a sacred duty.' We may again refer to Sherwin's Political Register: "Of America it might truly be said what has been falsely and vainly said of this ill-fated land, that she is the envy and admiration of the world.' America is a thorn in the bosoms of the despots of Europe; she may proudly bid them defiance. The people of France have once shewn their tyrants the consequence of irritating them too far, and will again regenerate when left to themselves. Let us unite and be firm." March 14, 1818. Price 2d. "I say whilst such things are permitted by him, (the King), it can be taken in no other light than a conspiracy, not to protect, but injure; he cannot be considered a father but an enemy; and a continuance of this system will convince the people that monarchy is incompatible with freedom." March 14, 1818. Price 2d. In another paper the same subject is pursued under the form of a letter to the King, intended to be after the manner of Junius: "If, Sir, my limits would permit, I might explore the page of history, and open your eyes to the dreadful calamities which ministers, of a similar description to those you are now confiding in, have brought upon their deluded Prince. I would most particularly direct your attention to the reign of Richard the Second, and its melancholy sequel. The reverses and calamities of this ill-fated sovereign, fell upon him at a time when every thing seemed favorable to the exercise of that arbitrary power, which, in his name, his ministers, like your's, had the unprincipled audacity to assume. The great offices of the crown, and the magistracy of the whole kingdom, were (then as now) put into such hands as were subservient to all the views of the ministers. They had also a PARLIAMENT ENTIRELY AT THEIR DEVOTION; but all these advantageous circumstances served only to prove, that a British Prince who suffers his ministers to rule by tyranny and oppression, can have no permanent security against the just resentiments of an injured and exasperated nation." Independent Whig. Feb. 8, 1818. Sunday, Price 94d. "When a reflecting man views the condition of the present government, it is almost impossible for him not to feel for the situation of the Royal Family. With all its wickedness there is something in monarchy that excites pity. Surrounded by an almost impenetrable barrier of treachery, falsehood, and fraud, a monarch is liable to be called upon at any time to answer for crimes which are committed in his name, but which he has neither the means nor the ability to prevent. His servants may be considered as being engaged in a continual conspiracy to take away his life, for they know well the danger to which he is exposed." Sherwin's Pol. Register. Sept. 12, 1818. Price 2d. Where appears also, an elaborate semi-ironical tirade, intitled the Blessings of Monarchy. "Princes can do no wrong; and, were it possible for them to be vicious, they have the power to forgive themselves, being the head of national religion. Recollect the benefit we enjoy in our holy religion is connected with the king's enjoyment of Anna Bullen. You Jacobin Sherwin, you see your mistake: the princes' fountain of comfort originates in the Scriptures, and nature." A penny-worth of what you please to call it. 1818. The Yellow Dwarf used chiefly to distinguish himself by his extreme rancor against the clergy, generally dedicating one half of his paper to this purpose: he even introduced the name of a very active and respectable divine, and endeavoured, as far as his feeble power of satire would permit, to hold him up to the ridicule of the people: he shall speak for himself, however, (for he speaks very plainly) as to the cause of his hostility to the church. "One mischief of this alliance between church and state (which the old-fashioned statesman understood so thoroughly, and the modern sciolist only by halves) is, that it is tacit and covert. The church does not profess to take any active share in affairs of state, and by this means is able to forward all the designs of indirect and crooked policy more effectually, and without suspicion. The garb of religion is the best cloak for power. There is nothing so much to be guarded against as the wolf in sheep's clothing. The clergy pretend to be neutral in all such matters, not to meddle with politics. But that is, and always must be, a false pretence. Those that are not with us, are against us, is a maxim that always holds true. These pious pastors of the people, and accomplices of the government, make use of their heavenly calling and demure professions of meekness and humility, as an excuse for never committing themselves on the side of the people: but the same sacred and spiritual character, not to be sullied by mixing with worldly concerns, does not hinder them from employing all their arts and influence on the side of power, and of their own interest. Their religion is incompatible with a common regard to justice or humanity; but it is compatible with an excess of courtly zeal." Feb. 7, 1818. Price 4d. Nor was the Yellow Dwarf the only one who pursued this line: the following is an address to the Archbishop of Canterbury, queted from "The Axe laid to the Root;" or "A Fatal Blow to Oppressors :" "As the apostle Paul; like him you would go forward, under the influence of that which you swore you possessed; being more tame than the ass, you would bear the hardships of hunger and cold; such conduct would illuminate the world, and set religion on high; it would show the infidels their deficiency; they would be compelled, seeing your good works, to glorify your Father which is in heaven: then would the oppressors of the day, with the attorney-general aud a ministerial judge, their cruel instruments, with all their profession for holiness, be compelled, not only to bow and let the stormy breath of Hone pass over their defenceless heads, but they would also shrink into nothing." No. VI. 1818. The two following quotations need no preface: "In the first place, if an Englishman was to utter a disrespectful word against what is called the regal authority' (whether intentionally or not, or whether he was aware of the consequence or not) he is liable to be hanged, and his head severed from his body, and placed upon a pole for his friends to go and amuse themselves with, by contemplating those ghastly features, which, no doubt, were once as agreeable and fascinating as they are now become loathsome and disgusting. This agreeable spectacle must be rendered doubly interesting, from the intercourse between them being