The National Register.
London, England, 1817-03-31 00:00:00

Aito nal, Ur virittr+

Our Wm, Con6titution an 31a1331.

MONDAY, MA:

31, 1817.

Mr. Cobbett, and the other mock reformers, are very
ably opposed ; and their ignorance, vanity, and restless
ambition exposed in a masterly manner. Their vulgar
and ungrateful abuse of the numerous charitable sub-
scriptions, &c. which have been set on foot for the re-
lief of the poor, receives a most severe but justly me-
rited castigation. It is said, and with great truth
too,—

" fie (ME. Cobbett) would have applied hin invective
equally had no charitable mectiagg been held, awl he would
have been far better pleased stilt his stiLject; he would not
have scattered it, in that rase, will less profusion, but he
might have done it with an intirflely better grace."

On the subject of the Poor Laws, our author rca-
sons thus :

" With regard to the poor and their maintenance, it is a
subject is hid,, from its importance, should have long ,ince
made us think much more distinctly, and much more wisely
than we appear to have done. Many are apt to consider food
as differing from all other commodities, and that the means of
procuring it ought to be within the reach of all, and they
are therefore apt to look with rather a lenient eye upon any
excesses committed with a view to reducing its price. It
is not real compassion, but real ignorance that misleads us on
this subject. But if the price of the necessaries of life is so
high that the poor cannot obtain them, what is to be done?
they cannot starve! If those who talk thus, mean it—and they
do mean it—as a justification of the forcible means which are
sometimes resorted to to bring corn to market or to lower its
price, such persons are sadly' misinformed as to what it much
behoves them to be acquainted `vita—the first principles of
common justice and of private right. There is no great clan-
ger that in this country, even in the worst of times, any num-
ber will starve from absolute inability to subsist by their la-
bour. But let the necessities of the individual be what they
may, we lay it down as an axiom, that no man has a right to
be fed at the expense of any other 111411. The greater his dis-
tress, the stronger is his claim on the compassion of those who
have the power to relieve him ; but his appeal is to haincitate,
and to humanity alone. No opinion can be more mitomided
or more pernicious than that either the communing as a body,
or any part of it, is bouud to provide for those who cannot pro-
vide for themselves. If this were so, flu, industrious would
soon become the prey of the indolent ; the fences of the law,
and order, and property, won Id be thrown down; unfavour.
able seasons, the inflictions of Providence, would become the
pretext for eve!), sort of violence and every sort of outrage.
A man may suffer severely from cold without the means of ob-
taining fuel, but this will not give him a right to supply him-
self from his neighbour's cellar ; he may be afflicted Ai
pain and disease without the ability to procure medicine, but
this will not confer ou him a right to demand gratuitously
the medicines of the apothecary, or the advice of the phy-
sician."

On the Country Banking System, the most fruitful
source ofall others of our present commercial embarrass-
ments, we have the following cogent reasoning :

" The excessive issues of paper money, occasioned by the
establishment of country banks in almost every town in the
kingdom, created every where an artificial property ; a pro-
perty not arising out of the profitable employment of pre-
existiug capital. The facility with which credit was proem-NI
gave a prodigious loose to speculation. Paper money was
augmented, Hot in proportion to what an increase of industry
required for its wages, or an increase of commodities required
for their circulation ; but, following the lead of avarice, it
increased as the craziness of speculation increased. Hankers,
issuing their own notes, were apt so strict iii investigating the
validity of the security upon which those notes were lent, as
they would have been had they patted with so much of their
hard-earned money. They were themselves, many of them,
up to the ears in speculation. All parties, borrowere and
lenders, mortgagers and mortgagees, all were infected with
the same gambling spirit. A mass of industry was for a time
put in motion by this fictitious wealth. High wages lightened
for a time the heart of the labourer ; high prices diminished
the pressure of taaation. Agriculture partook of this re-
freshing stream; it ran into all her channels:--but at length
the tide turned;—as avidity is often short-sighted. very ...Uri.
OUb failnres, from time to time, attested the rashness and im-
prudence of the adventurers. Immense consignments to
markets already glutted ; goods to an immense amomit lying
unpacked in foreign ports from want of demand ; no remit-
tances to be obtained for such as procured a sale ; foreign
honses, whose solvency had never been suspected, linable to
fulfil their engagements; merchants of the largest property
staggering undi:r the blows which assailed them from all
quarters; the landed and commercial interests, intimately
connected and hlerded with each other, involved in daily in-
creasing thraldom, and credit coovulsed in all parts of the
k ingdom. Batik after bank stopped pay meat, failure followed
after failure, discounts were 11 strieted, credit was paralysed,
commerce, agriculture, mannfaet area, the revenue, all suti'm ed
muter the shock ; and tinder this shock they am suffering at
this moment.--Other causes combined, no doubt, to
11(1111',,i the finances and resources of the country, but this
cruise takes the lead."

