I have troubled you uselessly, perhaps ; for again I say, that from the north of Scotlaud to the Isle of Wight, from DOVER to PENZANCE, there is not one sensible and truly independ◄ ent man to be found, who is not anxious to see the change so much dreaded by these two writers and their greedy patrons. “A Tory Ministry!" There are no terrors in that sound. Every sensible man in the kingdom kuows, that a Tory Ministry now would not be what a Tory Ministry was before. The Tories see that they are now strong; the Lords see that they are now strong, only because the Whigs are abandoned and reprobated by the people; the Lords see that this abandonment and reprobation has arisen from the cruel disappointment of the people; from no regard having been paid to their sufferings; and, of course, the Lords would take care to do some part at least, of the things which the people expected to have done. A very little, comparatively speaking, would have satisfied the people for the present. The people were not unreasonably impatient. A repeal of the malt tax, and of the house and window taxesfwould have satisfied them for this year, together with a repeal of STURGES BOURNE'S bills, and of the Whig Septennial Bill, for which measure the Marquis of WESTMINSTER himself moved, in 1817. Speaking for myself, I will say, that these measures would have satisfied me for the present, it being reasonable that time should have been allowed for the removal of such manifold grievances as now exist, and have so long ex-dissolution of Parliament at no distant day. isted. I should not wonder, Sir, if the Whigs were now suddenly to turn about, and to bring forward something with a view of conciliating the people; for their situation at this moment is truly awful: abandoned by the people, and the heavy hand of the Lords upon them! In all former cases they have had hope, even after a defeat; but, if they be driven out now, the door is shut against them for ever: it will be absolutely a political death, and there will be nothing left of the Whig faction but the hated name. They will die hard; they will kick and jerk and struggle to the last moment; but, Sir, die they must; and you will allow that it is mercy in me to give them this pull by the heels!-[N. B. Petitions to the King may be forwarded from the country to Mem→ bers of Parliament, who can at once, cause them to be laid before his Majesty.]→ At the least, there is a great probability of a The electors have now seen the fatal con But, Sir, this Whig thing has done nothing sequences of their conduct at the last election. for the people; I verily believe from my soul, I do beseech them not to be cheated by the that a boroughmonger Parliament would have name of Whig, or Tory, or Liberal, or Radical, done more than this Parliament has, for the or Reformer, or any other NAME. Let them benefit of the people; because that Parliament insist upon these things:-Repeal of the malt would have endeavoured to reconcile the tax, of the house and window taxes, of the Seppeople to the representation, such as it was: tennial Bill, and of STURGES BOURNE's bills whereas the Whigs have been emboldened by These two last cost nothing to the Governtheir immense majority, got together under ment; their existence yield nothing but a the name of a reform, to refuse to do anything plentiful harvest of discontent. I have not at all for the people, while they are adding the smallest doubt that a change of the millions upon millions to the national debt, Ministry would give us these things, and then the interest of which must be discharged, if at we should have time to consider of further all, by the children yet in the cradle. For my changes, without throwing everything into the part, Sir, I mort sincerely believe, that a turn-air at once, like the stupid and greedy Whigs; ing out of this Ministry would be a great benefit to the country; and, instead of "the people arming themselves for the FIGHT," (as the Times calls on them to do), in order to keep this Ministry in their places, I say it is the duty of every county, every town, and every village, if possible, humbly to beseech his Majesty to be graciously pleased to turn them adrift. who, while they are actually making a revo lution, while they are tossing bishops, deans and chapters overboard, and bringing the Jews to supply their place, manifestly show that they intend to do no one thing for the advantage of the people. Their back writers seem to he aiming at producing a conviction in the minds of the people that the House of Lords ought to be destroyed: but, Sir, let the You, Sir, are, I understand, prosecuted by people reflect for a moment on what their these Whigs, for endeavouring to bring the situation would be, if there were nothing any House of Commons into contempt. I suppose where to control the proceedings of that asthere is no harm in endeavouring to bring the sembly which rescinded the vote on the malt House of Lords into contempt. I suppose tax; let them consider what our situation that the same law-officers who have prose- would be, if King and Lords were deprived coted you, would be complained of by the of their real constitutional power, and we Times and the Chronicle, if they were to pro- were left to be governed solely by that assecute them for these insolent, these cou-sembly! I need say not another word, the temptuous, these audacious, and these really bare thought is enough to drive a man mad. and truly seditious attacks upon the House of I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, Lords; for doing which, however, they may probably plead the example of certain persons belonging to a body, which it is unnecessary Bolt-court, Sunday, June 16. for me here to name. WM. COBBETT. