N° VI. MONDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1797.

Qui didicit patriæ quid debeat.

HOR.

WEEKLY EXAMINER.

LIES.

Morning Chronicle v. Morning Chronicle.

"In the dreadful scheme of Requisition which Mr. PITT has re"solved on, and which our Representatives so cordially abet, no "time is to be given for remonstrance. Our Readers will see "that it is to be hurried on with a degree of haste almost unpa"ralleled in the History of Finance. By the impediments which "are flung in the way of Meetings, IT IS UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE "for the People to meet and express their sentiments in any way that can "avail them on the occasion. If there was a single man in the "Country, who in his heart thought that the PITT and GRENVILLE "BILLS were constitutional measures, THIS PROOF of their operation, "we think, will corect his error." Morning Chronicle, Thursday,

December 7.

"It is proper the People should know, that they are NOT prevented "by the PITT and GRENVILLE BILLS from meeting in the Old English "constitutional manner, and to take into consideration the grievous "nature and alarming tendency of the double, treble, and qua"druple Assessment with which they are threatened."- Morning Chronicle, Monday, December 11.

"The Principle of the Bill for augmenting the Assessed Taxes, is "the plainest that ever was broached. It is simply this House"boiders in the middle classes of Life must surrender to Government ONE"SIXTH part of their Income."-Morning Post, Dec. 14.

The Writer of this Lie knew perfectly well, and has himself stated in his Report of the Debates, that the Con

tribution,

tribution, as proposed by the Minister, could in no instance exceed ONE-TENTH of a man's Income; and that for the Middle and Lower Classes, it decreases in a scale of proportion from one-tenth to one hundred and twentieth part.

A Letter from Leeds, signed " AMICUS," desires us to contradict the following assertion in the Morning Herald of the 28th November, which our Correspondent affirms to be utterly without foundation.

"The following very laconic but emphatic Notice is placed on the "warehouse door of a respectable Merchant and Manufacturer "at Leeds:

This was undoubtedly meant for WIT; and we should have suffered the gentle Editor of this mongrel Paper to have enjoyed his laugh without molestation, had it not fortunately given us an opportunity of conveying to our Readers the pleasing information, that the Manufactories of the North are in a state of almost unexampled prosperity.

But we should have been surprised, if so happy an attempt at Humour had been confined to the Paper which gave it birth. THE PARTY (whose pride is of the nature of that which " licks the dust") in prowling about for food to gratify their spleen, fortunately stumbled on it, and immediately honoured it with a conspicuous place in their leading Paper. (See Morning Chronicle, November 29.)

They might perhaps have hesitated, if they had recollected that last year, when the Leaders of Opposition in Parliament could no longer deny the fact of the general increase of our Commerce, they took it into their heads

to ascribe it to the extraordinary demand occasioned by the WAR, and to prophecy its decline at the PEACE.

With all the leisure afforded them by their Secession, it is strange they should not have taught their friends out of doors a more consistent language.

MISREPRESENTATIONS.

IN our last Number, we took the liberty of asking the Jacobin Doers of the Morning Chronicle, who so patriotically term the Thanksgiving of the 19th, a " Frenchi"fied Farce," if we were then to prostrate ourselves before the Prostitute Goddess of Reason? This reflection on a Ceremony so congenial to their feelings, filled them with rage, and every day has teemed with angry effusions on this tender subject.

We shall not soil our Pages with the Paragraphs to which we allude their impiety be their protectionvelut occultum pereat scelus—but we cannot avoid expressing our astonishment, that a grateful and pious prostration of ourselves before the adorable BEING whose protection we have so visibly experienced, should be thought a fit subject for low and indecent ribaldry.

It is clear, from the ridicule attempted to be thrown on every thing connected with Religion and Virtue, that Atheism and Jacobinism walk hand in hand here, as well as in France; yet decency, and a sense of what is due to the prevailing opinion of a yet Christian Country, might, we think, have induced the Jacobins to spare their sarcasms on a measure so little calculated to provoke them as the present.

But not content with ridiculing the religious tendency of the Thanksgiving, they are endeavouring to convert it into a scene of confusion and slaughter. They have recommended inflammatory Ensigns to be displayed at every window, and mock Processions to precede His Majesty's carriage, with flags bearing insulting Mottos.

In the Morning Post of Monday last, there is an attempt, of the basest kind, to excite the animosity of the Citizens against the brave Men who are to carry the Colours, by representing them as Murderers.

"The Inhabitants of Westminster have not yet forgot the gal"lantry of Lord HooD's Sailors at the Westminster Election; " and the Inhabitants of London may find equal cause to re"member the Tars in the Procession to St. Paul's." Post, December 11.

Morning Here, for once, the worthy Writer has overshot the mark: for if he will take the trouble of consulting Mr. HORNE TOOKE-et solem quis dicere falsum! he will find the Murderers on that occasion were not Lord HooD's Sailors, but Mr. Fox's mob of Irish Chairmen.

—

Mr. WINDHAM compares the Emoluments of Office to salt upon a "bird's tail. -a seasonable simile for those who would continue the "War for a Spice-Lland."-Morning Post, Dec. 11.

We hope we have no occasion to point out to any of our Readers, the baseness of this Jacobinical attempt to persuade us that the War is continued for a Spice-Island. It is manifest from the Papers relative to the Negotiation, which have been published in the face of all Europe, that the restitution of every thing we have taken, was demanded from us not as the price of Peace, but as the

See his "Pair of Portraits."

N 3

E.

bare

bare permission to treat for it. The giving up the SpiceIslands, as they are sneeringly called, would therefore have only brought us so much nearer that desired event, that we might then, probably, have been favoured with the knowledge of a few more of the trifling Concessions required of us from an Enemy, whose moderation, their friends on this side the water, are never weary of extolling,

The Morning Chronicle seems to think they would content themselves with the cession of Gibraltar and Jamaica, which, considering the desire that Paper expressed of presenting them with the Brazils, as the price of Peace with Portugal, is rather rating their friendship too low. But the other Papers, who impudently affect to know them better than the Morning Chronicle, throw out pretty broad hints, that a free gift of a part of our Fleet, and an engagement to maintain hereafter only a certain number of Ships, to be determined by France, would not be too great a sacrifice for such an inestimable blessing.

Why do the Jacobin Prints persist, with such indefatigable activity, in reviving this "LIE, so oft o'erthrown!" The attempt to surprize our vigilance, or weary out our patience, will be fruitless; as long as they continue the Misrepresentation, so long shall we continue to expose

it.

Courier v. Mr. J. Nicholls.

"Instead of that haughty tone of defiance, and that contempt with "which you (Ministry) treated France, you are now suing for "Peace in the most abject and grovelling manner." - Courier, December 4.

"Mr. John Nicholls said-That he could not bring himself to believe "the continuation of the War necessary, unless he first saw a

"sincere