The flag, on sea and shore, When this old cap was new. 5. But our glory has wax'd dim, To days like those of old, When this old cap was new. THE CRISIS. PEACE OR WAR. It is obvious that the affairs of this country are now at a most momentous crisis; and it is impossible to look forward towards the future, without anxiety and alarm. We have got Reform, which, in itself, is a great blessing, if it be accompanied with other blessings: but Reform is not every thing. Indeed, Reform is nothing if it do not lead to substantial advantages, but is made an engine of mischief, or a mask for misgovernment. Would any man employ a workman, or hire a servant, because he was a Reformer, if he was not otherwise fit for the duty that was wanted of him? Would any man vote for a Reforming candidate, if he was not also an able, an upright, and an independent man? Would any man support a Reforming ministry, if, on all other points, their measures and views were injurious to the country and revolting to our own feelings. What has Reform achieved-what do our freedom and our privileges avail us, if we are to be the slaves of a particular faction—if, in every other respect, we are bought and sold, and must sacrifice our dearest interests and best principles to a shadow and a sound? REFORM, I say, is gained, and for ever. The former state of things is now a matter of history. Whigs and Tories alike profess that now they are not Reformers-that the measure is final, and should not be disturbed. The Whigs, if some of their statements are to be believed, are now the greater Anti-Reformers of the two. Between Whigs and Conservatives, therefore, the question no longer is as to Reform, which is gone by, but as to the fate of the country in matters which are to come. It is with reference to the future that we must now choose our representatives, and a most solemn responsibility attends the choice, both towards the country and towards ourselves. We may be grateful to those who have helped to gain Reform, if we think they were sincere and disinterested in doing SO: we may praise or compliment them, drink their healths at dinners, present them with a penny subscription cup, or, if we can afford it, build them a Reform monument; but we must not make them our parliamentary representatives, if, in other respects, they are not fit and proper to be elected. If their exertions were disinterested, they cannot complain that we use our liberty to return other persons that are more suitable to our purposes, and congenial to our own views. If a man helps me out of a ditch, I should thank him, and perhaps remunerate him, but I am not bound to put him in a situation in which he will not do as I want him. Of all the matters of importance that must become the subject of immediate consideration in Parliament, the question of PEACE or WAR is the most important. Already we stand on the brink of a precipicealready the train is laid, and Europe and Britain are on the verge of a general conflagration. The horrors of war stare us in the face-a war unprecedented in its nature and origin-a war most injurious in its consequences, as being waged against our oldest friends, and our steadiest and best customers. The Dutch are the most faithful and most congenial allies that we have ever had. We are indebted to their country for a supply of some of the most common and indispensable articles of food; and we find among them the nearest and readiest market for our own exports. Their country is the key to other extensive markets on the continent, without which our commodities must lie useless and unsold upon our hands. The cause of Holland is so mixed up with the interests of Germany and Russia, that a war with the one must necessarily plunge us into a quarrel with the others. If we lose our trade with Holland, Germany, and the Baltic, the utmost distress must ensue. Our merchants must fail; our manufacturers must be idle; our poor must starve. Wartaxes must be laid on; and while our resources are wasted away, our burdens will be doubled. The cause of all these evils, already experienced or immediately impending, is simple and obvious. This country was asked, as a friend, to lend its intercession, its amicable influence, to settle the differences between Holland and Belgium: it was asked to interpose as a PEACE-MAKER. The Whig ministry have chosen, instead of FRIENDLY PERSUASION, to employ FORCE OF ARMS to compel the Dutch to agree to their terms, and give up a fortress of which they have all along been in possession. It is just as if a gentleman, consulted amicably as to a difference between two friends, should choose to knock one of them down because he does not instantly agree in his opinion. This is the exact state of the question; and a more flagrant breach of duty to the country, a more wanton violation of justice, a more infatuated disregard of prudence, cannot be figured, than the conduct of government in using arms against Holland. This the Whig ministry have done for the sake of Belgium, which is a cipher in Europe, and worse than a cipher to us: they have done it for the sake of France, which takes none of our goods, detests our very name, and would gladly, if it could, sweep us from the face of the earth: they have done it in opposition to the professions of their whole lives, and in violation of their POSITIVE AND REITERATED PLEDGES upon coming into power. If possible, this state of things must be stopped. The first opportunity must be seized of suspending hostilities, of returning to the blessings of peace, of making friends with Holland, and conciliating the other great powers of Europe, on whom our commerce and prosperity so much depend. Every effort must be used for this purpose-every honest and becoming sacrifice must be made. Every candidate for a seat must be peremptorily asked if he approves of this ARMED INTERFERENCE in the affairs of Holland. If he does, away with him-he is not for us-he is the blind slave of an unnational, tyrannical, and blood-thirsty faction. Choose whom you will, be he Whig, or Tory, or Radical, if he be otherwise an honest, moderate, and judicious man; but do not choose any one tied hand and foot to a BELLIGERENT ministry. Choose a man who, on this question, is free as air; who is unshackled, by office or reward, from the WAR-MAKERS; who can independently vote according to his conscience, as your interests may, in so momentous an emergency, require. Do not choose a pensioner, a placeman, or an expectant from the Whigs that have so betrayed their country. Do not choose Jeffrey, for he is their organ; or Abercromby, for he is their creature: do not choose Dalrymple, who is their tool; or Murray, who is their humble, and hopes to be their obliged servant. If any of you have given pledges to Whig and ministerial partisans, it behoves you well to consider on what footing they were given, and how far they are binding. God forbid I should induce you to offend your own sense of honour and propriety in this matter, but confer with your hearts, and see what there is to bind you in the circumstances of the case. Reflect whether any pledge given by you was not obtained by reference to the previous pledges of government on the all important subjects of economy and non-intervention. Can they who have broken faith with the nation, call for the performance of engagements which were brought about by false pretences, or have been annulled by a change of principles? When you gave a promise to the supporter of a pacific ministry, did you bind yourselves to the adherents of those who have been the first to kindle the torch of discord and confusion? When you were willing to stand by them while they spoke of RETRENCHMENT and PEACE, does this compel or permit you to countenance them now, when their watchwords are wAR and TAXATION? I cannot think so, unless these ministerialists have had the art to extort pledges of a much more unqualified nature than I can conceive. I see that their own doctrine, promulgated in their paid newspapers, is, that inconsistency or change of principle in a candidate liberates the voter. On the same grounds, it may be more clearly maintained, that so palpable an outrage on the part of a ministry as a violation of an important and unequivocal PLEDGE to the whole country, must put an end to promises given to those who would support that ministry in their tergiversation. ELECTION ECLOGUES. By TITYRUS TOUCHSTONE, Esq. II. THE CONTEST. ABERCROMBY.—AYTOUN, WITH VOTERS. THE TEN POUNDER. SCENE, The Rainbow Coffee-Room. ABERCROMBY. WHERE, Aytoun, were those ragged cattle caught? AYTOUN. Voters they are, whom late the Union brought. ABERCROMBY. Oh! crew unhappy, who aspire to vote, And pledge their plumpers, though they have them not; That I am snug where he would wish to be! AYTOUN. Oh! friend, 'twere wiser to have spared that sneer- ABERCROMBY. And some of us have not forgotten how Aytoun once used the mob he flatters now; AYTOUN. No turncoat I, at least; no Whig that took ABERCROMBY. Canvass, in sooth !—have you not, day by day,` AYTOUN. And wherefore not: I am prepar'd to shew Those votes were mine—the men will tell you so : |