The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-11-24 00:00:00

CONVERSION OF A RADICAL.

( From Woolmer's Exeter Gazette.)
At a time when attempts are making by the destructive
party in this country to effect " organic changes" in our
constitution, for the purpose of giving an undue prepon-
derance to the democracy, the opinions of Englishmen
who have had a practical opportunity of comparing the
effects of the institutions of Great Britain with those of
other countries, and especially with the United States, of
America, cannot but be considered as entitled to much
weight. It is therefore with very great pleasure that we
lay before our readers the subjoined extract of a letter
from a respectable and highly talented individual, now
residing in the United States, but who was not long since
a resident in this city, and we might say well known
here as a public political character. Many of our readers
no doubt well remember Mr. John Newcombe,_ whose
eloquent and powerful speeches at some of the public
meetings, and at the public dinners, in support of what
was then termed the popular cause, were held in. the
highest estimation by the radical party, and were much
spoken of in other quarters. We recollect having heard
him more than on one occasion, at considerable length,
dwelling with much force on the radical evils of our civil
and ecclesiastical institutions, and insisting upon the ne-
cessity of a complete change in almost every thing con-
nected With our government ; nor do we forget the ani-
mation and delight with which he was wont to point to
America as the paradise of human liberty—as the land of
equal rights, equal law, and equal justice, forgetting the
stain of slavery, and not expecting to find mob law, or
Lynch law, in that " best of all republics," the democra-
tical institutions of which he was in the habit of pointing
out as models for the imitation of Englishmen. Mr.
Newcombe has been now for some time in America, and
his political opinions have undergone a great change.
In a letter to a young friend in this city, Mr. Newcombe
writes as follows :

" Franklin, Sept. 13.
' " I regularly receive from New York a weekly piper devoted
to British news, and you may easily conceive that I view the
progress of English politics with much interest and anxiety.
Ile experience I had in London, added to the observations
which I have made on the working of the democratic principle
in America, have, I will confess, considerably modified my po-
litical opinions; and, though I may not go the whole length of
conservatism, I would be inclined to guard with the most scru-
pakus jealousy. against any preponderance of the democratic ele-
ment of our government. 'ln no place in the world can any one
so clearly perceive the advantage of that system of mutual
check and counterbalance which exist in the British constitu-
tion, for whose perpetuity in church and state I do most sincerely
and fervently pray. I hold that constitution to be the greatesimo—
nument of political wisdom existing in the world, and the awly
hope of national freedom throughout the world. If well guarded,
it will exist, guiding the people forward in a compact orderly
mass in the path of progressive human improvement; whilst the
democratic machine of America will run itself to pieces, and
anarchy arise from its ruins. I view the corporation reform
with much apprehension; the system of making the executive
office dependent on popular suffrage is dangerous and impolitic;
every office, as in this country, (America,) will be the prize of
party subserviency; and the annual elections will tend for ever
to keep alive the baneful spirit of party, besides the power and.
confidence which it will give the ultra democratic party, assist-
ing them in the prosecution of their plans for the destruction of
the constitution. But I have much confidence in the sober,
sound sense of the British people, which I hope will prevail over
the frenzy of innovation, and that they will duly appreciate the
value of their admirable system of government. I have been
more than once solicited by influentiatmen in this section of
America to become a citizen of the States, but I am determined
never to do so; the oath which I should have to take would ne-
cessarily include a renunciation qf my native and much-loved
country, a measure to which no power on earth could comp el me,
and which no inducements, however dazzling, could prevail
upon me to adopt."