The National Register.
London, England, 1808-04-11 00:00:00

226

Much, tliat the difference will hardly be sensible : tat I
then they will pay it more willingly, because they wilt
have the satisfaction of thinking that it is all applied for
salutary purposes. If the good which they expect from
this measure were less than it is, nay, if it were absolutely
nothing, we should still inculcate the propriety of the
measure, because the people should always be satisfied
when they can be satisfied without danger: and when their
hearts are with their government they can submit without
a murmur to a thousand difficulties which in a moment of
discontent they would refuse with indignation to endure.
Dr. Fuller relates a story, which, in his quaint language,
stands thus: " A gentleman having led a company of little
46 children into the fields further than they used to walk,
66 they began to be quiterred, and called out to the gentle-
" man to carry them, (Or they could go no further; but (he
46 being unwilling to give himself that trouble, and besides
41 was unable to carry them all, which must disoblige some
66 of them) he relieved himself with this invention, saying:
64 be content a little, my dear children, and I will provide
" you every one a horse to ride home on; accordingly he
" he went to the next hedge; and cut them geldings out of
" it: and the success answered the device, for being
mounted on these wooden steeds, the strength of
46 fancy added new mettle to their legs, and they trudged
66 cheerfully home." If the people, when they are w.eary,
will be contented with a wooden horse, why should their
guardians refuse it to them ?
It has been objected that, in depriving the Crown of the
right of making Grants in Reversion, we arc depriving the
Crown of its just prerogative. But those who fancy this
appear to be short-sighted indeed. The abolition of this
power strengthens the efficient force of the Crown; it
weakens only the individual King, who may happen to be
reigniOg at the time when the abolition takes place. It
weakens him, because he finds the gifts, which every day
become vacant under his eyes, devolving upon persons
who claim them by the Reversionary Grants of some
former Prince: but it ultimately strengthens the Crown,
because the Crown is thereby empowered to give that in
pritsenti, which otherwise it can bestow only infastnro.
But whether the Bill be in effect likely to produce the
iafinite benefits that some persons hope from it, or whether
it wilt be attended only with that slight but not contempti-
ble advantage which we are inclined to expect, there sorely
can be among impartial persons only one opinion on the
opposition with which it has been assailed. The measure
originattd in the Ilonse of Commons with the minority,
and was approved by the Ministers: it was carried into the
Lipper House, and there toohe Ministers concurred in it.
And yet it has been rejected by a majority of the House of
Peers: that is to say, by some Princes of the Blood with
proxies in their pockets. Anti are the united voices of the
Ministry and of the people to be drowned by the whisper of
such authority ? Are the adviseri of the Crown to he always
persons distinct from the Crown's responsible servants ?
Are the people of this country for ever to deprecate the
existence of a power behind the throne, greater than
44 the throne itself ?" Is the King to hake his negative
'voice as the first breach of the Constitution, and are ne-
gative voices to speak for him besides is the meetings of
the second branch, so as finally to overthrow, without the
personal odium of a refusal, the beneficial measure § that
stay proposed by the thi:d branch Anti fur whom is

APRIL 11.

all this done t for the•good of, the King / Ao : the good
of the people is the good of the King. It is done for tl►c
good of those who call themselves the friends of the Kin►; :
fur the aggrandisement of those %Am eagerly take into
their hands the reigns of government that have been bat
loosely held of late : and the Consequence must be uni-
versal odium to themselves, and even unpopularity to their
Sovereign. For though the higher classes of society may
fed that their present Sovereign would never intentionally
injure his people, yet the vast mass of low and inconsiderate
persons, who shall sec what the Junto has done, and hear
that the members of that junto are called the kim;'s
friends, will imagine that the King has delegated then► to
do that obnoxious work which he himself was unwilling to
perform.

But it seems that the opposers of the Reversion Bill ha, e
not confined themselves to the exercise of that haul': e
which their rank bestows upon them, and which at best is ill
exercised in opposing a measure of public good : that they
have even exercised an influence to which no rank can any
subject them : an influence militia is said to have made
itself known in some such whisper as this: " Ministers
" know who made them, and they know who can mnnake
" them also." Thus then we find that the Ministers of the
country arc dependent, not upon the country nor upon
the crown, but on a set which works from a dark corner, a
party without a name, a ruling power without a right, a
dreadful combination that attacks us like pestilence, dint
only seen when it destrOys ! Can his Majesty feel hinisdl
justified in entrusting his conscience, his popularity, and
his glory, to persons who arc amenable to no earthly
jurisdiction for their abuse of his confidence ? Can the
representatives of the people with patience endure to see
great measures of public advantage, the commencements
of economical reform, and the proceedings of national
justice, crushed in their very outset by such a conspiracy ?
Can the Ministers of the country, consistently with their
pretensions to the character of men of sense and hon.mr,
allow themselves to be thus cheated of their claims to ge-
neral approbation, brow-beaten into confessions of their
own imhecillity, and compelled to record in the face of
their countrymen, that their fears will not permit them to
assist what their consciences tell them they ought to pro-
mote?

REVIEW OF POLITICAL DECLAIMERS.

No. 'O.

AN APPEAL FROM TUN, FLATTETZIII.4 01' Tlll
PEOPLE TO THE PLOPLI.' COMMON SLNSF.

The spirit of party has, perhaps, been at some periods of
our history more immediate') detrimental Ciao it appear, to
have lit•en of late; but certainly it never Alas so ridieulou or
so ill-conducted as it is at this very inomatt. There have heea
oeca%nms when the minds of men were roused by pre-tn:: :!4!1-
gets to unusual violence : when on the side both of auclorn
and of liberty were ranked the the Lad tut
powerful ; when even contention was not destitute of eandoi,
anti genii's threw a brilliant gloss upon errar itself. litit row.
when lu•ats scent scarcely t vet 10 1/1.11.1! Ili the 11pir.1
; when timse whose cinispic,uoub bituation or tale:n ;day
retitle them to lerA the conntr:, no longer rav with;!
bat coilielit thettiselvei ss Itb a few per.onid ar..-u,d01,!••
illeirtetke speeches; when, iu short, x lively zeal ahout
party que,:imis no longer exits With tile %%I part
ul
the y ; a few per3imi have began ii) I
;LUCAV the niiWt:i of sedition, and kor Stlecti'd fur tat: •''