The National Register.
London, England, 1817-07-14 00:00:00

ebt glationat Arai

No. 49,..—V0r.. X.

POLITICAL DISQUISmos.

ON TIME PRESENT STATE OF TM MD

The lose which the country has this week sns-
ensteinel in the death of Mr. Ponsonby, has net..lady
led ue to a censidereti in of the state of that party with
whom he has so long acted, and of which he has for
some years he CO:hiderei the leader. N ever since
systemuis opp n titian exietel in the House of Cemtnons
was it so ill able to bear the lots of so upriiit a man;
Tier do we renember the time whet the well-inten-
tioned part of the nation had so much reason to regret
every abstraction of talent from the little stock that
remains to what is usually denotniaatetl the Minority.
The time has been when the talents of Mr. Ponsonby,
respectable as they were, would have qualified him to
shine, only as a satelite to those brightleminaries which,
during; a long succession of years, shed a lustre on the
British senate ; but as the sun declines, the stars
augment their fires.-11e, who twenty-four years ago
would have scarcely comneanded attention in the House,
is listened to with interest, if not with admiration ;
such has been the heavy declension. The Whigs,
however, in obtaining Mr. Ponsonby as a successor to
Fox, gained much of private virtue, and public inte-
grity, though they lost something of political conse-
quence. Not to Mr. Punsonby's want of virtue as a
leader, therefore, is to Le attributed that dearth of
talent which has been so evident for six 'e few years
past, amongst the Opposition ; we must seek for it in
other causes,and the principal will probably be found
in the conduct of the Opposition themselves. That
Spirit of prophesy with which they were cursed during
the whole of the late war, and which only forsook them
when the power of Napoleon expired on the plains of
Waterloo, was most Lital to their consequence with
the nation. Day after day falsified their predictions,
day after day, the most gloomy presages were followed
by the most slpendid successes. Young men of talent
entering upon their political career saw with disgust
and scorn, a set of into, who, assuming a character for
superior thresight, were evermore in error; and na-
turally enough attached themselves to that party
with whom they apprehended the most talent was to
be found. This practice, (lily increasing, kiddie effect
of weakening that body in the state whom all men,
whatever be their political bias, would wish to see
strong ; and in proportion as that body became weak,
the country withdrew its confidence from it, and in
proportion, alio, the hands of the Minister were
strengthened, But this preponderance was injurious
to the safety of the State, not from the improper use
made of it. but because the people, losing all con-
fidence in the men who were their nuturel defenders, at-
tributed to causes, foreign.to the truth, those calami-
ties %entre hisli they were visited, Upon the Minister
of the dav they charged the evils they endured, and
upon his Opponents, a want of zeal in resisting him.
The destruction of this natural reliance of the people
upon the opposition, was facilitated by a party which
51 rung up in the House styling themselves the friends
((6 ri krill. This junto, though weak both in numbers
and talent, yet, as they directed their speeches wholly
to the passions of the people, they acquired a rapid
and powertid ascendancy over them ; and though
we arc ready to acquit them of intending any
thing nwre than their speeches avowed, yet those
PPeeehes were so indiscreet, that the evil-minded, put-
ting the worst construction upon them, used them as
instruments to goad the people on to acts of desperation.
The hostility of these reformers to the Constitutional
Opposition, or the Whigs, was not inferior to that which
on all oteseiens they exhibited against the Ministry,
and though they in general voted with the Whigs, yet
they u Cry a body on whom no reliance could Le placed.
Ey the birth of this party, therefore, was the power of
the Constitutional Opposition, to eeertain extent, dimi-
nisha But a more powerful body had been, almost
imperceptibly, foaming hetet' in the House. The Neu-
tral ptty, of whom Mr. Wilberforce: tansy be considered
the father, had made its appearance during Mr. Pitt s
long career, bt.t its their numbers were few, and their
leaning gcnendly to the Minister, they excited little.
notes:. When, however, a decided hostility became

Our tun, Con tituttun an," itatml.

MONDAY, JULY 14, 1817.

evident between the Constitutional Opposition and the
Reformers, this Neutral party began to acquire a con-
sequence to which their mistaken notions of economy,
and confined political views, gave them no title.
Over this motley group. was the late Mr. Pon-
sonby culled to preside. The great talents, and still
greater came, of Mr. Fox, had in some measure kept
their animosities subdued, and had directed their
united effin-ts against the Ministry, whom he taught
them to look upon as their common enemy ; but his
success.::, with less experience, and an infevior name,
found them like a mutinous army, each had the oldect
of his can pursuit, end each attempted to Fain that
object by the means whiCh he thought best. The rem-
nant of the Whigs were still Suihewing• to a steady
constitutional opposition, the IL:fin-mists had made up
their minds that the system was rotten to the core, anti
that nothing less than laying the axe to the root would
answer the purpose, and the Neutrals differed from
them both; tbs.), thought the Minister ought not to be
opposed merely for opposition's sake, nor ought the
present system to be overturned; but their notion of
economy were $9 petty, their general plan of improve-
ment so paltry and confined, thut, but fin- their num-
bers, they woaM have been despised and neglected by
all the other parties.
In this state have they existed, under the nominal
controul of Mr. Ponsonby. He is tow no more, and
amongstthe few ConAitutional Whigs that remain, who
shall they choose to succeed him ? If his virtues and
talents were insufficient so unite them, what hope is
there in a successor ? tint amongst them all there is not
one man in whom are centered the necessary qualifica-
tions to constitute a respectable political leader.

