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THE 3B2.JSSCTOWS GVmE. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 THE 
 
 €6 
 
 €ATHOILIC ^QUESTIONt'' 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE 
 
 FREEHOLDERS 
 
 . Of y^^ : 
 
 (BD^irSJ^^ (©IP ITCDIEUS 
 
 ^^<) 
 
 CONDUCTED BY A COMMITTEE OF YORKSHIRE-MEN. 
 
 YORKt 
 PUBLISHED BY G. BOLLANDy LOW OUSEGATE ; 
 
 AND SOLD BY BAINES, LEEDS; RIDGE, SHEFFIELD; THOMAS AXD HUNSLEr, 
 
 DONCASTER; NOBLE, hull ; JOHNSON, BEVERLEY ; SEDMAN AND 
 
 WEDDILL, SCARBRO'; SMITHSON, MALTON ; AND THE 
 
 BOOKSELLERS OF THE COUKTY. 
 
 1826. 
 
T)f\S.O 
 
fnthntiitxnmt 
 
 THE Freeholders of the County of York and the Electors of all 
 Boroughs, are respectfully informed that the Elector's Guide has been 
 altered from its original plan of a Weekly Newspaper, to a Monthly 
 Magazine, to he published the ^first Saturday of every Month, and to 
 terminate in June* The price to vary according to the extent of the 
 Pamphlet. The first Number from the importance of the subject con- 
 tains more matter than will appear in the succeeding ones, and conse- 
 quently is higher in price. The contents of the next Number will he 
 always advertised in the last that is published^ 
 
 Contents of No. II. *' The general State of the Country." 
 
 Thb Literary Department is conducted by three Gentlemen, but 
 any communications, post paid, from friends, addressed to the care of the 
 Publisher, will much oblige the Conductors of the Elector's Guide. 
 
 YORK, Jan. 1826. 
 
 ivi204161 
 
THE EI.S:CTOIl^S &UII>JE. 
 
 PART 1. 
 
 Freeholders of the County of York I 
 
 THE "No Popery" cry is raised again in this County by several 
 persons who wish to deceive you, and by false representations to 
 work on your feelings and persuade you to mischief. It is my 
 object to undeceive you in every point respecting tliis most important 
 subject, to address you as persons of plain understanding who are 
 willing and able to hear the truth when the truth ought to be heard ; 
 and to leave you to judge for yourselves when you have read what 
 is here written. I consider it a lamentable sight, a real tragedy, when 
 large mobs of rational creatures are running hither and thither with 
 some watch- word of confusion in tlieir mouths, and roaring from their 
 hoarse throats cries of ignorance, violence, and bigotry: whenever I see 
 such a sight it gives me pain ; pain both because it is truly lamentable 
 that human reason should be so degraded, and because the conse- 
 quences that ensue are sure to be injurious to many of our fellow 
 creatures. There was a time when any one holding up his little 
 finger and shouting " No Popery y" would have raised a mob around 
 him ; and when you might have been driven like mad cattle through 
 the streets whenever some ill-disposed persons disseminated Hes 
 amongst you. But I think that time is gone for ever, and I trust 
 that the disgraceful spectacle of a " Church and King mob,* will never 
 be witnessed in England again : the increase of education has taught 
 the people better things, and it is evident that many of the lower 
 orders look with aversion and contempt on the Clergy and Gentry 
 of this County, who are trying to set up the old watch-word of 
 intolerance and persecution ; by their meetings, their requisitions, 
 their proclamations, and their resolutions. The " No Popery" party 
 is to be divided into the following classes. 
 
 A 2 
 
6 
 
 1st. Those who conscientiously dread the tolerating any Religion 
 but their own. This is the smallest party, and is composed chiefly 
 of the clergy, women, and old men. 
 
 2d. Those who have some sinister view by raising the cry, such 
 as persons who intend to. make the Catholic Question a means of 
 getting into Parliament. Candidates for the County, and all their 
 friends, relations, dependants, and tools. 
 
 3d. Those who have a more distant object, such as a hope of 
 pleasing the Duke of York ; — this class consists of men of great 
 fortune or high rank, and who move in the higher circles. 
 
 4th. Those who wish to please the Lord Chancellor : ihey are 
 chiefly clergymen with a few lawyers ; and the relations and friends 
 of such persons. 
 
 5th. Those who wish to revive an affection for the Church of 
 England, and who think it expedient to take advantage of the fer- 
 ment raised by the No-Popery cry, to turn away the great inquiry 
 that is making into Church property. 
 
 6th. Those who know they should loose their Irish seats in 
 Parliament if the Catholics might elect Representatives of their own 
 Religion. A very powerful and violent party. 
 
 7th. Those who care nothing at all about the matter, but allow 
 themselves to be led as their friends or masters wish them. Such 
 "persons always «tick to their party, they only look to the colour of a 
 flag and care for nothing else. Such we shall see come by droves 
 into York, headed by roaring Priests and bellowing 'Squires; and 
 they themselves will roar for company's sake, but as for Pope or 
 Church of England they care no more for it than they do for the 
 politics in the moon. This party is infinitely the most numerous. 
 ix\ 8th. Those who hate religious persecution, and wish to see Eng- 
 land restored to happiness by granting the Catholic Claims, but are 
 compelled by their landlords and masters to vote against their con- 
 science. These men are not few in number. .jr?ji?^?f.>*itt IfliKt 
 Here we have them all arranged in order : of course arguments 
 can only be intended for the first and seventh class ; for the rest 
 another sort of logic is required which will not be wanting ; and it 
 is trusted that the arguments will not be thrown away on those that 
 read this short address. 
 
 i. Several thousand books have been written on the great Catholic 
 Question, several myriads of pamphlets have come from the press. 
 
and a countless number of speeches been spoken, without our having 
 yet arrived at the proper deduction from all this amazing profusion 
 of ink and eloquence. It shows how great trouble it requires to 
 support a bad cause; for the more plain a truth is, the greater pains 
 does the world always take to obscure it : if toleration did not come 
 home to the feelings of every candid and impartial person, and irre- 
 sistibly force itself on our approbation, there would not be such 
 strenuous endeavours to blind oui* reason and fire our prejudices 
 against it ; but as the interests of several selfish persons in society 
 WiQuld be injured by putting a proper end to the question, they have 
 left no stone unturned to prevent the triumph of truth and justice. 
 
 Let us, however, come to the point at once. The proper view of 
 the <~^atholic Question, is in my humble opinion, entirely as a question 
 of state policy and expediency ; the Religion and the faith has no- 
 thing whatever to do with the subject ; but as the Bigots lay hold of the 
 Catholic faith, and hope more particularly to rouse your prejudices 
 by distorting the faith of their Elder Brethren, it will also be re- 
 quisite to meet them on this ground ; so that the controversy must 
 be viewed in two lights. 
 
 I. State policy and expediency. 
 
 II. Religious tenets. 
 
 Now at first sight, no one can deny, that there is an appearance of 
 great injustice in witliholding from the Catholics those privileges 
 enjoyed by all other Dissenters whatsoever: this must be granted 
 immediately, so that the odium of this injustice must be removed by 
 some very strong excuse, some irresistible facts which cannot be 
 controverted. What these excuses are will soon be seen. We may, 
 however, set out witli this assertion, that if Ireland is of any value as 
 an appendage to England, if sound policy calls on us not to give 
 away that island to our enemies, it is necessary without delay to 
 grant the Catholic Claims. The proofs of this assertion are abundant, 
 and as proof, it would be sufficient to remind you that the population 
 of Ireland is seven millions, of which only half a million belong to the 
 Church of England ; tliat this half million domineers over all the 
 rest of the population, and rigorously and unmercifully exacts tithes 
 for the priests of its small faith, and compels all the rest of that 
 enormous population to keep in wealth and splendour the clergy of 
 a Religion, which to the great majority appears to send people to 
 damnation, and for which Religion they are obliged to 8«t aside the 
 
8 
 
 tenth of all their worldly goods. Supposing tliere were fourteen 
 men sitting in an inn, and two men should suddenly rush into the 
 room, take away the clothes of the fourteen, lock them up in closets, 
 and positively refuse to let them out till they had engaged to give 
 them the tenth of all their money for ever : would not this be gross 
 tyranny and the most palpable staring injustice ? Apply this to Ire- 
 land, and you have a complete view of the whole Irish Church 
 Government : with this important addition, that the injustice is most 
 painfully increased when all this tyranny is for the sake of Religion, 
 and for the infamous purpose of supporting the lying successors of 
 Him who ordered his folloAvers to go about the world without scrip 
 or purse, gold or silver. Can any thing be conceived more unjust 
 and hateful than that Protestant Clergymen should hold two or three 
 large Irish livings, should never live in Ireland, never see their flocks, 
 have no Protestants in their parishes, and leave the whole care of 
 souls in the hands of tithe-proctors and armed soldiers, who are com- 
 pelled every year to fight the Catholics, to drive away the flocks and 
 herds of the peasants, to remove the last cow and the last pig, to sell 
 up the last article of furniture under cover of bullets and scouring 
 Dragoons, and to take away human life that human soul's may more 
 
 effectually be saved ? This is no fanciful picture — it occurs 
 
 every year in Ireland ; in that miserable country there are regular 
 pitched-battles, men and women killed and wounded, tithe-proctors 
 beheaded and stones thrust down their throats, flaming cottages, mur- 
 der, treason, sedition, and uproar, and one half of society plotting the 
 destruction of the other half, that the Protestant Ascendancy may be 
 secured. How can it be otherwise ? Do we not all feel strongly on 
 matters of Religion ? do we not attach the greatest importance to it ? 
 Do we not think it the very end of society ? How then is it possible 
 to conceive that such an immense population as there is in Ireland, 
 should tamely submit to see themselves plundered every year, that the 
 Priesthood of a hateful Religion may be supported in their heresies 
 and their crimes ? We of the Church of England think no one can 
 .be saved but by one Religion, which Religion we imagine we pro- 
 fess,* how galhng then would it be to our feelings, if the Catholics 
 should extort from us every year the tenth of our produce to support 
 
 • Article XVIII. " They also are to be accursed that presume to say that 
 Everyman shall be saved by the law or sect which he piofcsseth, to that he be diU- 
 i^ent to fruuie his life according to that law and tlic light of nature." 
 
their priests ? The pocket and the soul would both cry out against 
 it, and all our clergy, nobility, and gentry, would move heaven and 
 earth to get rid of the nuisance. Do you suppose. Freeholders, that 
 the Archbishop of York would quietly see himself thrust out of his 
 palace and his possessions by a Papist, and that Papist taking his 
 place, gathering his tithes, strutting in his dignities, and insulting his 
 religion? Why then should a Catholic clergy be more tranquil than 
 the Protestant clergy ? is not human nature the same every where ? the 
 same in Ireland, the same in Yorkshire, the same in France ? But hear 
 an extract from the evidence before the House of Commons, March 
 21, 1825. The Right Rev. Dr. Doyle, Catholic Bishop of Kildare 
 and Leighlin examined : 
 
 "Is it usual in cases in Ireland for the Roman Catholic clergy to be 
 charged for their tithe by the Protestant clergyman ? — I do not 
 know : but I know that I have been charged by a dignitary of the 
 Established Church, who is the Incumbent of the Parisli in which I 
 live, and who has never resided in it: and in the same year, when I 
 was obliged to spend my last shilling in seeking to support the 
 famishing neighbourhood, he applied to me, and obliged me to pay 
 
 tithe, which tithe has been doubled within the last year 
 
 I hold myself about a dozen acres of land, which I employ in rearing 
 a little hay for my horses and feeding two or three cows for my 
 household. I have one field of about three acres which run to moss, 
 and my steward told me it was necessary, for the purpose of render- 
 ing it useful, that it should be broken up. I hesitated long to do so, 
 because I should thereby subject myself to a heavy tithe. I will 
 mention another instance, I was walking in one of the meadows of 
 a farmer who held a large tract of land, and which meadow he had 
 neglected to mow. I asked him why so much grass was left on the 
 surface ; he stated that he left it there for his cattle to eat in winter 
 for if he had cut it and saved it for them, he should have been 
 obliged to pay tithe.'* 
 
 Here is a pretty picture for a Christian to contemplate ! Free- 
 holders of the County of York, you would think that an army of 
 locusts had settled in Ireland to devour the produce of the earth, you 
 would think that some great contagious disorder had seized the 
 cattle, and that some blast and mildew had laid waste all the fruits 
 of the land ! but no, it is only the Protestant Ascendancy ; it is nothing 
 but orthodoxy ; it is nothing but a wise regulation to keep us from 
 
10 
 
 believing in seven Sacraments instead of two, it is to uphold the 
 CJuirch as by' law established, it is to support those Gentlemen 
 whose most dignified name according to Blackstone is. Parsons; 
 whom you so often see riding and shooting over the country to 
 the great comfort and solace oi your immortal parts. Only conceive 
 these Protestant priests watching behind bushes and lurking places 
 to see if the earth produces her increase; and immediately that the 
 grass is cut, the lands drained, the moss destroyed, and thistles 
 extirpated, rushing with wide ecclesiastical pockets to drag in the 
 tenth of the earth's produce, and all the profits of labour into that 
 vast abyss of orthodoxy, which like the sea is never full ! Again, 
 
 The Most Rev. Oliver Kelly, D. D. Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, 
 23d March, 1825, examined: 
 
 *' Within your Diocese is not the pressure of tithes payable to Pro- 
 testant ministers particularly severe ? — It is complained of generally. 
 
 Is it particularly severe as pressing upon the occupying tenant } — - 
 It is particularly severe on the occupying tenant. 
 
 Will you state what is the tithe, the payment of which presses 
 particularly upon the tenant in the province of Connaught } — Grain 
 of every Jcind, flax, and I think wool, lambs, &c. &c. 
 
 Is he not much better off than the peasant in the province of Con- 
 naught ? — I suppose he is, hut yet the tithe of corn they find very 
 severe, (what do they feel then in Connaught ?) particularly in a bad 
 season, when the crop fails they feel a great hardship. I have heard 
 them say in some instances that the tithe proctor's demand for tithe 
 was to the full value of the crop. 
 
 The tithe of hay is not payable in Connaught ? — No, it is not ; but 
 it has been demanded latterly by some." (No doubt: the locusts 
 are always on the wing.) 
 
 "In the year 1820 very serious disturbances took place in the 
 County of Mayo and Galway, does it come v/ithin your knowledge 
 that the cause of these disturbances was attributable in any degree to 
 the pressure of tithes ? — They generally complained of tithes, taxes, 
 grand jury sesses, &c. &c. &c." 
 
 Daniel O'Connel Esq. March 4th, 1825, examined: 
 
 " You conceive then that the Roman Catholic does not pay tithe 
 more unwillingly than the Protestant ? — In practice I have known the 
 Protestant more outrageous than the Catholic. 
 
 Have you not heard it stated as a special ground of ccmx>laint. 
 
li 
 
 that the Roman Catholic peasant should pay to maintain the Clergy 
 of a different persuasion ? — 1 have, but I do not think I have heard 
 it complained of, except in the cases which are so general in the south, 
 of there being no Protestant, or scarcely any, except the Clergyman 
 who receives the tithes. 
 
 Which do you think is the feeling which operates most, an objec- 
 tion where Religion is not concerned, or an objection to pay where a 
 different Religion is concerned ? — I do not think it makes any great 
 difference, I am sure they would have great objection to pay even 
 their own Clergy tithes and cattle; and they would Jlght as hard as 
 they do either with the layman or the parson in questions of property ; 
 abstract points of faith do not enter much." 
 
 That which the palmer- worm hath left, hath the locust eaten, and 
 that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten, and that 
 which the canker-worm hath left, hath the caterpillar eaten. How* 
 do the beasts groan ! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because theif 
 have no pasture, yea the flocks of sheep are desolate. The seed is 
 rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns ate 
 broken down— FOR THE CORN IS WITHERED. f/o^/.J— Any 
 person reading these words would imagine they were the lamentations 
 of an Irish patriot over his unhappy country : tjUt no ; they are the 
 words of a prophet, taken out of those Scriptures which it is fiilsely 
 said the Catholics forbid to be read : in this case, the Protestant has 
 more cause than the Catholic to suppress the Scriptures. 
 
 The Right Rev. James Magaurin, D. D. Titular Bishop of Armagh, 
 examined, March^ 1825: 
 
 " Have you known any instance in which the Tittle spot of ground 
 adjacent to the Catholic Parish Chapel has been made the matter of 
 demand for tithe ? — Yes, I have. 
 
 Will you state that instance, and the cause of it ? — A gentleman 
 gave a spot of ground, amounting perhaps to three roods, f(ir the 
 building of a chapel, and the chapel was built on part of it : thei-e 
 remained something like a rood and a half, where the Catholic priest 
 got a little meadow, and I have known the manager of the tithe 
 charge the priest tithe for that little meadow. 
 
 What was the result of that ? — The result of it was, that the PrO^i 
 testant parishioners felt so indignant at the claim being made, that 
 they offered to pay tliis demand themselves." 
 
12 
 
 John Leslie Foster, Esq. M. P. examineJ, Feb. 1S25 : 
 
 *' Have you observed any difference in tlie conduct of lay imjjro- 
 priators and clerical proprietors ? — I have observed that there is not 
 the same discontent^ or the same resistance exhibited by the payers of 
 tithe to lay impropriators : and I am disposed to attribute tliat in 
 part, tliough not in a very great degree to the lay impropriators not 
 demanding quite so much as the clergy ; but this is a point on which I 
 have not a very definite opinion ; I incline to think they do not de- 
 mand quite so much as the Clergy. The payment of the lay tithes does 
 not in my opinion excite so much discontent as the payment to the 
 Clergy. 
 
 Do you attribute the larger portion of the insurrectionary spirit 
 in Ireland to the enforcement of the payment of tithes or of rent ? — 
 I should think that of late years, since the great depreciation of prices 
 consequent o\\ the cessation of the war, the rents have been a greater 
 cause of discontent than the tithes : hut if we look hack for ffty years, 
 I should say on the whole Lite tithes have created greater disturhance 
 than the rents.* " 
 
 Here is enough and more than enough to prove the desolating 
 effects of this religious plundering ; we see from the testimony of all 
 parties, Protestants and Catholics, that the havoc and ruin that lays 
 waste Ireland, that has dissolved the bonds of civil society, that has 
 turned that country into a den of thieves and hangmen, that fills all 
 the jails to bursting with criminals, ribbon- men, and assassins, that 
 burns cottages, prevents the land from being cultivated, and throws 
 all ranks of society into confusion, misery, and a perpetual civil war, 
 is caused chiefly by the Protestant absentee Parsons keeping up 
 what is called the Established Church, and violently extorting the 
 uttermost fartliing to support themselves and their families in distant 
 countries. Ought such things to last ? who can wish them to last ? 
 who that has a generous heart within his body does not burn to put 
 an end to this iniquitous and infernal system ? all ^trumpery con- 
 siderations about points of faith, all old rotten bigotry that has been 
 
 * Daniel O'Connell, Esq. examined, Feb. 1825 : 
 
 " Do they suffer any inconvenience in that season of the year, which takes place 
 between the going out of the old potatoes and coming in of the new ? — Almost 
 always great distress, aggravated with the difficulties with respect to tithes. The 
 Irish Acts enable the peasant to hold a kind of battle with the tithe owner upon every 
 thing but potatoes ; with other things he can serve a notice to draw, but with pota- 
 toes it is not so, the- e is no statute provision respecting the potatoe, and then if the 
 peasant begins to dig his potatoes he is completely at the mercy of the tithe otvner. 
 
IS 
 
 eucked up in the dark holes of intolerance and fgnorancej crumble 
 to dust before this terrific scourge, that for religious pretences is 
 afflicting a mighty nation, and which but for our obstinacy and folly 
 might be as happy as she is great. Does it not make one laugh with 
 scorn after reading these matters, to see a blundering Squire or venom- 
 ous Parson feeding his malice and his intolerance with distorted texts 
 from Scripture, with decrees of councils, and bulls of Popes ; picking 
 passages out of Timothy, ripping up Thessalonians, and making an 
 abstract of cruelty from Revelations and the Prophets ? What, I would 
 ask the Bigots of York and Leeds, what is Antichrist ? "WTiat is the 
 great whore with whose terrible name they have frightened themselves 
 into fits ? What is she but religious persecution, unkindness to our 
 fellow-creatures, sin, pride, love of worldly greatness and pomp, 
 tyranny, and all the vanities of this wicked world ? Antichrist is not 
 a monster of this age or that sect, she is not merely at Rome, at 
 Paris or Dublin, but she is every where, she exists in the human 
 heart, she rages in the Church of England, she is at the feet of the 
 Idol Juggernaut, and has her dominion wherever man is seen. Do 
 we think that if we insult and oppress a poor Christian who believes 
 in seven Sacraments, who bows to one Spiritual head of his Church, 
 and who chooses to obey a priest and not a king in matters of faith, 
 that we therefore suppress Antichrist } If we do, let us get rid of 
 our foolish blunder, and confess that the corruption of man's heart is 
 the true Antichrist, and that Antichrist with all her pomp, her pride, 
 and her luxury is in the open sight of all men, as much at St. Paul's 
 in London as she is at St. Peter's at Rome. 
 
 We have now seen the real state of the two Churches in Ireland ; 
 the picture will be complete when the wretched state of the country 
 and the misery of the inhabitants have been fully exposed. For that 
 purpose, a single extract from the evidences before the House of 
 Commons will be sufficient. Let it be well reflected on : let the 
 whole matter be soberly taken into consideration, and let every 
 rational person ask himself this question ; " is it likely that Ireland 
 will much longer continue a part of the British Empire : is it to be 
 supposed that such a large population will in time of war tamely 
 submit to be trampled and trod on, to be scourged, insulted, and 
 kept in the dust to please a contemptible minority } is it consistent 
 "with reason or justice to expect or even to wish, that all this misery 
 t: should be continued to keep up the Protestant Church io Ireland? 
 
14 
 
 what good dii*ectly or inrlirectly accrues to the English iiation from 
 this dre uUul system of bigoted cruelty ? is it not all preserved con- 
 trary to the wishes of the nation that the interests of a few powerful 
 persons may alone be consulted? does it not hold out a bonus to France 
 and America to come and sieze our sister Island? and will any 
 armed force however enormous or however expensive, be able to 
 keep up the present system when the struggle once begins ?'* 
 
 The Riglit Rev. James Doyle, D. D. Bishop of Kildare, examined 
 March, 1825: 
 
 " What is the state of the lower orders in your diocese? — I might 
 $ ly that even in the lower orders we should distinguish some grades, 
 there are some of them very low, but who yet hare the necessaries 
 of life; but there is a very numerous class who are extremely low, 
 whose distress is, doubtless, indescribably great. I am in the habit 
 of conversing with many of this description, I sometimes visit them 
 in sickness, I occasionally see them in their cabins, my intercourse 
 with them is constant and I might say extensive, and I can safely 
 state to the Committee that the extent and intensity of their distress 
 is greater than any language can describe, and that I think the lives 
 of many hundreds of them are very often shortened by this great 
 distress ; it also enervates their minds, and paralyzes their energies, 
 and leaves them incapable of almost any useful exertion. 
 
 Are the numbers which are in this wretched state very great ? 
 Their numbers are comparatively very great. I would give the Com- 
 mittee an idea of it, by stating what I know of it from the last year. 
 The town of Carlow and suburbs contains about 8000 or 9000 in- 
 habitants, last year the distress was something more than usual ; 
 there were of the poor of Carlow 237 families, consisting I suppose 
 of five and a half persons on an average each, who applied to us for 
 relief in public : and 1 should think from the applications made to 
 myself by distressed persons, that the number of those who would 
 jiot go abroad to receive the food which we distributed might be 
 about 500 persons more, there was that number then in the town 
 of Carlow. In the Parish of Killishean in which I reside, we also 
 enumerated the poor who Were actually in a state of starvation, and 
 they amounted to 700, and some more, in a population of about 
 SOOO, or between 3000 and 4000 souls. In addition to those paupers 
 jii tliat pavi»h> I know that the distress amongst the great bulk of 
 tlie peopk was lejctremely gneait, so much so, that men having cabins 
 
\5 
 
 and a few acres of land were obliged to sell even the furniture of 
 their houses, and to pledge their beds in order to procure subsistence, 
 and this subsistence consisted of a few potatoes, supplied to the 
 family o?ice in each day for six or eight weeks or longer. And I can 
 also state that I myself have been obliged to lend money to almost 
 the largest occupiers of land in the parish where I live, io hmj seed 
 for their farms, and if I, or some other charitable person had not 
 done so, the land woidd have remained imtilled. The Committee can 
 perceive then, that not only the 700 paupers who were in a state of 
 actual starvation, but also a great proportion of the remaining part 
 were reduced to the difficulties 1 mention : that we must have a great 
 distress c«;ery summer whilst the present state of things continues is 
 a matter of course, it will be greater or less in proportion as the 
 potatoe crop happens to be good or otherwise, but that we shall 
 have a great deal of it every year is a certainty. 
 
 How is the summer a period of particular distress ? — The poor 
 people in general collect a little dung (they have no land), this dung 
 they put upon a piece of land given to them by a farmer, and it 
 produces to them a little stock of potatoes ; this with their earnings 
 supports them until, suppose March or April, then their entire stock 
 is exhausted, and when the summer advances, particularly the latter 
 part of it, before the harvest comes in, they have no means at all 
 of support j they have no employment ; they have no food ; and 
 they are actually dying of hunger. 
 
 In what manner does this large number of persons contrive to 
 live? — The people who have any property are in general very 
 charitable, and they see that broths are made in their families, and 
 cabbages and roots which are very abundant, boiled and distributed 
 out to the poor. Again, the male part of the faiiiily lie very fre- 
 quently in bed, during the day, the wife or daughter goes abroad 
 and begs about the neighbourhood for a few potatoes, on these tliey 
 vegetate, and even an Honorable Member of this Committee, who is 
 so well acquainted with our poor can scarcely imagine upon what a 
 small pittance one of these wretches endeavours to subsist : in fact, 
 he is almost like a savage of the American deserts ; he lies down en 
 a little straw on the floor, and remaining there motionless nearly all 
 the day, gets up in the evening, eats a few potatoes, and then throws 
 liimself upon the earth again, where he remains till morning : Ihus he 
 
16 
 
 -drags put an existence which it were better v/ere terminated in anjr 
 way than to be continued in the manner it is." * 
 
 After which most likely the Protestant Parson comes with horse 
 and foot and gathers his tithe : for even misery is titheable in Ire- 
 land, as smoke is in England. And so we may conclude this first 
 part with a text for the *' No-Popery" advocates. 
 
 " Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.'* 
 
 i • Having read this evidence, it will be amusing to hear the sentiments of a bloody 
 Orangeman, a thorough-going Protestant-Ascendancy soldier: 
 
 Colonel John Irvin, examined in the House of Lords : 
 
 "• Do you think that that union which exists with reference to what may be called 
 the Catholic Claims, is a matter of indifference as affecting the security and peace 
 of the country ? — The peace of the country it certainly must affect, I do not say as 
 to the security ; I think the proper line of conduct, in my view, to be pursued, would 
 preserve the tranquility also. 
 
 Are you, of opinion, that a country in which there exists this union of discontented 
 subjects, to the extent of the Catholic population in Ireland, is a country in which 
 the Government can confidently rely on preserving the peace of the country, without 
 a much larger mi/Uanj force than they would find ncce&sary if that union of discon- 
 tent did not exist ? — Of course not. 
 
 Then in point of fact, you are satisfied that the Government of Ireland is by 
 force ? — It is by rcsirahit, as you would govern a wayward child, till such time as 
 ■persons get reconciled to the operation of those laws by which they were obliged to 
 be governed. 
 
 We restrain wayward children by gentle means, but you would restrain the dis- 
 contented population of Ireland by bayonets ?. — To a certain exteuty till they taj& 
 time ft^as no use in further efforts to iubvert the Esiallishrnent as it now exists,''* 
 
IT 
 
 PART II. 
 
 • AND now. Freeholders qf the County of York! we have came to 
 the second view of the Catholic Question, namely, the tenets of the 
 Roman Catholic Religion, which I have before stated it is necessary 
 to take into consideration, that some bad impressions on this 
 subject may be removed, and that your prejudices, if prejudices you 
 have any, may be completely cleared away. 
 
 It certainly is a great hardship with the Catholics that they 
 of all the Religions within the range of the British Empire, should 
 labour under civil disabilities, when all the fantastic extravagancies 
 and impious follies of other Religions should be patronised, che- 
 rished, and zealously protected and encouraged by Government, 
 However bigoted and ill-natured we may be on tliis question, how- 
 ever furiously our passions may be inflamed by sweltering over the 
 frightful pages of Fox's Martyrs, however much our holy wrath may 
 be roused by sermons on Idolatry and Popery, we cannot be so 
 outrageous as to say that the Catholic Religion is worse than that of 
 the Brahmins in the East Indies; the Idolatry of the Brahmin 
 Religion is complete, they worship cows and bulls, they purify their 
 sins by plasters of cow-dung, they become regenerated by passing 
 through cow-idols, they worship monkies, lillies, elephants, and 
 clarified butter; they bum widows on the funeral piles of their 
 husbands; they expose their children; they adore an emblem of 
 obscenity ; they allow themselves to be trodden to death under the 
 chariot wheels of their idols ; their obedience to their priests is com- 
 plete, which priests are cruel, proud, ignorant, sensual and lascivious 
 wretches, of such gross moral character in every respect, as to be 
 the standing shame of their religion ; they make vows of dreadful 
 penance, they will roll over twenty miles of country without ever 
 rising from the earth; they will close their hands till the nails grow 
 through the back of the hand; they sleep on iron spikes; they 
 hold their arms over their heads till the sinews turn into bone and 
 never can be moved again: all this they do and many other tilings 
 too numerous to mention, and yet the Government protect* this wick«l 
 
18 
 
 and horrible religion with nervous sensibility, it will not allow one of 
 their institutions to be infringed on, it will not allow one of their doc- 
 trines to be gainsayed, it will not suffer any one so much as to speak 
 a word against all these blasphemies and cruelties, — nay the Govern- 
 ment literally keeps in pay the prostitutes in the Indian Temples,* 
 and gets an enormous sum of money every year by taxing Idolatry; 
 and it is the perpetual cry of the High Church Party both here and 
 in the East Indies, that the Methodists are likely to create great 
 confusion by preaching against the crimes of the Brahmin faith ; for 
 which reason we have sent out Bishops, Archdeacons, Deans, Priests, 
 and Curates to convert the Brahmins in a more sober and gingerly 
 manner, fearing that the zeal of the Methodists will convert them too 
 quickly from their idolatries, and so rouse the fury of the Indian 
 population. Surely any one of ordinary intellect can apply this to 
 the Catholic Question ? surely any child can ask " Avhy if we protect 
 so carefully one wicked religion some thousand miles distant from 
 our country, should we persecute at home another faith that is not a 
 hundredth part so bad ? what is the reason of this absurdity ?" — The 
 ansu er is evident, the j)ocket is the cause of /his ahsurditij : — in India it 
 is felt to be dangerous to persecute the Brahmin Religion, as by so 
 doing we should loose several millions of money every year — in Ire- 
 land the abstaining from persecution would endanger the ease of the 
 
 ' Annual expenses of the IdolJuggernaut, presented to the English Governi»ent» 
 from the Official Keturns of India. 
 
 " Expences attending the table of the Idol £4514 
 
 The dress and wearing apparel of ditto 3;^.i^ 
 
 fVaiscs of Scr7Jn7if,i oi' ditto 12o9 
 
 Contingent expenses for the pilgrimages K^73 
 
 Elephants and horses of the idol ^^7^* 
 
 Annual state carriage C39 
 
 £ 8702" 
 
 The wages of the schvanfs means the prostitutes paid by Government to receive 
 the Pilgrims in the Temple. The decorating the Idol with Erglish broad-cloth costs 
 Government £(!00 per annnm ! so that we need not be so squeamish about irfoA///;/, 
 as the C'athoic ornaments of Churches are called ; neither need we be in such a 
 fright about the Scarlet -whore of liabylon, if our (Tovcrnment '.ikes the prostitutes 
 of Idolatry under its paternal care. This, account was taken in the year IVtUil; so 
 that presuming, tliat the tr^ide has not increased, we have paid twelve thousand 
 pounds up to the present day for idolatrous fornication in one Temple alone ; whal 
 have we paid for all India ? The Bishop of Calcutta has published nothing touch- 
 ing this topic ; the Archdeacon is silent ; the Bartiett's Building i^ciety is urate a* 
 a fisli ; Idolatry is a Government concern in India ; in England, Iconclasts arc all 
 the faf<hion. j[inc V.hc la^tT/tnix, 
 
iff 
 
 Protestant-tithe-takers j and by granting the Catholic question we 
 should give a grand blow to the proud High Church Ascendancy,* 
 and so prepare the way for something else relating to the Church, 
 •which all people wish and many expect, tience all the violence of the 
 English Parsons ; the whole stir in Yorkshire about Popery is set on 
 foot entirely by Parsons ; not one w^ord has been spoken or written 
 on the subject but by Parsons ; it is their cause, it is the cause of 
 tithes and nothing else ; this is the whole secret of the matter : it 
 shall be my duty to lay open all the tricks and contrivances of that 
 mischievous party, and to show with what arguments they support 
 their cause. 
 
 It is generally urged against the Catholics that when they had 
 power they abused it, and that it is inherent in their Religion to be 
 cruel, tyrannical, and oppressive. To this is added the accusation 
 by one set of politicians, that they are always too much attached to 
 Kingly power and strong dominion, and by another set that they 
 are so attached to their Priests, as never to obey the Government at 
 all but to transfer all their obedience to their Spiritual master : Both 
 of these accusations cannot be true, and yet both are urged. The 
 fact is that neither are true. 
 
 The Catholic Religion was once invested with supreme power in 
 this country ; the Catholic Church at one time possesed more than 
 half the landed property of the kingdom, all the learning, wisdom, 
 dignity and authority of the realm was vested in the ecclesiastical 
 chiefs; and King, Nobles, and People, bowed implicitly to the 
 Church. The excess of wealth that was heaped on the clergy by 
 the piety or ostentation of the rich exceeded all bounds and almost all 
 belief, and with this enormous wealth arose all manner of moral 
 corruption and profligacy, the perpetual concomitants of too great 
 prosperity. The Nobles, who were surpassed in wealth, power, and 
 grandeur by the Prelates, began the struggle against the Church 
 
 • John Leslie Foster, Esq. M. P. examined, Feb. 1825 : 
 
 *♦ In what manner do the Protestants of Ireland conceive, 80 far as you know, 
 that the granting complete civil rights to the lionian Catholics would operate to the 
 destruction of the Protestant Establishment ?— I think it is very mucii their im- 
 pression, that the adoption of these new principles which must Imve a triumph in 
 the concession of the question, would be inconsistent with continuing to uphold the 
 Established Church ; and 1 think that impression every day gains ground, by seeing 
 that the persons most influential in the assertion of the Ronian Catholic Claims, are 
 at no pains to conceal their idea of the insigniJicance and inutility of the Protestant 
 
Sid 
 
 from motives of jealousy and envy ; the Kings, who dreaded the 
 encroachments of the Popes on their treasury and could not bear 
 to see so much bullion shipped off every year to Rome, joined with 
 the nobility in the opposition, so that the nobility, and the Crown 
 were always quarelling with the Church.* The Catholic Clergy 
 were however exceedingly charitable and kind to the poor, it was 
 their policy as well as their inclination to be so, they supported all 
 the paupers in the kingdom, and by their extensive charities and 
 boundless hospitality gained and deserved the completest popularity. 
 This state of things continued till the end of the 14th century, when 
 the first appearance of the Reformation began with Wicklif and the 
 Lollards ; — Wicklif opposed the Church of Rome with great success 
 and in a short time he made so many followers that a writer of those 
 times says " you could scarcely meet a person on the high road that 
 was not a Lollard." A Lollard means a Radical- Protestant. The 
 Lollards held almost all the doctrines of the Church of England, 
 with this addition that they had a mortal antipathy to iithes, and 
 preached and prayed against them and all other Church property 
 with a piety that alai^med the Church, an4 compelled it to take some 
 active steps to save its wealth. The Lollards were however power- 
 fully supported by many great persons; the Lancasterian family 
 were infected with their heresies, though Henry IV, when he came 
 to the throne changed his faith, and in order to please the Church 
 party publicly burned some Lollards at Smithfield. From that 
 time burnings, hangings, and murderings of all sorts began. The 
 Clergy who connected Lollardry with a loss of tilhes moved heaven 
 and earth to extirpate the heresy. What Protestant Parson does 
 not enter into their feelings } I would ask Dr. Bloomfield, Bishop of 
 Chester, and all the great Protestant priests if they have a conception 
 of any crime so monstrous, so damnable, so unsaveable as the at- 
 tacking iilhcs f Name but the man even in these days who recom- 
 
 • In the reign of Edward I. John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, had a 
 struggle with the King in some ecclesiastical matters — he thus expresses himself in 
 one of his protests : " And since of old time between the Kings and Nobles of Eng- 
 land on the one part, and the Archbishops, Bishops, and Clergy cf the same kingdom 
 on the other part ; there always has existed a bitter dissension for the oppression of 
 the Church, contrary to the decrees of Popes, the decrees of Councils, and opinions 
 of the Fathers, in wliich tliree united there exists the highest authority, truth and 
 eanctity — We supplicate your Royal iMajesty, &c," 
 
 Spehrtan. Cone. ii. 341, 
 
^1 
 
 mends the siezuKe of Church property, and you have tlie whole 
 pack or* revie ^vers, newspHpers, revilers, and ecclesiastical roarers 
 bellowing in the streets and endeavouring to get him hanged. He 
 that attacks tithes is a Lollard : and Loilardry even now is burning 
 matter in tlie eyes of the bench of Bishops. 
 
 In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries liberty was little under- 
 stood, it is therefore no wonder that so many terrible persecutions 
 were set on foot against these new doctrines, or, that as the injuri- 
 ous effects of per33cution had not been discovered, they persevered 
 in their foolish and dangerous severities. The compassion of the 
 nation Vv^as roused in favour of the sufferers ; and in process of time 
 both King and Nobles turned Lollards, and, as is well known in 
 the reign of Henry VHL determined to seize all Church property 
 themselves and pocket the plunder. The moment this became evi- 
 dent, Loilardry vanished from among the people ; the Church was 
 robbed and she became popular once more, and when it was felt that 
 they who had seized the wealth of the Church gave nothing back 
 for it in return, that the poor were left to perish on dunghills, that 
 no priest fed, clothed, taught, and instructed them, that all hospitality 
 was at an end, that the convents were destroyed, and that in the 
 place of their ancient and lordly munificence there reigned nothing 
 but selfish penury and hard-hearted avarice — the people could bear 
 it no longer : the whole people of England took up the cause of the 
 Catholic Church and flew to arms to vindicate the cause of their 
 father's religion. This was called rebellion, and was punished with 
 slaughters, executions, and wholesale deaths. Thus began the Church 
 of England, it was planted in blood, and grew in blood ; it had to 
 fight its way every inch against the wishes and the majority of the 
 nation by violence and the drawn sword ; and though it has now 
 conquered all opposition, and hewn down to the earth all opposing 
 sects, yet still it cannot let go its love of domineering and insulting 
 and making wretched those that differ from it in abstract points of 
 faith ; and thus it proves that which is so often said of the Catholics, 
 " that when they possess power they abuse it." 
 
 The Catholics undoubtedly abused their power : no one can deny 
 the fact, it would be madness to do so, for who do not abuse power 
 when they possess it ? wherever there is power there is wickedness : 
 we all know tlie taste for absolute authority that pervades the Church 
 
of England, what would she not do if she possessed more than lialf 
 the lijnded property of England ? If you gave the Ranters, the Mug- 
 gletonians, the Dunkers, or the Jumpers half of England, do you not 
 think they would abuse their power ? to be sure they would, and 
 they would burn me for saying so. There is nothing so cruel or so 
 determined on mischief in all the world as a rich Priest ; it matters 
 not to what sect he belongs, riches and power make all sects the same, 
 and that which is true of the Catholic is true of all Religionists, 
 '* when they have power they abuse it." 
 
 But from this view of the matter we gain this unanswerable argu- 
 ment, that if the Parliaments of England in the strongest days cf 
 Popery, made a stand against the Catholic Church and formed the 
 English constitution, when everj/ Member of Parliament was a 
 Catholic, there can be no danger in these weak days of Popery of 
 our admitting about 20 Catholics to vote with 625 Protestants, Let 
 those answer this that can. 
 
 It has frequently been observed, and ought never to be forgotten 
 that the law of England, all the law which we value for its intrinsic 
 merit, and for the firmness and stability it has given our liberties, was 
 made by Catholics ; and if we still in spite of this powerful argu- 
 ment adhere to the stupid notion that their religion is incompatible with 
 the free course of our civil rights, let us turn to Foriescue de lau- 
 dilnts legum Anglice, and see with what masterly arguments he defends 
 and explains the liberties of England. This book is a text-book of 
 all lawyers, it is the most venerable and most respectable work we 
 have on the principle of law, and yet it was written by a Catholic and 
 in v^ry powerful times of Popery, when the Priests to save their tithes 
 were persecuting the Lollards, and when nobody dreamed of the pos- 
 sible existence of the present Church of England. Study that book, 
 and then say honestly if you think our civil rights unsafe in the 
 hands of Catholics. Remember that Magna Charta was forced down 
 the throat of a bloody tyrant by Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots 
 and Barons, all staunch Catholics. How can we then be so fooUsh as to 
 imagine they are natural enemies to liberty? nobody does really 
 .think so, and though at the general Election you may hear furious 
 Parsons, simpering Lords, and high born young gentlemen spouting 
 on this topic at the hustings, you may be sure that they are telling 
 Ues,, tmfi th^t they know they are telling lies, trusting to the igno- 
 
ranee of the Freeholders of the County of York to swallow any thmg 
 
 tiiey may think proper to say.* 
 
 But it is said the Catholics are idolaters, that they worship idols 
 pray to Saints and the Virgin, and are therefore unfit to be trusted 
 with power or tolerated in their religion. Supposing this were true, 
 what argument would it be against the concession of the Catholic 
 Claims ? none in the world, it would only prove that they are very 
 foolish and ridiculous in their notions. But do we exclude fools and 
 blockheads from Parliament ? do you never see a well-dressed, rich, 
 ignorant, incompetent, stupid Senator in the august House ? do you 
 never see the most illiterate of mankind amongst the colleciive wisdom> 
 do you never see that portent of a Squire who knows not one syllable 
 of the laws and history of his country, soliciting tlie votes of electors, 
 and begging us to make him our representative ? I think you have I 
 and I for one, sooner than have such a creature for my representative. 
 
 • York, December 2d, 1825. 
 
 '* At a numerous and hiirhli/ respectable Meeting of Gentlemen who are solicitoui 
 that some of the Representatives of this County, in the ensuing Parliament, shouI4 
 he decidedly opposed to further concessions to the ^oman Catlaolics, holden this day 
 at the George Inn, Coneystreet. 
 
 Loid MacdonaJd in the Chair. 
 
 Resolved unanimously. That it is to the British Constitution as essentially Pro. 
 testant, that we are indebted under Providence for our unexampled national prof 
 jtertty^ and for the enjoyment of our civil and religious liberties, and that the 
 preservation of this Constitution, and the blessings derived from it, can only be 
 secured by a Protestant Parliament." 
 
 Bravo, my Lord ! ! ! very good song, very well sung ! ! ! but allow a worm in 
 creation to ask your Lordship and the highly-respectable Gentlemen met at Coney- 
 street, what is this national prosperity'^ is it the stoppage of twenty banks in four- 
 teen days ? is it a debt of eight-hundred millions ? is it the sinking of England in 
 JSurope, and the annexing of Spain to France, and Italy to Austria ? is it th« 
 superiority of every nation in actual power over England ? is it the miserable state 
 of Ireland ? is it the glory we can boast of, of holding eight hundred thousand of 
 i>ur fellow-creatures in slavery in the West Indies ? is it the ruin of most of the 
 principal tradespeople in London ? is it the confusion and beggary created among so 
 many thousand families in London and the provinces by the failure of the banks f 
 is it the falling of the funds, and the end of public credit ? 
 
 But now, my Lord, take a few contradictions. The British Constitiition is 
 €t3eniiell>f Catholic^ the Protestants had no hand in it whatsoever ; all that the Pro. 
 testants have done is to make the national debt, to make the poor laws, and to keep 
 up every possible abuse in Church and State. The Protestants make laws enough, 
 they make them by waggon loads ; they change a third of the la%v8 every Session ; 
 they invent felonies, they put an end to felonies, they hang and they banish, and 
 send to the tread-mill for aU offences or for none, just as they think fit. They seem 
 to legislate by throwing the dice ; sometimes so outrageously philanthropic they will 
 not allow a prostitute to be put in the pillory ; and now in- a spasm of Draconic 
 severity they hang a boy for stealing an apple ! These *' llessings^'' and *■* enjoys 
 mcnts of your civil libeities'^ may give you great satisfaction, but the Freeholders 
 of the County of York do not wish to see them sccuud ; they have had enough of 
 Protestant wisdom, and they feel asMired tiiat tiie admission of every possible 
 Sectarian, cannot make the matter wort»e than it is ft prefei>t. 
 
 C % 
 
St 
 
 would elect a liigh priest of Moloch, the Pontifex Maximum of Jupiter 
 Ammon, or chief Brahmin of the Idol Juggernaut. I'olly is not a just 
 cause for persecution. 
 
 But the Catliolics nre not idolntors, they spurn the accusation, they 
 declare in every possible manner that they never worship images, 
 anci that they think it a great sin and blaspliemy to do so : they 
 tell their congregations tliat images, pictures and other decorations in 
 Chvirches, are of use to remind those that go to them of sacred history, 
 and to bring before their eyes the acts and sufferings of saints and 
 martyrs. I think them wrong in this opinion, I think that the vul- 
 gar sometimes attach holiness to these things, and I am sure that tliere 
 ought to be no pomp or decoration of any sort whatsoever in religious 
 worship, there ought to be neither picture, image, decorated altar, 
 splendid dress, wax-candles, gold or silver. All these things how- 
 ever are visible in the Church of England : go to a Cathedral, hear 
 and see all the magnificent things done there ; behold the regiments 
 of wax-tapers, the white robed priests, the mace -bearers, the chaun- 
 ters, the picture over the altar, the wax-lights and tlie burnished gold 
 plates and cups on the altar ; then listen to the prayers repeated in 
 a chaunt;, the^tithems, the musical responses, the thundering of the 
 organ and the echos of the interminable roof, and then say is not this 
 idolatr}^ ? it is all the idolatry that the Catholics admit, it is the 
 natural inclination that we liave to those we?.k and beggarly elements, 
 pomp and pride ; and which both Catholics and the High Church 
 j^tfrty think so important in religion. I boldly assert that there is 
 more idolatry in the Church of England than amongst the English 
 Catholics ; and for this simple reason, because the Church of England 
 can better afford it. Two thirds of the Church service is pomp and 
 grandeur ; it is as Charles I. used to say " the service of gentlemen" 
 it is for show, and for a striking impression : the Cathedral service is 
 nothing more or less than a mass, for it is all chaunted from beginning 
 to end, and the people cannot undersUmd a word of it. Thus we see 
 how sound' is that advice, " thou hypocrite first cast out the beam of 
 thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote of 
 tliy brother's eye." 
 
 But what is idolatry ? the Scriptures which we Protestants bonst so 
 much of as onl)^ known to ourselves say thus : " Mortify your mem- 
 bers which are upon the earth — covdousness, wliich is idolatry." (Colos. 
 iiiv5i}t Now Right Rc\'erend, My Lord of Winches;tcr, PrcttxTkiau 
 
25 
 
 Tomllne, you have written a book called the Elem^its of Christian 
 Theology, and who were Tutor to William Pitt the p^reat advocate of 
 the ('atholics, tell us if this be not sound Divinity ? is it not orthodox ? 
 is not covetousness idolatry ? is not the hoarding up of immense 
 treasures every year, the scraping up of eighteen thousand a year 
 from Church preferment, and putting it carefully into the funds with- 
 out giving a sixpence of it to any soul living, a thousand times worse 
 and more odious in the sight of God, than a poor, humble, unin- 
 structed man kneeling before a pictured shrine and praying to the 
 saints to intercede for his sins ? what say the " Elements of Chris- 
 tian Theology" on this point ? what is taught at the Oxford 
 schools on this subject ? are all the Protestant Universities silent 
 here ? have none of the rulers believed these things, or is it only 
 the people, who are accursed and know not the law, that thus inter- 
 pret Idolatry ? However, if St. Paul tells the truth, I know in what 
 Church I could find more idolatry than in any other Church in tlie 
 world, and so does every one that reads this pamphlet. 
 
 The grass worship of images was however > once believed in as a 
 point of faith, by some of the Catholic Doctors and many of the 
 Catholic people, and though this is denied as. an impossibility by 
 the modern Catholics, I am thoroughly satisfied tliat such was the 
 case, and am ecmally certain tiiat such a doctrine is now held by them 
 in the greatest abomination. I shall bring my proofs on both these 
 points. Thomas Aquinas, tlie great Doctor of the ancient Catholic 
 Church, a Saint, and a m.an of the prufoundest learning, has tlius 
 expressed himself at tlie end of a long argument on the question. 
 *' And thus it follows that the same reverence ought to be exhibited 
 to an image of Christ that there is to Christ himself: and since 
 Christ is adored with that adoration which is called lairia, it follows 
 that his image should be adored with latria (worship) also/* 
 
 / ^"Sic sequitur quod eadem reverentia exhibeatur iiragini Christi et ipsi 
 Cfnisto: cum ergo ( hristus adoretur acloratione latria; coiibcquens est quod ejus 
 imago et adoratione latria? adoranda." 
 
 (Edd. Stelsxus Antwerp, 1576. Qurost. xxv. Artie, iii. pp. 13C.) 
 
 This passage wluch would be a great treasure to a Protestant bigot, I have brought 
 to light, and cnuld if requisite publish many more from uicstautlier.ticaiHl respected 
 sources, equally stiong and equally forgotten. I am certan that the Catholic writers 
 are not aware of their existence, and v.'juld now inuignautly reject tlicm though they 
 were MTiitcn bv the .Saints. 
 
26 
 
 iflWe sliaH now see how the Catholics would receive such a doctrine 
 in these days. 
 
 The Most Rev. Daniel Murray, D. D. Archbishop of Armagh, 
 examined March, 1 825 : 
 
 *' What authority has Gother among Catholics as a writer upon the 
 Catholic Religion ? — He is considered a very zealous and a very cor- 
 rect divine, he is much in use amons^st Catholics. 
 
 And his authority is received as sound ? — His authority is consider- 
 able as an individual : the authority of no divine is paramount. 
 
 In order to remove the prejudices of Protestants, Gother published 
 a work entitled " A Vindication of Roman Catholics," as also their 
 declaration, affirmation, commination, showing their abhorence of 
 the following tenets, commonly laid at tlieir door; and they here 
 oblige themselves, that if the ensuing curses be added to those ap- 
 pointed to be read on the first day of Lent, they will seriously and 
 heartily answer Amen to them all ; first it is stated " cursed is he 
 that commits idolatry, that prays to images or relics, or worships 
 them for God." Do you acknowledge the accuracy of the doctrine ? 
 —Fully : I do not like the idea of cursing, but there is hardly any 
 language strong enough to express the abhorence I feel of the doc- 
 trine that is here denounced."* 
 
 To the same question Dr. Doyle gave this answer, "that is our 
 proper doctrine, and I, and every Roman Catholic in the world 
 would say with Gother, accursed be such person." — Here is the strong- 
 est possible evidence on this subject : and from it may be derived an 
 argument that by comparing the opinions of Thomas Aquinas and 
 these two Catholic prelates, it is clear that the CaUwHc faith halt 
 changed in essentials ; or if it has not changed, they are in no wisi^ 
 answerable for the opinions of their writers, who appear to err, how* 
 ever great or respected their names. So much for idolatry. 
 
 • The Most Rev. Oliver Kelly, D. D. Archbishop of Tuam, examined March, 
 1826 : 
 
 " In page 204, paragraph ii, of one of your Catholic Prayer Eooks, there is the 
 following passage. *' Catholics renounce all divine worship and adoration of images 
 or pictures : God alone vc worship and adore, nevertheless we place pictures to 
 reduce our wandering thoughts and excite our memory towards heavenly things j 
 further, we allow a certain honor to be shewn to the images of Christ and his Saints 
 beyond irbat is due to profane imager and figures ; not that we believe any divinity 
 or virtue to reside in them for whicl- tl-ey ought to be honored, but becaute the 
 honor given to pictures as regard to the prototype or thing represented" — Is (hat the 
 \i«hctyine taught by the Romnn Cnitholic Clergy to the people of Ireland ? — Pn cicely," 
 
2!P 
 
 It 19 said that the Catholics do not keep iaith with Heretics j^ if 
 however it were demanded in what respect they do not keep faith, 
 whether in a public or a private view, our opponents would find it diffi- 
 cult to answer the question. Is it meant that they do not keep public 
 faith ? can any accusation be so preposterously absurd ? what is the 
 meaning then of that solemn assurance made every year from the 
 throne by his Majesty, that he has the greatest confidence in the good 
 faith of his foreign allies ? why does he tell the nation that he ha» 
 made treaties with these faith-breaking Potentates, that he is certain 
 they will be kept, that he considers these perjured Princes his very 
 firm and honorable friends? are all our public treaties waste-paper ? 
 are these Catholic Potentates only waiting an opportunity to break 
 their oaths, to deceive their neighbours, and to over-reach his heretic 
 Majesty of England ? the King and the Cabinet would laugh at suchr 
 an insinuation; and what is most strange, the Government of Eng- 
 land, though swayed by such a red hot Protestant as the Cliancellor, 
 (who thinks all Catholics devils incarnate) makes it a matter of reli- 
 gious duty to flirt and smile with these Catholic Potentates, to lend a 
 helping hand to the Holy Alliance, to send ambassadors to Catholic 
 Princes, and to ship oflf a pompous Protestant Duke to attend the Coro- 
 nation of his Most Christian Majesty of France, where every tittle of 
 the Popish ceremonies was performed with the most scrupulous and 
 '* idolatrous" exactness ? why did his Majesty receive a kiss from the 
 lips of tliat most bigoted prince the Due d'Angouleme when he 
 landed at Calais ? why did the British arms restore the Pope to the 
 Papal Dominions? why did British guineas pour out by millions to 
 shove the Bourbon race down the throat of France again ? why have 
 we restored the whole Catholic Religion over universal Europe? 
 why have we fought like game-cocks for every Popish Prince we 
 could rake up out of prisons obscurity and exile? and why did we 
 ke^ a hundred thousand men in France for several years to see that 
 Popish dynasties and Popish Priests were not only restored but kept 
 in their places? Mercy on us! we have spent several hundred mil- 
 lions of guineas to restore Popish authority all over the world, and 
 now we cannot bear the notion of seeing the Catholics enjoy their 
 dvU liberties in this country, though the salvation of Ireland depends 
 on it, and tlmigh justice, humanity, and reason loudly demand thia 
 long-expected toleration ! 
 
28 
 
 An unconcerned spectator would say that by our foreign relation^ 
 and foreign exploits of the last tlnrty years, we were the most staunch 
 advocates for Popsry in the world, that we must be a nation of Jesuits, 
 every priest of which must be a BeHarniine, and every v.'riter must be 
 a Thomas Aquinas ; but if he came into the country, and saw the 
 folly, the fury, the ignorance and the raging bigotry amongst the 
 Yorkshire Parsons and Squires, he would think we were a nation of 
 Roundheads and Puritans : so that being unable to reconcile the con- 
 tradiction he woidd conclude that v/e Vv-ere a nation of madmen, and 
 would lament that the moon had such influence over England. 
 
 But do not Catliolics keep prlmite fiiith with Heretics ? — 1 hear 
 many people saying so, and I know some roaring gentlemen who 
 attend the Buncombe Committees, who make this assertion, and who 
 nevertheless give most practical proof that they disbelieve the asser- 
 tion that they make. Select the most resolute Protestant Squire you 
 can find in all Yorkshire, the most vigorous bigot that is known on 
 this side of the Humber, and if it should so happen that a Catholic 
 gentleman is his country-neighbour or acquaintance, I'll be bound the 
 Protestant makes no objection to go and stay with the Catholic, to eat 
 his food, to drink his wine, to court his hospitality, and to shoot his 
 game. I know such instances, they are before my eyes at this pre- 
 sent moment; and it is a notorious fact, that as the Catholic gentry 
 are of wealthy high-born ancient families, their society is particu- 
 larly in request, and that to gain their friendship is considered an 
 acquisition of no mean sort. But so base is our nature, so cowardly 
 and ungenerous, that those very persons who would live all their 
 days upon Catholic hospitality, who would marry their daughters or 
 sons into rich Catholic familes, who would do any thing to gain a 
 penny from any sect upon earth, will, if it suit their purposes, turn 
 round upon their friends, and in the face of Heaven declare that 
 Catholics are not to be trusted, that they keep no faith with Heretics, 
 that they have no moral principle, no rectitude, no honor, and no 
 virtue. Whenever you hear a man talking against the Catholics, 
 don't trouble yourself with his arguments, but inquire into his life, 
 get at the secret of his zeal, find out whose tool he is, what interest 
 he has in view, what title, what living, what election-job, what pelf 
 he is aiming at, and you will.be sure to unravel the clue of his base- 
 ness, and to see the a-eature in his real corruption. 
 
29 
 
 Of all the people that shout " No-Vo}ycnj ," there is not one in five 
 that does it from honest motives, and not one in a hundred that does 
 it from real religious feeling, from a true christian affection to the 
 Protestant faith, and from a sound and pious zeal ; but most have 
 some sinister object in view, — some miserable motive that will not 
 bear investigation. 
 
 Of the divided allegiance of the Catholics, that accusation which 
 has been so often confuted, it may be observed in a few words, that 
 their lovalty to Government has been so long tried, and tried too by 
 three centuries of oppression, that it is hopeless to tell even a lie on 
 this point. Falsehoods may go down on other parts of this contro- 
 versy, but when we all know and see daily that they are as orderly, 
 quiet, and loyal as any other members of so :;iety ; v/hen we never 
 hear any complaint against them, and when it is the wonder of us all 
 how Ireland continues obedient so long under such hopeless and 
 never-ending oppression ; our mouths must be stopped here, and we 
 must turn to other calumnies. The allegiance that the Catholics 
 give to the Pope is spiritual ; it entirely relates to spiritual matters ; 
 in them they profess to obey him implicitly, looking upon him as the 
 successor of the Apostle St. Peter and the Vicar of Christ upon earth 
 and the visible interpreter of the word of God. They think it right 
 that there should be a spiritual head of the Church, and they main- 
 tain that Christ appointed such a person, the first of whom was St. 
 Peter, succeeded by all the Popes from the earliest times down to the 
 present day. We think that the King is the Head of the Church ; 
 it may be so, but certainly Christ never said so, and it is a very 
 modern notion as every body knows. An Act of Parliament gave us 
 our Head of the Church, antiquity and the opinion of very early 
 times gave the Catholics their Head. In my humble opinion, there 
 ought to be no head at all of the Church ; the words of Christ are 
 conclusive on that subject : " One is your Master, even Christ, and 
 all ye are brethren : and call no man your Father upon Earth, far 
 one is your Father which is in heaven, neither be ye called Masters, 
 for one is your Master even Christ." 
 
