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

No. 233.—V0t. XII.]

olitical Lirtroopect.

ir our readers will do us the favour to refer to
our Posteript, penned ten days before the opening of

Parliament, they will there find the anticipation
of all those melancholy topics which are now felted
on our attention by•the tremendous accuracy of their
fulfilment. It is now our mournful duty to
announce the speedy extinction of that glorious con-
stitution, which the great philosophical historian of
Rome .declared it to be impossible to establish, or
which, ;if established, could not, from its great
purity and excellence, be of long duration. " Fuit
Ilium et ingens Gloria Fueror." Yes, the illustri-
ous fabric in which we have revelled with delight,
and contemplated its massy pillars, its curious work-
manship, and its wondcrous fitness for the comfort,
the happiness, the security. and the prosperity of all
who dwell within its walls, is now doomed to crum-
ble to the dust and ashes from which it was reared
with so much difficulty. and grathially cemented
with so much blood. A revolution is no longer a
a thing to be talked of, it has already begun.—
When we hear anti see such men us Lord Grenville
and Lord Wellesley falling into that horrible strain,
which we had-until now hoped had been the senti-
ments and language of either crude inexperience, or
besotted ignorance, or the rottenest corruption.—
That Englishmen must no more look for the free-
dom of their forefathers - that society is become
more ungovernable, and therefore the reins of
government must be proportionalby strengthened
and drawn tighter, we really know not where we
are, nor which way we turn We know not where
to cast a glance in the hope of meeting with a
friendly and protecting hand to guide us safely.—
The old opposition, the Whigs of former days have
unquestionably, nobly performed their duty. We
thank them as Englishmen, and we wish that the
people of England may he as true to themselves as
these admirable defenders of national freedom have
in an hour of severe trial been true to them.— The
Bills divided into five, ‘vhich are now in progress,
and hurried through their respective stages with all
that precipitancy which belongs to measures of that
sort, have been battled, and argued, with an
ability on the, part of the opponents seldom equalled,
and never surpassed even in our best times. If in
any cause truth and argument could have prevailed
over party spirit and party influence, we should
have hoped that instance would have been the pre-
sent. But alas ! the conduct of the Magistrates of
Mancheeer has not been justified—and yet that con-
duct has been approved and sanctioned without
enquiry .Opinions of the highest and most unim-
peached integrity have given their testimony, and
alledged the authorities upon which that testimony
rested, against the panic studiously excited, and yet
it could not be held as furuiihing any ground even
for a day's investigation. The inquest at Oldham,
so often referred to by the enemies of inquiry, has
been dissolved as illegally conducted by the Coro-
ner's own
.misconduct and neglect, and yet that
inquest is refused to be again instituted, ur those
errors amended. A Noble Lord declares that there
areloo,ooo men armed and united in the North, and
prepared for insurrection ; another Honourable
member in the House of Commons, whose connec-
tions are most intimately blended with the -very
.quarters and district, in which this formidable array
is said to be organized and established, firmly asserts
his confidence that no such thing exists, assures the
/louse that every possible enquiry has been made by