The Sun.
London, England, 1830-11-29 00:00:00

UTILITY OF POLITICAL SATIRE.

Nor ,has satire been confined to the conduct of in-
dividuals alone, but has also been pointed against
those measures of policy and state in which the in-
terests of whole nations is concerned. It is only by
the exercise of political satire that the spirit of jea-
lousy necessary to the support of all mixed govern-
ments can be excited, and the general establishment
of the Constitution protected and maintained. The
frequency of those occasional errors to which the
administration of every state is subject, will be d.-
minished by the fear of that ridicule which is able
both to repel the attacks of violence arid the arti-
fices of faction. So immediately, however, is the
freedom of political satire connected with the esta-
blishment of general liberty, that popular outrage is
not less unfavourable to its existence than the ex-
tremity of absolute despotism. During the violence
of contending fictions that preceded the subversion
of the Roman Commonwealth, it appears to have
been almost entirely unknown. The efforts of
wit must, indeed, have been feeble and dis-
regarded, at a period when literature had not
obtained an universal esteem, and in a tuition
where the eloquence of the orator was at one time
drowned by sedition, at another time overawed by
the sword. The history of free nations exhibits
frequent examples of the application of ridicule to
the concerns of state, many of which were useful
to their own age, and all may be instructive to pos-
terity. The political comedies of Aristophanes pre-
sent a picture of his nation too minute to be sus-
pected of falsehood, and too interesting to be viewed
without pain. In them we behold the repretenta-
'ion of a people at once refined and gross, learned
and infatuated; so fond of humour and ridicule as
to permit the boldest attacks upon their favourite
follies, yet so deluded as neither to resign or correct
them; attentive to wit and satire, yet prosecuting
in defiance of both, a war that could not but end in
their destruction. By the invention of the art of
printing, the dissemination of political .satire has
been eminently facilitated, and in our own country
it possesses an importance as little known to
the surrounding nations as the peculiar freedom
by which it is secured. The establishment of
our excellent Constitution was considered as im-
perfect whilst restraint was imposed upon the
exertion of any voice by which the spirit of liberty
might be awakened. And, since the noblest se.
curity against sudden and causeless revolutions, is
that opportunity of calm decision which is presented
to the judgment of it whole country by the free re-
presentation of all public events, political satire tends
in a no less powerful degree to secure the Govern-
ment from rebellion than to protect the people from
oppression. Nor are instances wanting of its exer-
cise which will ever be contemplated with admira-
tion and triumph. The remains of that fanaticism
which was a reproach to the human character were
dissipated by the wit of Butler; and the delicate
pleasantry of Addison was successfully employed in
the support of justice and freedom, at the moment
of delusion and danger. Yet, while the heart of
the patriot gloAt with rapture at the survey of that
Constitution which allows to every subject the
noblest of all privileges, the most painful sensations
will often be excited by a view of the licentiousness
interwoven with so fair a system. Instead of the manly
ardour of truth and freedom, satire is too often taught
to breathe the furious and baneful spirit of falsehood
or sedition. Even the dignity of that supreme au-
thority, which is rendered sacred no less by the
peculiar genius of our Constitution than by every
principle of general policy, has sometimes been ex-
posed to attacks of ridicule equally mean in their
form and pernicious in their tendency. And by the
extensive diffusion of public calumny, a spirit of
animosity has occasionally been excited, 5Q powerful
as to interrupt the national harmony and embitter,
the intercourse of domestic lie. Moved, perhaps
by these considerations, Swift, who on some occa-
sloes bad been himself employed as the support of a
party, and acting on others from a more enlarged
principle, had been hailed as the vindicator of a de-
voted people, attempted, in a relation of fictitious
adventures, to stop, by the powers of ridicule, that
torrent of faction which was at once so impetuous
and destructive. Happy would it have been, if
the exectitien had eorresponded with the design !
But while he exposes the tots and conati utions of
his country to contempt, and, and represents its
whole history as a series of actions disgraceful to
human nature, the only political tendency of the
singular production of genius is to telex the vigour
of patriotism and sink the spirits into despondence
and inactivity.—Lord Tenterden.