Our limits will not allow even an abstract of this
writer's reasoning concerning tins present stag: of Our
representative gy,tcin. There arc some points in which
we, with great deference, bcg leave to differ from him ;
but, upm the whole, his arguments nre highly correct.
Spot Ling el N ures, it is justly obbtivved, that

PRICE Sid

" It is scarcely credible to what an extent of miscon-
ception, nut vulgar minds, minds much above the vulgar,
are carried on this head. Government has by no mean.
obtained that full credit which it ought, from the extent
in which it has, from time to time, reduced its patronage,
and lessened its intliamee, by the abolition of offices tu
which no personal duty was annexed. The bulk of the
people arc wholly imacimainted with the measures adopted
to that end, wh.le the emissaries of sedition continue the ac-
customed outcry against the CIIIII'IIIOIIS sinecures' as loudly
and with just as much violence, as if no such reduction had
ever been effected."

Some extracts are given from the Report of the Se-
lect Committez., ordered by the House of Commons to
be printed, 20th June 1810, by which it appears, that
the &wing in " offices to be reformed," in " offices to
be abolished," in the " customs," &e. &c. amounts to
no less a sum than 66,5851. But all this is carefully
kept out of sight by the reffinners.

" No sineein e is more publicly- and perpetually referred to
than Lwit Ardyn's, as Register of the High Court of Admi-
ralty. It is of importance that the misconception on this
subject, which has spread itself so widely, should be removed.
It must he painful to an upright and honourable mind to be
represented before the public as rapaciously retaining a most
enormous sinecure, at a time when the exigencies of the
country can so ill justify such a demand upon it. In the Re-
port from the Select Committee on sinecure offices, the gross
receipt of this appointment is accurately stated at 33,1871.•;
but besides that the deputies receive one third part of the
profit for executing the office, all the officers and clerks on
the establishment, the stationery, and every description of
expense, is paid out of the receipt : these different deductions
amount, as appears by the same report, to 23,7331.; thus re-
ducing the gross.teceipt of 33,4781. to a nett receipt, payable
to Lord Arden, of 9,7151. Often as the emoluments of this
office have been adverted to, in no one instance has this most
material drawback upon it been cum hinted at. There is
another important circumstance; no part whatever, either of
this gross or nett receipt, is a burdien on the public. Lord
Arden receives no salary or payment of any kind from govern.
ment : his emoluments arise from fees for business done in the
public reeistry by his deputies and clerks, and are paid by
the suitors of the court, by foreigners as well as British sub-
jects. It is most singular, however, that while Lord Arden
is indignantly pointed out as holding this immense revenue in
his elaxing grasp, amidst the imperions demands for eco.
nomy ; that, so far trout receiving any salary, his lordship is
out of pocket by the appointment; it does not pay its cx.
;fences; its emoluments are certainly not loin. per annum;
the whole value of the office is completely confined to a time
of war.

Ear] Camden's sinecure is also investigated in like
manner ; but as that nobleman has so generously relin.
quished it, we shall pass it over.
In a note, page 85, et seq. the author very ably ex—
poses the fillsehoods of a " certain lying pamphlet,"
which purports to give a correct list of sinecure offices,
&e. and shews that a very large proportion of persons
and offices, stated to be so many dead weights upon the
public revenue, arc in fact no such thing ; the emolu.
merits being, for the most part, paid by those persons
who arc suitors at or benefited by the offices in flues•
Con.

