The Sun.
London, England, 1823-01-22 00:00:00

PROVINCIAL JOURNALi.

It is, not a little graiifying to observe, that
there is but one .epinion relative, to the late
No'fOik among loyal and intelligent
writer's ; anti we therefore extract with pleasure
the following. article frotn..so respectable a Jour-
,nttl as
,the. Liverpool Courier.
WHIGS AND RADICALS.—The- proceedings at
the Norfolk County Meeting have the merit of being, at
once,' both amusing and instructive. 'that Cobbett has fairly
beaten the Whigs on their own ground • is clear. • It is folly
to pretend,
.after; the Petition which he had composed for
the occasion was twice read and twice carried, that the,
majority :did not• know for *what they were voting.--
`, They 'knew, probably, beforehand, - for those. who had in:
'vited the -dentivette were trot likely to Make any secret
of their intention. A nutriber of gentlemen, it seems, kept'
away upca hearing that Cobbctt would • be present, and' thui.
they escaped the inditificatiOn of the poor Whigs; who were
present only to be thrown upon their backs, and te feel ittt,
among real Radicals, the only teen of influence are those who
can go through a revolutionary project, and that he who gees
farthest in holding to them the hope of plunder' is the
Man for their caps and huzzas. But, 'now, lei us turn to the
Norfolk SS themselves, who, on this 'occitaion;,have had,
the mortification to be beaten, anti routed, and driven ofEthe
field, and, to make the' vexation Mora cornidett, by a fel-
low so contemptible and worthless. Fur the most part, they

rank, and have tanked. for many years, not among the
respectable, moderate, and constitutional Whigs, but among
the most intemperate of -that faction, embued with a pret-
ty large share of republicanism, and not very continent of
temper and speech. For many years these men have been
undermining the principles of the people, of Norfolk. At the
very time their tenants were tolling in luxury ; when, by the
system of large farming, the farmer was raised into an imita-
tion gentleman, and kept his carriage and his hunter ; when
all but the poor labourer, whom this system reduced to a
slave and a pauper, was in this state of unnatural excitement
and artificial prosperity, the Norfolk people were constantly
told that they were ill governed, that they had no liberty,
and that reform of Parliament alone could save them from
destruction. All public characters of opposite sentiments were,
as usual, held up as traitors to- their country, and all hope
placed in increasing the direct Influence of the people.
This was very readily received. It had the sanction of men of
great opulence and name. But, now there is a pinch felt, not
among landlords only, but tenants ; now Norfolk (which ge-
nerally never could be cultivated, except at an enormous
cost of production, and ought to ,go back to its native ster-
rility, and its farmers seek a better no longer, provides
its four ample and luxuriant meals per day for its yeomen ;
now they can no longer drink port at their inns, and hunt
with their landlords, they ask, because they have been taught
to ascribe all their Ills to the want of reform, what their
Whig masters intend to propose. Will they propose to spoliate
the Church ? This they do not appear Radical enongh to
attempt. Will they lay violent hands upon the purse of the na-

tional creditor? At this they hesitate. In this crisis Cobbett
comes forward, and really proposes something tangible inhis pe-
tition, and by a people previously misled and perverted by their
violent Whig landlords, it was carried as a matter of course. Cob-
bet; brought out their principles to their practical conclusion,and
this, in such 'an audience, was sure to beat them downright.—
Thus the connexion between the Norfolk Whigs and their
tenants and political pupils has been broken ; and, in every
place where violent Whiggisin has exerted a like influence, un-
der a pressure of circamstances or the prevalence of a strong
popular feeling, the same edict would take place. No small
part of the gentry of England have been playing with the same
weapons in their different counties. Intemperate in their de-
clamations ; quite careless to make a distinction betweentheni-
selves and Radicals and levellers obvious; impelled by a blind
party impulse which looks at no consequence, they have given
a sanction to the opinions of men of far different designs, and
to publications which hare been destroying all just and all
loyal principle : and do they think that they' will govern and
controul the very people who have listened to their intemperate
harangues in former times with so much applatuie ? If sol
let them look at Norfolk. That ought to open their eyes,
for who took the " people" out of their. hand there Not
an unknown, much less a man of character, but a man held
up, by himself too, by his contradictions and changes, by his
infamous public project*, and especially by his well-known
letter to Sir Francis Burdett, as a man destitute of the
principles of common honesty. Thus they prepare the
mob for the demagogues, and them they will follow,
however detestable their character. Nay, this want of
character strangely becomes their reaommendation .; for let
a number of people be once ernbued with the true spirit
of Radicalism, and the leaders for whom they naturally look
out are not Whig gentlemen, who have never thought of sur-
rendering their own property or seizing that of their neigh-
bours ; not Whig gentlemen, who had never aimed at breaking
down the distinctions of society, nor wished to displace the
stitution for some new device, Whether from the dark head of
Jeremy Bentham, or the darker heart of Cobbett. These are
not leaders for them. .They have created in them, it is true,
this appetite for change and spoliation, but they have not where-
with to satisfy it; and they turn, therefore, to those who can
cater more largely, at least in promise, and enchant with the
prospect of changes so sweeping, that every needy wretch
among them feels it a mortal certainty, that, in the new order of
things, some post of honour or some slice of the general plunder
must be in reserve for him.