 But thus stands the matter, the Catholics consider the Pope the 
 Head of their Church, the spiritual monarch in matters of faith ; we 
 consider the King our Head, though nobody ever dreams of asking 
 his opinion on religious matters, nor would follow his advice if he 
 gave it ; our Head advises nothing and does nothing in religion ; theirs 
 
 D 
 
30 
 
 is the centre and focus of their feith, and advises and commands 
 every thing ; ours is a phantom, a title without prerogative, and 
 totally inert. To take the oatli of supremacy, appears to me, swear- 
 ing to nothing, it is a mere abstract question, a contrivance to offend 
 the Catholics witiiout doing the Protestants any good. Any one 
 might swear to the oath of supremacy, if it was not understood that 
 by so doing, you had set the mark on your forehead, and had done 
 that which mankind agrees to consider a test : for miless the Pro- 
 testant v/ill shew how the EngHsh supremacy means any thing 
 pracficaUi/j unless he can prove that the King is really a head of the 
 Church beyond the title and the dignity, it is clear that the oath is 
 only invented to annoy and insult without benefiting the Protestant 
 interests. 
 
 To meas a Protestant it appears, that the Catholics fail to prove 
 the historical fact of the early supremacy ; though at the same time, 
 it should be observed, that there is a great deal to be said on their 
 side of the subject, and that a Protestant not learned in these matters 
 would be surprised with the vast quantity of ancient authorities that 
 the Catholics can adduce, and some of them mounting to such early 
 times as would make him feel mieasy for his faith. Popery was 
 tolerably well seated in the saddle three hundred years after Christ ; 
 two centuries later she was quite firm in her seat, and some of the 
 famous Popish doctrines, such as extreme unction and the celibacy of 
 the clergy, were received in the first and second centurie-y after the 
 death of Christ, beyond all possibility of doubt. 
 
 It is a fine romantic notion to wish for a spiritual head of the 
 Church upon earth, but the Roman and the English Church may 
 each prove that it is an impossible plan, and all the world will some 
 time confess the truth. The Catholics, however, never had so much 
 of a spiritual head of their faith as at the present day ; for 7Wtv since 
 the Catholic religion is poor and fallen all over Europe, it conse- 
 quently can boast of more zealous, pious, and primitive Ministers 
 than ever it had before. Poverty is the great secret for making con- 
 scientious Priests ; wealth, endowments. Church lands, and tithes, 
 are the ruin of religion, and thus it is that the popular feeling is so 
 decidedly in favour of the Catholic when compared with the Esta- 
 blished Clergy in England. The Catholic Priest is poor, zealous, 
 active, humble, diligent and attentive to his flock ; but what our 
 Clergy are, the famous battle of Skibbereen will prove, and every 
 
other parish Church in England may add to the proof. One single 
 instance of a rich Protestant pluralist, does more harm to the interests 
 of the Protestant faith, than the granting the Catholic Claims could 
 do in a hundred years. 
 
 The Catholic religion has had three great aeras ; first in its com- 
 mencement to the dark ages ; then from the middle centuries down 
 to the Reformation : and lastly from the Reformation to the present 
 day. The Popish religion of the present day has scarcely any re- 
 semblance with its middle stage; its powers, its pretensions, its 
 doctrines, its wealth and its object are not the same; it is a 
 phantom both in theory and practice to what it once was, and yet 
 the bigots draw all their arguments from the middle ages, and 
 passing all the manifest alterations of tlie modern times, set up a cry 
 about the enormites of times long past, and which have been dead 
 and buried these three hundred years. This unjust conduct is just the 
 same as if you were to hang a faithful tried domestic, who had served 
 you forty years because he had committed some petty theft when he 
 was a boy ; it is the most illiberal and the most unjustifiable mode of 
 ai'guing, and if applied to the Church of England, would reduce it 
 to a worse case than tliat of her old rival. But what do yqu suppose 
 the Pope could do in England if he wished? could he make him- 
 self King? could he put the kingdom under an interdict and ex- 
 communicate the Duke of York ? could he make England a fief of 
 Rome ? — ^it is too ridiculous to have fears on this head. Go to Rome, 
 see the miserable poverty and impotency of the Papal power, hear 
 how his Holiness is banded about by the neighbouring Sovereigns, 
 see with what contempt they treat him, and then decide if it is pro- 
 bable tliat he ever could be able, if he wished, to do more in Eng- 
 land than to appoint a few Catholic Bishops wilhout tilhcs, palaces, 
 and titles. The government of the heart no persecution can take 
 away from the Pope; any other governm.ent the Pope wishes not, nor 
 expects, and he is sensible that it is not his policy to aim at any secular 
 power, which no Protestant, however bigoted, thinks he.will aim at, 
 though it suits party purposes to say so. This subject lias been so 
 well explained by the Archbishop of Armagh, in his examination 
 before the House of Commons, that his words may close the subject. 
 
 '' Is the claim which the Popes formerly set up to temporal autho- 
 rity opposed to scripture and tradition ? — / do not thivk it is very con^ 
 formable to it : I do not say exactly that it was cj^jroied to it ; but 
 
certainly he lias received no such power liom Christ. I do not eay 
 but he received it from men ; the same as he received the kingdom 
 he Jias now, or at least the dukedom, the j'apal authority. What- 
 ever he h«d or has of temporal power or authority he received from 
 men ; and I believe would have done better not to have taken it • 
 he became a great deal less wjlue?itial man as a spiritual chief, after 
 receiimig it than before" 
 
 How much wisdom is contained in this remark ! and tlie Catholics 
 are neither such madmen as to dream of the possibility of their ever 
 regaining secular power, or such fools as to wish it. The crum- 
 bling state of the Church of England is a standing lecture for them, 
 even if they closed their eyes to the history of their own Church. 
 
 The last popular accusation against the Catholics is founded on 
 the persecutions that they formerly set on foot against the Reforma- 
 tion : to this the answer is evident that it was once considered a duty 
 to persecute those that differed from us in Religious opinions, that all 
 parties and all sects agreed in the opinion, and that whoever w'as 
 uppermost made it a rule to commit his opponent to the flames. 
 This cruel bigotry was once equally conspicuous in the Protestants, 
 and it is notorious that Cranmer and Latimer who wrote the Homi- 
 lies of the Church of England, who superintended the XXXIX 
 Articles, and y^ho formed the Church of England, committed Ana- 
 baptists and other Heretics to the flames ; and that they were guilty 
 of this cruelty when they were zealous and earnest Protestants, and 
 complaining every day of Catholic cruelty. We will take one instance 
 of their persecution. In the year 1 549, Joan Bocher, for preaching 
 some heterodox opinion about the union of '*the W^ord with the 
 flesh," v.as in an ecclesiastical commission before Archbishop Cran- 
 mer, Bishop Latimer, and three others, found guilty of heretical 
 pravity and cor.demned to be burnt alive.* W^hich sentence was 
 
 * The sentence against this unforUinate woman was drawn up "in the name of 
 God," and the Piote&tant incjuisitors inserted that '' they had invoked the name of 
 Christ, and I'.ad (lod only before their eye; — lliat her oj^inions were a damnable 
 and scandalous heresy, obviatirg, aid contrary to the Catholic faith. — that she was 
 obstinate and contumacious; ar.d that they had pronounced sentence against her 
 with grief of mind and bitterntss of heart — that she was in the errors and sins of th§ 
 detestable sect of the -Anabaptists, and that she was a fit person to suffer the last 
 punishment." 
 
 When Cranmer condemned hev, she arswered with spirit and gocd sense, " it is 
 a goodly ntatter to consider your ignorance. It was not long ngo th&t you burned 
 /\r4ne Ar-kew for ft j^tccc of b/cadf find yet came youiielf soon alter to bciieve 
 
m 
 
 put in execution. But the matter did not rest here, hailmer preached 
 on these persccutiojiSj and these were his words. " The Anabaptists 
 that were burnt here in divers towns in England (as I heard of cre- 
 dible men, I saw them not myself) went to their death, even inirepidi 
 as ye will say, without any fear in the world, WELL LET THEM 
 GO." &c. &c. and in his sermon on St. John the Evangelist, he men- 
 tions Joan Bocher by name; though to mention her name ought 
 only to have been with execrations against those that had put her 
 to death ! 
 
 Again; Calvin burnt Servetus alive, for some unsound opinion 
 respecting the Trinity ; and he wrote a letter to the Protector, in the 
 minority of Edward VL begging him to restrain Heretics with the 
 sword. Calvin is the founder of a very large party in the Church of 
 England at this very day ; who conceive that he has best expounded 
 the Scriptures and is the soundest of Doctors ; but who would not 
 exclaim at the injustice of charging the Calvinists with the cruel 
 persecutions of their founder, and of thrusting them out of all offices 
 in Church and State, because their leader was an unprincipled bigot 
 and incendiary three hundred years ago ? But this is precisely our 
 mode with the Catholics, we prove their sins and cruelties some 
 hundred years past, and tJierefore we now refuse to admit them to the 
 rights and privileges of Englishmen. 
 
 The Catholics undoubtedly were once guilty of great persecutions, 
 but it was the spirit of the times, it was not the spirit of their religion ; 
 those times have past away, persecutions are at an end every where but 
 in England ; no sect persecutes but the Church of England — All 
 Religions are equal in France — the Pope allows us chapels in Rome 
 . — Catholic and Protestant are equal in Holland — but in England 
 bigotry is flourishing and unabated. 
 
 And now having run over the principle religious objections against 
 the Catholics, (objections, which, however true they might have been, 
 ought never to be considered in such a question as this,) you should 
 be reminded. Freeholders, what the disabilities are under which the 
 Catholics labour. A Catholic in Ireland, however great his rank and 
 
 and profess that very doctrine for which you bumed her, and now forsooth you will 
 burn me for q. piece ofjlcsh, and in the end will come to believe this also wher. you 
 have read the Scriptures and understood them." Cranmcr, who was unstable as 
 water, ought to have listened to the advice of this superior woman, who spoke more 
 sense in tlie&e few words than he ever did in all his life. 
 
34 
 
 dignity, however ancient his family, however brilliant his talents, 
 cannot be Lord Lieutenant, Lord High Treasurer, Secretary of State, 
 Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, Keeper of the Privy Seal, 
 Vice Treasurer, Privy Councillor, Teller cr Cashier of the Exchequer, 
 Auditor General, or Postmaster General — A Catholic cannot be 
 Chancellor, Master of the Rolls, Judge in the Courts of Exchequer, 
 King's Bench, Common Pleas, or Admiralty, or in the Ecclesiastical 
 Courts; he cannot be Attorney or Solicitor General, a Serjeant, 
 Counsel to the Revenue Boards, or Master of Chancery — nor in the 
 Corporations, a Mayor, Sheriff, Alderman, Common Councilman, 
 Sub-Sheriff, Town Clerk, Master or Warden in any Guild ; nor can 
 he hold a place in any Corporation though he may be a freeman, just 
 as he can hold no office of trust or honor in the Law, tliough he may 
 practice as a common Lawyer. Now who that considers these dis- 
 qualifications does not instantly perceive that they are not only 
 galling in themselves, but may be rendered doubly so by tlie inso- 
 lence of the predominant party, that party which uses its pre- 
 eminence in the most triumphant and scornful manner ; and which 
 has its long processions of drunken and violent Orangemen openly 
 parading the streets to remind the Catholics of their degradation, and 
 to insult them with their inferiority. This is not only knocking a 
 man down, but kicking him when he is down ; it is not only kicking 
 him when he is down, but spitting in his face; it is not only spitting 
 in his face, but dragging him through the gutter ; it is cruelty not to 
 be borne, baseness not to be tolerated, pride, insolence, villainy, and 
 cowardice, that ought only to be punished by the summary execution 
 of the offenders. I often wonder how human patience can keep quiet 
 under such accumulated injuries as the CathoHcs are compelled to 
 endure; and so far from professing a canting regret, that they move 
 heaven and earth in their cause and thereby "disgust their best 
 friends ;" I am lost in admiration that they are satisfied with such 
 measures as they do adopt. I am sure, if the Bishops and Parsons of 
 the Church of England had to bear a fiftieth part of the severities 
 endured by the Catholics, all England would be in open rebellion, 
 and not all the dragoons in Europe could keep them down. When, 
 therefore, I hear the vacillating politicians of England deprecating 
 over their port wine aud turtle soup, the " imprudence of the Catho- 
 
 « lies and that they will much injure their cause by their present 
 
 ''measures— that they ought to keep quiet, and wait tlie advice of 
 
95 
 
 " his Majesty's Ministers— t^at It is the best way to entrust their cause 
 " into the hands of prudent and cautious men," &e. &c. &c. &c. &c. 
 I could take their thick heads and bray them with brick bats ; T 
 long to shout in their ears, " You monstrous blockheads I who irf 
 ''this wide world imagines that the Ministry would grant six- 
 '* penny-worth of liberty to save fifty millions of Christians from 
 '^ immediate destruction if it was not for their interest so to do ? Who 
 " does not know what his Majesty's Ministers perform when left to 
 ''themselves? Wlio does not know that never any advantage has 
 " been gained over oppression, but by the loud and unabating voice 
 " of the people ? Who does not know that the moment we are silent 
 "and quiet, unceasing advantages are taken of our quiet, that 
 " they may have a stronger hold upon us in hard times ? The people 
 " of Ireland are starving, the Religion of the country is oppressed 
 "and persecuted, the priesthood is labouring under insults and 
 " infamy, the people are dragooned and fired upon to pay tithes to 
 " the priests of their oppressors ; civil union is at end ; all things are 
 " come to a crisis ; the first day of a new war would take Ireland 
 " away from England ; carnage, suspicion, hatred, plots, stratagems, 
 " cruelty and dissensions run riot all over the country. — They have 
 " prayed to man and he will not hear them, to Heaven and it delays 
 " salvat'on, to earth and she protects them not. — All things are deaf 
 " to their cause ; and then you beg them to be quiet — ^you find a 
 " wretch dying on a dunghill, of wounds, of robbers, and the incle- 
 "mency of the skies, and then you preach patience to him — ^you 
 " recommend Ireland to entrust her cause to prudent and cautious 
 " men ! Oh yes ! to such wily politicians as truckle to the Ministry, 
 " as cog and crouch to power, as may be bribed off any day, as may 
 *'be laughed do^\n by Canning, as may be flattered down by Can- 
 " ning, as may be hood- winked by Canning, and then turn out to 
 " the world the jeer and laughing stock of creation ! to such politi- 
 " cians as proposed to disfranchise all Ireland in one day ! but no — 
 " the Catholics have done with their friends. ' Save me from mtj 
 "friendsy and I will take care of my enemies,* is the proper advice to 
 " the Catholics, for he that is not with you is against you ; and he tliat 
 " gathereth not, scattereth ; trust to your own strength, and trust 
 " nothing else under Heaven, appeal to the generosity of England, 
 " to the sound sense and liberality of all its provinces, to such great 
 
it 
 
 <* counties as Yorkshire ; appeal to the freeholders, state your case 
 *' boldly to them; speak out like men; never keep quiet a single 
 *' day ; trust not the Aristocracy, fly only to the people, if you can- 
 *'not move the Gods try Acheron, — ^but never, never, as you love 
 " your religion, listen for a moment to that wily serpent, policy, which 
 '* begs you to keep tranquil, that your enemies may rivet your chains 
 « for ever." 
 
 That smooth politician. Canning, has written to the Duke of Nor- 
 folk, requesting him to keep his party quiet — ^but the Duke of Nor- 
 folk " knows the Greeks and fears their gifts** 
 
37 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Freeholders of the County of' Yoi'k! having viewed this question in 
 all its bearings, a few words should be addressed to you on the 
 Coimty politics relating to it. Let us then consider the movements 
 of this great County. 
 
 Mr. Wortley, Mr. Bethell, and Lord Milton, are favourable to the 
 Catholic Claims ; Mr. Fountayne Wilson and Mr. Wm. Duncombe, 
 are adverse to them. Of these gentlemen, it is understood, that Mr. 
 F. Wilson is really smitten with a genuine panic on the subject, but 
 of Mr. W. Buncombe's sincerity there are great doubts entertained. 
 Not that any one imagines he will not vote against the Catholics ; 
 but it is surmised that he is making the present question a stalking- 
 horse to his ambition : it is thought that his family being anxious to 
 raise themselves in power and dignity in the County, lay hold of the 
 ferment raised by the Parsons, that they may sail into the desired 
 haven of Yorkshire ambition, and having once fixed themselves there 
 never be thrown out again. Mr. W. Duncombe would have no 
 more chance of being elected for Yorkshire than the Pope himself, if 
 it was not for the blindness created by party madness. He is quite 
 a stripHng, and totally devoid of talent, and his family is remarkably 
 unpopular, and perhaps justly so. The famous tread-mill story will 
 Stick to the name of Duncombe as long as it lasts : it will be remem- 
 bered when our present passions are completely subsided : he will 
 hear of It at the Election, and hear of it as long as he lives. 
 
 Two Parsons, Currer and Ried, aided and assisted by Markham, 
 Overton and the other writers of the Yorkshire Gazette, got up the 
 meeting inviting Duncombe to stand. Lord Macdonald took the 
 chair, they voted a resolution glaringly false, " that the Constitution 
 was essentially Protestant," and that to it they owed the present 
 unexampled national prosperity ! ! ! as if it was to make these Resolu- 
 tion-men the laughing-stocks of the County : the very next week the 
 York Bank broke, the funds fell ?iye per cent., and a Bank broke 
 every week in every county of England. York is plunged in misery 
 
38 
 
 and ruin, half the servants and lower tradesmen are turned beggars ; 
 beggary is the cry of the nation, and it is to this essentially Protestant 
 system that we owe all this unexampled prosperity. However, we all 
 know the meaning of unexampled prosperity ; it means jobs heaped 
 upon particular families, commissions in the army, commissions in 
 the navy, places, pensions and sinecures — livings, deaneries, bishop- 
 ricks, and pluralities — it means high rents ; it means ports closed 
 against corn ; it means low wages and high-priced provisions ; it 
 means laws against workmen and artificers ; it means every thing that 
 exalts Gentlemen and lowers the People. In one word, it means JOBS. 
 Those four letters are a compendium of the whole Protestant-Cry* 
 Whatever keeps off the evil day of reckoning, whatever prevents a 
 Reform of ParKament, whatever prevents the free growth of liberty, 
 is seized at and worked on, on all occasions. To-day " No-Popery" 
 is the great delusion ; and as nothing is so much in danger of revi* 
 sion as Church property and tithes, it was natural that the Parsons 
 should raise a clamor to blind the people. Religion is supposed to be 
 their province, they are supposed to be very fond of the Protestant 
 faith, they are supposed to be the natural enemies of liberality, and 
 therefore to find them the loudest in shouting " No-Popery" was 
 what might have been expected. But mark these matters. Parsons 
 A, B, and C, expect a living from D ; or they hope that D will men- 
 tion them to the Chancellor : thus they have two motives for wishing 
 to see D a County Member, first that he may give them a family- 
 living of which the Incumbent Dr. F. is aged 83 and very gouty ; 
 and next they know, the Chancellor or the Ministry will be much 
 more likely to listen to D if he is a steady- voting County Member, 
 than if he was only returned from a rotten borough. With these 
 views. A, B, and C, set to work; Doctors Puff and Blow, two Cathe- 
 dral Prebends; and each holding £l200. per annum in the Church, 
 are the conductors of a County Newspaper ; — Puff and Blow write 
 their thumbs off against Popery ; all Fox's Martyrs is republished in 
 their weekly sheet ; flames, blood, persecutions, popes and inquisi- 
 tors dazzle the farmer's eye every Saturday ; all the rubbish about 
 "Constitution, Church, and State," is poured out by cart-loads; 
 every lie, every calumny, every precious piece of ignorance, every 
 disgraceful ;sentiment, ten thousand times confuted, is again brought 
 to light : Puff and Blow calculate that most of their readers are igno- 
 rant, many cruel, many cowardly, and all easily alarmed ; with this view 
 
S9 
 
 of human nature they keep brewmg poison till it works, and then 
 having raised a mischievous party, they laugh in their sleeves and 
 pocket their tithes. When a party is raised. A, B, and C, call a 
 meeting of all the rest of the Alphabet; the Alphabet invite D to 
 stand ; D talks more rubbish about " the Church and Constitution," 
 and after a little pressing, and simpering, and ogling, and blushing, 
 he consents to make fools of his good friends the Alphabet and to 
 stand at the General Election. A, B, and C, make speeches ; Puff 
 ^nd Blow write about it next Saturday, and D begins canvassing 
 with all his might. Q. E. D. 
 
 This is the beginning of County intrigues : but they do not end 
 there, D has £20,000. and a dozen or twenty gentlemen that support 
 him, £10,000. per annum. These drive up their tenants to the 
 hustings like sheep to the market ; the gentry consider farmers brute 
 beasts, and treat them as such ; they know they have not had much 
 education, and have not had time to read deeply the history of their 
 country, and besides, that they are likely to listen with tolerable 
 patience to any nonsense that may be talked to them ; with this 
 opinion of the Yeomanry, you will hear some Candidates make most 
 glorious speeches at York at the General Election, you will hear 
 them utter nonsense that would shame a school-boy, you will hear 
 them produce all the old hackneyed bigotry that has been laying by 
 covered with rust ever since Titus Gates* conspiracy, and if you have 
 patience to read it you will hear such a speech as the following, 
 which is ticketed and numbered according to the lies it contains. 
 
 Speech delivered at the Hustings by William Bumpus de Noodle, 
 Esq. at the General Election, 1826: 
 
 '' Gentlemen, Freeholders of the County of York ! It is with great 
 satisfaction that 1 address you at the close of this evening's poll, 
 which has been announced so clearly in my favor. I look upon it as 
 a proof, that any approbation IJmeet with from you, is given me only 
 on the score that I am known to be a warm though humble advocate 
 of those Protestant independent principles which have secured us all 
 those blessings (1) we now enjoy. Gentlemen, I feel a pleasure in 
 assuring you, that I am a zealous supporter (2) of those principles. 
 I hope the day will never come when any farther concessions will be 
 made to the Catholics, those natural enemies (3) of the Constitution ; 
 who when they were in power (4-) brought so much misery on the 
 nation; who supported their dogmas (5) oiily by fire and sword; 
 
 E '^ 
 
40 
 
 who deluged (6) England with blood, and spread (7) misery and 
 confusion over the land. — f unbounded applause.) 
 
 " We all know. Gentlemen, that the Catholics (8) never keep faith 
 with Heretics ; that they openly profess to transfer their allegiance (9) 
 from the King to the Pope ; and in one instance only are honest ; — • 
 they refuse in the face of day to promise that obedience to his Ma-, 
 jes'ty (10) which is due from all good subjects. 
 
 " But Gentlemen, that Constitution which is the boast of the 
 world, that matchless Constitution, which makes us the envy of the 
 world and the admiration of surrounding nations, has been made (11) 
 and cemented (12) by Protestant blood. Those time-hallowed in- 
 stitutions which have been handed down to vis by the wisdom of our 
 ancestors, which have been reared by (13) Protestant perseverance 
 and supported by Protestant (14;) virtues, let us never be so base as 
 to betray, by adimitting these men into power who are the sworn 
 enemies {lb) of liberty, and the declared supporters of religious per-, 
 secutions. Gentlemen, unless you wish to see the Inquisition esta- 
 blished again in your country, that country (l6) which it once 
 brought to the brink of destruction; unless you wish to see the 
 Pope's Tiara surmount the Kingly crown ; unless you wish to see 
 the fires of Smithfield again kindled, which never have been kindled 
 but by (17) Catholics ; unless you wish to see the land swarming 
 with Monks and Friars ; unless you wish to see your wives and 
 daughters immured in the dreary dungeons of monastic confinement ; 
 unUiss you wish to see the Protestant Ptcligion abolished, you never 
 can consent to give your suffrages for any Candidate who does not 
 distinctly state that he is adverse to these hated Religionists. To 
 who:n do we owe Magna Charta, but to those (18) Protestant patriots 
 that expelled the Popish Stuarts from the throne } To whom do we 
 ovv'ethe common law of the land, but to those (19) Protestant Judges 
 who have so ffbly supported that Church and Constitution which is 
 the object of our warmest affections ? What argument then can be 
 ofi'ered for extending immunities to the Catholics? Plainly none : 
 And I, for one, wish to see greater restrictions imposed on them, 
 stronger safeguards for our matchless Constitution. But this is my 
 pledge, (}entlemen, that I, with my last breath will oppose any fur- 
 tlier concessions to these men ; being fully convinced that all the 
 unccrampkd prosperifj/ of the nation, the high state (20) of public 
 credit, the confidence imposed in IMinifter?^ the flcuiithing ttate of 
 
41 
 
 agriculture, the increase of trade ; the abundance of the harvests ; 
 and the general prosperous state of the country is owing entu-ely to 
 those (21) Protestant principles, by wMch I hope to stand or fall."— 
 (loud and long ajyplause.) 
 
 Such a speech as this you will be sure to hear ; some of these lies 
 they must tell, but you who read tliis pamphlet will remember them 
 and laugh at them when they appear, you will remind the Orator 
 that this was distinctly prophecied. Nothing is so easy as to get up 
 a common place hustings speech, but it is the fault of the people if 
 they applaud, except when sense is spoken. When the Orators talk 
 about the Pope and the Inquisition, ask them if they will pledge 
 themselves to support Parliamentary Reform; when they mention 
 Monks and Nuns remind them of some family places and pensions, 
 some government jobs^ some thousands quietly pocketed by commis- 
 sions in the army or navy, and for which the country has to pay ; 
 when they ciint and whine about faith with Heretics, jog their me- 
 mories about the national debt; — -when they talk of blessings and 
 matchless Constitution, hint to them the stoppage of fifty two banks 
 and the ruin and beggary of a hundred thousand families ; — ^meet the 
 divided-allegiance with some tricks of the " unpaid-magistracy," and 
 get by heart the whole story of the Duncombe-treadmill — sparry the 
 Pope with the six Acts and the Manchester massacre — and when they 
 storm about the Cardinals, put the extinguisher on them by the suspen- 
 sion of the Habeas-Corpus Act, and the vote of money to the Duke of 
 Cumberland. They have only ghost stories and old- wives fables to 
 alarm you with, they have only Fox's book of Martyrs, and the 
 charges of a few base Bishops ; but you. Freeholders ! you have the 
 whole range of jobs, bribery, corruption, places, pensions, taxes, 
 national debt, standing armies, tithes, game-laws, tread- mill stories, 
 county-rates, gas-bills, and the thousand other contrivances for plun- 
 der, which you all so well understand and which need not here be 
 enumerated. The cry of « No Popery" is merely to turn away your 
 attention from these things ; the whole plot is got up by Parsons, 
 Place-men and Jobbers : and two thirds of the most noisy Protes- 
 tants would turn Jews, Gentiles, Brahmins, Bonzes, or Jumpers in 
 six weeks if they could gain a penny by it, or make out to their 
 satisfaction that at any time it would be more advantageous to them 
 than their present Protestant zeal. 
 
42 
 
 For you are not to imagine. Freeholders, that tliose who shout 
 '' No Popery," are therefore sincere Protestants: on the contrary, many, 
 nay by far the most, of those who take an active part in bigotry are 
 persons notoriously of no religious principles, if you may judge from 
 their private conduct, '' they have the word of God in their lips, but 
 it is far away from their hearts." — They consider Christ a stepping- 
 stool to their ambition, they make Religion a ladder for Elect! on- Jobs; 
 and those who pass their days in idleness, drunkenness, fox-hunting, 
 shooting, gambling, swearing, political baseness, avarice, meanness, 
 corruption and every species of moral degradation, will be seen 
 active in committees, diligent in mischief, and full of outside Protes- 
 tant zeal at the Hustings. 
 
 It is astonishing to see how much the bad part of our nature 
 operates in this question. All England was quiet on the subject till 
 the Bishop of Osnaberg (sometimes called the Duke of York,) de- 
 clared one day after dinner, in the House of Peers, with an oath, that 
 happen what might, he never would be otherwise than inimical to 
 the Catholics. This oath being coupled with the fact of the Swearer 
 being Heir Presumptive to the throne, immediately roused the slum- 
 bering zeal of the Church. Bishops, Deans, Priests and Curates 
 however supine in their intellects, could understand the plain truth, 
 that a " No Popery" cry was likely to please the Heir Apparent ; and 
 that the more furious they were, the more likely were they to get 
 good from the rising sun. The same truth operated wonderfully on 
 Admirals and Generals ; so that those, who literally could not 
 explain the difference of the two faiths if cross-examined, began all 
 on a sudden to be amazingly Religious, and to shudder witli horror 
 whenever the Pope was mentioned. 
 
 Nothing now would go down but the XXXIX Articles : Place- 
 men, Sinecurists, Pluralists rushed headlong into the fervour of 
 faith ; and all those leeches who suck out the blood of the country 
 and fatten on its weakness, became sensible that their money was a 
 "blessing," and that they owed this blessing to the "essentially Pro- 
 testant Constitution." That is: that their places, sinecures and plu- 
 ralities are not only likely to be confirmed, but encreased " essentially" 
 by pleasing a Prince sworn on the Bible to continue intolerant all his 
 daj^s. This is the great secret of the whole mystery ; it operates on 
 Bishops who expect translations, on Gentry who expect titles, on 
 Geiierals who look for promotion, on Lawyers who have ratted from 
 
48 
 
 all opinions to get money, on Serjeants who expect to be Judges, on 
 Blockheads who wish to become Members of Parliament ; on Cour- 
 tiers who seek places; on all tliat look for clerkships, tellerships, 
 gold-sticks, silver-sticks, white wands, ribbons green red or blue, 
 garters, stars, episcopal wigs, crosses and precedence. Hence it is 
 we see the University of Cambridge canvassed on *' the Protestant 
 Interest" by the Attorney General, that glib Lawyer, who from having 
 being a Junius-Brutus-Republican, a Reformer that made the ears 
 tingle to hear of, has become a raving Royalist, an Ultra, a Holy 
 Alliance man, and, to unite all trades, a zealous Protestant, a firm 
 supporter of the XXXIX Articles. Doubtless this Gentleman has 
 gone through all his transmigrations from oonviction of conscience, but 
 there are others not in the same predicament; there are others not so 
 upright and virtuous as he is, there are others whose Religious zeal 
 is enlivened by the emptiness of their pocket. 
 
 But enough has been said on this subject. Freeholders of the 
 County of York ! to open your eyes to the plain truth of the ques- 
 tion ; and now that you have seen the secret springs of the machine 
 you will not mind the noise that it makes. Let no man deceive you ; 
 never be made tools of by persons who seek only their own interest ; 
 you have plan straight-forward sense to direct you ; you have the 
 power of seeing that two and two make four ; you can discover as 
 Baxter says " that a two-penny loaf costs twopence," and if you allow 
 yourselves to be gulled by the designing arts of ambitious tricklers 
 you will some day repent it; when you see Ireland taken away from 
 us by the French ; when you see every Catholic our sworn enemy, 
 when you see the right hand of England cut off, all to please the 
 High-Church Party ; to keep up the GRAND SYSTEM OF JOB- 
 BING, to add to the taxes, to add to the "unexampled national pios^ 
 peritt/" : and in one word, to Delay Parliamentary Reform ; and when 
 you reflect that you did but move your little finger in this work 
 " You will be sorry for what you have done" 
 
u 
 
 APPENDIX L 
 
 NOT to burthen the text with long documents, the following de- 
 claration published by the Catholic Committee, in the year 1757, is 
 here added as an Appendix. This declaration was sent t© the Pope 
 and received his sanction, and has been since published at various 
 periods by the Catholic leaders. 
 
 " Whereas certain opinions and principles inimical to good order 
 and government, have been attributed to the Catholics, the existence 
 of which we utterly deny ; and whereas it is at this time peculiarly 
 necessary to remove such imputations, and to give the most full and 
 ample satisfaction to our Protestant brethren that we hold no princi- 
 ple whatsoever incompatible with our duty as raen or as subjects, or 
 repugnant to liberty, whether political, civil, or religious : now we 
 the Catholics of Ireland for the removal of all such imputations, and 
 in deference to the opinions of many respectable bodies of men and 
 individuals among our Protestant brethren, do hereby, and in the 
 face of our country, of all Europe, and before God, make this our 
 deliberate and solemn declaration. 
 
 1st. We abjure, disavow, and condemn the opinion that Princes 
 excommunicated by the Pope and council, or by any ecclesiastical 
 authority whatsoever, may therefore be deposed by their subjects or 
 any other persons. We hold such doctrine in detestation, as wicked 
 ' and impious ; and we declare that we do not believe that either the 
 Pope, with or without general council, or any Prelate or Priest, or 
 any ecclesiastical power whatsoever can dissolve the subjects of this 
 kingdom, or any of them from their allegiance to his Majesty King 
 George, who is by authority of Parliament the lawful King of this realm. 
 2d. We abjure, condemn, and detest as unchristian and impious, 
 the principle that it is lawful to murder, destroy, or any ways injure 
 any person whatever, for or under the pretence of being Heretics ; 
 and we declare solemnly before God, that we believe that np act in 
 itself unjust, immoral or wicked, can ever be justified or excused by 
 
45 
 
 or under pretence or color that it was done either for the good of the 
 Church, or in obedience to any ecclesiastical power whatsoever. 
 
 3rd. We further declare that we hold it as an unchristian and 
 impious prmciple that no faith is to be kept with Heretics: this doc- 
 trine we detest and reprobate not only as contrary to our Religion, 
 but as destructive of morality, of society, and even common honesty; 
 and it is our firm belief that an oath made to any person not of the 
 Catholic Religion is equally binding as if it were made to any Catho- 
 lic whatsoever. 
 
 4th. We have been charged with holding as an article of oar 
 belief, that the Pope with or without the authority of a general council, 
 or that certain ecclesiastical powers can acquit and absolve us before 
 God from our oath of allegiance, or even from the just oaths and 
 contracts entered into between man and man. Now we do entirely 
 renounce, abjure, and deny that we hold or maintain any such belief, 
 as being contrary to tlie peace and happiness of society, inconsistent 
 with morality, and above all repugnant to the true spirit of Uie 
 Christian Religion. 
 
 5th. We do further declare that we do not believe that the Pope 
 of Rome, or any other Prince, Prelate, State or Potentate, hath or 
 ought to have any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority 
 or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly within this realm. 
 
 6th. After what we have renounced it is immaterial in a political 
 light, what may be our opinion or faith in other points respecting the 
 Pope ; however for greater satisfaction we declare that it is not an 
 article of the Catholic faith, neither are we thereby required to believe 
 or profess that the Pope is infallible, or that we are bound to obey any 
 order in its own nature immoral, though the Pope or any other eccle- 
 siastical power should issue or direct such order, but on the contrary 
 we hold, that it would be sinful in us to pay any respect or obe- 
 dience thereto. 
 
 7th, We further declare that we do not believe that any sin 
 whatsoever committed by us, can be forgiven at the mere will of the 
 Pope, or of any Priest, or of any person or persons whatsoever, but 
 that sincere sorrow for past sins, a firm and sincere resolution, as 
 far as may be in our power to restore our neighbour's property or 
 character, if we have trespassed on, or unjustly injured either, a firm 
 and «incere resolution to avoid future guilt, and to atone to God, are 
 
 r 
 
46 
 
 previous and indispenaible requisites to establish a Avell-fovuidecl ex- 
 pectation of forgiveness ; and that any person who receives absolution 
 without tliese previous requisites, so far from obtaining thereby any 
 remission of his sins, incurs the additional guilt of violating the sa- 
 crament. 
 
 8th. We do hereby solemnly disclaim and for ever renounce all 
 interest and title to all forfeited lands resulting from any rights, or 
 supposed rights of our ancestors, or any claim, title or interest there- 
 in : nor do we admit any title as a foundation of right which is not 
 established and acknowledged by the laws of the realm, as they now 
 stand. We desire further, that whenever the Patriotism, Liberality 
 and Justise of our countrymen shall restore us to a participation in 
 the elective franchise, no Catholic shall be permitted to vote at any 
 election for members to serve in Parliament until he shall previously 
 have taken an oath to defend to the utmost of his power, the arrange- 
 ment of property in this country, as established by the different 
 acts of attainder and settlement. 
 
 9th. It has been objected to us, that we wish to subvert the pre- 
 sent Church Establishment, for the purpose of substituting a CathoHc 
 Establishment in its stead. Now we do hereby disclaim, disavow, 
 and solemnly abjure any such intention ; and further, if we shall be 
 admitted into any share of the Constitution, by our being restored to 
 the right of elective franchise, we are ready in the most solemn man- 
 ner to declare that we will not exercise that privilege to disturb and 
 weaken the Protestant Religion, or Protestant Government of the 
 Country. 
 
 APPENDIX IL 
 
 Copied from the Newspapers of December 28, 1825. " Murder. 
 The body of a man who had been some days missing, has been found 
 in the neighbourhood of Kilkolgan, with marks of violence about it. 
 He was TITHE PROCTOR to the Rev. Mr. Burke of Kilkolgan, 
 and is supposed to have been murdered while in the execution of his 
 duly, A police-man who came from the coroner, informed us of the 
 
47 
 
 circumstance, but w e have not been able to learn the verdict." C^^^ 
 fvay Advertiser.) 
 
 This circumstance being o^ daily occurrence in Ireland is squeezed 
 into the corner of the Newspaper, after Warren's Blacking, and Solo- 
 mon's Balm of Gilead. We would ask the Reverend Burke of Kil- 
 kolgan how he has slept since this circumstance ? How has his appetite 
 been ? Has he had any dreams at night ? Where does he live ? Is he 
 at the billiard-tables of Bath, the betting-post of Newmarket, or the 
 Rouge-ou-Noir tables at Paris ? What does he think of tlie Protes- 
 tant Ascendancy ? Is he a " No Popery" Parson ? Is he acquainted 
 with Currer. and Ried of Yorkshire ? How many tithe- Proctors have 
 been beheaded since he came to the ominous living of Kilkolgan ? Is 
 there a Protestant in all his Parish ? Has he ever seen his Living ? 
 Does he know where it is ? What enormities had the tithe-proctor 
 committed ? How long had his destroyers borne his protestant cru- 
 elties ? Let Burke of Kilkolgan answer these questions. 
 
 ** Take Notice.!— An Abstract of the Evidence before the tvo Houses of Parliament 
 relative to the state of Ireland has been published by John Murray, of Albermarle 
 Street, London. He being the Bishop's Bookseller, has omitted all the Evidence 
 relating to tithes, and many other things of the greatest interest. In short it is a 
 garbled Book, and deserves no credit. The folio Evidence of the House is the only 
 one to be trusted." 
 
QTHE EJLECTOR^S GUIDE. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 THE 
 
 GENERAL STATE OF THE 
 
 COUNTRY BANKS AND PAPER MONEY; 
 
 DEATH OF ALEXANDER, 
 
 E3IPER0tt OF RUSSIA; 
 
 STATE OF PARTIES IN THE KINGDOM; 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 FOXTNTAYNE WILSON, ESQ.* 
 
 POETRY, AND MISCELLANIES : 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE 
 
 FREEHOLDERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ODIlir^^ (DIP ^(DIB^^a 
 
 CONDUCTED BY A COMMITTEE OF YORKSHIRE-MEN. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY G, BOLLAND, LOW OUSEGATEi 
 
 AKD SOLD BY BAINES, LEEDS; THOMAS AND HUNSLEY, DOKCASTER; NOBL^, 
 
 HULL ; JOHKSON, BEVERLEY ; AINSWORTH, SCARBRO* ; SMITHSOK, 
 
 MALTON ; AVD THE BOOKSELLERS OF THE COUNTY* 
 
 1816. 
 
nl^^juoM^ Bk'i^^-A;^ v'£ 
 
 :^\uvitt'v 
 
^btvti^emmt. 
 
 THE Freeholders of the County of York and Electors of all 
 Bwoughs, are respectfully informed that the Elector's Guide finding 
 itself unable to treat of all necessary suhjectSy before the expected close of 
 the General Election, will occasionally be published once a Fortnight, (but 
 of which previous notice tvill always be given, J and by this arranganent 
 it is hoped, that it will be able to discuss every subject which to the Com-' 
 mittee appear worthy of attention ; and, at the same time, to comment on 
 the proceedings of Parliament, which cannot fail to be of the greatest 
 interest to the Public in general. The great demand for the Elector's 
 Guide encourages the Cojnmittee to hope that this arrangement wiU not 
 be unacceptable. 
 
 No._ III. will be published, Saturday, Feb. 18. 
 And will contain^A Letter to the Duke of York-^Remarks on the 
 
 Public Expenditure— 'TVealth of the Church^ A Protestant Confessor-^ 
 A County Job— and other Matters. 
 
 Communications Cpost paid) to the Publisher, are gratefully received. 
 YORK, Feb. 4, 1826. 
 
THB ELSCrOR^S &UIDE. 
 
 Freeholders of the County of York ! 
 
 THE Second Number of the Elector's Guide brings us fairly into 
 the New- Year; and thus, if you please, we will offer you a few 
 comments on the year that is past. The year 1825 was considered, 
 till near the end of it, the most prosperous that ever was known in 
 England, or if people did not think so they took good care to say 
 that they thought so. Most persons had an interest to say so. The 
 Ministry had an evident interest in praising " the prosperity of the 
 " nation, the reviving state of agriculture, the increase of trade, the 
 " wisdom of Parliament, and consequently THEMSELVES." The 
 cry of praise once set up, every body began praising every body : 
 you would liave thought that tlie age of Gold had returned again ; 
 nothing but fine suns, hot summers, abundant harvests, fat farmers, 
 dear sheep, horses and cattle ; high-priced com, high rents, exports 
 and imports all increased, the Post-Office in an extacy, the Revenue 
 drunk with joy, all Place-men smiling, all Sinecurists with dim- 
 ples, all Jobbers full of quips, cranks and wanton wiles, the King 
 popular, the Ministry absolute, the Opposition offering incense, new 
 schemes in trade, new liberality, new policy, no party left, faction 
 extinct, houses rising by millions, the sun and the moon dropping 
 gold, and every newspaper in the kingdom chirping for joy, like 
 nightingales answering one another from the hedge-rows on a fine 
 summer's night and flirting in the sweetest strains of compliment and 
 pleasure. The few however who follow the saying of Bion of Priene, 
 (one of the seven wise men) " that in all things we should look to the 
 end ;" the few who in this grand aera of HUMBUG inwardly doubt, 
 that is, not in the manner of the Chancellor's doubt, but the doubts 
 of rational political scepticism ; the few who are sober whilst all the 
 rest of the world is roaring-drunk, ventured to hesitate before thej 
 threw up their caps, and said with a shake of the head " let us look to 
 
 A 
 
the end*** Such persons were considered croakera, morose, radical^ 
 splenetic and bilious ; but wisdom who is justified of her children, 
 has been justified now. The doubters were right, the drunk have 
 become sober, and two thirds of the nation confess that our prosperity 
 was a great deception. We Iiave had enough in all conscience to 
 make us sober, and it is time now to be penitent though with aching 
 heads and squeamish stomachs, and it is time to express our penitence 
 and be sorry for our folly. 
 
 Mr. Robinson, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in February, 1824, 
 after having amazingly exaggerated the (false) appearances of pros- 
 perity, concluded his most bragging speech by the following clap- 
 trap. *' Parliament, Mr. Speaker, tlite true source of such general 
 " happiness, may enjoy the proud, the delightful satisfac^ioi of look- 
 *' ing round upon the face of a joyous country smUijig in plenty, and 
 " animated with what I hope to see — ^unrestricted industry, content, 
 *' comfort, prosperity and order, hand in hand, dispense from the 
 " the ancient portals of a constitutional Monarchy, their inestimable 
 ^' blessings among a happy, united, and let it never be forgotten, a 
 GRATEFUL People." Loud cheers from all sides of the House ! ! !. 
 To crown this miserable nonsense his Majesty, Feb. 1825, told us 
 *' there never was a period in the history of this country, when all 
 " the great interests of the nation were, at the same time, in so thriv- 
 '* ing a condition." In a few days after this, Mr. Robinson observed 
 in his budget-speech, "There ARE PERSONS who imagine that 
 " our Prosperity is not permanent, but the House, will I am sure, 
 " concur with me in opinion that it rests ON THE MOST SOLID 
 "FOUNDATION,"— &c. &c. &c. But the rains descended, and 
 the winds blew, and the floods rose and beat against that house and 
 gi-eat was the fall thereof! The year 1825 was a complete year of 
 universal quackery ; it pervaded all ranks ; it ruined all principles ; it 
 annihilated all patriotism ; it made mankind imagine that the Parlia- 
 ment had invented supernatural riches, people thought they had no- 
 thing to do but to get gold by sacks-full, that all politics had come 
 to their natural termination, and that avarice and wealth were to reign 
 for ever in the land. ^ 
 
 During all this memorable a?ra of deception and baseness, and 
 amidst the slumbers of pampered peace, there were nevertheless to be 
 heard the groan of ruin and the sobs of despair ; Ireland still re- 
 mained under the scourge of Protestant-tithe-takers; tlie workmen of 
 
most manufacturing districts in all Great Britain found their wages 
 insufficient to purchase the necessaries of life ; combinations spread 
 over the land, which terminated every where either in the ruin of the 
 workmen or of the masters. The workmen were most generally 
 defeated, and wherever they were defeated there was misery ; but 
 as the newspapers had little interest in these things, every broad-sheet 
 in England still kept up the chaunt of " Prosperity," 
 
 At last however the sleeping lion awoke, and the great evil which 
 one day is doomed to sink England into the lowest pit of ruin, began 
 to shew its hated head. The public credit began to sink ; a general 
 panic spread over all the country that not even the " faith of the 
 nation" could be kept, and that as every body knows that England is 
 in reality a. Bankrupt and mortgaged to the fundholders. more than 
 three timei ker real value ; so in fact that Bankruptcy would be soon 
 acknowledged, and the Bank of England herself the great Babylon of 
 Europe fall to pieces. 
 
 The fact is shortly and plainly this. England, (which to make 
 the matter clearer may be considered as a gentleman's estate,) used 
 before the reign of William III. to pay for all her wars and expen- 
 diture by bullion only ; but after the Eevolution as force was im- 
 possible to manage the house, bribery was invented instead — ^this 
 being evident, that unless the House of Commons was managed one 
 way or another a Republic must be established or the Stuarts restored. 
 To prevent this dilemma money must be had : but how get that 
 which wai not forth coming ? Oh, borrow ! by all means ; that is, 
 persuade th« Jews, Merchants and Jobbers who do not know what 
 to do with their money, to lend it to Government; and Govern- 
 ment undertakes to pay five or three per cent, for all the money bor- 
 rowed. Thus began the National Debt ; it is merely a mortgage 
 raised by the Government, the interest of which the country pays^ 
 being compelled to do so by Government The security of this great 
 mortgage, is all the land, goods and chattels in England, whidi 
 Government says it will apply to pay off the mortgage, if necessary ; but 
 if not necessary, it will pay the interest instead of the principal. From 
 the year 1688 to this day. Government has been borrowing and 
 borrowing till the National Mortgage amounts to 800 millions ££ 
 money, and the interest thereon to be paid every year thirty millions ! 
 That is, the country pays thirty millions a year in tlie shape oi' taxe9> 
 because Government, to carry on wars and other jobs, lus borrowed 
 
 A 2 
 
8 
 
 eight hundred millions of money. Now this sum, whkh is so enor- 
 mous as not to be comprehended, is mfinitely more than all Great 
 Britain would produce if put up to auction : so that England is now 
 in the state of a gentleman whose property is mortgaged vastly above 
 its real value ; which in other words means total insolvency. England 
 being then insolvent, a question arises, how does she go on from year 
 to year? The answer is evident: that as so many persons have an 
 interest to keep the machine going, it is ordered, that taxes to a great 
 amount be raised, out of which the annual expenditure of the insol- 
 vent debtor shall be paid. Now, as the only security for the interest 
 ■ on the Great National Mortgage is in the Taxes, it is evident that 
 those who lent their money on this mortgage have but a poor 
 security for it. For instance, part of these taxes are the assessed 
 taxes, amounting to four millions annually or upwards, and these it is 
 thought Government will be compelled to give up. Then if hard 
 times return, and return they certainly will, the Members turn 
 restive and take away more and more taxes, and thus make it more 
 and more difficult to pay off the interest of the mortgage. But the 
 great danger is in the paper currency ; in the time of war, and 
 indeed since the war, the Bank of England has issued countless 
 millions of paper money, in intrinsic value not worth a farthing, and 
 indeed of no value any way directly or indirectly, excepting in as 
 much as it is generally supposed that the nation is pledged some how 
 or other to keep up their nominal value. During the war these 
 reams of paper were edited as quick as art could strike them off; 
 money was made by millions and tens of millions, but at the end of 
 the war Ministers wished gradually to get rid of this excessive paper, 
 . and in the language of the Speaker, " to return to our ancient and 
 healthful state of currency." To effect this, it was intended with 
 all convenient speed to call in all paper money and issue gold and 
 silver only ; this was acted upon, but found impracticable from 
 the great pressure on the agricultural interest, caused by the new 
 method of a small quantity of gold superseding a thousand times the 
 quantity of paper. This began then to be clear, that there was a 
 deadly enmity by nature between paper and gold, and that if gold 
 payments were fully established the whole agricultural interest would 
 be destroyed, and, which is inseparable from great agricultural ruin, 
 a Reform in Parliam.ent take place beyond any possibility of prevent- 
 ing it. Thus Government has wavered bctM een the two difficulties ; 
 
9 
 
 either of having in time of peace no real money at ali, and nothing 
 but rags in circulation, or else by returning to gold payments, of 
 ruining the merchants and taking away the estates of all landlords 
 within the realm. By their paper circulation they raised a fictitious 
 prosperity only to be kept up by fictitious means, and yet wish to 
 keep up the fictitious increase by no more than they really possess. 
 By the original plan of Government first propounded on this subject 
 we should have had nothing but gold in the kingdom by this time ; 
 a plan which they have since been compelled to alter, so that they 
 fluctuate between paper and gold and know not which way to turn 
 theiTfiselves. The only practicable method to extricate themselves 
 from the difficulty, is by materially reducing the interest of the 
 National Debt ; a method which as it presupposes Beform in Parlia- 
 meni need not be further commented on. 
 
 However much we may be blinded by party passion and prejudice, 
 it would be impossible to deny that Cobbett has for the last three or 
 four years more ably explained this matter than any other writer or 
 politician, as far as we can judge from writings and speeches that 
 have been published on this topic. Indeed the triumph of Cobbett 
 is so evident and glaring, that, as even Jiis bitterest enemies are com- 
 pelled to acknowledge the justice of his triumph, so are they reduced 
 to general abuse of his character, and to aspersions on his political 
 fame : with his character we have nothing to do ; but all that have 
 read his Register must at last confess that he has seen clearer than 
 any of the wiseacres of St. Stephen's ; and that he has been openly 
 declaring for some years those principles which most of his adversa- 
 ries seem now likely to adopt. 
 
 In May, 1824, he thus addressed himself "Since May, 1823, 
 " that is to say, since the day when Peel's Bill would have given us 
 "a gold and silver currency all over the country, since that day 
 " paper-mon^ has been put forth to an immense amount. This, as 
 " is always the case has raised prices. It has silenced the landowners 
 " who hope that their estates are now safe. But you play a desperate 
 ''game. You think that wheat can upon an average of years be 
 " twice the price here that it is in France. For instance : this delu- 
 " sion must lead you to ruin ; it must produce a great shock of some 
 ''sort : it must produce another stoppage at the Bank, or a TOTAL 
 "BREAKING UP OF THE COUNTRY BANKERS. Yet you 
 " were compelled to resort to the paper-money. Another year of 
 
10 
 
 •' low prices would Iiave produced the blowing up of the Borough 
 "system. But your danger is still greater on the other side, for 
 «' another stoppage at the Bank is the end of your affair. And mind 
 '* this stoppage must come unless you repeal the paper-money la w 
 " which law will soon inundate the country with paper, and at no 
 " very distant day, will send the gold out of the country, as it was 
 "sent by the issues of paper-money in 1817.'* In the early part of 
 the summer of 1825 there were several indications of an approaching 
 storm, but still " Prosperity" was the order of the day, and nothing 
 was to be heard of but assurances of joy and universal wealth. The 
 Protestant Champions of Yorkshire, headed by Lord Macdonald, in 
 November last, at the George Inn, York, not only kept up the same 
 note of " prosperity," but they declared that " under Divine Provi- 
 dence it was owing to the Protestant Ascendancy," however this 
 "unexampled prosperity" of our paying thirty millions a year as 
 interest for the National Mortgage introduced by the glorious and 
 immortal William III ; even this "unexampled prosperity" broke 
 up ; and the next week, the great banking house of Wentworth and 
 Co. stopt its payments, and fifty or sixty other banks followed its 
 example in less than a fortnight. Since that memorable occurrence 
 we have heard not a syllable more of our " unexampled prosperity ;" 
 and in place of this golden age the age of iron has come upon us all 
 at once. Such ruin was never heard of in England as took place in 
 a few days at the end of last year ; York is filled with beggared 
 families who a few months ago w ere living in peace and prosperity, 
 and Devonshire is in such a wretched state as if the Plagues of Egypt 
 had desolated and killed all the first-born in the land. So blind how- 
 ever is the folly, so determined the obstinacy of too many in this 
 country, that they agree to call it a " Panic," and are again trusting 
 the banks, again nibbling at the funds, again speculating, and again 
 declaring at public meetings their confidence " of Messrs. Tag, Rag 
 '* and Bobtail, whose respectable firm entitle them to the affection and 
 "gratitude of the country, &c. &c." It is curious to observe how 
 absurdly and wickedly the newspapers treat this j^r*^ scene of national 
 bankruptcy. The same nonsense is talked of every stoppage : it is 
 always introduced with " sorrow," &c. every firm is " respectable, 
 or highly respectable." — " We regret to state, that the effects of this 
 " ungrounded and unexampled panic have extended themselves to 
 " tlie highly respectable and ancient firm of Tag, Rag and Bobtail 
 
. 11 
 
 "^in Devonshire, who yesterday were compelled to SUSPEND their 
 "payments; — it is confidently stated that, exclusive of landed pro- 
 " perty, Messrs. Tag, Rag and Bobtail have capital over and above 
 '* all demands to the amount of £300,000 ; and shocking it is to 
 " reflect that for want of available capital so respected a Bank should 
 " be compelled to put itself to the inconvenience of a temporary stop- 
 " page." Then it is always made out that it was owing to the ex- 
 traordinary conduct of Messrs. Plague, Pestilence and Famine, who 
 refused to discount bills of Tag, Rag and Bobtail that the stoppage 
 took place — or else it is owing to the " breath of calumny." Thus 
 the Bankruptcy of Pole and Company is by the Courier and New 
 Times ascribed merely " to the breath of calumny," as if Banks were 
 virgins, and the least whisper against their character ruined them at 
 once. But what a systehi must that be which a Breath can instantly 
 upset ! only conceive the horrors of that state of things where the 
 happiness of thousands and tens of thousands of our fellow creatures 
 can be instantly destroyed by "a Breath I" what should we do in a 
 tempest if a gentle breathing can shipwreck all our hopes ? The fact 
 however is, that the dry-rot pervades the whole system ; the Bank of 
 England is as rotten as touch-wood, and all other Provincial Banks 
 however " respectable," are in a most alarming and precarious state. 
 We have not half done with this wretched, horrible, accursed disease ; 
 it will return again and again in spasms and convulsions till the whole 
 system will die in an agony; and every town in England thrown into 
 misery and ruin, will at last confess that ideal riches in the end bring 
 on certain destruction. 
 
 All the liars of all the newspapers that make lying a trade, after 
 having deceived the nation for so many years in order to drain it of 
 its wealth and happiness, were at first thunderstruck with the 
 approaching national bankruptcy at the end of last year ; but as the 
 great terrors of this Jtrst spasm grew fainter (though they have by no 
 means disappeared altogether) they took up the tone of persuasion, 
 and plaintive eloquence : as if ruin could be kept off by coaxing and 
 flattering. The New Times, Dec. 30, thus takes the bull by the 
 horns. After having confessed that a general distrust pervades society 
 with regard to money matters, it thus deprecates such distrust : 
 
 " Individual fortunes, may in some few instances, have been injured 
 " by over-trading and over-speculating : but generally speaking, 
 " there have been few respectable and well-established houses that 
 
*f have deviated in any ^real degree from the usual course of trade. 
 " or violated the maxims of an enlightened prudence. Why then 
 " should confidence be WITHDRAWN from such persons? Why 
 *' should the man who six months ago could buy 20 hogsheads of 
 '' sugar^ or 20 pipes of wine, on credit, be FORCED TO PAY 
 " READY MONEY FOR ALL HIS PURCHASES? Most ear- 
 *f nestly, therefore, do we exhort individuals of weight and influence 
 " in the commercial world, to let it be seen that their confidence in 
 " the general stability of those with whom they deal is undiminished. 
 " Let them give the same credits as formerly, let them act witli the 
 " same liberality, and their example will be sure to be followed." 
 
 This is pleading for life with a vengeance, this is shewing cause 
 why sentence should not be passed, and Public-Credit be taken to the 
 place from whence she came, and thence to the gallows, where she 
 shall be hanged by the neck till she is DEAD, DEAD, DEAD. It 
 is however, sufficiently clear, that when we have come to begging, 
 deprecating, weeping, and sobbing ; when we talk of compassion and 
 not of victory, tliat a great change is approaching, and tliat the old 
 mother of fornications, the National Faith, has nothing left for her 
 but to seek the last consolations of religion, and prepare' for her final 
 dissolution. We do not think that the Grand Break-up is yet at 
 hand ; it is so evidently the interest of Government to keep off the 
 evil day that they will resort to every trick and contrivance to create 
 delay, they will inundate the country with rag-money again, they will 
 make rags by law the full value of gold, and in short, do any tiling 
 or every thing to prop up the wretched and rotten system, which 
 however, cannot by any arts be made to last very long. In the mean 
 time, it is amusing and instructing to contemplate the effects of the 
 storm ; it is a fine moral lesson to see the wrecks of great swaggering 
 Aristocrats driven up to shore, it is a sight not to be forgotten, the 
 whole beach of England covered with carcases of high-born Bankers, 
 jobbing Bai-onets, rich Quakers, great Fund-lords, and overwhelming 
 Squires ; men whose birth and breeding would scarcely allow them 
 to set their feet on the earth, who have been building, . planting, 
 draining, driving, hunting, drinking, swearing, whoring and playing 
 the Magistrate for the last twenty years ; who have been ambling 
 and ducking amid the foppery of the Presence Cliamber, who have 
 been oppressing the People, and reading John Bull; who have been 
 voting for taxes, corn-laws, jobs and slavery ; who have been gal- 
 
13 
 
 loping- full-swing over the Rights ot* Englishmen ; and feeling 5o full 
 of wealth that earth could scarcely contain them ; now tossed about 
 on the billows of adversity, and devoured by the sharks of selfishness j 
 kicked and driven about as the jeer of spectators, who will not so 
 much as send out a life-boat to help them ; but who, with indifference 
 at least, see them disappearing from tlie face of the earth and do not 
 stir a finger to save them. " Pride goeth before destruction, and an 
 haughty spirit before a fall." 
 
 We now subjoin some few instances of Banks breaking, and we 
 wish to draw the attention of our readers to the shuffling ludicrous 
 manner in v/hich they are noticed ; as offering perfect specimens of 
 the miserable figure that fallen pride always exhibits to the world ; 
 and which is most happily displayed by the base Newspapers of ih^ 
 day. 
 
 " Newcastle-under-Lynp, and Burslem ^sinks.— We LAMENT 
 ^' to state, that the liouse of Messrs. ^Sparrow and Nickisaou,: of 
 '^ Newcastle^under-Lyne, has closed its paymentsybr the present ; but 
 "from the RESPECTABILITY of the Partners, and the ge?ieral 
 *' conjideiice which prevails in their integrity, it is believed that their 
 " friends ^nd the public will suffer little beyond inconvenience." 
 
