The National Register.
London, England, 1820-01-17 00:00:00

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C. tE,il. views—sum,: engaged to maintain.
power, and others to prevent its extension. beyond
its just limits. They are, moreover, the•nursery of
all the great parliamentary talents.;:because those
who 'lessees such boroughs, amnions for the interest
of their party, or for their own personal inatience,
to give weight to 'heir political opinions the magi'
men most competent to support them, usually select
for nomination young advocates, tar men el letters
the must distingaislied tot wit. awl ehrpitence; and
it is iu this manner that almost all the men of genius
who lauye successively figured in the English Par-
liament—the Gliathaims, the Pitts, the Foxes, the
Buries, the Hotnillys, anti al) many others not less
illustrious, first succeeded in making themselves
known to the nation. R was subsequently, anal not
till after their talents had made them reinarkaAe,
that they became objects of independent el.evtion,
whether fur Westminster; or fur any other city or
county..
'The aristocracy is, therefore. as we perceive, the
real goveraing.power. It rules the. provinces, where
it oceopies every administrative. employment ; ,it
governs tha whololingiluns through the Parliamen-
usry influence. which.. is almost exclusively in its
pessession. This King is, if we may.so: speaks no-
thing butt a. creature uf the imagination ; he is,-a.
species oikidol designed to be placed otter the altar,
with the view of oifering.to the 'topple an apparent
object of respect. The idol is covered with gold
and jewels-in order. to render him more venerable,
his • worshippers prostrate themselves befire
testimoniesof the.most profound submission.; but it
is his Ministers:who are charged with theilispen-
lotion of bias oracles, mud who ..re responsible for the
of ectewhieh they produce, It is in their hands,
and. nutin those of the King, that the Royal prero..
paves are lodged, and they naturally become an
ohjcct of ambition to all the membermfthe m:neral.
aristocracy. They carry on the stoniest witlt•lnrietus '
easgeniessi..;and when at. length the. -Aim hiss fallen.
into some vigoroos hands, from which there is little.
hope of recovering. it,..tha vanquitlied parties re:
unite, in oaderttovord against too considerable ens
accessionoof power, which might become. dangerous-
to their individual rights and privileges.-
' But this arissocracy is. not, as in some other cam-•
tries, compeeetloi a number, more ordlees, of privi-
leged families...whose whole power. consists in the
oppressions which they have arrogated to themselves
the right of exercising upon the people. Itiais..the
aziatocracy,of wealth and of talents, the most natu-
ral and least revoltios; of finites forms, inasmuch as
there Ia no family, no citizen,,olus may not hope to
obtain an admission into it, menu one day to.patiticis.
pate of its advantages. Such an aristocragy is itself
but a portion of the general mass of the people,
above. which fortune has. insensibly elevated it.
Some unfortunate events,. or sense foolish .dissipa-
tions,,often ',plunge it.wholly intolthat mass, ,and
there at.least it always zemainsefixed inita younger_.
branches.. Its private interestobli;,,,esit.continually
to cherish the good-will of the inferior classes of the
people, in order to make for itself a point of support
against that encroachments of the Crown; and to
sustain tit...people with all its force against every
attacknpen £heir independence. Thus the greatest.
lords in lingland, the. Dukes of Devonshire and
Bedford', the Hollands. the Lansdowne, the Fits-
williatug, the Grenvilles, the Greys, Ake. are, those
who show themselves-the most4ozient defenders ofs
public liberty, of the trial by jag, of the law of
habeas corpus, of the liberty of the press, of the right
of petitions.that of assembling, and all thuse popu-
lar privileges, which.ore exercised by the nation
with transports so lively, as to inspire tisreigners
with &belief that thefree institutions of Athens and
!tome have been transported to the banks of the
Thames, the Humber, aid the Mersey.
" How could such a Government.. undee,which
every Euglishman, from the lord dowoatu the hum-
blest of its citizens, finds security for 'his person,
liberty to spe.sk of ell things, and to write of all
things, protection against every sort of tyranny,
the right to censure all the acts of Administration,
and eshare, more or less. in the government of the
state: itself; how. I ask, could such a government
I eNert 11C overturned; how, above all, could it be
overturned, with a House, of Connuons composed
alinost, entirely of citizens who reap its principal
advantages?

Lord Erskine lout paid a visit to his,native
coun-
try, after an absence of fifty-one years. arrived
at tlr house of his brother, the Earl of Buchan, in
Gcorge.street, lidinLurgli, on Saturday and
three &nut his grana thildten (who are receiviag
their e(iticat. at Edinburgh) with their parents.
The Noble and I.eart.ed Lord will find a new crea-
tion :lace he left Scotland in 1768. The new town
was nut then begun, and the improvements in every
direction exceed all that can be witnessed in any
other city tipai earth. The Noble Lord says in his
I letter that " in his own funnily, he finds three new
generations around him, whilst those of former
days have passed away."


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