" There is certainly considerable misconreption in the po-
pular estimate of the magnitude of Silleelife tiftk( i. Those
who are acquainted with tliib head of expenditure onl)• through
the oldrinitt; representations that are perpetually afloat upon
it, o ill perhaps be surprizeil to learn, that the total sinecures
in England, and our foreign settlements, exclusive of offices
to be reformed and abolished, and including those in the law
courtc, seated). amount to 100,0001. per annum."

The subject of retrenchment comes next under re.
view ; and here the same clear discrimination is mani-
fest. We have no room, however, for any extracts on
this heAd, and must content ourselves with the con.
eluding paragraph of this excellent pamphlet, and with
a repetition of our earnest recommendat,on of the book
itself to the notice of our readers:
" We have before made a successful stand against tronbleS
of at much thicker east than any we have at prestdit to contend
with. EMI now the giawen is breaking assay, and the how
may be seen on the clouds. We have bet-de ua every thing
that should inspire confidence, and mm b, very man la that
should teach its wisdom. I.Doking upwards, howeser, to .be
Soul cc of all Good, and acting as—while the ruglish chat ac-
ter stirs ises—w e ever shall net, with fit leafless of mind And
thankfmtneks or heart, we rinll tierce want the nu an, either
of m 111061,4 the resources of the country, or of aestorioe its
prosperity." 3. N.

• Extltr.ive of interest on money lying in his hands.

An awkward notice upon one of the Come
founts of the House of Commons, on Tuesday,
much observation. The notice ran thus :—" ('o
(21. Irish Lunatics," intended to designate that ti.
mittee appointed to enquire into the state of
iu Ireland, held their sittings in that room.

munit tee
', exfted, ' , i,,,0t,
,
lnitnittee
the Coin.
Lunatic vsh,-
~. r
it.
, ,„,.
• 4)40.,,v,,,,:
: 2,T , v

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

MOMDAY, MARCH 24.
SEDITIOUS MEETINGS BILL.

The farther consideration of the Seditious Assemblies Bill
ViiS gone into.
A satiety of verbal amendments, which had been previ-
ously agreed to, were made in the different clauses of the
Bill, among which Lord Sitistortit proposed a clause for the
pt event ion of Public Meetings in the neighbourhood of the
'two Houses of Put halm nt, acd the Courts of Law while ti:ttinir
in Westminster Hall. The clause provided, that such Meet-
ings 'tumid not be held within one mile of that place, for any
object of petitioning, &c.
Lord ST. JOHN considered the clause very objectionable ;
it would go in tact to prohibit any meeting w lawyer in the
city of Westminster.
The Earl of RostAN expressed great surprise that it R110111(1
be thought necessary to introduce such a clause, especialls to
prescribe the r:i‘tance to be one mile. He thought the dis.
-twice might be confined to Palace-) ard and Whitehall, and
the immediate avenues to the Houses of Parliament.
The Earl of LivEitooot observed, that the clause was ori-
ginally suggested by a Noble Earl opposite, hut hr considered
it um;ht to be adopted on print iple,and some shorter distance
perhaps miglit be fixed. The great restsnu for wishing it to
be added to the Bill was on account of the gross indecorum
which was used while the Courts of Jumbo e were sitting in
Westminster Hall, so as to impede the business of those
Courts.

The Earl of LaunranaLE did not know where a public
meeting could be held in the city of Westminster, if the dance
passed.
Lord GRENtiLLE conceived that the Howe felt equally
alike on the subject of preserving decorum while the Collets
were sitting. He thought, however. no 41lijection could arise
to the clause it' it merely went to keep clear the avenues to
Parliament.
Lord ERSKINE admitted the observations of his Noble
Friend to be correct.

The clause was agreed to, and the MIl ordered to be read
a third (line to•morruw.—,ldjourned.

TUESDAY,
_MARCII,2S.

