Star.
London, England, 1821-01-16 00:00:00

GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

We insert with pleasure the following admirable
letter from a Gentleman of family and fortune in
Gloucestershire, to whom the Loyal Address for that
County was sent fur signature :
Addiestrop, January 3, Int.
" A Loyal Address having, been sent to me 'for
the signature of my name, I wish to state to you in
very few words the particular reasons why I did not
sign it, lest at any future time, should I venture to
express my opinions on poiLical subjects at a Glou-
cestershire Meeting, I might be accused of apostacy,
the prevalence of which vice gives too much an ap-
pearance of plausibility to the pernicious doctrine
that all public men are impostors, and that every
politician has his price. You well know, that at the
last General Election for the County of Gloucester,
from respect to the 1-louse of Beaufort, and from ad-
miration of the personal character of the Noble
Candidate, I seconded the nomination of Lord Ed-
ward Somerset, and I was proud to be instrumental
in bringing a Hero into Parliament. On that occa-
sion, . I said a few words expressive of my admira-
tion of the military talents and private character of
Lord Edward Somerset ; but I made no political
allusions whatever: indeed I could not with a safe
conscience have done so, as my opinion of the con-
duct of Ministers was quite at variance with that
which the Noble Lord entertained of it. You per-"
haps remember the conversation which I had with
you, that day, on the subject. I am warmly at-
tached to the Princes of the House of Brunswick,
and I would shed my last drop of blood in defence
of their persons ; but I do not think that the stability
of the Constitution, or the dignity of the Throne, are
essentially connected with the continuance in office
of men who are not in habits of intercourse with the
People, who know nothing of their dispositions, and
whose views, in my humble opinion, on all subjects
of domestic and foreign policy, are narrow and con-
fused. Yet the Loyal Addresses imply an appro-
bation of the conduct of the present Government.
" The term Jacobin,' being effete through fre-
Tient use, has lost its influence on the minds of men,
and anew watch-word for alarm must be invented,
to frighten the timid into a compliance with the vio.
lent measures of Government. All those who do not
support the measures of the present Administration
are stigmatized as ' Radicals.
66 That in a country where the Freedom of the
Press is established, there will be an occasional abuse
of it, I am ready to allow, though I hope that despo-
tism will never be called in to keep the peace ; but a
Government that has the confidence and affections of
the People, need not fear paper shot ; and libels, as
such, are punishable by law. With what colour or
pretence of decency the adherents to Government
can complain of the licentiousness
.of the Press,'
when those writers who are under the immediate
controul of Ministers are virulent beyond description
in their abuse of all public men who differ from them
on political questions, I leave to the impartial to de-
termine. It is not by declamatory Addresses pre-
sented to the Throne, where the question is always
begged, but by a practical reform of existing griev-
ances, by conciliatory measures and temperate argu-
ments, that the designs of the wicked can be frus-
trated, the deluded reclaimed from their errors, and
peace re-established in this distracted country.
" Let the Courts of Justice punish the violators of
the law; let it be the pleasing task of Parliament to
separate the mo,'erate from the violent, to remove
all just causes of complaint, to abolish all sinecures
and useless offices, to tolerate in some degree the im-
patience of the people, who have borne with unex-
ampled fortitude the pressure of a long war ; and it
will do more far the stability of the Throne than
Loyal Addresses' can ever accomplish. It will en-
throne the King in the hearts of his subjects, and
give him more real power than the most absolute
Monarch possesses. I therefore do not see the neces-
sity of Loyal Addresses in the present times; they
will only tend to widen the breach between the hibber
and lower ordersof the community, which has been
caused by the folly of some and the :nadness of others;
to place the Sovereign in an unamiable light as the
head of a party, and to throw, unjustly in my opi-
nion, the imputation of disloyalty on all those who
do not approve of the tenour of these Addresses, and
among whom may be found the firmest supporters of
the Throne, and the truest friends of the Constitution.
—I am, your's, Bce. CHANDOS LEIGH."

Saturday night, betw►en seven and eight o'clock, as Thomas
Jefferson, a shopkeeper, of Market-street, was coming to London,
just on the north side of Barnet, he was ttomed by a siree high-
wayman, well mounted, who robbed him of XIS in notes, and
some silver, but he did not take his watch : he then galloped off.

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