The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-12-29 00:00:00

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come to the perittol of Qom A i: fedi*
magic inconsistent shoul(tisis oati,noppeor to him !
" Here," he would oey;" I finds portion of the
people, seemingly very numerous and very respect-
able, unanimously exclaiming against the badness
of the Adminivtration, censuring its thoughtless
extravagance of the public money-, its indifference
to the wants and wishes of the nation, its shame.
less profligacy in corrupting the public morals by
the unlimited extent of bribery, especially among
the members of the legislative bodies—l find the
same persons strenuously reproving the Ministers
of the Ciown for a wanton and malicious prowess.
tion iigainvt the secood member of the Royal Family.
instituted without reasonable grown!' or sufficient
inquiry, supported by gilts• iwrjury, and abandon-
ed because even the whole iisfluence of the Admini-
stration V/ .11§ insufficient to onaintsin so dograceful a
proceeding in opposition to every sense of private
decency, public decorum, respect for the criiimitit-
firm, and the unequivocal voice of the people. Yet,
on the other side, I also find the very sense people,
calling themselves as before, the inhabitants of
----,' humbly assuring their Sovereign, in
language not very modest, that they alone are very
good. pious, and loyal men, and that all whet speak a
cord in opposition to his Ministers, or iii favour of
his ilhistrious Consort, are disloyal to their King,

and blasphemers against their God." All this
must appear to the straiiger very inconsistent ; but
the difficulty would be removed when souse friend
should inform him that the Addresses 011 his first
list received the approbation of meeting* publicly
convened, and were signed by many thousands of
perows owing no fin our to the Minister,s and
therefore free and independent to exp►ess their

honest sentiments, and that theirs was ern-
ishitiendly the voice of the nation ; but that the
Addresses on his second which were an-
nounced with such imposing ceremony, were
formed in secret by same half-dozen of the innate.
diate followers of the Ministers, or their needy es-
nevoid*, and bore the signteurrs of very few, if
say, independent men. If but two men sign an
Addiess, the production will, of course, be et:titled
as proceeding from " the undersigned, being inha.•
bitatits" of any given town, city, or county, and
this wretched thing will sound as pompously iti the
Gozeire as if it were clothed with the, signatores of
every individual resident in the place whose mime
is Moe grossly abused. The question of pnblie
opinion is therefore most manifestly not tis be dr-
ratted by counting over the names of pioces, but by
enumerating the lists of sigoaturersesuridly attach-
ed to the Addresses, or the menobeis of the assem-
blies it winch the Addresses wire respectively voted.
'Ulte most satisfactory admission, however, that
the enn e of putatie opinion in England is opposed
to the Ministers and their recent proceedings, is to
be foiled iii the refusal of certain High Sheriffs of
counties, and other local Magistrates, to convene
public meetings of the people to collect the sense
of theiespective districts upon the character of the
lute proSrcution. These worthy gentlemen, hopitig
to itigretone themselves with the Ministry, and to
render themselves the deserving objects of minis-
terial grotitude, would willingly withhold from the
people even an opportuoity of giving public
utterance to their sentiinents upon the conduit
of the Administration, because they are well
aware that those sentiments would not be gratifying
to their patrons in power. They would exert a
kind of pre-censorship over words. as all the
Tories are noxious to es littlish olie over writings.
But this power sloes not yet belong to them, nor
can it ever be exercised by them until Parliament
shall have subjected the public Press to the
thraldom which the ministerial fat:liras have most
manifestly in their contemplation. They hope to
prepare the credulous and the timid for such a
measure by their reiterated abuse of the licentious-
ness of the Press. But if the Press be liven.
butts there are laws to punish the offenders,
and it is to the laws of the country that the
Government ought to have recourse, in a period
of danger mid alarm, to suppress the evil and
punish the guilty, instead of entrenching themselves
in parclitneot, and raising a forest of goose quills to
malign the nation, and ittflante still higher the
public resentutent. Scurrility and invective are
but but weapons to defend any cause, nor do
we
think that the present Ministers of the Crown would
be so stupid as to have recourse to them if they did
not contemplate the total extinction of the freedom
of the Press in this country, instead of endeavour-
ing incrcly to eorseet its errors 11111111 geard it from
the dangers of abuse.

Extract front a letter received by a mercantile
house in the City :
" LIMA. serrvwern 10.
" I avail myself •f the sodden departure of • Portuguese
vessel from Panama to write you • few lines, although I
haye very little hope that they will ever reach your hands.
oiv lay evritiug the Government revvived ioformaii tttt
of Sin Martin having landed at Pilots (abut 40 lealitull
distant), with 4,800 men, which expedition lots hero convoy-
. cd down by Lord Cochrane, with the whole naval force of
Chili. o', the Vrth silt. the whole roa►t of Peru was Jr.
claret) to In• in astute of rigorous blockade. of coarse,
produced • considerable sensation here.
6 The troop's in the city REIO.IIII to about 11,500 men, sod
me in a good at•te of discipline, so that I do nos coaciriva
fan Shelia will hazard an engagement.
" 1 do mot doubt but that a considerable portion of the
Inhabitants, both here and all over the country, are in favour
of the invaders, who, by provessive steps alld prudent cane
duet, may improve their advantages, and ultimately °biota
possession of the whole of Peru.
" We hare no British man of war here, nor have we bad
for sow mouths, which is ■ great disathkotage."

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