The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-12-19 00:00:00

F, 1; 1: S I-1 Pl{

LON DON,

TUESDAY, Domains* 19. I I 20.

We believe that the present Ministers are the
only men whom fortune had ever placed at the
summit of aff.irs in this empire, who have uni-
formly acted upon the principle of dividing one
part of the people from another. Divide et ins-
pern seems to be their maxim, and they never
appear to consider their personal authority as safe
when ciiconistaeces begin to arise which conduce to
unite the higher and lower orders of society. They
aed their egrets have, sioce the return of the
QUEEN to England, laboured strenuously to ren-
der the words " Kura" and QUEEN" the Mottoes
or watchwords of conflicting parties, and to raise the
presumption that those who venture to express an
opinion favourable to her MAJESTY must be elle-
mien to her Illustrious Consort. Surely they can-
nut be friends to the KING who would represent
his AJZSTY ns personally hostile to the QUEEN,
or as feeling a personal interest in her destruction;
and it is peculiarly inconsistent in the Ministers
and their agents to expose their Sovereign to pub-
lic view in this light, after having solemnly
asserted in Parliament that the KING was neutral
in the whole proceeding, that the opposition to
the Quere proceeded from the Cabinet alone,
and ihrt her only prosecutor was that inyste-
riot's personag,e ycleped " Public Justice."—
Will the Ministers condescend to inform us who put
a stop to the proceeding% against the QUEEN ? who
opposed with greatest effect the prosecution against
her MAJESTY ? The Ministers, who despise popu-
lar clamour, who rail against the independent part
of the public press, will not concede that public
opinion, expressed in the acclamation of assembled
multitudes, or conveyed through the medium of
the inoirpaperr, could have exercised any influ-
ence over either House of Parliament. The
Nlrmbets were free, were independent, and yet
it was the decided hostility of the honest and
independent Mensbers of the House of Lords
that deterred the Ministers from hazarding
a last trial of strength, in which most pros
bably they would have failed, and sending
the Bill to the House of Commons, where it
would have encountered such a storm as it
would not be in their power to restrain or rule.
The QUEEN has cause to lament that the Bill of
Pains and Penalties wait not sent to the House of
Commons. Her MAJESTY might there have had
the power of explainiug such circumstances as
were made the topics of argument against her
by her prosecutors in the Upper House, and
there slim she might have exposed the foul conspi-
racy from which the ,prosecution against her had
emanated. But what greater triumph could her
MAJESTY require than the acknowledgment by
Lord Lie ERCOQI. that the prosecution had failed,
that DO ingenuityof her bitterest enemies could tip-
hold it ; and whit reproof could be more humiliating
to •the wretched followers of the Ministers, who
through good report, and evil report," support..
ed the Bill, than the admission of their leader, that
their votes and numbers were of 110 effect unless
supported by the concurrence of such moral hie
fluenee as might (overawe doubt nod clamour ? The
rejection of the-Bell then was the act of the House
of Lords'in its collective capacity, at the snggese
tiou and with the assent of the Prime Minister.
Is such a rejection a topic for praise or censure?
Those who esteem the House of Lords and the
Ministers cannot condemn slid yet those whir
praise it are breeder! with the mime of Radicals!
To praise the Ministers for this solitary set, this
tardy recognition of their errors, to save the country
front the dangers which must arise from again agi.
toting the subject. by requestieg his MAJESTY to
dismiss from his eouesels the unwise Ministers olio
advised such pernicions measures, meetings have
been held in many parts of the etnpire. Even
meetings convened to censure the QUEEN have
been converted by the strong sense of the prople.

into assemblies for cettsoriug her antagonists. An
apprehension seem. to prevail in many instances
that an attempt will be made in the nest Session of
Parliassient to embroil the nation, by recurring to
the proceedings against her MAJESTY, and Peti.
lions have been prepared to both Houses of Par-
liament to prevent measures so pregnant with evil.
For this purpose a meeting of the freeholders of
the county of Durham was held on Wednesday
last, its the city of Durham, at which Earl GREY
and Mr. LA/ASTON expressed in stating and em-
phatic terms the collective seas' of the great ina-
jority of the freeholders of that county. A report
of this highly interesting and important meeting
will be 1. d in another part of our Paper. A
Mr. LIDDELL alone opposed the Ilssolutions pro.
posed at this meeting, but even this Gentle-
man acknowledged that the " characters of the
witnesses against the QUEEN weie not unim-
peachable, and could not stand the teat of a
severe scrutiny." A fuller or more satisfactory
admission of the imbecility of the prosecution in.
'diluted against the C,lt.F.Ets could not be desired ;
and if it be the principle of British law, that every
person accused shall be esteemed innocent until
proved guilty, we cannot sec how any individual
could presume to throw a shade over the character
of the QUEEN, upon the testimony of such infa-
mous wretches as were produced in the House of
Lords to swear against her MAJESTY. Mr. LID-
DELL also admits, that the Ministers ought
to have carefully inquired into the nature of the
evidence to be adduced against the QUEEN, `s hav-
ing hart an awful warning in the former accusations
in which her MAJESTY had justifird herself."—
That the Ministers plunged headlong with the rash
impetuosity of personal hatred, or at least of um nil.
ed dignity, into tile prosecution, without a pre-
vious inquiry into the nature of the evidence,
is, in our opinion, one of the most urines
charges that can be urged to cri iii i l ,ate them;
no clamour of their partisans, no rusimmery
pretended Addresses from their trembling fol-
lowers can conceal the original guilt of this rash
prosecution ; the Ministers most consslit to .hat:
the moral turpitude of the witnesses they under-
took to sanction, mid if justice weir done they
ought to share with theta their punishment and
disgrace.

