The National Register.
London, England, 1819-12-27 00:00:00

No. 1,2-L .—Vol.. XII.]

rt.

PARLIAMEXT, it is supposed by those whose
authority may be considered os the best, will lie.
&massed front their labours about the .7(1 or ,f.th of'
'January for a recess of six weeks; the important
business of passing the Restriction Bills, and stopping
.the mouths of those who were described as clamour-
ous for enquiry, having Lcen successfully carried.
Most of these Bills however, to which we have so
.often adverted, are very considerably softtned•and
meliorated in their prgress, end we hope those
which still remain will be SID likewise in the most
oljectiottable of their provisions. They were intro-
timed and supported by Ministers as measures of
perpetuity, as a yoke to be, not for a season, but for
ever imposed upon our necks, and upon all those
who shall live after us, and further also as meant to
'extend their influence over every part of the Bri-
tish dominions, Whether any ground might eKist or
nut for such enactments. They are now, or at least
the most obnoxious of them, limited to five years of'
duration, and a compromise has thus been conceded
of placing the Constitution in abeyance only, instead
of utterly destroying it. We have gratefully noted,
and the country we are sure, has appreciated the
strenuous and patriotic struggles of the Opposition •
in this eventful crisis. They were not ignorant
that their motives would be traanced by the tongue
of l'actious slander, they were not insensible that
the cause they fought fir would be described by the
vile instruments of ministerial corruption as the
cause of blasphemy agaiiiit.Cod and treason against
awful governments, and that the purest piety rout
most unsullied integrity, and most unquestioned
loyalty to the House and to the whole of' our Con-
stitution, would, for no other reason, but because
they boldly threw themselves into the last fortress
of our freedom, he held up to view as identified
with the vilest and most infamous of the human

race. These tricks of a prostituted Press, these
worst vices of its lieentiousuess: are now however
well underst••od by the people of Enghull, and we
cannot help thinking that it has arisen front a eon.
scioustirss that they arn so, that Ministers have
receded from those trews:dims attacks upon our li.
berties with which they opened their campaign.
We cannot attribute it solely to the lalsiar of the
opposition, because their best and noblest efforts
were proved to be quite ineffectual whenever they
came to u division, and it could not be front fc-ar of
those majorities filling away, because they had
testified their zeal and their devotion to a derce
%vhich might n•urrant the most implicit confidence in
their support upon any or every question which the
Minister might think fit to recommend. They had
stifled all enquiry by Parliament into the transac-
tions of Manchester ; they had agreed that a 1:1.44
of revolt was too notorious is places even where it
%V.. asserted not to exist at all, to need any exemp-
tion front the openttions of the measure to•'be adopted,
and, what is still more, they applauded and sup.
ported the introduction of the Bills in question
whilst understood to he perpetual in &natio 1, and
unlimited in extent. They had approved by their
votes the Bill'relative to Libel with the punishment
of death attached as the penclty of offending, and
they coultil du tia more when Lord Castlereagh was
induced to withdraw the severiiy of such a sentence.
• To what are we to attribute the change ? To the!

merciful, lenient, gentle spirit of the ?
%Von4l to God we could o:itteerely to so, the
.14w:1 and the wounils inflicted ut Nlanthester are
• •