The National Register.
London, England, 1819-10-18 00:00:00

No. 2YO.—VoL. XII.]

Vo[Meal Itetrosspect.

Tut Gazette of Tuesday last contains a Procla-
mation calling Parliament together on the 23d of
November, " for the divatch of business." The
state of the Country assuredly is such as to demand
the most serious deliberations of our Naticnal Coun-
cils, and the adoption of some Legislative enactments
which may heal the wounds and lacerations which
h 3 Constitution is now suffering in ne struggle
between the violent extremes of Radical Reformers
on one hand, and the still more dangerous attempts
of establishing a system of lawless and military des-
potism on the other. We call the latter the more
dangerous, because it marches on towards its object,
backod and encouraged in the first place by those
whom we ought to consider it a duty in all things
lawful to respect and to obey, and because power
and authority are already in their hands. Besides
this no man needs be told how eager are a large
portion of mankind to be on the side of those whence
the best recompence of their services may be looked
for, how many more make it a sort of point of
conscience, to support what is culled Government,
without ever troubling themselves to enquire whe-
ther it acts right or wrong. The Revolution of
1688 did much towards establishing a better set of
principles, and more just motives for action, but it
vas, we fear, rather owing to the circumstance that
the support of public freedom was at that time
identified with the
,support of the administration,
and with resistance to the dethroned family, than
from a pure spirit of patriotism in too many of those
who were firm in their adherence to the cause of
Civil Liberty. We are reluctantly driven to this
melancholy view of the human character, by seeing
how the greatest violations of those sacred principles
upon which that Revolution rested, are now viewed
with calmness and indifference by some, and stre-
nuously aided and abetted by others. What would
those who compelled King William to dismiss his
own i 'yds have thought and acted on the massa-
crees committed at Manchester? It is on these
grounds that we really look forward with but very
little satisfaction to the assembling of Parliament.
Our confidence in the mass of public virtue to be
found there was very greatly shaken by many acts
of the last Session.

It is still, however, the only anchor upon which our
hopes rest, either for redress of the past, or preven-
tion of future mischief; and yet who can look for-
ward with any confidence that remembers what is
our state of representation, what were the majorities
obtained by a set of Ministers against whose policy
the whole nation rings with the loudest clamours;
what are the sentiments already publicly avowed
by them upon those very points which would con-
: titute the leading objects of discussion, and which,
in fact, constitute the sole and entire cause of Par-
liament being at all assembled. !f the work of
Legislation is to consist of fresh gagging Bills, fresh
suspension Acts, and all those temporary trawls of
freedom, to which we have before been subject, but
which, thank God, experience has shewn to be
totally indequate to controul the spirit of the tittles,
then who wouid not rather pray that Parliament
should not meet at all ! %% itla respect to Ministers,
such a measure is now much too late to salve even
the appearance of their conduct. They should
either have done this much sooner, before they had
presumed to give any opinion of their own, or they