The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-12-26 00:00:00

itrETINO OF TUR PREF:UW.OEIIS OF THS

COUNTY OF EDINBURGH.

Friday a meeing of the freeholders, commission-
er• of sopply, Scr. of the county of Ediuborgh. was
held within the roacty Hall, in consegnenee of a re-
quisition subscribed by a number of the freehold •rs, to
take into consideration the propriety of coping a loyal
wbferss to his Majesty. Upwards of 140 noblemen
and gentlemen were present.
The Marquis of Lo•utt ss was railed to the chair,
seho said he trusted that they would be unanimous in
voting the address.

rile ti ilit's of the freeholders having been eallvd

Sir June HOPP rose to propose the address, awl said
that th:•re never was a time when there was more ne-
ce‘sity for coming forward to express sentiments of
loyalty and attachment to his Majesty's person and
government than the present; but he would not detain
the mertitar by entering into detail, and would there-
fore only move, that the address which lie rose to pro.
e might be read and adopted.
The address was arcordingly read by the Sheriff=
c?. when

J. War.sten stated. that in rising to second the
'lotion which hail just been made, he must beciti by
i:eknowleilging that the favor of his friends haol hil-
t:used on him a task, which he would nevyr otherwise
hare dimwit,. of assuming. No one could be more
.ensible than lir was, that there were Islam- (-tilers
now pre,,ett!, far better entitled than himself,
from their rank, talents, and inditenee, to bespeak the
of thr meeting. I.ittle accustomed as he
I is been to deliver his sentiments on questions so re-
mote as tile pr,.s..tit, from the mum) line of his pro-
:; saional he would not have presumed thus
early to *dikes.. the meeting on any public tapir,
which he conceived to he attended with doubt or (Hifi-
.:lty. or, in the discussion of which, either profound
I..nott ledge, or elaborate argument, was requires!:
bur, in his humble apprehension, the slightest oliser-
v.eliten of what is daily passing. anoind us, was quite
r•,tfirient to sugszest the most conclusive mesons for
a•.prorsinz this address. Fru., he pressemeeel, of
tbs 4.• aho beard him, would deny, that the most
?agitietis attempts had been made, and mere
wa:siii_.% to excite elisalbsction among the people
! thi.realm. Few would deny, that the constancy,
C.,. :1:1.1 trity, and, he feared, the 'access of thest. at-
.rip•s. WMe r.elculated to create the most serions

;ill who truly lured their country. It
v. 14 true, that the clamour fur ra.lical refurin, had,
t*, ‘llll‘icl, it. It na true, that the itine-

tint airld-preaclaers of treason had no longer their
oss..mbleal thousands to declaim to. It was trite,'
Hat the drilling and training of anneal rebels 1,2111
ol.w by law prohibited , that the insurrection both I
ir. &whim! and Scotland had proved abortive ; and
that the bloackitirsty gang of Ilaistlewoool had *lll-;
&real the proper punishment of their crimes ; hut
tl e t hampions of rebellion were mill active in their
wateation. Tbougli their proj'eeterl object was changed,
grit- real object was still the saute. Prior to the
eantmearente.it, and ohtring the depettalenee of a late
saalemn inquiry, when a regard to decorum. and a
re4ard to jit.tiee. alike induced the respectable part
oat the conatonstity to wait the event in silence—the
Air.•lllN of distlfection engaging a certain portion of
t' r prcs- in their service, had incessantly attacked all
r) At is sacred anal venerable in our constitution. In
hAtever form their sentiments were expressed, whe-
t er i a nrwspapers. pamphlets, or caricaturee ; whether
their ceaseless addresses, or in their ceaseless an-
s.: a.s to these adciresses—all of these engines were
a.iiie exerted to promote their mischievous designs.
The two {louses of Parliament, the judges of the laud,
the dignitaries of be church, the ordinary ministers
of oar lao:y religion, and that religion itself, have all
Leen made the objects of their ridicule and invective.
If Caere was one person more than another to whose
feeliag on A late occasion some degree of tenderness
due—it was has Majesty the Mite% Yet it was i
against the sacred person of their Sovereign that the
s:aafts of the disaffected had been most steadily level-.
tail. It had been their earnest endeavour to extirpate i
all those principles of loyalty, all those habits of !
resivet anal personal attachment to the Sovereign,
o bids in better times olistineuished the British people.
for was it, alas! among the lower orders alone that
tkese aottrAges against loyalty and decency load been
esamusitt.ad: within the trails of Parliament itself, in
tzar preserve of the Peers of the united kingdom, as-
sembled upon the late investigation, the second Conn-
ed for the defence was bold enuaselt to assert, Brit the
caonolnet of Nero, the worst of the Roman tyrants,
woo; the Issly parallel which he could find for the con-
duct of his presrut Majesty. Forgetting alike the
ainty of allegiance to his lawful Suvereian, and the
el spelt due to the august assembly which he address.
a .1, that learned gentleman had mat disdained to her-
row from the polinteal 111:111111C1Ctury of Hone this t
disloyal, anal unjust comparisott. And to what
were we to aseribe this unparalleled persecution Is
his Majesty thus assailed because his Ministers had
advised him not to place at the head of female society
Inc. whose cominet had become the common scandal earl
Europe, and whose guilt had hem proclaimed by a
erect majority of her judges. Or is it because, upon
assuming the reins of goverment, his Majesty walked'
in the foot-daps of his venerated predecessor, and dill
rant dismiss Irons his presence those tried and faithful '
servants what hall enjoyed his father's eaantiolence? lir
is it because, during the glorious period of his ltd-
genes., the chosen %errant% of the Crown maintained the
struggle for Enrope:.n independence, and achieved for
their country a triumph unexampled in any former
voile! of its history.
'I he time was now arrived when the voice of the
loyal p art of the entruunnity ought to be heard from
the one end of the empire to the other ; and n hen it
etionlol be made to appear, front such meetings as
the present. that, although a few unprincipled dente-
segues may hare for a time suceeeded In delmliete •
the ignorant and misleading the unwary, there nas
still an immense majority of those in whom the real
sinews and strength of the country were concentrated
—determined to rally round the throne, and to defend,
with their fortunes, or, if neeessiery, with their lives.
that nnrivaNed constitution which other nations envy.
• SSA attempt to imitate. He knew that, in the retortion
jargon of the disaffected, nothing was held to be more