The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-09-24 00:00:00

LONDON:

MONDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 24, 1821.

SIR ROBERT WILSON.

Our feelings on the dismissal of this Gallant Officer
have been strongly manifested in Tee STATESMAN of
last week. We waited to see if Sir ROBERT would
take public notice of the ill-advised affair. On find-
ing he was at Paris, we at once concluded his first in-
formation would be through The London Gazette;
that, and that only, prevented us calling upon our fel-
low-citizens of all ranks, from the Peer to the mechanic,
to commence Public Meetings, particularly those on
Surrey side of the Thames, by no means confining the
meeting to his Constituents in the Borough of South-
wark, but to the county at large, or the Hundred of
Brixton ; we wish to have an unlimited expression of
public feeling on an event so pregnant with conse-
quences the most mischievous, and so disgraceful to
the advisers of it. The best and most virtuous men
in the country have been made to suffer by petty de-
spots. The ties of consanguinity have been insufficient
to allay persecution. A horde of hireling literary as-
sassins, (who would as soon abuse their employers as
the objects of their malignity, were they better paid,)
employed to abuse and irritate the people, and a petty-
fogging junta without honor—without character,
allowed to place themselves above the law, as pro-
tected Inquisitors We have seen a Monarch
render himself dear to one part of his dominions by
uniting his subjects in a brotherhood of ejection,
I which his Ministers, but a few years before. termed
High Treason. We hare seen the seat of Government
turned into a scene of blood and tumult, by the unne-
cessary employment of armed men. We have seen the
civil interference rejected and the slaughter of the
King's subjects scoffed at. We have found- the ad.
visers of a nefarious measure recommend the dismissal
of the honest and worthy Magistrate, at the head of
the Police, who would not add infamy to his name by
the destruction of his neighbours Lees and liberties.
—We have also seen his place filled up by a man,
who was but a few years ago a tradesman, made a
Police Magistrate by courtly interest, although the
situation of Chief Magistrate of Police, heretofore, has
been generally filled by a gentkman learned in the
law. After a concatination of such extraordinary cir-
cumstances, can the country wonder that his Majesty
was advised to dismiss one of the Lest Officers in the
service Oh, dear, no ! there is nothing wonderf4l iu
such measures, when we consider who dictate them.
When we see an army paid by the people, covered with
fringe and gin ge rbread,em ployed to overawe that people-
For, in times of profound peace, there can be no other
use for a standing army. The visible drifts of the
thing is derogatory to the Constitution of England.
But the darling system of an unholy alliance is well
known ; to govern by the sword, instead of the 1.. w,
is their maxim, to which some of our omnipotent
noodles are so anxiously attached. Is not the Com-
mander in Chief of that said army placed by the Knte
at the head of a Commission, to govern the united
kingdom during his absence on the Continent? This
circumstance, combined with a knowledge of the past,
give a very dreary picture of the fatttre, and should
place the feelings of Britons on the alert, if the Con-
stitution of the country and its wholesome institutions
are to be again placed in jeopardy. What may the
people expect ? Let them answer the Interrogatory I
it behoves them, before their lives and properties are
at the mercy of their mild and kind hearted task mu-
masters. We anxiously look for Sir ROSEET Wile
SON'S declaration on the business; we know his heart,
and respect him as one of the firsA and best characters
in public and private life. He is s real soldier, and a
gentleman. If by hit interference the effusion of
human blood was stopped, the blessings of the
nation must be again his portion. It was a second
attempt to prevent murder. The brave LATALETTE,
the prescribed victim of Royal vengeance to wit. By
that be obtained a crown of never fading laurels, then
what should 'belie reward for endeavouring to pre-
' serve the lives of his own countrymen, assembled to
•
pay a christian tribste to the remains of persecuted
Royalty, to the Wife of that Brno who ordered his
. dismissal ; shame to the advisers of the one, and ever-
, lasting glory to the other, 1s this a reward to Sir
ROBERT WILSOM for rearing the British Standard

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