The National Register.
London, England, 1819-09-19 00:00:00

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Our• Bing, Congtitution ant it Mud.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19. 1819.

tigation on that subject. Can such conduct on
the part of those who are paid to do their duty,
foil to make a proper impression upon the public
mind ! Can any Englishman calmly contemplate
his fallow-subjects butchered by a wanton soldiery,
with or without, but we believe in this instance,
certainly with the sanction of these very Magistrates,
*hc hies of his country nullified, and enquiry stifled,
and not feel that cause to be his own ! But we have
not yet done with this long series of crying sins
We have still to refer our Readers to an account %%Nell
we have iiiithfully given of the enroner's inquest
held at Oldham upon the body of John Lees, who
had died of the cuts and wounds received ut the me-
morable meeting. ‘Ve implore every man 'who reads
that account, and we hope and pray that every man in
the United Kingdcm may carefully read it, to lay his
hand upon his heart, and say whether the spirit of
these times be not truly awfal, whether the steps
which these rash and thoughtless autharities are now
treading, be not the direct road to anarchy and re-
volution. Society cannot exist without laws, and
law ceases to have its proper character the moment
its powers are either withheld or perverted. Will
not the Ministers of the Crown yet interfere to save
us? They have, it is true, already most fatally
co:emitted both the Crown and themselves by a most
unealled and unconstitutional letter• of •arrprovul of
heir doings. But would there not be honour iu u
recantation. The people oaf England are naturally
a loyal people, but they are jealoas of en-
croachment and will either live free, or lay down
their lives in the contest. The last Revolution is
not so distaat as to be forgotten; we can both
remember the causes which led to it ; the evils from
which it rescued tta, ,and the blessing's it brought
with it. Surely, the sacrifice of the whole corps of
Manchester Yetimaury and the whole Bench of
I Manchester Magistrates had better be made, than.
the consequences, the inevitab'e consequences, of.
the course now steering, be encountered. Is it not
enough, (says the Editor of the Times, with equal
beauty of language, and • correctness of thought,)
that an unjust aggression s7iould be committed, and
dreadfid cruelties perpetrated upou a number ofale-
fenceless people, but that unjztst means should Le
.resorted to, tier the preventing the attainment .of
redress ! A legal remedy fur wrongs inflicted,
was the pride of Englishmen in their prosperous
days, and their sanctuary and cumulation in time
worst of times. What can be meant by these
measures, even more stupid then reprehensible,
but ..to make the King's Government an object
of dislike and fear, and to chew the bleeding
nation that "the lot of the vanquished is to suffar,"
Yes, the fruits of such a policy are fast ripening, the
time of harvest cannot be remote. Already .has
society in all the manufacturing districts, and it will
soon spread itsel!' to others also, assumed a tone
much :nod learrilly altered for the worse. The
most thoronah and implacable alienation of the
upper and lower classes generally prevails. The
natund ties of protection on one hand, and gratitude
on the other, exist no more. " Every man," says a
respectable correspondent, " now appears to sit like
a malignant spy upon his neighbour. Truk has
become a perfeet conspiracy in theortr of particular
persons, ands a the prejudice of others." Till lately
nil was fair and open, even in the most extravagant
of their abaitalities theta! was nothiog to fear.
Illicre was walling dark, nothing resolute, no mani-
fest intention of violetice him any quarter. But
the spirit of violence is now roused, .and it ivi!'