 " Daventry Bank. — We are sorry to advert to the stoppage of 
 " Messrs. Wdkin, of Daventry, yesterday week, occasioned by tlie 
 '' failure of tUeir London Bankers, Messrs. Sikes and Co. but we have 
 ;' good reason to believe that it will resume its payments in a day or 
 *'two/* 
 
 At Bristol, they somewhat descend. from their stilts and talk of 
 fl^o///<?*.-^" Bristol. Messrs. Brown, Cavenagh, and Co. with ago?iizing 
 " feelings, are obliged to inform their friends and the public, that^ 
 *' from the overwhelming pressure of the momenl, occasioned by 
 " recent failures of so many Banks, and the impossibility of convert- 
 *' ing, at present, their securities into cash, they are reluctantly com- 
 "'■ pelled to suspetid their payments. It is with heart-rending anguish 
 *J (Bravo !) they make this communi cation ^ but they are consoled 
 '' with the HOPE that no person will suffer an eventual loss."— . 
 Messrs. Cavenagh, Brown, and Co. Bath, have issued similai^ 
 " agonies." 
 
 " Bath. — Messrs. Smith, Moger, and Evans, Bankers, in Union- 
 " street, Bath, have suspended their payments, but, in the notice 
 " posted on their Bank entrance they confideyitly assure the holders of 
 
 B 
 
14 • 
 
 " their notes, tliat every demand will bt? paid witliin a very short 
 ** period*' 
 
 " Chelmsford. — The sudden and unexpected failure of Messrs. 
 ** Crickett, Russel, and Co. Bankers, of Chelmsford and Maldon, on 
 " Saturday last, caused the utmost surprise ! ! !" Wonderful indeed ! ! ! 
 Most wonderful!!! Such a thing was never heard of before, aa 
 respectable Bankers failing all of a sudden. Mercy on us what won- 
 ders this world produces ! perhaps the beast that put the notice in 
 the paper meant to write " utmost misery." 
 
 " Cambridge.* — The Cambridge Bank of Messrs. Hollick, Nash, 
 " Searle, and Co. suspended payment on Friday week, promising to 
 *' resume business next Saturday." Which promise, like all their 
 other paper promises, they never kept. And so we might go on 
 filling all this number with assurances of confidence, respectability, 
 hopes, promises, assurances, &c. &c. were not these few specimens 
 quite sufficient to prove the stupid quackery and infamous falsehoods 
 with which the Banking System is kept up. The Lord Mayor of 
 London called a public meeting of great Fund-lords and Merchants 
 at the Mansion House, to consider the best means to keep up the 
 system, and at this meeting Mr. Baring thus expressed himself: — 
 " The panic was A THING which shook down the rotten as well as 
 '^ the sound ; but he perfectly well knew that nineteen-twentieths of 
 " the Bankers in London were as safe men as it was possible to deal 
 '' with." Perhaps, the gentleman was right, they were as safe as it 
 was possible to deal with, for if you do not deal with them you must 
 deal with no one, but as none of them are safe, it seems doubtful whether 
 he had not a double meaning in his words. If neither A, B, nor C, 
 
 * *' Cambridge, Dec. 20. — Notwithstanding that a meeting numerously and respect- 
 ably attended was held on Thursday, at which upwards of 500 Gentlemen, Merchants 
 and Tradesmen, signed a resolution expressing their entire confidence in the stability 
 of the Town Banks, the runs on this day upon all of them were exceedingly pressing. 
 M''E WERE PliEASED to observe that the persons by whom this alarm seemed to 
 be felt were of the loxoer orders!! ! At Messrs. Mortlock's Establishment, the 
 LORD BIS7I0P OF BRISTOL and the Vice-chancellor of the University sta- 
 tioned themselves, and being supplied by the Clerks, were actively engaged in ex- 
 changing Gold and Bank Paper to those having demands on the house." 
 
 This Bishop, whose name is Kaye, married a Mortlock ; the Mortlocks manage 
 the borough of Cambridge for the Duke of Rutland, and the Duke made Kaye a 
 Bishop : so this is ail reciprocal, the Bankers made the Bishop, and the Bishop saved 
 the Bank. It must have been a droll sight to see Bishop and Vice-Chancellor 
 turned Clerks ! v/hat strange things the paper system "brings about : but as tem- 
 poral Lords are Bankers, why should not spiritual Peers be Bankers Clerks ? M^ho 
 shall say that the Duke of York, the great pride of all Protestant Bishops, will not 
 b€ an attorney ? 
 
15 
 
 are safe, why then it is clear that each is as safe as the other. But 
 he thus went on : — " The Real property of which they had command 
 " was ENORNOUS ; the Merchants should act upon the feeling of 
 *' confidence," (Cheers, which lasted several minutes, and cries of 
 confidence ! confidence I ) " he had heard a Banker declare, that if all 
 '^ the customers he had in the world were to come forward that day, 
 *' he was prepared to pay them off in a moment, what sacrifices must 
 " that man have made! ! J" (Quite wonderful, and so heroic ! such a 
 stretch of virtue ! to pay his just debts ! Mercy on us ! what a chi- 
 valrous age we live in ! nothing but sacrifices and patriotism !) " He, 
 '^ (Mr. Baring,) it was well known wished to keep up his credit as well 
 *' as any man, but he had not tliought it necessary to secure himself 
 " against his Banker by drawing out his money. He had not been 
 " ashamed to leave it in his Banker's hands ; on the contrary, he 
 " should have been ashamed to have a hoard of sovereigns by him, 
 " at a time when it was so necessary that the British Merchant should 
 " step forward to do a great public duty, in assisting men of such 
 "capital and integrity," (Loud cheers,) &c. &c. 
 
 If Mr. Baring had drawn his money from his Bankers, as it is in 
 all probability an immense sum if we may judge by his vast wealth 
 and great expenditure, it would certainly have caused a stoppage of 
 payments, coming in the heat of a great run on the Bank, and thus the 
 Gentleman would have lost his money, but that shame which he 
 mentions, of having a hoard of sovereigns, we hope will be felt by all 
 the Freeholders of Yorkshire ; and in this respect we wish to see 
 every farmer covered with blushes and modesty ; it is a wholesome 
 and saving shame, it is a sense of diffidence highly to be encouraged, 
 it is a virgin sensation of the greatest moral importance, and well 
 proves the truth of a Latin adage, 
 
 PUDORE AMISSO OMNIS VIRTUS RUIT. 
 In short let every one indulge this shame, let them hoard sovereigns 
 and blush, whilst others in the language of Baring are *' stepping 
 forward" to dance out the great puzzle of National Credit with men 
 of capital and integrity. If the newspapers were to be credited, the 
 following deductions would be evident. 
 
 1st. Every Bank is of the "highest Respectability." 
 2d. All partners in Banking Firms are men of " enoraoous wealth, 
 ** and the highest integrity." Their sobriety, piety, chastity, faith. 
 
16 
 
 Potior ahd viHues of all sorts ar6too manifest to need description ; in 
 short a Banker is, ipso facto, the noblest worii of God. 
 
 3d. If they pay their debts it is not an act of justice as it is with 
 all other men, but it is a proof of their virtue and patriotism, and 
 of their readiness to make " great sacrifices" for the good of their 
 country. 
 
 4th. A Panic is A THING that itijures Banks ; and this thing is 
 taised by the breath of calumny^ by dadi hints, obscure insinuations 
 and unkind suspicions. 
 
 5th. It is the greatest wickedness in the world to distrust a Banker ; 
 and that man who wishes to get gfyld for i-ags ought to be hung on la 
 gibbet 50 cubits high. ' 
 
 6th. When a Bank breaks and beggaVs thousands and tens of thou* 
 '^sands of poor people, it is from " most peculiar and unprecedented 
 circumstances," — and it should not ]3e called roguery, swindling and 
 thieving, but, " a want of available capital." 
 
 7th. As soon as we are ruined by the stoppage of a Bank We 
 should immediately put double confidence in men of such '^gi-eat 
 capital and integrity." 
 
 8th. When a Bank has broken it is certain that in a few days it 
 will pay off all demands, and leave a surplus of not less than £50,000. 
 . — and that its '' friends will only suffer a temporary inconvenience ;" 
 for which they ought to be thankful, 
 
 9th. \Vlien a Bank breaks the whole sympathy of the Public should be 
 turned to the two or three Individualsof high integrity, whose "agonies" 
 are deserving of our pity and demand our increased c\«ifidence. But as 
 for the thousands that are ruined 'l)y their speculations and fraudulent 
 jobs we should feel nothing but hatred and contempt, for it is evident 
 that if farmers did not run to the country Banks to secure their money 
 and get rid of thieir I'ags, the Banks would go on ; thus all the crime 
 is with the Farmers, Lab6urers and Mechanics, who should be sent 
 to the hulks for distressing men of such great '^capital and integrity." 
 
 10th. It is a matter of " shame" to secure a little j^roperty for one's 
 family by saving our gold^ and implies a want of confidence in the 
 Rag-Gentlemen of such known " Capital and integrity." 
 
 1 1 th. All danger is at an end : the crisis is past : nothing but pros- 
 perity and wealth will be heard of again in England : no Banks can 
 ever break again : every thing is safe: we are all safe: and we have nb^ 
 thing to do but to drink a bumper to men of ''such cnoimouti capital 
 
17 
 
 and integrity j" wlio will always be ready to make '^ great sacrifices* 
 and pay their creditors \vhenever wicked reptiles and Devils incarnate 
 prefer gold to their dirty rags again. 
 
 This is the language of the newspapers. This is the language of all 
 concerned in Banking, of all who wish to flourish by the ruin and de* 
 gradation of their fellow-creatures. But to the Freeholders of the 
 County of York it will occur as a very reasonable question^ why should 
 it not be made Felony fvithout henejit of Clergy for Bankers to issue notes 
 which they cannot pay oiF to their full value, including all losses 
 caused by delay, and full indemnity for any inconvenience occasioned 
 by the stoppage ? Every note issued by a Bank unless guarded by 
 such a Law is a flagrant and manifest lie, a complete act of swindling 
 and robbery. " I promise to pay on demand," &c. a promise which 
 is broken in the most unprincipled manner, and all for the aggraiU 
 dizement of a few profligate and selfish individuals. How can men 
 be called '^ Respectable," by the vile newspapers who have told, some 
 a hundred thousand, and others a million lies ? If a sdiooil-boy steals 
 an apple from an orchard it is a felony, but if a gentleman of birth 
 and education deliberately ruins several hundred families all in one 
 day he is " highly respectable," and has been injured *' by a breath 
 of calumny, and a panic !" 
 
 This short question may finish the whole matters does any Farmer, 
 any Tradesman, any Workman, any person of any description hence- 
 forward intend to take any Bank Note in payment.'' or if he is 
 obhged to do so, does he not intend immediately to take it to the 
 "highly resjiectable" house w^hich printed it and demand gold in its 
 .place ? What possible reason can a rational man give for putting his 
 money into the Banks ? you get no interest for your money, or at 
 ^ly rate it is so small as to be nominal, and in any other speculation 
 you will get five times as much : Why then put your money into the 
 B ank to get 2 per cent for it, whilst the '' highly respectable" Iiouse 
 makes good use of it and realises 5 per cent ? it can be no benefit to 
 you to enrich these "men of great capital and integrity," and it will 
 be ruin to yovL wlien tile house suspends its payments, as they call it> 
 when they cheat their creditors by shutting their doors and windows 
 for want of " available capital." Never take Bank Notes but wlien 
 you cannot help it ; but as soon as you have got them, go before the 
 Bank has closed for the day, and demand gold instead of tlieir rags ,• 
 and then you may sleep for one night at least without fear of ruin^ 
 
18 
 
 There is no Bank however " respectable," however rich, however 
 old, to be trusted by any man in his senses, all the houses that have 
 stopped have been respectable and rich ; but their respectability and 
 riches were of no avail, and whilst their securities, bills, mortgages 
 and property is cutting up by the Commissioners to paj'^ off the 
 Creditors some years hence, the poor Creditors go without their 
 money and are irretrievably ruined. They wish to convince you 
 that it is wicked to withdraw your confidence from these '* respectable 
 concerns/' but there is no law human or divine that says so ; the 
 Scriptures do not instruct us to trust Messrs. Tag, Rag and Bobtail, 
 there is not a word about the matter in the Decalogue, and all 
 systems of morality are silent on the subject. The newspapers only, 
 those shocking disseminators of falsehood and deception, inculcate 
 this doctrine, they only preach about this new crime of saving one's 
 family from ruin, they only are the Legislators that denounce a hatred 
 of Rags to be a deadly sin ; and truly of all legislation this is the 
 most novel and unaccountable, the most profligate and preposterous. 
 Let them preach on ; we have got the rag-system down, and we will 
 keep it down, and leave the doctrine of sin and repentance to those 
 men of integrity, who for want of *' available capital" have shut up 
 shop and gone to the work-house. 
 
 Behold now a list of the Provincial Towns where Banks have 
 broken ! Ashburton, B,oston, Bedford, Birmingham, Bradford, Brigh- 
 ton, Bristol, Bath, Banbury, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, 
 Christ-church, Chertsey, Deal, Dorchester, Dorkin, Daventry, Diss, 
 Falmouth, Frome, Gloucester, Gravesend, Huddersfield, Hinckley, 
 Hereford, Horsham, Kettering, Kingston, Leicester, Lewes, Maid^ 
 stone, Northampton, Norwich, Newcastle, Plymouth, Peterborough, 
 Romford, Southampton, Saffron- Walden, Stockton-on-Tees, Sheer- 
 ness, St. Neots, Swansea, Wellingborough, Wisbeach, Whitehaven, 
 Wakefield, Weymouth, York. 
 
 Here are upwards of 50 Towns, on an average two Banks have 
 broken at each of them, and on an average each Bank had three 
 partners, so that we may calculate that three hundred men of '' enor* 
 mous capital and integrity " have been withered by the breath of 
 calumny and because they were ashamed to have a hoard of sovereigns 
 by them, as Mr. Baring says, and prefered cart-loads of paper, par- 
 ticularlarly as it was printed by themselves, for the instruction of th^ 
 public on the great question of morals, The Validity of a Prmiiise ! 
 
19 
 
 A word however should be said about tlie "agonies" of those poor 
 wretches who have been ruined by these grand national Deceptions 
 tlie Banks, for as the sufferings of the lower orders are always kept 
 cut of sight, and the losses of the rich made subjects of public lamen- 
 tation, it is the duty of the Elector's Guide to shew some instances of 
 the horrid effects ol* the late calamities. 
 
 " Leeds Murcury. A young man residing at Folly-Hall, Hudders^ 
 field, cut his throat in a fit of despondency on Wednesday ; we 
 understand he yet survives but with no hope of recovery. The only 
 assignable cause for the dreadful act is the circumstance of his hav- 
 ing in his possession upwards of twenty £l. notes of the Bankrupt 
 Bank of Messrs. Dobson and Sons." December 31. In the same 
 paper we read an account of what is called a '* ludicrous and singular 
 scene," namely, of a man at Penistone Church in this County, strip- 
 ping himself stark naked before all the congregation, when upon 
 inquiry it appeared ^' that this unfortunate person held a large num- 
 *' ber of notes of the Yorkshire Banks that have recently failed, which 
 ** had such an effect upon him as to drive him mad." What did the 
 Parson say to this ? He might have preached an excellent extempore 
 sermon on the folly and wickedness of trusting to paper promises, 
 on the misery it brings on society, and on the dreadful immoral 
 effects it produces ; but however he said not a word on the subject, 
 but read his printed sermon and went home to his slumbers, leaving 
 the dead to bury their dead. And doubtless many a scene of madness, 
 many an act of suicide has taken place since these horrid failures, 
 many have been the leaps into the river, and frequent the report of 
 the accursed pistol to blow out the brains of those wretches who 
 have found " their destruction suddenly come upon them unawares." 
 Oh what a state of society do we live in ! What a strange perversion 
 of all moral law do we daily witness, what a flowing backwards 
 of the sacred streams of justice ! No war, no rumour of war, but a 
 profound peace, abundant harvests, plenty, quiet and leisure, and 
 yet nevertheless half the nation plunged into misery and despair by 
 means which nothing can remedy and nothing avert : A great prac- 
 tical revolution is making its vast strides over the nation. Wealth, 
 Luxury, Trade, Property, all Ranks of Society crumbling into dust 
 before the devouring enemy, and no one pretending so much as to sug- 
 gest a piece of quackery to avert the mischief. The Radicals have been 
 "whipped, branded, imprisoned and hanged for tlieir endeavours at a 
 
20 
 
 Reform which the Gentry chose to term a Revolution, but here we 
 have a sure, speedy and. entire Revohition effected by these very 
 Gentry whose sedition and treason consists in their "enormous wealth 
 and integrity ;" tlie great Revolution of a National Bankruptcy is 
 ii^vented, propogated and protected by the " Collective Wisdom ;" it 
 is all hatched by Noblemen and Gentlemen ;" Baronets, Squires, 
 Bishops, Priests and Deacons. There is nothing like a paper-cur- 
 rency to bring about a Revolution ; it is more powerful than a million 
 men drawn out in battle array ; the mere whisper of " suspension of 
 payment," is more dire in its effects than the shrillest trumpet in 
 Europe ; and when a Bank door is shut, it is worse for a Province tlian 
 the loss of a pitched battle and the slaughter of ten thousand men. 
 
 When we die in battle, we die with glory splendour and renown : 
 Historians talk of us, and we do not want a sacred bard to record our 
 immortal names ; but when we are ruined by Rags it is a base, vil- 
 lainous, mean, pettifogging end ; nobody but Attorneys and Bailiffs 
 cai'e for our carcases, no flowers to strew our turf, no enthusiasm 
 over our memory ; but the ruinous hammer thumps on the tragical 
 green baize, and our names, families, houses, lands, tenements, 
 goods and chatties are 
 
 GOING ! GOING ! GOING! GONE ! ! ! 
 
 We will conclude this subject by a quotation from Mr. Cobbett's 
 Register, for Dec. 1? ; feeling confident that our Readers cannot but 
 admire the plainness with which the argument is put and the wit 
 with which it is supported : it is a specimen of his very best style. 
 
 " Here is friend Sly, a cunning unbaptized English Jew, who has 
 ''helped to get the small note Bill passed; "ixow," says Sly to his 
 , cousin Sleek, " thou seest cousin Sleek, that thei'e are my farms 
 '^ and thy farms which we let for a clear thousand a year. They are 
 '• worth at thirty years purchase thirty thousand pounds ; and as we 
 " shall get five per cent for the use of not€.'S, we shall get half as 
 *•' much affain bv the notes as by the farms. We shall thus make the 
 /Uarms carry-double, and indeed double and one half of another.** 
 ' This is a deep scheme of Sly ; and on the two cunning ruffians go 
 '*all in the quiet," cheating the public and oppressing the working 
 classes. But by and by those who hold their notes demand paymerit. 
 
 "Ah! friend," says Sly and Sleek, "Avhy dost thou want that 
 metal ? our notes are lighter, and thou seest our farms." " Yes,*' says 
 farmer Stump, "but will you give me a Httle bit of tliat meadow of 
 
21 
 
 I' yours for this note ?** " Oli no V says Sly/ " we carmdi do that, we 
 '^ cannot cut up our land in this way/' " Well then/' says Stump, 
 " what is the use of your land to me, and how is your land any 
 " security for your notes ?" " Why friend," says Sleek, " that if we 
 '' break, our land would be sold, and the money for which it was sold 
 " would be paid to our creditors, and thou wouldest be one of these.". 
 " Oh !" says farmer Stump, " and so after waiting for a year or two,^ 
 *' t might, by 'possibility get my note paid, after all the expense and 
 " trouble in proving my debt. No ! No ! none of that for me. Give 
 " me the sovereigns now, and then I can have no trouble about the 
 '' matter ; and besides you are a couple of ROGUES, who through 
 " the means of a roguish system, get rent for your land and interest 
 " for the value of it." 
 
 DEATii OF ALEXANDER, EMPEROR OF RUSSIA. 
 
 THIS man has died at last, but Doctors differ as to the nature of 
 his death; there is a rumour respecting miLrder, 2irMmo\\x which all the 
 newspapers most Strenuously endeavour to suppress. The matter 
 vv ill undoubtedly be kept secret some time, as all state affairs of this 
 sort usually are ; particularly as our Court wili have to send em- 
 bassies, presents, compliments, snuff-boxes, dolls and stallions, the 
 usual sweetners fpr Royal babies Avhen they are first produced as 
 Kings regnai^t^ It would be a matter of nicety to know how ta stit' 
 if the late Russian Chief had not come to his end fairly, so of course,, 
 we are to hold and believe that he died in full, state amidst jpriests, 
 queens, doctors and courtiei'si Otie thing is certain, that; his fJeath; 
 was very sudden; nor was it known tliat he was ill till it was Ah^^' 
 nounced that h^ was dead- The newspapers account for tliis by. Ae*. 
 airs from the marshes! But how did his father Peter die. ^ h6w Was 
 he sent out of the world .^ by midnight murder, strangling and viG*< 
 lence. The next morning after his death, his son, the late Alexand<ec^> 
 appeared at the head of the troops and was proclaimed Emperor. If^ 
 was decently suggested that he knew nothing of his father's .dje^hy'j 
 and that he was overwhelmed with sorrow, &c. &c. the same will be 
 
 c 
 
22 
 
 gakl of the New limperor, and we hope it is true, but Dr. Lyall,* hag 
 published d satirical letter, in which with very happy wit he attri- 
 butes Alexander's death to a new disease. THE CROUP OF 
 ADULTS, a disease that attacks the throat and is always fatal. 
 Dr. Lyall to the Editor of the Courier. 
 
 *' Sir,— »A sincere desire to do justice to the character of the Russians 
 induces me candidly to avow that from recent and trust-worthy in- 
 telligence, I am quite convinced the Emperor Alexander died a 
 nalural death (natural to despots.) To avoid technicalities, his disease 
 may be called the croup of Adults, a disease always rapid in its pro^ 
 gress and often fatal in its termination^ 
 
 The uncommon affection, the ardent love of all the branches of the 
 Imperial family were quite proverbial ; and therefore the account of 
 the Emperor Constantine's profound grief on hearing of tlie death of 
 his august brother seems nofahle. Russia may weep for the loss she 
 has sustained of the great and good Alexander, whose virtues will be 
 long remembered when his failings are buried in oblivion. 
 
 The great influence of the new Autocrat's sage and excellent 
 mother and of his amiable spouse, the depressed state of his own 
 mind, and his wish to belie the sad predictions of the world on his 
 ascent to the throne, may very naturally tend to the tranquil and 
 auspicious commencement of a new reign ; and projects of ambition 
 atid aggrandisement may be reserved for a future period. 
 
 I am, Sir, &c. &c. 
 
 Robert Lyall. 
 
 45, Uaymarhely Dec, 28, 1825." 
 
 Dr. Lyall lived twenty years in Russia, and wrote a very clever 
 book on the state of the country which he dedicated to Alexander ; 
 
 • Dr. Lyall who takes the Russians under his peculiar care has also sent to the 
 Newspapers a long sketch of Alexander's life, and he takes care to insinuate his sus- 
 picions that the late Emperor was privy to his father's death.- — we subjoin his words. 
 
 " It seems an anomaly in history that the murderers of Peter III. became the 
 avowed favorites or the proteges, of Catharine II. and it is scarcely less remarkable 
 that the mercy of Alexander was extended to the assassins of his father ! Zubof the 
 chief conspirator and most active of the murderous band, was ordered not to approach 
 the Imperial residence, and Count Pauin the former (xovernor of that city, was trans- 
 ferred to Riga ; the other conspirators were treated as if no blame attached to their 
 characters. It is difficult to penetrate the secrets of Courts : the real motives of 
 their aUcudants are seldom revealed to the world. It is therefore impossihle to con- 
 ceive why Alexander withheld that vengeance which justice seemed to demand from 
 the Heads of his father's assassins. " 
 
23 
 
 but he had the misfortune to see his book prohibited by an Imperial 
 Ukase, for the freedom with which it discussed certain corruptions 
 and abuses in the Russian state ; abuses which were pretty nearly 
 half as bad as those in the English Chancery and the English Church. 
 In Russia they prohibit books if they displease Government; in 
 England they clap the author in jail and leave him to rot there till 
 he pays his fees and fines, which he probably never can do. So much 
 for England and Russia. Dr. Lyall having a score to pay off against 
 these Russian Chiefs called Emperors, has effected his purpose by 
 the above letter, and has wittily contrived to give his meaning by 
 this CTOitp of adults y a disease frequently fatal to despots. 
 
 Alexander was a weak-minded man, timid, vacillating and feeble. 
 His religion and the universal wish of all his Empire prompted him 
 to seize Greece under the pretence of liberating it from the Turks : 
 but Austria and the Holy Alliance, backed by England, coaxed, 
 cozened, and cajoled him into peaceful councils ; and by all sorts of 
 state intrigues and manoeuvres persuaded him to leave the Turks 
 alone. Constantine, the new chief, heads the war-party, and it is 
 in this quarter that suspicions arise respecting Alexander's death- 
 It is nevertheless not improbable that Constantine wDl be bribed or 
 brow-beaten into peace by the Holy Alliance. If he is a man of 
 sense and spirit he will not care a rush for his allies j as by holding 
 up his little finger he might any day annex Greece to his dominions. 
 Europe would then practically consist of only four kingdoms^ Russia^, 
 Austria, France, and Prussia. 
 
 THE STATE OF PARTIES IN THE KINGDOM, 
 
 THERE are three great parties in tlie Kingdom ; Tory, Whig, 
 and Radical. The Tories are practically at present infinitely the 
 most powerful ; but the Radicals or the People when roused, can, and 
 will drive all other factions away with irresistible impetus. To 
 illustrate the comparative strength of the three ; the Tory may be 
 likened to a seventy-gun ship well manned and in excellent condi- 
 tion I the Whig to a smuggling vessel, and the Radical to the Ocean 
 
24 
 
 i9^ >>vhielf.,they both swim. As long as the great deep keq^s quiet 
 tjje Tory first-rate man of war carries ail before her, but when the 
 storms arise and the winds blow,, both Tory and Whig are in eminent 
 Jan^er from the raging sea. We had a whole gale of wind about 
 four years ago, and the great ship fired her guns of distress and called 
 all hands to the pump ; but the danger passed away ; we have since 
 jjiad a dead calm ; and now the breeze is getting up again. 
 
 The Tory faction is made up of two-thirds of both Houses of Par- 
 liament, nine-tenths of the Church, and three parts of the Country 
 Gentlemen, and the Army and Navy. . In short, all that power and 
 money can give, is with the Tory faction. They have all the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford, half the University of Cambridge, and every living 
 soul in the kingdom that gets fat by a job or pockets a pension. 
 Every thing base and slavish and time-serving is in their ranks, every 
 crawling wretch that hopes to sell his soul .for . a guinea, of which 
 description there are several myriads in the kingdom. Add to this 
 also every coward in the realm, that is, those political cowards who 
 would live under the Grand Turk sooner than alter a single abuse by 
 the aid of the people. The Whigs are in a terribly battered condition. 
 As long as England lasts, we shall never again see the spectacle of 
 the Whigs, as Whigs, ruling in the Cabinet. Their day is gone for 
 ever: and there is a general sensation in those that possess power, 
 that their power would never be safe if managed by other than Tory 
 liands. The last hopes of the Whigs died away when the King for- 
 sook them on coming to the Regency. Since that memorable period 
 the door of power has been shut against them for ever, and as they 
 are perfectly sensible of this important fact, it has perhaps done them 
 a great deal of good. In the Storm (meaning from 1 81 6 to 1823) the 
 Wliigs were obliged gradually to give up their old aristocratical 
 tricks and to shake hands with the people; this they did very un- 
 willingly, but gradually and imperceptibly they joined the people, 
 till, as the storm encreased, they were scarcely to be distinguished at 
 all from the Radicals. In the two last years of prosperity they tacked 
 round again with surprising quickness, and assumed their old aristo- 
 cratical notions as if nothing had happened to render them still more 
 useless than ever ; and we beheld the wonderful sight of Sir Robert 
 Wilson praising the Ministers, and Sir Francis Burdett trying to dis- 
 , franchise the Irish Freemen ! All last year was taken up with 
 Whigs singing anthems of praise and adulation to Government; and 
 
25 
 
 Government receiving the incense with smiles of satisfaction. But 
 it does not appear that this harmony will last, and a grand growl is 
 expected where symphonies before prevailed. Although we are 
 sensible of these facts, we should make some allowances to the Whigs, 
 and though we may laugh at their weaknsss and pity their occasional 
 meanness, yet we, the People, should remember that on all great 
 occasions we are sure of their help, and that though they are a broken, 
 they are by no means an exterminated Party. In addition to this 
 consideration, we may reflect, that the great hereditary Whigs have 
 in some instances seemed disposed to turn Reformers ; Lord Milton 
 is notoriously a Reformer, and deserves the approbation of the county 
 for his conduct at the last County Meeting, January 1 823 ; where he 
 openly declared that he was CONVERTED TO THE CAUSE OF 
 REFORM, a declaration which has secured him a powerful place 
 in the affections of the Freeholders. Lord Morpeth is equally, if not 
 more, a Reformer than Lord Milton, he has been questioned on the 
 subject, and we have authority for stating that his sentiments have 
 been satisfactory as to the general principle. In short, many noble 
 families have adopted the cause of Reform, at the bare mention of 
 which their ancestors would have fainted away. 
 
 The Radicals or Reformers outnumber the Whigs and the Tories 
 in the proportion ^of 50 to 1 ; but on ordinary occasions they have 
 nothing but mere numerical force, they are an inert mass that keeps 
 quiet till called into activity and life, though when really roused not 
 all the powers on earth can keep them down. What the People can 
 do may be seen in the Queen's trial, for never before did England 
 see this great partj^ put into complete motion ; at that glorious period 
 there was a regular trial of strength between the People and the 
 Tories ; and the result was a victory as perfect and as splendid as 
 heart of man could wish. The great Leviathan then for the first 
 time felt the hook in its nose, and it was led about like a tame calf: 
 it was the triumph of Liberty over Tyranny in the fullest and fairest 
 ■sense of the word. 
 
 With this great party, the People or the Radicals, the WTiigs now 
 feel it necessary to act, all their strength rests ultimately with the 
 People, and though some of them are ashamed to make the confes- 
 sion, yet such is undoubtedly the case : and we may be certain that 
 when the present breeze grows into a storm it will be impossible to 
 distinguish a Whig from a Radical : for if the Whigs were not to 
 
26 
 
 seek aid from the People In all times of diffiGulty they would be 
 blown to powder in the twinkling of an eye. For tlie convenience 
 qf the reader, we have drawn out a table of parties as now existin^j 
 m England. 
 
 I. Tories. 
 
 1. Chancellor, Duke of York, tlie Church, and all the old thorough- 
 paced Castlereagh party — the most numerous out of the house. 
 
 2. Canning, and what is called the Liberal part of the Ministry—* 
 most numerous in the house. 
 
 II. Whigs. 
 
 1. Tlie old party. Lord Derby, Lauderdale, &c. 
 
 2. Moderate Reformers : Lord Fitzwilliam, Milton, Morpeth, &c. 
 
 3. Positive Reformers, and decidedly liberal. Lord Grey, Daniel 
 Sykes, M. P. for Hull, Hume, M. P. (Sir F. Burdett !) 
 
 4. Unbending Reformers of the last shade. Lord King, Colonel 
 Johnson, M. P. 
 
 III. The People. 
 
 Now in a literary view, it may be said, that the triumph is at pre- 
 sent with the Whigs, for although they bear no proportion in actual 
 power and numbers to the Tories, yet the great mass of literature 
 and all its beauty and wit is managed by them. And the reason of 
 this is manifest; for as the W^higs sometimes advocate Reform in 
 Parliament, and always are interested in unveiling the jobs and 
 tricks of Government, and are by no means attached to the power of 
 the Church, but on the contrary advocate the cause of tlie Dissenters ; 
 and also have lately enlisted themselves against Negro Slavery, it is 
 evident that they have the whole range of those subjects by which 
 popular feeling is excited. By long handling of these subjects they 
 have made themselves powerful and able writers ; and by a general 
 opinion of their talents have induced all young beginners to turn 
 their first efforts to the opposition side of public questions, on 
 which side fame and popularity are more easily gained. Nor should 
 it be forgotten that although half of those men who take the popular 
 side early in life, afterwards join that party which can pay them better, 
 yet they do not venture on the change, till their age has deadened 
 their moral feelings and blunted the point of their talents. Thus 
 with the Tories are ranked the greater part of elderly clever scoun- 
 drels, and with the Whigs all young men of talent and ability : but 
 the old rat from prudence, idleness and riclies keeps quiet ; whilst. 
 
27 
 
 the young Patriot, from vivacity, ambition and poverty, is not unwil- 
 ling to join the forlorn hope of liberty. Another literary advantage 
 that the Whigs enjoy is derived from the prodigious dulness and 
 folly of their great opponents. The Tories have but two modes of 
 arguing their cause ; Terror, or Excuses. In the storm it was Terror, 
 the Bishops and Parsons declaring that all Reformers would be 
 damned, that the throne and the altar w'ere going to be upset, and 
 carnage, guillotines and plunder usujp the place of Religion and 
 Loyalty, &c &c. i&c. But now it is all excuse-making and shuffling. 
 The Quarterly Review, the text-book of the Tories, is nothing but a 
 collection of shuffling and fallacies in every number that is published; 
 for this work which is chiefly written by Parsons, is now employed 
 in misleading and deceiving where before it bullied and threatened ; 
 in deprecating the efforts of the abolitionists of Slavery; in concealing 
 the riches of the Church ; in giving a false-color to all that is good 
 and noble ; and extolling all that is suspicious or notoriously bad — 
 in short, in making the best of a very bad case. This perpetual 
 pleading, this never-ending exculpation and extenuation is wearisome 
 and disgusting ; and the loud calls made on the public to praise that 
 which by the greatest efforts can only be made plausible, is not likely to 
 meet with great success, and certainly has not hitherto enjoyed it. The 
 public also feel that they owe the enormous taxation of tlie Kingdom 
 to the Tory party, and that tlie true Tory views the nation only in 
 the light of plunderable matter ; a ministerial man approves of the 
 abstract principle, that power should be supported by splendour, 
 that is, by large sums of money taken from the people ; and he is 
 always ready to act on that principle. 
 
 " Give the King more — give the Ministers more— encrease the pay 
 " of Judges — raise new Regiments — add to tlie splendour of Em- 
 " bassies— encrease the Pension-List — vote more money for the 
 " Church — pay for new Bishops — replenish every languishing job 
 "with larger and larger sums of money — ^plunder, plunder, plunder,'* 
 is the constant daily prayer of the Tory. The people however cry 
 out economy ! economy ! economy ! and the Whigs as they have 
 no hopes of ever again touching the public money join heartily in the 
 cry. The Edinburgh Review, (which is the mlnual of the Whigs,) 
 is written on the half-popular side with great spirit and abilities ; it 
 is supported by men of the highest literary reputation, and who have 
 as much political honesty as Aristocratic supporters of liberty can be 
 
28 
 
 supposed to have. The Edinburgh Review varies veith its party^ in 
 a storm it is seditious, in a cahn it is shuffling, but latterly it has been 
 compelled to be much more liberal, and is almost tied down and 
 engaged to support with constancy the popular cause. It neverthe- 
 less still wavers occasionally, and cannot give up its old habit of 
 praising the Whigs much beyond their merits, and exalting the 
 aristocracy to the occasional discredit of the people. The last in- 
 stance we observed of this sort was in No. ^Sy Art. vii. " 'J'he recent 
 History of the Catholic Question," v/hich though powerfully written 
 contains far too many praises of the Opposition, and of a few Grandees, 
 who after all did little but vote in support of the Catholics, a sacrifice 
 which only kept them a few hours longer than usual out of bed ;* 
 but which to the Scotch Reviewer appears the most noble struggle 
 of patriotism recorded in the annals of English History. 
 
 In one point the Whigs deserve the applause of the country ; we 
 mean for the strenuous efforts they have undoubtedly made to extend 
 the general education of the People. , There is no person, however 
 careless to the great questions of morals and politics, that does not 
 perceive the immense advantages likely to accrue from a more ex- 
 tended and general education of the People, and we hope that ere 
 long no town in England however small in population and considera- 
 tion will neglect this great subject, a subject which involves beyond 
 all doubt the ULTIMATE EMANCIPATION of the lowei* orders, 
 and which if steadily adhered to must soon, very soon, begin its 
 visible operations in the kingdom. Mr. Brougham is the great and 
 the successful advocate of popular education, his efforts on this sub- 
 ject are known to every one, and we feel confident that the NeW 
 London Univerpity will, in a very short time, be felt as a national 
 benefit, and that its effects will be powerfully and rapidly seferi in 
 
 * " The opposition at once repaired to their post ! They rallied themselves and 
 *' roused the country to a sense of public duty. Although a general election ojijiroach- 
 " cd and the Catholic Association was far from being popular, and even the Emanci- 
 *' pation unpopular also — they saw the clear line of conduct which their principles 
 " pointed out ; and with a disinterested magnanimity, ofxdnch the lustory of jmrty 
 *' (ijf'ords no second example^ they unhesitatingly pursued it. " Surjn-ising ! ! I 
 
 Who ever heard of such disinterestedness ? that a great swaggering Grandee should 
 not give up his principles for the sake of his place in Parliament ! what heroic 
 achievements this age is doomed to witness ! why if we go on in this virtuous man- 
 ner much longer we shall be too good, nothing but Whigs and Angels will people 
 the Earth ! and the reign of the Opposition and of Saturn will return to the happy 
 race of man once more. 
 
the rlecliiie of what is bad, and the strengthening of what is essentially 
 good and useful. 
 
 The popular cause, or tlie third party, is supported more by skir- 
 mishers, sharp-shooters, and an armed peasantry, than by regular 
 forces. In storms, it has a host of writers both eloquent and popular 
 who disappear when their feelings cease to be roused, or when public 
 tranquillity render their efforts unnecessary. Still however they are 
 never entirely dormant. Cobbett is master of the field ; every one is 
 afraid of him, his popularity is immense, his intellects unimpaired^ 
 his style inimitable, his diligence unequalled. In the tone and vigor 
 ef his writing he most resembles Swift, whom he far surpasses ; in 
 wit he abounds, and his wit though of the more unpolished sort is 
 genuine true wit. He is said to be wayward, versatile and capricious, 
 at least his enemies say so, a great part however of this accusation 
 must be attributed to the spite and despair of those whom he has 
 punished, and who find no means of attacking him but by backbiting 
 and.malevolent slanders. It is im'^^ossible to read his writings and 
 not to pronounce him a most powerful, nay an unequalled writer, 
 who without learning and ignorant of all classical aid, has raised 
 himself by natural talents far above all the prose writers of the age ; 
 and against mighty odds has conquered all opponents, and made him^ 
 self autocrat of political literature. 
 
 In tlie philosophical questions of Ae popular party Jeremy Ben- 
 tham is supreme ; all that he has written in politics is sound, in- 
 structive, and of a durable nature. His field is, abstract general 
 principles ; laying down fundamental truths and calling on mankind 
 to act on th&oa ;-^-his style however is obscure, and sometimes wearies 
 the patience of the reader by its dimness and difficulty. The most 
 popular book he ever wrote is " The Book of Fallacies," a book 
 wliidi every man that wishes to think on politics should know by 
 heart, and which is free from the usual obscurity of style that un- 
 fortunately has sealed the works of this great writer against the eyes 
 of the generality of his readers. Major Cartwright, the idol of the 
 People, has lately died at the age of 8,3 ; the principles of that veteran 
 Patriot have however sunk deep into the minds of his followers, and 
 will not be forgotten. La Fayette and Cartwright have been the 
 wonders of this age in France and in England. 
 
 On the popular side has lately appeared a work of the greatest 
 importance, " The Westminster Review/' which has reached its Eighth 
 
 D 
 
30 
 
 Number, aiicl Is conducted by all the leading true Patriots of tlie day. 
 It surpasses the Edinburf]^h Review in every solid and important 
 point, but is behind it in tlie lighter departments of literature and 
 the ornament of wit. In history, philosophy, and close reasoning it 
 is superior, in vivacity and playfulness of style inferior ; but what is 
 most important, its honesty is undeviating, its principles fixed and 
 manifest, and its integrity secure. In fine, the writers for the People 
 command attention now from all parties ; tliough they are greatly 
 out-numbered by their old antagonists, each of whom has a better 
 disciplined and more compact party to rely on for support ; with a 
 certainty of being backed by all the Magazines, Reviews, and New ". 
 papers that are ranked on the Whig or Tory side, and are well drille 
 in the important exercise of puffing and of praise. There are not 
 half a dozen popular Newspapers in the kingdom, and only one Re- 
 view, and no Magazine ; on the other side they are countless as the 
 sands of the sea ; and every Bookseller in London (with the exception 
 at the utmost of two individualsj^s a sworn enemy to the Liberties 
 of the People. The London Booksellers are a time-serving, truckling 
 body ; the greatest enemies of all literature, the sworn foes of talent, 
 and the tyrants of the press. A very large book might be written 
 on the tricks of Booksellers ; for no one that has not been behind the 
 scenes can imagine the dirty jobs and mean despicable arts by which 
 works are brought into notice or kept back from circulation. A 
 good puffing Bookseller, with great capital and large acquaintance, 
 by dint of Newspapers, Magazines, and Reviews, and fifty other 
 contrivances can force any nonsense into tolerable circulation ; and 
 by much more objectionable means can crush a work of merit in 
 which he has no share of interest. But all this concerns only the 
 higher breed of authors : let them fight their battles ; the people, 
 when it is necessari/, can command attention, and no bookseller dares 
 to counteract them, for there have been and will be times and seasons 
 when every thing is forced to bend before the will of the nation. 
 
51 
 
 TO FOUNTAYNE WILSON, ESQ. 
 
 ** His /orw and cause conjoined, preaching to stones 
 
 " Would make them capable." Hamlet. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 WE, the conductors of the Elector's Guide, address you in pre- 
 ference to young Duncombe, for though you are both Candidates for 
 the County on the intolerant interest, yet we consider you more 
 capable of understanding a letter on a difficult subject, than the youtli 
 who is destined to run with you in the chariot of bigotry, driven by 
 the Yorkshire Parsons over the necks of the Freeholders. 
 
 We would do you justice also in another respect ; we consider you a 
 real bona-fide No- Popery Squire ; a person who, though practically 
 not remarkably religious, are fond of the present pompous state- 
 machine called the Church of England, and who cannot bear the 
 notion of any Dissenter detracting from its grandeur by their being 
 placed on an equality with it. But this is all we can say of your faith, 
 and though not much, it is more than we could say of your jDolitical 
 yoke-fellow, the secret of whose zeal is notorious to every one. 
 
 You have hitherto been obscured in the smoke of Leeds, your 
 talents and your faith have been slumbering in the shades of Melton, 
 and the County has known nothing of you, except that you are a 
 very rich and not a very extravagant man : but now we are destined 
 to hear more of you ; your splendid abilities are about to blaze upon 
 us in a flood of light, and all the treasures of politics, history, religion, 
 controversy and logic, which you have been accumulating for so 
 many years, are now ready to be let loose upon the astonished County 
 in brilliant flashes of eloquence, profound disquisitions and irresista- 
 ble perorations. Allow us then. Sir, to act as your pioneers, to clear 
 the way before you, to procure you silence, and raise the public 
 expectation in your favor. 
 
 In dissecting your inimitable political character, we should wish to 
 lay it out in two grand divisions ; Local, and General. In the f rst 
 view we safely pronounce you very rich ; or if you choo>cv, immcuseli/ 
 
 B 2 
 
S2 
 
 rich ; you have tens of thousands a year, and spend perhaps twelve 
 hundred pounds, how can you then fail to be otherwise than rich ? 
 How is it possible but that your wealth should be immense ? but 
 alas ! you are now embarked in a cause in which wealth is of no avail ; 
 they say you have nothing to recommend you but your wealth ; that 
 Yorkshire cannot be bribed, and if it could be bribed, that your 
 antagonists would beat you even there. 
 
 " Rusticus es, Corydon, nee munera curat Alexis, 
 Nee, si muneribus certes, concedat lolas." 
 But in another view, you are much more popular and amiable ; 
 the inhabitants of Leeds remember with gratitude that you have 
 BOUGHT OUT THE PARSONI!! they reflect, that when an 
 amiable Protestant Priest -was hoVering over the smalltithes of the 
 Parish, and making his occasional pounces on the choicest morsels, 
 that you lured him away with a bag of gold, and stepped his ecclesi- 
 astical hunger by a cheque on your Banker ! This indeed was merito- 
 rious ; on that occasion you laid a foundation for afiection not easily 
 to be overthrown, and if every other Squire in the kingdom would, 
 out of their private fortunes, buy up the Parsons, they would become 
 as popular as they are now unpopular and odious. Great hov/ever 
 as the merit of this action was, it must not be forgotten, that by thus 
 getting rid of the small-tithes you did a material service to your 
 numerous tenants residing in the parish, and consequently increased 
 the value of your property there, so that although the deed had its 
 merits, it was not without some slight admixture of hnuan nature 
 ni Its briUiant parts ; and that although it was a good action, it 
 does not entitle you to absolute immortality. But now that we are 
 on the subject of your wealth, you should remind the Freeholders, 
 that great as it is, you cannot find it in your heart to part with it 
 freely even at a general Election ; you should tell them, that at tlie 
 last occasion of that sort you went to canvass the Town of Beverley, 
 that there was no opposition there, and that it would have cost you 
 as little as ever such affairs are supposed to cost ; that you went on 
 purpose to meet the Electors, that 500 names were put down in your 
 tavor the first night that you slept there; that you met a Wge body 
 of the Beverley Electors in the hall of that Gentleman's liouse where 
 you WTre staying; tliat ycu reflected on the expense all night, and 
 came to the bedside of your host at five o'clock in tlie morning, 
 ready booted ;ind spurred, to announce your deterniinr.ticw to tun 
 
S3 
 
 away, on re-considering the matter, and on reflecting how much money 
 the Election would call for, which sum would have been nearly 
 £5,000 ; perhaps a seventh part of your annual income ! What then 
 will you do at the general Election for the County ? why the very 
 notion of the tens of thousands of guineas requisite to set you agoing, 
 exclusive of twice that sum to keep you going, will drive you out of 
 your senses, and on the night before the poll is opened you will 
 decamp on the outside of the heavy Coach to London, where you will 
 hide yourself in the tap-room of the Swan-with-three-Necks, or the 
 travellers' room of the (!ock-and-Bottle, till the Election is finished, 
 and the poll-books closed. Then there will be dire wailings of No- 
 Popery Squires, weeping for their Candidate and refusing to be 
 comforted " because he is not ;" then will the Parsons look for you 
 in vain ; then will the Pope and the Cardinals walk over the course, 
 whilst you our chosen Candidate, our Jidus Achates, our magnus 
 Apollo, our puis (Eneas, are ingloriously parting with your dreams of 
 political aggrandisement in fumes of cheap shag and libations of 
 unexpensive porter. You should think of these things. Sir; you should 
 make up your mind to bearing a most enormous expense; you 
 should calculate all the items of a contested Election, long before yo^ 
 come to the poll ; No* Popery ribbon will cost you £7,000; the ale- 
 bills will come to £20,000 ; and the pay of handsome young men to 
 kiss the Freeholders' wives will not be less, at a moderate computation, 
 than £1,500 ! What then will hire of horses, chaises, coaches, carts, 
 waggons, wheel-barrows, sedan-chairs, gigs, tax-carts, curricles and 
 velocipedes amount to ? What will squibs and placards cost ? proces- 
 sions, drums, trumpets, constables, broken-heads, apples, ginger- 
 bread, dinners, suppers, beds and breakfasts? Bless and save us! 
 no tongue can tell what it will come to ! Crcesus himself would have 
 been obliged to mortgage Assyria if he had stood a contested Elec-» 
 tion for Yorkshire ; and all the Kings of Persia would have found it 
 easier to conquer Greece than to come forward as the Champions of 
 the Yorkshire Gazette in the Castle Yard of our County. 
 
 From your treasures of gold we come to those of your intellect i 
 it is whispered, that in this respect you are much more likely to fail 
 than in your banking account : your abilities, they say, will very 
 soon suspend payment, " for want of available capital,"* indeed tliey 
 appear to have suifered a shock from the very first payment, if we 
 may judge of your first literary efforts in County politics. 
 
Si 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 " The requisition which you have done me tlie honor to present, 
 and the sohcitations I have received on the subject of representing 
 this County in Parliament require my warmest and most respectful 
 acknowledgments, / contijiualhi reflect on the point of viefv in which I 
 have been placed by the associated transactions of scve?'al (owns and the 
 country, not so much with emotions of pride as with a humble desire, 
 one day, to answer in some measure their expectations of my best 
 exertions to promote their interests, and to protect and preserve 
 unimpaired the Protestant Church and Government. Actuated by a 
 grateful sense of encouragement I submit to their wishes (Church and 
 Government), and declare myself a Candidate for the representation 
 of this County at the ensuing General Election. 
 I have the honor to be. Gentlemen, 
 
 Your most obedient faithful Servant, 
 
 Richard Fountayne Wilson*" 
 Melton, near Doncasier, Dec, 1, 1825. 
 
 It would require a very acute Protestant to unravel your meaning 
 ' — " you continually reflect on the point of view in which you are 
 placed, &c." Is it that you are studying catoptrics or dioptrics and 
 intend to give the County a lecture about rays of vision ; or like the 
 great deity of Aristotle, are you continually meditating on your own 
 perfections ? And what, we would ask, is the dialect which produces 
 " associated transactions of Towns and Country ;" it is not Englisli, 
 nor yet is it Yorkshire, but will nevertheless be sufficiently accept- 
 able in the " Collective Wisdom," where any thing but English is 
 expected or spoken, and where you will therefore be a respectable 
 Senator. The County may from this letter judge of your literature, 
 and from your exploits at the last County Meeting may make an 
 estimate of your future conduct in the cause of liberality and justice, 
 when it is remembered that on that occasion, you and Mr. Stuart 
 Wortley were the only persons that held up their hands against 
 Reform in Parliament, contrary to the wishes of the whole county. 
 
 Mr. Stuart Wortley however has liberality and good sense enough 
 not to join the hypocritical No- Popery cry, and he not only does not 
 join it but opposes it, though it is evidently to his disadvantage, and 
 though the newspapers have endeavoured to coax him into a change. 
 In ijhortj you are the Parsons' pet, you are the only cock thai will 
 
35 
 
 ^ghi ; all tlie rest run away on some occasion or otlier, but you keep 
 firm by the Priests through all dangers and difficulties. You vote 
 for the Ministers in «// things ; you are against Reform in Parliament, 
 and consequently are as much disliked by the People as you are 
 loved by the Clergy ; you are against all improvement, all reform, 
 all toleration, all liberality : the Chancery, the Church, the Bigots, 
 the Pensioners, the Sinecurists, the Tax-gatherers, the Toad-eaters, 
 the Gangers, the Supervisors, the Custom House Officers, and the 
 Unpaid Magistracy may reckon on your vote to a dead certainty : 
 others will turn tails on some questions ; others will annoy the Mi- 
 nisters by being restive once in a hundred times ; others will prattle 
 about their being independent Country Gentlemen and sometimes 
 strut when they ought to crouch, but you are what the Scotch call, 
 a constant " Booer" Canning will write down your name in red ink 
 in his voting ledger. 
 
 And now, Mr. Wilson, we recommend you to consider what is here 
 written ; we beg you to weigh well the mighty matter you have 
 taken in hand, we conjure you to calculate the expense of a County 
 Election, and not to leave the Clergy all forlorn on the great day of 
 trial ; but to make up your mind to bleed nobly and without flinching 
 when your blood is wanted. There is no lancet in the world like a 
 County-poll, and unless you can bear it to sipicope you had better 
 take up your hat and walk away, " to continually reflect upon your- 
 self in some other point of view." Talents, and a knowledge of the 
 history, laws, and constitution of the country are not wanted in a 
 modern Senator ; to vote on the right side of the House is all the 
 natural gift that the nation requires, and as it is certainly known 
 beforehand what questions a Representative will support and what 
 oppose, it is a matter of supreme indifference if he is as ignorant of 
 all these learned matters as report says you are. 
 
 Your chief support will come from Leeds ; smoke, obscurity, and 
 gratitude are your great supports ; all that have dimned their wits 
 over Leeds furnaces, or have been saved from the Parson by your 
 purse, will hasten to vote for you at the General Election, and thus 
 practically shew their liberality by supporting him who buys up the 
 Protestant Clergy and who opposes the Catholic Priest. The 
 Becketts, of Leeds, are canvassing very diligently in your cause, a 
 diligence which though praise-worthy is not difficult to account for ; 
 as Sir John Beckett is your banker and unele ; and as tlie Judge 
 
Advocate, Mr. .Tolm Beckett, who is your first cdiisin, marfied a 
 Lowther, a member of the most flaming No>>Popery family in the 
 kingdom* 
 
 In conclusion. Sir, your claims to represent the County are but 
 small, but you must try to make them greater, you must study tlie 
 English Gi-ammar, you must '' entertain a score or two of Tailors," 
 and come out fm-bished both in intellects and in dress before you 
 appear as the Champion of the Church. There is nothing particular to 
 hate in your character ; you have as much negative merit as a decent 
 country Squire usually has, you are rich, quiet, ministerial, dull and 
 inojQfensive, and are wanting in some of those more odious, tyrannical 
 and intolerable qualities so conspicuous in many of the Yorkshire 
 Aristocracy : so that you have an innocuous moral character, without 
 talent* to provoke, wit to amuse, reading to instruct, or eloquence to 
 convince your Constituents. In short, he tliat does not hate William 
 Duncombe may like Fountayne Wilson. 
 
 " Qui Bavium non odit, amet tua carmina, Ma?vi." 
 
 York, Jan. 10, 1826. 
 
 DUNCOMBE AND THE TREAD-MILL. 
 
 FROM " The Nation" London Newspaper, Friday, June 4, 1824, 
 we copy the following account of the famous Tread-mill story. It 
 seems to have been written by a person acquainted with the minutiae' 
 of the case and the localities of Duncombe Park ; trusting therefore 
 to its accuracy we again publish it in the Elector's Guide, that they 
 who wish to protect the Protestant Religion by electing for their 
 representative a member of the Duncombe family, may see what sort 
 of tenets that family professes. 
 
 « The power that is put into the hands of the Magistrates is im- 
 mense, it is daily increasing and ought to be diminished, for it not 
 only may be, but is sometimes most shamefully abused, by those wh» 
 from their wealth and their despotic character are often too well 
 disposed to trample on the laws and set justice at defiance. The 
 truth of this was last year most lamentably displayed in Yorkshire^ 
 
37 
 
 in an aflTaii- which has now been freely discussed in the North, biit 
 Axhich circumstances liave prevented from being noticed in that 
 manner wliich it desei'ved. Mr. Duncombe is the possessor of the 
 splendid estate and shew-reudence «o well known to the public by the 
 name Of Duncombe Park, in the North Riding, famous for its ro- 
 mantic scenery and the ruins o£ Rivaulx Abbey. Last autumn it so 
 happened, that a man of the name of Dodd was hired as a journeyman 
 to a hatter who lived in the village of Helmsley, close to Duncombe 
 Pai'k, and who was also a tenant of Mr. Duncombe. This man, with 
 two of his friends, went one evening to look at the ruins and see the 
 beauties of the Park, which is open to all who choose to go and see 
 it ; and whilst he was in this most innocent occupation, was espied 
 from the terrace that is above the^Abbey by the Lord of the Domain. 
 The companions of Dodd not liking too well to meet so great and 
 terrible a man as Mr. Duncombe decamped when they saw him ; 
 but Dodd, conscious of no harm, and consoling himself with the well- 
 known maxim tliat a cat may look at a king, pursued his observations 
 on the ruins till he was interrupted by a violent onslaught from the 
 great Magistrate, who, having collared him, and most roughly 
 vituperated him as " a rascally poacher," insisted upon knowing his 
 name. The name was readily given, but no expostulations listened 
 to ; nor was any attention paid to the plain fact that he had neither 
 dog nor gun to kill game. Having been thus severely handled, he 
 was allowed to depart ; but that very night was seized, and, by Mr. 
 Duncombe's orders hand-cuffed. The next morning he was brought 
 up before Mr. D. and a Mr. Cumber, a neighbouring Magistrate : 
 these gentlemen considered the case, and from the exuberance of their 
 justice, in spite of every expostulation and explanation, sentenced the 
 unfortunate admirer of ruins to two months hard labour in prison. 
 These two months were worked out on the tread-mill ! ! ! Of course, 
 such a monstrous proceeding could not rest there, and Dodd having 
 worked out his time consulted counsel, who soon made Mr. Dun- 
 combe learn he had got into a scrape. So far all is notorious to the 
 world, but reports differ as to the sum paid to prevent exposure, and 
 (we hope and trust) punishmcjil too. — The sum most generally be- 
 lieved is £2000, some have said X'.^OOO, but it is pretty certain that 
 the former is more correct. 
 
 There are some other little adjuncts to this moral and instructive 
 story ; for the Iiatter who had employetl Dodd was obliged to leave 
 
m 
 
 Helmaley f!>r T^eft^sitin- to turn off' his journeyma]! accQVtluig: to order; 
 nor sbould it be fori^otten, that the smTerer had a most unimpeach- 
 able cliaracter, and was particularly valued by his employer as a 
 clever,, honest, and industrious workman. If ever the Anj^els weep 
 at the " tricks of brief authority," as the Poet says they do, one would 
 think they had cause enough for teal's over this tragedy."* 
 
 Now ye Roman eathoHc Monks of Rivaulx Abbey, and ye, O 
 Ghosts of the old Abbots, tell us if ye used to. play pranks like 
 these ? But did y.e not on the contrary receive all strangers willingly, 
 and give all trav;ellers a hearty reception, food, lodging, money and 
 a blessing, and send them on their y^iiy rejoicing.^ Tell us ye venera- 
 ble men what do you think of the Protestant Unpaid Magistrate that 
 possesses your lands, and that in place of your hospitality sends the 
 {poor man to jail for looking at the ruins of that building whose doors 
 were always open to the poor and fatherless when ye kept up your 
 " superstitions" there. — And now. Freeholders, let us not shout 
 No- Popery ! but 
 
 ,. , ,. ; NO BIGOTRY AND NO TREAD-MILLS. 
 'When the Reader has for a while reflected on the tread-mill story, 
 •which if not true we shall be happy to contradict, we request him to 
 listen to the additional matter respecting the Duncombes, that he 
 may perceive why immortal minds indulge in such surprising Pro- 
 testant wrath, and. why they wish so much to protect the Protestaal 
 Ascendancij. ^^.^^ ^^.^^ ^^j^-^j ,^^^,^ ^^^^ ^j,j . v,,.(pf^ ,jj V.jKUiihi ..hv 
 
 The Duncorabe family have long; aspired tolhe Peerage, the preten- 
 sions of the head of it have been supported by the interest of his 
 wife's famijy.: her father, the late Earl of Dartmouth, was a great 
 personal favourite of the late King, and had the son in law, the 
 present Mr. Duncombe, not been below par, he would have been 
 Lord Fayersbam before now. , I^is son, the present Canditlate, has 
 of course tlie same object in view, and in addition to the interest of 
 his mother's family, he has that of his wife, who is daughter to 
 
 • A correspondent has favored us with some farther morsels of this feast of jus- 
 tice : When Dodd was in prison, he procured an iminense number of letters from 
 respectable persons in Buckingham (his native place) bearing testimony to his ex- 
 cellent character — these were shev/n to Mr. Dancombe, but he would not attend to 
 them, — they were however laid before the (irand Jury in the Summer Assizes, 
 182;i, when Richard llethell, Esq. was Sheriff"; and made a most powerful impres- 
 sion on the (rentlemen forming the Jury. 
 
 Couiisel for Plain tifF, James Park, Esq,— ibx Defendant, H. Brougham,^ Esq. 
 
