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energy which have been exercised by our beloved country during this long and arduous struggle. Had not Britain persevered, the liberties of Europe might have been lost. Had not her valiant sons been foremost in victory both by sea and land, it is too probable that the glorious emulation exhibited by her great allies would have been still dormant. Had not her triumphant armies under the immortal Wellington co-operated with the brave inhabitants in rescuing the Peninsula from the grasp of an unprincipled invader, Germany and Holland might yet have groaned under the iron despotism of the oppressor, and the efforts of the magnanimous Alexander been ineffectual to relieve them. These astonishing energies we believe to have been called forth by that admirable constitution of government which Britons possess as the best inheritance derived from their fathers, and which with proud satisfaction we observe is considered as affording the true basis of civil liberty by surrounding

nations."

Here the Common Council unequivocally and in the strongest terms deliver their opinion that the policy of the war was wise; that the object was in the highest degree important and desirable, being nothing less than the liberties of Europe; that that object had been accomplished through the exertions of this country, and that its happy accomplishment was owing to the firmness and wisdom with which the contest had been pursued, and to the advantages which we derived from the possession of a free constitution. And in thus saying they spoke the genuine sentiments of the people of England. But lo-this very Common Council of London, before the shoes were old in which they followed their former address, make their appearance at court with another, in which they tell the Prince Regent, that the war wasrash and ruinous, unjustly commenced and pertinaciously persisted in, when no rational object was to be obtained;' and that this as well as sundry other evils has arisen from the corrupt state of the representation by which the people had been deprived of their just share and weight in the legislature. If the Prince had been, like Charles II., disposed to jest with men of this stamp, in what a situation might he have placed them by desiring that the first address might have been read for their edification, as the second had been read for his; and then requesting them to reconcile the two!-The invention of printing in parallel columns was a happy one for consistency like this-e. g.

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'Had not Britain persevered, the liberties of Europe might have been lost.

These astonishing energies we believe to have been called forth by that admirable constitution of government which Britons possess.'

No rational object was to be

obtained.

'All constitutional controul over the servants of the crown has been lost, and parliaments have become subservient to the will of ininisters.' It may be proper to shew cause why we should have affirmed that Philip was sober in 1814, and drunk in 1816, when Philip himself might chuse to reverse the statement, and plead drunk on the former occasion, having, at that time, been dining with kings and emperors. But Philip himself cannot be admitted as a fair judge of his own condition; and as persons, who, when in possession of their reason, are sensible, well-disposed, and decently behaved, will, when in liquor, talk nonsense, and become mischievous, quarrelsome, and insulting, it is clear, that Philip was sober when the first address was composed, and non compos mentis on the latter occasion.

In reality, as Great Britain never before had been engaged in so long or so arduous a war, so never was any war so constantly approved by the great body of the people, because none was ever more unequivocally just. It was a cause to which the strong language of old Tom Tell-troth might be applied, at being so just and so religious in all humane and divine respects, that if the noble ariny of martyrs were sent down upon earth to make their fortunes anew, they would chuse no other quarrel to die in, nor hope for a surer way to recover again the crown of glory.'

While the war continued, the large expenditure which it occasioned at home* kept all things in activity, the landlord raised his rents as the government increased its imposts, the farmer demanded higher prices for his produce, and every man who had any thing to sell advanced the price of his commodities in like manner and in full proportion. Upon annuitants, and other persons,

*There is a passage in Bishop Burnet which is strikingly applicable to recent times. He is speaking of Marlborough's war, and shewing how the nation abounded both in money and zeal. 'Our armies as well as our allies were every where punctually paid: the credit of the nation was never raised so high in any age, nor so sacredly maintained the treasury was as exact and as regular in all payments as any private banker could be. It is true a great deal of money went out of the kingdom in specie; that which maintained the war in Spain was to be sent thither in that manner :-by this means there grew to be a sensible want of money in our nation; this was in a great measure supplied by the currency of Exchequer bills and bank notes; and this lay so obvious to the disaffected party, that they were ofren attempting to blast, at least to disparage this paper credit; but it was still kept up. It bred a just indignation in all who had a true love to their country, to see some using all possible methods to shake the administration, which, notwithstanding the difficulties at home and abroad, was much the best that had been in the memory of man and was certainly not only easy to the subjects in general, but gentle even towards those who were endeavouring to undermine it.'

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who, from their sex or age and habits, had no way of improving their limited fortunes, the burthen bore with its whole weight ;a most respectable class, who suffered severely, but without complaining. It was shewn in our last Number, in what manner the transition from a state of war to a state of peace produced, inevitably, great embarrassment and extensive distress. The war, a customer to the amount of more than fifty millions annually, left the markets-it would be absurd to ask whether or not this must affect the innumerable persons who were employed in providing the articles which it required. The extent to which machinery has been carried has thrown many hands out of employment at home; and the use of that machinery, which was at one time almost exclusively our own, and most of which is of our invention, has been introduced abroad; both inevitable consequences of the improved state of knowledge. The continental nations have learnt to manufacture many articles of necessity for themselves, for which they formerly were, in a great degree, dependant upon us; and they have no money to spare for articles of luxury--they have suffered too much during twenty years of warfare and oppression. To these causes must be added, what is perpetually operating as a cause of partial distress, the fluctuation of our own capricious fashions, which, as they vary from muslins to silks, and from silks to stuffs, injure alternately the looms of Glasgow and Manchester, of Spitalfields and of Norwich. Add also the consequences of a season which has been more unfavourable to agricultural produce of every kind than any within the memory of man; and whatever difficulties and distresses may exist either in the agricultural or manufacturing part of the people, may be explained without referring them to corrupt parliaments, profligate ministers, and the Prince Regent.

