The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-02-12 00:00:00

,TES

hew been ailed the trial of the Owes, intltbd—
,. The Triattiph of Public Opinion," Stc. After stating
what be thinks was the great object of the Ministerial
perseedtines of her Majesty, the author says...
Assoc', bas, .for a long time, been the general (Neel
of all their measures; that is, since they began to perceive
'that the progress of political knowledge was such, that.
they must soon lose that degree of arbitrary aut
rity, arising from undue 'lutist:lice, which they now
possess, or impose farther shackles upou the notic":
It was about the time that the first conspiracy against
her Majesty commenced, a quarter of a century ago,
that their efforts for this purpose became particularly
strenuous and marked. That her Majesty should,
frino that period to the present moment, have been 1,
anlformty detested, dreaded, and persecuted, by this
hateful faction, is one of the finest eulogiums, which
that illustrious woman could receive. To recapitulate
their liberticide act", during this period, would be to
enumerate almost all the official transactions of the.
Administration. Not to go farther back than the
, last Session of the worst Parliament, but one, that
Mr existed, such were the six monstrous bills, prinei-
,
.pallv directed against meetings of the people, and the
.liberty of the press, which were then, as if the prose-
cution against bee Majesty had been actually in prow
pert, enacted into laws. If these acts had been at-
tended to, her Majesty would long ago have beet'
sacrificed without even the fora. •of a trial. But the'
ilidepenolent part of the press, and of the people, have',
irkielly disregarded, as it is their duty to disregard
@Vert unconstitutional law, these base enactments.
/here is not a mall of common spirit, who would not
tufinitely prefer banishment, the punishment allotted,
ender these acts, to the second conviction fur libel, to
au actpiescence in such iniquitous decrees.
"The Bill of Pains and Penalties is an appropriate
supplement to the six acts. It is a last effort of the
faction: and it is not unskilfully made ; for, if
they could succeed in substituting for the law of
the laud this barbarous complication -of all that is
unprincipled its legislation and arbitrary in judicature,
their object would he accomplished: trial by jury
would he snperseslesi; the liberty of the press extin-
guished; and an absolute despotism fully established.
No person, iu his senses, who recollects that a previous '1
censorship on the press was, last year, deliberately
agitated in their councils, and that they oily then
abandoned the idea as premature, will doubt that the
present measures, although nominally directed against
the Queen, are in reality aimed at every subject is
the nation, and eventually even at the Throne itself;
that they are the result of an extensive plot, delibe-
rately formed by the agents of the oligarchy, or the
Ministers of the Crown, Iniircetly to effect those
atrocious ptirpotes, which they despair of being able
to accomplish by more direst means. This, or some
expedient of situate operation, they are sensible, and
for once I agree with them, ran alone afford the
chance of preserving their system from immediate
overthrow, and of preventing the King, the Queen,
the Parliament, and the People, from recovering their
independence respectively."
The proceedings against the Queen appear to have
had notch deeper design', than persons who regard
only the intellectual poverty of the administration,
without adverting to the effects of assiduity and per;
severance, even amongst the dullest animals, in the
pursuit of any favourite object, might he apt to allow
them credit for. By accustomieg the people to the es--
tahlishinent of inquisitorial tribunals, hitherto an-s,
known to our laws, such as the Milan Commission;
by practically asserting the right of the Cabinet to
dispense with the law of the land at pleasure, as
is
the omission of her Majesty's name in the Liturgy,
as well as by all their subsequent proceedings of a si-
milar description, in the course of this extraordinary
perseention, it was hoped that the nation might be
gradually brought to acquiesce in the destruction of
their liberties, by the immolation of their (listen.
Lord Castlereagh, who has the audacity to declare in
the face of the country, that he will not be 4. vete-
ratted or dragooned by petitions," i.e. that be will
disregard the complaints of the people, has also the
effrontery to assert, in the face of as clear and une-
quivocal an art of Parliament as ever was recorded,l
that the insertion of her Majesty's name in the Liturgy.
is not " matter of right, but of grate gad 'drove."
What, in the name of heaven, is this Peron, that he
shotild claim to be a privileged interpreter of acts of
Parliament, and of the English language. of which
he knows not the " fundamental features," as well as
privileged to enforce or dispense with the known aid
arknowledgett laws of the land ! Are we, indeed,
come to this last degree of debasement, that a statute
is law, or not law, according as Lord Castlereagh may
choose to interpret it ? And are our rirtaal repesea-
callers •f' the people, like the abject senate of Rome,
in the slays of the Roman empire, to regale us with
the odor of their obsequiouseess, ta registering. the
edicts of this new :pastes
I repeat it, Sir, there is not in the whole of our
statutes, there cannot tossiilly be a law more correctly
or More nnegnivocally worded, than the act of uni-
feeresity ; nor can any man, whii understands the Eng.
lisls language, and is not determined to pervert the
meaning of words, entertain the smallest doubt or he.
sitation in considering the Queen Consort of England
entitled, as a matter of rixist, to 'have her 111114 in- I
'meted in the Liturgy ;or that to omit or toespunge it,
'is not an act of violence, of outrage, Bei of illegality.
of the most flagrant kind. This is a teeth so palpa-.1
hie and so glaring, as to set even the quibbles and the
audacity of common lawyers at defiance: it is eo strik- '
ing and so perspicuous. that I question whether e'en
that exquisite protegee•of Ministers, that most accom-
plished off ravines da,ehaasores, Mademoiselle Detnotit,
would venture to endeavour to explain away the words.
of this act by a daatle eseteledre ; no animal, I Should
think, that was.nOt a curious compusid of the lawyei
and the isuroughissortger, would make so shameless
act l
attempt. 1
•.Ip my sixth letter-Of the first series, it emme'', in the
Stake:man of the ''24th of June; in my elereitit letter,
inserted in that of—the 10th of July, sad in several
others; I bkve exiitised at length' the aboaiiiity of file
allegations of. Mialstere in their own deicers.. •-f have
-thare shown that the words, "-that, is all those
prayers, litanies, and collet% -which do lay Way
*kik to the Kieg.: Queen, or Royal ?token's; tho I
alarm be ahem! and distilled, from bite to time,
tiTed dfitiaireetisfa4l)Oftilleaw""tful antbeicssien'
ority:! coal; "lialihavrtr. sow :
ollhertneantag, in'the ease of tbe Queen, dm Altering
lb..aatae from, Cbarloate Caroline,. or -frootAke

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