The Statesman.
London, England, 1822-06-10 00:00:00

TO CLERICCS.

[Viola Tag WOWING MIRIURT
ll—. May 214, Mag.
Rex's:wenn Ste,—l feel Battered by your notice of my
letter of the 14th inst, although you seem to have mis-
understood my meaning on souse points. I have pe.
rnsed my letter again, and can discover ia it no cause
for a supposition, that I desired to favour one class of
the commanity to the injury of another. In all the
feeble exertions I have ever made to serve my country, I
have pordinusly avoided Party, and never intended to
act partially towards any one, at the same time. I was
xar.., it would not secure friends to any great dearer;
Whiga as we:l as Tories, like none hut thivk and (Mal
Party-rote, and you probably know, that Reformers
harbour too much jealosisy of rack other to draw well
together. If you had not said, "we Parsons," I should
not have taken you for one of that class, as you seen' to
entertain some liberal sentiments towards what are
" the louver orders." Yet, notwithstanding YOU
are a Minister of the Established Church, you must be
told, that parsons as well as landowners, and those inter-
ested in the soil, together with fundowaers, lawyers,
merchants, mechanics, and others, with some honorable
exceptions. have not of late stood forward manfully, in
asserting the RIGHTS or THE PEOPLE, and have lams
pretty active in encouraging bloody fears and tyre:limited
sae %sears. Yet, Mr. Clericus, Ido not approve of that
rant of your letter. which has a tendency to keep alive
,jealousies that must impede, as it has done for years, that
Rtu num pull altogether, which we want, and without
i-hich we might as well contend against the lightning
of heavers, as against the Borough system.—As to any
pyrepattly from me, for those " Country Gentlemen who
. voted in favour of one of the degraded Grenville party,"
I slid not perceive that it was in we, nor can I credit It,
a.. few men are less indebted to that place-hunting Crew,
that, myself, and none can hold them in greater abhor-
Terser.. (Inc of the party was, some years ace, for day.
i re.; El, Mar., to es poll like a drove of Welch Leasts, and
it is said, at tire instigation of his sneering cousin.
illy (edifies accord with your own, in the hope of see-
ing the prices of our necessary articles of life, on a level
. with those of Francs; hut, Sir, I do not think the blame
rests pith the Fanner, that you 11 are at present charged
Is. per lb. for fresh butter." Ile, I apprehend, sells at
or !std. per lb.; and has long sold his fat sheep at 3d.
per lb. and sinks the offal, when you, and Your fellow
inhabitants of Newbury, have given 41d. and sd. The
blame, I suspect, rests with them and you, for suffering
yoinselves to he imposed upon by Isigglers and others.
All, tenet, will be right, ere long, but a little patience
may not he amiss; the gond things are in the had, and
• if Lot nipped, or lan-peeled, you may enjoy fruit in due
season.
" Aye! but your pity is excited for the farmer." Aye,
to Ire sure it is—why should it mot? If you sserea good
Slot true Christian Parson, your pity would be excited
for the former, and for all mankind. My pity too, ex-
tends to vat parsons, though God knows you. and your
clerical brethren have displayed aro good will towards
• i.e Reformers. flow can any man withhold his tom-
-111.3,:i0a ashen Ise reads that part of Mr. Lockhart's
speech, where he is reported to have said, that "the
Clerzw. that gr,,,t arid etnerabk body of urea, was re.
fl Arced to th, re;,‘" We pity you, and the
!blithers of your Cloth, for your blindness in not per-
ceiving that to support Ministers upon all occasions, or
to refuse art aid in maintaining the Ri_4-hts of the Peo-
ple. is not only very foolish, but very wicked. Rouse,
therefore, my good Mr. Parson, the whole of your sable
has, head them yourself, show a bold black front at
Reading, in favor of Reform, and the very darkness of
their aspect will strike death and terror to Corruption,
and all its direful herd. Let them suspead all thoughts
of loaves rind fishes ; they cannot ail be provided for, as
Pa..,e.a Illy was; let them do their duty as a body, as
you', Mr. Clericus, individually seem inclined.