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We have before us the resolutions of sundry meetings held in the city of London, to consider the propriety of petitioning the Prince Regent and the Legislature for a reform in Parliament.The resolutions from Bishopsgate assert, that the people are goaded with an army of remorseless tax-gatherers, urged on by the cravings of a rapacious, oppressive, and imbecile administration:' they remind us that our history exhibits the patriotic sons of England as 'dismissing and chastising those kings and counsellors, whose profligacy and arbitrary attempts had rendered them obnoxious;' they say that the most profligate expenditure among the people's servants, from the lowest to the highest rank, and an unfeeling disregard of the people's wants and miseries, are among the lightest subjects. of complaint. They tell us, that 'statesmen, living upon the public spoil and holding places of high trust, are found in this day to advocate the accursed doctrine of legitimacy: in other

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other words, the Divine right of kings. They tell us, that the British Government have employed their base engine, the standing army,' to assist in establishing the Inquisition. They say, the said resolutioners of Bishopsgate-ward,-We claim, we demand and insist that we may have a constitutional voice in the House of the people. A full, fair, and free representation of the people and parliaments of short duration will immediately tend to restore the country to health, happiness, and vigour.' And then they say, they shall no longer hear of Habeas-corpus suspension bills, of gagging and treason bills;'-measures, be it observed, which they seem very naturally and properly to apprehend. The resolutions from Farringdon-without complain of the long, desolating and profligate war against the French people, a war whose object, character, and consequences, they both reprobate and deplore.' They complain also of a standing army, wholly unnecessary and dangerous and an intolerable horde of state and of parish paupers.' They require a complete and radical reform, assuring us however that they wish it to be peaceable and tranquil,' and they are convinced that corruption will not dare refuse, or policy misunderstand the prayers and wishes of an united people.' Mr. Coates was the mover of these resolutions, not Mr. Romeo Coates, the amateur of fashion,-but Mr. Coates, the amateur of gin, who recommends his gin as a wholesome and strengthening beverage, and inveighs in his advertisements against those canting moralists who represent gin-drinking as a vice! Mr. Coates is strong in his resolutions,-strong and fiery, they smack indeed of the still,--but certainly not of the right British spirit. Mr. Hitchins of Cripplegate-without is even stronger. He tells us that the causes which blight all the hopes of the merchant, the manufacturer, the agriculturist, the peasant and the artist, are principally if not altogether to be traced to a system alike hostile to the interests of this country, the progress of freedom, and the welfare of the human race; a system first directed to crush the rising energies of freedom in France, and since employed as fatally in eradicating almost every trace of comfort, and every spark of independence at home.' He tells us 'it is in vain to expect that the friends and parties of abuses who now disgrace the honourable House of Commons will ever be brought to sit in judgment upon their own iniquities, or pass the sentence of condemnation upon their own misdeeds.' The inhabitants of this ward disclaim all party-feeling, all violent ebullitions of personal resentment, they wish to avoid all excesses and disturbances; but they are convinced that nothing short of a radical reform will be effectual, and they recommend this measure as the only one which can save the state or satisfy the people :-' as the only means to prevent the country from experiencing the danger of

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anarchy and the horrors of civil war, which appear to be the inevitable tendency and result of a further neglect of that constitutional method of restoring lost confidence Cripplegate has outdone Bishopsgate, and Billingsgate may not be able to go beyond it.

"We asked bread,' says an orator at one of the mob-meetings in the country, and they gave us a stone, by voting so many thousands for a monument to commemorate that fatal day Waterloo.' At the same meeting, a man asserted, that the horrors of the Inquisition had been restored at the point of the British bayonet.' He, perhaps, in his ignorance, believed, upon the authority of Bishopsgate-ward, the infamous and detestable falsehood which he thus repeated. Truth, says a Jewish proverb, stands upon two legs, and a lie upon one;-but this lie has not a leg to stand on. The British government has, on one occasion-the only occasion in its power-interfered respecting the Inquisition, and it was to stipulate in solemn treaty with its ally, the Prince of Brazil, that he would take measures for abolishing it in his dominions. But the men who invent or repeat every kind of calumny against their country have neither ears to hear, nor understanding to comprehend, nor hearts to feel any thing to its honour. With them Buonaparte is no tyrant, Marshal Ney no traitor, and Waterloo a fatal day. The Monthly Magazine tells us that this country has occa sioned the death of 5,800,000 persons, in Calabria, Russia, Poland, Germany, France, Spain and Portugal. Not Buonaparte-but this country, reader, England!-our country, our great, our glorious, our beloved country, according to this Magazinė, has been the guilty cause of all this carnage! And the worthy editor bawls out for condign punishment upon the authors of the war;-not meaning Buonaparte-he, injured man! being, in the opinion of the Pythagorean knight, innocent of this blood! The said Sir Pythagoras has founded a society for preventing war-he should apply to his friend, the Ex-emperor, to become the patron of the society.

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*

More than a century has elapsed since Steele expressed his wonder that men should be malecontents in the only nation which suffers professed enemies to breathe in open air;' and he observed, that the newspapers were as pernicious to weak heads in England, as ever books of chivalry had been in Spain: would that the madness which they engender was as harmless in its kind! What

* Mr.——we beg his pardon, Sir Richard Philips, Knight, informs us, that he is a follower of the Pythagorean school, and has an utter aversion to all animal food. So had his fellow-disciple Oswald, the most ferocious and bloody agent of the French Revolution. So had the Egyptians :

animalibus abstinet omnis

Mensa, nefas illic foetum jugulare capellæ ;

Carnibus humanis vesci licet!

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