The National Register.
London, England, 1819-06-06 00:00:00

Our Ling, Conlititution anb Mpg.

SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 1819.

to be kept sacred and inviolable, us -the grand and
only adeluaLi instrument of our salvation from na-
tional bankruptcy and ruin; a measure greeted with
the loudest plaudits of the whole Senate, and from
Which Mr. Fox, who had cordially assisted in its
formation and enactment, never la the shy of his
death withheld his praise. The country, till within
there few yerrs, held it in all the veneration of a
sacred palladium. We went on, not unalarmed at
the rapid accumulation of public debt, but yet with
those alarms soothed by reflecting that we possessed
a resource accumulating also, and were flattered
with the tined hope that whenever the blessings of
Peace should arrive, that its whole proceeds would
be fairly and fully availalAe to the diminution of our
public barthens. On this resource no num relied
with a prouder sstisfactiun dam Mr. Pitt. Amnia
the deepest labyrinths of fi7aneial intricacies and
embarra.sments, the sinking fund still supplied a
thread to guide him througit their it1:12:3, and when
every other part of the horizon seemed obscured in
clouds and darkness,-in this point he could still dis-
cern a friendly .beam of light which might guide his
vessel to the wished-for harbour.—The next great
measure of his public policy we shall allude to is, •
the admission of the Boman Catholics to the rights
and privileges of t:.e-Constitution. For this measure
Mr. Pitt uniformly exerted all the tamers of his
eloquence, fur this he pledged himself in the strong-
est manner at the time of the union, to Ireland, and
of his sincerity in which he gave the strongest proof
by quitting the helm of the State, when he found
his Royel alacter indelibly opposed to the course in
which he was steering. It is true the love of place
and power did after,ards predominate over both the
love of justice ,and his sense of honour ; for he
returned to the saute post lie had before abandoned,
and tinder .a condition not to agitate a question
which lie had before so often and so forcibly asserted
to he, in his own mind and conscience, essential to
the well-being, and even the safety of the State. But
excepting this single point, and it is one which the
friends of Mr. l'itt's memory would surely be very
willing to forget, what is there in all or any of the
topics we have mentioned which either his Majesty's
Ministers, or the members of the Pitt Clith, profess
in common with hint under the sanction of whose
name they have set up their banners? What is the
state oldie civil list which Mr. Pitt oontended and
°tett for retrenching, and how does the grant of
10,0001 a year to the Duke of York square with
the sentiments expressed by him on Mr. Burke's
celebrated Bill? What is the language of Minis-
ters and of those gentlemen on those plans of reform
which Mr. Pitt himself originated 'nod proposed?
Ask Lord Castlerengh what In thinks of the destree-
tion of his favourite trade ? Ask. Mr. Canning, who
has deemed his jests end btiffironery open reform an
essential ingredient of every speech he has made,
upon whatever question for the last eight years !
Where are now Mr. Pitt's hopes respecting the
Sinking Fund so long and warmly cherished, where
are now the happy fruits of this darling child of
promise ! '! -We •remember, but last year, in the
House of Lords, when Lori Liverpool, witheut the
least ceremony, in meting the provision fur the cur-
rent set-vice, merged•the whole produce of this fond
among the items of supply, that Lord Grey rose
and .begged to be informed whether the Si.tking
Fund was to be thenceforward considered as to-

tally annihilated and gone, inasmuch as even its
distinction from the ordinary sources of revenue was
no more acknowledged. Where are now those
mighty projects of finance, which, though we may
believe them to have been, itt • some instances,
the curse, and still to threaten in their &Teets
the ruin of the country ; yet us n )
of the l'itt Clubs can entertain such sentiments
or admit such alarms, we should think they
would at least mourn to see them vanished and dis-
appeared, and pause in their approval of those under
whose guidance their room has been occupied hr a
state of financial embarra—ment, awl financial inef-
ficiency which, in the fitth year of peace, we will
venture to assert never was equalled. With respect to
the Catholic Question, Lord Caatlere:gh a and

LPRICE 9V.

