The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-02-21 00:00:00

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ON THE OPINION THAT THE VOICE OF THE
PEOPLE IS NO WHERE TO BE HEARD lICT
IN• PARLIAMENT.
There no doctrine so absurd hut pride and selfish-
ness will adopt and maintain it with obstinacy, if it be
c .ducive to their gratification. Alexander, it is
said, really believed himseif a god. The vilest of the
comers demanded divine honours. Many instances
are on record of wretched beings, with hardly any thing
worthy ef man about them, forgetting, in consequence
of a little elevatiott above others, that they were mor-
tals ; behaving with the wickedness and cruelty of
devils, and at the same time arrogating the power and
dignity of the celestial nature. It is related of Han-
no. the Cathaginian, that he taught starlings to say,
•• Dens Home ;"• and that when a very large number
had learned their lesson, be turned them lose into the
woods, hoping they would teach the wild birds on the
trees to repeat the same words, and that thus the divi-
nly of Hanno might he wafted in the remotest re-
gions, and become the worship of the universe. Such
conduct appears to resemble the ravings of the poor
lunatic, who crowns himself, as he sits in his desolate
cell, with a crown of straw, and imagines, while be
sways a sceptre of the same materials, that he is an
emperor. But in truth, the pride of despots, I .nean
those who have all the dispositions of despots, though
ti.ey may not have the diadems, displays many of the
symptoms of downright lunacy Pride is allowed by
the physicians to have a powerful effect in turning the
brain ; and thergh it may not always fit elleunhappy
sufferer for Bedlam, yet commonly renders him unfit
toe the oLce asocial life.
Shocking as madness is, it sometimes behaves in a
manner which turns pity into laughter. Can any
thing be more ridiculous, than the insolence of some
persons, who having adopted high aristocratical na-
tions, to correspond with their high birth, high titles,
and high rank, declare they know not what is meant
by the people out of Parliament ; that they do not
acknowledge the political existence of the people, but
on the benches of St. Stephen's chapel ? Individnals
of low degree they may know, and employ in their
service, but they know nothing of the people, as mil-
liens of MIN, possessing rights or power. " The
constitution (say they) knows nothing of the people
considered as individuals." King, lords, and commons
constitute the nation ; but what is meant by the peo-
ple they cannot divine. A mob they know, and would
always have them dispersed by the military, as !Mill
as two or three are gathered together; but the people,
as a part of the constitution, they never could discover.
Mr. Burke, the great Coryphteus of aristocracy,
says, 41 As apeople can have no right to a corporate
capacity without universal consent, so neither have
they a eight to hold exclusively any lands in the name
and title of a corporation. On the scheme of the pre-
sent rulers in our iteighb• n ing country, regenerated
as they are, they have no more right to the territory
celled France than I (Edmund Burke) have. //-Go
are these insolent men, calling themselves Me French
mitten, that would monopolize this fair domain of na-
ture ? Is it because they speak a certain jargon
Is &t their mode of chattering ? The crowd of men
on the other side of the channel, who hare ti: impu-
dence to call themselves a PEOPLE, can never he the
lawful exclusive possessors of the soil." How truly
laughable to hear an individual, Mr. Edmund Burke,
taxing twenty-six millions of human creatures with
exrunvecs, for presuming to call themselves a Pro-
;ma 1 I must smile at such absurdity, while I sin-
cerely lament that this ingenious man has missed the
opportunity of raising his family to the peerage, the
grand object of so many years indefatigable labour,
by a loss never to be repaired, and in which every
feeling heart must sympathize. Ambition, It hat art
Orin to the feelings of a father, exclaiming like David,
" 0 Absalom, my son, my son !" The great teacher
?Death shows the vanity of .all human aspirations at
sublunary glory. He who loses a son in tho prime of
life and the career of honour, may learn to weep over
the thousands, whose dearest relatives have been cut of
by the sword of war, in consequence of doctrines
which he nnintained by a gaudy display of his elo-
quence, without foreseeing or regarding the calamities
they had a tendency to produce.
The subtle writer goes on and observes, that " When
tl:e multitude (from the context he means a at....loalvy
of the people) are not under the habitual social disci•
Vine of the wiser, more expert, and more opulent,
they can scarcely be said to ex in civil society ...When
you separate the common sort of men from their pro-
per chieftans. so as to form them into an adverse army,
I nolonger know that venerable object called Cie Pro-
PIA, in such a disbanded race if deserters and raga-
Londe. For awhile they may be terrible indeed; but
in such a manner as wild beasts are terrible. The
wind owes to them no sort of submission. They are,
as they have always been reputed, rebels. They may
lawfully be FOL'OIIT WITII and brought under, ;rhea-
ever an advantage offers.'?

What gave rise to these elucidations he has toll ns
a few pages before. " The factions now so busy
amongst ns, in order to divest men of all love of
their country, and to remove from their minds all duty
with regard to the slate, endeavour to propogate an
optnoin that the TROPLE, in forming their common-
wealth hash bp wo means patted with their power over
it 1" Iforrendman dicta!

Discuss any of their schemes—their answer is
—it is the act of the PIOPLt, and that is sufficient !
The people are masters of the commonwealth ; because
io-snbstance they are the commonwealth! The French
revolution, say they, was the aetof the majority of the
people ; and if the majority of any other people, the
people of England for instance, wish to make the same
change, they hive the same right.—Just the same un-
doubtedly. That is, NONE •t ALL."
Such is the doctrine of this warm partisan of aris-
tocratical distinction. But what say seven or eight
millions of good people, who wish nothing in their
interference in politics. but to secure and extend their
own happiness, and to snake all others happy within
the sphere of their influence ? Let them say what
they please, their remonstrance must be heard. They
are political nen-entities ; they are as pride commonly
calla. inferiors is private life, stunoos., or peopig wAsai
14 °lied, kamcs.
But now comes the tax-gatherer. These non-
entities must find reel tangible money to pay for the
salaries of places, to pay pensions, and ;he interest of
money advanced fps the waging 9f wars, said to be is
&bees oriiir. ;Wet. Asd religion. .Ih will sot do Us