^9^ 
 
 Earl of Galloway and niece to the Marquis of Anglesea^ a nobleman^ 
 of whom it may be said^ (since all things relating to royalty are 
 dulcet and harmonious,) that he plays first fiddle with Majesty itself^ 
 and is in full concert pitch with the Duke of York. Here is backing 
 enough to get at a Coronet; wheel within wheel, all tending to 
 the same point, and wanting nothing but the oil of County- Represen- 
 tation to set it off full gallop. It is dear that if Young Buncombe 
 stood in the proud situation of Member for Yorkshire, his father's 
 claims to a peerage would receive additional and perhaps irresistible 
 weight. The Freeholders of Yorkshire will therefore be looked 
 upon to place a coronet on the head of Tread-mill Duncombe, and if 
 we are driven, coaxed, or frightened into electing the son, we shall, 
 without doubt, turn the worthy father into a Peer, " a consumr[iation 
 most ddvoutfy to be wished for." V A 10 YaOfl AT A 
 
 It is said that "an Oyster may be crossed in love:'* or in other 
 words, the tender passions can. open even that close-shut animal's 
 box : a saying which will be fully exemplified in the ensuing Election, 
 when we shall behold the love of a coronet open even the portals of 
 Duncombe munificence and wealtli lavished from those boxes, whence, 
 till lately, gold has sparingly appeared, and which nothing could have 
 elicited but the attractions of the Favershamian. Ti|tle. We alluded 
 to these matters in page 37—8 of our first number, but it required 
 a separate article to explain all the secrets of the Duncombe Cabinet, 
 and though we have been consid^re^ remarkably severe on Young 
 Duncombe, we assure him we have not done with him yet; that 
 we have many additional remarks for his consideration, and that 
 although he has taken the, opinion of a Lawyer, whether it was a. 
 libel to say " that he was totally devo^id of talent," (No. 1. p. 37-) yet 
 we feel no fear of him, or his^wits, or his Jaw, J^nowing that Dun-. 
 combe-Law is not always tlie best jn ^heworl^^' and that we shall 
 always be sufficiently cautious in our literary warfare with him and 
 his redoubtable Sire. '•- -■ • •■ ' ^ 
 
 '^yi,iti 8'«yoi foiicniiifict aviz/.i 
 
 E ^ 
 
40 
 
 JVe have received several Comimnncahonn from poetical Frlendny and 
 have made the Jbllowif/g Selecliom. 
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 Sing a song of sixjjence ! a pocket full of rye ! 
 Sixty-'Seven Bankers all in a pye ! 
 When the pye was opened not one of them could sing ! 
 There's a pretty Christmas-box to set before the King ! 
 
 A PARODY OF A WELL-KNOWN NURSERY DITTY 
 
 BANKER. 
 
 Robin Bold, Robin Bold ! 
 1.} r.'. Why do you demand our gold? 
 
 FAHMER. 
 
 Robin Bold gave this reply : 
 
 TO MAKE SUCH FOOLS AS YOU ASK WHY. 
 
 STANZAS, 
 
 To be recited by any Young Qevileman of Quality at the Hustings. 
 
 SEE I my virtuous soul is starting ! 
 
 Spasms seize my inner man, 
 Me the Pope has made poetic, 
 
 1 can rhime, indeed I can. 
 
 Come then. Muses, maids ethereal. 
 In soft chorus three times three ; 
 
 Leave Saturnian Jove's high altar, 
 Come ! and sing a song with me. 
 
 • Peter Prim, Peter Prim, 
 Why do you in stockings swim ? 
 Petet Priiu j^uvc, &c. 
 
4,1 
 
 Ah ! what grisly gorgon terror 
 Almost makes my soul elope. 
 
 Draws sweet sweat adown my forehead ? 
 Freeholders ! it is I he Pope!! J 
 
 See around him proudly pacing. 
 
 Cardinals in crimson hats. 
 Such a sight would make the welkin 
 
 Pour down showers of dogs and cats. 
 
 Now I spy his seven-fold bottom 
 Squatting on the Roman hill. 
 
 Pour me out some Balm of Gilead, 
 Freeholders ! I'm very ill.— 
 
 Oh the Popes ! and Oh the councils ! 
 
 They are adamantine things. 
 Only English Bishops flatter 
 
 Properly our taxing Kings. 
 
 Take me then, Idalian Cupid, 
 
 In thy chariot let me run. 
 To where our courtier- Prelates stupid 
 
 Bow before the rising sun. 
 
 See the perfumed incense rises. 
 From the orthodoxal shrine, 
 
 Osnaberg's big Bishop snuffs it 
 With a roseate smile divine. 
 
 Lords and Ladies fair as roses 
 Simper round our Monarch high. 
 
 Attributing their pensions to the 
 Protestant Ascendancy. 
 
 There stands never-ending Eldon, 
 Firm in English faith and gold. 
 
 Pocketing his many thousands. 
 Thousands which cannot be told. 
 
43 
 
 Who would hurt this hungry squadron. 
 
 With a notion of Reform ? 
 Who by granting Papists justice 
 
 Dares to raise the slumbering storm ? 
 
 Let the Church then fat and greasy -'.'^ 
 
 Slumber in her old domain. 
 Let no sound of toleration 
 
 Scare her in her ancient reign. 
 
 Let the Parsons sweetly sleeping 
 
 Dream not of adversity. 
 Never let them leave their pillows 
 
 ^ ^UO 0(I£ liJO !. 
 
 But when roused to vote for me., r r . - : 
 
 Pensions, places, tithes, and taxes^ 
 Sinecures, reversions,— ^all^ ' • '^^T-' - 
 
 Dread the approach of toleration. 
 
 Should it touch them— down they fall. 
 
 THE TREAD-MILL. 
 
 Ixi6n who did Cuckold' jbve 
 Was placed upon the wheelj . 
 
 That he of his adulterous love 
 The punishment might feel. 
 
 But Duncombe rages ten times wois0 
 Than eW the classic Goa;* ^«*^ '' 
 
 And sends to the revolving w^ieel 
 The park-inspecting Dodd. 
 
 A cat may at an Emperor look : 
 And so m^n much admiie. 
 
 Why cuckolding; ^ God'^ as bad 
 As looking at A Squiie. 
 
m 
 
 INFORMATION TO READERS. 
 
 AS might have been well imagined^ the publication of the First 
 K umbel' of the Elector's Guide caused a very great sensation in the 
 County, but more particularly in the City of York, where certain 
 Gentlemen had a private meeting in a certain house, to consider 
 " what fvas to be done ?" One step agreed on was, to send a copy off 
 immediately to Government, which was put in execution the second day 
 after the publication of the first number ; but the result of tliis mea- 
 sure is not yet knowm. At this meeting it was also agitated '^ would 
 *' it be better to take no notice of it, or to open a volley upon it in 
 " the Provincial Papers/* The majority were of opinion, that unless 
 particular circumstances occun*ed it would be better to keep quiet, as 
 the noticing of it would only increase the sale of the work. Amongst 
 other things it was also suggested, that a prosecution should be set 
 on foot, but others thought that although any thing is by the Judge* 
 a libel, yet the Jury does not choose to think so, and that a defeat 
 would make the matter ten times worse; ajvd what is still mor6 
 important, would add much to the publicity of the work, '^ Besides/' 
 said a Reverend Gentleman, " if we keep (juiet^ they will fall into 
 
 ** this trap at last — and then we shall lay — up by the heels, 
 
 "and so keep him out of the way at the General Election." The. 
 rage of some persons has bordered upon frenzy: all uianner of 
 plans have been proposed and canvassed ,• and the fear of what is still 
 to come much prevails over the wrath for that which has already 
 appeared. Copies have been sent off to the principal parties con- 
 cerned, letters written backwards and forwards, and such a tumult 
 created as the County has not known for a very long time. In tlie 
 mean time we observe all these things carefully ; we have friends in 
 all parts, and receive notice of councils of our opponents as soon s» 
 they can be known. 
 
44 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THK following efFort of wit, written by Overton the Calvinist and his co- 
 adjutors, and corrected by Bob Markham the Pluralist, we gladly insert in this 
 Number, that no portion, however small, of ecclesiastical fun may be lost to the 
 public. It is taken from the Yorkshire Gazette, January 28 : and is a proof that 
 the blister stings them. 
 
 " In the Press ; and to be published when Yorkshire is represented in Parliament 
 " by four Roman Catholic Members, The Spirit of the Elector'' s Guide^ containing, 
 ** amongst other precious and special information : 
 
 " 1. A dissertation on the advantages of Popery, as relating to the humanizing, 
 " civilizing and enlightening mankind ; with numerous examples collected from the 
 *' middle ages, the reign of Mary I. the present state of Ireland, Spain, &c. 
 
 " 2. An Essay on the blessings to be derived from a Papistical Inquisition, in 
 " which it will be made manifest as the nose on Father Annibal de la Genga*^ 
 *' singular holy face, that grilling or roasting living Heretics in ^hursday-Market 
 " place (aut ubilibet) will be a most effectual way of compassing their conversion, or 
 •* at least of affording them a roseate passage to the world below. 
 
 ** 3. A Proposition for Electing to the Papal chair, on the next vacancy, the 
 " She-Cardinal de Beverley (precedent, pope Joan.) 
 
 *' 4. A defence of the infallibility of the last mentioned virgin Pope ; and 
 
 ** 5. A copy of the Papal Bull which authorises " a Committee of Yorkshire- 
 " men^ in defiance of Priscian, Home Tooke, and Lindley Murray, to address the 
 *' gullible in the first person singular. 
 
 ** N. B. The Bull is in Monkish Latin verse, and may be sung to the tune of 
 « A jolly fat Friar." 
 
 By CaHdijtal Pt;mjukdlfgmts." 
 
 It will here be seen that we do not pay tithes for nothing, and we must rejoice 
 that for so much money taken from the people for spiritual purposes, the Clerical 
 writers can produce such pungent and delicate wit. 
 
THE SLECTOR^S &UIOE. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 ▲ lETTBa TO THE 
 
 BUKE OF YOMKf 
 
 AURI SACRA FAMES; OR, STURDY BEGGARS: 
 A COUNTY JOB; 
 
 CHURCH METHODISM; 
 
 ^ A PROTESTANT CONFESSOR; 
 
 K2S MAJESTY'S SPEECH TO PARLIAMENt; 
 
 MISCELLAmESy AXD POETRY; 
 
 ▲DDEES&CD TO I'HE 
 
 CONDUCTED BY A C0M3IITTEE OF YORKSHIRE-MEN. 
 PUBLISHED BY G. BOLL AND, LOW OUSEGATE ; 
 
 AXD SOLD BY BAINE8, LEEDS; THOMAS AXD HUNSLET, DONCASTXE; 
 
 KOBLE, HULL; JOHNSOIf, BEVERLEY; AINSV?^OaTH, SCARBRO' ; 
 
 8MITHS0X, MALTON; TURNER, DRII'jTIELD; BELL, RICHMOND J 
 
 DRAKARD AND WILSON, STAaiTORD; LYNCH, MANCHESTER; 
 
 ROCLIFFE, LIVERPOOL ; WHITTLE, PRESTON; 
 
 AND MAY BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 1826. 
 
THE eImECTows aumsM 
 
 A LETTER* 
 
 TO HIS 
 ROYAL HIOHK£SS PRINCE FREDERICK 
 
 DUKE OF YORK AND ALBANY, 
 
 Earl of Ulster, Bishop of Osnaburgh, Commander-in-Chief of all his 
 Majesty's Forces, Field Marshal, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, 
 ColoneUin-Chief of the 60th or Royal American Regiment, Lord 
 Warden of Windsor Forest and Great Park, Warden and Keeper 
 of the New Forest, Hampshire, High Steward of New Windsor, 
 K. G, G. C. B. D. C. L. L, F. R. S. Knight of St. Esprit of 
 France, St. Andrew of Russia, Maria Theresa, of the Royal Han* 
 overian Guelphic Order, <5'C. <5'C. ^-c. <^x. S^c, Sfc. Sfc, Sfc. S^^c, S^c. 
 and sometime Grand Master of all the Orange Lodges 
 
 Bishop ! 
 OUT of all the titles with which your name is decorated, we the 
 Conductors of the Elector's Guide, being men of peace and gentle- 
 ness, have made selection of that fatherly appellation " Bishop ;" in 
 which gentle and bland addition we presume to commence this our 
 most dutiful letter, and by which we hope to draw your attention to 
 the gentle episcopal things with which our pens are loaded. Feasts, 
 festivals and anniversaries, are the provinces of Bishops ; to them 
 appertaineth the injunction of holydays and all the solemn seasons of 
 
 • We are aware of the privileges attached to persons in power, but like the Edin- 
 burgh Review, we feel confident that the Duke as he has gone out of the way of 
 parliannicntary speech-making and plainly declared, that he wishes in the Catholic 
 Question only to be considered as delivering bis private opinions, so he will be glad 
 to see those his private opinions freely discussed. The Duke Ucice in his golden 
 speech begs to be considered only as a private person, we comply with his request, 
 and therefore proceed to our criticism as if he was a friend seeking advice. 
 
the calendar, that merit may rejoice or fast as the Church enjoineth, 
 and not at other times according to their private wills and fancies. 
 With this truth strongly impressed on our minds, we beg to assure 
 you, that we commence this letter on the 27th of January, being the 
 anniversary of that day when Colonel Gwyllim Lloyd Wardle brought 
 forward a motion in the House of Commons " to form a Committee 
 to investigate the conduct of his Royal Highness the Commander-in- 
 Chief j" an investigation which ended to your satisfaction, and must 
 ever endear you to the English nation, of whose morals you are the 
 chief prop and ornament. To us it appears strange and unaccount- 
 able, that whereas we have " a form of prayer with fasting to be 
 observed on the 30th of January," being the day on which a reigning 
 King was beheaded by Parliament, we should not also have " a form 
 of prayer with thanksgiving," on the 27th of January, when a Prince 
 Boyal was saved by Parliament, and brought pure from the clutch of 
 villains and strumpets. to shine out once more a brilliant star of 
 Royalty. 
 
 We, being zealous Protestants, are much refreshed with reflecting 
 on that day, and we consider it our duty in our widely-circulated 
 paper to call the attention of our readers to that great and glorious 
 sera of your life, when at the ripe age of forty-six you wrote the 
 following letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons ; a letter 
 which from the relative dignity of the persons writing and receiving 
 the letter, cannot fail to remind the classical reader of the Epistle 
 sent by Tiberius to the Senate of Rome. 
 « Sir, 
 
 *' I have waited with the greatest anxiety, until the Committee 
 appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into my conduct, as 
 Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty's army, had closed its examina- 
 tions ; and I now hope, that it will not be deemed improper to 
 address this letter through you to the House of Commons. I observe^ 
 with the deepest concern, that in the course of this inquiry my name 
 has been coupled with t?'ansactions the most criminal and disgraceful, 
 and I must ever regret and lament that a connexion should have existed 
 which has thus exposed mi/ character to animadversion. With re- 
 spect to any alleged offences connected with the discharge of my 
 official duties, I do in the most solemn manner, UPON MY HONOR 
 AS A PRINCE, distinctly assert my innocence ; not only by denying 
 all corrupt participation in any of the infamous transactions which 
 
have appeared in evidence at the bar of the House of Commons, or 
 any connivance at their existence, but also the slightest knowledge 
 or suspicion that they existed at all. My consciousness of innocence 
 leads me confidently to hope, that the House of Commons will not 
 upon such evidence as they have heai'd, adojd any iwoceedings pre^ 
 judicial to my Jionour and character ; but if, upon such testimony as 
 has been adduced against me the House of Commons can think my 
 innocence questionable, I claim of their justice, that I shall not be con- 
 demned without TRIAL, nor be deprived of the benefit and pro» 
 tection which is afforded to every British subject, by those sanctions 
 under which alone evidence is received in the ordinary administration 
 of the law. Frederic.** 
 
 « Horse Guards, February 23, ISOp." 
 
 Of this Basilicon Doron we must remark, that it is not proper to 
 look a gift-horse in the mouth, much less when it is presented by a 
 Bishop and a Prince, but at the same time we cannot help noticing 
 the dangerous subject you alluded to when you mentioned the word 
 TRIAL ; a word of most deadly import to Royalty, and which 
 generally has ended seriously when persons of your description write 
 it in their vocabulary. We know of no instance to the contrary, 
 excepting in the case of her late majesty Queen Caroline ; and even 
 in her case it required the united efforts of the whole kingdom to 
 save her from destruction, so fatally united are trials and Royalty, 
 Bishops and Princes should keep out of the way of Judges, Thomas 
 Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, 
 and Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, went through this ordeal and 
 came off with any thing but success; nor have Richard II. Mary, 
 Queen of Scots, Queen Anne Boleyn, Charles I. and James II. left 
 any encouragement to their successors to attempt the serious experi* 
 ment of a trial, which generally terminates in giving a heavenly and 
 taking away an earthly crown. Not that we would insinuate that 
 the trial you demanded must necessarily have had a fatal termination^ 
 for we are bound to believe your word thus solemnly given, and we 
 are quite confident that the efforts of Ministers were likely to meet 
 with their usual success, as they were exerted with more than ordi» 
 nary anxiety in the investigation, and probably would not have 
 relaxed in a trial. The Ministers were tlie Venus of politics, the 
 protection of a cloud was safe and classical, and it is not to be feared 
 
 A 2 
 
8 
 
 that he who had met with ministerial applause after the capitulation 
 of the. Helder, would have been crowned with success after a volun- 
 tary trial. 
 
 From the intrigues of mistresses and defeats of armies we come 
 with alacrity to your exploits in Religion. The man of pleasure and 
 the Bishop, are characters not unfrequently united, and the union of 
 the Bishop and the soldier have been witnessed in ancient as well as 
 in modern times, to the amusement and edification of the admiring 
 world. In the last session of Parliament, when the Catholic Question 
 was in its progress through the Houses, you rose up and in " a neat 
 and appropriate speech," short as an Angel's visit and sweet as the 
 nightingale's song, expressed the damnation of Royalty against tolera- 
 tion, and gave the death blow to liberality by the powerful adjuration 
 of princely bigotry. You judged well of the legislators among whom 
 you were sitting, something strong was wanting to rouse them from 
 their hereditary slumbers, those tranquil gentlemen of placid de- 
 meanour must be awakened from the soft spells of the drawing room, 
 and the smiles of the presence chamber must be sometimes dissipated 
 by the frowns of business. An oath was new ; it was like Burke's 
 dagger thrown on the floor of tlie House of Commons ; it made the 
 Lords stai't ; it was doing the business like a soldier ; it was some- 
 thing more than your old friend THE HONOR OF A PRINCE, 
 it was the FAITH OF A PRINCE !!! " Come and see my zeal for 
 the Lord," said Jehu, when he intended to bring misery, mischief, 
 and desolation on his subjects ; he was full of orthodoxy and perse- 
 cution, but the historian in summing up his character, says " that 
 '' Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel 
 " with all his heart; for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam 
 '' which made Israel to sin :" and alas ! this is often the case, for 
 historians both sacred and profane have constantly remarked that 
 those Princes who have been most conspicuous for their orthodoxy 
 have been the most objectionable in their private lives or the most 
 lawless in their government, a remark which your own observations 
 on history must have strongly confirmed, and of which the explanation 
 is manifest. Every rule has its exception, and as we except you from 
 this general remark, it will only shew that the exception proves the 
 rule. However plain the reason of this remark may be, yet we feel 
 confident that you will be pleased with a passsge from the works of 
 Aristotle bearing diiectly on this subject. " Princes should seem to 
 
" be always more than ordinarily sedulous about the worship of the 
 
 " Gods, for men are less afraid of suffering any injustice or infrlnge- 
 
 " ment of the laws from such monarchs, if they think them to be 
 
 " orthodox* and devoutly affected to the Gods ; and besides will be 
 
 " less disposed to enter into sedition againssfe them, supposing the 
 
 " Gods themselves to be their allies." (Pol. v. xi.) On this maxim 
 
 Princes have generally acted, it has hitherto been attended with 
 
 success, but is now viewed, perhaps, as a piece of Machiavellian cold-' 
 
 blooded policy fit only for that state of society In which all the 
 
 people are either fools or rogues ; and which is not at present the 
 
 state of society In England. For Louis XIV. that miserable King, 
 
 immersed in all the vile practices of a profligate court and reigning 
 
 over an unenlightened people, the maxim might have had its merits, 
 
 and we can understand why he who passed his days in debauching 
 
 Duchesses and ruining his country, in intriguing with married 
 
 women and devastating Europe, should fly to Bishops and orthodoxy 
 
 to conceal his disgraceful vices, and endeavour to hide his cruelties 
 
 and extortions by zeal and piety. Whilst he was in the arms of 
 
 mother Maintenon, he revoked the Edict of Nantes and dragooned 
 
 his subjects to prove that he was a good Churchman ; and for his 
 
 vices and his faith he was praised by his Bishops and Mistresses as 
 
 the most orthodox of all possible Kings. All mischief and misery 
 
 done by States and Princes has been done in the name of the Lord : 
 
 hypocrisy and tyranny are inseparable companions: when Henry 
 
 VIIL determined to plunder all the convents in England it was 
 
 under the pretence of Religion that he began the pious work, and not 
 
 an act of Parliament w^as passed to aid him in his labours of faith 
 
 which did not teem with expressions of piety and reek with the 
 
 unction of cant, t Whenever, therefore, we hear princes zealous in 
 
 Religion, whenever we see them leaving the pleasures of the court 
 
 • The word in the original is " deisidaimon,*' or Euperstitious, but as the passage 
 requires it to be taken in a good sense we translate it o;thodox; as being a medium 
 between religion and superstition. 
 
 t We note a glaring instance of this IMonarch's hypocrisy in the «C Articles 
 which he gave his Commissioners to inquiie into the state of tlie convents prepara- 
 tory to plundering them. " M'hether divine service was kept up night and day at 
 " the right hours — whether they had an inventory of the jewels^ rrUcls, oniamrnts, 
 '-'■ money ^ plates, fumUnre^ and all other gocks and' chattels hclon':in;j: to the 
 " house.'" — in other words, do you say your prayers, and have you any money ? 
 this is robbing according to faith. 
 
 " Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator." 
 
10 
 
 to busy themselves about faith we know mischief is brewing; and 
 witli a strong natural impulse hasten to lock up our strong boxes 
 where we have deposited a little gold which no bank-breaking can 
 injure; or we prepare ourselves to hear of wars and rumours of 
 wars, and that which is worse than wars, TAXATION. A mo- 
 narch's dogmas in Religion are generally enforced by the tax-gatherer 
 and attorney, and we may be certain that if a fortieth should ever be 
 added to the XXXIX Articles, the addition will cost the nation 
 several millions of money and several thousands of lives. 
 
 This fortieth article, you. Bishop ! seem inclined to add, and if we 
 may judge of your intentions by your oath, it will be an article 
 making intolerance necessary to salvation: but as you love your 
 Country, your Bishoprick, and the Horse-Guards, be content with 
 the number left us by the piety of our Protestant ancestors, let it be 
 enough that we have received " forty stripes save one," it is a sound, 
 ancient, Jewish number ; they have already cost the nation countless 
 millions, and may be considered of value equal to 30,000 troops 
 every year in Ireland alone, (which troops you are well aware are 
 kept there to enforce your opinions in matter of faith,* ) exclusive 
 of the five millions of tithes paid by the people of England annually 
 to Bishops and Curates, whose business it is to explain them, and 
 who, we hope, imderstand them. 
 
 If at any future period you shall mount the TUrone of England, 
 (may the Gods avert the omen !) j^ou will discover when it is too 
 late, that your exti-aordinary declaration in Parliament has involved 
 you in difficulties which will require more than Royal intellects to 
 solve : and let the consequences be what they may, you will find 
 " the honor of a Prince," engaged never to grant the Catholic Claims; 
 though the loss of your throne should be the result of your rashness. 
 Let all possible extremities have arrived, let every Bishop in the 
 kingdom have left you, let even Chorus Blomfield have run away 
 from you after having in vain begged you to give up your opinions, 
 still, still, O witless Prince ! it must be your Religion to be obstinate, 
 and the oath, the dreadful oath, will hang roimd your neck like a 
 
 * The refusal of the Catholic Claims is untloubteclly the cause of the vast annual 
 expenditure on Ireland. If the claims were gianted, and the tithe-takers driven out 
 of that unhappy country, we might the very first year withdraw half our troops ; 
 and in two or three years more, not a single st*ldier m oiUd be wanted beyond whut 
 was ret^uiiitc for the state of the Lord Lieutenant aiid the guarding the stores. 
 
11 
 
 mlU-stone. Nothing can possibly extricate you; an<l though John 
 Quincey Adams shall have established his head quarters in your own 
 Earldom of Ulster ; though the King of France shall send you an 
 ultimatum from Dublin ; and the Pope himself shall be approaching 
 from Lancashire with all the Vicars Apostolic in grand procession, 
 followed by the Cardinals under umbrellas, still you must remain 
 unmoved and stick like a true Brunswick to the letter as well as to 
 the spirit of the oath, for which you have been lately rewarded with 
 a Cheshire cheese, a turtle, and an Oxford buck ! What then must 
 be done ? Alas 1 that which was said fx) Napoleon may again be pro- 
 nounced 
 
 SIRE ! IL FAUT ABDIQUER ! ! ! 
 
 The English nation is said to be remarkably fond of Royalty ; but it 
 should rather be said that the House of Commons is remarkable for 
 this attachment, if we may judge of their feelings by the immense 
 donations of money made to the Princes of the Royal family, in which 
 donations the nation not only does not participate, but from which it 
 violently revolts : the grant of money last Session to the Duke of Cum- 
 berland, is a strong instance of the gold-giving properties of the House, 
 and the economy of the People : had that question been decided by 
 the nation at large, it would have been rejected by a majority of 
 a million to one, in tlie House however it was carried by a small and 
 difficult majority ; and the Court- Party hinted that your debts might 
 and ought also to be paid, a measure which perhaps will be proposed 
 and perhaps adopted. 
 
 On a much larger scale of liberality Parliament voted very many 
 millions to your father to carry on the American war, and continued 
 voting and " supporting," till even their patience was fatigued, and 
 m a rage and a pet, they not only stopped any further payments, but 
 had to undergo the painful punishment of acknowledging themselves 
 conquered by those whom they had .every Session been terming 
 Rebels and Traitors, and concluded the farce by recommending 
 Majesty itself to submit. The Jlrmness of your father was the cause 
 of England losing half the new world ; what your ^firmness may 
 achieve of a similar nature must at present be left to conjecture, but 
 people do think that this dear princely pertinacity is very likely to 
 be the cause of presenting Ireland to those very Americans, who, 
 owing to similar pertinacity, have already taken from us one half of 
 our dominions. '* Pretty particularly agreeable I calculate," as 
 
12 
 
 brother Jonathan will say when the time comes, though to your 
 future subjects it will be any tiling but agreeable, and will probably 
 stretch their affection beyond the sticking point, and end the trial of 
 love by a grand and final snap. It is lamentable to think what 
 mischief the whvms and sulkinesses of Princes have brought on the 
 kingdom. One of them says " I'll make the Scotch swallow the 
 English Prayer-book ; and exalt the Church of England," and for 
 this fancy we were compelled to go to war with him, to chop off his 
 head, and make a " blessed Martyr" of him — 'another says " Fll make 
 a Monk a Fellow of an Oxford College," and for this fancy we found 
 it necessary to drive him out of the kingdom, to proscribe his family, 
 and to invent the national debt to pay those who stood in his shoes-— 
 another says " I'll have a tax on tea from people who never paid a 
 tax in their lives," and for this fancy, we had to spend unheard of 
 sums of money, and to lose half our dominions into the bargain — and 
 another says " 111 never tolerate the Catholics," and of this fancy 
 heaven only knows what will be the consequence, but that it must 
 end in something serious and tragical is certain. It is time, however, 
 to give you a lecture on this subject, it is time to inform you that a 
 Prince was never firm on any point in which he was not invariably 
 wrong, and that although it is in conformity with established quackery 
 in politics to declare all Kings correct in all their opinions, yet that 
 in ffict, every body knows that those opinions are in nine cases out of 
 ten foolish, imprudent, extravagant, injurious, and ruinous. Sup- 
 posing you were ever to come to the throne, but we hope sincerely 
 you never will, you should learn that your only duty is to follow the 
 advice of your Ministers, to sign their papers, and to execute their 
 councils. You have no eyes, ears, tongue, hands or feet, but what 
 the Ministers allow you, you must see as they see, hear what they 
 hear, speak as they tell you, sign what they direct, and go whither 
 they choose. But none of these things will you be allowed to do 
 yourself, you cannot be allowed to indulge your own fancies — you 
 will be a political idol, with eyes that see not, hands that handle not, 
 and tongue that speaketh not ; tke people worship the idol and not 
 the man ; for as soon as ever the idol disappears to make place for 
 the man, then begin seditions, uproar, and civil war. The Ministers 
 are responsible : the King is not : hence, if a king thinks proper to 
 disobey his ministers and act for himself, it has always been found 
 requisite |o get rid of the king that acted in so unconstitutional a 
 
18 
 
 manner. We are a free people; the days of hectoring and royal 
 interference are at an end ; King Charles was perpetually interposing 
 in the affairs of Parliament with his private messages, his solemn 
 assurances, his own council, and his own mischievous and foolish 
 obstinacy. He was remarkably fond of the expression, "ON THE 
 WORD OF A PRINCE;" but that word no one believed, and it 
 was found necessary effectually to silence that tongue that had told 
 so many lies and brought so much unhappiness on the kingdom. 
 -Charles I. lived and died a hypocrite ; he was a sly, silent, smooth 
 viper, without a rattle in his tail, but the nation found him out and 
 crushed him. Mischief may nevertheless be done by a loud-roaring 
 and head-strong bull, and in both cases it is requisite to be on our 
 guard and to be prepared with a remedy. 
 
 These things we have said to you, supposing it possible that you 
 may sometime be a King ; but as you are only a subject, and are 
 nobody, and have nothing but what the bounty of his present most 
 gracious Majesty* allows you, we have no fear of giving you oi^r 
 friendly advice in still plainer terms, and of putting your character 
 jMid sentiments to that test which you seemed so anxious to undergo 
 
 * Our attachment to his ^lajesty is sincere, we really admire his royal character, 
 and most heartily pray that his reign may be long and peaceful. That which is 
 chiefly urged against him, his desertion of his old friends the Whigs, appears to us 
 no objection at all. The country cares very little whether A or B is in power, and 
 we may rest assured that B would have been just as expensive as A. We should 
 not hastily condemn actions of which we can know but half the truth. The private 
 man must yield to the King, his Majesty undoubtedly wished to be surrounded by 
 his old friends, but there were strong public reasons for adhering to the councils of 
 his Royal Father, who might have returned to the enjoyment of his senses, and have 
 found himself perplexed and embarrassed beyond all hope of retrievement by the 
 personal gratifications of the Regent. Add to this, the Whigs have been excessively 
 boisterous and violent against his Majesty, and said personal things of him not 
 lightly to be forgotten ; and we frankly declare that unless the Whigs would pledge 
 tliemselves on a great sheet of parchment, signed, sealed, and delivered, to effect 
 immediate Parliamentary Reform (which they never would do) we had rather that the 
 Tories should stay in power. We fight for the People, not for Whig oj Tory. We 
 are all bound to obey and love his Majesty, unless he breaks down the barriers of 
 the law, and will not follow the advice of Parliament and his Ministers. George IV. 
 has never done so ; he is a constitutional King, willing to listen to his Ministers, 
 and is a far better Monarch in our eyes than George III. who was too head-strong 
 .and self-wiUed in the Cabinet. His present Majesty has a calm, clear understand- 
 ing, and though he has his own opinions and ably defends them, yet he does not urge 
 them against reason and the interests of the country. We hope his Majesty will live 
 very long, and we strongly advise the Duke of York to copy his Royal Brother in 
 all his good qualities, and not to leave the beaten track prescribed by our Constitu- 
 tion, by indulging his own Kulf-willed and violent opinions. Long live the King. 
 
14 
 
 in the year ISOQv Perhaps, you maybe misled, perliaps you may 
 have been told by some ambling courtier that a Prince should have a 
 decided character, that the age requires something strong and 
 piquant, and that to be pulled about in a gilded coach with some 
 hundred horsemen attending is an amusement only fit for a baby, but 
 that a great Prince should play high in politics, and let the world 
 know he can think and act for himself. Whoever told you so, lied ; 
 yes, he lied like Satan, and you must tell him so with our compli- 
 ments, and do not fear him though he should be a Bishop of the 
 Church, or an Officer of the Army ; the Bishop %vill pocket the 
 affront in hopes of a translation, and the Officer dare not challenge 
 you, and will look to the Gazette for a reward. You are honest and 
 frank enough in your opinions as all the world knows, all that is 
 wanting in your character is either to take pains to acquire proper 
 opinions, or to make up your mind to have none at all. The latter 
 is by far the safer method ; mediocrity, silence, and pliability, are 
 the proper ingredients of a princely character : to be careless, decent, 
 tranquil, and smiling, is safe and popular in a monarch ; to have 
 talents or to fancy that you have them, to be bold, opinionated, reso- 
 lute, and meddling, is dangerous, and as Shakspeare says, 
 " It will not and it can not come to good.'* 
 Take this into consideration: reflect on it: retire to Newmarket: 
 mix with Lords and Ladies of pleasure ; keep the Bishops at arms 
 length, they are designing calculating men, always bent on a plot ; 
 shoot more : argue less : Belvoir-Castle has its attractions, but Down- 
 ing-Street is beset with snares and stratagems : you may hunt with a 
 Duchess but do not talk to a Minister. It is astonishing how little 
 we require of a Prince; nothing in the world is so easy as to be po- 
 pular in your station of life ; procure a fine equipage, have a fine coach, 
 say a few soft things, produce a few sweet smiles, bow gracefully, 
 make an occasional compliment, and learn the science of "small-talk," 
 and we will answer for it that you will be the most popular, dear, 
 charming, fascinating and beloved of Royal personages: But if 
 you take to politics, if you are closeted with Bishops, if you are 
 imbued with orthodoxy, if you dabble in controversy, if you hate a 
 Dissenter, if you plot against the Pope, if you receive dispatches from 
 Downing-Street, if you make a party and plunge yourself into Par- 
 liamentary intrigues you will be hated, shunned and suspected. The 
 
15' 
 
 Nation will pay your debts but cannot bear an OATH* ; and in thk 
 respect you had better turn Quaker and swear not at all, than run 
 tlae risk of unpopularity, and something worse, by adjurations of 
 obstinacy and princely restiveness. A Quaker King would be a 
 phenomenon, but he would be cheap in his dress and therefore 
 popular, and though we should laugh at first on seeing a Royal 
 Bishop sallying out of the Horse-Guards in a broad-brim and strait- 
 cut, yet when we reflected on his motives we should applaud and shout 
 for joy, that Providence had bestowed on us a quiet and inoffensive 
 specimen of Royalty. 
 
 We cannot think you very sincere in your hatred of Catholics; we 
 observe that however strong your Protestant prejudices may occa- 
 sionally be, you can, with a little diflSculty, sometimes surmount them: 
 we notice with pleasure that you are Knight of the Roman Catholic 
 Order of St. Esprit in France ; that you are Knight of the Roman 
 Catholic Order of Maria Theresa in Austria, and of the Greek Church 
 Order of St. Andrew of Russia, and of many others of both these 
 religions. You are not therefore a real true old Protestant,—" touch 
 not, taste not, handle not," is the proper text of a really religious 
 member of our Church; but you who love to decorate yourself 
 with these trappings of " Popery and superstition/' who are fond of 
 covering yourself with the jewelled pictures of Saints and otlier "vain 
 *' and fond devices," cannot in fact be so very ardently attached to 
 the Religion of which you wish us to consider you the Champion, 
 but of whose real spirit you appear to be totally ignorant. With 
 this opinion of your faith, we feel confident that when the time 
 arrives, the Bishops will be ^able to convince you by their courtly 
 casuistry and religious logic that an oath need not aJways be kept, 
 that black is sometimes white and white not unfrequently black, and 
 
 • The Clergy with their well known affection for bigotry have printed the Oath 
 in letters of gold : it was a pious and loyal notion, well imagined but ominously 
 executed, and we cannot fail to remark with horror that the printer, Whitaker, has 
 since become embarrassed ! an omen of evil import to the golden sentiments of the 
 Bishop, and portending some day confutation or recantation. Not diicouraged 
 however, by the adverse Gods, we intend to offer a prospectus to our readers of pub- 
 lishing the Duke's letters to Mrs. Clarke, in letters of einerald and sapphire, a plan 
 which can only be executed by a subscription, and for which we hope to receive 
 £1000. in sovereigns from the Dean and Chapter of Windsor, and one hundred 
 cheeses from Cheshire. 
 
16 
 
 that religion, honour, virtue, and sound policy, require you to break 
 the Oath which you once so imprudently pronounced. 
 
 With these plans for your future conduc% and with sincere wishes 
 for your ease, comfort, and dignity, we have the honor to subscribe 
 ourselves, 
 
 Bishop, 
 
 Your obedient Servants, 
 
 The Elector's Guide. 
 York, Jan, 27, 1826. 
 
 AURI SACRA FAMES. 
 
 Which being translated for the benc/it of Cvuntrg Genlkmen, is 
 « RELIGIOUS PLUNDERING." 
 
 SOLOMON tells us that the horse-leech hath two daughters, and 
 they cry. Give, Give ! a prophetical proverb alluding to the Protes- 
 tant Ascendancy, whose two daughters are the English and the Irish 
 Church, and who certainly are perpetually trying the force of their 
 lungs in this short sentence. All the fashionable histories of Eng- 
 land teem with lamentations on the extortions practised by the Popes 
 in ancient times on the faithful, and Hume, who is always fond of 
 indulging a joke against a Churchman, does not fail to sneer when- 
 ever his history leads him to this subject. This is very well as fai' 
 as it goes ; but it is only a small part of tlie truth — the question 
 ought thus to be stated — The Popes in the day of their power took 
 large sums from the faithful with their own consent; but now they 
 are unable to do even that, and the whole annual income of the 
 Pope including the revenues of his own principality, a rich and 
 splendid Dukedom, amount to pretty nearly a million annually. — The 
 Protestant Church, against the will and consent of its flock> takes ten 
 times a larger sum tlian the Pope draws from his followers, and in 
 addition, fleeces those S€;ctarians who hate and detest its doctrines — 
 and moreover, not content with its enormous annual inccme thus 
 extorted from the peoi)le, is perpetually inventing new mef»ns of 
 
17 
 
 drawing sums jRrom the pockets of the laity by subscriptions, societies, 
 schools, clergy-orphan funds, clergy-widow ftinds, church-building 
 funds, &c. &c. &c. &c 
 
 We shall begin our remarks on this subject backwards, we shall 
 notice the Church Subscriptions and finish with the Church Revenues. 
 We have never noticed a more impudent specimen of rich beggary 
 than in a printed circular letter, written by Dr. Wordsworth, Master 
 of Trinity College, Cambridge, inviting the gentlemen who had been 
 educated at his College to assist him in building a new Court for the 
 reception of a larger number of students to the establishment. This 
 Court is nearly finished in the usual expensive style of every thing 
 connected with the Church, and as some of our readers probably 
 contributed to its erection, we beg leave to draw their attention to 
 the manner in which their money was elicited ; and we are certain 
 it will be amusing and instructive to a// our readers. Trinity College 
 was founded by Henry VIII. a few months before his death out of 
 the plunder of Abbeys, Monasteries, Nunneries and Priories. It is a 
 princely establishment, and its annual revenues are, to speak in round 
 numbers, £50,000. The Mastership is worth .€3,000. per annum, 
 and the sixty Fellowships average £250. a year — it lias sixty livings, 
 all given to the Fellows, and some of these livings are worth £ 1,200. 
 per annum — All the Fellows are allowed rooms, coimnons and servants 
 gratis, and to give some notion of the immense wealth of this real 
 convent, the cook's place is worth £ 1,000. per annum ! one would 
 think all this enough to satisfy common appetites ; but not so thought 
 the Master and Fellows, for when it became expedient to add another 
 quadrangle to the building, instead of paying for it out of their own 
 enormous revenues, they determined on a subscription from the lay- 
 men who had already each of them spent upwards of a thousand 
 pounds in getting at the College what is called Education. Any body 
 could easily see through this manoeuvre : any body coidd calculate, 
 that supposing the College had paid for the Court by raising a sum 
 of money adequate to the work, they would be able by the rent of 
 the chambers to pay off shortly both principal and interest, and be 
 gainers too by the bargain. Why then ask for a subscription ? This 
 question was put by one Lloyd, son of a banker, member for a rotten 
 borough, and a staunch Government man : And to answer this ques- 
 tion Dr. Wordsworth wrote the letter to which we refer, and whichj 
 after it had been revised and ornamented by the Poet his brotlier. 
 
18 
 
 he published. Now mark the Doctor's reasons. Some of the College 
 livings are below £300. per annum, and he proposes by the surplus 
 of the subscription to raise these said livings, and to make a fund for 
 buildings, glebe-houses, &c. — and he concludes by solemnly assuring 
 the subscribers, "it would be a work of PI^TY and CHARITY ; 
 " a work which God we trust will approve, and good men desire to 
 ** take part in ! ! !" Oh, the impudence of the sturdy beggars ! and 
 Oh, the folly of the simpletons that gave a shilling to such a job^-^ 
 but the Doctor knew his men, and he pocketed £l2,000. by sub-< 
 scriptions, of which the King gave jBl,000. and which all our readers 
 may consider that they have taken part in, as this thousand pounds 
 came from them in the shape of taxes. Now we have no scruples in 
 comparing this with any bull, or indulgence of the worst times of 
 Popery — " as soon as the money tinkles in the chest, your souls will 
 " be saved," said the emissary of Leo X. to the Germans ; " as soon 
 ** as you subscribe to our parsons- houses you will have done a work 
 " of piety and charity that God approves of," says Dr. Wordsworth, 
 in the former case the Pope's emissary believed what he said, in the 
 latter case we cannot for a moment suppose that the Protestant 
 Doctor believed his own words, but he knew that a certain form of 
 words has a great effect with fools and ideots, and that those who 
 would laugh at his indulgence would for decency be compelled to 
 give their mite, and to keep up the great farce of the whole system. 
 In short, we want another Reformation : w6 literally want another 
 Martin Luther to preach against Protestant indulgencies, and he 
 that would boldly set up his standard against plundering by Church- 
 men, would deserve well of his country, and would not be forgotten 
 by posterity. 
 
 The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge bags £50,000. a 
 year by subscription, every sixpence of which the Clergy ought, by 
 act of Parliament, be compelled themselves to contribute : it is all 
 their own society; it does nothing but issue wretched pamphlets 
 written by dull Deans, drowsy Bishops, and droning Doctors of 
 Divinity, in praise of themselves; the whole burthen of all their 
 publications is, " get by heart the Catechism and XXXIX Articles, 
 " pay your tithes, love the Parsons, and subscribe more money" — and 
 yet for the miserable trash which they thus publish, they are able to 
 raise this vast sum annually from the credulity of their flocks and the 
 stuprdity of the age. 
 
19 
 
 The Society for Suppressing Vice, another ecclesiastical job, h 
 paid £7,000. a year by Government out of the taxes ! what beastly 
 hypocrisy ! and yet in the very same page of the public accounts we 
 find £1,072. to lottery officers ! pray let us send this to the Pope,'4it 
 will make his Holiness laugh, and all the Cardinals may indulge in a 
 joke at this our foul Protestant cant, which is more nauseous and 
 disgusting than any thing ever dreamed of by Leo X. or ever pro- 
 claimed by Luther. 
 
 A correspondent has favored us with another specimen of Parsoii- 
 begging, in an extract from " the Report of the East-Riding District 
 ** Society for promoting the education of the children of the poor in 
 
 "the principles of the Established Church; December, 1825. ..* 
 
 '' With respect to the funds of the different schools in union with 
 *' the Society, your Committee would recommend, in addition to a 
 " similar appeal to (he Gentry who reside in or have properly in their 
 " respective neighbourhood, an application to the Ministers of the 
 *' Parishes of the several schools for (what ? their subscription ? Oh 
 "no !) AN ANNUAL SERMON for their benefit— a small circular 
 "' on this subject as well as on the depressed state of the Society's 
 *' funds, dispersed amongst the more respectable classes of society 
 '' in the Riding might probably be of signal service in re-awakening 
 " their zeal and energy on behalf of the uninstructed children of 
 " the poor. 
 
 " For the promotion of that great and all-important object, your 
 *' Committee conclude their Report by imploring the favour of 
 " Almighty God, the assistance of every sincere Chrisliany and the 
 '* active support of every friend to our 
 
 " EXCELLENT CHURCH, AS BY LAW ESTABLISHED." 
 
 This indulgence or bull was drawn up by a Parson of the East- 
 Riding, a ne70 convert against Popery,* sometime fellow of Dr. 
 Wordsworth's College, and now in possession of a good Chancellor's 
 living, from which in all justice £l00. a year ought to be drawn to pay 
 
 • It is said, " on dit,'* that a subscription came from this quarter to remunerate 
 Hone for his great efforts in favour of the Protestant Religion before Lord Ellen- 
 borough : if this be true, it is all natural and consistent, for he that pays his money 
 to run down the Athanasian Creed will of course feel bound to oppose the Pope who 
 so strongly supports that Creed. Others however conjecture tliat the Chancellor, 
 the greatest political regenerator in the world, has been able to convert the gentleniwj 
 in question to the Anti-Catholic doctrines. 
 
all these subscriptions and other Cliurch jobs, which the Parsons 
 assure us are especially favoured by Heaven, and which to support 
 by their own revenues would be of such great spiritual advantage to 
 them. Julian, the Emperor, took away the Church property from 
 the Christian Clergy, and told them with a jeer that by so doing he 
 made them fitter for die kingdom of Heaven ; but we wish to follow 
 the rule laid down by the Clergy themselves, and to make them, for 
 the good of their souls out of their own property, " do these works 
 " of piety and charity which God approves, and which good men, 
 '' like themselves must wish to take part in." But why all this 
 appealing to the gentry, why this annual sermon, why this effort to 
 arouse the slumbering zml and energy of the faithful, and why so 
 imprudently confess that the Dissenters are beating them hollow, 
 emptying the Churches, and drawing off the Scliook ? Cannot the 
 Church with all her wealth, and pomp, and power, with all her 
 societies, subscriptions, tithes, and taxes, with Parliament always 
 ready to shower upon her more and more gold, and every one of her 
 -Ministers always ready to ask for more and more, can she not with 
 •all this apparatus keep awake the " zeal and energies" of the County 
 ^ntry, tliat the Beverley Parson talks of? Naughty Gentry ! dor- 
 mant Squires ! thus to be shooting and hunting and giving the Parson 
 nothing, whilst the Methodist comes into the villages with the sickle 
 of industrious piety and carries off all the harvest of Christianity, 
 leaving the Parson rich and ridiculous, with plenty of tithes but no 
 cure of souls! Our venerable motlier the Church is indeed in a 
 pretty predicament, she has four times more wealth than any other 
 religion in the world, four times more anxiety to increase it, and finds 
 four times more readiness to give all tliat is asked for, and yet still 
 her schools are empty, her churches deserted, and the zeal and energy 
 •of the gentry abated or evanescent — in short, she has had so much 
 given her that it is now a clear case money can do her no good, and 
 tliat the only thing that can save her is poverty. Poverty a word 
 hateful to Priests, but dear to Religion, and which is felt to be the 
 only restorative for the present weak state of the Church, for whom 
 all tonics and strengthening medicines have been tried in irain. 
 
 To make our readers understand the full merits of the wealth of 
 the Church of England, we subjoin a table of all Christian sects and 
 all Clerical pay throughout the world, so that they that run may 
 read, and at a single glance perceive the real state of the case. 
 
21 
 
 COMPARATIVE TABLE 
 Of the Cost of Religion in all the Christian World. 
 
 I. 
 
 Name of tlie Nation. 
 
 France 
 
 United States, America 
 
 Spain 
 
 Hungary — Catholics ... 
 Calvinists ... 
 Lutherans . . . 
 
 Italy 
 
 Austria 
 
 Switzerland 
 
 Prussia 
 
 German States 
 
 /Holland 
 
 \ Netherlands 
 
 Denmark 
 
 Sweden 
 
 f Russia-Greek Church 
 
 y Catholics & Lutherans 
 Christians in Turkey ... 
 
 South America 
 
 Dispersed Christians ... 
 
 Number of Hearers. 
 
 30,000,000 
 9,600,000 
 
 11,000,000 
 
 4,000,000 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 650,000 
 
 19,391,000 
 
 18,918,000 
 1,720,000 
 
 10,536,000 
 
 12,763,000 
 2,000,000 
 3,000,000 
 1,700,000 
 3,400,000 
 
 34,000,000 
 8,000,000 
 6,000,000 
 
 15,000,000 
 3,000,000 
 
 Expense on Clergy 
 
 per Million of 
 
 Hearers. 
 
 Total Expenditure. 
 
 ^35,000 
 60,000 
 
 100,000 
 80,000 
 60,000 
 40,000 
 40,000 
 50,000 
 50,000 
 50,000 
 60,000 
 80,000 
 35,000 
 70,000 
 70,000 
 1 5,000 
 50,000 
 30,000 
 30,000 
 50,000 
 
 £1,050,000 
 
 576,000 
 
 1,100,000 
 
 320,000 
 
 63,000 
 
 26,000 
 
 776,000 
 
 950,000 
 
 87,000 
 
 527,000 
 
 765,000 
 
 160,000 
 
 105,000 
 
 119,000 
 
 238,000 
 
 510,000 
 
 409,000 
 
 180,000 
 
 450,000 
 
 180,000 
 
 ENGLAND 
 IRELAND . 
 
 II. 
 
 6,000,000 
 400,000 
 
 1,266,000 
 3,250,000 
 
 7,596,000 
 1,300,000 
 
 ^. B. Thus the Clergy of the first table, of 198,728,000 hearers receive £8,852,000. 
 And the Clergy of the second table, of 0,400,000 hearers receive £8,896,000. 
 
 From this table it is manifest that the Church of England has no 
 need of the " annual sermons" and subscriptions recommended by her 
 Clergy, and that although we have got rid of what is called " Idolatry 
 and Superstition," yet we pay dear, very dear, for that pure and 
 reformed Religion substituted in its place — and that it is very much 
 a question, whether it would not be a good exchange to give the 
 Protestant priests twentieths instead of tenths, and to rebuild a few 
 roods, crosses, and other picturesque emblems of Popery, if they 
 would ensure us a cheaper and less exorbitant priesthood. 
 
 In the mean time, as our prospect of amending these things, 
 though certain, is distant, let us indulge in a hearty laugh at the 
 innumerable ecclesiastical absurdities that daily come under our ob- 
 servation : let us order our tailors to make us a large sleeve to hide 
 
 c 
 
22 
 
 our smiles in, when^the solemn farces of Episcopal and Arcliidiaconal 
 Visitations are celebrated, those glorious pieces of mummery in which 
 the Parsons are so often charged, charged by the Bishop, charged by 
 the Archdeacon, exhorted, advised, reproved, instructed, lectured, 
 admonished, warned, counselled — every thing but amended — for in 
 spite of Primary Visitations, and Clerums, the old story remains to 
 be told, the Parsons hunt, shoot, play at whist,^ drink, flirt, dance, 
 go to balls, theatres, routs, and races — the Bishop gives them hints, 
 and tells them to be cautious, they dine with his Lordship, are very 
 merry, do the same things again, and hear the same charges again, 
 which are duly printed by Rivington and Co. — duly bought, and 
 duly forgotten. 
 
 One famous charge however of Bishop Blomfield, his primary 
 charge, which as it was written by so great a Greek scholar and so 
 dreadful an enemy of Popery, has been put into rhyme for the benefit 
 of the Parsons, as the laws of Lycurgus were put into verse for the 
 advantage of the Spartans: 
 
 *' Ride not, course not, hunt not, shoot not. 
 
 Dance not, flirt not, fiddle not, flute not. 
 
 Never play at whist or ecarte. 
 
 Never go out to an evening party ; 
 
 Be sure you have nothing to do with the Whigs, 
 
 But stay at home and fatten your pigs. 
 
 And attend to this my chief desire 
 
 That you dine once a week at least with the Squire." 
 
 A COUNTY JOB. 
 
 IT is so difficult a matter to pluck up a County Job by the roots, 
 that we stare with astonishment if ever we behold it really achieved. 
 Most of our readers will remember the prodigious tumult created in 
 the County some years ago, when it was proposed to investigate tlie 
 truth of certain most terrible rumours respecting the manner of con- 
 ducting the York Lunatic Asylum.— -That investigation however 
 took place, and ended, we are happy to say, in the completest expo- 
 
23 
 
 sure of every person concerned in it, their speedy dismissal, and the 
 placing the whole establishment on a new and improved plan, in 
 which we trust it is impossible that similar abuses should ever take 
 place. 
 
 The moment that an abuse is hinted at, and an investigation sug- 
 gested, all the corruptionists take the alarm — ^you are called a 
 radical, jacobin, atheist, scoundrel, villain, disturber of the public 
 peace, and an incendiary. Nor is it the least surprising part of the 
 process, that if any man or woman concerned in the abuse, though 
 of notorious bad character, is hinted at as such, tliey are instantly 
 converted into the most virtuous, trusty, confidential, praise-worthy 
 and respectable of their species. As soon as ever an abuse is men- 
 tioned, every body connected with it becomes RESPECTABLE.— • 
 " How shocking," they say, " to take away the character of so 
 *' respectable a person as Mr. A. or Mrs. B — ^how dreadful to wound 
 " their peace of mind by such ill-founded calumnies !** Nothing is 
 heard of but the agonies of Mr. and Mrs. A, you are thrown into fits 
 with pictures of their weeping friends, children and cousins — " and 
 " all this ruin and domestic misery for what } to gratify the mis- 
 ** chievous propensities of a few malicious and designing Radicals, 
 *' who are never happy but when they are creating a disturbance, 
 " and proposing their revolutionary and dangerous schemes of Inquiry 
 " and Reform." 
 
 These arts generally succeed, the inquirer is brow-beaten, insulted, 
 arid silenced, the abuses continue, and the persons suspected receive 
 votes of thanks, have all their salaries doubled, and end their days 
 amid general smiles and approbation, Thus jobs flourish ; till human 
 patience, fatigued with the monstrousness of the abuses, at last calls 
 for a Reform, that not only demands and effects redress but inflicts 
 severe punislunent on the offenders, and plucks up the whole system 
 by the roots. 
 
 There have lately been rumours abroad not favourable to the 
 Managers of the East- Riding Refuge for Pauper Lunatics ; many of 
 the patients have effected their escapes at different times, and other 
 things were reported not expedient here to mention. At last the 
 reports grew so serious, that the East- Riding Magistrates appointed 
 a Committee of five of their body, to inquire into the state of the 
 East- Riding Refuge kept at Sculcoates, and to report on the same» 
 This report, which ^-e have before us, contained an exposure of tl^e 
 
government of the Refuge, and concluded with recommending a 
 dismissal of the servants of the establishment. At the last Sessions 
 held at the East-Riding House of Correction ; the report was laid 
 before the Magistrates, and after a long and animated debate, the 
 following resolution was proposed and carried, nemine contradicente. 
 
 '^Yorkshire, East-Riding, Jan. 11, 1826. Resolved, that it ap- 
 '^ pears to this Court, that the Refuge for Panper Lunatics at Scul- 
 ''^^coates, has not been conducted^in a manner which this Court can 
 " approve, and that it is inexpedient to commit Pauper Lunatics from 
 *' this riding to the said Refuge." 
 
 Now of this transaction we give no further comments, nor do we 
 think it proper to publish any names, or facts of any description. It 
 has ended happily and well — for although of course the investigators 
 met with stout opposition, yet as the object of their inquiry has been 
 gained, it is unnecessary to dilate on this unpleasant subject. 
 
 One great reason of the unexampled facility of bringing the labours 
 of the Committee to a close, may be attributed to the moral character 
 of Richard Bethell, Esquire, the chairman of the East- Riding, who, 
 though a Tory, and as far removed from us in "politics as East from 
 West, deserves from us, that we should hold him up to the approba- 
 tion and good will of his Country, for the unshaken honesty of his 
 character, his high sense of honor and justice, and the unbending 
 rectitude of his mind. We have known him, as a public character 
 long, and seen, with pleasure, that no consideration can ever deter 
 him from doing his duty, that in all cases where humanity and 
 justice call for speedy and prompt decision he is ready at his post, 
 and true to his principles ; ^.nd would act according to his conscience 
 though he should offend the best and most powerful friend he had in 
 the world. A job hag no chance with him : this is saying a great 
 deal for a country Squire, but it may be said with truth of this high- 
 minded Gentleman, who would spurn at a base action with greater 
 alacrity, than nine tenths of his partjr would scramble their knees olf.\ 
 for any thing dirty or disgraceful under the sun. 
 
 If we had the honor of his acquaintance we should recommend 
 him to resist the importunities of his numerous friends, and not to 
 venture on the tumultuous ocean of a County Election," where he w ill 
 witness more baseness, wickedness, aristocratical turpitude, clerical 
 degradation, and gentlemanly corruption, than he can well imagine 
 to exist in the world. 
 
25 
 
 As the chief person of his riding, in wealth, independence and po- 
 pularity, he may do much good ; but should he be elected a Member 
 of the County, he will be able to do no good, and must bend before 
 the weight of servility and corruption so notorious in a House where 
 his labours would be required, and where he would be so disgusted 
 with what he would be compelled to see, that it would be better for 
 him to die in ignorance of the rottenness of that machine, which his 
 education has taught him to admire for its soundness and perfection. 
 
 CHURCH METHODISM. 
 
 WE have been favoured with the following letter from a Catholic, 
 which we gladly insert, but to which we shall take the liberty to add 
 our own comments. 
 
 To the Conductors of the Elector's Guide* 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " The ancient towns of Hull and Beverley have been torn in 
 sunder with a tremendous storm of religion respecting Church Me- 
 thodism. Since the death of John Wesley, Methodism has been 
 making prodigious advances in popularity, and gaining strength, 
 numbers, &ndi funds every year : there have been occasional schisms 
 and heresies springing up amongst his followers, but they have been 
 speedily crushed by the omnipotence of the Methodist Conference, 
 an oligarchal body that elects its own members and governs the 
 whole body universal with absolute sway, as there is no appeal from 
 its decisions. The Sectarians springing out of Methodism have 
 generally quarrelled about discipline^ and have objected, and perhaps 
 with some reason, to the absolute dominion of Conference, and de- 
 manded a counterpoise to its power by a second Chamber of Repre- 
 sentatives, without whose concurrence no new law is to be imposed 
 on the whole body. These objectionists, rebels, or schismatics, have 
 hitherto been speedily silenced ; and having been men of no talents, 
 no influence, and without time and leisure for a systematic opposition, 
 have been without difficulty prayed and preached out of the body, 
 and condemned to evaporate their rebellion in the dreary regions of 
 
r«6 
 
 expulsion and excommimication. In Ireland they liave succeeded 
 better, and a very numerous and powerful sect of Church Methodists 
 is tliere established, rebels from the old system, but much patronised 
 by the Irish Prelates and Churchmen of the Low-Church doctrines, 
 as likely to form a powerful check to the increase of old Methodism 
 in that island. 
 
 " At last, even in England, a successful rebellion has been achieved, 
 and the standard of Church Methodism was first erected in Beverley 
 by a linen-draper called Mark Robinson, who having pondered long 
 on the. great power of the Conference- Oligarchy, and having long 
 determined to oppose it ; at last openly threw down the gauntlet in 
 the shape of a clever pamphlet that shook Conference to the centre. 
 This pamphlet was followed by others of his party, and drew forth 
 replies, exhortations, deprecations, entreaties, threats, and finally 
 expulsion. A vast number of pamphlets have been written on the 
 subject, and all the linen-drapers and tallow-chandlers of the East- 
 Riding are at dagger's- drawing about the " power of Conference— 
 " the rights of the brethren— John Wesley — and the proper limits 
 " of obedience." 
 