rigidly prohibited from his first apprehension until the fulfilment of this admirable' and humane law." 6 The Reformer, or Williams's Political Register. Suppose Toby, the sapient pig, had been born the hereditary monarch of this land, should we not have expected that his privy counsellors, and his prime ministers, and his secretaries of state, and his bishops, and his archbishops, and his deacons, would have been congenial swine? Would it not have been declared treason to kill a grunter of any description, whether he were found wallowing in the farmer's dairy, instead of the kennel, or feasting in the farmer's granary, instead of wandering in search of acorns in the forest? Pigs, in such a case, would have been objects of peculiar veneration. Princes might have woven petticoats for them; and the gravest and wisest of mankind have held bacon in a just and loyal abhorrence." Black Dwarf, p. 375. The same author speaks in the following language of the hopes of the factions, at the time of the disturbances that took place in the midland counties in the year 1817: "The press was armed in favor of reform to a degree unprecedented. It was the power of a Briareus, who brandished a hundred thousand arms, and spoke with more than half a million voices. -The agents of the corrupt system trembled in their dark recesses -the hour of retribution seemed at hand:-and a reviving nation seemed about to be invested with the FULL SOVEREIGNTY of a brave and generous people." Black Dwarf. Jan. 1, 1818. One more quotation from the same author of a later date : "We can do nothing singly. We must march in concert. The plan of obtaining possession of the waste lands should be connected with the penny subscriptions. To amass money would do little good. It should be well applied. If we filled our chests with cashe it would be useless there; and if we were foolish enough to take paper securities, we might only collect air bubbles, to burst ere they were touched. Let us endeavour to obtain the soil-some place whereon to stand, and to tell tyranny it is our own. A patriolic society, a joint-stock company, for redeeming the constitution of our country, will not be among the most unpopular, or least profitable of speculations." I may conclude these extracts, with a specimen of the manner that calamities are touched upon by these men, than which none more distressing in a private view, or in a public one more serious and deplorable, were ever visited upon the human kind; together with an attempt to throw ridicule upon those indisputably good acts of the government which it was in vain to persuade honest men to blame, or even call in question: WHAT'S THIS? My Dad is no better, my Daughter is dead, Which you must all deplore from the tail to the head; I have fully agreed with Joe, Louis, and Spain, They never shall flog the poor blackeys again; We must build some more Churches and Chapels, and then, Now what is it that these writers so loudly profess to call for? -reform in parliament. On this head, indeed, it is by most persons agreed, that some alterations might be made for the better, with regard to the more equal representation of the country; and thus far the theme is plausible enough, and received without any feeling of suspicion or mistrust. Many a sober mind will listen to what they urge, because it has been acknowledged by greater and better men than they, that something should be done. They, however, do not rest here. They look to no steps to improvement; no cautious care, no experienced wariness is their's; they would have all done and undone in a moment, at one fell swoop, a deep, unsparing, radical reform. Reform is indeed an old story; the corresponding society that complimented the wild French legislators of 1792, were advocates too for parliamentary reform: but in these days our modern pleaders leave them far behind, and with an audacity that knows no limits, openly expose to the world schemes of ignorance and artifice, which they might with better sagacity have kept concealed. A symptom of compliance with some reasonable and intelligible plan for reform, has in latter times shown itself on the part of the legislature. And what is the immediate consequence on the conduct of this party? They instantly took the alarm, fearing (with the usual measure of patriot zeal) nothing so much as the success. of their own cause. The object once granted, their clamor must cease, and their importance (nay, even in many instances their chief mode of support) infallibly destroyed. A new ground therefore was chosen, a new explanation made to their claims, and a fresh demand. appeared, which, while it defied any hopes of concession, has, at least, laid bare the naked merits of their cause to every man in the United Kingdom that dares think for himself. Radical reform is now explained by two other phrases, universal suffrage and annual parliaments: now universal suffrage means that all men (turned of twenty-one) whether possessing property or not, should have the same and equal votes in the choice of representatives in the House of Commons. Let us examine the subject more closely, and with better lights than these writers can afford us, We read in the pages of one of the first writers (historical or political), which the last century has bequeathed to us, the following passage: "Man born in a family is compelled to maintain society from necessity, from natural inclination, and from habit. The same creature, in his farther progress, is engaged to establish political society, in order to administer justice; without which there can be no peace among them, nor safety, nor mutual intercourse. We are therefore to look upon all the vast apparatus of our government, as having ultimately no other object or purpose but the distribution of justice, or in other words, the support of the twelve judges. Kings and parliaments, fleets and armies, officers of the court and revenue, ambassadors, ministers and privy counsellors, are subordinate in their end to this part of administration. Even the clergy, as their duty leads them to inculcate morality, may justly be thought, so far as regards this world, to have no other useful object of their institution." The more we reflect on these words the more we shall be convinced of their truth. Now what is justice-but the securing to every man his own, or, in other words, his property and the sole object of the whole array of political government, is to preserve this from foreign or internal rapine. It is clear, therefore, Hume's Essays, Part i, v. |