plished ; that. during the continuance of the tu-
mult, a period of neatly an hour, no exertion what-
ever was made by the Magistracy to restore teen-
Tidily, though the scene of the disturbance was
closely contiguous to the Bench of Justice, which,
' at that time, must, in the regular course of business,
have probably been occupied by one of the Mag. s-
trates—that Mr. Roscoe came forward with a de-
termination to appeal to the decision of his coostitivi
lets; bat that having experienced, with regret, the

tritich ;Attended the Minds of some disappointed
individuate, be was induced, by the most honourable
motives of humanity, and regard for the tranquillity
of the town, in obedient compliance with the senti-
mentsr of benevolence expressed is His Majesty's
speech, to retire from a contest, which, he foresaw,
would, in all probability, be decided by the blood of
his fellow-townsmen—that, from the very moment
of this determination being resolved on. he did most
conscientiously and rigidly abstain from all interfe-
rence or communication whatever, either dire& or
indired, with those who were in any way implicated
in the subsequent proceedings; the truth of which has
since been made manifest by the acknowledgment of
Mr. Roscoe's late colleague himself, who, at his late
eleftion dinner, held on the 4th of June, "acquitted
Mr. Roscoe of any interference in the opposition
which had been so strenuously maintained, and
spoke of that gentleman's general charader and
talents, with the utmost resped"—but that, at the
conclusion of an eledion i:r which he had, by the
`spontaneous aeclamation of the Freemen, been
nominated a Candidate, he could not. with any
propriety, avoid expressing the gratitude which he
experienced at the honour thus conferred on 'his
cloudier ; nor did he, in these expressions, give any
just grounds for the most malignant of his enemies to
infer that he could, for a moment, hive condescended
to an as of dissimulation, of the most pitiful and
degrading nature—Oat. notwithstanding all the ex-
pressions of insignificant triumph made use of by
the "Independent Mellor," be must feel convinced
that, could Mr Roscoe have been prevented by his
friends from withdrawing himself, he must have
carried his elation, in spite of the infatuated
clamour raised against him by the disappointed
avarice and pitiful jealousy of a set of men, who,
accustomed to estimate all merit by the standard of
wealth alone, had not magnanimity enough to en-
dure the elevation of one who 1141 acquired his
celebrity by qualifications and talents, the valve of
ohich they had never been taught to appreciate—
!' that the visible anxiety. fretfulness, and irritability,

of Mr. &MOO'S late colleague, were so conspicuous
during the election, that the most dispassionate oh.
scoot °acid have attributed them to nothing less
then the most serious apprehensions respecting the
result—that the language which this gentleman
thought proper to apply to Mr. Roscoe's coudua and
character, were so unequivocally illiberal, disinge-
nuous, and unjust. that even the pitiful sophistry of
his avowed advocate. cannot cast over it the slen•
der veil of plausibility—'and that the retut.niug
cactus, in keeping open the poll. did no more than
a due regard for thetr own indentLity compelled
them to do. The assertion that Mr. Roseoe's pao.
liansentary conduit had rendered him extremely un-
popular. can only he suhstantiated in 1.. e instance
of the vote which he gave in favour of the Abolition
of the Slave Trade ; a vote which, in the opinion of
every other part of the kingdom, except Liverpool.
has been cansicleied as pre-eminently honourable; a
vote which none can deliberately, cons( 101601241 y,
and disintereseedly repit.bate, brit such as savagely
'ululate the qualifie.ations of the uttered*, and ti.e
tienieel ; a vole, however, which, in COnCIOIIIIWe
With the circumstance of the Bill in question, dating
the commencement of its operation from the la
May, the very lay previous to Mr. Roscoe's appear-
ance in Liverpool, was *arily seised on by his
enemies, and made he successful means of exciting
against him the most violent and insensate clamour,
and of imputing to him all the fictitious misery and
ruin which wi re foretold as its inevitable result. To
accuse Mr Roscoe of prostituting professions of
loyalty to patty purposes, is an instance of effrontery
of which the adherents of each men alone could be
capable, as dared to insult thedignity of the Throne,
by pledging themselves, on their Sinners, to procure
the repeal of the Slave 'Prude Aholition Bill a
Bill which, at ter having been cartied by an ituruenot
majority though both I-louses of Parliament,
finally received the deliberate and conscientious as-
sent of the Soveteign.
Lest any thing should be wanting to complete the
climax of &ward accusations against Mr. Roscoe, in
which the f' Independent Deem" has thought pro-
per to indulge, he has declared that a very short
experiment leas proved to the world that Mr. Ros-
coe'stalents, however they may be calculated for a
life of privacy, are wholly tinCted for the situation
to which his vanity taught him to aspire. There
can certainly be no doubt, that the elegant accom-
plishments of Mr. Roscoe, as a scholar, his endear.
ing and amiable qualities as a domestic man, and
his spotless integrity of heart and assiduous applica-
tion to his professional duties, as a member of saci-
ety. resides him at once the ornament•and delight sit
private life; hut to say that his talents have not,
during his late Parliamentary career, rendered him
so eminently conspi.uosts as to excite the most well.
grounded expectations of future political fame. is to
deny the evidence of fads, whico are recorded in
every public print. Let me tell yr.'s, Sir, that theist
is not even common plausibility in the assertion, that
the late Dissolution of Parliament was the result of
the mardlinatious of opposition. It is palpably
evident that this forcible useanne is alone to le at-
tributed to the notorious imbecility of the ptesent
Administration; an Administration, in the forma-
tion of which is combined, whatever is contain, ser-
vile, and unprincipled ; an Administration. which,
at the death of their late leader, the immortal Pitt, I
fled with precipitation and dismay from responsibi-
lity. to which they were justly conscious of the total
inadequacy of their talents. Let me add, with re.
sped to the propriety of the adoption of an import.
ant measure relative to the Catholics, that if concur-
rence in the sentiments entertained on that project
by Mr. Pitt, by the Duke of Pot eland. Mr. Conning,
Lord Castlereagh. and by many other partisans of
the present Administration, be deemed criminal, the
accusation should not have been preferred by the
H Independent Eleaor," since it equally itivole‘ s
the character of thise men, in whom he seen.' to
repose implicit and unlimited confidence.
I will now conclude by recornmendiog to you,
that, when you neat think proper to let out :or hire
the columns of your paper to the anonymous slan-
derer, you will at least stipulate for the attack of an
obis& lees capable of repelling your rude assaults,
than the exalted and impregnable character of Mr.
Rosen; a charneler from which tb• venem,us ar-
rows of calumny most ever recoil on the wish and
impotent assailant, to his utter discomfiture and
eternal disgrace. I remain, Sir, your humble ler=
TM. WILLIAM W•inWSICIIT.