 " The Beverley linen-draper, however, has succeeded in building a 
 stately Chapel, " Urbis et orbis ecclesiarum Mater et Caput ;*' in the 
 Gothic style, dedicated to Church Methodism and Religious Liberty, 
 and they say it will soon be opened under the auspices of the Cori* 
 poration, and all tbe Clergy of Beverley. To facilitate the formation 
 of his new sect, Mr. Mark Robinson and his coadjutors set sail t 
 Ireland, arid were received with the smiles and blessings of the Irish 
 Primate and the Irish Church Methodist Conference, which entered 
 into a Religious Alliance offensive and defensive with the Beverley 
 rebels, and set them back with praises, a bag o£ gold, and some of 
 their own Preachers. These Preachers have lately quarrelled with 
 their new friends, and before the great Chapel has been opened, a 
 schism has taken place, which after the usual quantity of serm<»is, 
 protests, protocols, homilies, lectures, speeches, invocations, declara- 
 tions^ and tears, has ended in a grand rupture, and the formation of 
 five* new sects, each with a plan of their own, and a determination 
 to build Chapels of their own architecture adapted for their own 
 
 • We suppose this is not to be taken literally. 
 
27 
 
 opinions. The names of these new sects have not yet transpired, 
 nor can I ascertain their peculiar dogmas, which will probably ere 
 long be made known to the public in long and eloquent pamphlets, 
 and to which I therefore must refer you. Sects are so extremely 
 numerous, and so many new ones are daily invented, that it requires 
 a powerful memory to give a tolerable explanation of any of their 
 doctrines. Church Methodism, I understand, is a sort of medium 
 between the Church and Methodism, so that a Church Methodist i» 
 to be considered a sharp-shooter or rifleman^of the Church ; a person 
 well armed with either swan shot or bullets to hit the high-flying 
 and extravagant Churchman that is leaving the Church, and to knock 
 down the stragglers of Methodism, and all that are creeping out of 
 the cage of Conference. In what respect the Church Methodists are 
 protected or governed by the Established Clergy I know not ; it is 
 said they are an independent body, but remarkably well affected to 
 the Church, and determined never to pray or preach in canonical 
 hours when the Church herself is supposed to be labouring. It is 
 evident that the High Church party will look with sovereign con- 
 tempt on the schism, and not give so much attention to the squabble 
 as a mastiff does to the yelping of a diminutive cur.* The High 
 Church is occupied with counteracting the zeal and opinions of its 
 own Low Church memb^s, the Calvinists and Evangelical Clergy, 
 who are a thorn in the side of the Bishops and sorely tonnent the 
 Dignitaries. — The Evangelical Clergy dislike the Methodists — the 
 Methodists hate the Church Methodists — .the Church Methodists pro- 
 scribe the five new sects, and the new sects attack all those diat most 
 
 • Our correspondent is right in his conjecture. The High Church party has 
 lately published its manifesto on the subject in the Christian Remembrancer, No. 80, 
 p. 31 ; and to shew its old spirit of sulky selfishness and rigid intolerance, has thus 
 expressed itself. " For holding the Church as we do to be a sacred institution, to 
 ** which it is not lawful for human wisdom or piety to add in any respect beyond 
 *' that which has been handed down to us by the Apostles, we can not agree with 
 *' the observation of Mr. Southey» that Methodism, under any modijicafion xchatcvcr^ 
 " can deserve to be recognised as an auxiliary institution to the establishment.'' 
 
 So much for the union of Bishops and Church-I\Iethodists ! Mr. IMark Robinson 
 may, if he is wise, in this short sentence see what he has to expect from this bigoted 
 party ; and it would be politic in him to give up flirting with the Dignitaries, as they 
 never will listen to him for a moment excepting inasmuch as he is an enemy of 
 Wesleyan Methodism, which they hate much worse than the Devil. Whatever is 
 likely to injure the cause of the Methodists the Church must love, but she is far too 
 proud, rich, haughty, lazy and sulky, to stir a little finger to help any soul living 
 that does not crawl in the dust at her feet ; and she must of necessity reject the 
 notion of an auxiliary with scoin and contempt. 
 
 .J- 
 
28 
 
 closely resemble them in faith and discipline. One trade flourishes, 
 and that is the trade of brick-making, every sect builds a new Chapel, 
 and the Government cannot fail to be enriched by schism and heresy. 
 In the mean time, there is but one Church that never changes, that 
 has remained the same from the beginning, and to that Churclih I 
 belong. 
 
 I have the honor to remain, 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 X Y Z." 
 " Hull, Feb. 2, 1826." 
 
 We acknowledge that the multiplicity of sects which swarm over 
 England, is a strong argument, at Jir&i sights against a schism from 
 the Church of Rome, but when it is considered, (and the quantity of 
 sects already existing will prove the fact,) that there is a strong 
 tendency in the human mind to select its own religion, and that the 
 experiment of preventing this selection has completely failed, it is 
 evident that it is not only wise to allow Sectarians their full swing, 
 but absolutely necessary so to do. Many of them rise on the stream 
 of time like bubbles and soon burst : and none of them, however 
 ancient they are, can be considered to have lasted a moment in com- 
 parison with the duration of that Deity whom they all profess to 
 worship. There is some good in all sects, and some mischief also— - 
 We, who are Protestants and members of the Church of England, 
 consider our faith to be soundly stated in the XXXIX Articles, but 
 we hate the state-tricks of our Church, we despise the moral character 
 of many of the Clergy, and we deprecate the existence of tithes,^ 
 church-lands and spiritual wealth. The Church of England, speak- 
 ing as men, is now of a respectable age ; but the Church of Rome is 
 a very great deal older, though she is an infant compared with the 
 Brahmin Religion, and that again is younger far than the old esta- 
 blishment of Egypt. The great faith, the belief in the Omnipotent, 
 is as old as the world, and anterior to the Creation. — ^the Christian Reli- 
 gion will never perish, but will ultimately conquer the whole world, 
 and yet we think it will not do so as one sect (if we may so speak) but 
 as a multitude of sects correct in the essentials of Christianity. He 
 that acts up to the whole sermon of the mount and believes in Christ, 
 must be a Christian ; but we never can expect to see all sects united 
 
29 
 
 in doctrine and discipline. The Religion of Egypt has been swept 
 away from the earth, it had a more powerful Priesthood than ever 
 Rome could boast, but the grandeur of Rome is greatly fallen, 
 and possibly may some day cease to exist. The Church of Eng- 
 land may perish, all present sects may crumble to dust — to belong 
 to an ancient faith is nothing, antiquity does not prove the truth 
 of the religion,— the word of God lasts for ever, but sects fall like 
 leaves. " I have seen an end of all perfection, but thy command- 
 ** ment is exceeding firm." — and we may conclude our remarks 
 by the words of Hilary. *' The word Peace is specious, and UnitTf 
 ''is bewitching, but who doubts that to be the only right peace 
 " of the Church which is the peace of Christ ?" * 
 
 A TROTESTANT CONFESSOR. 
 
 THE Church of England undoubtedly intended that her Clergy 
 should act as Father Confessors to the people under their care : for 
 some time this used to be the case ; many parts of her Liturgy allude 
 to the practise, and beyond all doubt the practise ought still to be 
 continued. But the corruptions of the Clergy, and theii* total disre- 
 gard of all Church discipline render it altogether impossible : nobody 
 dreams of confessing their sins to the Clergyman, and if the offer wag 
 made, we may more easily conceive than describe the astonishment 
 and dismay of his Reverence, on receiving the proposal just after a 
 hard day's shooting, or when he was sitting down to dinner after 
 having returned from a thirty mile run " over the stiffest country 
 in England.'* 
 
 In the East-Riding of the County of York the practice of confessing 
 has lately been revived. The Chaplain for the East- Riding House 
 of Correction, had discovered that one of the prisoners was lacking 
 in faith, not only as to particular doctrines, but as to tlie fundamental 
 
 * " Speciosum quidem nomen est Pacis et pulcTira opinio Unitatis ; sed qui« 
 dubitat earn solam unicum ecclesia? pacem esse quae Cliristi est ?" 
 
90 
 
 doctrines of the Creed. Thiss prisoner, whose name we understand m 
 Thomas Pyas, and who had been committed to hard labour foF 
 stealing a duck, had disseminated scepticism amongst his brotli«rs of 
 the wheel, and uttered things of a dangeirous tendency. To reason 
 and argue with a prisoner in such a case was clearly the duty of the 
 Chaplain, but that he should enter the subject-matter of the confes- 
 sions in the great book of the Jail, and give an accurate account of 
 the result of his conferences, does not seem to us consistent with - 
 delicacy, and is clearly and flatly forbidden by the canons of that 
 Church, to which the Chaplain belongsw* These confessions however 
 "were entered with due form and ceremony^ and laid in open Court at 
 the last Epiphany Sessions for the inspection of every Magisti-ate on 
 the bench. A Catholic would start at this ecclesiastical treachery, 
 and would exclaim that to reveal a confession was forbidden by all 
 laws, human and divine. We are willing to attribute the conduct 
 of the Chaplain to ignorance of his office, and that being newly 
 seated in the confessor's chair he did iiot know exactly how to act* 
 He will do better another time. 
 
 But the sceptical felon has not merely escaped with a bad turf* 
 from his confessor; for so enormous appeared his offence, that a 
 special meeting of the Magistrates in the neighbourhood took place, 
 previous, we understand, to the last Sessions, at the East-Riding 
 House of Correction, to take the whole matter into consideration. 
 This meeting consisted of four clerks and one layman ; John Gilby, 
 William Gilby, Charles Constable, Joseph Coltman, Clerks ; and R. 
 M. Beverley, Esquire, all Magistrates, and three of them vmfmg 
 Magistrates of the Riding. At a given hour the prison bell tolled, 
 and the prisoner Pyas, together with an incorrigible rogue one of his" 
 converts, escorted by all the Turnkeys and the Governor of the Jail, 
 together with the Chaplain, made their appearance before the Magis* 
 
 • By the 113th Canon of the year 1603. " That if any man confess his secret 
 tm\ hidden sins to the Minister, for the unburthening of his conscience, and to receiyd 
 spiritual consolation and ease of mind from him, we do not any way bind the said 
 Minister by this our Constitution. But do straightly charge and admonish him, that 
 he do not at any time reveal and make known to any person whatsoever any crime oi 
 offence so committed to his secresy, (excepting they be such crimes as by the Laws of 
 this Realm, his own life may be called in question for concealing the same) under the 
 pain of IRREGULARITY.'* And by incurring the condition of irreffularity, the 
 party offending doth not only forfeit all the ecclesiastical preferments which he hath at 
 wesent, but renders himself incapable of receiving any other for the time to come. 
 ^ > See Heylin's Laud. 6. 
 
31 
 
 trates, seated at a tabi« covered with green baiz« Mid a profusl^H of 
 law books. 
 
 The conference strongly resembled the famous disputation of 
 Henry VIII. and his Bishops with the heretic Lambert. 
 
 The business was opened by the Rev. John Gilby, who iaid down 
 the law at length, and quoted largely from the Canonists and the 
 Civilians bearing on the subject of infidelity : he read several opinions 
 of celebrated Judges, and concluded with a masterly peroration, and 
 the argumentum a priori. The Rev. Charles Constable followed his 
 Reverend brother on the same grounds — ^he expatiated on the un- 
 reasonableness of scepticism, proved a great deal from Paley, and 
 fimote the prisoner with a quotation from Cyril. The next clergyman 
 that spoke was the Rev. Joseph Coltman, he dilated on the laws of 
 pature, the incongruity of the atomic philosophy, and finished with 
 the argumentum ad hominem irresistibly applied. The Rev. W, Gilby 
 then took up the cudgels, he collected all the arguments together, 
 took a cursory view of the practical effects of Deism, spoke strongly 
 against Hobbes and the dogmas of Toland, and wound up his dis- 
 course with asking the prisoner if he would recant or suffer solitary 
 confinement ? The layman then opened the treasures of his learning, 
 though he professed himself unable to add any thing to the masterly 
 arguments of his Magisterial brethren ; but he nevertheless quoted a 
 page of Hermes Trismegistus and dissected the Chaldaic Oracles, and 
 concluded with the twelve categories of Kant and the transcendental 
 syllogisms, with which the dispute on the Magistrates* side was 
 brought to a close. All this time, the Chaplain kept up a running 
 base with ejaculations and appropriate texts ; and the turnkey occa- 
 sionally jogged the sceptics, with a ^' Do you hear, you scoundrels ?" 
 
 When the turn of the opponents arrived, they most unexpectedly 
 brought the disputation to a conclusion by denying the whole charge, 
 and stoutly declaring that they never had said or thought on these 
 subjects as it was supposed, but that on the contrary, they were 
 entirely orthodox. This caused an abundance of denial and asser- 
 tions, the Confessor was appealed to, the Turnkey stared, and the 
 Magistrates were all in confusion. It was concluded however, that 
 finding themselves beat in argument the prisoners had evaded a 
 defeat by a timely denial of the charge, and that victory was there* 
 fore clearly with the Magistrates. With this decision, the disputants'? 
 parted, and the prisoners were dismissed with a severe reprimand[j 
 
 n Z 
 
and warned of^ the danger awaiting them by law if they either stepped 
 out of the line of orthodoxy, or off the wheel of the prison. It is 
 whispered notwithstanding, that a convert of consequence has been 
 gained by the sceptics, and that the Chaplain has quoted Hobbes at 
 a rubber of whist to the amazement of the faithful. " Di meliora 
 pii« I" 
 
 THE KING'S SPEECH TO PARLIAMENT. 
 
 BEL BOWETH. NEBO STOOPETH. The Rag-system is 
 gasping; paper-money is tottering; trade is going to decay ; agri- 
 culture will soon follow ; the Collective is in despair ; Ministers are 
 at fault, and Majesty is in doleful dumps. Such a speech as was sent 
 to Parliament from the Throne the Country never has seen before, 
 St proves, and not unaptly for the season, that we are in the Lent of 
 politics, nothing but sackcloth and ashes now, and a dolorous forty 
 days we shall have ! and many and many another dolorous forty 
 •when they are ended. We are at last come to the great pay-day, we 
 are at last arrived at that period of sobriety and reflection which 
 generally follows surfeit and insolence, we have long enough, like 
 'Milton's sons of Belial, been "high-flown with insolence and wine," 
 and now we must submit to bleeding, emetics, warm-water and 
 camomile tea. 
 
 The great NATIONAL LIE of the Paper-system, a system which 
 on the face of it is a lie and a falsehood, and therefore proceeds from 
 the Devil, who is the father of lies, is now going to be practically 
 confuted, and all those dishonest rogues, who, during the war, dou* 
 bled and trebled the taxes, who proposed loans upon loans, burthen 
 upon burthen, extravagance upon extravagance, who never thought 
 that they could possibly increase the national expenditure sufficiently, 
 and who published felonious pamphlets to prove that the debt might 
 and ovgkt to be increased ad finitum, to keep Napoleon doM'n ; who 
 roared and bullied, and stormed like madmen with their loyalty 
 and their extravagance, and now prove to be the fools as well as the 
 villains that the people liave long sjuspected them to be, and ai'e 
 
brought on their knees to confess their sins, and we hope, to be 
 PUNISHED for them too. The People of England have a very long 
 score to pay off against the Tory faction who have brought tliis 
 misery on the nation, and we need not fear that the time is fast 
 coming when we shall be able to call the traitors to account, and that 
 a certain House will ere long be so reformed that Impeachments will 
 be proposed and carried, nemine contradicente. 
 
 In the mean time let us contemplate the ministerial chapter of 
 lamentations. 
 
 « My Lords and Gentlemen. We are commanded by his Majesty 
 « to inform you, that his Majesty has seen witli regret the embarrass- 
 ** ment which has occurred in the pecuniary transactions of tlie 
 " country, * since the close of the last session of Farliament. This 
 " embarrassment did NOT arise from any political events, either at 
 " home or abroad ; it was NOT produced by any unexpected de- 
 '^ mand upon the public resources, NOR by the apprehension of any 
 " interruption to the general tranquillity. Some of the causes to 
 '^ which this evil must be attributed lie within the reach of direct 
 " Parliamentary interposition, nor can security against the recurrence 
 " of them be found, unless in tlie experience of the sufferings which 
 " they have occasioned. But to a certain portion of this evil, correc*- 
 " tives at least, if not effectual remedies may be applied ; and his 
 " Majesty relies upon your wisdom to devise such measures as may 
 " tend to protect both private and public interests against the like 
 '' sudden and violent fluctuations, by placing on a more (irm founda- 
 " tion the currency and circulating credit of the country. His 
 " Majesty regrets that he has NOT to announce to you the termina- 
 " tion of hostiHties in India, but the operations of the last campaign, 
 "through the bravery of the forces of his Majesty ojulofihc East 
 ^' India Company (brave company !) and the skill and perseverance 
 *' of their commanders (the company's commanders, brave too !) have 
 *' been attended with uniform success, and his Majesty trusts that a 
 ** continuance of the same exertions may LEAD, at no distant period. 
 
 * " There are Persons, who imagine that our ProRperity is not permanent, but 
 '* the Hovise will, I am sure, concur witli me in opinion, that it rests on the vicst 
 '•' solid fou ndai ioiis.''^ Mr. Robinson's Speech, March ltJ25. 
 
 Quaiitum mutatus ab illo ilectore ! ! ! Only 11 months ! 
 
 (Vide Kkctor's Guide, No. 2, page C.) 
 
9^ 
 
 f' to 911 honourable and satisfactory pacification. His Majesty's atten- 
 *' tion has been directed to the consideration of several measures, 
 f recommended in the last session of Parliament for improving the 
 
 *' condition of Ireland,,..., The estimates have been framed 
 
 f' with an anidous desire to avoid every expenditure beyond what 
 
 " the necessary demands of the public service may require 
 
 " His Majesty dce'pli) laments the injurious effects which the late 
 f' pecuniary CRISIS must have entailed upon many branches of the 
 " commerce and manufactures of the United Kingdom : but his 
 ^' Majesty confidently believes that the temporary check which com- 
 " merce and manufactures may at this moment experience, will, 
 f* under the blessing of Divine Providence, neither impair the great 
 " sources of wealthy nor impede the growth of National 
 PROSPERITY ! ! I 
 O King live for ever ! but may thy Ministers perish like the dung on 
 the earth, those witless, miserable, helpless, forlorn, discomfited, and 
 profitless men, who have thus patched up this wretched Speech for the 
 Collective Wisdom of the Nation. But now we begin to comment 
 on Caesar's commentaries; and first we remark, that the Speech 
 begins and ends with tears, he regrets in the first sentence, and deeply 
 laments in the' last, and truly great cause is there for these sighs and 
 sobs and parliamentary hysterics, it is enough to draw iron tears 
 down Pliito's cheek, to think that those brainless Ministers who only 
 eleven months ago advised his Majesty to congratulate thp country 
 on the unexampled national prosperity, should so soon, so very soom 
 be compelled to cpme with a dirge to Parliament, and to shed tears. 
 Royal tears, over the unexampled national ruin ! But mark the mad^ 
 n?ss of ministerial despair, with a war against common sense and 
 plain truth never before seen, the Speech after the introductory sobs 
 begins with three negations, three NOTS,* printed by us in capital 
 letters ! Was there ever such a style of Speech-jnaking heard of since 
 %he world began } — " it is not A, it is not B, it is not C, nor yet is it D, 
 " so you may find opt what it is if you can.".^Surely this is the 
 
 • M^e recommend to the consideration of Canning and the other speech-cooks th§ 
 following Kpitaph on Mrs. Not, a lady of Norwich, who died a few years ago : 
 " Here lies an old woman who's wrapped up in lead, 
 " Who alive was iVf>^ living, defunct was JSot dead, 
 '<• Who though she lies here as flat as a flounder, 
 «* Is Net lying here with the lead all around her," 
 
S5 
 
 first time tliat kings have been advised to talk such Btuff as tliis, and 
 we think it neither wise nor Mi^cil-meant to propose a puzzle to the 
 Collective Wisdom, who will answet " Daviis sum non Qidipus,'* 
 and will be as incapable of solving th« enigma as Majesty itself. 
 The reader will observe, that the second " woe V in the last sentence 
 is introduced to prepare the way for the most extraordinary phrase* 
 *' a pecuniary crisis." A crisis ! What is a crisis .'* Johnson defined 
 a crisis to be, " The point in which the disease KILLS or changes 
 " to the better— the decisive moment when sentence is passed," and 
 adds a quotation from Dryden to illustrate the meaning of the word, 
 which being peculiarly applicable to the present occasion we offer td 
 the consideration of our readers : 
 
 *' fVise leeches will not vain receipts obtrude ; 
 " Deaf to complaints they wait upon the ill, 
 " Till some safe crisis authorize their skill." 
 However, a crisis is a hard word, it Is a fine misty metaphorical 
 phrase, it is difficult to get at, it is much more obscure than " the 
 Rottenness of the Paper system," tlie proper phrase to be used, and 
 being as vague and unreal as the word " Panic," a favorite word with 
 the newspapers of late, is consequently much in vogue. A Panic 
 means a terror created by the God Pan, who was the Deity of Shep- 
 herds, and lived in Arcadia ; we presume that as the God of Shep- 
 herds or Parsons, he creates a universal terror whenever he appears, 
 and that tithes and a panic are synonymous, particularly when 
 attended by the God Apollo, who was a notorious tithe-taker ; but 
 
 ,what the God Pan has to do with Banks and Rags, or how he can 
 ) . . . 
 
 make mankind prefer gold to paper we are at a loss to imagine, in- 
 deed the only explanation we can offer, is, that as he was the God of 
 Sheep, the term is applied by a sort of political pun to the bankers 
 when they look sheepish, a very bad pun we confess, but till a better 
 explanation is offered the public must be content with that which is 
 here suggested. We do not agree with his Majesty in thinking, 
 " that some of the causes of the evil (the crisis or panic) lie within 
 " the reach of Parliamentary interference ;" at least we entirely differ 
 from him, unless he means to hint that Parliament must prepare to 
 cut down the National Debt, a scheme to which the Collective must 
 undoubtedly submit, and which when all other plans have been tried 
 in vain, will be put in execution as the only means of saving the 
 Nation. For the present his Majesty does not wish to suggest this 
 
86 
 
 icheme to Parliament, but what he does wish will be best seen by art 
 extract from a Ministerial Paper. " It will be seen by our reports of 
 *' the proceedings at the Bank meeting, held yesterday (Feb. 3), that 
 '* the great majority of the Proprietors agreed to the terms proposed 
 /* by his Majesty's Ministers. His Majesty's Ministers acting on be- 
 " half of the public, and with a view to place the currency of the 
 *' country on a sure footing, consider that the existing privileges of 
 *' the Bank contained in their charter are injurious to public credit. 
 *' It is conceded by Ministers that within 65 miles of London the 
 " existing privileges of the Bank of England shall continue, but 
 *' beyond that distance the number of partners in a Banking-firm 
 " shall no longer be limited by law to six. The immediate conse- 
 " quence will be that many of the present Banks will extend their 
 " numbers, and those which do not, will, in many instances, be met 
 " by a competition of numerous shareholders. Wlien security is thus 
 *' given to Banking-firms, it will not be easy to spread such a PANIC 
 ^' as that by which the country has lately suffered. The Bank pro^ 
 " priefors in sacrificing so readily their privilege have entitled themselves 
 *' to the thanks of the country." We cannot stop to remark on this 
 precious piece of quackery, beyond the last sentence of thanks. 
 Thanks ! indeed ! O God of Sheep, thou piping Pan, so thy domi- 
 nion is to be at end by the sacrifices of the Bank of England ; and 
 we are to thank the proprietors are we ? but never mind. Pan, for 
 this plan of the Ministers will only make the Panic greater than it 
 was before, of that there can be no doubt, — ^but as for thanking the 
 proprietors we beg to assure them, that if they had not consented, 
 their charter would have been taken from them by Parliament, so 
 that we might as well thank a man that had been robbed on the 
 high-road, for the sacrifices he had made to the gentleman in a black 
 mask, that had put a pistol to his ear ; what villainous trumpery is 
 this then, talking about sacrifices and thanks, what would the poor 
 proprietors have done against Government we should like to know } 
 we all have heard the definition of a charter by an Attorney Gene- 
 ral, " that it is nothing but a bit of parchment with a bit of wax 
 dangling to it," and we shall live yet to see the definition acted on. * 
 
 ' • The sort of thanks owing to the Bank may be calculated from a few words drop- 
 ped at this meeting. "Mr. Randall Jackson, conceived that the Bank had a 
 " ri^ht to consider what they wete about to do before any portion of their privikge* 
 
37 
 
 At this Bank-meeting the Governor of the Bank told the Pl-oprietors, 
 that " no doubt could be entertained that the present Cause of the 
 " difficulties in which the commercial world was involved^ was that 
 *' rash and inconsiderate spirit of speculation which seemed to have 
 " operated on all classes, and to which might be added, the powerful 
 *' auxiliary influence of an unrestrained issue of Country Bank Paper. 
 
 " the only measure that suggested itself to them, was. to 
 
 " reduce the term of the Act which sanctioned the issue of £l. and 
 " £2. notes imtil 1833, to a limited period, and that period might be 
 " fixed at either two or three years." This is the cream and essence 
 of the whole meetiiig, and by it we see at last developed the 
 great scheme of schemes, which ia to put an end to the whole 
 concern, and which will as certainly ruin the nation as if the Bank 
 of England was to break. Let only the Ministers carry this scheme 
 into eifect, (and we tliink Parliament will agree in its usual hind 
 manner to the wishes of the Minister,) and we do most confi- 
 dently assert, and we will stand by v/hat we say, that THE GAME 
 IS UP. Now, O ye Tories, now Stuart Wortley and all the rest 
 of you, stick close by Government this one Session only, vote 
 for them this once and then we need not mind what you can 
 do afterwards: the whole coast will be clear for the Reformers 
 as soon as ever the scheme is put in execution, the Radical days 
 will return a hundred times worse than ever. Wheat will soon be 
 down at 30s. County meetings for Reform will be called as fast 
 as Sheriffs can call them, there will be associations all over tlie 
 kingdom, agriculture and trade ruined both together, the old sys- 
 tem blown down like one of Nash's paper palaces in Regent- 
 Street; and all these liberal clear-sighted Ministers, so praised by 
 themselves and the Whigs, will be turned to the right about, and 
 compelled to retire from the cares and vanities of this world, in some 
 cloister pale or anchorite's solitary cave. Then will the ambrosial 
 Mrs. Hun receive her godlike progeny with maternal consolations, 
 then will he give up jokes and jeers and lay aside his classical quota- 
 tions filched out of indexes, and take to feeding chickens and 
 
 *' were to be surrendered^ they should at all events seek for a further extension of 
 " the term of their charter. The (jJ-overnor in reply said, that the Board of Direc- 
 " tors had not lost sight of tliat consideration for one moment, BUT GOVEKN- 
 « MENT WAS IMPENETRABLE TO ENTREATY." Poor Devils ! 
 
38 
 
 rearing cucumbers, and then will a new race of genators form a new 
 sort of Collective Wisdom and give new laws to a '*■ smiling and 
 " grateful people." Only reflect a little on the insanity of this 
 scheme ! But really it beggars description ; when the country has to 
 pay thirty millions of interest for the national mortgage every yeai-, 
 when we have all our enormous extravagant system to keep up in 
 addition, when we are such a " great trading nation," as the papers 
 say, w^hen we have been living upon nothing but Bank Notes for the 
 last thirty years, when we have seen the country inundated with 
 hundreds of millions of rags printed every year afresh, when we 
 have had a population called into existence by this visionary wealth, 
 when all our vitals and atmosphere have been nothing but rags, rags, 
 rags, and when the mere hint at changing the system has thrown u^ 
 into such terrible confusion, just in this " crisis" come the hberal 
 Ministers and giVp the finishing blow by destroying all the paper, 
 and turning us out to pasture as we can, on gold that does not exist, 
 and on bullion that never can be found 1 Oh, this is delicious ! this 
 is a right end of the whole matter, this is a Revolution with 
 a vengeance and brought about only by Lords, Grandees and Aris- 
 tocrats, no Huhts, no Woolers, no Cartwrights, no popular meetings, 
 and no Dragoons to trample them to death, but scheme-concocting 
 Ministers, addle-paled Statesmen, and plan-inventing Right Honor- 
 ables. All our prayers must be now, that nothing may possibly 
 intervene to prevent the plan, give the Ministers their full swing, 
 let the Opposition be silent, let us all praise and clap them on the 
 back, let us cry them on with loud huzzas and strew the brink of 
 the pit with lilies and roses. But as if this terrible blow on the 
 paper was not sufficient, they have added another plan to prevent a 
 possibility of escape, and have so contrived it, that half the present 
 standing Banks must of necessity be ruined ; for we need not think 
 that " The old established and highly respectable firm of Tag, Rag, 
 and Bobtail" will be able to cope against the legion of speculators 
 that will be let loose on the country as soon as the new act passes, 
 allowing an indefinite number of partners ; no, readers, for when the 
 act is passed you will behold swarms of vermin issuing out of 
 London, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Scotland, with schemes to 
 establish Banks in every Town and County in England, by raising a 
 capital of a million in £lO. shares, which will be bought up by 
 all the tallovz-chandlers, cheese-mongers, sow-gelders, linen-drapers, 
 and barbers, >vho have laid by a little money, and who will then 
 
39 
 
 become rival Bankers of Tag, Rag, and Bobtail, and break them in 
 three weeks. In short, it is complete : we never dared in our most 
 enthusiastic visions to even hope for any thing so grand and com- 
 prehensive, nay, and what is still more important, so rapid in its 
 progress ; for it is not like our old spasms coming for a few months 
 and retiring in two or three years, but the work will begin before 
 this time twelve-month and never stop a moment till it is fim'shed. 
 Trade now keeps going down, down, down — she is sinking like a 
 vessel with an unconquerable leak, and the Government io keep her 
 np is firing a broad-side at her ; but trade is not only going down 
 and fainting, but she is absolutely dying ; and in a short time, a 
 very short time, her twin sister agriculture will begin to sink too, 
 and nothing will restore them. Had Pitt been alive he would 
 exactly have done the opposite of that which the present Ministers 
 are aiming at, he knew the trim of the vessel better, he, the old 
 villainous pilot that weathered the storm, knew well that the crazy 
 old bark could only swim on paper, but that if she ever struck on gold 
 there was an end of the concern, he knew well enough that our present 
 system could only possibly last a given time, that as long as paper 
 could by any means be kept going, so long was his system safe, and 
 though the paper plan would in the end make the Revolution the 
 greater the longer it lasted, yet still it might last his days and much 
 longer too by management t but the present Ministry who are only 
 capable of half reasoning, and who see true enough that the struggle 
 between paper and gold causes the present " crisis," and that as they 
 say, " the unrestrained use of Provincial Paper" is a great reason of 
 the present " Panic"— yet stop there, and never consider the thirty 
 millions interest and the dead weight, and the whole system bom, 
 bred, and nourished by paper, but as if we had no incumbrances, 
 no national debt, no mortgage, and no inexplicable difficulties, they 
 come with an abstract schooUboy theory, and regardless of all 
 the peculiarities of the case, apply the general without attending to 
 the particulars, and run mad with an wnpty notion totally inappli, 
 cable to the present state of the nation. 
 
 But never was there a greater truth than that it is absolutely 
 impossible to execute the proposed scheme without WIPING 
 OUT THE NATIONAL DEBT ; doubtless it will pass through 
 the House, and the usual farce of praise and compliment from both 
 sides win be acted over again, but still it never ccm be carried into 
 
 5 2 
 
40 
 
 execution, no never as long as the v/orld lasts— and it will and must, 
 and nothing can prevent it from giving the final blow to the present 
 crazy, rotten, patched-up, and incurable machine of state. But Oh, 
 the pleasure of pleasures is to think that the blow will be given by 
 
 these very fellows : these fellows who so long have ■ ■■ 
 
 in short, we are afraid of falling into the hands of the Attorney from 
 our excess of joy, and so we will change the subject. 
 
 You will have observed. Readers, that the Ministers with the same 
 love of the NOTS already noticed by us, advised his Majesty to say, 
 '^ he regretted that he had NOT to announce the termination of hos- 
 
 " tilities in India, but the operations," &c. &c ...This, in fact, is 
 
 a terrible affair in India, w^e not only have NOT dethroned the King 
 of Ava, as we have done fifty other dynasties before in India to make 
 fortunes for the Scotchmen that plunder that miserable country, but 
 it is somewhat probable that the King of Ava v/ill dethrone us, and 
 though it will cost the nation several millions of money in the final 
 struggle, and though we shall hear of many a parliamentary ejacula- 
 tion, " trusting that under Providence success will crown the British 
 troops," yet in the end we shall be driven out, and the ancient Kings 
 and Emperors recover their thrones which their families had pos- 
 sessed for seven hundred years, till ousted by the hungi-y sons of 
 Scotland. We have eighty millions of subjects in the East Indies 
 ruled by Attorneys, Clerks, and Adventurers, we have overthrov/n the 
 ancient and splendid dynasties of Akbar and Arungzeeb, of the Car- 
 natic and the Deccan, and with as much right to the East Indies as 
 we have to a horn of the Moon, have superseded the religion of 
 Brahmah and Mahomet, of Buddah and Fo, and established the 
 brilliant faith of Bishop Middleton and the Greek Article, paid by 
 monopolies of pepper, camphor, currie, and cinnamon. The Scotcli 
 are the greatest adepts in the world in the art of dethroning Kings, 
 they dethroned Mary Queen of Scots by rebellion, and sold her 
 grandson to the executioner by perfidy and fraud, tliey ruined the 
 cause of his successor, and for many years were constantly employed 
 in the amiable study of endeavouring to dethrone the House of 
 Hanover, and now hopeless of any farther destruction of Europer,n 
 Kings have taken ship to the East, tliat there they miglit indulge 
 their dethroning propensities without fear of the hangman. Kin^;^dom 
 after kingdom has fallen to pieces before their ** civil officers," 
 Attorneys^ Extortioners, Scotch Usurers. BaiUll«, and Judges, have 
 
41 
 
 swept away regiments of royal persons, the old palaces are deserted, 
 the shrines are pillaged, the tombs stripped, the produce of agricul- 
 ture seized in monopolies, and a vast portion of the world, whose 
 boundaries on one side alone measure 3000 miles, drained dry as hay 
 in shape of taxes, tributes, civil pensions, bounties, presents and 
 prize-money. As soon as ever a Governor- General goes out to India, 
 he discovers with horror, that some Prince or Emperor fifteen hun- 
 dred miles off has tm'ned his cattle out to graze in some pastures 
 within that portion of the world called " British territory," struck 
 with amazement and patriotism, he sends some Scotch commissioners 
 to remonstrate on the grievance, the Scotch commissioners are backed 
 by some Scotch soldiers, and before the cattle can be removed, the 
 British flag, hy way of reprisals, is seen to wave on some hundred- 
 gated city bu-ilt by Oriental Monarchs ten centuries ago. Then begins 
 war, the Emperor fights for his kingdom, his family, and his faith. 
 The war rages on both sides, but European tactics and Scotch fraud 
 are more than a match for Eastern armies, and by dint of cannons, 
 treaties, parchment and blood, the Attorney and the Soldier dethrone 
 the King, and establish the dominion of the Honorable East India 
 Company. Then comes the distribution of plunder. Sir Solomon 
 Swindle, who conducted the expedition receives half a million prize^ 
 money, the Governor-General another half million, and fifty other 
 Scotchmen their hundred thousands ; and the Honorable East India 
 Company gives them in addition large and splendid pensions. This 
 is the whole secret of the government of the East, the same tragedy 
 is playing now, though the King of Ava has fought a good battle and 
 thoroughly drubbed us, with the kind assistance of the cliolera-morbus 
 and the rainy season. When this war first began, so foolishly was it 
 conducted by Lord Amherst, that had the King known the defence- 
 less state of Calcutta and Madras, he might have driven the British 
 for ever from India : but he was not sufficiently informed, and the 
 Governor-General has since collected forces to carry on the w;ir with 
 greater spiritj and we have been informed, '' that the skill and per-. 
 *' severance of the troops have been attended with uniform success, 
 " and that it is hoped a continuance of the same exertions may Icad^ 
 *' at no distant period, to an lionorahle and satisfactory pacification." 
 Honourable indeed ! that is, the King will be dethroned, the civil 
 clhcers will take possession of his dominions, and the prize-money 
 will be distributed according to form. So much for our Christian 
 
. 42 
 
 and pious government. To us however, it la no source of satisfac- 
 tion that so many greedy birds of passage, who come with large 
 cormorant bills from the cold regions of Scotland should fill their 
 capacious bellies with the plunder of ancient kingdoms, and after 
 a few years feeding, return home again laden with the spoils of the 
 East to line their nests with rupees and prize-money. We had rather 
 see the venerable temples guarded by native Princes than by base 
 Attorneys ; we had rather see Nabobs, Chieftains, and Beguins en- 
 joying those realms of luxury, than Cadets and Commissioners glean- 
 ing the fields of rice and sweeping up the countless rupees. Let 
 Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, not boast their many heads and arms in 
 vain, let the Goddess Cali assert her mythological powers, let Mun- 
 moden twang his deadly bow at these pasturing cormorants, and let 
 Suvya assert the rights of dethroned Rajahs and desolate Kings. We 
 have heard these deities much abused by tithe-taking Archdeacons, 
 but if they will in any way lend a helping hand to the glorious work 
 of clipping the wings of the Scotch- Vultures, we will forgive them 
 their idolatries, thank them for the decreased expenditure of our 
 treasury, and pocket the affront with smiling and grateful counte- 
 nances. 
 
 Before this article is concluded, we wish to draw the attention of 
 our readers to the sarcasm and reproof pronounced by his Majesty 
 against the Bankers and all the Rag-merchants, a reproof which, 
 
 though severe, does not appear very well-merited " Nor can 
 
 " security against the recurrence of these evils be found unless in the 
 '^ experience of the sufferings which they have created,'* which in other 
 words means, that the Bankers having let loose the floods of their 
 provincial papers, and the Merchants having traded and specidated 
 on paper alone, on bills and credit, without any real money to back 
 them, must learn henceforward to be more circumspect, and not 
 indulge in this paper and these speculations, of which the danger has 
 lately been so tremendously felt — ^but in the first place, if this royal 
 hint is acted on, it literally will upset one half of the merchants and 
 rag-men without redemption, who have no means w^hatever of going 
 on from day to day without this scheme of ideal riches, who have 
 nothing but paper and bills to keep them above water, and who must 
 either eceisl on rags or on nothing. The system of false money has 
 been so long acted on, and called so many ephemeral speculators into 
 existence, that if you witlidraw the false money and call upon tliein 
 
43 
 
 for some tangible realities, they will not be able to stand a single 
 month against the new plan, so that, in fact, the ministerial scheme is 
 one as replete with ruin as can be devised by wit of man ; bat that 
 Government should rebuke these miserable rag-merchants after hav- 
 ing so long nourished and pampered and praised them, is both unjust 
 and unexpected. The Chancellor of the Exchequer never hinted a 
 word of his disapprobation last March, though he saw these bubble- 
 winged speculators and Bankers driving on their ruinous game hke 
 madmen; nay, with the returns of the increased stamp duties on 
 Provincial Notes before him last March, which he now refers to with 
 anger, and with as complete a knowledge as man could have of the 
 enormous addition to the already enormoils and false money in the 
 Provinces, he not only did not say a word about it last March, but 
 declared it to be his firm opinion, " that our Prosperity rested on the 
 " most solid foundations." Yet naw he says in a rage, that the duties 
 returned on Provincial Notes prove an increase of eight millions of 
 Country-bank paper ! Why did he applaud, and flatter, and rejoice 
 so excessively last March ; why does he find fault, and reprove, and 
 scold so vehemently this Spring? this is neither just nor generous in 
 him, and reminds us of the conduct of Adam to Eve in Milton's 
 
 Paradise Lost, who scolded, and rebuked, and insulted his wife for 
 her ruinous temptation of his virtue, not remembering that he had 
 enjoyed the pleasures of the sin with her, though he was better able 
 than she to resist temptation and give good counsel in such an ex- 
 tremity. In short, the relative situation of the Ministers with the 
 
 Rag-men, and of Adam with Eve is so apposite and striking, that we 
 
 Cannot do better than quote Milton's words on the occasion : 
 " not only tears 
 
 " Rained in their eyes, but high winds worse within 
 
 " Began to rise, high passions, angcry hate, 
 
 " Mistrust J suspicion, discord ; and shook sore 
 
 " Their inward state of mind, calm region once 
 
 *' And full of peace, now tost and turbulent. 
 
 But the Rag-men may well reply to the Ministers in the words of 
 
 Eve. fc 
 
 " Too facile then thou didst not much gainsay, 
 
 *' Nay didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss ; 
 
 " HADST THOU BEEN FIRM AND FIXED IN THY DISSENT 
 
 " Neither had I transgressed nor thou with me." 
 
44 
 
 We observe that young Mr. S. Wortley, (wlio spoke in his dragoon 
 dress,) kept up the same note of reproof and disapprobation, and 
 hurled his maiden eloquence against the Rag-men, when he seconded 
 the address to the throne — in short, abuse of Bankers and Merchants 
 is all the fashion now, and those poor wretches who have lately been 
 so cherished and applauded for their liberality, meet now with nothing 
 but ministerial jeers and ungrateful sarcasms lanced at them from 
 their old friends and acquaintances, who seem determined to ruin 
 them and insult them without mercy. The Opposition have pro- 
 mised not to impede Ministers in any of their liberal plans this Ses- 
 sion, Brougham has given his word on the subject, and every thing 
 is going on in a fair train, every scheme of liberality is to be carried 
 unanimoushj, and Whig and Tory are both to unite in giving the 
 coup-de-grace to the old system and consequently to the National 
 Debt. 
 
 We think there is some slyness in the Whigs in their conduct ; 
 but this we have nothing to do with, though we do consider the 
 Ministers at present as the horse, and the Opposition as the oats and 
 the halter, to take the horse into custody. 
 
 THE KING -OF THE CALMUCKS. 
 
 SINCE our last number strange things have taken place in that 
 wretched region of the world, Russia. Constantino, the heir, ac- 
 cording to primogeniture, to the chieftanship of the Russians, 
 Sclavonians, Calmucks, Tartars, Arimaspians, Yukaghirites, Tungo- 
 sians, Kamskatchkites, Issimites, Anadirians, Ichthyopagites, and 
 Samoiedians, has resigned the chief sheep-skin in favour of his 
 brother Nicholas. The obedient hordes, before the resignation was 
 known, swore allegiance to the true heir, and when the resignation 
 was published, declared that they would adhere to their oath and not 
 submit to the de-facto Chief. A meeting took place in the, army, 
 the Nicholaitanes fired on the Constantinians and conquered them : 
 iaiany poor wretches were shot in the great square of Petersburgh, 
 and Nicholas is now the acknowledged Chief. The Newspapers are 
 
45 
 
 busy at work praising Nicholas as the very best of all possible Chiefs, 
 he has all the cardinal virtues, and Constantine is voted a Philoso- 
 pher or a Monk, who prefers religion, meditation and retirement, to 
 the cares attending on the government of so many barbarians. The 
 fidelity of the Russians to Constantine, and their honourable regard 
 of their oath, is, by all the Ministerial Papers, declared to be the 
 ramifications of a great plot of Freemasons, Illuminati, Radicals and 
 Jacobins, for the purpose of upsetting thrones and altars, and putting 
 an end to social order. In short, it is a Holy Alliance Green Bag, 
 and Nicholas has published a long-winded proclamation praising 
 himself and declaring his intention of punishing the offenders. This 
 is the old joke over again ; beheading, strangling, banislunent and 
 imprisonment, death, torture, confiscation and SOCIAL ORDER. 
 Old Sidmouth may rub his spectacles in his four-thousand-a-year- 
 pension retirement, chuckle over the Newspapers, and smile to see 
 that even the Russians have their circulars. 
 
 It is announced in the papers that the Duke of Wellington is to go 
 as Ambassador to congratulate Nicholas on his having superseded his 
 elder brother, and that a number of young noblemen are to accom- 
 pany his Grace with all the pomp and extravagance attending such 
 royal nonsense. It will probably cost the country ^30,000. whereas 
 a Treasury tallow candle and a pint of train oil saved from the lamps 
 in Downing- Street, would be the most acceptable present to the 
 Russian Chief, and would secure the friendship and attachment of 
 the Russian Nation, more than all oiu* glitter and parade, which they 
 do not understand and heartily despise. 
 
 THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 
 
 Our humble respects to the Mighty unknown. 
 Who is now heard to grumble and mutter and groan ; 
 Who has come to repentance since Constable's stopt, 
 (By whose bills and credit he long time was propt) 
 But who now will be stopt if he walks in the street. 
 By the very first Bailiff he happens to meet. 
 With no one, we trust, but the filthy review 
 To weep for his failure in yellow and blue. 
 
46 
 
 Or Peter Machulloch w]io fills a dull slieet 
 
 With quackery Scottish and paradox neat. 
 
 Who writes for abuses like any old Whig, 
 
 liut for whose base opinions we don't care a fig. 
 
 We're heartily glad that they're squeaking at last. 
 
 And we hope they'll be punished for all that is past ; 
 
 The Mighty unknown for his volumes of stuff. 
 
 Which sneer at all virtue and tyranny puff, 
 
 W^hich revile all that's dear in a patriot's eyes. 
 
 By satire, malignity, libels and lies. 
 
 Who laughs at religion and slanders his kirk 
 
 With the slyness of Hume and the ranting of Burke • 
 
 And who in his two-penny stories loud sings. 
 
 The praises of Bishops, abuses and Kings, 
 
 Were glad that they're fallen : we laugh at the woe 
 
 Of Novelist, Constable, Rubbish and Co. 
 
 And we leave it to Jeffreys, Machulloch and Brougham, 
 
 To Heview and to weep for their laughable doom, 
 
 LINES, 
 
 On the friends of Richard Fountayne Wilson, Esq. having secured a HKARSE and 
 several JMourning Coaches to convey tlie Freeholders from liceds to York, at 
 the ensuing General Election. 
 
 *' Roll on from Leeds to York thou crazy Iiearse ; 
 Roll on, though followed by a people's curse, 
 W^ho in thy pomp of dirty sorrow view 
 Thy filthy trade and fouler party too. 
 Drag off all rottenness, and leave not one 
 Wlio boasts himself to be Corruption's son : 
 Take the base Parson bloated with his spoils. 
 Take the sly l.,awyer spreading spider toils, 
 Take the old Bigot, wlio in some dark s})ot 
 His treasured store of sleeping venom got. 
 
47 
 
 Take the bad Banker and his paper-lies. 
 
 Who rags and wretchedness by reams supphes. 
 
 Take every rogue that makes the people groan. 
 
 For tears, thou cursed car, are all thine own : 
 
 Take taxes, tithes and pensions — let thy wheel 
 
 The o'erwhelming weight of all thy party feel : 
 
 Oh ! take the tallest gibbet thou can get, 
 
 And hang up those that make the Nation's debt, ' ^ 
 
 Exalt them all, that they who love such woe. 
 
 May Haman-like their own sad torture know. 
 
 Then shall those hands that point to thee with scorn. 
 
 Thy rotten sides with garlands green adorn. 
 
 Then shall the merry troop and mazy dance 
 
 Before thy path in chorus gay advance. 
 
 And hail thy groaning wheels where'er they pasa 
 
 To drag to death Corruption's hated mass. 
 
 That on some dunghill it may quickly rot. 
 
 Food for the rats, but by good men forgot*" 
 
 A PARADY ON A SONNET BY WORDSWORTH. 
 
 The Buncombes hare the strangest ways, * 
 As D odd's sad case will prove ;— 
 
 A family which none can praise. 
 And very few can love. 
 
 ■ She dwelt among the untrodden ways, 
 All by the springs of Dove, 
 A maid whom there were none to piaise, 
 And very few to love. 
 
 A violet by a mossy stone 
 
 Half-hidden from the eye, 
 Fair as a star, when only one 
 
 Is shining in the sky. 
 
 She liv'd unknown, and few could know 
 
 AVhen Lucy ceased to be — 
 But she is in her grave, and Oh, 
 
 The difference to me ! 
 
48 
 
 Young Duncombe's like a skulking fox 
 
 Concealed from the eye ; 
 He only breaks the cover when 
 
 He hears the Popish cry. 
 
 His cause is sure to sink we know. 
 
 For it can never swim : 
 He will not be returned — and oh ! 
 
 The difference to him I 
 
 .'i-J : fi..f.::..:\:t SX: 
 
 No, IV, will be published, Saturday , March 4. 
 
 Communicaiions Cpost paid) to the Publisher, are ihanhfvtty received, 
 YOllKy Feb. 18, 1826. 
 
 ii Kentlf«i», PriHt**-* 
 
THE ELECTOR'' S OVSt^E^ 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 A LETTER TO DANIEL SYKES, ESQ* 
 
 ON WEST INDIAN SLAVERY; 
 
 CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT ; 
 
 THE LAST MAN ; 
 
 CONFIDENCE IN BANKS; 
 
 HINTS TO ELECTORS; 
 
 THE PROCEEDINGS IN PABIiIAMENT, 
 
 ^c. Sec ^c, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE 
 
 TREEHOLnERS 
 
 Ot THB 
 
 (SDiir^!^^ (Dig ^<D1B1E<» 
 
 ^ '« ' ' ... ■ ■,...... 
 
 CONDUCTED BY A COMMITTEE OF YORKSHIRE-MEN. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY G, BOLLAND, LOW OVSEGATE; 
 
 AKD SOLD BT BAIKES, LEEDS; THOMAS AND BUNSLEf, DOKCASTER; 
 
 VOBLE, hull; JOHNSON, BEVERLEY; AINSWORTH, SCARBRO' ; 
 
 SMITHSON, MALTON; TURNER, DRIFFIELD; BELL, RICHMOND ; 
 
 DRAKARD AND WILSON, STAMFORD; LYNCH, MANCHESTER; 
 
 ROCLIFFE, LIVERPOOL ; WHITTLE, PRESTON; 
 
 AND MAY BI HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 1826. 
 
THE ELECTORS S GUUDE, 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 DANIEL SYKES, ESQ. M. P. FOR HULL, 
 
 OX WEST INDIAN SLAVERY. 
 
 Sir. 
 
 AS we have seen with pleasure the efforts that you have made both 
 in your own Town and in your place in Parliament on the subject of 
 West Indian Slavery, and as you are in our eyes a worthy, honorable, 
 upright, and honest Representative of a great city in this County, 
 we select you from amongst the other Patriots engaged in this 
 momentous question, as the most proper person to whom we should 
 address our remarks, hoping that even you, though so thoroughly a 
 master of the subject, will listen to some hints we may suggest and 
 perhaps act upon them. 
 
 The question of abolition of Slavery is now drawing towards its 
 close ; and it is probable, that in the present Session the strength of 
 the Abolitionists and the Slave-men will be tried in a grand division, 
 in which we have little doubt that the Abolitionists will gain some- 
 what of a victory ; though in our eyes, they are in great danger of 
 being outwitted by a stratagem, if they cannot be defeated on fair 
 grounds and a manly trial of the question. The efforts that have 
 lately been made all over the kingdom have met with great and un- 
 exampled success in rousing the people to a proper view of the sub- 
 ject ; the Kingdom from one end of it to the other is entirely on the 
 side of the Abolitionists ; not a single hand has been raised against 
 the countless petitions in Towns and Counties, most of the News- 
 papers have joined in their usual way the strongest side, and the 
 vilest of political scoundrels have been content to gain some little 
 applause before they die, by once in their lives joining a liberal party 
 
6 
 
 tvtien s^ipported hy part of the Cabinet. Most of the journals and 
 pamphlets hired by the Slave-men are effectually silenced, and except 
 in the case of a Scotch Newspaper which has received £3,000. for 
 supporting Slavery, the whole tribe of hirelings have been discharged^ 
 and left to sell their pens to any one that would purchase them. One 
 periodical work however, ever true to slavishness and corruption in 
 all its branches, ever whining or bullying on the side of abuses, ever 
 firm to the cause of cruelty, still keeps up its old and well known 
 tune ; and the Quarterly Review left alone in the disgraceful task 
 has lately thrown off its thin disguise of " moderation," and openly 
 and daringly supported the great sin of Slavery by a furious though 
 ministerial pen. The article to which we allude, is said to be written 
 by a member of Government — the fact is, what is called 7iotorious, 
 and as the name of the Author is that of an individual attached to the 
 *' liberal" party in Government, it is enough to rouse the suspicion 
 of the Liberators and to make them doubt the sincerity of him who 
 is at the head of all the Liberal-Corruptionists, the great Deceiver of 
 Deceivers whom we will not name. 
 
 The danger which we. Sir, fear so much, is not in the votes and 
 the violence of the Slave-men; for we feel convinced that the 
 wretches are completely tamed, but we look for mischief from that 
 quarter, where according to the published documents of the Liberators 
 all is security and sunshine. We say published documents, because 
 we know, and you. Sir, know very well, that the private opinions of 
 all the leading persons leagued for the emancipation of mankind are 
 full of suspicion of the apparently friendly, though really inimical 
 intentions of Canning, in whose hands the emancipation has hitherto 
 been imprudently entrusted. Here is all the danger: this is the 
 anchor of hope for the Colonists, that the Liberators should profess 
 to put a thorough confidence in the Minister, with whom arrange- 
 ments have been privately made to defeat the Liberators by pretend- 
 ing to do every thing, and virtually doing nothing. We have no 
 doubt at all that Canning is undermining the Liberators, and though 
 it is the fashion to praise him for his candor and liberality, we are 
 morally certain that he is playing a deep game, and outwitting his 
 admirers by his well known finesse and manoeuvre, of which he is 
 such a consummate master. His conduct to Lord Castlereagh in 
 1 809 will prove what sort of b. friend this sly statesman really is, and 
 there are other considerations which make it almost certain, that h« 
 
must be adverse to the abolition of slavery which he profess to be so 
 anxious to promote. 
 
 The Cabinet is divided into two parties, the Chancellor's and Can- 
 ning's, and these two parties are extremely anxious to get rid of one 
 another whenever an opportunity may offer. The Canning-party 
 prevails in the House of Commons, the Chancellor-party predomi- 
 nates in the House of Lords, the King is supposed to favour the Chan- 
 cellor, but the great mass of voting Tories are on the side of Canning, 
 Huskisson, and all the Liberals as they are called in Government. 
 Now it is manifest to any one able to reason, that if Canning weakens 
 himself materially in the House of Commons, that he will then be out- 
 weighed by the old violent Castlereaghites, and that he must " kick 
 the beam." The Colonists or Slave-men are said to have 180 * votes 
 in the House of Commons, which we, supposing the statement to be 
 exaggerated, will reduce to 100, so that it is manifest beyond all 
 contradiction that Canning cannot afford to lose these hundred plum- 
 pers, who, if they were to turn restive, would open the flood-gates 
 of the Cabinet, and overwhelm Canning and his Liberals with an 
 irresistible incursion of old Corruptionists, rotten Aristocrats, hungry 
 Barons, and avaricious Earls that look upon his plebeian dominion 
 with hatred and contempt. The Minister has no family to support 
 him ; he stands by his wits and is obliged to keep his place by talk- 
 ing; his whole life must be spent in courting friends and soothing 
 enemies, he dare not give himself airs, he cannot terrify men with 
 the pomp and grandeur of his family, he has no cousin Dukes, 
 brother Earls, uncle Marquisses, and brother Bishops to support him 
 in his scrapes and ministerial blunders, he is unable to set the Peer- 
 age by the ears whenever he chooses to make a quarrel, but 
 if he offends his party down he goes like a tree blown up by the 
 roots — " and where he boweth, there he falls down dead," nor will 
 he ever be able to rise again. Is it likely, therefore, that he fVom an 
 abstract Quixotic affection for liberty should run his head into the 
 fire, and jeopardise his place in the Cabinet for the romantic and idle 
 notion of " doing his duty towards God and man ?" Whoever heard 
 
 * In a Jamaica Newspaper, published since the present controversy commenced, 
 much surprise and discontent was expressed at the inaction of the Colonial interest 
 in the House of Commons, where it was asserted confidently, and I doubt not fronj 
 good information, that the Sugar Colonies had " txvo hundred sure votes.'''' 
 
 Stephens's " ilngland Enslaved by her own Colonies." PageC3, 
 
of Canning being romantic and youthful in his virtues ? Who ever 
 dreams that he will lose a hundred votes to prove that he is a good 
 Christian ? 
 
 But vi^hen we know that his own party has lately published Aytir 
 cles in the Quarterly Review directly in favour of Slavery, and 
 fiercely criticising the efforts of the Liberators, why does your 
 party. Sir, still think it expedient to keep up the old deception of 
 confidence and admiration, and why does it pretend to trust when in 
 reality it hates, distrusts, and despises ? The real state of the case 
 is easily explained ; Canning saw, that to preserve his popularity in 
 the House, it was necessary not to oppose the Liberators, and that in 
 order to keep up a certain glare and brilliancy necessary to be con- 
 nected with his name, his apparent march must evidently be in the 
 path of Liberality, if however, he heartily intended to join the 
 Abolitionists, there were a hundred gentlemen all written down in 
 his pocket book who would desert him to a man ; so that the unfor- 
 tunate statesman finding himself between Scylla and Charibdis 
 bethought himself of the old expedient of a middle course, and 
 determined to talk with the Liberators and act with the Colonists ; 
 an expedient which as it has but little novelty to recommend it, 
 might surely have been detected in its origin, and ought to have 
 been detected by a party so acute and alive to a sense of danger, and 
 so well versed in all the intricacies of political deception. Mr. 
 Stephens, however, in his admirable pamphlet lately published, 
 entitled " England enslaved by her own Colonies ;" has thought 
 proper still to use the language of compliment towards the great 
 charlatan of Liberty, and to offer the incense of praise when he ought 
 to have thrown down the gauntlet of defiance. * This is a proof 
 that Canning has completely overreached the Liberators: iliey, to 
 gain the assistance of a few weak minds that will never join in any 
 thing not sanctioned by Government, pretended to be satisfied with 
 
 * " Still the well informed advocates of Reformation were reasonably alarmed. 
 *' Tliei/ did not doubt Mr. Caimhig^s s'lnccvity. The gtncral HhcialUy of his 
 *' principles is not less vvqiicniionuble than his transcer.dent eloquence, and he had 
 *' been an early friend of the Abolition, ilut they saw from this hopde.'^s project 
 '' that he laboured under a gross delusion as to the true state of the (lolorial mind, 
 <* and they knew the formidable influence, both public and private, fiom which 
 *' he would have to unfetter himself, before he could oppose himself eifcctually to 
 *' that storm that he was about to raise in (he colonies, and make his way to liis 
 *V ulterior purpose." Page 6. 
 
the plans of the Minister, and he, to keep them quiet, applauded 
 them for their coolness and tranquillity, praised their prudence and 
 humility, and finished the miserable farce by his Resolutions of 
 May, 1823, which were passed uiianitmusli/. These Resolutions, 
 drawn up in the vaguest manner, promising nothing specific, fixing 
 no time, alluding to no date, naming no place, and pointing out no 
 plan, but breathing only the genuine spirit of delay, deception, 
 fraud, treachery, and dissimulation, met with the cheers of the 
 Slave-holders, and the false smiles of the Liberators. That which 
 pretends to harmonise between black and white is an impossible 
 colour ; and that which is satisfactory to God and to Mammon we 
 know cannot exist, it is therefore evident, that any resolutions agree* 
 able to two such diametrically opposite parties as the Liberators 
 and the Enslavers, must be founded in falsehood, and can be nothing 
 but a fallacy. 
 
 It is the safest way always to apply a general rule to a particular 
 subject — we applied this rule in May, 1 823. and felt certain, that in 
 a short time, the resolutions proposed by the Minister, would ere 
 long, meet with the contempt they deserved. Those resolutions 
 were mere waste paper, if Canning had sung " LulUbalero," it would 
 have been as much to the purpose ; and if Mr. Buxton had done 
 wisely he would have vehemently protested against the false and 
 fallacious measure, and not allowed his party to move their little 
 finger in aid of such gross and filthy dissimulation. 
 
