The National Register.
London, England, 1819-11-01 00:00:00

430Ittical lartxospecr.

EVERY man who feels the sli;;litest interest in
public affairs, will not fail to be impressed with the
extraordinary character and awfulness of the times

through which we arc now passing. The news of
this last week needs lint be simply recorded to rouse
the must torpid from their apathy, and to make
them open their eyes to tho prospect that lies before
them. 'The 'great County Meeting at York, held
for the sole purpose tO.' addressing the Prince Regent
in a Petition for a full and fair enquiry into the
fau'l proceedings at Manchester, conducted with a
modc:nition suited to the solemnity of such a cause,
with an ability which has excited universal admi-
ration and with a courtesy towards those who dif-
fered in opinion, which even the most bigotted par-
• tizan could not but honour and admire, has been fol-
lowed by the dismissal of Lord Fitzwilliam from the
Lord Lieutenancy of the West Riding of that C.nity,
for no other crime than that he personally attended
those deliberations. To what lengths will not the
.impotency of passion and the despair of wicked men
sometimes dri‘c them ! Can n good cause, even for
.a moment need such measures to support it ? Lord
Fitzwilliam is seventy-two years of age, his life has
been a course of tried and unsullied loyalty, of services
conferred upon, his country of the most signal and
valuabie kind. He has'been deservedly looked up
to by moderate men of every party as a rare exam-
*of genuine patriotism and unsullied virtue. For
men, such as compose our present administration to
presume, to dare, to wreak their paltry vengeance
upon such a character, to flatter themselves that it
van do either credit to the work they have under-
taken, or discredit to the olject of their wrath ; is
to suppose that the reason of mankind is gone. and
that justice and injustice have changed their sub-
stance and qualities each -with the other. No, that
venerable Nobleman, bony retire to the enjoyment ,
plan unsullied fame, which will never attach to
his opposers, and remember with conscious satisfac-
tion the wise remark of Addison,

•" hi a proud 411.1 inq iun. Mien bear sway,
" 'rite rt,t ul bottom,- is•a private statism."

The other grand im.asure ofh;s NiajesWs Ministers,
and a very fit accompaniment it is, is to cull out
the Chelsea Pensioners, and enerease the companies
of marines, to tin garrison duty, and thus leave the
r;gulur army disposable tbr the open and avowed
object of governing the people by the sword.—
Eleven thousand six hundred men are to be imme-
diately added to the army ; whilst not a single
object can be pointed out for their services, but their
fiwn fellow subjects, and this heavy expellee is to
be incurred at a time when the revenue of the
country is not only inadequate even to defray the
interest of the poblie-debt, but week after week,
most rapidly and alarmingly decreasing. The funds
are day by day depreciated, public credit has re-
ceived a shock unknown in any yeritsl of former
days of tranquillity and peace, and in short, the
whole fabric of Society amongst us is shook to its
very centre. Two things :dente remain to our
wretched and harassed eoantry, to relieve us from
evil councils, or to prepare 11r a tremendous struggle
Law and force are now in direct opposition ; they
are engaged on contrary sides and girding them-
selves in all the habiliments of conflict. English-
men never submitted without a struggle to the loss
of freedom, they were never patient under the yoke