VOL. VII. No. 18.]

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TO THE SERIOUS AND IMPARTIAL CONSIDEKATION OF THE HONEST, PATRIOTIC, AND LOYAL MEN OF ENGLAND ARE SUBMITTED THE FOLLOWING OBSERVATIONS ON THE

CONDUCT OF MR. PITT. Freely to make observations on, openly and undisguisedly to approve of or to censure, the conduct of men in place and power, is the undoubted right of every subject of this realm; and, in every one, who, through the means of the press, undertakes to communicate political information to the public, it is not only a right but a duty. In speaking of the Liberty of the Press, we should always remember that which is but too often forgotten, to discriminate carefully as to the objects and the occasions, to which the due exercise of this liberty applies; because, from an indiscriminate application either of the words or of the thing, doubts frequently arise, and, indeed, it becomes a disputable point, whether the thing, of which we boast so much, be a good or an evil, and, of course, whether it ought to be encouraged or suppressed. The inutility, and the public as well as individual injury, in many cases, of exposing, through the means of the press, the faults of persons in private life, is so obvious, that, though no more than the truth be so exposed, the act, from whatever motive proceeding, seldom fails, in this puling nge, to meet with general disapprobation. Perceiving this propensity of the mind, all those who wish to prevent a freedom of language with regard to public men, take care, first to confound public with private character and faults; next to give the appellation of slander to all censure indiscriminately; and, then to break forth into a high-wrought description of the odiousness and wickedness of slander.Whether the art of printing has proved, to mankind in general and to this nation in particular, a fortunate, or an unfortunate discovery; whether that mode of applying this art, which is here denominated the Liberty of the Press, ought, or ought not to have been tolerated; these are questions which we have not now to discuss. The art has been discovered; the Liberty of the Press exists; and, in exercising this liberty, we should not regard it as an indul

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gence; as something that is winked at; nor, with respect to our own duty, as a right which we may either exercise, or not, as our interest or our caprice may happen to dictate. We should recollect, that our laws, our public regulations and institutions, are framed with the knowledge of the existence of a certain influence in the press. All legislators leave something to be effected through the influence of religion, morality, and public opinion; and, ours fail not to make, besides, an allowance for the influence of the Press. The Liberty of the Press, therefore, really forms a part of the present constitution of our government; and, when exercised with respect to the public character or conduct of public men, there seems to be no sound reason for circumscribing it within any other boundary than that of the TRUTH; especially when it be remembered, that these public men have it at all times in their power to cause the press to be used in their behalf; and when it is well-known, that they do cause it so to be used, and that, too, at the expense of the public. A sophistical mode of statement has been employed in order to screen public men from the animadversions of the press. We have been told, that their character is public property; that it ought, therefore, to be carefully watched over by the law. True, in the plain sense of the words. But, by this careful watching is meant a power in the law to punish men for writing truth, if in censure, of public men. Here, then, is the deception: the character of public men is public property; but, it is their true character; and no man should, therefore, be liable to punishment for writing the truth of public men; yet, I am afraid, that, if any one had written the truth of Lord Melville two months ago, he would not have been permitted to prove that truth'; and, probably, he might have lost his ears for endeavouring to open the eyes of his countrymen. While, however, this doctrine restrains the press within very narrow bounds as to the follies and the crimes of men in power, it makes ample amends on the side of their wisdom and their virtue, both of which, in the highest possible degree, we are freely permitted to attribute to them, though they are well known to be fools or

knaves. Yet, seeing that their character is "public property;" seeing that the law considers, or is made to consider, the public as a party deeply interested in such cases, it would, I think, be very hard to show, that false praise is not as likely to be injurious to the public as false censure, of public men. TRUTH is, in such cases, the boundary marked out by reason, by justice, and by the spirit of the laws and constitution of the kingdom; and, while we confine ourselves within that boundary, we must set at defiance the outcry of those, who, for reasons which are obvious enough, stigmatize as a libeller every man that ventures to satirize the conduct of a minister of state. "There is not," says Pope," in the world a greater error,

