The National Register.
London, England, 1817-07-07 00:00:00

J, a

No. 401.—VoL. N.

rouTicAL DISQUISITION.

SUSPENSION OF THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT.

NOW that the Bill for the farther suspension of the
Hebeas Corpui Act Las passed both Houses of Parliament,
it may be worth while dispassionately to consider how
far so strong a proceeding was called for by the unsettled
state of the country. Those who arc uniformly opposed to
the measures of Ministers hare argued that, as the popu-
lar discontent was occasioned wholly by the pressure of
absolute want, it could nut have been necessary to adopt
the same measures of severity as were resorted to at a
time when the delusion of a political millenium led men
to the formation of scaled plans for the subversion of
the established. ender of things, and to the adopti= of
theories more wild and undefinable than the day-dreams
of a raving bedlamitc. To those, however, whose modes
of thinking are not warped by the strong influence of
political prejudice, the case will appear very different.
It is true, that in the early part of the French war,
when the passions of men bad nearly extinguished their
reason, much danger was to be apprehended from that
apiilt of universal philanthropy (as it was impudently
called) which pervaded almost every class of society
amongst
us. But when men of sense saw that the re-
velutionists of France, who were the great objects of
mutation, instead of improving the condition of huma-
nity, commenced a war fur its extermination ; when,
instead of inculcating, and by example enforcing, the
precepts of morality, and the healing doctrines of reve-
lation, they laboured with a fiend-like industry to
loosen those bonds of society, which alone render the
present life sapportable, and to destroy every hope which
cheers our prospect of the future, they shrunk back al-
it est afraid to think on what they had done; and, by
r:lying round the constituted authorities, they strove
tc. make reparation for the offence which they had cons-
n.itted. Not such, however, was the conduct of all;
snme were too short-sighted to discover the termination
of that thorny path in which they were entangled;
others were too proud to confess they had been in error ;
and a third, and by ihr the most dangerous class, was
composed of those who, from an incurable viciousness of
heart, longed for the destruction of all established
forms—for the defiling of every thing sacred—fur the
spoliation of every one richer than themselves. The
influence of there men was considerable amongst the
lower orders, but as the poorest of the poor, at that
time, were in affluence, compared with their condition
at present, it required but the punishment of a few to
brill, the many to their senses, and .during the remaiu-
..
der of a long and exhausting war, the ruby disturbers
of the public peace were those who still smarted ender
the correction they had received, or who were too blind
or too obstinate to see and amend their former errors.
To these might be added in latter days, a few persons,

who having, dining the last twenty years, veered to
every point of the political compass, rusted at last at
Lvel:ii:g democracy, and stedfastlY pointed to that as
C.c only course to national salvation. Of these the
greater number had imbibed what are called Spcnceau
principles ; that is to say, they hail grafted the idiot on
the mailman, and, being what Mr. Bennett chooses
to call literary characters! they laboured, without cea-
sing, to convince their countrymen, that no reform in
the State' could do them good but that which the old
lunatic S pcute had pr; jecte
When the termination of the war pro.luced that stag-
nation in trade which, with our unavoidably heavy
tatation, has driven thousands to the extremes: distress,
rneae men bailed the period as that which presented a
fair opportunity for carrying into effect their levelling
s 7• ttem; they redoubled their efforts; there wete enough
tiftrary characters among them to know that un Eng-
lishman is most irascible when his stomach is wiry;