 What have the Liberators gained ? three years have passed away ; 
 nothing whatever has been done to promote emancipation, and time 
 has been wasted, yes, precious, valuable, golden time, in Ministerial 
 messages. Colonial protests, Government documents, and interminable 
 State Papers, only proving what every one knew before. Every 
 moment of delay in emancipating our fellow creatures is a crying 
 and unpardonable sin, and he that by any stratagem, any manoeuvre, 
 or for any selfish motives has contributed to that delay ; he that has 
 but placed a pebble to obstruct the wheels of liberty and justice, he 
 tliat has refused even his good wishes to the great and glorious cause 
 of emancipation, has committed a crime not lightly to be punished 
 by the red right hand of Almighty justice. Three years have 
 passed away, and in that time thousands have closed their eyes in 
 slavery, and thousands have opened them to behold their miserable 
 lot, and see wliat fiends and monisters their fellow creatures are; 
 
10 
 
 and thousands will go out of the world, each of whose particular 
 deutha will be visited in long-enduring condemnation on the head of 
 those that denied them justice, and cheated them of Liberty. 
 
 The excessive and monstrous cruelties practised by the Planters on 
 their Slaves have been published in so many pamphlets lately, that 
 it is needless here to repeat them, nor do we intend to harrow up the 
 feelings of our readers by such painful and disgusting stories, proved 
 by the returns of the Colonies themselves to Government, and not 
 brought to light by the diligence and zeal of the Liberators. As 
 nothing can possibly exceed the barbarity and savageness of the 
 Colonial system, so nothing can surpass the folly and madness of that 
 policy which, by the sacrifice of our national honor and the disgrace 
 of the English name, endeavours to uphold slavery in the West 
 Indies by such an immense loss of British capital and such a profli- 
 gate destruction of human life. In the short space of this article we 
 must necessarily confine ourselves to a few popular facts, and shall 
 therefore for the present lay aside the elaborate and masterly calcula* 
 tions with which we have been favoured by a friend, hoping on some 
 other occasion to give them at length to the public ; but for the pre- 
 sent let it suffice to state, that the upholding of our Sugar Colonies 
 has cost us during the last thirty years a hundred andjifty millions of 
 National Debt, and that Jifty thousand British soldiers have perished 
 in the same time, whose lives have been thrown away to protect those 
 islands of sin and misery from foreign invasion and servile insurrec- 
 tion ! Add to this, that all the horrid waste of men and money is merely 
 to gratify the criminal avarice of eighteen hundred or two thousand 
 individuals, who, because they have many votes in the House con^ 
 trive thus to water their languishing and damnable system by our 
 blood and treasure, and in return repay us with sugar and rum more 
 than twice as dear as we might have them if we were allowed to im» 
 port them from the East Indies ! Of all the jobs and abuses >vith 
 which any country in the world was ever saddled this is the most 
 flagrant, for setting aside the enormity of crime and cruelty of the 
 Sugar Colonies, was it ever heard of in all the Regions of tyranny 
 since the Creation, that eighteen hundred persons should have cost 
 their country one hundred and fifty millions of money, have destroyed 
 iifty thousand of their fellow creatures, and kept eight hundred 
 thousand souls in galling and grinding slavery, and besides all this> 
 have doubled the price of a necessary commodity which might be got 
 
11 
 
 much better at less than half the price ? Wliat is all our empty and 
 tioisy boast about a Mmarchy ? What becomes of the Monarch in 
 such a state of things ? it is nothing but a cruel and unprincipled 
 oligarchy domineering over the souls and persons of their country- 
 men, an oligarchy made up of all the swindlers, tyrants, broken-down 
 attorneys, pimps, whore-masters, jobbers, refugees, and bankrupts 
 that the nation can scrape together ; a set of abandoned and swinish 
 profligates wallowing in the adulterous embraces of black women 
 whose husbands perhaps have been flogged to deatli, whose ears every 
 morning are regaled with the sound of the cart whip, who live amidst 
 wounds, and cries, and tears, who see women-slaves kicked in the 
 open fields in a state of pregnancy by brutal drivers, who witness 
 their slaves eat'mg earth to put an end to their miserable existence, 
 who shoot, hang, and flog to death their slaves witliout trial by Jury, 
 who give a thousand lashes to the backs of the poor wretches in their 
 power, who live in a perpetual state of cruelty and cowardice, whose 
 estates are ruined and mortgaged, whose characters are irretrievably 
 lost, who in vain hedge themselves round with severer and severer 
 laws and heap cruelty upon cruelty, who live with tlie curses of their 
 fellow-creatures, and die in the damnation of Hell. 
 
 Oh righteous Providence ! how long shall these things be? " Lord, 
 how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph ?" 
 We are wearied with seeing these things, we are sick with the long 
 continuance of these hateful and intolerable grievances, and we do 
 hope and trust that the People of England will not permit them to 
 last, but will blot them out of the page of their history. 
 
 It is in vain for a politician to pretend that he is a Liberal, to strut 
 with the title of a Whig, or usurp the name of Reformer, if he is 
 even indifferent on this subject ; but what shall we say to him who 
 is decidedly adverse to emancipation and still pretends that he is 
 a Liberal ? but such there are — and such is Lawyer Scarlett, Lord 
 Fitzwilliam's member for Peterborough, — for he not only has spoken 
 on behalf of the Colonists, but defended the conduct of those that 
 put to death the Missionary Smith:* and why has he done so? 
 
 * The conduct of Charles Wray, Esquire, (sometime Recorder of Hull, and who 
 by extraordinary management was made JMember of the Court to try the :Missionary,) 
 was adverted to in the House, as indeed it has been elsewhere. Scarlett with that 
 everlasting argument of deceit used by every body on all occasions whenever a job 
 is undergoing an investigation, said, that " he never could suppose that any blame 
 
It 
 
 because he has an estate in Jamaica. Cobbett has gomewliere said 
 "I hate Lawyer Scarlett," and we beg to contribute our mite of 
 aversion, an aversion as sincere as ever was known in the bosom of 
 mortals, and which we in vain endeavour to suppress. That mis- 
 chievous and wicked policy which ever is crying up the praises of 
 moderation and gentleness when dealing with villany, has been hard 
 at work lately recommending more gentleness and more moderation 
 to the Liberators, deprecating haste and recommending caution- 
 caution for what ? caution to please the eighteen hundred insolvent 
 debtors that hold eight hundred thousand of their fellow-creatures in 
 slavery and have cost the country a hundred and fifty millions of 
 money ? why be cautious ? whom have we to fear ? what does the 
 nation care for the band of voters ? what are their wicked interests to 
 the nation ? we do not want their votes, we laugh at their miserable 
 party which any where else but in a certain place would only be 
 considered as a liundred individuals voting against the whole nation, 
 they may weigh with a plebeian Minister, but with the great mass of 
 the People they are too contemptible even to be noticed, and let them 
 or indeed any other jobbers be left to the people iruli/ represented, 
 and we should then see how they would be disposed of! Canning 
 takes care to tell us in bis long excuse-making speeches, that it is a 
 question "beset with difficulties," but all honest men know that there 
 is no difficulty in the question, and that the difficulties are felt only 
 by those who are shuffling and acting with duplicity. There are 
 eighteen hundred individuals, contrary to our Religion, our Constitu- 
 tion, our Laws, and the general feeling of the people openly keeping 
 up a system of iniquity and slavery, in order to enrich themselves at 
 the expense of the public ; the People of England plainly demand a 
 speedy and effisctual termination of the system by a short and concise 
 act of Parliament, an act which would easily be carried but for the 
 usual vile Government tricks, that impede all improvement in the 
 
 ** could attach to so respectable a person, who had formerly been a fellow of Trinity 
 *' College, Cambridge," &c. As for that cursed word RESPECTABLE we have 
 already adverted to it on many occasions ; but we cannot help remarking, that Mr. 
 A^'ray never was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge ; tliat he tried for that fat 
 dignity and did not succeed, and that if he had been a fellow we know of no moral 
 phjenomena attached to that luxurious College, which can prevent its fellows from 
 being as great scoundrels as any in Europe — we do not say they are so, indeed, we 
 are sure tliey are not, but there is nothing in their institutions to prevent them from 
 being so, as every body knows who has ever seen the Monastery in question. 
 
13 
 
 country, and it would be hailed with acclamation from one end of the 
 kingdom to the other. What then is the difficulty ? Why the diffi- 
 culty of offending a set of steady voters, and so discomposing the 
 place of an individual in power — this is the whole difficulty, for it is 
 vain and frivolous to urge the loss of property to the ColoiHsts if the 
 Slaves were emancipated, as we all of us have seen with what sum- 
 mary contempt the Ministers treat the interests of Monopolists, though 
 protected by many years of exclusion, and though the removal of that 
 exclusion is sure to end in the ruin and starvation of thousands of 
 unoffending families. The Free-Trade theories lately adopted by the 
 Government have begun with ruining thirty thousand individuals at 
 a blow ; but mind this is only the beginning of the theories, how 
 they will end no mortal can divine, but suppose them to end in ful- 
 filling all the wishes of Government, yet it is manifest that thousands 
 will have perished of want before those wishes can be fulfilled, yes,- 
 thousands of hard working laborious men unsuspecting such a blow, 
 and not only not doing harm but conferring benefits on their country 
 by their productive and useful industry. But here in the case of the 
 West Indian Slaveries, not two thousand persons would be injured 
 (supposing them to be injured) by putting an end to the diabolical 
 system with which they are supported, and at the same time, near a 
 million of unoffending and innocent creatures would be restored to 
 that liberty which God gave them, and man cannot take away from 
 them. If there was but one single individual held in Slavery in the 
 West Indies, we declare without fear of contradiction that every 
 person guilty of holding him in Slavery, ought to 1-ose his estates and 
 be hanged in the bargain, what then is due to those wretches who 
 keep a million Christians in bondage } Not all the laws in the world, 
 nor all the acts of Parliament, nor all the Judges, Lawyers, and 
 Attorneys in the universe can authorise any one to POSSESS A 
 SLAVE ; it is against the laws of nature, the decrees of reason, the 
 will of God, the feeling of the human race, and dictates of plain 
 justice to presume to keep a fellow creature in Slavery, and they that 
 are guilty of the crime should be hunted out of the earth like vermin 
 and wild-beasts. We cannot pause and hesitate on the subject, we 
 might as well doubt that two and two make four, we might as well 
 say that the sun made darkness and that darkness gave light, as en- 
 deavour to palliate the atrocities and injustice of Slavery — it is in vain 
 to fabricate falsehoods about their happy condition, and to tell us that 
 
u 
 
 they eat and drink plentifully, and never are tormented, for suppos* 
 ing such evident lies to be true, it would not the least alter the case, 
 as with all the gold aild silver and luxuries of the universe, a Slave 
 8till has lost his freedom, he has lost his rank of man, he has become 
 a brute, and some one has committed a moral crime against him 
 which nothing can expiate. Nay, moi'eover, it is undoubtedly true, 
 that no one has the power to make himself a Slave to another if he 
 wishes it : if A were to request B to shoot him and B were to comply, 
 B would be tried, condemned, and executed; so if A wishes to make 
 himself a Slave and B complies witli his wishes, B must be punished 
 for the offence just the same as if he had done it against the wishes 
 of A — ^that is the law in England, and the law of nature, consent of 
 the person sinned against does not take away the sin but rather adds 
 to it, if a woman is violated by force she remains morally pure, yet, 
 if she consents, both she and the agent are guilty of a great crime 
 which is only doubled by her consent; thus supposing the false 
 statements of some of the Slave-men to be true, and supposing that 
 the Slaves wished to continue in Slavery, it would only add to the 
 crime, and two parties would be guilty where only one now is 
 accused. But who in the whole world believes the lie of the con- 
 tentment of the Slaves ? who believes Bishop Lipscombe and Chap- 
 lain Bridges, and all the other Slave-men of that abandoned party ? 
 if they are so contented, why then siich nervous fears of insurrection ? 
 why such constant, daily and hourly prophecies of the danger attend- 
 ing any attempt at emancipation? whoever heard of contented 
 persons rising in insurrection against those to whom they owe their 
 comforts ? would Canning and Huskisson and other place-men ever 
 turn seditious as long as they were contented and comfortable ? could 
 you make Lord Liverpool turn restive though Demosthenes himself 
 should preach sedition to him, or would Peel and Plunket run riot 
 though Catiline should harangue them and Brutus make them ora- 
 tions ? No, but hold up a pocket-handkerchief to the oppressed and 
 the starving, do but whistle to the afflicted and the insulted, and you 
 raise bands of patriots difficult to count and still more difficult to 
 conquer. It is not amongst the sleek graziers of Yorkshire, but the 
 starving and persecuted peasantry of Ireland, that you expect sedition 
 and look for a civil war. 
 
 Mark too the staring inconsistencies and folly of tolerating Slavery 
 in our Colonies. — In England a man cannot be a Slaye, and if he lands 
 
15 
 
 a Slave he is free the moment that he puts his foot on our ehore ; 
 and yet we by acts of Parliament license Slavery in a distant country, 
 and authorise that crime to thrive and to encrease, which in tliis 
 country cannot for a moment exist. How can those men who can- 
 not possess a Slave pass a laAV that others may have as many as they 
 please ? how can any one confer a power which he himself does not 
 possess ? and why is that upheld with immense armies, and a vast 
 expenditure, which by the law is to be punished by fine and impri* 
 sonment ? If I were to purchase a slave in England, I should be 
 tried and severely punished, if I were to purchase a thousand slaves 
 in the Colonies, Canning would smile to me and court my acquaint- 
 ance, and if I had three thousand slaves and two seats in Parliament, 
 I should be consulted, flattered, praised, coaxed^ and knighted ; so 
 that a little crime is a great crime, and a great crime is a virtue ! 
 These are the " difficulties" that Canning speaks of, these are the 
 real knots that his ministerial fingers may untie if they can ; as for 
 the other difficulties spoken of by that wily Statesman, they can be 
 cut in a moment by the knife of honesty, an instrument that cannot 
 be too much in the hands of any one that meddles with politics. 
 
 We cannot help noticing the extravagant baseness of that crawling 
 publication, the Quarterly Review, which in advocating Slavery has 
 laid itself open to an attack with its own weapons, which it is im*- 
 possible to parry. That base Review, kept up by Southey, Milman, 
 Goulburn, Bankes, Gifford, and Dean Monk, has chosen from an 
 excessive hatred of two most odious things, liberty and cheapness, 
 to rail at America and all her institutions as containing more cheap 
 liberty than is seen in all the world besides : now one great cause of 
 offence against America has always been, that some of tlie Provinces 
 are loaded with the guilt of Slavery, a guilt whicli the Quarterly 
 declares, renders entirely nugatory all her pretensions to Liberty and 
 all her boast of Freedom. 
 
 This is the burthen of their song, Goulburn and Bankes have 
 repeated it in all the articles on America, and it is now the favourite 
 argument of every Tory that rails against that land of victorious 
 Patriots, a land which ousted George III. of his royalties, and con- 
 quered him uniformly in two long and expensive wars. What then 
 ye Quarterly Scribblers are the boasts of England, why is she called 
 in the ministerial cant of the day " The envy of the world," and the 
 ."admiration of tlie universe.^" — why do we sing Rule Britannia^ 
 
 B 2 
 
16 
 
 " Britons never shall be slaves," why do we prattle about liberty, 
 and constitution, and rights, and the other jargon of our magpie elo- 
 quence, -when we have so many Slaves in our Colonies, kept in 
 slavery merely to please a small faction and to double the price of 
 our sugars ? Away with all these vulgar praises, and these bragging 
 Vauxhall clap-traps, leave all these nauseous and sickening national 
 compliments to the crawling Editors of the London Newspapers, to 
 the birth-day illuminating Tradesmen, to wine-bibbing Aldermen, 
 to Poet-Laureats, to Clerical pamphleteers, and incense-offering 
 Bishops ; for England is not free, England is not to be envied, nor 
 admired, nor praised, nor loved, nor copied ; for she holds man in 
 slavery, she fights and bleeds and pays every year to keep up her 
 slavery, she has helots and bondsmen, and persecuted wretches 
 bleeding witli wounds and broken in their hearts on her list of 
 subjects; her liberty therefore is all hypocrisy, her freedom cant, 
 her rights a deception and a fraud, and her name the jeer and insult 
 of the Universe — all they that pass by wag their heads, they see 
 SHAME written in letters of blood on the forehead of the self- 
 applauding nation, and they hiss and revile where tliey ought to 
 praise and applaud. 
 
 Thanks be to that all-guiding Providence which directs all things 
 in Heaven and Earth, and which at last has chosen that a better day 
 with brighter hopes should shine upon the world, that world so long 
 disgraced and marked for condemnation for the great sin of Slavery, 
 but which now, we trust, is to be expiated of the old offence* 
 
 St. Domingo has recovered her liberty ; St. Domingo was a nation 
 of Slaves, but when the rights of man were published by France, 
 she determined to bear her slavery no longef^ she fought for free- 
 dom, she bled, and she conquered — ye%, she conquered France and 
 England united, beat back our armies, burnt our ships, and killed 
 the enslavers by hundreds and thousands. FORTY THOUSAND 
 of our soldiers and sailors were destroyed in St. Domingo, and 
 EIGHTY MILLIONS of money spent in a war which ended in our 
 shame and disgrace. We were completely, r.bsolutely, and hope- 
 lessly defeated, beaten, trampled on, and crest fallen — and all thia 
 disgrace incurred merely for an abstract love of wickedness, a Quix- 
 otic Knight- Errantry after sin and mischief. We had no more to do 
 with St. Domingo than we have to do viith Pckin, but the emancipa- 
 tion of a nation of Slaves was ccnt-idcrcd a dai»gerou3 precedent. 
 
17 
 
 and merely to quash the precedent we entered into that ruinous and 
 unholy war ! Oh glorious, great, and providence-directed defeat I 
 Oh joyous and wholesome yoke, raised on the spears of Liberty and 
 Justice for us to walk under I Let us remember our disgrace, let us 
 cherish the recollection of our defeat, and not wait like idiots and 
 madmen till we are again conquered and taught wisdom by our 
 Slaves. The time is drawing near when it is absolutely necessary to 
 grant that which cannot be withheld, no man attending to the sign of 
 the times, can expect or even hope that our Colonies will not ere long 
 be emancipated, all therefore that is left to us is to make the best 
 bargain we can, for when the trial of strength ig once begun, all the 
 men and money in the world will be of no avail, the stars will fight 
 in their courses against Sisera, the malignant star of pestilence and 
 death will shed its influence over us, and what the sword hath not 
 eaten the plague will devour. Nor will it be as it was before in the 
 case of St. Domingo, one nation fighting against its oppressors, for our 
 Colonies will have allies in the neighbouring isles, nay, they will 
 have allies in England, and the hands of Government will be palsied 
 by a popular cry and crushed by a powerful host of allies. The old 
 deception of keeping up our Colonies will crumble into dust before 
 truth and publicity, and all the world will see that a war on such an 
 occasion will only be for a handful of men, whose names are kept 
 out of the Gazette by ministerial pampering and national robbery. 
 We have done with the Slave-men, they are degraded mortals whom 
 " we hate right sore, even as though they were our enemies/' they 
 are to be abominated for their notorious vices, loathed for their 
 cruelties, despised for their cowardice, imprisoned for their bank- 
 ruptcy, jeered for their weakness, ridiculed for their impotence, 
 cursed for their sins, and punished for their obstinacy. In no pos- 
 sible case could we be brought to feel the remotest pity for them ; 
 Uiey are guilty of a crime so monstrous and overwhelming, that 
 all arguments wither and fade before the enormity of their offence ; 
 they are the Neros of the world, law and social order are set aside 
 by their execrable tyrannies, and all pre-conceived opinions or 
 systems of submission are weaker than a broken reed, when brought 
 to bear on their outrageous crimes. When Nero died a few faitlvful 
 hands strewed his grave with flowers and watered them with their 
 tears, but what sycophant of sycophants would decorate the tombs 
 of the departed Slave-holders with so much as a single blade c£ 
 
u 
 
 grass, or extort the miserable tribute of a sigh. Speedy may be 
 their dissolution ! and deep their grave ! let them never be heard of 
 again till the day of judgment, or if their memories should be 
 retained for an example to future ages, let them be recorded in thig 
 epitaph, and let no man change a letter of the inscription. 
 
 " Let their children be continually vagabonds, and beg : let them 
 *' seek their bread also out of the desolate places, let the extortions 
 *^ catch all that they have, and let the strangers spoil their labour ; 
 *' let there be none to extend mercy to them ; neither let there be 
 " any to favour their fatherless children. Let their posterity be 
 " cut oif, and in the generation following let their Dame be blotted 
 *^ out. Let them be before the Lrord continually, that he may cut 
 *' off the memory of them from the earth : BECA USE that iheif 
 " remembered not to skew mercy hut persecuted the poor and needy Tnan^ 
 " that they might even slay the broken in heart,'* 
 
 CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT. 
 
 WE write and read on the Catholic Question in Yorkshire as if we 
 were in the Reign of Queen Anne with all the old silly prejudices in 
 full vigor. " A plain Answer to the letter of an English Catholic" 
 printed by Wolstenholme, York, has lately made its appearance : a 
 most wretched and ignorant pamphlet, and so exceedingly absurd 
 that it may safely be said that any work already published on that 
 side of the question will be found to convey more information ; and 
 to tell less lies. It is too feeble to bear a criticism,.--we quote one 
 sentence as a specimen of the dastardly and bigoted style in which it 
 is written. " Here surrounded as they are by, and holding regular 
 *' intercourse with Protestants, all the peculiar features of the Roman 
 *' Catholic Religion are almost lost amongst them. It is true, they 
 *' still retain the forms of their fasts, confessions, and penances ; but 
 *' very few of the better informed amongst them view them in any 
 <' other light than absurd superstitions, which they observe merely 
 '* because their Church enjoins them." (page 11.) This is plain and 
 gheer lying— a direct and positive falsehood asserted on the mer^ 
 
19 
 
 word of the author, and as true as if he was to have accused them of 
 robbing on the high-road — ^but being praised by the Yorkshire 
 Gazette and its clerical assistants we need say no more of it — -Now 
 to some general remarks bearing on the Catholic Question. We hear 
 of superstition, and cruelty, and the wickedness of the Catholic abso- 
 lutions ; but we can find some parallels in the English Church. To 
 begin then with cruelty. Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of York,, 
 and afterwards of Canterbury, a most rigid Protestant, persecuted the 
 Catholics with a fury, and a malevolence rarely surpassed : the fol- 
 lowing letter written when he was Archbishop of York will instruct 
 the Reader, and interest him as coming from a person whose office is 
 now held by a very different character. 
 " To the Lord Treasurer. 
 " My very good Lord, we of the Ecclesiastical Commission here 
 ^' (York) have sent a certificate to my Lords of the Council of our 
 *' proceedings this term. Ojily five persons have been committed for 
 " their ohstinacij to the Papistical Religion. For the number of that 
 '* sect, (thanks be to God) daily diminisheth ; in this Diocess espe- 
 " cially. None of note were committed, saving only your old ac- 
 " quaintance Dr. Vavasour ; wlio hath been tolerated in his own house 
 " in York, almost three quarters of a year. (How kind !) In his 
 " answer made in open judgment, he shewed himself the same 
 *' man which you have known him in his younger years : which 
 " was sophistical, disdainful, and eluding, (confuting) arguments 
 *' with irrision, when he was not able to solute the same by learning, 
 *' His great anchor-hold was in urging the literal sense of Hoc est 
 ** corpus meuniy thereby to prove transubstantiation, which to deny, 
 " saith he, is as great an heresy as to deny consubstantiation, decreed 
 " in the Nicene Council. The diversity was sufficiently declared 
 " unto him by testimonies of the fatliers, sed ipse sibi plaudit. My 
 '' Lord President and I, knowing his disposition to talk, thought it 
 *^ not good to commit the said Dr. Vavasour to the Castle at York, 
 *' where some other like-affected remain prisoners ; but rather to a 
 f solitary prison in the Queen's Castle at Hull, where he shall only 
 /' talk to walls! !! ^and not confute the Archbishop any more.) 
 , " The imprisoned for Religion, in these parts, of late, made sup- 
 «* plication to be enlarged ; seeming as it were to require it, of right, 
 " by the example of enlarging Feck nam, Watson, and other Papists 
 " above. We here are to think that all things done above, are done 
 
20 
 
 *' upon great causes, though the same be to us unknown : but cer- 
 ** tainly my Lord President and I join in opinion, that if such a 
 " general jubilee should be put in use in these parts, a great relapse 
 '* w ould follow soon after. V our Lordship, and other of my Lords 
 '' may consider of it, if such suit should be made. 
 
 ** Thus I take leave of your good Lordship, heartily commending 
 " the same to the Grace of God. 
 
 " Your Lordship's, in Christ, 
 
 " Edm. Ebor." 
 *' York, November 13/' 
 
 Reflect on this a little; Dr. Vavasour was living quietly in his 
 own house, where he was tolerated ; the Archbishop finds him out. 
 Worries him with arguments when he wished to keep quiet, and 
 because he could not confute him, sends him to solitary imprison- 
 ment to Hull, to talk to the walls ! and he finishes the letter announc- 
 ing this act of justice, humanity, honor, and piety, with commending 
 his friend to the Gi-ace of God. We hope we shall not offend our 
 readers when we declare it to be our opinion, that the blessing would 
 be of none effect from such a quarter, and we think all honest men to 
 whatever sect they belong, will agree with us in this opinion. But 
 thus are we nauseated with this deadly cant, and thus have we been 
 misled by the falsehoods of history to imagine that nothing but 
 piety, patience, virtue, and chastity have been ranked on the side of 
 tlie Protestants, while with the Catholics there has been nothing but 
 injustice and cruelty. 
 
 To the superstition of the Church of England we now direct our 
 attention. The Kings of England used formerly to touch persons 
 affli< ted with the scrofula, and there used to be a form of prayer, 
 regularly printed in the Prayer Book for this ludicrous ceremony, which 
 was continued so far down as the Reign of George IL From a Prayer 
 Book, printed in London, by Charles Bell, printer to the Queen's 
 most excellent Majesty, 1709, Cum privilegio, we make the following 
 extract. " The Healing. — Collect.— Prevent us, O Lord, in all our 
 " doings with thy most gracious favor, &c. The gospel for the 
 " .service is written in the l6th Chap, of Saint Mark, beginning at 
 "the 14th verse—part of which is thus, 'In my name they shall 
 *' cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take 
 " up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt 
 
21 
 
 " titem, tJieif shall hjf their Stands (m the sick and tlte^ sJtall recover.-^ 
 '* After the Gospel. Let us Pray. Lord, have mercy upon us — Christ, 
 ^'have mercy upon us — Lord, have mercy upon us — the Lord's 
 *' Prayer — 'Rubric. 2'heii shall the infirm persons j one by one, be pre^ 
 " sented to the Queen upon their knees, and as every one is presefiied, 
 " and while the Queen is laying her hands npon them, and putting the 
 " gold about their necks, the Chaplain that officiates turning himself to 
 *' her Majesty, shall say these words following : God give a blessing 
 " to this work, and grant that these sick persons, on whom the 
 " Queen lays her hands, may recover through Jesus Christ our 
 " Lord. Afler all have been presented the Chaplain shall say, O 
 " Lord, save thy servants. Resp. Who put their trust in thee. Ver. 
 " Send them help from thy holy place. R. And evermore mightily 
 " defend them. V. Help us, O God of our salvation. R. And for 
 " the glory of thy name deliver us, and be merciful unto us sinners, 
 " for thy name's sake. V. O Lord, hear our prayers. R. And let 
 '' our cry come unto thee." — After which follow two prayers and 
 the ceremony ends. So much for our pure and reformed Religion. 
 
 But there are numberless other specimens of this sort, of which 
 we shall occasionally give extracts. In the third of Edward VL who 
 we all know was the most Protestant Prince that ever sat on the 
 throne of England, it was discovered that as tlie State Religion had 
 become pure and reformed, so the ancient Christian practice of ob- 
 serving fasts and seasons of penance was entirely laid aside, and 
 riotous eating of flesh substituted in the place of that abstemiousness 
 which had been enjoined by the Church from the times of the Apos- 
 tles, and observed without interruption till the Reformation. To 
 bring back the old custom, the Protestants thought of a strange devise ; 
 an act of Parliament, which act is not repealed, and therefore is Law. 
 The preamble of this act stated, ** that though it is clear by the word 
 " of God, that there is no day nor kind of meat purer than another^ but 
 '' that all are in themselves alike ; yet many out of sensuality had con- 
 " temned such abstinence as had been formerly used, and since a due 
 *^ abstinence was a mean to virtue, and to subdue men's bodies to 
 " their souls and spirits, and 7vas also necessary to encourage the trade 
 " of f shin g, and for saving of flesh — therefore none, should from the 
 " 1st of May eat flesh on Fridays, Saturdays, Ember-days, in Lent, 
 " or other days that should be declared fish days, under sundry 
 
S2 
 
 " penalties." — ^What glorious caul ! We hope our Readers notice the 
 encouraging the trade of^fish. 
 
 In consequence of this act, dispensations were granted to Lord 
 Admiral Clinton to eat flesh, " together with all others that should 
 *^ eat at his table with him on all fasting days whatsoever"— the same 
 to the Marquis of Winchester ; to John Samford, that he might eat 
 white meat all Lent, and to many others — these dispensations were 
 granted by Edward VL and Cranmer. So that these superstitions 
 of fasting are full as much attadhed to the Church of England as'that 
 of Rome — nay, fasts are enjoined by our Church and never observed, 
 and in good truth we are far too greedy and have too large appetites 
 to submit to such " idolatrous" privations — and it is owing to our 
 aversion to self-denial, that we rail so bitterly against others who have 
 more command over their passions than we have. 
 
 The difference between the two Churches seems to be this, that 
 both have fasts enjoined by their Canonical laws, but only one ob- 
 serves them. The English Clergy, with an ignorance peculiar to 
 them, do not know that fasting is enjoined by their own Church, and 
 moreover rail at the custom as Popish and superstitious — this only 
 proves what a farce the Church of England is in the present day ; 
 what will the Parsons say to this extract ? 
 
 " Leythome Church, North Mundham, Sussex. Copied from the 
 *' Register. Whereas I, Joseph Lister, Clerk, Vicar of N. Mundham, 
 " did give license or dispensation in wrytinge, bearing date the 2d of 
 *' this instant Aprill, to Nathaniel Yeoman, of the said parish, Agnes 
 " his wife, and Mary his daughter, a child about 3 years and 3 
 *' months old, moderately to eatfiesh during eight days, but not any 
 " flesh prohibited by the statute, and sithens that time I am certified ' 
 " under the hand of Mr. Anthony Howes, physician, that it will be a 
 *' hindrance to their health and cure, if the said lycens be not longer 
 " contynued ; therefore I do give them further lycens, until Easter- 
 *' day next, by and with the consent of John Brewster and William 
 " Sumner, Churchwardens of North Mundham aforesaid. In witness 
 " whereof wee have sett our hands the seaventh of Aprill. Anno 
 "Domini 1633. 
 
 " W. Sumner, J. Brewster, J. Lister, Churchwardens." 
 
 (Dallaway's Parochial Topography of Sussex.) 
 
2S 
 
 But if this does not satisfy behold their own Canons ! " Forasmuch 
 " as the ancient Fathers of the Church, led by example of the Apos- 
 '' ties, appointed Prayers and Fasts to be used at tlie solemn ordering 
 *' of Ministers, and to that purpose allotted certain times in which 
 '' only sacred orders might be given or conferred ; we, following 
 " their holy and religious example, do constitute and decree, that no 
 *' Deacons or Ministers be made and ordained, but only upon the Sun^ 
 '^ days immediately following jejunia quatuor iemporum, commonly 
 *' called Ember weeks, appointed in ancient time for prayer and 
 " fasting (purposely for this cause at their first institution) and so 
 " continued at this day in the Church of England." Canon, xxxi. 
 
 We certainly do not wish to indulge in self-applause, or to think 
 ourselves cleverer than our neighbours, but in arguing the Catholic 
 Question, we conceive that we have taken the fair and true course, 
 which was adopted in No. I. Many writers and speakers blink the 
 question, and though tliey say a great deal, they dare not tell the 
 whole truth. They dare not openly and roundly declare their real 
 sentiments, (which sentiments they only profess in private,) on the 
 manifest inutility and great wickedness of the Protestant Church in 
 Ireland. The system of the establishment in our sister Island is of 
 such atrocity and redundant crime, that it behoves every good 
 Christian to lend a helping hand to its speedy, effectual, and radical 
 reformation ; and without this complete revision the Catholic eman- 
 cipation is mere emptiness and shadow of justice : it is the idle 
 gratification of the Aristocracy and the desertion of the People, it is 
 pleasing ten and leaving a thousand in misery and ruin, in short, it 
 is only the twentieth part of what is wanted, and what will some day 
 be TAKEN. In vain do persons console themselves with the notion 
 that all this disturbance will pass away, that it is raised by a few 
 fanatical Priests and starving Irishmen, the former of whom will 
 probably be sent to jail, and the latter will die for want of something 
 to eet; in vain do they declare themselves weary with the contro- 
 versy and sick of the subject, for their sickness must increase and 
 their blood be also taken in the bargain, if they remain unconvinced 
 or refuse to be converted ; and in spite of their tcedium and languor 
 the Catholics will increase, and do mightily increase every day in 
 numbers, vigilance, firmness, and abiUties. They gain upon us with 
 immense odds; we continue where we were in wealth, laziness, 
 pride, and bigotry; we have zeal that consists in railing; power 
 
 c 2 
 
24 
 
 that is made up of indulgencies, emoluments, privileges, and gold ; 
 arguments of which the only force is numerical superiority in the 
 House of Lords ; and no cause for our obstinacy, but a natural love 
 of persecution, increased by the sulkiness that pampering and long- 
 tolerated pre-eminence ever creates. In tlie mean time we are threat- 
 ened with the inevitable dismemberment of half the kingdom, and 
 at a period when every interest of the Nation is at jeopardy from the 
 universal commercial distress, a distress which is tending with rapid 
 strides to national bankruptcy, we make tlie danger inevitable and 
 close the door against retreat, by fomenting and strengthening inter- 
 nal discords and civil broils. 
 
 If a ship was in danger, should we not declare the Captain to be 
 mad, if he were instantly to put half the crew under arrest, and 
 order the other half to flog them whilst the storm was increasing in 
 fury, and the pumps requiring all hands at work } Whoever but a 
 Protestant Bigot, thought that the safety of a Nation consisted in 
 injustice, partiality, and persecution ? Who in his senses can dai*e to 
 say, that civil disabilities and religious insults are wise means of 
 securing the harmony of the kingdom, and binding all rai^ks of 
 society in the bonds of love and patriotism ? 
 
 But it is in vain to offer more argum.ents, to appeal to experience 
 of other countries, to prove and disprove, to confute folly and to 
 expose falsehoods, for more has been said and written on the 
 Catholic Question ten times over than it deserves, and the wit of 
 man has ransacked every region of the moral world to make the case 
 clear for the eyes of the most ignorant and intolerant, and to dispel, 
 if any thing can dispel, the stupidity of our baby politics. We have 
 no hopes whatever of succeeding where success would be most desir- 
 able, and are perfectly certain that the Catholic Question is going to 
 be disposed of in that only way which the state of the country leads 
 all rational men to expect. When the great trial of national patience 
 really arrives, it will make the day of settlement more sad and 
 serious than any Bigot can anticipate ; and though great Avill be the 
 evil, this good at any rate will be derived from it, that it will put an 
 end to the reign of the Bigots, who will never again be tolerated for 
 the mischief they have brought on their country, by tiieir stupidity 
 and wickedness. It is lamentable indeed to reflect on the power of 
 doing harm left in the hand of such a contemptible moral faction as 
 the cries of *' No- Pokier y,".^but the earth is gi^ en into the hands of 
 
25 
 
 the wicked — such ever has been and probably ever will be the case 
 as long as the world is governed in the way it is. 
 
 A Pamphlet has lately been published, entitled " Catholic £man« 
 *^ cipation cahnly considered. London, Rivington, 1825." The motto 
 is a large portion of the Duke of York's speech of gold ! after such a 
 vestibule we may judge of the rest of the edifice, but that all persons 
 may approach it with the reverence due, let it be known, that the 
 Author is said to be a Yorkshire Nobleman, already made conspicu- 
 ous for his " No- Popery" talents. This is the symphony, 
 " Catholic Emancipation, 
 
 " THE UNEXAMPLED PROSPERITY of Great Britain, and the 
 " feeling of SATISFACTION and loyalty which pervades EVERY 
 « CLASSandDEPARTMENT of society, are FACTS alike CHEER- 
 " ING and UNQUESTIONABLE!!! nor is it less evident, that 
 " for this happy union of PROSPERITY and CONTENT we are 
 " mainly indebted, under the blessing of Divine Providence, to the 
 " unrivalled excellence of the British Constitution, and to the WISE 
 " and ABLjE POLICY which has marked the measures of adminis- 
 " tration. But whilst the general aspect of our affairs is MOST 
 '' BRILLIANT and CHEERING, whilst the interests of Agriculture 
 '^ again thrive apace, whilst the demand fpr pur manufactures is daily 
 ^' encreasing, and new avenues are daily opening for theEXTENSION 
 " of our commerce — one ill-fated part of the Empire, &c. &c. 3cc.*' 
 
 How we pity the Lord that wrote this trash ! it is too serious a 
 case for laughter, all we can say, is to recommend that it may 
 speedily be consigned to the " No^ Popery" dunghill from the counters 
 of the York Booksellers, who deem it saleable in this our foolish 
 county, in whose mad and foolish precincts any nonsesne may fincl 
 ready purchasers. 
 
 An Address to the Freeholders has been published by the Rev, 
 Sydney Smith : it is quite needless to recommend it to the Public, 
 the name of the Author and the merits of the work will secure 
 it a host of xeaders, and we feel confident, that all who can be 
 convinced by any ai-guments must be convinced by this masterly 
 production, in which the author has displayed more than his usual 
 abilities. But what shall melt a Bigot's mind ? Alas ! not all the 
 opinions of all the wise men of the world ; and we fear that tlie 
 author has thrown his pearls to swine who would turn and rend him 
 if tlie law allowed them to indulge their inclinations. 
 
26 
 
 THE LAST MAN. 
 
 A ROMANCE called « The Last Man/' has lately been published: 
 it is a very powerful, eloquent, and beautiful story ; full of the sub- 
 lime both in thought and diction, and is decidedly the best Romance 
 in the English language. The story is of occurrences to happen in 
 the year IO9O; and it supposes that all mankind is destroyed by a 
 pestilence, and only one man, the Last Man, remains. But we also 
 have had our vision, we have foreseen what will happen, and thus 
 declare the oracle to the astonished Readers of the Elector's Guide* 
 who when they paid their shilling for this our fourth Number little 
 dreamed that they were to get so much for their money. 
 
 The World will end in the 1100, and the LAST MAN will be the 
 Pope!!! Oh Fountayne Wilson, Oh Billy Duncombe! and oh ye 
 No- Popery Parsons, yes, the Pope!!! Horror, horror, and most 
 horridest horror ! but so it will be, and we tell you how. First of all, 
 before the last days of the last man, such extraordinary things will 
 have happened that it requires the fullest faith of our true disciples 
 to believe them. In England there will have been a new form of 
 Government established, neither a Monarchy, Aristocracy, Oligarchy, 
 nor Republic. It will be called a Minus-cracy (or Minucracy for 
 softness) meaning the government of the Minority, for the world 
 having (after seven thousand years of blunders, folly, misery, wrong- 
 headedness, blindness, quackery, cruelty, tyranny, persecution and 
 madness,) at last discovered that the Majority have uniformly been 
 jn the wTong, will come to the novel though ingenious experiment of 
 following the opinion of the Minority. Thus in the year 2090, when 
 it will be written in the New^spapers that the House divided, and that 
 the numbers^br the motion were ,S70, against it 62, the result will be 
 that the Minority, or the 62 carried the question. Nor is this a bad 
 geheme, for as no man living remembers more than ten cases in a 
 hundred where the Majority has not been in the wrong, it follows 
 that the chances of the Minority being in the right are in the propor- 
 tion of ten to one ! Thus the Minority in opinion will govern the 
 world in all cases, on the principle that it is extremely probable if not 
 certain that thei'e are always more fools than wise men in the world. 
 
27 
 
 go that if you follow the few you follow the wise, if you follow the 
 many you follow the fools. 
 
 War will have been at end long before the year 2090 : and thus at 
 any rate the Minucracians will have less to pay for their whistle than 
 we have. So many flying ships and flying steam- vessels will have 
 been invented that war will be found to be impossible, the experiment 
 will have been tried and a grand steam battle will have been fought 
 in the air between the French and the English, but the impossibility 
 of guarding against an invasion at any time either by day or by night, 
 will have rendered defence impracticable, and as all nations will have 
 the same advantages, all will agree on a perpetual peace from a mere 
 incapacity of doing more mischief than their neighbours. Thus war 
 will end. Peace will bring on all sorts of quackeries ; Religionists 
 will have burnt one another and fought controversial battles till they 
 can fight no more. The Jumpers and Muggletonians will have super- 
 seded the Church of England, and the Dunkers and the Preadamites 
 will be the only sects known in Africa — America will follow Johanna 
 Southcott; and the most powerful, enlightened, brilliant, witty, 
 wise, talented nation in the world will be at Botany Bay, the descend- 
 ants of our present poachers, felons, and prostitutes. The sect of the 
 Malthusians, or the followers of Malthus in his notions on population, 
 will infect all nations to such an extent that all people will at last be 
 of one opinion on that important subject, and so population will 
 cease. The Pope, as matters draw to a close, will begin to stir him- 
 self, his name will be Pius XXX, and though the Quakers and the 
 Ranters will have sadly encroached on Tuscany and Lombardy, yet 
 still he and his conclave will be active and powerful : he will issue 
 several Bulls against the Malthusians, but they will be eluded, 
 despised, or disobeyed, and the evil will daily encrease. When his 
 Holiness perceives that very few Catholics are left from this dreadful 
 celibacy, he will publish an indulgence to all Priests and Bishops to 
 indulge in wedlock or any thing tending to population. This will 
 check the evil for a time, but Malthusianism being epidemic will 
 attack even the Catholic Clergy, and the whole Catholic Body will 
 consist of the Pope, the Cardinals, and one Nunnery. Terrified with 
 the prospects of a solitary Papacy, liis Holiness will compel the Car- 
 dinals to wed the Nuns, but nothing will be the result of the mar- 
 riages, and Pius XXX. will be the last man ! ! ! 
 
28 
 
 So you see Popery beats us at last. But before tlw re%n of the 
 last man ; there will have been a grand carnage of the Unpaid 
 Magistracy all over England ; not one single Justice or Alderman 
 will be left alive ; men will manure their fields with Squires, Par- 
 sons, and Aldermen. The treadmill will have brought this about. 
 The Bank of England Avill take fire, and so many millions of 
 quadrillions of quintillions of rags will afford fuel to the flames, that 
 Thread-needle- Street will set all London in a blaze, and burn it 
 down to the ground. Then will the stocks fall, and surplus Capital, 
 that filthy hag, tumble out of them. Cheap currency will rise like a 
 fiend out of the flames, and burst with a thunder-clap. All Banks 
 will break and such a ruin and a flood take place as the world has 
 never seen. Then a great miracle will take place, GOLD WILL 
 SWIM ! all other things will sink. Then also will two great gorgon 
 monsters. Geometrical Progression and Arithmetical Progression 
 stalk over the earth, eating up every thing they can find, since 
 babies will no more be allowed them. Then will every living soul 
 be on the Parish, and all landed property be in the hands of 
 Overseers to pay poor rates, then will Attorneys be countless as the 
 sands of the sea, till they are cut off by Malthusianism. As things 
 draw very near to a close. Chancery will only take a week to decide 
 a case, this will be the greatest miracle of all, and the cost from 
 beginning to end will only be £ 100 I!! The game-laws will be abo- 
 lished, and men will endeavour to discover, by searching into old 
 manuscripts, what a pheasant was like,; and after all they will decide 
 wrong, and declare it was an extinct species of goose. A great gas 
 company will establish a perpetual moon, by a hundred million 
 shares of £lO. each, somewhere about the value of our present 
 national debt, and Government will send a Lord Lieutenant to the 
 new-moon, who will be a rigid Protestant and allow no Catholics to 
 be lunar gas-men. At last the sinking fund will sink all Europe 
 under the ocean, the Last Man will go to the top of Mount Cimbo- 
 racoa, and with the Elector's Guide in one hand and the Decretals in 
 the other, he will smile at the catastrophe, and pronounce this last 
 sentence 
 
 MERSES PROFUNDO CLARIOR EVENIT. 
 
29 
 
 CONFIDENCE IN BANKS. 
 
 THE Country has been edified of late with public meetings in 
 various Counties, of the " Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry," to support 
 the tottering credit of Banks in their respective districts. We do 
 not wonder at these meetings, they had their origin in the principle 
 of self-preservation; and that they who had all then- fortunes at 
 stake in the struggle of provincial Rags against Gold, should assem- 
 ble in a fright to keep alive the said Rags was natural, though not 
 praise-worthy. The nobility and gentry who attended these meet- 
 ings deserved no more praise than we should give to a drowning man, 
 who should lay hold of a hen-coop to save himself; and we there- 
 fore beg to point out to the derision of our readers the eloquence of 
 tliose Newspapers, London or Provincial, that have praised such 
 meetings, and extolled the " manliness, independence, and gene- 
 rosity" of the gentlemen that composed them. Many, however, who 
 attended the meetings we allude to, so far from having any confidence 
 in the Banks which they agreed to keep going by puffing, had 
 secretly witlidrawn their money, or were sweating at every pore for 
 the result of the run. We have been favoured with an extraordinary 
 illustration of this fact ; for the truth of which we can answer. 
 
 The Bank of Deane and Littlehales, at Winchester, is what is called 
 in the Newspaper- Slang, a highly respectable Bank, that is, it has 
 been long established, its Partners are supposed to rich, it has a 
 large circulation, and has not YET ruined several thousand indivi- 
 duals that are fools enough to trust it: and therefore it is called 
 respectable. This highly respectable Bank is also a most orthodox 
 Bank, it is trusted implicitly by the many Parsons, Deans, Sub- 
 Deans, Archdeacons, Precentors, Prebendaries, Chancellors, Bishops, 
 Acolythes, Rural Deans, and Curates that swarm in that unhappy 
 place; for at Winchester there are two Cathedral establishments, the 
 Cathedral and the College; so that excepting the Universities, there 
 is no city where such a vast number of tithe-takers are to be found. 
 All this sacerdotal hive carry their sweets into the " highly respect- 
 " able Bank" of Deane and Littlehales, which is trusted by College 
 
so 
 
 and Cathedral, and has on its books every l*riest in the neighbour- 
 hood. In short, it is as orthodox as Mortlock's Bank at Cambridge, 
 which, it will be remembered in our second number, was shewn to be 
 supported by a Bishop in person in full pontificals^ * and the Vice- 
 Chancellor of the University, together with all the heads of Houses, 
 Colleges, and Halls. 
 
 The Dean of Winchester, 
 heaHng of a probability of a run on this " most respectable Bank,'* and 
 having a sum of money lodged in the said Bank, was seen at an early 
 hour, before the canonical time of matins and before bell had tolled 
 to prayers, hurrying out of his postern from the cloisters, and pacing 
 with trepidating steps to the door of Messrs. Deane and Littlehales, 
 these most respectable and orthodox Bankers. In a short time it was 
 rumoured that at this morning-call, the very Rev. the Dean had after 
 enthusiastic professions of regard, attachment, confidence, and respect, 
 demanded his money, £600. without delay, which without delay was 
 paid him on the spot, in good and lawful money of Great Britain. 
 Away went the very Reverend, safe, laden, and happy with gold, good 
 gold in his pocket, and as merry and cheerful as a lark to sing his 
 delicious matins of joy and thanksgiving. But mark! that very day, 
 ere those shoes were old, he posted with zealous haste to a meet- 
 ing of the nobility, clergy, and gentry, called together to save the 
 orthodox Bank, and at that very meeting, signed a paper expressing his 
 thorough and entire confidence in the security of the establishment ! 
 Oh, William of Wickham ! and Oh, thou See, which gavest ten 
 Saints and two Cardinals to Rome's Old Church, what do ye say to 
 this? Oh ye Saints, and Cardinals, and Bishops, whose liberality 
 enriched the kingdom, ye were "idolatrous and superstitious," but 
 in these days of " a pure and reformed Religion," what things are 
 done ? No idolatry now, no superstition, but all Cocker's arithmetic, 
 all calculation, and a j)ure and reformed science in buying into funds, 
 consols, three per cents. Bank stock, and India bonds. Paper money 
 and purity, bonds and orthodoxy. Attorneys and faith. Bailiffs and 
 zeal, cheap currency and charity, five per cent interest and brotherly 
 love ! No Popery, my boys, and Protestant Deans for ever ! I ! 
 
 This anecdote will prove to our readers the sort of confidence of 
 
 At Cambridge all Churchmen are obliged to appear in their robes. 
 
SI 
 
 the public meetings convened to save Provincial Rags, and when 
 similar meetings take place, you will join with the Elector's Guide in 
 a hearty laugh at their proceedings, and put as much confidence in 
 their resolutions as you would in the assertions of a wretch dying of 
 the plague, that he had no doubt whatever he was in a perfect sound 
 state of health. In the mean time you will observe, that the funds 
 keep down, they are flickering between 76 and 78, and all manner of 
 bankruptcies are taking place in London and the Provinces. Book.* 
 sellers and grocers failing for half a million, corn-factors ruined, and 
 blessings rising all over the kingdom from the lips of a grateful and 
 happy Peopkj eager to thank the Ministers for this 
 
 UNEXAMPLED NATIONAL PROSPERITY,* 
 
 HINTS TO ELECTORS. 
 
 GENTLEMEN who come to talk nonsense every seventh year to 
 the People, have generally a few frivolous sentences in their mouths, 
 innocent indeed, but exceedingly foolish, — they talk about "con- 
 " stantly upholding their Rights — being of independent principles — 
 '' serving their King and their Country honestly — not tools of any 
 " party — sensible of the high honor," &c. &c. All Candidates say the 
 same things, the people being full of ale are content with what they 
 say, and are too good natured to laugh at Gentlemen for their absur- 
 dity. But as it is certainly expedient to have Representatives who 
 are not born idiots, blockheads^ rogues, pimps, or blacklegs, sup- 
 posing that in all the principal towns of Yorkshire w'e should esta- 
 blish Committees of sober men to put questions to Candidates, and 
 take down their answers. Would it not be a good plan ? and would 
 it not be an easy way of ascertaining the merits of our Representa- 
 tives. 
 
 Let us imagine it to be the general Election: a Committee of 
 
 • It is needless for us to republish the great quantity of failures, ruin, and disma.y 
 in the commercial world, that have appeared in the papers sincd our last. The ship 
 is filling fast ; Alejc^der Baring and the Ministers are to work at the pumps^ 
 
32 
 
 Inquiry sits at the Black Swan; and the Candidate comes to be 
 examined. 
 
 Chairman. — Are you an ignorant, stupid, incompetent, thick- 
 headed, frivolous fool ? 
 
 Sir Long-legs Lubber. — Sir ! 
 
 Chairman. — Are you an ignorant, stupid, incompetent, thick- 
 headed, frivolous fool ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — I am much the same as my neighbours. 
 
 Chairman.— ^Have you ever received any Echication ? 
 
 Sir L. L.—- Yes ; I was sent to Eton when 1 was eleven years old. 
 
 Chairman. — How long did you stay there ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — Seven years, I think. 
 
 Chairman — Where did you go to next ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — To Cambridge. 
 
 Chairman. — What did you learn at Eton ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — I learned nonsense verses. Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, 
 and Terence. 
 
 Chairman.— «What have they written about ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — The wars of the Gods and Goddesses, the intrigues and 
 adulteries of Gods with women and women with men, unnatural 
 crimes, bawdy, profaneness, atheism, and vice of every description. 
 
 Chairman^— .Were you seven years learning this i* 
 
 Sir L. L.— Yes. 
 
 Chairman. — What did you learn at Cambridge ? 
 
 Sir L. L.^More Homer> Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Terence, with 
 the four first books of Euclid- 
 Chairman. — What is Euclid about ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — I never could understand it, but it is about angles, 
 sti-aight lines, circles, and squares : and the letters A. B. C. D. E. F. G. 
 
 Chairman.— -Did you never learn any English History, or Geogra- 
 phy, or Chronology, or the Elements of English Law ^ 
 
 Sir L. L. — Never : they never teach gentlemen those things. 
 
 Chairman. — Then you know nothing at all of the History of your 
 Country ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — Not a word. 
 
 Chairman. — What is the Constitution of England ? 
 
 Sir L. L.— " The wisdom of ancestors, the glory of the universe, 
 **^ and the envy of surrounding nations." 
 . Chairman.— What does it consist of? 
 
Sir L. L. — I don't know. 
 
 Chairman. — Perhaps you don't know that there is no Constitution 
 of England, that it is all a system of words ; that nothing can be shewn 
 on paper respecting it, and that it only exists in the vague theories 
 and fanciful definitions of Lawyers, and Judges whose opinions alter 
 every day, and who make the Constitution just what they please ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — T never knew this. 
 
 Chairman. — What is liberty ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — Something for which they sent people to jail. 
 
 Chairman ^What is the People ? 
 
 SirL.L— The People? 
 
 Chairman.— Yes, the People ; I ask you what is the People? 
 
 Sir L. L.— The Rabble. tor *//f 
 
 Chairman. — What do you mean by ike Rabble f 
 
 Sir L. L. — The lower orders : tag, rag, and bobtail. 
 
 Chairman. — What is the lower orders, or tag, rag, and bobtail ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — ^Why, chimney-sweepers> fish-women, scavengers, and 
 such like. 
 
 Chairman — What brings you into Parliament ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — My money. 
 
 Chairman. — What do you do with your money ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — I give it to my agent, and he spends it in ale, ribbcms, 
 and bribery, and so I get into Pai'liament. 
 
 Chairman What do you consider tlie duty of a Parliament- man ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — To go to the House, to be within call when a division 
 takes place, to take care and always walk to the same side of the 
 house, and to cry hear, hear, hear ! when others do, and to be often 
 at Whites, the Cocoa- Tree, and Tatter sail's ? 
 
 Chairman. — What is the duty of a gentleman ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — To ride well, to shoot well, to have capital horses, ex- 
 cellent wines, a first-rate table, to set spring-guns and man traps, and 
 be very sharp upon poachers. 
 
 Chairman You have often in your speeches talked of your duty 
 
 to yom- King and Country, what do you mean by that ? 
 
 Sir L. L.— Upon my word I harc^y know — ^but it is always said at 
 Elections. 
 
 Chairman. — Then you cannot explain what you mean by your duty 
 to your King and Country ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — No, indeed I caimot. 
 
34 
 
 Chairman. — When you make a speech to the People or the Rabble, 
 you call them " Gentlemen," why do you do so ? 
 
 Sir L. L, — It is the custom to do so, 
 
 Chairman. — Have you any Religion ? 
 
 Sir L. L.-f-Oh yes ! I am a Protestant as by law established. 
 
 Chairman. — Then is your Religion founded on the laws ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — Just so, the law of the land is my rule of faith. 
 
 Chairman. — What is a Dissenter ? 
 
 Sir L. L.— A good-for-nothing scoundrel. 
 
 Chairman.— Are you much attached to the Church ? 
 
 Sir L. L. — Exceedingly : I have two livings in my gift. 
 
 Chairman. — Are you apt to be governed by the Clergy ? 
 
 Sir L. L.— ^Oh no ! by no means— I always find them such d ■■ ' d 
 poachers. 
 
 Chairman.— Oh fie I Sir Long-legs Lubber, you are growing pro-, 
 fane— but we are satisfied with you, we know your politics, morals, 
 education, and religion, and do not wish to trouble you any further. 
 Allow us however to put one more question, after which you may 
 retire : How much money have you brought ? 
 
 Sir L. L.— £7000. in my banker's hands. 
 
 Chairman.^ — Thank you. Sir, you will do for our purpose. 
 
 Sir L. L. — Good morning, gentlemen ! 
 
 Chairman.— Good morning. Sir Long-legs Lubber. 
 
 THE PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 THE great blow has been given. The Banks have received their 
 quietus. The Ministers have met with scarcely any opposition, and 
 all parties are steadily united in effecting the speedy and complete 
 ruin of j^the country. Baring, the great fund-lord, proposed his 
 amendment, " that it is th6 opinion of the House, that in the present 
 " disturbed state of public and private credit, it is not expedient to 
 " take into consideration the Banking system of the country," but 
 his amendment was negatived by a majority of 2 17. The debates 
 on this memorable occasion were of immense length ; there was the 
 
35 
 
 usual nonsense spoken by Honorables and Right Honoriibles, th6 usual 
 metaphors, the usual explanations, and the usual catastrophe of a 
 large majority voting as the Ministers directed. Every speaker had 
 his own view of the subject, each orator was furnished with a t-eceipt, 
 and no man proposed that only measure which could have been of 
 any use in the crisis, and which measure will at last be resorted to i 
 we mean the wiping out the National Debt. It was curious to 
 observe the helpless language and hopeless schemes of Honorables 
 and Right Honorables, Baring's eloquence rang the changes on 
 plethora and stuffing. He repeatedly assured the House, that the 
 Bank of England was " choked tip" to the amount of twenty four 
 millions, by the demands of Government. In humble imitation then 
 of Canning's confusion of metaphors, he observed, that " the Bank 
 " should be set at ease in its transactions with Government : it 
 
 *' should have more elbow-room it should be regarded as the 
 
 " heart of the circulation of the country, and no effort should be 
 *' spared to alter its present imperfect institution." A heart wanting 
 elbow-room ! it is needless and useless to go through his speech — one 
 of his plans was to make silver legal tender. Many members abused 
 the " late speculations," and flogged the Bankers sore for their rash 
 and unprincipled jobbing— this was answered by Banking Honor- 
 ables, who declared, with tears, that they were the most " respectable 
 " men" in the kingdom — Sir John Wrottesley blubbered outright, 
 " the evil might certainly have been incidentally mentioned in the 
 " House, for any mention of it by gentlemen unconnected with the 
 " Government would have been of little consequence. That which 
 *' caused the mischief was, the AUTHORISED statement of the mis- 
 " fortunes, it was that letter, that cruel letter he might call it,— 
 
 (verbosa et grandis epistola venit e Capreis.) 
 " which had been issued from the Treasury — a letter which he should 
 " have almost doubted whether it had issued from the Treasury, had 
 " not some time elapsed without contradiction. " One" of the first 
 "things was to accuse all Country Banks with having fostered, 
 " aided, and abetted the present speculations — ^but he would say the 
 " assertion was most unfounded," &c. &c. Then came the silvery 
 Canning all tinkling with metaphors and bright in rhetorical patch- 
 work — he first stated with many compliments to the Bankers, who 
 he said were well-meaning but erring mortals,—" he believed them 
 " to be an upright body of men— men who had rendered essential 
 
86 
 
 *' services to their country !" Zounds ! '' he would take the 
 
 ** liberty to say that they were as respcctahle as any body of men 
 
 " whatsoever," &c. &c He then talked of "blind guides casting 
 
 " the House on the rocks and tempestuous sea of metallic currency,** 
 
 and in the course of his speech he delivered the following 
 
 sentence, that beats any thing ever uttered by Castlereagh, "Gold 
 " might be adopted as a medium of circulation without trenching 
 " upon the use of the paper currency, or coming in collision with 
 " that article which furnished a much greater resource than either, 
 " in mercantile dealings, namely, bills of exchange. These still 
 " might grow mountains high in the general branches of commercial 
 " business, provided that in the humbler walks their bases were 
 " irrigated with gdld, and that a definite mechanic standard were 
 " framed, to which the country might resort." 
 
 Gentle readers stop a little — 'anatomize all these metaphors ; " a 
 " medium is not to trench on a use, nor to come in collision with an 
 " article — 'bills of exchange are to grow mountains high upon 
 " branches of business, and when the mountains take humble walks 
 " their bottoms are to be irrigated with gold, — and then the country 
 " is to resort to a framed standard" ! ! ! 
 