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TRUE SUN. | done. The Church of Ireland Bill, which they call a Reform, does nothing more than throw obloquy on that church; as good as tells the people that the church ought not to exist: and, at the same time, makes it as burdensome to the people as ever; represents it as an abuse, and declares at the same time that it shall be perpetual. (From the True Sun of 18. instant.) SIR,-I beg leave to trouble you once more, and that very shortly, on the efforts now making by the Times and the Chronicle to keep their patrons in power. To-day, they both harmoniously chime in the same sentimeut: both warn the Tories against the dun- If I look at the West India project, I see ger of listening TO ME; for, one of them that which was represented as a violation of clearly points me out, and the other names all the laws of God, affected to be endeavoured me. They say that, being anxious to cause a to be put an end to by giving twenty millious revolution in the country, and perceiving that of money out of the sweat of the people of turning out the Ministers would produce such England, as a compensation to those who had revolution, I am anxious about nothing but so long been violating those laws! A the turning of them out. measure grounded upon the assumption, that Now, Sir, as to the premises, that I want free labour would produce more sugar than to produce a revolution. Do I revile the fa-slave labour, and would be more advantageous mily of the King; do I, in substance, say, to the planters; then giving the planters that the fate of CHARLES the First shall over- twenty millions to compensate them for their take him, if he do not destroy, utterly destroy, loss; and when Mr. BARING stood forward to the House of Peers, in order to keep these expose this audacious inconsistency, I heard Ministers in their places? Do I say that it him assailed by noises such as I scarcely ever would be right for Lord GREY, like another heard in my life. These colonies will be deCATILINE, to "instantly disband the army stroyed in all human probability; for it is too at home," if the KING turn out these Minis- much to hope that they can escape amidst the ters? Do I tell the KING to "learn the complication of follies, with which this project European lesson of the present century; to abounds. "day a throne-to-morrow is a prison?" Do I call the House of Lords, the grand depôt of corruption and public robbery?" And is it by men who write thus, without appearing at all to dread the law-officers of the Crown; is it by such men that I am to be accused of aiming at revolution? If, Sir, I did aim at revolution; if such an event could be looked forward to with delight | by me, who can have no one earthly motive for wishing for a revolution; if I did wish for a revolution; meaning a total overthrow of this frame of Government, an abolition of titles, a confiscation, and a new distribution of estates; if I did wish for an event so terribld as this, so destructive of all men of title and of great estate, what could I desire more than to see these Ministers remain in power, and to pursue their present career? Why, Sir, in what have they been engaged for mouths past, but in politically shaking the kingdom to pieces? Instead of taking off the taxes, which they knew the people expected to be relieved from as the fruit of Reform, they have browbeaten every man who has dared to open his lips with a view of effecting that object. Men, fit to have been intrusted with the affairs of the nation at such a time, would have pacified the people in the first place, by taking off the malt and the house and window taxes; and then, they would have gone soberly and very slowly to work to make such other changes as were necessary; and, at every step, they would have taken care to have finished that which they had begun before they had proceeded with anything else. Instead of acting thus, they have given a shake to everything, abroad as well as at bome; and have taken special care to give the people satisfaction in nothing that they have But, Sir, were there nothing but the legaltender paper money project (which will demand, on my part, a protest more formal than this); were there nothing but this project, what could I, if I wished for a total revolution in the country; what could I sigh for, or pray for, more than this one project? This project has been propounded in formal resolutions : let it be carried into execution, and he must be a most unreasonable Radical or Republican, that could desire any thing more. In short (and this is my answer to the Times and the Chronicle), I give it as my decided opinion (the reasons for which I have stated in my Register), that, if the propositions now before the House of Commons, he carried into effect, the whole frame of Government in this kingdom will be totally changed in less than four years, So that, if I do desire such revolution, I must be, in my efforts to get this Ministry turned out, the most disinterested aud self-denying of all the creatures that God ever made.