Lord SIDMOUTH moved III;;Order of the Day for the third
reading of the Seditious Assemblies Bill.
Lord ERSKINE reviewed the different clauses of the Bill.
The clause enacting that any person propounding any sobjeet
bringing the Goverinnent into contempt (awl to that part of
the clause he did not object), or holding any discourse tend-
in4 to (hat object, was in itself of an alarming nature. For
suppose any person should go to a Meeting for Reform,
pr,iperly convened, and hold discourse to this effect, by
stating he was one of the seven persons convening the
Meeting, and was to say—" We called this Meeting—the
House of C Immons is not the real representation of the
people—the Douse of Lords is more attached to the Crown
th.o. people, &c." Now, if eight or ten Magistrates were
present, an,l heard this discourse, and were to he of opinion
that this langnage was tending to subvert the Constitution,
and shooed order the person so speaking into custody, what
Imhof could he have—what restraint was there on the Ma
gistrutes ?—and yet for language of this sort, he would be
'Welled to suffer death without benefit of clergy; when in
fact he vs4s, merely stating an opinion in the course of con-
versation. The Bill went the length of preventing the sub-
jects (1.1, petitioning, auless it should phase the Magi-Crates
to permit them so to do. The Noble Lord conteuded that rio
free Ciornine as could stand on such a Bill.

Lord ELDONv.ded for the measme, not far the purpose of
destroyilia, but of preserving oar liberties, Which he 114)11(.4
to Gad, the people would enjoy as long as they lived. The
country was in such a stale, that the laws wet c not sufficient
for the preservation of the peace. Was the House at the
present moment acting on a necessity or not? If they Were
acting on a necessity, the Bill ought to pass. The Noble and
Learned Lord had referred to the clauses of the Bill which
applied to the public meetings, and the danger whirl' would
arise by allowing any Magistrate to arrest any person hold-
ing language which the Noble and Learned Lord had said
might be purely coustitutional. The Magistrate was not
authorized to du more than merely charge the person with
basing held such language.
Lord ST. JOHN admitted the position of the Noble Lord to
be true; but the teal question was one of necessity, and what
necessity really existed? Were not the laws sufficient to
meet the evil? The provisions of the Bill, he was of opinion,
went beyond its necessity, and would have the efleut of pre-
-vc•nting its execution. The Noble Lord concluded with
strongly opposing the motion for the third reading.
The Earl of WESTMOKLAND supported the Bill, on the
ground that it was necessary for the protection of the people,
and the preservation of those liberties which his Noble Friend
considered to be endangered. With respect to the operation
of the Bill, would it have the effect of preventing the people
of England from expressing their sentiments and insti acting
their representatives? lle should contend it would not ; the
only alteration that would lie made in that resprut was, that
the meetings would he held under the purview of Magistrates.
Noble Lords opposite might talk of their feelings and Imola-
nity, but he really felt more for the sufferings of Mr. Platt,
than for the sufferines of ali the incendiaries and traitors who
Init4lll suffer under the Bill.
EHI liltoSVl.voll adverted to a rumour, that it was the in-
tention of Ministers, before the session closed, to continue
the sospemion of the Habeas Corpus Act ; and said, where
er he should be, he would think it his duty to oppose any
such intention. As the Bill now stood, it was not likely that
any meetings would take place. lie would illustrate this by
au aueedote of a year relation of th,t N Mile Viscount. A
meeting took place snider the Bill of Miti, at Copenhagen
House, to which spot Sir W. Addington, the Bow-street Ma-
gistrate, repaired. Just as he got to the platform. the wator
espied him, and exclaimed, "We shall now hear the esposi-
tion of this Act by' a Bow-street Magistrate." Sir William
instantly. called out, " Pull down that tellow !"
The Doke of ATHOL gave his sto urinous support to the
measure, which he cou•ioered as called for by the eiremn-
stmices of the times. The Noble Mike, i.. supporting this
measure, acted most conscientiously. He was of opinion it
was wise to Rive up a part of out liberties far a time, in order
to preserve the some.
Lord AMMAN o declared, he did not consider the eaigen•
vies of the times sot li as win ranted the adopting the measure
lIHHT under consideration. Ministets had il.puttli the rise of
the Funds to the passing of the Suspension Act. This re-
minded him of the story of a traveller, who, having arrived
flte in the evening at a town, and slept there, enquired neat
ue).oaug name of the place, and was told Stony Stratford