 Thus it is that this parliamentary charlatan deceives the nation 
 with his absurd and frivolous talk • and a lamentable notion it gives 
 us of the education and understanding of the Honorables and Right 
 Honorabies, who can not only sit in their seats with patience to hear 
 language so contemptible, but can compliment the speaker every 
 night with his talents and eloquence. How Pitt would have grinned 
 a Sardonic laugh to hear the leading statesman of the kingdom 
 spinning false metaphors and school -boy sentences to adorn the 
 hearse of the nation ! What scorn he would have felt for the House 
 that used once to listen to his own really powerful and manly orations 
 with admiration, now reduced to simper at the idle and empty non- 
 sense of Canning! What can be more disgraceful, childish, and 
 effeminate, than the display of prattle such as we have quoted on so 
 solemn and serious an occasion; what can be a more deplorable 
 spectacle, than for a great .nd glorious nation like England to behold 
 the vessel of the state entrusted to the hands of such an unprofitable 
 and shallow politician, who instead of grasping the great subject of 
 the national calamities with the labour and vigor it requires, contents 
 himself with filling up the chinks and cracks of Robinson's schemes 
 
87 
 
 with the faded and flaring flowers of his own rank eloquence ! Can- 
 ning is utterly incapable of understanding the present great question 
 of financial and commercial embarrassments : the whole system of 
 the funds and the paper currency is entirely beyond the reach of his 
 capacity ; he not only never can be made to understand the hard 
 questions of state, but he literally is unable to manage the plainest 
 questions of arithmetic — this is a fact- — ^lie never could master that 
 useful branch of science, and never could conquer those difficulties 
 which any village school-master justly considers the foundation of all 
 that is useful and practical. Canning's talents consist in having at 
 his fingers' end all Jeremy Bentham's rules for using fallacies ; he 
 knows exactly the proper method of concealing the truth by a plau- 
 sibility and of deceiving an honest mind by quirks, specious appear- 
 ances, and logical deceptions. He is a master in the art of Rhetorical 
 Puzzle, he is perfect in the science of Delusion, and covers all his 
 weaknesses with an endless flow of w^ords, a storm of classical allusions 
 (all common-place) and a profusion of metaphors all false and in- 
 applicable, and of similies that bear no resemblance. He might do as 
 an Ambassador, or a Secretary to a Minister^ or a brilliant County- 
 Member — ^lie mJght hold that place in the County of York to which 
 that deplorable man Fountayne Wilson is aspiring, he might be the 
 Deity of Ale-houses and County-Squires, but in the situation which 
 he holds at present he is useless, and from his inutility and plausibility 
 he is also mischievous — and therefore he ought to be dismissed. But 
 he will not YET be dismissed ; the nation is governed by school- 
 boys, and amongst such governors he is very efficient ; he will crack 
 his jokes as long as old England can tolerate a punster at her death- 
 bed, but in the last agonies she v\ ill drive him out, and seek aid of 
 those sound and virtuous men that really can give her consolation. 
 
 In the House of Eords, Lord Liverpool made a much more manly 
 and statesman-like speech than any that was delivered in the Lower 
 House. He avoided all Canning's balderdash sentences ; he brought 
 his proofs to bear directly on the point in question, and was not guilty 
 of that debasing hypocrisy witli which every speaker and every 
 newspaper of late have stamped themselves, of calling the Bankers 
 " a higlily respectable set of men." Nay, he all but called them the 
 villains and rogues which the people now generally call them — hear 
 his words : — " Let their Lordships consider that the poor labourers 
 " were the principal persons w^ho received these small notes. The 
 
 E 
 
88 
 
 f * labourer dould not refuse them, he must take them ot* g&t no Wages ; 
 " he camiot repay the note to the Banker — ^Iie must expend it, to 
 '' supply his weekly and daily wants ; he has no option-^as long as 
 " these notes are in circulation, they will be the medium for paying 
 *' him. If any of their Lordships had been present in a country 
 *' town at the time of the failure of one of these Banks, he would 
 " have seen the extensive and dreadfid misery it produced, and when 
 " they recollected that the number of the Country Banks which had 
 *' recently suspended payment amounted to not fewer than 70 or 80> 
 '^ they could easily imagine the distress and ruin that must have 
 '' ensued. He need make no further appeal to their feelings than by 
 " relating a fact which had occurred, and which must always happen 
 " on the failure of these Banks. Their paper was principally, if not 
 " wholly, in circulation in the immediate neighbourhood of their 
 *^ Banks, and when they suspended payment, the poor labourer who 
 " had no other money but what he received in weekly wages of notes 
 *' of these Banks, was obliged to hawk about those notes, the hard 
 '^ earnings of their labour, and to sell them at 5s. a piece, before he 
 " was able to purchase the common necessaries of life. THIS 
 " GREAT THIS CRYING EVIL could not exist if there was a 
 " metallic currency." (Hear ! hear !) 
 
 If this had been published by the writers of the Elector's Guide all 
 the Bankers would have flown to arms in a rage, and held us up to 
 the execration of the human race, as the greatest incendiaries and 
 Radicals in existence — ^but in these last days of the system, when 
 strange things take place, and when high-born Prime Ministers turn 
 Radicals, the Rag-Squires will take it kindly considering from what 
 quarter it comes, and will, we trust, if they stick to their old roaring 
 loyalty, " highly approve the wisdom and foresight of his Majesty's 
 '* Ministers." — If we had time and space we could fill a hundred 
 pages with anecdotes of domestic ruin and misery, now going on in 
 the County of York alone, and we could heap up such a mass of 
 wretchedness that Lord Liverpool's specimens would appear like a 
 mole-hill to a mountain ; but many of these anecdotes will be known 
 to our readers, and we think that the people of Yorkshire have 
 received practical lectures enough on the folly of trusting to Rags, 
 and we see very plainly that they are now generally adopting a new 
 and wiser system, that cannot but lead to security in the end. One 
 thing however is now certain, that to abuse the HIGHLY RE- 
 
39 
 
 SPECTABLE Banks cannot any longer be considered a sin, since all 
 the Lords and Honorables at Westminster, are ransacking the English 
 language to find words sufficiently severe against these Respectable 
 Gentlemen, and never cease their volleys of parliamentary sarcasms 
 and midnight rebukes, which some of them seem to have cribbed from 
 the Elector's Guide. * 
 
 Lord Liverpool informed the House of Lords, that in the last six 
 years complete, there had been an exportation of ten millions of 
 gold ; seven millions of which was ascertained by the Custom-House, 
 and the other three millions was calculated as the probable sum 
 exported by smugglers and casualties ; he calculated that there wag 
 sixteen millions left in the country, which take it for granted, 
 though it seems overcharged, is not a cheering prospect to the Rag* 
 men, who, we know, by the duties returned on Provincial Notes, had 
 last year increased their paper eight millions : mind, we say increased, 
 and do not include the notes already in circulation before the in* 
 crease. What is to become of the remaining Banks we cannot 
 imagine, now that their pay-day is coming by Law, and that they 
 must pay in gold, which by the Ministerial accounts is so very 
 scarce, but to which scarce article Government is dragging them 
 backwards by the tail, like the oxen into the den of Cacus. 
 
 His Lordship farther said, " There was no fact clearer than this, 
 *^ the cause he would not now stop to enquire ; but the fact was, that 
 " gold and paper could not go together. If Parliament should say 
 " there should be no circulation of paper, there would be none, and 
 " if on the other hand, they said there should be sovereigns, their 
 " direction would be as effectually obeyed as indeed it would if they 
 *' were to direct a circulation of crown pieces, or of any other kind 
 *' of money whatever. But the circulation of paper could never be 
 ^' intermingled with a metallic circulation ; by whatever reasoning 
 '* the fact was proved it was clearly so, and the fact must be the 
 " basis of their determination." Here then is the sentence passed ; 
 Government has determined to put an end to paper, the Country 
 Banks will be dismissed as useless, and many other things of 
 immense importance will take place, which we intend tp explain at 
 
 • We have agents in London, and we know that some of our readers are IM embers 
 of Parliament, whom we endeavour to instruct in true politics in that manner which 
 we thinly suited to Parliamentary capacities. 
 
40 
 
 length in our next number, that our readers may be prepared for the 
 great day that is approaching. 
 
 Since the first agitation of this question in the Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, Government, notwithstanding its splendid shew of bravery 
 and contempt of the commercial world, has from feebleness and 
 indecision been compelled somewhat to draw in its horns, and has 
 conceded two points of great temporary importance : namely, that 
 the Bank of England should be allowed to issue new small notes till 
 October; and that they, the Government, would, without delay, 
 repay the Bank of England, provided it bought up three millions of 
 Exchequer Bills now in the market. By this last step a most im- 
 portant point has been conceded, for though Lord Liverpool and the 
 Ministers have boldly declared that they will not issue Exchequer 
 Bills for the relief of the commercial world, yet, in fact, they have 
 done what is of greater importance : namely, the giving a real and 
 tangible value to these bills which a few days ago were at a dis- 
 count, but which by this new measure bear a premium. The stocks 
 rose immediately when these two measures were announced, and 
 and they will continue up a short time, till the increasing calamities 
 of the country sink them lower by far than ever they have yet been. 
 Let us suppose a case of a Jew in trade, having cautiously avoided 
 all country securities, or bills of any Bankers, from fear of their 
 notorious rottenness, and having well armed himself with Exchequer 
 Bills as a most safe and undoubted security ; the pay-day comes on — . 
 Excheqvier Bills are at discount ; and his sheet-anchor fails him ; 
 nothing but ruin stares him in the face, till the Bank of England 
 comes in and buys up the Exchequer Bills then at discount, bat v.^hieh 
 instantly rise in value, so that instead of being pushed to the wall, 
 the Jew pockets the difference. Unless Government had authorised 
 the Bank to buy up the Exchequer Bills just at the critical period, 
 they would have fallen so rapidly in value, that many of the 
 chief jobbers would have been immediately proclaimed. In the 
 mean time, however, five great thundering Hebrews, who a twelve- 
 month ago could have bought up all Israel from Dan to Beer-Sheba, 
 and who would have made loans either to Solomon or Pharoah, or the 
 King of the Philistines, have be^n annovmced as failing in that 
 which (to them) seems the one thing needful — namely, '^monish :" 
 at this news the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoiced ; not that 
 they who are Christians were glad ut the pergonal Hiii:cries of these 
 
41 
 
 infidels, (one of whom died of what the papers call " an APO- 
 " PLEXY,") but they were right ghid and extremely jocmid that 
 these props of this infernal Jew, jobbhig, swindling, lying, wicked, 
 ruinous and unchristian system have broken down, and fallen to 
 pieces before the great Samson of gold, whose heavy hands make all 
 the swindlers of the money-mai-ket tremble and quake with fear. 
 And truly it behoves all of us who are as yet uncircumcised to be on 
 a merry pin, to say consoling things to one another, to congratulate, 
 and to put on debonnaire countenances, to smile and laugh, to dance 
 and caper with joy at the fall of these five Stock-Kings. Let these 
 infidels henceforward learn not to be so avaricious and greedy of 
 money, let them look at a Book which tells them not to " get treasures 
 " on earth ;" let them learn that unchristian crimes meet with unchris- 
 tian punislmients, and that they who have sinned mightily must suffer 
 mightily. All the papers. Opposition and Ministerial, call these 
 broken Hebrews HIGHLY RESPECTABLE MEN 111 Mercy on 
 us ! What, even these infidel vagabonds highly respectable ! What 
 do these words mean ? So many scoundrels have of late been called 
 " highly respectable," that surely there must be some new meaning 
 to the words, some latent sense which only newspapers understand : 
 how can we call these Jews respectable men, whom we, of the 
 Church of England, think so wicked, that we rank them among 
 " Turks, Infidels, and Heretics/* and pray for their conversion from 
 their sins ? But here again we mark the inconsistency and wicked- 
 ness of the No^ Popery Roarers, who thus patronise those whom their 
 own Scriptures call "wicked men," (Acts ii. 23.) and yet do all in 
 their power to persecute and insult the Catholics, to whom the 
 existence of the Catholic Religion in Evirope is owing at this present 
 time. * But it is right tliat such men should be sufferers in the fall 
 of the Jews. 
 
 From the Jews we come to the Scotch, who have exhibited a, 
 general disposition to rebellion at the mere mention of touching their 
 
 *■ An Act was passed, 20 George IT. cap. 20. in favor of the Jews — " Wheieas 
 *' by an Act made in the seventh year of the Reign cf .lemes I. iniiiulcd, an Act 
 *' that all nuch us are to he nut/irulhi'd or rcsiorcd •n bloody sluill fii st rccc'ivc the 
 *' Sucramcnt o/thc Lvid''s Supper^ every person ^^ho thall apply to be naturalized 
 " by Act of Parliament, being of the age of eighteen year? or upwards, is required 
 *' to take the J^aciament with.in one month before the l\iil for .sv.th naturalization ia 
 " exhibited, whereby many persons of tons'idcrahlc suhsiance prcfessir.g the Jewisli 
 *' Keligion ^r^ preventing fiopi being nutuid.^cd.— bt it; therefore, enacted," &.c. 
 
4^ 
 
 odious Banks, and compelling them to pay in gold ; such an uproar 
 there is now in the ^' Modern Authens mon," as never has been heard 
 of since the days of John Knox or Archbishop Laud. The society of 
 Writers for the Signet, a most influential body, and a highly respecia^ 
 hie set of men, have held their meetings and passed their resolutions, 
 expressing their alarm and horror at the Ministers venturing to make 
 the Scotch Banks stop their issue of paper, they have declared it will 
 be a measure which will be immediately followed by the most ruinous 
 " and widely destructive consequences." — The Town and Council of 
 Edinburgh have also sounded the trumpet, and Commissioners are 
 coming full sail to London to browbeat and bully Ministers, who 
 will find it no easy matter to manage this nation qf systematic rebels 
 and calculating desperadoes. The Scotch are the most resisting, 
 obstinate, and intractable nation under the sun : not that they care 
 for liberty a rush, but the moment that their interests, real or imaginedj, 
 are in danger, they arm themselves with thistles and impudence that 
 nothing can resist. We would lay a wager, and offer great odds too, 
 that the Scotch will beat Government about their Banks ; they have 
 set up their bristles, and when they are once determined, they will 
 defy all the Governments in Europe. It will be amusing to watch 
 the progress of the struggle ; but if we cared for Ministers we should 
 advise them to make a retreat in time, before a solemn league and 
 covenant is proclaimed in " bonnie Scotland," and before the Kirk 
 takes the matter up, and issues a general excommunication against 
 those who shew a suspicion of Scotch Rags. To us it is evident, 
 that English paper and Scotch paper are of equal value ; each Bank; 
 Note of each Kingdom is intrinsically worth two farthings, and not 
 more, and though Scotland has been comparatively free from Bank 
 stoppages the last year, yet we may rest certain that her day will 
 come too in the end, and the same work will take place there, that 
 there has here. To us it is a matter of sublime indifference whetjier 
 the Scotch beat Ministers, or Ministers beat the Scotch— but it will 
 make us laugh to see the struggle, a struggle which will most 
 probably end in the discomfiture of Government. 
 
 More Banks have broken in London, the North Riding Bank has, 
 l^roken, and the last: remaining Bank in Lancashire has " suspended 
 ^' its payments for want of available c?ipital." Lancashire has thus got 
 rid of the great Pest, and we strongly recommend the inhabitants of 
 that County, if ever a new Banker appears there, to hunt him out 
 
43 
 
 with hound and horn, and hue and cry, till lie has left tlieir emah-* 
 dpated borders in peace and quietness. We have very little doaibt 
 that almost all the highly respectable Bankers now standings will, 
 before another twelvemonth, have either dissolved their partnerships, 
 or have become bankrupts, and we are certain that of all the broken 
 ones, not one in twenty will pay more than twelve shillings in the 
 pound. And yet they are highly Respectable men, as all the world 
 knows. In short, we calculate that in about eighteen months from 
 this time, a number of gentlemen of the highest respectablity will 
 be enquiring for Curacies, and turning their thoughts to the Church, 
 that venerable Lady, who receives all the sweepings of Army and 
 Navy with such kindness, and therefore cannot deny admission to 
 men of such high respectability as discharged incurable Bankers. 
 
 A PUBLIC MEETING. 
 
 SCENE : 
 
 The Long Room of a Public-house : benches for a numerous audience. 
 
 Enter from the North, the ancient and Respectable Banking-firm 
 of Tag, Rag, and Bobtail ; from the East, the highly Respectable 
 firm of Plague, Pestilence, and Famine ; from the West, the 
 highly Respectable establishment of Battle, Murder, and Sudden 
 Death. Doctors Puff and Blow, Archdeacon Fleecewell, Dean 
 Proser, and Vicar Squeeze. Ladies — Mrs. Clack, Mrs. Prattle, 
 Miss Cackle, Miss Tattle, Lady Lie, Dowager Lady Dundizzy, 
 Mrs. Snap, Miss Snarl, and several other highly Respectable 
 individuals, some of whom are Hebrews, and many Attorneys. 
 
 Timotheus Tag, Esq. — Ladies and Gentlemen, according to public 
 notice given in all the Provincial Newspapers, a public meeting has 
 been called to take into consideration certain measures to be proposed 
 this day for suppressing the Elector's Guide, a periodical publication ; 
 it therefore only remains for you to name a chairman : I hope I shall 
 not be considered presumptuous if I propose Sir Peter Plague. — 
 Several voices : Sir Peter Plague ! Sir Peter Plague ! Chair ! Chair ! 
 
44 
 
 Sir P. Plague. ---'Ladles and Gentlemen, I accept the high honor 
 you have conferred on me with the deepest feelings of diffidence and 
 bashfulness ;— Ladies and Gentlemen, unaccustomed as I am to public 
 speaking, totally unprovided with a single sentiment on the present 
 occasion, and utterly unfit to address you from ray want both of 
 words and ideas, I nevertheless feel that on the present momentous 
 occasion, 1 should be wanting in the duty I owe to my King and my 
 Country, if I was to be backward in coming forward, or to neglect to 
 shew myself that downright upright man, wiiich I hope I always 
 have proved myself to be. We are this day called together to discuss 
 the periodical publication the Elector's Guide, which in a short time 
 may be said to have done more mischief than any other work that 
 ever proceeded from the press, and which it is our duty if possible to 
 suppress, or at any rate to discountenance : any plan that may be 
 offered I shall be happy to hear canvassed by this highly Respectable 
 Audience. 
 
 Samuel Sudden Death, Esq. — It is needless, Mr. Chairman, to des- 
 cribe to you the Elector's Guide ; we all know it both in its doctrines 
 and its effects ; it is a wicked, seditious, rebellious, tithe-destroying, 
 bank-breaking, villainous, regicidal book ; and moreover, it is very 
 stupid, very dull, totally devoid of wit, reasoning, eloquence, or 
 argument ; it is conducted by a parcel of scape-graces, rascals, 
 radicals, incendiaries, cut-throats, and nionsters : it attacks throne 
 and altar, upsets institutions, and opens the way to universal carnage, 
 plunder, ruin, house-breaking, and rapes. 
 
 Chairman. — Mr. Sudden Death! Mr. Sudden Death ! you forget 
 the ladies — pruy don't let your feelings run away with you. 
 
 Mr. Murder. — I believe my good friend Sudden Death is rather 
 too much agitated to speak calmly; but when I tell you, Mr. Chair- 
 man, that the run upon our Bank was caused by Cobbett and the 
 Elector's Guide, a fact which I know to be true, you may easily 
 imagine how hurt and grieved we feel — indeed, the Elector's Guide 
 is a horridly-monstrous and amazingly infjimous disgusting publica- 
 tion — it is full of wicke:^ness, as we all know. 
 
 Chairman. — But what is to be done ? Do j'-ou propose any thing ? 
 
 Archdeacon Fleecewell. — I propose that we issue a manifesto on the 
 subject, declaring our abliorrence and aversion of its principles, our en- 
 tire confidence in all the highly respectable Banks, our unvarying love 
 of the system of tithes, and our resolution to adhere to Government* 
 
45 
 
 Benjamin Bobtail, Ksq, — Xo ! No ! We will have hotbing to do 
 with Government : Ministers ai*e doing the Bankers ten times more 
 harm than all the publications in the kingdom — I am sick of Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Archdeacon. "—Oh, Mr. Bobtail ! I am shocked ! you who used to 
 be so loyal too ! surely you will not disgrace the highly Respectable 
 Banking establishment of Tag, Rag, and Bobtail, by turning Radical 
 in your difficulties. 
 
 Mr. Bobtail. — Disgrace our firm indeed ! I don't understand your 
 insinuations, Mr Archdeacon ; — and difficulties too ! what difficulties 
 I should like to know ? I know of no difficulties : our Bank is as 
 firm as a rock, stable as the Pyramids, rich as Crcesus' treasury, and 
 cautious as a fox. But this I know, that if some persons could shew 
 as good a title to the confidence of the public as Messrs. Tag, Rag, 
 and Bobtail, we should not see so many ugly red brick buildings 
 with round windows in every village^ 
 
 Archdeacon. — I suppose you mean Dissenters Chapels — but I scorn 
 the insinuation ; and when so much misery has come on the kingdom 
 by the breaking <yf Banks, it is not wise in you,-S!P, to* 
 
 Chairman. — Gentlemen, Gentlemen J pray be quiet. 1 thought we 
 were all friends — what will the enemy say to this squabble ? Mr. 
 Archdeajcon ! Mr. Bobtail ! good &ix&\ my good friends — ^let us have 
 peace I beseech you — come, come. Gentlemen — ^let us to business. 
 
 Dr. Pnff- — I second the motion ; and to bring matters to an issue,. 
 I propose the following address to tlie public : — " In this momentous 
 '* crisis, when die country is inundated with publications of a dan- 
 " gerous tendency, when public confidence is withdrawn from those 
 " highly Respectable individuals who have solongand justly merited 
 ffAt-^when" .... .^^ — 
 
 Chairma?i.r-^^\'ith. your permission. Dr. Puff, I will just read a 
 letter that has been handed to me-^I will not interrupt you a moment 
 — " Dear Plague-^you will be sorry to' hear that the ancient and 
 *' liighly Respectable Banking establishment in Lothbury, Loudon, of 
 " Quicksand, Swallow, and jQuicksand, has tliis morning suspended 
 " its paymentS"-4 write you this by a sure hand, knowing that all 
 " your bills are drawn on this house" — Zounds!!! the game's up 
 with us — there Pestilence read that, and hand it to Famine — Ladiea 
 and Gentlemen, I wish you good morning. (Exit. J 
 
 Several voices. — Mr. Bobtail, take the chair ! 
 
 • F 
 
46 
 
 Mr. Bobtail. — I fear sometliing- lias gone wrong with Sir Peter and 
 his friends, they have decamped so suddenly — ^but I beg. Dr. PufF, 
 you will proceed. 
 
 Dr. Puff reads — ."when that turbulent Popish faction is making 
 " such great aggressions on the Constitution — when" 
 
 A voice calls at the door. — Is Mr. Bobtail in the house? where is - 
 Mr. Tag, and where is Mr. Rag ? there is a run on their Bank, and 
 the clerks have sent all over to find them. 
 
 CExeunt Tag, Rag, and Bobtail.) 
 
 Archdeacon. — Dr. PufF, our audience diminishes very rapidly — I 
 question whether it would not be as well to omit " our confidence 
 *'in these highly Respectable individuals" — it will only make us 
 look ridiculous — supposing we stick to tithes — (a letter is handed to 
 the Archdeacon — reads,) "Dear Fleecewell, you will be happy to 
 ** hear that our old school-fellow. Dean Stuff, died last night of the 
 '' gout in his stomach — by his death the valuable living of Humble- 
 " down-cum-Brambletwiggs is now vacant — it is in your neighbour- 
 
 " hood, and is in the gift of Chancery" Oh ! Oh ! Do you hear 
 
 this. Blow and PufF — I suppose we shall set ofF to London on the 
 same errand now. 
 
 Puff^ and Blow. — I am sure I shall. 
 
 (Exeunt Archdeaconj Puff and Bhiv.) 
 
 Mr. Sudden Death. — Battle and Murder, I have just heard that 
 there is a run on our Bank too — we had better be ofF. 
 
 (Exeunt Battle, Murder, and Sudden Death. J 
 
 Solomon Snake, the Attorney — Ladies ! I fear that nothing can be 
 done of any consequence to day ; if any Lady has any thing to sug- 
 gest, I shall be happy to execute her orders — ^but I fear from the 
 want of public confidence at present in these highly Respectable 
 individuals who have just honoured us with their presence, that the 
 meeting was not well timed, and perhaps may do more harm than 
 good. I suppose we must pass a vote of thanks, as a matter of 
 course, to Sir Peter Plague, for his able and impartial conduct in the 
 chair ; and generally express our regret that public confidence should 
 be withdrawn from such highly Respectable individuals. 
 
 Ladies. — Oh, by all meins ! such highly Respectable individuals 
 certainly deserve our warmest thanks, &c. &c. &:c. 
 
 (Exeunt Ladies, Jews, and Attorneys.) 
 
47 
 
 A SHORT LETTER TO AN 
 OBSCURE INDIVIDUAL AT SHEFFIELD. 
 
 Obscure Sir, 
 The following Placard has been posted up all over the West 
 Riding. 
 
 " Sheffield Banks. At a most numerous and HIGHLY RE- 
 SPECTABLE Meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town and Neigh- 
 bourhood of Sheffield, many hundreds of whom could not gain 
 admission into the Room, held at the Town-Hall, on the call of the 
 Master Cutler, occasioned by an unusual and wiwarrantahle run on 
 the Banks, during the week. Henry Moorhouse, Esq. Master Cutler^ 
 it the Chair. It was resolved unanimously, with the exception of 
 ONE OBSCURE INDIVIDUAL, that this meeting learns with 
 great surprise and concern, that an unusual demand has been made 
 during the week, on the Banking establishments of the Town, not- 
 withstanding the confidence in their stability, which was unanimously 
 expressed and promptly acted upon by the inhabitants of the Town 
 and Neighbourhood, in December last. That no substantial reason 
 exists for the Town or Neighbourhood withdrawing the same confi- 
 dence from the Banks here, which these HIGHLY RESPECT- 
 ABLE establishments have ever before obtained ; and we the under- 
 signed, therefore declare our unaltered determination to take their 
 Notes in payment as usual. That this meeting contemplates with the 
 greatest alarm, the stagnation to business, and distress among all 
 classes of people here, which would be occasioned by our Banks 
 immediately discontinuing the issue of their Notes ; a plan which 
 these establishments, it is conjectured, will perceive it to be their 
 interest and duty to adopt, if the present ILL-JUDGED, UNREA- 
 SONABLE, and UNFOUNDED PANIC do not subside !! ! That 
 the Sheffield Banks and Rotherham Bank be respectfully requested 
 by this meeting, to continue the issuing of their small Notes as 
 heretofore; on the assurance that the inhabitants of the Town and 
 
 F 2 
 
48 
 
 Neighbourhood^ will continue their unabated confidence in tlie honor, 
 iniegril?/j a.nd perfect competence of the gentlemen ^vho are partners in 
 the same. 
 
 Signed, H. MOORHOUSE, Master Cutler/* 
 
 and by a thousand other names. So here we have a tolerably large 
 majority, of a thousand to one, but according to the invariable rule 
 that is almost always true, the greater majority the more certain is 
 the minority of being in the right. You, doubtless. Obscure Sir, 
 who dissented from the thousand, quoted all those arguments that 
 have so often appeared in the Elector's Guide, and tried to persuade 
 your countrymen of their folly and madness in calling such meetings 
 together; but were overcome by the clamour and hisses of the 
 majority. This, however, will not deter you from doing your duty ; 
 you will keep quiet, you will read the Elector's Guide, make your 
 own comments, wait the event of six months, and we will answer for 
 it, that you will see the highlij Respeciahle Thousand Gentlemen com^^ 
 pelled to acknowledge that you were right. 
 
 Yours respectfully. 
 
 The Elector's Guide, 
 York, Feb. 28. 
 
 FOR THE ELECTOR'S GUIDE. 
 
 IMPROMPTU, 
 ON THE DEATH OF THE NO-FOPEIIV CRV. 
 
 There was a cry, some ancient people say. 
 Long pass'd (but every dog will have its day 
 Pray was this " Popery" a lianker. Sir, 
 Who stopping payment mdde so great a htir ? 
 
49 
 
 ' WJC ITMbERStAlJ^D THAT THE FOLXOWINa ANSWER WAS WRITTEN BY A 
 
 MAGISTRATE OF THE EAST RIDING 
 To a Letter soliciting his Vote and Interest for a '* No-Fopery" Candidate, 
 
 Sir, 
 I HAVE the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter requesting my vote 
 and interest at the next General Election in favour of your friend, my declining to 
 comply with your request, you, I trust, attribute to public motives alone. 
 
 Your friend has, I understand, been prevailed upon to offer himself as a Candidate 
 lay a party, a great portion of which consists of Clergymen, and who exact a pledge 
 that he will not " in any case"* consent to a farther accession of power to the Roman 
 Catholics; not being aware that they now enjoy any power, I do not exactly per- 
 ceive how they can obtain a '-'■ farther accession.'* But be this as it may, it does 
 not appear to me a proof either of good sense or of a proper Christian feeling to 
 require a pledge from any man, that he will not, under any circumstances^ cease to 
 withhold all civil rights to a large portion of his fellow subjects. 
 
 It has ever appeared to me, that our Test Laws were calculated to introduce 
 hypocrites into offices of trust and to exclude conscientious persons, because the 
 former will take any Test that may be imposed, and profess whatever religion is 
 upheld by bounties or monopoly, 
 
 I believe, th9,t were Catholics and Protestants to mix more together in public life, 
 sentiments of more Christian charity and mutual esteem would be the result, much to 
 the advantage of both parties; I mean of the Laity, for it would certahily tend to lessen 
 the influence of their respective Clergy. When I consider that the two most disgraceful 
 riots wliich have occurred in England in the memory of persons now living,! mean that 
 in London in the year 1780, and the other at Birmingham, 1783, were raised by the 
 cry of " the Church is in danger." I cannot help fearing that the cry of " No- 
 Popery" now thought so useful for electioneering purposes, may be productive of 
 consequences not now contemplated by the promoters of it. That " the Church is 
 in danger," I am ready to admit, but it appears to me that this danger arises more 
 from the want of discipline in her own ranks, than from the strength of the enemy, 
 I am led the more to this conclusion from the state of my own Parish, containing 
 nearly one thousand persons, in which theie now resides neither 'N'^icar nor Curate, 
 and service only once a fortnight ; of nine Parishes contiguous to this there is only 
 one in which any Clergyman is now resident. Should your friend obtain the object 
 of his wishes, he will have an opportunity of shewing his zeal for the real interest of 
 the Church and of Religion, by moving for an A ct to abolish all pluralities, to 
 enforce constant residence, and to provide that f-'ervice be performed in all Churches 
 twice every Sunday, as enjoined by the Canons, which every Clergyman is stcorn to 
 comply with at the time of his Ordination. This would be a legitimate mode of 
 rescuing the Church from danger, and ensure him the approbation of his Country, 
 
 I have ili£ honor lo be, &c. 
 
50 
 
 WE understand that the Layman and two or three Clerical Magistrate* 
 intend to throw up their commissionn for an imagined loss of dignity sustained in 
 the article, " Protestant Confessor," No. III.—" tantsene animis ccelestibus irse?" 
 "We had no notion that the Justices had such very delicate skins ; but to pre- 
 vent a stagnation of justice we assure these honorable men that the subject matter of 
 the Prisoner's examination was a mere hadinage^ and that the conversation attributed 
 to them did not take place. They never could have argued half so cleverly as we 
 described them to have done ; the Prisoner was reprimanded and dismissed. We 
 hope this will mollify them. Surely they will some day " die of a rose in aromatic 
 pain." Would that the Lord Chancellor, from whom they derive their commissions, 
 was as sensitive and full of feeling. — we would lash him with scorpions in every num* 
 ber, and make him grin with pain — but the old fellow is too tough and too long 
 inured to thumping — the shell of his mind is all horn and adamant. Our jokea 
 were aimed at the Confessor, but it seems we have shot at a pigeon and killed a 
 ^row.. 
 
 NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
 
 We shall consider the letter of the Knareshro^ Catholic, 
 
 The " Contributor to the County Rates of the East Riding" is 
 received, perhaps we may make an extract from his letter. 
 
 We dare not on any account j^ublish the letter to Fountayne 
 Wilson/-^he must be allowed time to recover from No. II. he has been 
 taking tonics ever since — his friends are all cofisoling him. But the 
 letter forwarded to us is all libel: if the rvriter will privately give 
 his name, atid answer for the consequences, we woidd extract the facts 
 .—that is all ive can say. We recommend correspondents to consult an 
 Attorney : we keep two constantly on pay. 
 
 We have received *Uhe Secrets of th& Manchester Luiiatic 
 Asylum" but we require names of all the parties concerned. 
 
 A THIRD EDITION of No. I. 
 on the " Catholic Question" will speedily be published. 
 
 No, V, will be published, Saturday, March 1 8. 
 
 Communications ("post paid) to the Publisher, are thankfully received, 
 YORK, March '^, 1826, 
 
 J. KcndiF^-, Printer. 
 
TBE BLECTOR^S &UMDE. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 ▲N ADDRESS TO TH£ 
 
 SUFFERING PEOPLE OF ENGLAND; 
 SLAVERY; 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 SIR JOHN BAYLEV, KNT. 
 
 BANKS ; 
 
 THE 
 
 FliOTESTAlNT €MAMFI©Mj 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE 
 
 FREEHOLDERS 
 
 OF THB 
 
 CONDUCTED BY A COMMITTEE OF YORKSHIRE -MEN. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY G. BOLLAND, LOW OUSEGATE ; 
 
 AMD SOLD BY LANGDALE, KKARESBRO' ; BAINES, LEEDS; HOLMES, SHEF' 
 
 rLELD; THOMAS AND HUNSLEY, DONCASTER; KOBLE, HULL; JOHKSON, 
 
 BEVERLEY; AINSWORTH, SCARBRO' ; SMITHSON, MALTON ; TURNER, 
 
 DRIFFIELD; BELL, RICHMOND ; DRAKARD AND WILSON, STAMFORD; 
 
 LYNCH, MANCHESTER; ROCLIFFE, LIVERPOOL; WHITTLE, 
 
 PRESTON; KEATING AND BROWN; AND BOOKER, LOy'> 
 
 DON ; AND MAY BE HAD OF ALL BOOKS£X:L£BS. 
 
 1826- 
 
THE ELECTOR'S aUinE, 
 
 AN ADDRES3 TO THE 
 
 SUFFERING PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 
 And particularly lo tae Ruined Worhng^Classes of Yorkshire. 
 
 bellow ^uffei'eis! 
 THE fifth number of the Elector's Guide will be found to contain 
 more important matter than any that has yet been published, and we 
 have purposely delayed this letter, till the principles which we have 
 hitherto divulged had secured that attention which we were sure they 
 merited, and which the malignity and rage of our enemies have in 
 vain endeavoured to prevent. The Elector's Guide has met with un- 
 expected success. We never at all imagined that we should have been 
 so amply rewarded by the approbation of the people, we never dreamed 
 of the extent of popularity which we now enjoy. Sound principles 
 and plain sense always command attention ; the soundness of our 
 principles therefore made us sure of success to a certain degree, but 
 we never calculated on a victory, or looked for the triumph which is 
 now our reward. Having thus entirely by our honesty and plain 
 speaking secured the attention of the public, and having got this 
 high vantage ground without the assistance of any soul living, with- 
 out any bookseller's trick, without any puffing, and with every 
 newspaper in the County, both Whig and Tory, strongly opposed 
 to our interests, we feel it our duty to turn this our success to good 
 and honest account, and to address you in the solemn, serious, and 
 instructive strain which you will find pervade this letter. On other 
 occasions we have been merry ; we have condescended to mark the 
 miserable politicians and candidates of this County with our ridicule, 
 we have stooped to crush such political worms as Fountayne Wilson 
 or William Duncombe, and we have refreshed their fading names 
 with the pungency of our satire, so that they will enjoy the honor 
 
of the cap and bells long after that period when their obscui'e memo- 
 ries would otherwise have " gone to the tomb of all the Capulets." 
 But now the state of the nation is hastening to a crisis, all things are 
 Coming to an end, and it is time to speak with the earnestness and 
 solemnity of the tragic strain. 
 
 People of England ! you live in a great and renowned kingdom;, 
 you are the subjects of a powerful and extensive monarchy, you are 
 the descendants of those who after the dark ages first discovered the 
 meaning and value of liberty, and who by virtue of that discovery 
 framed that Constitution which in theory is the " envy of the world*' 
 and the " admiration of surrounding nations/' but which in practise, 
 and owing to the glosses that have been put upon it in later daysj is the 
 pest of the country, the ruin of the nation, and the immediate and 
 direct cause of your present tremendous sufferings. Attend to these 
 words ; they will fully be proved in the course of this address, so 
 that no man shall be able to deny what we advance. If a stranger 
 was to come into this land, and if he had never before heard of our 
 institutions, he would first observe the marked superiority which we 
 enjoy above other countries ; he would point out the ready loyalty 
 and attachment of the people to their Monarch, the splendour, dig- 
 nity, and imposing appearance of the Aristocracy ; the freedom of 
 law-making in our Senate ; the audacity of language used by some 
 of the Senators ; the pomp, wealth, magnificence, and parade of the 
 State Religion ; the number and power of our victorious armies and 
 fleets ; the vast extent of our commerce ; the incredible amount of 
 our national Revenues, and the apparent facility with which this great 
 system of expenditure is borne by the people, of whom the middling 
 classes seem to live in ease and comfort, if not in luxury. He would 
 then notice the general equity of our Courts of Law, the apparent 
 integrity of the Judges, and the promptitude with which offenders 
 against the law of the land are brought to justice and punished, and 
 the facility afforded to all to seek redress for injuries received or 
 losses sustained. Nor could he fail to observe the fertility of the 
 country, the salubrity of the climate, the richness of the harvests, the 
 activity of the manufactures, and the rapid progress of the arts and 
 sciences. All this he might have noticed with astonishment twelve 
 months ago, and meeting pn the general surface with nothing but 
 prosperity and contentment, he might have left the country im- 
 deceived, and exclaim as he bid farewell to England, " Happy are 
 
the people that are in such a case !" But now what would the atten- 
 tive philosopher remark? He would behold in all the populous 
 towns thousands of desponding and despairing wretches^ who have 
 been hurled down from a state of affluence and comfort by the stop- 
 page of the chief local Bank, he would see many of the petty trades- 
 men irretrievably ruined by the same calamity or overwhelmed by 
 their debts in the general stagnation of trade, he would see tens of 
 thousands of active and industrious workmen thrown out of employ- 
 ment and loudly calling for bread and vengeance ; and a loyal popu- 
 lation in a moment converted into a dangerous and menacing mob. 
 Nor is this all, the great merchants who lately lorded it over the 
 land, and whose wealth was considered immense, are now besieging 
 the doors of the Ministry as humble and crest-fallen suppliants, pray- 
 ing Government to lend them money in the shape of Exchequer Bills, 
 or to do any thing to save them from instant ruin. The whole king- 
 dom is in amazement and alarm, the entire population from one end 
 of it to the other, is looking with horror to the dawn of every fresh 
 day, expecting some new calamity and dreading some additional 
 visitation, the manufacturing districts are in such great and crying 
 distress that the most dreadful consequences are apprehended, and 
 all things seem evidently approaching to a speedy crisis. — We hear 
 now of the necessity of calling out the Yeomanry and raising armed 
 men, we see Government and the Parliament in dismay and confusion, 
 vacillating in their councils, uncertain in their intentions, and re- 
 pealing and altering one day what they had suggested and insisted on 
 the day before. We witness opinions of the most violently opposite 
 extremes urged as remedies for the mischief, and yet every day is 
 adding to the list of bankrupts and every hour increasing the mass 
 of ruin. In five or six months eighty-two Banks have broken ! and 
 more and more continue breaking, till the whole interests of the 
 kingdom appear doomed to be dragged to the earth and ruined for 
 ever. And now, how can we explain these things ? How, with all 
 this glorious outfit and splendid apparatus, with this mighty ma- 
 chinery of strength and wealth are we in the very pit of misery and 
 the lowest stage of national wretchedness ? How, with such a fine 
 climate, and great natural advantages, and in the full enjoyment of 
 profound peace which has lasted for ten years, are we a nation of 
 bankrupts and beggars ? there is but one cause — the corruption of 
 Parliament. Parliament has made us what we are, it has given us the 
 
 A 2 
 
8 
 
 exterior of magnificence but has been gradually contriving all the 
 means in its power for a national bankruptcy, and at last sees the 
 (jay which its baseness and servility have been so long preparing. 
 The House of Commons is in theory supposed to represent the people 
 of England-^in practice it represents only a very small faction of the 
 Aristocracy, who are able to buy up a great majority of the rotten 
 boroughs of which the House is constituted, so that they who have 
 most rotten boroughs are strongest in the House, and are therefore 
 chosen to be Ministers of the King, as it would be impossible to carry 
 on Government with the majority pf influenced seats opposed to the 
 Ministry. All Ministries for the last hundred and thirty or forty 
 years, have had no other object in view than to enricji themselves on 
 the plunder pf the country ; this plunder is the taxes raised fi'om the 
 people and vpted by the majority of the House pf Commons, that 
 House, which as before has been saici, represents a small faction of 
 the Aristocracy ; and who are empowered to take away the mopey of 
 the people in the shape of taxes. Ip the last centuyy, the different 
 ministries of different factions have spent considerably up^vards of 
 two thousand million of guineas ! but, as it was impossible by every 
 species of extortion and rapine that they could think of, to get ALL 
 this money directly in taxes, they have raised eight hundred millions 
 by loans, of which eight hundred millions we pay at this very day 
 thirty millions every year in taxes. We shall not now inquire the uses 
 to which all this immense sum of money has been put, suffice it tq 
 say, that more than twc-thirds of it has been spent in killing our 
 fellow-cveatures, in that gentlemanly amusement called rvavj whighj, 
 when it has been brought to perfection and has destroyed the greatest 
 possible number of men, is called glory ! Glory U very dear. The 
 glory of preventing the Americans drinking their own tea, according 
 to a pet notion of pious George HI, cost us £102,^4-1,819. in loans i 
 of which at this day we pay every year in taxes about four millions 
 interest ; so that if we had even succeeded in that war, and had not 
 been so thoroughly beaten and trampled on by tl^e Americans as we 
 were, every cup of tea the Americans would have druujc would for 
 several years to come have cost the country more than a guinea a cup 1 
 but that was glory-r-and so it was gknnous. This however, has been 
 ascertained, that eight hundred millions of money borrowed on mort-, 
 gage is immensely more than the value of all Engliind, wood, land, 
 and houses put up to auction, and every man and woman on the 
 
island added into the bargain, so that England and all its possessions 
 IB mortgaged infinitely above its value and is in a state of total in- 
 solvency ; all that it can do is by every sort of contrivance, to endea- 
 vour to pay the interest of its debt and its necessary annual expendi- 
 ture. Could any thing possibly be done to alleviate the weight of the 
 burthen ? No, nothing possibly of any material benefit. Economy 
 and retrenchment might perhaps strike off ten million of the annual 
 expenditure, but the debt and its great annual interest of thirty 
 millions must be paid or else we are bankrupts. That is the mill- 
 stone round our necks — the interest of the mortgage must be paid. 
 
 In the manner of sermons we will regularly divide our discourse 
 into three parts ; first, we will consider economy ; secondly, the 
 national debt ; thirdly, the evils that emanate from the debt and are 
 now ruining the whole kingdom — and lastly, we will draw some 
 practical conclusions which we hope will be of great benefit to our 
 readers. 
 
 Economy — The great cause of annual extravagance is our huge 
 standing army, numerous to a very great degree above what the state 
 of the nation requires. This is the first point to be altered. In Ire. 
 land there are about 35,000 soldiers, with all their grinding accom- 
 paniments of Generals, Captains, Lords, and Gentlemen, Jed in 
 additioji to their pay with places and pensions, and looking forward to 
 still farther emoluments, all to be paid out of the taxes, every farthing 
 of which is extorted from the people. But some will say, Ireland is 
 in a state of perpetual insurrection, and a great military force is 
 requii-ed to keep the people in subjection, and to retain the island as a 
 part of the Empire of Great Britain. True : Ireland is in a state of 
 perpetual insurrection, and every man, woman, and child in it, is 
 looking forward with great anxiety to the emancipation of their 
 country from the English yoke ; and no doubt exists but that they 
 will some day effect that emancipation^^^yet all this insurrection and 
 all this daily dreaded rebellion might be stopped in six months, and 
 the whole land immediately pacified and rendered as loyal as the 
 precincts of Powning-Street ; — first, by granting the Catholic Claims, 
 and secondly, by seizing the Church Property and abolishing tithes. 
 Both these measures will be effected at last, so it is in vain to cry out 
 against them, and it is much better and wiser to come to some terms 
 whilst we are able, tlian to be compelled to submit ynconditionally 
 at last. 
 
10 
 
 The state of the Irish Church and of the kingdom of Ireland has 
 been sufficiently explained in the first number of the Elector's Guide> 
 any person not a natural idiot must by that statement perceive that 
 the abolishing of tithes is inevitable to save that island, and no man 
 that has a spark of religion or justice in his heart can help praying 
 most fervently, that the property of the Irish Church may be confis- 
 cated without delay for the good of the suffering people, and the 
 peace of the whole kingdom. There are half a million Protestants 
 in Ireland, and the Clergy receive three millions every year — it is 
 therefore incumbent on us to pass an act of Parliament confiscating 
 Church Property, granting the Catholic Claims, and reducing the 
 Irish troops to ten instead of thirty five thousand men. The economy 
 of this plan is so evident that it need not be dilated on ; it would 
 enable us at one blow to get rid of the house and window tax, and 
 would be a more effectual means of establishing the Protestant 
 Religion on a firm basis, than any thing proposed since the days of 
 Luther. The army costs the country eight millions per annum,— ^ 
 the array and ordinance together, £9,288,392.— -The navy £5,983,126, 
 The army consists of 8638 horses, 9^,9^5 rank and file, and 13,540 
 officers; in all 112,505 men. The Irish army costs a million per 
 annum : but in this statement is not included the volunteers, yeo* 
 manry, &c. &c, Mr. Hume, one of the few practical patriots in the 
 House, moved the following resolution last; year : *' That it is the 
 ^* opinion of the House, it is not necessary, in a time of profound 
 " peace, to maintain for the service of the current year the number 
 ^' of 86,438 regular land forces — exclusive of those for India, and 
 *' also, exclusive of 9^000 royal marines, of about 9^700 royal artillery 
 ♦^ and engineers, of 53,258 enrolled militia, yeomanry, and volunteers 
 ^^ in England, and of 3,000 veterans, making in the whole, 257,496 
 ^' men actually in arms, or ready to be called out, if necessary, exclu* 
 " sive of about 4,000 colonial troops at Ceylon and in Africa." 
 
 One would think that it is only necessary to state this to command uni^ 
 versal assent, but not so in the Honorable Right Honorable House, for 
 on a division, there were eight for the motion and ONE HUNDRED 
 AND TWO AGAINST IT I! ! There is nothing uncommon in this 
 Readers, whenever there is a motion for economy, it is generally nega- 
 tived by the Collective Wisdom in the proportion often to one. The 
 whole armament of Gre?it Britain, taking into the account pensions, su- 
 perannuations, training of militia, medical staff, fees, barracks, (S:c. &c. 
 
11 
 
 costs the immense sum of £l5,121^9<5. per ahiiiim ! fifteen millions 
 for killing our fellow creatures ! This is enough to add to our Panic, 
 the payment of such a sum as this is enough to tlireaten the security 
 of the highly Respectable Banking Establishment in Threadneedle* 
 Street, connected as that highly Respectable Banking Establishment 
 is with all the concerns of Government* The Commander-in-Chief 
 of all this ruinous armament, (known by the names of Bishop of 
 Osnaburgh and Duke of York) receives from the country, according 
 to Mr. Hume's calculations, £90,000. a year. — To this, a short time 
 ago, might have been added £ 10,000. per annum for taking care of 
 his father, which he immediately sold to the Jews, and wonderful, is 
 reported to have made a good bargain of it ! What were the infidels 
 about to enter into a losing concern with a Christian Bishop ? In 
 short, no one doubts, that without the least detriment to our national 
 interests, the annual cost of the armament might be reduced to eight 
 millions, and in a few years to half that sum. * Why then is it not 
 done ? The reason is evident — we pay at present 13,540 officers, but 
 if this scheme of economy was adopted we should pay only 6,000, so 
 that the other half, or 6,000 well-dressed sword-dangling Dandies would 
 be turned out to make their way by their wits, and some hundred 
 Lord Charleses, Lord Simpletons, and Lord Boobies, cousins, sons, and 
 nephews of Ministers and men of power would be driven to industry 
 and compelled to work for themselves. In what page of justice it is 
 written that the whole nation should be fleeced to this enormous 
 extent every year, to fill the pockets of so small a number of gentle- 
 men, we never yet have been able to discover— we defy any sycophant 
 of Government, however slavish in his principles, to produce any 
 argument that can for a moment palliate it.— But the details of the 
 army are equally extravagant and unjustifiable. Every individual of 
 the Life-Guards costs from £75. to £80. per annimi : a much larger 
 sum than the most expensive livery servant of the most expensive 
 nobleman in the kingdom. The Seventh Light Dragoons, flow in the 
 Barracks at York, are allowed an entire new dress and equipment 
 every second year, and this dress costs about £30. The full dress 
 
 • In the year 1792, the whole charge for the armament of Great Britain was 
 £4,700,694. In thirty years we have quadrupled the expense, and that too after ten 
 years profound peace — this shews the progress of plunder on the people and tlie tame- 
 ness with which they bear it. 
 
1^ 
 
 of a common man of the Seventh costs £l2. ! What a preposterous 
 piece of extravagance ! and they have tliree dresses ! No one cart 
 deny the great beauty and elegance of their appearance, the grace* 
 fuhiess of their manners, the splendour of their martial equipments, 
 the dexterity with which they manage their horses, and the excellent 
 demeanour of all the soldiers both in their military and civil capa- 
 city, but still the charge of this equipment is immense, foolish, 
 childish, and unnecessary. — It ought to be abolished, and cannot be 
 tolerated. We cannot now afford to PAY SO DEAR FOR OUR 
 WHISTLE. 
 
 The half-pay allowance, and the manner of filling up commissions 
 are subjects of great abuse in the army. Half-pay was originally 
 intended as a reward for past services, but by the system now 
 adopted it is a mode of increasing the pensioners of the Crown. Mr. 
 Hume produced a list of 9.S3 individuals who had been placed on the 
 half-pay list within the same year, and upwards of 130 of them on 
 the same day on which they had reccincd their Jirst commissions. What 
 wholesale swindling ! 130 men put on half-pay the day that they 
 first enter the army in time of profound peace ! But this was only a 
 part of the evil: it appeared by parliamentary returns, that 1,194 
 first commissions had been given in the army, artillery, engineers, 
 and marines, and 341 in the navy, making a total of 1,585 Jirst cojn* 
 missions since the peace! In the army, 1,105 officers have been 
 appointed to first commissions^ of which 508 had been given without 
 purchase. If these 508 commissions had been filled up from the 
 half-pay, there would have been a saving to the country of £27,813. 
 per annum. More need not be said about the army — the whole 
 system of it in a general view, and in all the details is profligate 
 extravagance, and disgraceful jobbing — ^it exhibits the gi'oss and 
 universal corruption of Government in the most striking manner, 
 an I is a strong instance of the constant contempt of public opinion 
 exhibited by those persons called Senators, who resting on their 
 rotten Boroughs, and caring for the opinion of no man living, thus 
 squander away the public money without a sigh for the consequences, 
 or without ever troubling themselves about the impoverisliment and 
 misery of the people. 
 
 To give instances of the universal plunder carried on every day 
 before our eyes, requires some judgment and discretion, for the 
 instances are so numerous and flagrant, that it is almost impossible 
 
I? 
 
 to make a selection of any of the pails worse than the rest. Let us 
 take any at a venture. Lord Castlereagh's mission to Vienna is in 
 the recollection of every one, he went there to give and. take 
 diamond snuff-boxes from the Kings and Emperors of Europe, 
 to flirt w ith Duchesses, to waltz, and to suppress liberty. He went also 
 for a similar purpose to Paris, these two missions amounted to £43,(Q6- 
 which with his office salary formed an expenditure of £55,80Q» 
 for two years ! after this exploit he cut his own throat — and the 
 rest of his acts, and how he made Europe to sin above all those that 
 went before him, are thpy not written in the Book of the Chronicles 
 of the tyrants of Europe ? Canning, as we all remember, was sent 
 to Lisbon on a Ministerial job, merely to give him a large sum of 
 money, as he is. a poor man.. The pretence for this job was, that he 
 should go as ambassador to the Court of Lisbon, though there was 
 no Court there and no King: and for this very important and 
 arduous task he received eighteen thousand pounds. His motlier, 
 Mrs. Hunn> is down in the pension list for £500. a year, she was an 
 actress, as all the world ki)ows : the date of her pension is 1799^ so 
 that she has received by this time £l 3,500. of the public money; 
 which for g. Lady of hgr description is quite enough. His sister, 
 Mary Hunn, is down for the same sum, so that if this latter Lady is 
 alive also, and we believe she is, they have between them pocketed 
 £27,000. This is quite enough; and perhaps more than a Reformed 
 House of Commons would let them enjoy. Turn over the Pension 
 Li^t and you will find the Honoyuble Caroline Stanhope, (dated 
 ISOp) £500. per annul)!), tlijg Honorable Charles Banks Stanhope, 
 (date I8O6) £600. ; the Honorable James Hamilton Stanhope, (same 
 date) ditto; the Honorable Lady Esther Lucy Stanhope, (same 
 dat<e) £1,200. : so that these Honorable* have taken £60,000. from 
 the people. What their deserts are is not yet known — nor does, it 
 signify, for iheij have pocketed the money, and we have nothing to 
 do but to pocket the affront. Last year the Society for the Suppres- 
 sion of Vice, received by grant of Parliament £7,000. What wretched 
 and disgusting hypocrisy I and yet in the same breatli they granted 
 £2,000. to Lottery officers— as if one single lottery did not produce 
 ten thousand times more sin and misery in one day, than the 
 villainous Vice Society could suppress in ten years. A miserable 
 quack called M'Adam, for discovering the wonderful secret of 
 cracking stones into small pieces, received for the third or fourth time, 
 
 3 
 
14 
 
 £2,000. ; here was a job of the most filthy sort;, unmixed^ iinaclul-' 
 terated plundei* * — nothins^ but sheer fleechig -without a grain of 
 excuse attempted, or any thing hke an exculpation suggested. Mr. 
 Sumner opposed the grant because he knew that M'Adani had 
 received '''£41,000. from public trus:s ;" but we who happen to 
 know something of M'Adam's family, can assure our readers that he 
 has realised a fortune of £l<,000. per annum, and that he goes on 
 increasing it every year, so that to add money to that which he has 
 already got, is the mere love of extravagance for its own sake, — it is 
 a determination to throw away the people's money for the pleasure 
 of squandering, and can proceed from nothing but profligacy and 
 wickedness in those who are thus enabled to seize the wealth of the 
 nation for their own unprincipled and unjustifiable purposes. But 
 why should we dwell on these trifling instances of plunder ? The 
 whole system displays similar extortion, extortion on a grand and 
 comprehensive scale, before which these tens of thousands appear as 
 dribblets and diminutive drops in the ocean. The Church of Eng- 
 land draws from the people every year five millions of hard cash, in 
 the shape of tithes. — The Chancery holds now in its hand the enor- 
 mous sum of thirty five millions of disputed property — property 
 which in no single case is ever decided in a less term than twenty 
 years, during which time the miserable litigants must pay, on an 
 average, not less than £400. a year to the Lawyers, whilst the 
 property in question is lodged in the funds, and Government receives 
 tlie benefit of its temporary death ! Such is this enviable happy 
 country in which we live, a country which has more abuses in it 
 than all the world besides, and which is nevertheless called the envy 
 of the universe and the admiration of surrounding nations. But the 
 plunder still goes on ; the Law, (meaning thereby Judges, Barristers, 
 Attorney's Clerks, &c.) takes from the people seven millions a year. 
 
 * From a ministerial paper, one of those publications that recommended this ]\I* A dam 
 Job, we copy the following ncrvs. " The Members of both Houses, as well as the 
 *' public in general, have lately had a good opportunity of judging of the effects of 
 *' the new system of Road-making as applicable to the Metropolis; the whole of the 
 *' carriage-way from Pall Mall to AV'estminster Hall having been, almost ever since 
 *' tbe meeting of Parliament one deep river of liquid mud." (Morning Herald, 
 March /•) And yet the fellow that did this niisct\ief has pocketed £6000. of the public 
 money for his invention ! We wish to see MWdam pinioned by some stout Scaven- 
 j';crs in a dirty cart, and niade to swallow this liquid mud till he had refunded his £0000. 
 wif/i the lutcresty and both principal and interest sent to the starving workmen of 
 ^pitallields, which would be strict justice and equity. 
 
15 
 
 add to this county rates, parish rates, town rates, and the very 
 
 many other jobs known to us all, but too numerous to be here 
 particularly described, and none of us can wonder that we are in a 
 state of poverty and distress ; nay, the only wonder is, that we can 
 go on from year to year, and that every man and woman in the 
 kingdom is not a starving beggar. The fact, however, is, that if 
 every body's debts were paid, such would really be the case : the 
 nation is only kept going by expedients, which expedients seem 
 likely to fail, extortion and extravagance having been carried to the 
 highest possible pitch that human ingenuity can contrive. There 
 must be an end of this some day : all that is left for Government is 
 to try to procrastinate, and by every means in their power to delay 
 what cannot be prevented. The system of favoring the Aristocracy 
 and oppressing the People, though it has lasted far too long, will at last 
 be put an end to, for though the Corruptionists will make gigantic 
 struggles to avert their natural death, yet still that death must take 
 place, and another and a better system be called into being. In the 
 mean time, to add to the impoverishing of the people, the corn-laws, 
 which are so pertinaciously adhered to by the landed Aristocracy, and 
 which prohibit the people from purchasing at a cheap rate the most 
 necessary article of Ufe, are considered by those that have made the 
 calculation, to be a practical tax of fifteen millions every year, a tax 
 which is kept up entirely for the benefit of the Gentry at the expense 
 of the People. An able writer has thus expressed himself on this 
 important subject : " The People have long murmured against the 
 " tithe of the Clergy ; and now they are consoled with the prospect 
 " of a perpetual corn-law, 
 
 " Tithe £5,000,000 per ann, 
 
 " Corn Laws 15,000,000 
 
 " Total yearly charge of Clergy and Gentry ... 20,000,000 
 
 " This will never bear investigation. Men will suffer any ^finite 
 *' evils, rather than incur the hazard or infiict the misery of shaking 
 '' them at once from their shoulders ; but perpetuity is an element in 
 "pain, which makes even "Me wise man onad." We harbour no 
 " inveteracy against the landed gentry ; we have no hostile feeling 
 " against class or party ; we wish to see all prosper without sacrificing 
 " any single interest. Any relief which may be rfforded to the land- 
 '' lords consistently with the general good, we are heartily walling to 
 " concede — but when they attempt to justify the peculiar privileges 
 
1^ 
 
 " which their power has enabled them to usurp, we cannot refrain 
 " from advising them — and it is an act not of enmity but of fi*iendship 
 « ^TO BE WISE IN TIME."* 
 
 The National Debt or the Mortgage -on England, and the interest 
 to be paid animally on that mortgage gleans up the last relic of 
 prosperity and happiness, and finishes that sum of wretchedness and 
 degradation that begins in tlie extravagance and extortion of Govern- 
 ment; never was there a country so miserably pillaged and plundered 
 as England, never was there a nation that groaned so dreadfully 
 xmder the extortioner, or from which such an immense amount of 
 taxes and tributes were forced by the hand of power, to feed the 
 wicked and to ruin the innocent. After all the many millions that 
 are screwed out of the People by the Church, the Law, the Govern- 
 ment, the Exciseman, and the Parish OSicer, after this incalculable 
 amount of robbery and this unheard of extent of rapacity, the country 
 is still farther called to pay thirty millions of hard cash every year 
 interest of the money that has been raised by a few extravagant and 
 hard-hearted individuals, to carry on their wars and to gain glory. 
 The National Debt is now eight hundred millions of money, when 
 Pitt came into power in 1784, it amounted to £250,000,000. — since 
 that time it has been increased FOURFOLD, and yet that '^ Heaven- 
 born Minister" as tliey call him, (begotten, we suppose, by some of 
 the Gods, Mercury the robber, on a Stanhope, the receiver of stolen 
 goods) who so immensely increased the debt, invented that notorious 
 job, the sinking fund, a scheme which it was imagined was to pay off 
 tlie national debt, but with which the debt has graduiilly though un- 
 ceasingly kept increasing, and still keeps hicreasing- — and which is 
 another contrivance for taking more money from the people. — Last 
 year Parliament voted five millions of the taxes to keep up the 
 sinking fund ; now as the assessed and land taxes only amount to 
 £4,875,000, and as Vve can prove that the sinking fund is all a fraud 
 and a job — the deduction will be evident, that more than all the 
 assessed taxes might be saved to the cour.try if this fraudulent job, 
 the sinking fund was abolished, and sent back to tliat father of lies 
 from whom it draws its origin. The sinking i\n\d was invented by 
 
 • " Parliamentary History and Review during the Scs.-i«n of ]02i>, with witical 
 " remarks on the principal measures of tiie tH>bion.^l.or^rrcin, iJurM, Kecs., and 
 ,'^ Ormc." PageaOo. 
 
