The National Register.
London, England, 1808-01-03 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

JAN. 3

REVIEW OF POLITICAL DECLAIMERS.

No. I.
CORBETT'S POLITICAL REGISTER.

We have ever looked upon it as a crime, ignominious in itself,
and very heinous from its effects on society, to sit down and de-
liberately misrepresent the nature of political events. In a
country where so much depends upon public opinion, where
popular delusions may either disconcert and ruin the best laid
measures of government. or, on the other hand, enable design-
ing and unprincipled ministers to barter the prosperity and liber-
ties of their nation for the attainment of their own selfish ends,—
such misrepresentations appear to us tenfold pernicious, and ten-
fold criminal.

Yet—(we make the remark with a deep feeling of national
degradation)—it will be difficult to point out a single political
publication, printed in a periodical form, which is not tainted
with this very base and mischievous crime; which actually
practises that impartial, candid, and manly mode of discussion,
allowed by our boasted privilege, the freedom of the press;
which does not systematically m rest every occurrence to its
own particular purposes, and wilfully pervert the clearest
truths by its malignant glosses. Those who are aware of this
universal corruption of the periodical press, read the political
essays of nets simpers, not so much with a view to gain true In-
formation, as to hear Is bat is said by a particular party. They
know, for example, that the Morning Post will always be on
one side, the Morning Chronicle always on the opposite; and
it may be amusing to observe the strange coutrast of appearance
which the same fact presents, after having passed through their
rival manufactories. But few have the opportunity, and still
fewer the sagacity, to develope the impostures of these corrup-
tors of public opinion: most men take their political creeds,
without farther inquiry, from the newspaper which they usually
read; and a; the newspapers of ditlerent factions always give
--. ditferent representation of the same transaction, there is
tot a single political es ent with regard to which a large
• onion of the people are nut misled, abused, and de-
eived into dangerous errors. No wonder that the honest and
nsuspicious become ready dupes to these deliberate propagators
.f political fraud; to nien who pcomulTate their unprincipled
alsehoods, wish the sante des otion and enthusiasm as if they
ad actually felt the inspiratiou of patriotism, and the impulse
`' f conscience.
Surely, if there ever was a duty incumbent en a political
writer, it is to open the eyes of his countrymen to those delis-
ions so artfully thrown before them ; to extriciste them from
rrors which may be fatal to their own peace, fatal to the pros-
erity of their country ; and to c x 'rose, by reason or by ridi-
ole, those ignominious speculators in falsehood, ss ho deli-
.erately resolve to lie themselves into notoriety 21111 allitience.
We undertake the task with pleasure, and shall execute it with
fidelity ; ceascious that, in doing so, we discharge a real duty
to our conotry. %Ye know well the fate that awaits its : Those
writers is ho Smart under oar indignant strictures, will, at tirst,
pretend to treat our rcinarks with contemptuous silence : M. hen
they Mid that the public cannot be brought into the saute
humour, they is ill commence their disguised attacks on a certain
csnsoriuus Suntlay Proper, but carefully avoid to name The
Aational Rtgisler, lest they should, forsooth, promote our
1 notoriety : but when, at length, these subterfuges can no longer
asail them, and when the public voice loudly calls upon them
to stand forth in their own vindication, then are we prepared
141 meet every species of to din, w bich detcsted impostors can

pour on The National Register. Yet, however loud these rail-
ings, we do not despair that the contest will ultimately termi-
nate in real public good. The propagators of falsehood, when
fairly detected in their practices, lose their influence over even
the most credulous. Calumny, when fairly refuted, recoils
with double force on the inventor ; and virulent invectives,
when uttered by impotent resentment, serve only to convert in-
dignation into uniningled contempt.
The declaimers, whose corrupting labours we shall endeavour
to expose, are not cvnfined to the mere interested supporters of
the two great contending factions, to the retained abettors •f
the outs and the ins, to the men with as little. soul u
conscience, who dare neither praise nor blame, nor refuse
to praise nor to blame, unless as they are licensed by the
sovereign nod of their masters. There have lately appeared
certain political writers who vehemently affect the praise
of impartiality, who actually lash both the outs and the ins
when it suits their occasions, and who certainly shew abundance
of intrepidity in their political declamations. nut when we
open their pages to look after these political novelties, truth
and candour, we find ourselves as far removed from them as
ever : we find misrepresentations as gross, invectives as virulent,
designs as pernicious as those from which we turned away in
disgust. We discover that pride, malignity, or the mere love.
of notoriety, may lead men to act as villainous a part in poli-
tics, as if they had sold themselves to be the devoted tools of s
party : while their iniquitous glosses are far more dangerous
from their lofty pretensions of impartiality, and their evident
intrepidity in alt.!rnately traducing both our great political fac-
tions.

At the head of this class of professed impartialists, stands.
the author of The Political Register. This man is possessed of
very uncommon merit of a peculiar kind. Without any educa-
tion beyond the elements of reading and writing, and without
a systematic knowledge of any subject, lie was led by the ardour
and energy of his mind to adventure into the world as a political
author. The fury of his declamations forced atteltion : and
though his ignorance and outrageous via,nre hale frequently
brought him into contempt :ma disg race, he has at length-succeed-
ed, by invincible perseverance, in raising himself, solely by his
political writings, from poverty and obscurity, to very con-
siderable affluence, and very great notoriety. With solid In-
formation, with a soucd judgment, with confirmed principles of
truth and honesty, such a character would have been invaluable:
he might have proved the terror of political profligacy, and
have improved the age by his vigorous chastisements. But
de:ai tote, us we shall hereafter spew him to be, of all these re-
quisites ; his ardour, his intrepidity, his perseverance, serve only
to ditrAlse more widely, and to impress more deeply the dictates
of his ignorance, his prejudices, his perverted passions. The
middling and lower classes of the community, who read to be-
lies.c, and who have neither leisure nor inclination to sift fallacies
to the bottom, base The Political Register constantly in their
hands, and swallow down its weekly banquet with amazing
eagerness : It is, therefore, of importance, that we should bring
to some test Oe infallibility of this gospel, to which seine magi
implicitly pin their faith.
Mr. Cobhett knows, that to speak with perfect assurance is a
certain way to Lapse upon a great part of mankind; and that,
whatever is asserted with dauntless confidence, whether right
or wrong, will meet with man, believers. Ile, therefore, puts
this art in pructice on all occasions; and makes no scruple to
challenge implicit belief to his present assev;on, though there
is scarcely a political opinion. which he has not successively
maintained and reprobated, searcey as eminent statetwat.