-1 am, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, WM. COBBETT. will approve, and as far as I am able, support, would be taken off the Ministry and the for one whole year, at the least, any body who House of Commons have refused to do the will take off the malt tax and the house and latter: the House resolved on a Friday, that window tax, who will repeal the Whig-Sep-if would take off half the former; and, on the tennial Act, who will repeal STURGES BOURNE's Bills, and drive all the Malthusian devils back to their native hell. To any Ministry and Parliament who would do these things, I would give time for doing other things; but to those who, so far from having done either of them, have testified their resolution never to do any of them, I will give every opposition that I am able; and I am very sure, that, in this respect, I have the approbation of every man in the kingdom, who does not either live on the taxes, or who is not seeking to live on the taxes. next Tuesday, the Minister called upon the Your most obedient and humble servant, The Chronicle blames me for discovering marks of hostility to the Whig Government, and says, "that it is now every thing that is execrable in my eyes." When were the Whigs otherwise in my eyes? Seven-and-twenty years I have held them in execration, as adding perfidy to all the bad qualities of the Tories. Amongst the good things which the Chronicle says the Whigs have done, is this; they have probed the evils of the poor-laws, with a view to remedy them as far as possible. This probing has made its appearance in a book, sigued by the Poor-law Commissioners, (From the Times of the 15. instant.) by STURGES BOURNE, HARRY Gawler, Senior, The privileges of the Peers were granted to COULSON, and another, I believe; and con- them by the constitution, not for the sake of tains matter collected by the itinerant poor-the Peers themselves, but that they might be law men. As to the veracity of this book, the better enabled to discharge certain public Mr. HURST, the Member for Horsham, aud and specified duties. When the Peers, or any Mr. GORING, the Member for Shoreham, most portion of them, make the enjoyment of their completely proved that it contained a tissue privileges the most essential object of their poof abominable falsehoods with regard to that litical efforts, they forfeit, in fact, the condipart of Sussex. I shall very soon have to show tion on which those privileges were vested in the extent of its veracity as to another part of them. the country. The objects of this book, and The Tory party seems now to have decided of the whole of this most expensive affair, that the whole realm shall be subdued to its are, first, to eulogize, and perpetuate, and will, and that those interests which are acharden, and extend STURGES BOURNE'S Bills, knowledged by the nation and its representaagainst which petitious are every day coming tive to be the most precious and important of from the great towns, and would come from all others, shall be sacrificed to the selfish every parish in the kingdom, if the sufferers had views of a certain branch of the aristothe means of sending them. The second object cracy. This will never do. It is all very well is, to pave the way for a half-military police, to to put forth common places on the constitube stationed in all the country towns and vil-tion, and to talk about a difference between lages of England, Wales, aud Scotland; and the two Houses of Parliament, or, in other these things, it appears to be hoped, would en words," a collision," as just nothing at allable the grinders of the working-people to com- something which the framers of the constitupel them to live upon water-porridge and potation looked forward to as a matter of course, toes. Why, Sir, were there only this one thing, J, understanding the matter so well as I do, should be a most unjust and wicked man, if did not wish to see power taken out of the hands of this Ministry. As I said the other day in the House of Commons, this Poor-law Commission is, in my opinion, costing more than the whole of the poor-rates of the county of Westmoreland. If this, then, be one of the merits of the Ministers, what, in God's name, can be the nature of their sins? In short, Sir, this Ministry have no defence. The people confidently expected that the malt tax and the house tax and the window tax not having any results or tendencies beyond the mere assertion by each branch of the legislature of its own distinct and admitted power. Now, let us quietly ask these freeand-easy gentlemen whether the independent rights of each House of Parliament were given in contemplation of their co-operating on important subjects, or of their drawing in different and opposite lines? If concurrence were not the rule, aud variance the exception-and the rare exception, too,-it is plain that the Government of the commonwealth must soon be brought to a state of political paralysis. A difference between the two Houses on very Berious questions can no otherwise be consi- | in power the battle might yet be restored and dered than as involving constitutional dangers the day be won. They are the most ignorant, of the deepest import. Reform in Parliament the most infatuated, the most unteachable of is one of these; church reform is one of them, all human beings, who so judge the people of and perhaps the most perilous of all such this country: within three months of such an questions on which the Lords and Commons attempt being made not a vestige of Conservcould divide. Vain and foolish is it to ring in atism would be left throughout the kingdom. our ears that the Lords may do so and so, if, In the mean time, every city, county, borough, they like. Of course they may-and of course and