Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1824-03-23
LIBERAL SENTIMENTS.

The following speech (says the New York A
merican)wasdciivcredb by Mr.. j jeffrey at the ami
versary dinner in Edinburg, on the 2Gth of jan
uary, given by the friends and admirers of MIR.
Fox, in coInmcmoration of his principles. AT
this dinner the chief wing nobility and gentry of
Scotland attended; and it was before such an as
scmbly that this eloquent tribnte to the free m
sttuiions and cheering example of America was
pronounced. We have the more pleasure in
making this speech public here. rs we have rea-
son to know that A1r. Jchrey differs entirely in
his sentiments vi Our country from the preludi-
ced, not to say venal, conductors of the Quar-
terly Review; and that, while the latter lose no
opportunity of disparaging our morals, manners
and laws, Mr.. jeffrey takes pleasure in bearing
testimony TO their purity and effect.
MIR. jeffrey rose, and was welcomed with
long and loud applause. After this had subsi-
ded, he proceeded. Though it is the principal
business of a meeting like this to do honor to the
champions of our own rights, aud the principles
of our own Freedom, l propose now, with your
Lordship's Indulgence, to bring under its notice
the concerns and the merits of another country,
which though. i thank God, now foreign and in
dependent III relation to us, | trust never will be
regarded as alien either to the people o. Britain
or the common interests of liberty. / allude,
my Lords, to the United States of America.
(~.4Pptausc.) 1t is not any part, however, of my
purpose to enlarge On her present greatness and
growing Importance, or the mighty influence
which she IS destined hereafter To- exercise on
the fortunes of the world. To that %futurity it is
animating TO look forward-and to think that
there is nothing in the prospect it presents to us
that is not bright with the promise of great i'm
provcmcnt. But it is rather to her present con-
dition, and TO the advantages we have ALREADY
derived from her, that | wish to call the attention
OF the meeting. For, to my mind, that notion
has already done the most essential service to
the cause of freedom-not perhaps so much by
the conduct of her people, or by the acts of her
government, as by her mere existence-in
peace, respect, and prosperity, under institu.
tons more practically popular, a constitution
more purely democratic, than has ever prevail
ed among civilized men from the beginning oil
the world-thus Affecting a splendid illustration.
and irrefragible proof, ofthc possibility Of recon
cling the utmost extent OF freedom with the
maintenance Of public authority, and the great
est order, and tranquility and security to private
rights, with the most unboundcd exercise az co.
litical ones. What else. indeed, can furnish 50
conclusive and triumphant a refutation OF the
pitiful s~ophisms and absurd predictions by which
the advocates OF existing abuse have at all times
cndcavoured to create a jealousy and appreheu.
sion Of reform? You cannot touch the most
corrupt and imbecilc government without un-
settling the principles aud Infringing the frame
"a ONhCt) ~ C0hfON 'NN'N N'l' BO''bDdi
rights without encouraging them to be disobe-
dent to lawful authority and sowing the seeds
of continual rebellion and perpetual discOn-
tent-nor recognize popular pretcnsions in any
shape, without coming ultimately TO the abolition
of all distinctions and the division and destruc-
ton of all propcrty-without involving society,
in short, in disorders at once frightful and con.
temptiblc, and reducing all things to the level of
an insecure and ignoble, and bloody equality.
Such are the reasonings by which we are now
to be persuaded that liberty is incompatible with
private happiness or national prosperity, and
that the dcspotic governments of the world
ought to be maintained, if it were only to pro-
tect the people from the consequences Of al
lowing them any controul over the conduct of
their rulers TO these we need not now an
swer in words, or by reference to past and qucs-
tionable examples; but VIC put them down at
once, and trample them contemptuously TO the
Garth, by a short appeal TO the e~riStence Gnd can
IF .4mcrtcG! (Great a~ypLause,) What
is tic country ofthe universe, / would now ask, in
which property is most sacred, OF industry most