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than that which fools are so apt to fall "into, and knaves with good reason to encourage, the mistaking of a satirist for a "libeller; whereas to a true satirist nothing " is so odious as a libeller, for the same reason as to a man truly virtuous nothing is so hateful as a hypocrite." With respect to the character and conduct of persons in private life this doctrine may, as was before observed, be too full of terrors to the childish follies, and low, beggarly vices, of the present day; but, if it be not admitted with respect to the public character and conduct of men in place and in power; if they can, and do, at all times, command four-fifths of the press; if their partisans are permitted constantly to ply the public with praises of every part of their character and conduct; if even their vices and their crimes are thus made the subject of eulogium: if all this be so, and if, nevertheless, a man is liable to pu nishment for uttering the TRUTH in censure of men in place and power; then is the Liberty of the Press, considered as a check upon such men, a mere mockery; while, on the other hand, it is to them a most convenient instrument in deluding the people into an approbation of, or, at least, a quiet submission to, measures, against which, were they left to judge from their own observation and feelings, their minds could not fail to revolt.

But, viewing the Liberty of the Press as something real; something that is, in truth, to be used as a means of preserving the nastion from the consequences of the ignorance, the folly, or the wickedness, of public men; viewing the Liberty of the Press in this light, it will be, I think, readily allowed, that those amongst us, who have it in their power, are, at this time, called upon to exercise it in its most extensive latitude, and in every way which is likely to prove efficacious in arresting the progress of that system of corruption,

by the means of which we have been reduced to our present dangerous and disgraceful situation. We feel that we are making, each of us according to his rank and capacity, great sacrifices for the preservation of our country and our government; but, we have the mortification to see, that, in almost every instance, these sacrifices are useless; and, that the danger keeps rolling on as rapidly and with as menacing an aspect as if no sacrifices whatever had been made to avert it. The toils, expenses, and deprivations of a nine years' war, were lately compensated by a peace which robbed us of the honours won by our forefathers, and which afforded us not an hour of repose. We are again at wat with the same enemy, and we have the misfortune to see our affairs under the guidance of the same minister, who, during the last war, a hundred times solemnly promised us, that he never would make peace without obtaining for us indemnity for the past and security for the future.' Already has this war lasted two years. Constantly, during the whole of that time, have we been kept in a state of alarm for the safety of our property and our lives; preparations have been made for surrounding the metropolis with a forti fication; for inundating the counties where the enemy may be expected to land; for fleeing from the place of his landing, for driving away or killing our cattle, for de stroying our provisions, and for burning our barns and houses; and this, too, let it be well remembered, at a time when our mi nisters tell us, that they have eight hundred thousand men in arms, a number twice a great as that of all the armies of France put together! While we are thus kept in a con stant dread of the enemy; trembling for out lives, and, apparently having no hope in our own exertions, our enemy is stretching is power in every direction; he is hardly noticing us, and when he does cast his looks towards us, it is only to laugh us to scora. Nor is there any hope, if the present sys tem be persevered in, that this our disgrace will ever end but in our actual subjugation to the enemy; that is to say, in our be coming the slaves of Frenchmen. For, de we not see, that we are led on from bad to worse; that we daily become weaker and weaker in proportion to the strength of our enemy? At the close of the last wark that enemy was unable to send a squadron to sta; but he has now two squadrons at sea, threatening the very existence of our most var luable colonics, and even the mother-country herself, while he is, besides, able to keep two or three of our fleets continually occu pied in watching his harbours: and, in short,