parish in the island, ought to be in readithee must take the consequences. The En-ness for whatever, even the worst that might glish nation will not be cheated out of what happen. Petitions, remonstrances, declarathey deem the substance of their own prospe- tions of distrust in a "Conservative" Minis rity, out of complaisance to the abstract, how-try, ought to be prepared in case of necessity; ever acknowledged, rights of the Upper House of Parliament. If rights be indiscreetly and mischievously exercised, they are, in fact, abused; and if abused, the abuse will by an intelligent and high-principled people be resisted. If one party must give way, then the Peers must give way, for the nation will not, and ought not, to do so where its vital interests are concerned. the House of Commons ought to be on the alert, and, should events require them, be ready to pass resolutions and addresses to the Sovereign that specific persons whom we will not now name should be dismissed for ever from the service of the Crown, and banished from the royal presence. Another bill should be seat up to the Peers, the same hour in which the appointment of a Minister professThe House of Commous should be prepared ing to govern by the sword was promulgated, for such emergencies-not, indeed, to follow for disbanding the Guards and the whole of the the old precedent, and vote the House of army now at home. A nation must not be nice Lords" a nuisance," but to put on record about details when its existence or liberties instanter that the House of Lords, by setting are threatened. In our opinion, no crisis ever itself repeatedly and perseveringly in direct arose in Great Britain more pregnant with opposition to thut reform which is demanded grave alarm than that on the eve of which we by the whole people of England, has rendered at this moment stand. As for a dissolution of it impossible to carry on the Government the existing Parliament, one man—and one without an absolute extinction of that assem-only-among the Conservatives can be blind bly which represents the people, and the esta- enough to plunge into such an experiment,—it blishment of a pure oligarchy in place of is he who made the grand blunder of denouncKing, Lords, and Commons. ing, and thereby producing a reform of Par liament. We have reason to apprehend that the leaders of the so-called "couservative" faction meditate a direct war upon the nation. We do not mean a war of words or sentiments, or le(From the Times of the 17. instant.) gislative measures, but literally a war of the The confidence of the country in a satisfacbayonet and the sabre. We have no doubt tory or even peaceable issue of the present that there are some persons who would, al-crisis rests much upon the well-known earmost immediately on their accession to the nestness of the King in his conviction of the Government, deelare formally against any re- necessity of supporting the reform principle, formation of abuses,-pronounce that reform and in his consequent determination to mainand republicanism were identified, that both tain, so far as in his power, the policy of his must be put down coute qui coute, and ancient present Ministers against that of the Tory faccorruptions clung to,- and that if any show tion. But it may not long be at the option of of resistance, even within the forms of the his Majesty to indulge his own choice of Miconstitution, be presented by the body of the nisters or measures. The adverse faction has people, that then, without an hour's delay, a majority in the House of Peers which may the glove should be thrown down, the troops at any time frustrate the best intentions of appealed to, and the standard of despotism and his Majesty, and select its own hour for strikmisgovernment hoisted, in the name of our ing a decisive blow. It is plain enough that upright, constitutional, and beloved Monarch. the natural and most effectual method of We assert all this from a knowledge of facts averting a danger like this would be the creaas they occur. There is nothing figurative in tion of a sufficient number of reform Peers; the statement; all is literal, all is true. The but such an expedient, though within the letsubject has been well discussed in the Con-ter of the constitution, cannot be regarded as servative council. The army is described to devoid of evil consequences, any more than be" stanch to a man," What might, what that violent exercise which is now anticipated must be the fate of him who employs it to of the legislative, or anti-legislative, powers such sanguinary and traitorous ends has, we vested in the Peers themselves, will be consuspect, been but slightly adverted to. The mi-sidered innocent by the nation. An extensive litary and court faction (the highest personage of all forming a noble exception), the military faction and court faction are besotted enough to imagine that if certain persons were once creation of Peers, indeed, as a means of remedying or counteracting some occasional abuse of their acknowledged privileges by the majority, could hardly be excused by any emergency short of threatened convulsion or civil war. Whether one or both such justifications may not soon present themselves to our embarrassed Sovereign, is a question to be resolved hereafter. regard his own servants so highly as those who, in the nature of things, must succeed them. We repeat, and insist upon it, that at bottom all is right; but on the surface these irregu larities are apparent, which, after all, it would be the easiest thing