The National Register.
London, England, 1817-06-09 00:00:00

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No. 487.—V0r.. X.

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

?HE BLACK DWARF,

AP. 111 h

TRIAL OP THE EDITOR. .

THERE is one satisfaction to the inhahitants of
great towns, especially to those of such a metropolis as
that which we inhabit, that scarcely one siogle week
passes by with nit its presenting some occurrence or
transaction to ealiven the chit-chat of the hour. Every 1.
one, for instance, is now occupied with The Black
Divalf, and its Reitkor, who is blacker still, and who
never had before, the gratification of " working his way
up to day-light !" But it should be the business of every
one to unmask this disguised dwarf, and, if it be pos-
sible, to compel hira to turn colour and claim kindred
with his predecessor of " jaundiel fame."
Evidently there are no people so "gullible," to bor-
row one of Cobbctt's favourite words, is the people of
England. They have proved the very beA patrons of
pretenders of every kind, and, notwithstanding all the
mortifications they have experienced, seem to patronize
them now. Although they know perfectly well the
deceptions which this order of jogglers have practised on
credulous minds, they continue to accept their profes-
sions, and become the victims of their delusions.

What a glorious 3,1 of liberators and refortners do not
the Hones, Hoppers, Prcslons, Thestimoods, Waisons,
If °oilers, 4c. present to us ? Merciful Heaven! If; " the
salt of the earth" is to be dissolved by such agi-
tators, if all that is estimable in life, and dignified
in death, is indeed to be banished from our world ; then
ruin Bann :t too speedily advance, and the desolation of
the universe may safely be asserted to be at hand.
Applause was expressed in Court during the de-
fence of this Mr. Wooller ! Did the individuals who
applauded that defence, know the character aol senti-
ments of the individual whom they presumed to ap-
plaud at the time or, were they parties to that SOEII4
which he has advocated of late years? Wonu,Eit Htst-
set.r is SAID To BB A JACOBIN. Can he deny that he
is ? And what a Jacobin is, justly so styled, our read-
ers must know. Twenty-five years of revolution and
warfare, of hostility to man, and opposition to God,—
have surely been sufficient to elucidate the nature and
effects of Jacobinism.

But this T. J. \Vooller glories in his shame. For-
booth, he is an Englishman—what a dishonourtoonel—
and has, therefore, full right to libel his countrymen
in an exalted rank : but, says he, in his Paper of
Wednesday last, '• no matter, 1 shall have a grid, and
I may be releasrd in a film days from my confinement,
which now begins to be insufferably tedious." We
see in what manner he boasted of getting off, only the
day before his trial, while reckoning on his friends
both within and without the Court. Government has
nothing to fear, however, while those entrusted with
its administration have the courage to enforce their re-

sponsiLility. Let us hope that the Attorney-General
will act up to the declaration he is stated to have made
in the present case ; that, in short,.he never will be
deterred by any clamour from discharging his duty,
whilst he has strength to do it.
Feeling all that attachment which, as Englishmen,
we must cherish for the freedom of the Press, and
anxious to preserve it entire to remotest times, we are
the more solicitous to guard against its abuses. We have
lately been warned of the consegnenees to be appre-
henied from " The Setfitiosis V'estc"—vnistvenees
truly alarming—and on this account we consiler such
persons as the Author of the Black Dwarf to be any
thing except friends to the liberty of the Press. Li-
berty, such as he seeks, must terminate in rev
lotion ; and revolution might, perhaps, be compreuied
for devutism.