PRICE 941

This would have been all very well, if Dr. Granville halt
been content with this. But the efihrts which he audio-
throughout these pages, to separate Guyton de Mora
veau, the advocate, the chemist, and the man of letter!,
from Gnyton 3e Morveau, the eulogist of Atheists, And-
tha murderer of his king, is another confirmation to ui
of the lamentable fact that looseness of religions and
political principles arc too often the characteristics of
modern mon of science.

In speaking of a short period before Guyton's death.
Th-. Granville says:—

" A few day, 11101 e. and perpetual bani,!lnent from his Ns-
ti yr eonatty wold 4 have dark( tied the anniversary of
80111 )car; for Guyton belArmed to other thy,' ' (1,1%1 of
revolutionary aborts and to toreh the time of retitistitios
had arrived at the epoclrof hi. di,solntion."

A strong apology may be made for someof those men
who were led by the ardour of youth to adopt all:the
will theories which the weak and the whled had pro-
mulgated ; with little esperienee of the past, they ix.-
held nothing
-but happiness in the future, and once em-
barked in the project of obtaining that happiness, crime
followed crime, till humanity itself sickened at the
scene. When the tour of retribution Came to this
class of revolutionists, we might indeed say that de:ii
" belonged to other days, to days of revolutionary-
efforts," and they may claim in some degree pity, if not
forgiveness. But what shall we say of Guyton, a man
according to Dr. Granville, had " studied to main-
tain the interests of government," (he is speaking of
the period of 1778) " who was the faithful servant of
the. crown, the firm patriot, the good citizen, and the
zealous philanthropist r—When he sat in judgment•
on his Sovereign, and Kited fur his death, he was st;
years of age, and yet we are told he belonged to re•
volutionary,efforts. Ili% education had been perfected,
his habits had been formed, his high reputation-in
sci-
ence had been acquired under the ancient monarchy ;
from the sovereign (and he the mildest that ever reigned
in France) he received personal marks of 'fvour ; and
yet, the moment that Atheism and Anarchy unfurled
their banners, with that faxity of religious principle
which distinguished him through life, he rushed into
the field, and became a participator in the blackest
crime of that ralamitous period.
The afrected delicacy with which Dr. Granvill,,
touches upon the part which Guyton took iu the murder
of his king, is truly admirable.

" The ever nwinurahle Rnh of January 1793 came, aril
Gaylen lotion ing the example of many more, rtlto Itour the
integrity and respectability of their character, might he sup-
posed to have exerted a eousideralhe influence on lii. deri-
sion, voted with the majority on that day, so fatal for the
cause of royalty in France. In the same 3 ear I.e re..igued,
in favour M. the Republic, his pension of two thousand francs,
and the AVreari of that pension."
Having. successively taken an active share in all the
scenes of are by that ensued ; having thought for
liberty, and written for liberty, and fought for liberty,
and thus contributed to the destruction of all the an-
cient honours and distinctions of this country, he finally
became a willing servant to the new tyrant, and accept-
ed at his hand, the decoration of the Legion of Honour,
and the dignity of a Baron of the empire ! Such was
the consistency of M. de 111nrveau, whose "probity of
character, had become proverbial amongst all who knew
him, and who had wit/Woof/ the Feductioxs of prGliae
timer! and the temptation of high and lucrative places.'
47.) The preceding are but some of the passagesiu
which Dr. Granville, in his enthusiasm ter science,
appears to thrget that there are other virtues worth
cultivating., and that to be a gond Christian ai.d a loyal
subject are not wholly incompatible with the 1 ursuits
of the advocate, the scholar, or the chemist.
In conclusion, we will say a word to Mr. 13rar.de
with whom it must hare rested to admit or reject this
extraordinary ntemoir. Let him remember that A was
by writings like this, that France was demoralized;
let him remember, that through her Jourmuls of Se:ence,
her Dictionaries of Art, her systems of Education, was

desseminated that poison whiehinrperceptibly spre.al tit m
man to man, until the whole mom of the

became corrupt. Let him remember, teo,
not the first attempt which his been u.
country, to render works of sti, tur vd

cerntuttottstton of tboce principles, in rel.,
litics, which their prAessors have impwlent,
with the name of pitilosophy. And let Liw
gnanl against the mischievous industry
these men labour to give consequence to tn.
opiriors, by the respectability of the el:Lowell
which they convey thew to the public.

~,; .

:c community
x), that thi • if
wattle in thikli yt
I it.l,-1 ft.r the •
I;giGn and p
.ntly dignitiL "tP4 I
hn henecihrt '
with whit '
their prepti,.4A„
lucls thruubr."