The National Register.
London, England, 1819-09-12 00:00:00

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 181 N

Mr. Pitt himself, before the possession of office had
corrupted him, of the Law and Constitution ? The
Liverpool Courier has exercised its ingenuity upon
a fancied distinction between NUMRERS and ORDERS,
and the Ministerial Papers hate appealed to the doc-
trine as extremely wise and good. We can only
say that either we do not understand it, or it is
neither more nor less than compleat nonsense,—
The only Political Orders acknowledged by the
Constituti'm, are King, Lords, and Commons, and
the latter are the whole People of England. Neither
the abridgment nor the extending of the elective
franchise can, therefore, haye any thing to do with
overturning the principles of the Constitution as
unw established. It is not lees idle to talk of the
authority given to the Yeomanty for beginning this
work of blood by the reading of' the Riot Act, unless
it can first be shewn, which we contend it cannot,
that the Riot Act may be read and acted on where
there is no riot. But the Government Press still
assure us that they can easily prove, both that the
Manchester !meting was unlawful, and that
the Manchester Yeomanry cavalry were exceedingly
merciful in nut having glutted their swords in a
more extensive slaughter. They have boldly ven-
tured to tell us that ignorance, and misrepresenta-
tion, and calumny, have been the foundation of all
the reports and comments which have presumed to
stigmatize those barbarous transactions; that irre-
ligion and sedition were the real sources of the
mischief; that though distress has long prevailed
among the assembled people, yet that the operative
wisdom of Government, a term beautifully borrowed
from the loom, would gradually and completely re.
move it ; and lastly, that "the Bench of Magistrates
must exactly did neither too much nor too little, nei-
ther exceeded nor fell short of the limits of their pub-
lic duty." Now, as we are necessarily included in this
charge of ignorance, calumny, and misrepresentation,
we shall endeavour not to apologise for error, but
still further to elucidate and insist on truth, and we
can, we trust, fairly prove, that not only is our
doctrine constitutional, hut our facts correct. But
we will even, fur argument sake, admit that the
Manchester Reformers are very irreligious, yet this
is surely the first time that any one ever thought of
making his irreligon a plea fir hewing a fell,w-
creature to pieces ; ued allowing them to be sediti-
ous also, yet does the law of England provide a very
different remedy for that crime than the slashing of
sabres and the trampling to death ,by the hods of
horses. As to the operative wisdom of his Majesty's
Nfinisters, how long have the suffaitigs of these
miserable men been borne, and their complaints
poured forth unheeded ! NWhen a relit ef. on' mud, n
was pleaded fur can we tiirget the tsunts of an
" ignorant impatience ?" When any Reform what-
ever in Parliament has been proposed, even such
as Lord Chatham, and Mr. Pitt, and Sir W. Jones,
and Mr. Fox, all proclaimed to be essential
to public tranquillity and the Lmurity of the
the Constitution, car. we firget how it has been met by
every unseemly jeer and mountebank joke which
could be supplied from the budget of those who riot
in the fruits of their profligacy, and fatten uron
public misery ? Whilst Old Serum is permitted to
enjoy her Representatives, and filinhterial harm:-
lige, over other rotten Boroughs, to controul the
House of Commons and ooseequently the who's:
dispensation of public freesAfpn, can it be hoped that
Manchester, and Leeds, and 13irotinetara will be in-

[Puck: 94d.
-AB

sensible to their own comparative degradation ! Can
the affections be conciliated or the reason satisfied
whilst these things are thus administered ! If the
People of England should ever become really torpid
and indifferent on such subjects, we should both dread
and lament it infinitely more than we do any degree
of turbulence and excitement which has yet been
'hewn. The Costrirt again has a:aerate!, eta•el
the numbers killed and wounded in this nuble con-
flict as not exceeding forty, but a list Las been