At a late hour last night we received Paris papers
of Friday. It is stated in an article of intelligence
from Vienna, as certain, that the Allied Sovereign.
will again meet bcfure the close of the year is some
town not far distant front Italy (Layb.tch is men-
tioned), for the purpose, as it is said, of either over•
seeing the military operations, or managing the liege-
eistinns with the Gosernuient of Naples. The Kiug
of the Two SKI LIR,. as we have already noticed,
has been invited to inset the High Allies; bra the
terms of the Constitution which lie has accepted
prevent him leaving his kingdom without the con-
stilt of the Parlimitent,

The adviees from Spain mention the discovery of
a conspiracy against the Constitution in a monas-
tery of Madtid, belonging to the Order of Saint
Fits Nets. Several of the monks have peen ar-
rebut!. Rumours of plots and discoveries in va-
rious parts of the Peninsula are also noticed, but
thcx are not well authenticated, and seem rather
to display the fears of the peaceful than the
activity of the ill-disposed. The King of SPAIN
has by a public decree deprived of a pension Don
JOSE ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO, at the rtquest of the
Permanent Deputation of the Corte, for having
made certain titlre representations to the Emperor
of RUSSIA and the Allies assembled at Troppau,
respecting the internal state of Spain. •
The French Five per Cents. are 78 fr. 53 c.—
Batik Stock 1,40 fr. 51 e.

We Imre received Dutch Papers to the 19th in-
stunt, but their contents are destitute of interest.
German Papers to the sth instant have ar-
rived. They state ■s certain, that the confer-
ences at Troppaa are suspended fur a fortnight,
and will, at the expiration of that time, be resumed
at Vienna. The following are extracts :
♦rBBIIA, DIKCIMBIR 4.
_ _ .

It is now quite decided that the coofereaces of Troppan,
which, as the public has already been informed, are ittlinirii-
e4 for three weeks, are to be contiimert here. We there-we
expect this week the Ministers of Fiance, Russia, and Prussia,
heck from Tioppau. The Prussian Chem..-Iler of Slate,
Prince Ilardenbeig, and the Russian Secretaiy of State,
Capo &Istria, are likewise expected. Their Majesties the
Emperor and Empress, as well as the Emperor of Russia,
will arrive here about the 12th. It is not known whether the
Emperor Alexander will make any stay here. It is said that
the auswer from Naples to the proposals last made will de-
ckle on the opening of the conferences. The two couriers
who were dispatched on the Roth November, bum Troppau,
fur Naples, and were uullutiletidly the hearers of these pro-
posals, may be expected about the 12th or 13th of this
month.
The late report that Connt Rellegarde was golog to Milan
as civil and military Governor, is nut confirmed. Though
the Emperors have proposed: o King Ferdinand to come to
Laybaeli in person, told have offered io that case to meet
him there, it Is not supionsed that that Sovereign, at his al-
vaiired age, wilt undertake so lung a Journey at such a sea-
son of the year. The conferences will therefore be carried
un by the Ministers of the five great Palms and a Pleuipu-
teotiary of the King of Naples.
visNOVtit, Oscar:olw 1.
It seems that a enosiderahls number of subaltern officers
and privates belonging to the late German Legi have been
within a short period to London, to apply in person to the
linglisti Government for pensions. In consi gustiest of which
the English iVai-offiee has iesaed an official declaration,
that " iu future no claim of this nature shall he atteuded to
unless is is first sent to England by his Royal Highness the
Duke of Cambridge, as Colonel of the late German Legion,
and an answer is returned from thence, that the claims
of the applicants shall be inquired into." The men who
have lately been Englaad would have been exposed to the
greatest misery, had not the British Government provided
fur their support in England, mail given them a free passage
Wine.

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