THE Letter which is here reprinted, as connected with the preceding Essay, was occasioned by a speech delivered in the House of Commons by the Member for Norwich, Mr. William Smith, the part of which in question is thus reported in the Parliamentary Debates:

'The honourable member then adverted to that tergiversation of principle which the career of political individuals so often presented. He was 'far from supposing, that a man who set out in life with the profession of certain sentiments, was "bound to conclude life with them.. He thought there might be many occasions in which a 'change of opinion, when that change was unat'tended by any personal advantages, when it appeared entirely disinterested, might be the result of sincere conviction. But what he most detested, what most filled him with disgust, was 'the settled, determined malignity of a renegado. 'He had read in a publication (The Quarterly 'Review), certainly entitled to much respect from its general literary excellences, though he dif⚫fered from it in its principles, a passage alluding 'to the recent disturbances, which passage was as follows:

"When the man of free opinions commences "professor of moral and political philosophy for: the benefit of the public..the fables of old cre dulity are then verified.. his very breath becomes venomous, and. every page which he sends

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'abroad carries with it poison to the unsuspicious
'reader. We have shown, on a former occasion,
'how men of this description are acting upon the
'public, and have explained in what manner a
large part of the people have been prepared for
the virus with which they inoculate them. The
dangers arising from such a state of things are
'now fully apparent, and the designs of the in-
cendiaries, which have for some years been pro-
'claimed so plainly, that they ought, long ere
'this, to have been prevented, are now manifested
'by overt acts."

With the permission of the House, he would 'read an extract from a poem recently published, to which, he supposed, the above writer alluded (or at least to productions of a similar kind), as constituting a part of the virus with which the public mind had been infected:

"My brethren, these are truths and weighty ones:

'Ye are all equal; nature made ye so.

Equality is your birthright;—when I gaze

On the proud palace, and behold one man,

In the blood-purpled robes of royalty,

Feasting at ease, and lording over millions;

Then turn me to the hut of poverty,

'And see the wretched labourer, worn with toil,
⚫ Divide his scanty morsel with his infants,

⚫ I sicken, and indignant at the sight,
**Blush for the patience of humanity.""

'He could read many other passages from 'these works equally strong on both sides; but, if they were written by the same person, he should like to know from the honourable and 'learned gentleman opposite, why no proceedings ⚫ had been instituted against the author. The poem "Wat Tyler," appeared to him to be the most

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"seditious book that was ever written; its auth 'did not stop short of exhorting to genera anarchy; he vilified kings, priests, and noble and was for universal suffrage, and perfec equality. The Spencean plan could not b compared with it; that miserable and ridiculou performance did not attempt to employ an arguments; but the author of Wat Tyler con 'stantly appealed to the passions, and in a style which the author, at that time, he supposed 'conceived to be eloquence. Why, then, had not 'those who thought it necessary to suspend the Habeas Corpus act taken notice of this poem? • Why had not they discovered the author of that 'seditious publication, and visited him with the penalties of the law? The work was not pub'lished secretly, it was not handed about in the 'darkness of night, but openly and publicly sold in the face of day. It was at this time to be 'purchased at almost every bookseller's shop in London: it was now exposed for sale in a book'seller's shop in Pall-mall, who styled himself 'bookseller to one or two of the royal family. 'He borrowed the copy, from which he had 'just read the extract, from an honourable friend of his, who bought it in the usual way; and, therefore, he supposed there could be no difficulty ' in finding out the party that wrote it.

heard, that when a man of the name of WinterHe had 'bottom was some years ago confined in Newgate, the manuscript had been sent to him, with liberty to print it for his own advantage, if he thought proper; but that man, it appeared, did not like to risk the publication; and, therefore,