You s,iy, " must suffer for joining bad company,"
meaning " the Land-owners who urged the Minister to
carry nn a most unjust and unnecessary war, and armed
their dependants, who sabred the people at Manchester
and other places ;"—now, Mr. Clerk, I should like to
know when this junction took place? I knew not;
there has been between me and them, for years, a most
determined cat, as if mutually agreed upon. You must
he..l/,lair Parson, a very clever fellow, and I should
like to be better acquainted with you, for you tell me. " if
it had so happene, that you (meaning me) had placed
your money in the funds instead of land, you would
have been one of the Brat to have laughed at the well
merited sufferings of the Land-ateliers." Really, this
sort of keen ledge is very wonderful, and you deserve a
patent for the invention. Au if, however, is upon many
occasions, a most powerful ally. Give me an if, and I
r nniul conquer the world, and pay off tire national debt.
if you walked upon your head, you would not dirty
your stockings, that is if you arc in the habit of wear-
leg stockings. if your Annt had been born a boy, she
1.0.1 have been your Uncle. /fit had been a Fund-
-1 std. instead of a Landlord, I might have been &Jew
B."( er, as you may be for any thing J know to the
contrary, fur Parsons do sometimes gamble in the Alley,
as well as other great folks; in that case, I might have
Lad a heart to laugh at the sufferings of my fellow
creatures. if I know yon, Mr. Clericus,you have too much
charity in you to laugh at the sufferings of any one,
even your greatest opponents. I am for pardoning all
those who will turn from their wicked ways. Let us
laugh, althengh I hold no fund, at disappointments, if
you will, so they do not amount to real sufferings. De
fretted expectations, which were to have been eujoyed at
the expense of the people, is fair game; and alien en-
gendered by pride or avarice, deserve no pity, but all
the contempt and derision we can muster.—"'lt was the
Land-owners who incurred tire debt." No, my worthy
Priest, not so altogether. They might have prevented
it, so might some other classes, if they had been united,
parsons, lawyers, ti.e. The Boroughmongers were the
fellows that secured tire accursed thing. Keep your eye
fixed upon them, and pray. Clericals, do not suffer your
spleen tp carry you beyond bounds.—Stick to the 110-
BOULIIIMONDERS, and nothing but Beroughsaua-
geriap.
"No shuffling out of the debt." I don't like that
word ;it stinks so of a shop—l mean a law-
yer's shop : but, for the present, let it pass. I agree—
no ehutiling—no unfair dealing—no tricks—" Justice
requires its foil payment:"—No question, Mr. Parson—
but pray. Reverend Sir, what do you mean by the word
fell' titi 11, I should consider to mean, thefall afieleat was
borrowed, or else you or I do not comprehend the true
meaning of the word " Justice,"—and one or the other
of us ought to be sent back to school to he re-whipped.
You never, to be sure, can so mistake the meaning as to
contend, that if I were to borrow of you a stone, and
call it an apple, when I could not exchange it for an ap-
pleat my pleasure, that then " Justice" would require
" me to pay the debt in a nice nonpareil. If, indeed, the
dose would have produced me half a nice nonpareil
when von lest it me, then " Justice" requires its full
payment; hat not the full or whole apple ;—No, Sir,
the full half apple. So, if 1 had borrowed a piece of
rag, and that rag called a Bank note of the value of
20s. when iu reality it would produce only ten shillings
worth of beead or butter, my notion of Justice would
carry me no further than to !say yon lOs. for your note—
so honest into ought to look tor mere. "No slauali ng out
of the debt"—nor into the de/t, say I—" Justice requires
its fall paymant"—Justice requires not its DOWILZ PAY.
mine, Mr. Parson. There are, Mr. Clerics., some
" shallow and designing men" who suppose, or pretend
to suppose, that our lands stand mortgaged for the pay-
ment of the debt, called national—for a moment, and only