The National Register.
London, England, 1820-12-31 00:00:00

ON THE " LICENTIOUS PRESS."

The Country grows sick at heart—the Constitu-
tion totters—the House of Brunswick is in danger;
but where are the authors of so much mischief?
Let us see.—The loyalists, as they term themselves
—too many of whom mean by loyally a saleable
commodity, to be disposed of for their own advan-
taee—t hese loyalists attribute the evils under which
the country labours to Ike Press!—Not to the moon
or the magnet—not to solar influence, or mysterious
magic, but to the licentious Press! Did the licen-
tious Press increase taxation ? Does the licentious
Press overload the sinews of the former? Does the
licentious Press support the Government by the
sword? Does the liceatious Press grind down the
nerves of the mechanic and the labourer? Did the
licentious Press suggest the infamous Gaging Bills?
Did the licentious Press oppose the Holy Alliance
neitinst mankind? Did the licentious Press prc-
duce the tyranny of Ferdinand, or the despoiiin of
Frederic? Did the licentious Press destroy Alex-
ander's just opinions, and till their place with the
disgusting notions lately ? Did the licen-
tious Press blow up the Spanish frigate in time of
peace—bombard Copenhagen to prove our friend-
ship to the Danes—pay the Neapolitans for fighting
for Murat, and the Sicilians for fi,;liting against
him ? Did the licentious Press teech Louis that he
had been nineteen yearS King of France i Did the
licentious Press generate the loathsome herd of con-
tractors and sineeurists, which, like so many cancers,
devour the body politic? Did the licentiate; Press
draw front the suffering nation its hard-earned
treasures, to subsidise the banditti of Russia, Austria
and Prussia? Did the licentious Press cut off the
springs of trade? Did tile licentious Press produce
that host of political ills which make the people
miserable, hopeless, and discontented ? Or, in truth
and iu fact, are not all these ills the freits of the
errors or of the crimes of Ministers ? Are they not
the consequence of their tyrannical system—Ole re.
sults of their mad (sings and base designs? To see
the danger and conceal the ilicendiaries may be loy-
ally, but it is not justice. To witness the wrongs
and abuse the sufferers is cruelty : it is worse than
the ignorance of old, which heaped upon some poor,
but innocent woman, the curses of lantern bru•es,
fire the murrain of their cattle or the blights of
their harvest ; and just as wise and as rational as
the witch-pursuers of past ages, arc the equally be-
nighted tracers of the causes of national calamity to
the use of the twenty-f Our letters ! If we examine
all the precious, declarations which have been
hatched ill bye places by the trumpeters of loyalty
to deceive their Royal Master, they strike the same
string, and draw fbrth the same tone :—to the Li-
centiousness of the Press, and to Blasphemy, with
their hair on end and uplifted hands, the devoted
sons of cupidity and loyalty ascribe our danger.

A cousin of the assassin Louvel, who bears that
infamous name, and who belongs toy regiment of
dragoons at Thionville, having made some horrible
propositions to a trumpeter of the regiment, which
the latter rejected with shuddering, Louvel stal;be,l
him dead. The murderer is in custody.
Lord and Lady Curzon have, with the kind.^!:t
regard for the comforts of the poor at this period at
the year, made a most acceptable present of blaiskets
aid clothing, to the indigent families in the in:igli-
bourhood of Gopsall.

I