tuated by motives so base; for, on the contrary, I believe, that there are many whose motives are perfectly, good. But then, sur veying that gentleman's conduct for some years past, I can want nothing to convince me, that these persons, though upright, and though, perhaps, generally speaking, of enlightened minds, are destitute of adequate information, or are grossly deceived, as to this particular subject. Amongst those, therefore, to whom these observations are submitted, I have this description of persons more immediately in my eye. They will, some of them at least, recollect, 'that I myself was once, in the narrow sphere of my influence, a supporter of Mr. Pitt; and, I am persuaded, that they will not doubt of my having been actuated by motives which, at least, were free from the imputation of seltishness. I thought him a wise, high-minded, and upright statesman; and, unless I produce grounds amply to justify a total change of opinion in this respect, they will, of course, charge me with inconsistency; but, if I do produce such grounds, it will surely be not unreasonable, that, in the name of consistency, I call on them to follow my example. The limits, within which I shall be compelled to confine myself, will not permit me to make a very free use of quotation or of reference. I have, indeed, room for little more than a plain unvarnished narrative but then, I will adduce no fact that can, with truth, be contradicted; and, as to the inferences, they will, if erroneous, be open to the detection of the reader. The same motive whence I have been induced to make this serious appeal to the honesty, patriotism, and loyalty of my countrymen, will, of course, induce me to give to it the widest circulation I am able: yet, convinced that no cause, which stands in need of unfair advantage, either can or ought to triumph, I hold myself bound to publish through the same channel, and with all convenient speed, any comment (signed with the name of the writer) that may be made and transmitted to me, upon the whole, or upon any part, of what I now offer to the public. b)

Having thus, clearly and candidly, though, perhaps, with somewhat too much of tediousness, stated the object which I have in view, and the manner in which I propose to endeavour to effect that object, I shall proceed to describe the conduct of Mr. Pitt, FIRST, from his quitting office in February, 1801, to April, 1804. SECOND, from his return to office in May, 1804 to March last. THIRD,

since the Tenth Report of the Naval Commissioners was printed, comparing the

principles he has now acted upon with those which he professed in the carly part of his public life.

FIRST: it is hardly necessary to remind the reader, that, at the time when Mr. Pitt resigned, in 1801, we were engaged in wary and that the epoch, though not the most, was certainly not the least, alarming of that war. The ground of his resignation, as it was afterwards clearly avowed by himself in the House of Commons, was this, as expressed in his own words, on the 16th of February, 1801: "It was upon the turn which the "Catholic Question took, the success of "which I conceive to be essentially neces

sary to the strength, prosperity and unanimity of the United Kingdoms, that I "felt myself bound in conscience and in ho

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nour, to give in my resignation. The "early discussion and decision of that ques "tion were incumbent upon those, who "under the circumstances of the union, "considered it as a measure of the utmost

importance to the strength and tranquillity "of the empire. So strong is my convic "tion of the propriety and necessity of that

measure, that I could not continue toɔ̃te“main a member of that government which "deemed it inexpedient to entertain it." This was the open declaration of his mo tives for resigning; and, it is necessary to observe here, that, at the time of Mr. Pitt's resigning, and making the above declaration, there were two papers circulated amongst the Roman Catholics of Ireland, assuring them that Mr. Pitt would never return to office without bringing forward and support. ing their claims. Leaving this topic for the present we must now follow him to his conduct at the time of making the peace with France, first, however noticing what passed relative to the formation of Mr. Addington's ministry. Mr. Addington was, it is now ascertained, selected by his Majesty himself; but, Mr. Pitt, to whose father Addington's father had been family Doctor,and who, from a barrister of little or no note, had rais ed Addington to the Chair of the House of Commons, finding Addington chosen by the King, made haste to show his approbation of the choice; and, indeed, Mr. Addingtou did not consent to become minister till he had consulted with, and obtained the approbation of, and a positive promise of support from Mr. Pitt. Nay, Mr. Pitt offered to remain in place, upon certain conditions, after Mr. Addington had been thus selected by the King; though, it will be remembered, that the Lords Spencer and Grenville and Mr. Windham had gone out of office with hing and, this offer was made without any appro

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