Mr. Canning's regard to honourable consistency put
the whole body of the Pitt Clubs absolutely to the
blush. The former totally declines attending them,
and the latter has publicly awed he would nut IJe
present at a meeting', couvened under the sanction.
of each* name, tfiltink such a toast as " Pratte. N.
tant ascendauey," knowing the sense which that
toast implied, and the spirit it was meant to aniraate.
n'inspoile ! the glorious revolution of 168e—
down with Popery—Pitt for ever—his Maj'estyat
Mini: tars—flip ! flip ! Hip Hurrah !!!
But it may be said that there is one point yet
ennoticed, and upon which hinge rests that Politi-
cal Fame which is alone sufficient to entitle him Pi
the grateful remembrance and admiration of his
country, vie. his resolute and undaunted resistance to
French Philosophy and the whole train of revoln-
aionary doctrines connected with it, and with%
threatened to overthrow all our ancient Institutions
whether mural, political, civil, or religious. We
are neither the friends of anarchy nor the advocates
of irreligion. The diftisettt ranks and orders of
society aro agreeable to the dictates of nature her-
self,. and essential to the very existence of num in
his social state. But whether the •revolutionary
war was just in principle, whether it was indispen-
sably necessary, without which nu war can be just,
whether we might not by a strong and vigorous
domestic policy have effectually pierded ugainst
every danger whether from within or 'without,
whether our engaging in the war did not actually
contribute to consolidate the strength and Niece of
the revolution, and divert them from quarrelling
with each other by famishing another object, atul
thus lead to all the calamities which have ensued
from it, are questions which may be denied if we
should now assert theee but which posterity curt
never fail to estimate justly. In feet, tile Pi!t Sys-
tern, as this part of our national policy is partieu-
lirly called, is already fast emerging from the false
glare with whieh it was so long surrounded. Its
evils are now felt, whilst its pump and pride and
circumstance are vanished. The measures adopted
to support it are now pathet;cally deplored even by
the greutest,- and we will add the best, of those ori-
ginally associated in moving and upholding them.
But, however this may be, his Majesty's Ministers
have but very little to da with the policy we are
now discussing. Lord Grenville, Lord Spencer,
Lord Eitztvilliam, Lord Wellesley, and Mr. Wind-
ham were the efficient coadjutors of Mr. Pitt,
during this extraordinary era, and every one of
these.have declined every connection with those who
are now in power : and with very .good reason as
far as consistency is concerned ; for •when Lord
Sidmnuth, with his present associates, succeeded to
the-Administration of Mr. Pitt, the very first act of'
their office was to make peace with that very enemy
whom Mr Pitt had so peteeveringly pursued with
the most inveterate hostility. The Peace or Amiens
is tar too memorable to be forgotten. It acknow•
!edged in the fullest extent the Legitimacy of Rue-
napartee•Government, and the fee: that opposed
this Peace were 'to a man the late friends of the
Ex-minister. -Nay, what is most extraordinary in
these Pitt Clubs is, that Mr. Pitt opposed and ulti-
mately turned oat, as incompetent to their situation
and unworthy of public confidence, those very
Kim by whain his name is now borrowed as the
instrument of conciliating support. " But, they
terminated, and gloriously terminated a wax," say
these deep-reasoning and patriotic Societies, " which
Mr. Pitt begun." How they once terminated it
we have already noticed, and with respect to its last
tereninalicm, they might just as well assert that I ord
Liverpool had been invested with the controul of
the Elements of Heaven, and that the ro.t of hi:
associates had spit from their (nen mouths the frosts
and snows of Russia. Leen the Duke of Welling-
ton was not the obiect of their choice. He wits
forced span them, partly. by the chances of fortuae,
an partly by his met- matchless skill and valour.
It is true Mr. flit ita exinced the Property• fax,
but -it was only a P.-a,- Ta.r, and his Majesy's
Ministers would have contrived it as a Peaee.rme
if they could. But their imitation was as existeatd

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