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

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1819.

him, that the persons charged with this treason are
his own constituents, and yet all this is no ground
for enquiry ; the case is established upon noloriely
alone, as if the world did -not know that there may
be such things as notorious fal as well as
notorious truths. As if out

nished no meal-tub and no green-bag plots.—
Blasphemy and sedition also arc abroad, therefore
blasphemy and sedition must be checked by new
laws, *mitt Bill restricting the liberties of the press
is now in progres ; and as the best remedy under
the present State Directors is taxation, this grand,
this universal remedy, is to be applied, and a tax,
as we stated last week, is to be imposed on all those
cheap journals which have been most accessible to
the public, upon the ground that they have been
the principal vehicles of that poison which is said
to have infected society. Now we are no friends,
as our readers well know, either to impiety towards
God, or disobedience to Rulers lawfully discharging
the high duties of their office, but impiety and sedi-
tion are things not necessarily connected, any more
r than a libel against a private individual with a libel
against the State, and yet, as if these things were
identified, one Bill is supposed to cure them all again.
A tax upon cheap publications will equally affect
, good and bad, and if the freedom of discussion and
the promotion of knowledge have any connection
with public spirit and public welfare, that union
is here disclaimed and as far as possible dissolved.—
Further, also, we may observe, that all government
is a delegated trust, delegated for the protection of
those who live under it, and delegated also to carry
into effect their wishes, and represent their senti-
ment& and opinions. It' the bulk of.any society shall
think its government a bad one, or its rulers
unfitted for their office, it is time some alteraiton
should be made in both. It is true even of an
established religion itself, and much more then of
any political minor meafures. If then the writings
against ministers, for this is in fact the whole pies-
tion,•be more eagerly read and more easily circu-
lated than those in their defence, it is only a proof
that those ministers are not in possession of
public confidence (however the House of Com-
mons may vote,) and that a change of Councils
is called for and required.

But indecency and calumny,and fulsCluxxl,and all
those vices which work into the licentiousness of the
Press, are not confined to the cheap trash of Messrs.
I'. Wooller, Carlilc and Ct. ,bett, and little is the
idea correct that the mischief should be stopped be-
cause it is placed within the grasp and addressed to
the capacities of the lower orders. We know nothing
which should authorize a man to administer poison
to a rich man rather than a poor one, or to labour
to excite by libelous and infamous productions,
though they may cost live shillings, odium and de-
testation of those who oppose a bad government,
whilst those who support it are to be praised, en-
couraged anti rewarded. There is fur instance a
pamphlet, than which nothing more scurrilous, more
false, more libellous has for several years issued
from the l'ress, now circulating- in NurfoNit is read
and swallowed by many us truth and reason, and
comes from the pen of a cicrgs man of the established
Church. If it was in opposition to Government,
instead of being in support of it, the Attorney-
General would long since probably have felt it his
duty to settle his author. Nor can you say that
these things do no harm to society because they are
only read by those who can detect their errors, and