on earth to correct by a glancs of the eye from the Sovereign. King's most serious consideration. Had his Majesty been less passive or incurious as to the formation of that society which is called in common parlance "the court," and had he from the outset been pleased to order that But, besides the majority, of which the it should not be so framed as to encourage Tory chiefs are conscious, there are other Toryism, and to discountenance his own officircumstances, unfortunately too notorious, cial servants and their principles, we should which furnish them with strong encourage-by this time have heard very little about the ment to bring their anti-reform forces into ac- possible overthrow of Lord Grey's cabinet by tion. The King, we repeat, is single-minded, a majority in the Upper House of Parliament, and stanch in his maintenance of the reform or about the alternatives which must now be principles, and of the existing Ministry. resorted to in the hope of averting revolution. Nevertheless, looking to the composition of His Majesty's course is negative as well as his court, and to the known and incessant positive. The Tories ought not to have ground machinations of some of its members, many for boasting, nor the friends of Minsters persons besides the Tories, whose interest ground for complaining, that the latter have would naturally bias their judgments on such les of court blandishment and favour than a point, have questioned on which side the their implacable enemies. If a premium were royal preference lay, and have even set up the offered for the most certain mode of overturnsinister conduct which his Majesty tolerates ing a Ministry whose sole support was their in those about him to rebut the more direct character, it would be won by him who should evidence of his personal acts and professions. so contrive it as to pass a persuasion upon the The King is too much a man of honour to sus-world that their Sovereign, who must have pect that the world would ever question his sin-known both parties well, did not appreciate or cerity. He speaks and expects, what he well deserves credit for, inviolable truth. But it might with all reverence and duty he submitted to the Sovereign, that if he wish well to the cause of reform, and to the stability of the actual Administration, he will study the semblance, as much as the substance, of truth. His Majesty, for such an object, will If the King desires that his Ministers should be anxious to get rid of certain nuisances stand, he will prevent the subalterns of his which infest the palace, and which throw an own family and household from imprecating air of ambiguity and mystery over the fair and predicting their downfall in every comexterior of his own royal inclinations. Nothing pany. His Majesty will issue orders that those would seem more strange than that with a who frequent his royal board, and are received reforming and enlightened King, the cour- as intimates by the highest personages about tiers, male and female, without a single dis- him, shall not be individuals distinguished no sentient, should take pains to be signalized as otherwise than by the rankness of their Tory open enemies to his official advisers. Were spirit. He will command royal persons to it not for the irretrievable reputation of certain abstain from intriguing against his ostensible' members of the Royal Family itself, it might Government; he will himself keep aloof from seem passing strange that, with one patriotic Conservative associations, which, if they do exception, the nearest relations of the Sove- not corrupt the moral sense, do assuredly reign should be mustered by public opinion affect the good repute of those who enter among the ranks of the opposition to his Ma- them. Their is great activity and pruriency jesty's Government. Ought this to be? With- of mischief in some of those with whom ties out the slightest spirit of needless intermed- may exist which it would not be decorous for dling in the social arrangements of the court, an exalted individual to acknowledge. Towe must aver that the unvarying prevalence wards them the rebuke ought to be severe, of Tories, and intriguing Tories, too, both as and on them there should be laid at once a settled functionaries in the court circle, and stern and inexorable prohibition against preas its occasional visiters and guests, has a suming to meddle with politics. If these, tendency of grave and twofold mischief. It points be not conceded, Lord Grey ought to excites among common observers an unavoid-resign at once, and then God help his sucable suspicion, that as the court is three fourths of it inveterate Tory, so the chief personage of Every one foresaw, from the first announcethe court, whose finger if held up would si- ment of the measure of reform which has lence the Conservative clamour, and raise a since been passed into a law, that the old counter war-cry against those Conservatives, faction which bad for so many years held -that he, we repeat, is not in his heart, be- possession of the Government, by the single yond a small fraction, Whig. The formidable tenure of an abuse of all the national instituinduence of such a general impression in rais- tions, would resist to the utmost, and, if neing the spirits of the Tory party, and in un-cessary, die in the last ditch of the last of the dermining the moral power of the responsible rotten boroughs. The Tory portion of the Government, is a subject well worthy of the House of Lords-the great depot of corruption cessor! |