The National Register.
London, England, 1819-12-20 00:00:00

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9,-Tfibt L

No. 23 S—VoL. XII.]

VoliticAt itettospect.

Tx our l'ostcript of last week we offered a few
sibm:vations on ;the new Bill relative to Seditious and
Blasphemous publications, a Bill which we sincerely
pray that it way? rather than hope, that it will be
eflectual to itt object. If the additional burthen
arising from the increase of our standing army, can
be thr v.vit only upon the shoulders of Radical
Ref°, n. rs fled infidel writers, who would, some fir
mane..., but .inure from ignorance, destroy both our
peace in this life, and our hopes hereafter, it will
indeed be well, and we slsill theretere now dismiss
this topic, and leave our judgement upon it to be
tried by tha effects it may produce.
The Training, or Dn.ling Bill, as it is called,
seems liable to uo other objection than the new
question whether any ucw law fiur such an occasion
was absolutely needed. Any superfluous legislation
is a thing to be carefully avoided, The multiplication
of statutes and enactments already constAutes a
.subject of much just complaint amongst all our best
and ablest lawyers, and innumerable instances of
the uncertainty, the inconsistency, and the mischief
attaching to our legal decisions from this sole cause
might easily be furnished. But alas ! whilst a
sevision of the whole Code thus accumulated is daily
and loudly called for, we go on adding to the heaps,
furnishing fresh matter for error, and fresh fuel for
contention. It is a sound maxim that " few laws
sal well adesiniabered are best." Now it would be
prestraistiosa in ea oe plasm any opinion of our own
iu emispetitient with the high legal authorities of the
land whobave framed the Bill in question, but we
cannot help asking whether any person ever doubted
that a body of men meeting together by ninon-light
in unfrequented places, and preparing themselves
by military tactics and discipline for military opera-
tions withuut any ostensible legal object, were guilty
of an overt act of the most seditious and even
treasonable kind? If the state of society amongst
us has been until now destitute of any self-defence
against such practices, our system of jurisprudence
has been more defective than we could have possibly
con. eived. But this defect does not appear to us to
have been proved either in theory or in practice.
No demonstration has been satisfactorily laid down,
that we have seen in argument, no trial has bees
had and failed in our Courts of Justice upon such a
charge. New statutes against treasonable proceed-
ings have always been most numerously introduced
and enacted in the worst periods of our Musty, sad
therefore may always be said to furnish a wrier

prima facie evidence against the sulministnitiontis
which they respectively belong. They wtte never
o multiplied as in theanfortunate reign of Richard !
the Second, sad yet, after a melancholy mos a,
troubles, notwithstanding the devotion of !his Per-
Laments, one at which acquired the acme pf seer-
ciktr, so little effect Bove violent laws to prevent
crime, this stery Prince himself was both deposed
end murdered, and two Rears afterwards thes/bole!
mass of those laws upon which he relied Air will

security repealed sad swept away, as haVias . Only.
contributed to augment and aggravate tie evils•they
were meant to cure. .To this awful watinterestits
portion of •our public unites we wou§litistnestlly.
.recommend the attention of our rulers and of elf
those who are so eager to support their aysteru of '
force and coercion in preference to any endeavours to
remove the causes of discontent and ferment.
The last measure we have to notice, and by far
the vrora, is the Dill to regulate, or rasher we

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f rump 94d.

appointment, will not every Government expect,
and will not every Lord k.ieutentutt be prepared'
to second those expectations, that those who are;
admitted into the commission shall be persons not
likely to ficilitate any censures being cast upon the.
,:iisters of the Crown. It is true the evil iney not`
(Ni..t in its foil force at present, but it will be
every day encreasing, if thehurrible bill betiostinued.

What applies to ouct county applies generally to all,:
;:u1 enough of that sortolexclusive patronage sdready
has been felt in Norfolk-, as Mr. Coke asserted.
The charge has been most awkwardly attempted to
be ngtated, but every effort of that sort has only
more and more tended to expose its truth and
application. What is the present situation of the
two divisions of the county in which the Lord
Lieutenant himself resides ? In one we believe
there is net • single acting Magistrate whose opi-
nions are not in unison with his Lordship's, and in
the other, when his Lordship is not at Gunton, we
have heard that malty parishes are test or twelve
miles distant from any magistrate of that division,
a fact, which if true, amounts in a thottaani cases,
and particularly in those for which the care an&
protection of Magistrates is most needed, we mean
cases of infirmity, and sickness, and old age, as well
as petty offences, and oppression, to an absolute
denial of public justice. ls there then no person
of eallkeeat claims, in every other point but politica,
in the former of these divisions, and no fit person
whatever conveniently situated in the latter, for
discharging the Magisterial duties? If them
be any Inch person, why Isar not. his Latialtipi
boasted impartiality in one ease, and his care of the
public justice of the county in the other, led hint
hitherto to supply and correct this apparent contra-
diction to his own letter and iteelarations? This is
6i question which the defenders of his Lordship's
impartiality are bound to answer; and if this be
the state in his own neighbourhood, and amidst his
own acquaintances and friends, w!tat may we pre.
mune it to be in the quarters of those whom he
contemplates as his enemies! A new list of Ma-
gistrates is now said to be forming for recommends.
tion to the Lord Chancellor; we shall see what are
its names and the bearings it is calculated to have on
our public measures. It is highly important iu
such a period as this, that the character a our Me..
gistrates should not be impaired fir independence.
But if they ever come to taste themselves, or suffer
others to make them, the mere tools and servants of
a ministry, every evil we now deplore will be In.
creased ten-fold, and every irritation now existing
will be proportionably excited. Force on one hand)
and hatred on the other, will be the order of the
day between one class of society and another.

The Lady Louisa packet from the Brazils has just
arrived, having sailed from Rio Janeiro on the 14th
of October. The intelligence from Buenoi A.
and Chili is not of a later date
die Meridian, though the letters
was then omitted. Admiral
k.d been degraded from his cite
fur having without orders abandoned s'
Callao, and left-Lord Cochmne,dt
to Payta, exposed to an attack
fleet, has been- reinstated as weer
that at the sukgestion and with
Cochrane himself. This mesa
sacrifice he had previously made
prize- nuailey ,to the exigencies of the state, had -refl.
dared Librd Cochrane extrenidy' popular at Chili.
Commerce tit.; Rio Janeiro is - described as more de-
presied, and emziod da with greater diaajtivantage,
than o'er.

11.

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ence from Buenos Ayres
late than that brought by - ~
... ;,- ~.
letters state a fact wh.
• ....t -..'
al Blanco, it appears, whe - :1.,2-:-?-:•;,'
rani in tlieChilian nett, ' -;,y;- .1
lb:taloned the blockade 'lir ~y;
anc,during Isis expeditir. , ' ,€ • .
attack from the Spanis \2 4* '''o' •
i second- in contained, • 4trt:p;
with the sanctioner ,
~.._4r ..,A
measure, joined to the ‘/../
made of the. whole of his
.ies of the flute_ I • ' o vv.', ta ' _ .