17 
 
 Dr. Price — ^he calculated that a farthing laid out at compound interest 
 at the birth of Christy would, at the time he wrote, have accumulated 
 to several globes of gold, each globe as large as the earth, and that if 
 therefore a million of money was then left to accumulate — namely, 
 -when he was writing ; that, in a short time, it Avould raise a sum 
 equal to the national debt, and so pay it off. The process of his 
 reasoning is thus. If ^ 100. is lent at five per cent, compound interest 
 for one hundred years ; at the expiration of the first fourteen years 
 it would amount to £200, at tiie expiration of the second fourteen 
 years to £400, and at the expiration of the third to £800, — and so on^ 
 doubling itself at this rate, till, at the expiration of one hundred 
 years it would have increased to the sum of £l4,l 12. — ^but had the 
 same money been put out at simple interest it would only havd 
 amounted to £600; £500. being the interest of £l00. for one hun- 
 dred years, at five per cent, per annum. On this calculation, which 
 is the greatest fallacy that ever deceived mankind, was the sinking 
 fund established — Pitt either did not perceive the multitude of im* 
 possibilities attending the plan, or he did not choose to point theiH 
 out; knowing that if the job was not unravelled it would be a 
 wonderful help to deceive the nation and get tnote money from the 
 people, he proposed to set aside a million of money which on no 
 account was to be touched, but was to be guarded by Commissioners> 
 whose sole office and duty was to take care of it, and watch over it 
 like a golden egg that was to produce unheard of wonders ; and by 
 no exertions of its own to pay off the national debt. It was received 
 with great pomp and ceremony, and as Soon as the Commissioners 
 had taken possession of it not a soul in the kingdom doubted that we 
 NOW had a really heaven-born Minister. The objections, however, 
 to the scheme of the sinking fund are so numerous and powerful, 
 that one is amaeed how any man in his senses can believe in this 
 infamous deception. 
 
 - 1st, It supposes perpetual peace— which is taking for granted an 
 impossibility, and therefore puts an end to the question. For as the 
 sinking fund is to pay off a given sum of borrowed millions, it is 
 evident, that if that sum is added to, the poor sinking fund has no 
 chance left with the great monster that it is finally to overtake and 
 destroy. If peace is at end, (and we had thirty years war after the 
 establishing of the sinking fund,) fresh loans must be made, we must 
 borrow more money and consequently add to that which we with to 
 
18 
 
 diminish. Since tlie establishing the sinking fund the debt has in- 
 creased /o?/7;/bW: as strong a confutation of tlie doctrine as we could 
 well expect ; in fact, it is setting a two-legged spider a mile distant 
 from a four-legged spider, and telling him to catch his brother if he 
 can ; and what is still more unfair, if the two-legged spider make 
 any progress we catch him, cut off one of his legs, and add four more 
 legs to the other insect who already had outrun his slow brother two 
 miles, and promised fair to traverse the world before the other had 
 walked a hundred miles. — It is setting arithmetical to overtake geo- 
 metrical progression, it is telling the moon to overtake a comet. It 
 is every thing impossible and ridiculous. 
 
 2d. It takes for granted that at all times there will be the same 
 Ministers witli the same views ; that every man in power will look 
 on the sacred deposit and its divine accumulations with the same 
 piety or hypocrisy that Pitt did ; it supposes that no Treasury Fox 
 will ever suck the holy egg, but that it will go on hatching till the 
 grand Jubilee of Jubilees, the happy and joyous Greek Calends, at 
 whose dawning nothing but golden guineas are to glitter on the 
 earth. 
 
 3d. It is an impossibility and a paradox on the face of it — it is so 
 glaringly and undeniably false, that you might as well say a triangle 
 can have four angles and remain a triangle : nor must our readers 
 believe that every thing proved by words and logic is true ; on the 
 contrary. Bishop Berkeley and Hume proved that nothing can or 
 does exist, and no one can deny their arguments, and yet here we 
 are, and there are you. Reader, reading this book in spite of all their 
 logic, which logic nevertheless cannot be answered. Now supposing 
 Ave, or some Jew, or Billy Pitt, or Prosperity Robinson, or any other 
 enlightened modern had met Demosthenes, or any other great 
 statesman in the Market-place of Athens — and had thus accosted 
 him: 
 
 " Demosthenes ; you are a great statesman, you are the glory of 
 ^' the world in which you live, and will be admired by all posterity 
 " as the most eloquent and honorable of patriots, but still you are 
 " Sadly hampered with the financial difficulties of Athens, and do 
 '^ not see the proper means of paying the debts of the state, or 
 "^ raising armaments sufficient to oppose Philip of Macedon — but we 
 *' have got sight into a new system, the immortal Gods came down 
 " from Olympus and let us into the secrets of stock-jobbing, national^ 
 
19 
 
 " debts, five per cents, annuities, consols, and banking ; all words 
 '' which you from your ignorance do not understand. — However we 
 " will tell you the facts, and if you will pay us proper attention and 
 *' mind what we say, we will answer for it that you shall pay off the 
 " Athenian debts in a very short time. Call a meeting of the 
 " people, make them vote you a sum of money, say twenty thousand 
 " talents, that money you must give to us, we will keep it under 
 " lock and key, for a handsome salary and we will let no one touch 
 " it, it shall be a sacred deposit, and at the end of a certain number 
 '^ of years you will find by the process of compound interest it will 
 " have increased a hundred fold, provided that you keep it going every 
 " year wilh a certain quantity of taxes, and thus without the least 
 " trouble in the world, or any expense, the debts of Athens will 
 " be paid, and you will have enough wherewith to beat Philip of 
 " Macedon in the bargain." 
 
 On hearing this nonsense, Demosthenes would order our heads to 
 be shaved and send us to Anticyra in a straight- waistcoat ; or if we 
 continued obstinate in our opinions, the Atlienians would flog us to 
 death in the Areopagus with twigs of fig-trees for our audacious 
 swindling and daring attempt on the public purse. Whatever is 
 preposterous and monstrous in argument must be false, however 
 plausible the arguments with which they are supported. What 
 can produce the enormous sum thus to accumulate } Let us suppose 
 that by hatching and cockering, the sinking fund had amounted 
 to four hundred millions, only half the sum required; the interest 
 upon that would be eight millions per annum. Whence is that to 
 come ? Wlio pays the interest ? Is it to be paid in taxes as it is 
 at present ? and if it is, you will remember it is still to go on 
 increasing or else it will be of no use. Or is Government to lend 
 it ? If they lend it to individuals, security will be demanded and 
 expected, not only for the regular payment of the interest, but the 
 principal, and what is to be the security for four hundred millions ? 
 — Here is an end at once of this outrageous fraud, a fraud entirely 
 unparalleled in the annals of the world, and a hundred times more 
 ridiculous and absurd than the preaching of the Crusades, which had 
 something picturesque at least to recommend them. And yet for 
 this fraud we last year paid five millions hard cash !!.' To make the 
 matter clearer, let us suppose that the expenditure of an individual 
 exceeds his income £500. annually, and the deficiency is to be made 
 
up by borrowing : The first year he inciirs a cleb| of ^_^00, ; tlie 
 second £500. more, which with the interest of the first £500,. makes 
 his debt £1025. ; and the third year £1551. 5s and so on, till, at the 
 end of fourteen years and a quarter the total amount of debt and 
 interest is £ 1 0,000. Suppose now instead of borrowing £500. the 
 individual is persuaded by some calculator to borrow a larger sum, 
 with a view of establishing a sinking fund, suppose he borrow annu- 
 ally £600. of A, £500. to satisfy his necessities, and £l00. to lend 
 B for a sinking fund, to accumulate by compound interest. If he 
 continue this plan for fourteen years, he will at the end of that time 
 owe A £12,000. and B will owe him £200. But where will be the 
 advantage ? If he has a sinking fund of £2,000. his debt is £l 2,000. 
 being £2,000. more on account of the additional £lOO. borrowed to 
 establish the sinking fund. On this plan, it is obviovis the borrower 
 would not in the least, retard the embarrassment of "^is affairs, how- 
 ever much his sinking fund might increase, his debt would augment 
 in a§ great a proportion : whatever he had owing from B he would 
 owe in addition to A. But one argument not yet br^xught forward is 
 so overwhelming that no answer can be imagined to it : — The sinJk- 
 ing fund was established in the year 1786, exactly forty years ago, 
 and yet THE NATIONAL DEBT IS FOUR TIMES AS GREAT 
 AS WHEN THE SINKING FUND BEGAN. Now two-legged 
 sjjider run away after your eight-legged brother as fast as you can, 
 run till you are out of breath, but with all your running you have 
 just as much chance tp ever see him again as a snail has to overtake 
 an antelope ; and so a capital merry chase we wish you. 
 
 What then can still make the country tolerate this nefarious 
 irppasture the sinking fund ? The general proneness that there is in 
 hiunan intellects to believe a specious and mystical deception, is th/e 
 only stay and prop of this gross Government job — it is a means of 
 taking five n^llion? annually from the people ; it has been praised by 
 all Ministers for the last forty years, it was begotten by Dr. 
 Price, on the heaven-born Minister, who being the mother of the 
 scheme has left it covered with tlie glare of his name, and has thrown 
 a saciedness over it, that promises fair to do all that mischief which 
 all superstitions do, when protected by Government. Time however 
 must put an end to it, and though so many Honorables and Right 
 Honorables make a point of praising it every year, yet at last it must 
 and it will be abolished. The chief support that it derives is from the 
 
21 
 
 opinion that so many Honorables and Right Honorables must be 
 right, ai\d cannot be deceived in their calculations : but who has not 
 heard of the South-Sea job ? who does not know that the whole 
 kingdom, beginning witii Dukes and ending with Chimney-Sweep- 
 ers, implicitly and entirely believed it, that the Government of the 
 time was deeply implicated in the transaction, and the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer was punished by enormous fines for aiding and abetting 
 it? and has no one ever heard of the House of Commons being in the 
 wrong ? Aye, right often ! and often and often again will they 
 be in the w-rong ; for there is hardly a Session passes which does not 
 behold the Right Honorables and Honorables patching up their 
 blunders, unravelling their knots, bolstering up their schemes, alter- 
 ing their laws, amending their amendments, beginning all afresh, 
 starting fair again, beginning anew, and never ending with their 
 everlasting puzzles and inextricable absurdities. Of the 608 Mem- 
 bers in the House, not 50 even pretend to understand the sinking 
 fund and the money market, and of those 50 not 25 honestly and 
 conscientiously believe the sinking fund to be a means of extinguish- 
 ing the debt, but look upon it as a job fit to be kept up, and which 
 must be kept up because it has so long existed. But all this proves 
 that common sensemwst in the end triumph over quackery and fraud ; 
 the old doctrine adopted by ancient states and suggested by plain 
 reason must again universally be acted upon, and that custom of 
 antiquity to make provision during peace for the necessities of war, 
 and in no case to spend that winch they had not, must be once more 
 universally received and restored. Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Tyre, 
 and Sidon were unacquainted with paper money ; Babylon, famed for 
 its merchandise, and whose wealth, grandeur, size and population 
 was five times as great as London, employed for centuries a capital 
 infinitely greater than that now supposed to exist in England, and it 
 did so without ever dreaming of the possible existence of paper 
 money ; a national debt, consols, cheap currency. Banks national or 
 provincial, stock-jobbing, and exchequer bills were unknown to the 
 Babylonian merchants, and yet by prudence, activity and caution, 
 they made private fortunes, whose immensity makes the stock- 
 plunder of Rothschild, Baring, and Ricardo appear like unity com- 
 pared to 1,000. There was then no national debt, no loans, no 
 mortgage of Babylon, no Bank-breaking, no " highly Respectable" 
 thieves plundering the poor of their money, and no danger appre- 
 
 c 
 
22 
 
 hended from any tiling but tlie finger of Providence. A famine 
 might blast the corn, a pestilence might thin the people, or storms 
 might sink the merchant's ships, or some great king might threaten 
 the city with his million Dragoons and three million Infantry ; but 
 Jews, and jobbing, and national debts could do no mischief, the 
 Jews they only knew as wretched and degraded captives whom they 
 kicked and cuffed for their crimes, thereby fulfilling the decrees of 
 Heaven, whilst the merchants by their industry and economy were 
 the support and glory of the nation. Now all things are reversed, 
 the Infidels and the Jews are the support and glory of us enlightened 
 Christians, the merchants are wretched, bankrupt, ruined, insolvent, 
 despairing speculators, acting upon ideal wealth, and going on from 
 day to day by paper which means nothing and represents nothing 
 but falsehood. If the merchants had the money they pretend to 
 possess, they would not be hovering round the doors of Ministers at 
 this present time beggingfor Government Paper to uphold them — gold, 
 they dare not think of — their only hope is in the superior pajjer-lies 
 of Government, these paper-lies, called exchequer bills, are generally 
 understood will for some time to come be supported by the taxes, 
 but it is all faith, " it is the substance of things hoped for," and yet 
 it is a bad and deficient faith, for it is not " the evidence of things not 
 seen." There is no evidence on the subject ; on the contrary, every 
 one now howling for Government-paper-lies knows that the day will 
 come when they will be of no value, when they too will be reduced to 
 their intrinsic value of two or three farthings, and be of no use but as 
 wadding for guns or wrappers for lumps of sugar. The only hope 
 is, that by every species of expedient the national faith may be kept up 
 as long as the present generation lives — in this however they are mis- 
 taken, thirty years is the generation of a man, and thirty years will see 
 a RADICAL REFORM effected, and all the present system ploughed 
 up, and salt sown on its foundations. The Philosopher Hume has 
 well and ably argued this subject, and his words are worth your serious 
 attention. " Our modern expedient, which has become very general, 
 " is to mortgage the public revenues, and to trust that posterity will 
 *' pay off the incumbrances contracted by their ancestors : and they, 
 '•having before their eyes so good an example of their wise fathers, 
 * ' have the same prudent reliance on their posterity, who at last, from 
 '" necessity more than choice, are obliged to place the same confidence 
 " in a new posterity. But not to waste time in declaiming against a 
 •' practice which appears ruinous beyond all controversy, it seems 
 
S8 
 
 " apparent that the ancient maxims are, in this respect, more prii- 
 " dent than the modern ; even though the latter had been confined 
 ** within some reasonable bounds, and had never, in any instance, 
 " been attended with such frugality in time of peace as to discharge 
 " the debts incurred by an expensive war. For why should the case 
 " be so different between the public and an individual, as to make us 
 " establish different maxims of conduct for each ? If the funds 
 *' of the former be greater, its necessary expenses are proportionably 
 " larger ; if its resources are more numerous, they are not infinite ; 
 *^ and as its frame should be calculated for a much longer duration 
 " than the date of a single life, or even of a family, it should embrace 
 *' maxims large, durable, and generous, agreeably to the supposed 
 " extent of its existence. To trust to chances and temporary expedi» 
 " ents is indeed what the necessity of human affairs frequently 
 " renders unavoidable ; but whoever voluntarily depend on such 
 " resources, have not necessity, but their own folly to accuse for 
 " their misfortunes, when any such befall them. Suppose the pub- 
 " lie once fairly brought to that condition to which it is hastening 
 " with such amazing rapidity, suppose the land to be taxed eighteen 
 ♦' or nineteen shilUngs on the pound, for it never can bear the whole 
 *' twenty ; suppose all the excises and customs to be screwed up to 
 " the utmost which the nation can bear, without entirely losing its 
 *' commerce and industry, and suppose that all those funds are mort- 
 " gaged to perpetuity, and that the invention and wit of all our 
 " projectors can find no new imposition which may serve as the 
 " foundation of a new loan, and let us consider the necessary 
 " consequences of this situation. Though the imperfect state of our 
 " political knowledge, and the narrow capacities of men, make it 
 " difficult to foretell the effects which will result from any untried 
 '^ measure, the SEEDS OF RUIN are here scattered with such pro-* 
 " fusion as not to escape the' eyes of the most careless observer." 
 
 The seeds of ruin are indeed sown with a liberal hand, and they 
 are not only growing, but they are choking up every interest of the 
 nation ; for though it is bad enough to have to pay thirty millions a 
 year interest for Ministerial extravagance, yet that is only half the 
 evil — for as it is impossible to pa}'- thirty millions interest and twenty 
 millions expenditure, making up on the whole fifty millions hard 
 cash every year — as it is impossible we say to pay this in gold or real 
 money, no such gold or real money ever being in the kingdom, it 
 
 r 2 
 
24 
 
 follows of necessity that it must be paid in paper and credit, or not 
 paid at all. Thus it comes, that more than half the money in the 
 kingdom must of necessity be false — and thus it also follows, that the 
 money in general circulation in the provinces, money paid to labourers 
 by farmers, and to workmen by artificers, must be false money too — 
 must be rags, and being rags, must be false. A bank note we all 
 know is a lie and nothing else ; it says, " 1 promise to pay" — and 
 yet this promise, is not and cannot be kept in one instance in fifty ; 
 calculating that each Bank lately broken had an issue on average 
 of£iO,000, it follows, that one million one hundred thousand lies 
 have been told in five months, a calculation which is below the mark, 
 as in reality the aggregate of worthless paper in that time is about 
 three millions. If the National Debt was spunged out we might have 
 a pure gold currency, but as long as it lasts we never can. Govern- 
 ment however perceiving the evils of tlie rag-system, and trusting 
 that after a certain quantity of Bank breaking and ruin, things would 
 find their level, (as they always say in a difficulty,) have determined 
 to crush the paper system, and have done so by their late acts. Now 
 though about ninety Banks have broken, and in a very short time 
 we hope and trust ninety more will break, yet still the people exist 
 to be paid and fed, you may take away the money if you chuse, but 
 the people live and look for work and for somebody to pay them. 
 But, alas ! now no more Avill they find farmers or manufacturers to 
 employ them ! their day is gone for ever — it matters very little whe- 
 ther Government does or does not issue Exchequer Bills, it nvcy 
 satisfy a fewv gasping m.erchants for a short time, but so many have 
 been ruined and the rest are in such a languishing way, that trade is 
 done for ; the breaking of so many Banks and the measures of Go- 
 vernnient have withdrawn all the money (i'alse as it was) out of 
 circulation, and nothing of any sort whatsoever remains. Corn in 
 Yorkshire, that was a short time ago 70, is now from 45 to 40 
 shillings ; agriculture has received her blow, nor will she ever recover 
 again at all under the present system ; for as the present system in 
 one diort word means !■ ALSE MONE\', and as that money is con- 
 demned to death, the deduction is so evident, that a child may make 
 it. In the year 1793, paper money frcmi the Bank cf Er.gland b<,^gan, 
 it having before that period only been in ^IG. notes, which to ail 
 common purposes of life is ro circulation at all. The sinking iun4 
 however had deluded the ration to a great «-lrgrre, all was speculation 
 
25 
 
 and bubble, and the three per cents. Avere up at a hundred ! Pitt was 
 in ecstacies t he praised Parliament, and Parliament praised him ; 
 ** we were on a sure basis — nothing could shake us — loyalty forever, 
 ** and God save the Kin<^ I" In the midst of this reckless extrava- 
 gance and profligate jobbing, in the year 1797^ the Bank of England 
 stopped payment !!! it was in the month of February ; no gold could 
 it produce, and a placard was put up on the doors announcing that 
 Ministers had ordered that no more gold should be issued till Par- 
 liament was consulted. Thus the Bank of England broke — that w^as 
 breakage the first. Parliament in its wisdom ordered the Bank to 
 issue paper instead of gold for six weeks, till I he panic had subsided^ 
 When the six weeks subsided, the term of grace was lengthened to 
 the end of the Session — ^from the end of the Session, it was prolonged 
 to the end of next Session ; then for a whole year ; then to the end 
 of the war, and after the war to six months after the peace. In 1801, 
 •when peace came, and when the Bank began to draw in, and when 
 the same consternation took place that we witness now, another year 
 was granted to rags, and after that one more, which Avas pQsilivdj/ tQ 
 be the last. Before the last came, Avar came again, delicious Avar, 
 which immediately made Addington declare that 'Mie had never 
 " heard any objection to paper circulation as a war measure," — so 
 a bill A\as brought in compelling rags to pass for gold as long as the 
 Avar lasted and six months after the peace. With this measure prices 
 rose immensely, not a word was said against rags till 1810, when the 
 famous Bujlion Committee Avas appointed to inquire into the depre- 
 ciation of Bank notes, for guineas were then sold at 28s. a piece, 
 Avhich Avas rather an aAvkward confutation of the rag-doctrine. Tl:e 
 Bullion Committee recommended that the Bank should be compelled 
 to pay in gold in two years from that time ; a measure such as has just 
 now been adopted by Parliament, but Avhich cannot be carried into 
 execution without Aviping off the National Debt, Now mark the 
 conduct of Parliament on receiving the Report of the Bullion Com- 
 mittee ! They voted a resolution, a solemn resolution, proposed by 
 Bexley with great ceremony, " That the promissory notes of the 
 " Bank of England have hitherto been, and now are held to be equi- 
 '* valent to the legal coin of the realm, in all pecuniary transactions 
 " to which such coin is legally apphcable.*' And yet old Bexley ! 
 guineas were still openly sold at 28s. a piece 1 so much for your reso- 
 lution ; you miglit a» -wcW have voted, ** that the moon hitherto has 
 
" been and now is held to be made of cream- cheese, and in ail cases 
 
 "where the moon is wanted, cream-cheese is the sani^ thing" it 
 
 would have been just as sensible as the equivalency-resolution, and 
 just as possible to make men adopt one as the other. But to follow 
 this up, an act was passed punishing people for buying guineas^ 
 making Bank of England notes legal tenders in payment of Country 
 Bank notes, and compelling landlords to take as coin. Bank of Eng- 
 land notes in payment of rent. This was cramming rags down our 
 throats by violence, and was as unjust an act of tyranny as ever was 
 executed in Turkey. From that time till the peace the country was 
 inundated with rags, and till 1814, high prices, prosperity and Tories 
 ruled absolute. When the peace of 1814 arrived, the Bank was to 
 pay in gold in six months — paper was consequently rapidly with- 
 drawn, and on came ruin full gallop, trade, agriculture. Banks all in 
 dismay. But grace was AGAIN given to Rags for another year ; 
 and so on for five years after the Peace, till 181 9, when the whole 
 House unanimously voted, that on the 1st of May, 1823, the Bank 
 should be compelled to pay in gold for ever. The day for killing 
 Rags came WITHIN NINE MONTHS of the time prescribed, but 
 in July, 1822, to prevent the total ruin of agriculture. Peel passed a 
 bill repealing the Act of 18 19, and again allowing the issue of small 
 notes — with rags, agriculture again revived, and went on reviving, 
 and trade with it till the Session of this present year, when a general 
 panic having seized the nation, and many Bankers and Merchants 
 failing for want of gold, brought us down to the pitch at which we 
 are at present ,• every rotten scoundrel pulling down his rotten bro- 
 ther with him, and rotten pulling sound into the water also, till all 
 was a grand scene of drowning, screaming, calling for help, and roar- 
 ing for assistance. This assistance Government refuses to give, and 
 justly enough — but Government does not perceive the only remedy to 
 be the wiping out the National Debt, to this they must and will come 
 in the end, and nothing to be devised by the wit of man can prevent 
 it, and they that are our disciples, have nothing to do but watch their 
 efforts and struggles to avoid this measure to which all things are 
 hastening with such prodigious rapidity. By the sketch we have 
 given, you perceive, Fellow-Sufferers, that the Bank has never yet 
 been able to pay in gold and to withdraw its paper, you will perceive 
 that whenever it has been attempted ruin comes at the door without 
 a moment's delay, and you will see that Government never will be 
 
I 
 
 27 
 
 able to carry their new acts into effect, notwithstanding all their 
 boasted firmness and obstinacy. Mark our words — watch their mo- 
 tions, and see if we are not right — again we say, MARK OUR 
 WORDS. 
 
 Hume, whom we have already quoted, asks what can be the dif- 
 ference in the financial affairs of a Government and an Individual ? 
 And common reason answers that there is and can be no real 
 difference. Let us suppose the case of Sir John Squander, a great Tory 
 and a violent No-Bopery Bigot, let us suppose that he has mortgaged 
 his estates to their full value, and still requires a great annual sum to 
 carry on his ordinary expenses, and that he cannot raise sufficient 
 money from his farms by any means in the world — why if he were 
 by any possible circumstances to be able to put out paper instead of 
 gold, he could pay his debts, he could spend his money, and be the 
 cause of a vast deal of money circulating — and this he might do by 
 turning Banker, and supposing he had the power, as Parliament has, 
 to compel people to take his notes, he might go on increasing his 
 prosperity to that excessive pitch, which in the end must come to 
 bankruptcy. He might issue a million of paper, being worth only in 
 reality a hundred thousand pounds, eighty of which was mortgaged— 
 or he might go on to two millions — ^but in the end, people though 
 compelled to take his notes would in their bargains value them only 
 at half a crown or a shilling, and no power on earth could prevent 
 them so doing. But supposing he had the power to wipe off the 
 mortgage without paying either principal or interest, he might then 
 call in his paper, (provided he had not issued it above the amount of 
 his real property,) and by economy and retrenchment restore his 
 affairs — but this measure supposes him able to get rid of his mortgage 
 by violence, which is impossible for an individual, and thus he must 
 be a bankrupt in spite of his teeth. But it is not so with the nation, 
 the nation CAN WIPE OUT THE DEBT, but without that mea- 
 sure it is in the case of Sir John Squander, as long as it puts paper 
 into circulation it can go on from year to year, and pay the interest 
 of the mortgage, but without paper it must stop, it cannot pay its 
 interest and its expenditure. In short, the nation is in a dilemma, if it 
 goes on with paper there is an end of confidence, as at present, and 
 trade is ruined ; if it goes on with gold agriculture is ruined, now 
 neither of these dilemmas the nation can bear, for either of them is 
 practical national ruin — the only way to get out of the difficulty is to 
 
28 
 
 get rid of the debt, as we have often said, and often and often sliall 
 repeat again. The Ministers acknowledge two parts of our argu- 
 ment, they say that gold and paper are incompatible, that there is a 
 deadly enmity between them, and that paper is ruinous and destruc^ 
 live ; but they fail to see that with the interest of the debt to be paid, 
 it is impossible to go on with gold — in shorty they liave never yet 
 tried going on with gold, to which they declare they will now 
 AT LAST really and truly return ; but to which they never will, 
 without sponging out the national debt, as long as the world lasts. 
 Banks are to be entirely and ultimately checked in their issue three 
 years from this time, according to the new acts, the effect of 
 this will be, AND IS ALREADY, that agriculture will go to the 
 (logs — by next Christmas, Farmers will scarcely pay any rent at all, 
 the Banks already are afraid to issue any notes for fear of a run, and 
 the effect is beginning to be felt with wonderful celerity. Sir John 
 Squander is drawing in his paper, and his creditors are coming on 
 him — and, in a short time, he will say to the mortgage-gentlemen, 
 " Sir, I cannot pay the interest of my mortgage, and my annual 
 expenses also." We perceive that the Bank of England is to bolster 
 up those wretched beggars called Merchants, and perhaps it may 
 give them some temporary relief, (though never was there such a 
 botching scheme heard of before,) but now is the time for Farmers\ 
 to begin roaring, they will howl away now without stopping, and ^ 
 tlieir howls are of much more effect with Government than those of 
 the Trade-men, because they have so very many more votes in the 
 House, and could if they chose turn out the Ministers to-morrow by 
 a single division. Thus we sadly fear that the new acts will be re^ 
 pealed before the three years are elapsed, for if by any good luck 
 they really sliould live without any alteration, they will to a moral 
 certainty bring about an entire revolution, and we shall have A NEW 
 SYSTEM. But this is more than we dare to wish for, and we sadly 
 fear that the acts will be repealed. 
 
 Thus, in as short and comprehensive manner as we are masters of, 
 have we laid open to your view, suffering People, the two great evils 
 of the nation, extravagance in the Expenditure, and the weight of the 
 National Debt. In extravagance is included the Church, the Law, the 
 Corn-prohibitions, &c. &c. &c. all of which we have mentioned and 
 pointed out to you, for though the Church should not be called a part 
 of our national extravagance, but rather a part of our national robbery. 
 
29 
 
 yet as it is a vast and tremendous engine for screwing money out of the 
 people, it is in effect the same as the army or the pension list, or any 
 thing else that swallows up the taxes. We hear of Turkey and Persia 
 being miserably pilled and plundered by the Bashaws and Agas, but the 
 Bashaws and Agas do not take near so much money from the people 
 as the tax-gatherer and all the other money-collectors take from the 
 people of England. * — In Persia it is done with much greater ferocity 
 and apparent savageness, the Bashaws never collect the tribute with- 
 out taking off some heads and flogging people to death, but in Eng- 
 land the tax-gatherers and tax-inventors are wiser and more circum- 
 spect in their cruelties ; they first calculate the gi-eatest possible quan- 
 tity of money that the people can bear, and they seldom ask for more 
 than can be borne, but NEVER FOR LESS — not all England in tears 
 could ever make the Minister ask for LESS than the people can bear: 
 that point being ascertained, the tax-gatherer sets to w^ork, not by 
 taking money from the people directly, but in taxing the necessaries of 
 life, and thus prohibiting the poor from enjoying them. — This is much 
 more sly and effectual than the Turkish mode, it is not offensive and 
 cruel to the eye, it does not expose heads and hands upon nails, 
 nor does it make blood flow in the streets, but it kills, starves, and 
 degrades in reality twice as many people as the Turkish method. 
 By the English plan, men, women and children, retire to their houses, 
 and pine away in secret — ^gaunt famine mows them down by hun- 
 dreds ; and no body is blamed for it. — Oh, no ! it is all the distress of 
 the times, and we live in a happy, free, Protestant country, where 
 there is no idolatry and superstition, but an enlightened Clergy that 
 takes five millions of hard cash from the people every year, and lends 
 them two-penny tracts in return. Thus it is at Norwich, at Maccles- 
 field, at Leeds, in Spitalfields, and in Glasgow, from North to South 
 at this very time we behold so many thousands and tens of thousands 
 suffering by what is politely called "a stagnation in Trade," but 
 which in reality is " the unabated annual robbery of the Nation." 
 The stagnation of trade is 7iol the cause of their sufferings, it is one 
 of the effects of a previous cause, which is Extravagance and the 
 National Debt, and though the new quackery of lending money to 
 
 * In Persia and Turkey the tax-gatherer can be bribed off, which in England i$ 
 impossible : and besides it is a standing law of those kingdoms that no new tax 
 shall ever be imposed. 
 
30 
 
 Merclmnts and Manufacturers on their goods from the Bank, may 
 possibly revive them personally a little, yet the Mechanics are not to 
 think that it will do them any good, no, the evil is far too deeply 
 rooted in the whole vitals of the nation to be remedied by this 
 wretched expedient, and no man that wishes well to his country can 
 desire to see it succeed even as a temporary measure. We have 
 suffered far too much to wish for any thing that may restore the old 
 delusion for a moment, we hail every thing that tends to open 
 the eyes of the people, convinced that in their distress and adversity 
 they will listen to the truth and adopt those measures, which after a 
 hard struggle through their difficulties, may ultimately bring them 
 relief. We have said the Minister never demands less than the 
 people can bear, and by that we mean, the whole aggregate of the 
 people; the PLUNDERABLE MATTER they calculate may be 
 raised one way or another, if we cannot get it from trade we can 
 get it from agriculture, if not from agriculture from the working 
 classes, we may ruin one but we shall not ruin another, and somebody 
 will pay us, that is all we care for, — ^but we must not ruin all toge- 
 ther, that will be impolitic, we will screw to the sticking point, but 
 not beyond it. On this virtuous principle they refuse to take off 
 the House and Window Tax, it is just the farthest possible point of 
 taxation that can be borne, if they were to take it off the people 
 would feel too easy, and there would be a deficiency of four millions 
 in the Plunderable Matter, which would make it necessary to re- 
 trench to the extent of four millions — a thing especially to be avoided. 
 " Bleed them till they feel sick, but not till they faint," says the 
 Doctor, *' yes" says the Surgeon, " T always take care to do that, I 
 know their constitution too well to produce syncope." But the 
 patient at last may go mad, and kill both Doctor and Surgeon 
 together. 
 
 What then, Fellow-Sufferers, is the cure for all these monstrous 
 oppressions ? not violence, mobs and uproar, we assure you ; 
 and we are very sorry to see in a Ministerial Paper that the old 
 story of Dragoons and Magistrates is beginning after a pause of three 
 or four years. The Morning Herald thus expresses itself. *' By the 
 " following, which we received last night from Macclesfield, it will ' 
 '* be seen, that there are serious apprehensions entertained in that 
 " town of a disturbance on the part of the weavers. We should 
 '* hope that Government will be on the alert, a7id despatch a svj^cient 
 
31 
 
 «* mititary force, lest the mob should take into their heads to materi- 
 " ally injure or destroy the silk and other mills of the place. IT IS 
 « NO USE TEMPORISING WITH WEAVERS." With this truth 
 the Magistrates are fully impressed on all occasions, and we see with 
 pain and alarm, that part of the Seventh Hussars have set off from 
 York to the North, a movement which is announced as intended 
 expressly for the Radicals. It is in vain, we assure you, to attempt 
 a popular commotion, and besides being vain and hopeless it is 
 positively wicked and mischievous. The force that is wanted is 
 moral forcCj and the whole efforts of your minds ought to be turned 
 to loud cries for Reform in Parliament, there is no remedy to your 
 grievances but Reform in Parliament, and now is the time to strike 
 whilst the iron is hot ; pour in petitions by hundreds and thousands, 
 urge all the popular gentry whether high or low Whigs to begin with- 
 out delay county-meetings for that object, it is the sole salvation of the 
 people ; the kingdom is now reduced to that state that both trade and 
 agriculture are roaring together, the farmers are most unmanageable 
 and boisterous fellows, they are always either at the height of loyalty 
 or in the pit of sedition — If prices are high tliey do nothing but 
 drink ale and sing " God save the King" from morning to night, but 
 when prices are low they are violent, furious, and intractable Reform- * 
 ers. Their politics are managed by their belly, not by their heart, or 
 their head ; and you will hear in two or three months how noisy and 
 mischievous they will be. In short, it is the time to be stirring, it is 
 time to urge with unshaken firmness the only cure, " Reform in Par- 
 liament ;" but it is not time and never will be time to break looms, to 
 burn mills, to hold secret meetings, and to get pikes together. 
 The Yeomanry and the Regulars will soon settle that work, and the 
 old gentlemen in long-flaxen wigs round their withered faces, will 
 glean the harvest if any is left by the Dragoons. It is too serious a 
 matter to see two or three hundred graceful thin-waisted Dragoons, 
 like the 7th, prancing on their bright horses over ploughed fields 
 after weavers ; they know very well " that it is no use temporising 
 with weavers ;" they are expert and gallant swordsmen who have cut 
 down Napoleon's Imperial Guard, and who can shave off weavers 
 heads by twenties before a weaver can hamstring one of their horses. 
 In short, it is madness, folly and wickedness to begin riots ; it is 
 folly, because it makes many real Reformers of talents and honesty 
 withhold their moral assistance, and it is wickedness, begause all 
 
 D 2 
 
32 
 
 sedition and tumult must be wickedness and lead only to crime and 
 misery. Hence, we are sorry to hear that placards are stuck up on 
 the walls of the great manufacturing T'ovvns of an offensive nature 
 against his Majesty. The King has a right to our affection and 
 loyalty, he is the father of his people, he has a warm and generous 
 heart, he feels for the sufferings of his subjects, and he has sent a 
 thousand pounds out of his privy purse, to the suffering weavers of 
 Spitalfields. But you will say his Ministers have done all this, why 
 does he not dismiss them ? True : this Ministry and those that have 
 gone before have brought all this on the nation by their abominable 
 extravagance and profligacy ; and true it is, that his Majesty retains 
 such counsellors ; — but — and the but is every thing, he could not do 
 otherwise. The majority in the House, as it is now constituted, will 
 always be Tory and extravagant ; as long as it is unreformed, the 
 majority will be of the present ruling faction, that faction which has 
 been so long pampered by the public money that it is too strong ever 
 to be dismissed, except in a crisis, which crisis we think is not far off. 
 But now there is but one alternative, either to have a Tory Ministry 
 and to keep up the present abuses and oppressions, or to have a 
 Reformed House of Parliament. Therefore REMEMBER! the 
 King cannot change his Ministers without Reform in Parliament ; 
 and therefore, (setting aside the general crime of disloyalty to the 
 King,) it is unjust and ungenerous to utter a word against our 
 Monarch who cannot do otherv/ise than he does at present. Let us 
 be loyal in our sufferings, let us love the King but hate tlie system ; 
 let us feel and acknowledge that our enemies are the Church and the 
 Aristocracy, those two great monsters that swallow up Majesty and 
 the People. With a Reformed House of Parliament the kingly 
 authority would be restored to its proper weight and influence : when 
 the Government is Republican all the people are Royalists, when the 
 Government is Aristocratical every soul is a Rebel, it is our duty to 
 restore the King to his government over the people, and to lead the 
 people to love and adore their King. It is vile and unjust to suppose 
 that his Majesty is indifferent to the woes and wrongs of his people, 
 and it shows that we are neither just nor generous to hint at such an 
 accusation. If we are loyal when we are happy, we must be loyal 
 when we are miserable, or else our loyalty is hypocrisy and deceit. 
 Let us take warning and attend to the words of a dying French 
 Royalist on the field of battle in the French Revolution, wlio thus 
 
3a 
 
 repi'oved a complaining wounded and dying friend close by lilm. 
 " OH, SIR, LET US NOT COMPLAIN, WHOSE GOD DIED 
 " ON A CROSS AND WHOSE KING DIED ON A SCAF- 
 '^ FOLD." 
 
 SLAVERY. 
 
 ON Thursday, March 2d, Mr. Dcnman brought before the House 
 of Commons the case of some legal murders that have lately taken 
 place in Jamaica. These murders, which were stamped with e very- 
 species of injustice and horrid cruelties, have been carried through 
 with all the forms of law and all the ceremonies of equity, and yet 
 more barbarous and bloody work never stained the annals of history ; 
 proving that which certainly wanted no proof, that oppression, 
 cruelty, murders, assassination and tyranny can flourish as well with 
 ■wicked judges and juries as without them. In these trials the 
 evidence of the slaves against the slaves was the only contrivance 
 used for their destruction, though the evidence of a slave cannot be 
 heard against a white man, and though a slave if he cooks up good 
 and convicting evidence against his fellow slave is sure to be emanci- 
 pated and rewarded, and thus has a stimulus for false witness and 
 perjury too strong to be resisted. Mr. Denman said, " How could 
 " this be reconciled with justice that on one side of the Court no 
 '* slave was admissible to give evidence, and on the other side 
 *' none but slaves were admitted ? What was that House to think of 
 '' the proceedings of a Court of Justice where none but slaves were 
 " called to give evidence before a jury of their masters before whom 
 ''they trembled.?^ No less than TWENTY THREE slaves were 
 " convicted and executed on the evidence of their fellow slaves. 
 " Was this a state of things which ought to last } If there was any 
 " man in that House, and he believed there was not, who thought 
 " the slave the property of the master merely and no more, it was 
 " for them to say this system should be continued. But the short 
 " and simple remedy for all these evils was the extinction of slavery 
 " altogether." — These poor wretches were convicted on Uie evidence 
 
34 
 
 of boys chiefly, sons against fathers, brothers against brothers. One 
 son, quite a boy, was made to hang his father by his evidence, which 
 evidence was extorted by fear, and not taken upon oath either at the 
 examination or the trial I ! ! another man was hanged by the evidence 
 of his wife, not on oath !! ! and all was in the same strain, and yet 
 they all died like heroes, protesting their innocence to the last, 
 AND THEY WERE UNDOUBTEDLY INNOCENT. More 
 atrocious cases no lover of Slavery could possibly wish for, they beat 
 every thing yet heard of, and yet the House of Commons has refused 
 to interfere by a majority of 103 against 63. If any Liberator or 
 friend to humanity looked for any other termination to this dreadful 
 tragedy, they entertained most romantic notions of that House which 
 is expected to protect outraged justice, and to heal the breaches made 
 in the law by villains and murderers. We are surprised that the 
 majority was not rather 200 to 40, for, excepting in the proportion of 
 the division, every thing to the most minute particular which we 
 had anticipated and prophecied took place. Canning was, as usual, 
 full of sweet and honied generals, he avoided particulars, as a cat 
 does the water, he discanted most mellifluously on abstract princi- 
 ples, deprecated the violence of the Slave-men — begged for delay- 
 hoped for better things — was sure they would see their errors — and 
 so on, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, till the grand chorus of the majority 
 came in with a grand crash and overwhelmed his piddling and mean 
 solo. As we had anticipated; the resolutions of 1823 were Canning's 
 sheet-anchor, Wilmot Horton, the great Slave-excuse-man, referred 
 to them with extacy of joy, every Slave-man praised them to the 
 skies, and it was asked, and with some triumph too, why the Honor- 
 able Gents, did not rest satisfied with that which they had agreed to, 
 without a dissenting voice ? and we should like to know -what Fowel 
 Buxton would answer to that question } it will give him some trouble 
 to get over it, and unless he subscribes to the sentiments of the 
 Elector's Guide, and confesses that we were right. Canning will lead 
 him about like a dancing dog and laugh at him and his friends 
 more than he does at present. We refer our readers to the Elector's 
 Guide, No. IV. page 9^ where we said, — " These resolutions, drawn 
 *' up in the vaguest manner, promising nothing specific, fixing na 
 " time, alluding to no date, naming no place, and pointing out no 
 ** plan, but breathing only the genuine spirit of delay, deception,, 
 ** fraud, tieachery and dissimulation, met with the cheers of tli© 
 
35 
 
 « Slave-holders, and the false smiles of the Liberators. That which 
 " pretends to harmonise between black and white is an impossible 
 " colour, and that which is satisfactory to God and Mammon we 
 '' know cannot exist, it is therefore evident, that any resolutions 
 " agreeing to two such diametrically opposite parties as the Liberators 
 '' and the Enslavers, must be founded on falsehood, and cati be 
 *' nothing but a fallacy." These words should sink deep into the 
 minds of all honest men, and w^e will confess ourselves to be the 
 veriest political quacks ever heard of, if they do not in the end prove 
 to be true to the most minvite syllable — and if the whole emancipating 
 party does not act upon them and thereby acknowledge them to be 
 true. The plan of Canning and the Slave-men is all clear and open ; 
 they have now nothing to do but to praise these said resolutions every 
 year, to goad the Liberators with inconsistency in wishing to go 
 beyond them, and to declare with the sweetest smiles and most 
 benevolent suavity of manner, " that they hate slavery, but cannot 
 '* think of practically setting aside the unanimous resolution of the 
 *' House." (Loud Cheers.) — Now, Fowel Buxton, and now Stephens, 
 Brougham, and Wilberforce, do you not feel at last that Canning has 
 overreached you ? he had a good laugh, no doubt, on Friday, March 
 3d, we can easily conceive how he, and Scarlet, and Wilmot Horton 
 would chuckle and grin, and make squibs, and rebuses, and rhymes, 
 and epigrams on your party — how Canning would caper ! how all the 
 Slave-men would press round him, and kiss his coat laps, and lick 
 the treasury dust off the shoes of their great, great, great Apollo ! 
 
 TU MAXLMUS ILLE ES 
 
 UNUS QUI NOBIS CUNCTANDO RESTITUIS REM*. 
 And yet all parties were nearly agreed in their reprobation of these 
 Jamaica murders, but when it came to the voiing, (that test of honesty 
 and sincerity,) the affair bore quite another aspect. The Attorney 
 General observed that " the evidence of a Slave against a white man 
 " was not admitted, because he had no distinct notion of morality — 
 *' because he had no distinct notion of religion — because he could 
 " not discriminate between truth and falsehood, and therefore it was 
 ** not safe to admit it — ^but mark the inconsistency. When a Slave 
 
 Angliie. — ^" The only man who has been able to save us by shuffling and 
 delay.' 
 
 <t ,Ulo« '» 
 
sa 
 
 " was put on his trial, the evidence of a Slave against him was admis- 
 '' sible, and not upon oath, but under the mere exhortation not to 
 " tell a falsehood. Such a system could not be supported — ^how then 
 " did he mean to shape his observations ? While he co?idem?ied the 
 " system generally and its practical workings, he was satisfied that the 
 " individuals who conducted this prosecution DID NOT ERR 
 « INTENTIONALLY." Well done. Attorney General ! It is a 
 custom amongst thieves to go into crowds and assemblies of people, 
 it is a time-hallowed practise for such gentlemen to pick pockets and 
 rob watch-fobs, it certainly was a custom to be deprecated and 
 avoided, nay such a system ought not to subsist — ^but he was per- 
 suaded, that whilst he should feel it his duty to condemn such a 
 system generally and its practical workings, yet he was satisfied that 
 the gentlemen who conducted these felonies did not err intentionally. 
 Give us a good sly Lawyer — recommend us to the Attorney General 
 or to Scarlett, no men upon earth knov/ better than such adepts as 
 these to make use of Jeremy Bentham's book of Fallacies, and the 
 deuce is in it, if persons whose profession consists in the most ingenious 
 w^ay of telling falsehoods and uttering what they do not believe, cannot 
 puzzle a plain question in the Honorable Right Honorable House. 
 
 Denman's motion was this, " that the House having taken into 
 '^ consideration the papers containing the accounts of the trials of 
 " some slaves in the Island of Jamaica in 1823 and 1824-, deem it 
 '' their duty to express, in the strongest terms, the indignation which 
 " they feel at the violation of law in these trials and in carrying the 
 " sentences into execution ; and they cannot refrain from expressing 
 ^' their conviction of the necessity of a reform in the manner of these 
 « trials." 
 
 The amendment was by Wilmot Horton. '' That this House sees 
 **■ in the proceedings brought under its consideration with respect to 
 '^ the late trial of slaves in Jamaica, further proofs of the evils in-^ 
 *^ separable from a state of Slavery, and derives increased conviction 
 '■ of the propriety of the resolution of the House, passed on the 18th May, 
 " i 823 ; BUT however desirable it might be to amend the law 
 " under which the late trials took place, it did not appear expedient 
 " or SAFE to impeach sentences passed by competent tribunals on 
 " persons tried according to law, and convicted before juries duly 
 " impannelled and sworn to give verdicts according to the evidence 
 " brought before them." 
 
The amendment was of course carried; an amendment which, 
 as we prophecied praises those famous snickles of 1823, (dear 
 1 823, ever to be loved by Slave-men,) and yet by as gross a Par- 
 liamentary lie as ever was told contradicts that which it has so 
 frequently done before, namely, the setting aside scandalous and 
 corrupt verdicts of solemn juries, and the scandalous and corrupt 
 sentences of pious and respectable Judges. Why was Lord 
 Russell's sentence set aside by Parliament ? why ? because he was 
 a Lord and not a Slave ? Why were the sentences of Pym Bast- 
 wick &c. set aside by Parliament, because they were Parliament men 
 and not Slaves ? Why was Lady Lisle's sentence reversed ? because 
 she was a Lady and not a Slave — and so on, as any school-boy could 
 tell us who only knows superficially the English History. 
 
 Thus however, " wags the world." — Selfishness and cold-blooded 
 calculation of interest, ever have and ever will weigh down truth, 
 humanity and justice — one man from fraud, another from baseness, 
 this from cowardice, and that from villainy — but all aiming at the 
 same point — -the doing of mischief, the bolstering up of wickedness, 
 the protecting of vice, and the prevention of good. Such is the 
 lamentable picture of human corruption; from the flood to the 
 month of March, 1826, the same baseness has prospered under differ- 
 ent names in different climates ; the same vile applause and grovelling 
 public approbation or toleration granted to men in power, who know- 
 ing the stupidity of mankind fail not to make the most of their know- 
 ledge ; proving that spoken by him who had studied to the uttermost 
 the corruption of all ranks of men from the throne to the plough. 
 
 ^' The heart of man is deceitful above »11 things, and desperately 
 " wicked—WHO CAN KNOW IT??' 
 
38 
 
 A LETTER TO THE 
 HONORABLE SIR JOHN BAYLEY, KNIGHT. 
 
 Sir John! 
 AS by this time you must be heartily tired of the trumpets, turtle- 
 soup, and bag- wigs of simpering Sheriffs ; as in your legal perambu- 
 lations you must have seen and heard more folly from Grand Juries 
 and Magistrates than human patience can endure, and as it will be 
 your fate to nod to-morrow in the Cathedral over a dull and unin- 
 teresting sermon, unless the Chaplain be something remarkably out 
 of the common way, and have more wit than is usually allotted to 
 
 • Priests ; we think it our duty to amuse you with a billet-doux, better 
 than the jokes of a Lawyer over a felon and sweeter than the per- 
 fumed pomatum of a Sheriff. On what subject shall we write ? * 
 
 ; if we should sing of law, would our law be worthy of a Judge ? We 
 are bold to think it even good enough for your consideration, and 
 
 • your well known urbanity leads us to hope that if we are wrong you 
 will correct us. Our practise is. Sir John, to take the bull by the 
 horns ; you who have always read the Elector's Guide, who doubtless 
 have turned it over with a daily and nightly hand, will have re- 
 marked with satisfaction how we have ever led the forlorn hope in 
 politics and have sought the bubble reputation even in the fiery 
 cannon's mouth. Many and many are the perils we have encountered, 
 fierce have been the Attorneys marshalled against us, desperate the 
 Priests, sour the Bankers, and tremendous the Jobbers ; but w^e have 
 beat them all with ease, and not one of them has yet found a joint in 
 our armour for their shafts of venom and rage. And now so great is 
 our audacity, so stout is the oak and brass around our breasts, that 
 we can presume to behold with dry eyes those monsters of the law, 
 the Judges, >and stop their triumphal entry with our still more 
 triumphant pens. In vain has the King separated the Judges from 
 ill-assorted-rabble, and vain is the pomp of wigs and shrieval geld- 
 
 Si canlinu» «ylvas, sylvae lunt consule dignae ? 
 
39 
 
 ings, if impious hands still presume to assail their sanctity and ' 
 delegated Royalties, — and if even you. Sir John, are doomed to feel 
 that the race of lapetus is not yet extinct.* The judicial character 
 is hedged round with solemnity and terrors, for though Rhadaman- 
 thus who uses tortures in his judgment lives in warmer regions than 
 you, yet we must remember that our country has produced a Jeffreys 
 who boasted of his "campaigns," and has now living a public pro- 
 secutor who declared with glee that none of his political prosecutions 
 had ever failed. In our eyes your chai*acter has more than usual 
 sanctity, for besides the terrors of hemp you are :femed for your 
 comment on the Common Prayer, y^hose funeral service can never be 
 too much admired or wept over by those who have been tried by 
 affliction or a Judge. Rhadamanthus and iEacus were iipright indi- 
 viduals, and are so ^et, if the faith that is taught us at schools is to 
 be believed ; but when you. Sir John, are commented on by posterity ' 
 and compared to great men of old, let it be to him v/hose fame is * 
 thus immortally recorded, ' ' •- ■ '-^ 
 
 " Secretosque PIOS, his dantexn Jura CATONEM." 
 We are not unacquainted -vrith -tlie favorite maxim of writers of 
 credit, that the pomp of ofHc? is useful to keep up dignity and 
 sacredness of character which many persons in power do not really 
 possess — it is a i^naxim fVeqiiently repeated> and sometimes believed 
 — but we deny it altogether, and we declare that those who have* 
 given it most publicly have held most scornful and degradingi 
 opinions of liuman liarare, or have not believed what they asserted. 
 Blackstone is reriiarkably attached to this theory, and though you 
 know him by lieart, yet Iiave patience ^>vhilst we quote him for those 
 
 .1 
 
 * For the benefit of the Country Gentlemen who are to compose the Grand Jiiirjr»t 
 
 and whose law is greater, we ?iop3, than tJieir literature, we venture to quote the 
 
 passage we allude to, referring thaiai .'o he Clerk of Assize to construe the hard 
 
 words. 
 
 " Illi robur et aes triplex 
 
 '^* Circa pectus erat "• 
 
 " Qui siccis oculis monstra natantia, 
 '• Qui vidit mare turgidum, et 
 " Infames scopulos Acroceraunia. 
 " Necquicquara Deus abscidit 
 
 " Prudens Oceano dissociabili 
 " Terras : si taiuen impije 
 
 " Non tangenda rates transiliunt vada, 
 " Audax Ilipeti genus," &c 
 
40 
 
 who are leis conversant in his writing^i *' Under every monarchical 
 *' establishment it is necessary to distinguish the Prince from his 
 *^ subjects, not only by the outward pomp and decoration of Majesty, 
 " but by also ascribing to him certain qualities,' as inherent in his lioyal 
 '* capacity, and distinct from and superior to those of any other 
 " individual in the nation. For though a philosophical mind will 
 " consider the Royal person merely as one man appointed by mutual 
 " consent to preside over many others, and will pay him that rever- 
 " ence and duty which the principles of society demand, yet the 
 *' mass of mankind will be apt to gi'ow insolent and r^ractart^ if 
 ** taught to consider their Prince as a man of no greater perfection 
 '' than themselves* The law therefore ascribes to the King in his 
 " political capacity, not only large poweis and emoluments which 
 " form his' prerogative and revenue, hut likewise certain attributes 
 ^^ of a^ great and transcendent nature, by which the people are led to 
 " consider him in iJi^ light o/' a superior being" In otiier words, it 
 is necessary to tell a lie to prevent the people from being insolent 
 and refractory ; a doctrine which neither you nor we can approvcj 
 aid- which is also practically confuted by the plain fact, tliat the 
 people sometimes pelt the golden coach and the cream-coloured 
 horses, when provisions are scarce, and when they reflect that the 
 pomp of office is expensive. The people do not like ''to pay dear 
 for their whiaHe," when bread is dear and the demand for workmen, 
 i* dfeficieiH. The coronation that costs a- million would have no 
 effect upon the rabble if they were hungry^ and even a Sheriff might 
 pass by unadmired when it iff reflected that his retinue is supported 
 by a high and exclusive tax upon corn. Cheapness and pomp are 
 very popular ; dearness and grandeur are exceedingly odious — and 
 he that would be admired for his fine dress must first be sure that' 
 the people are not sufferers by his^ tinsel and magnificence. Far be 
 it from us to insinuate that the pigmy glory of a York Assise is not 
 entitled to the affections and enthusiasm of the people ; there is a 
 something divine in the Sheriffs wand ; the flourish of his trumpets 
 is heart-stirring and invigorating ; his sword makes us tremble, and 
 we are sure that the sheep-stealers' and the house-breakers must feel 
 most extraordinary sensations when the Cathedral bells summon you 
 to the exertion of prayer. Nor do the people pay for the procession; 
 that is a material point, a point which includes all the requisites for 
 tlic most exalted popularity and the most refined loyalty. If we did 
 
41 
 
 not imagine thiat he who holds his commission from the Kiiig, must 
 naturally dislike the title of philosopher, we should pay you the 
 compliment to suppose that you would prefer the internal dignity of 
 the man, the splendor of morals, and the sacredness of undeviating 
 honesty, to the glare and glitter of your official equipment* Weltow- 
 ever, whose political opinions must ever divide us from the influence 
 of royalty, openly profess that in this view only do we Avish to con- 
 template the Judges of the land, and that with uncoui'teous eyes we 
 ever strive to discover the man tlirough the flaxen majesty of his 
 wig. We have seen the phenomenon of a corrupt Judge, we have 
 lived fifty years upon the earth, few and evil have the years of your 
 servants been,^ and yet in that time law has been sometimes pre- 
 vented on the bench, and falsely interpreted to the Jury. Did this 
 phenomenon take place in England ? Who shall say ? the sight has 
 been seen, and *that is enough, let us hope that it never will occur 
 again. To speak even of riemote times is not safe with a Lawyer ; 
 Paine was found guilty for observing, ''that in case of another revo- 
 lution, England would not seek assistance from a Dutch Statholder," 
 an observation that was supposed to injure the feelings of the reign- 
 ing family, who by running up their pedigi*ee a century back, might 
 discover that they were remotely connected with this same Dutcii 
 Statholder of whom the writer spoke so irreverently. To be con- 
 demned to two years imprisonment for such a remark is doubtless 
 very sound but very severe law, and it almost makes us tremble 
 to remark, that in the reign of Richard II. the Lord Chief Justice 
 Tresilian was hanged at Tyburn for his crimes, and all the other 
 Judges but one banished the kingdom. Having thus broken the ice, 
 we are however, bold to remark, tliat at another time forty-two of 
 them were all hanged up as common thieves, (Rapin 1. 34:3.) Sir 
 William Thorpe, Chief-Justice of the King s Bencli, in the reign 
 of Edward IIL having received five several bribes, which in all 
 amounted to c€lOO. was for this adjudged to be hanged, and his land* 
 and goods forfeited. It is thus entered on the Rolls ; " Quia prae- 
 '' dictus W. Thorpe, qui sacramentum Domini Regis, erga populum 
 " suum habuit ad custodiendum, fregit malitiose, false, et rebelliter 
 '' quantum in ipso fuit." In the reign of Edward I. Sir Thomas 
 Weyland, Lord Chief Justice, was banished, ar,d all his estates con- 
 fiscated for judicial corrupness, and at the same time all the Judges 
 were fined in different sums, which we hei<^ give at leiigih. 
 
42 
 
 Sir Ralph Hengham :i.- Llni 7.000 marks. 
 
 Sir John Lovelot 3^000 
 
 Sir W. Brompton 6,000 
 
 Sir Solomon Rochester 4,000 
 
 Sir Thomas Sodentone 2,000 
 
 Sir Walter Hopetone 2,000 
 
 Sir W. Sahan 3,000 
 
 Robert Littlebury, I pi ,n / 1,000 
 
 Roger Leicester, / I 1,0G0 
 
 Adam de Stratton 32,000 
 
 To refer you to the notorious case of Bacon, Lord Verulam, is 
 needless, he was severely punished by Parliament and ruined by the 
 fines imposed on him ; Lord Coke himself did not escape from the 
 Star-chamber, and the Star-chamber's decrees and judgments were 
 reversed and cancelled, so that History, in times which it is safe to 
 7nention, is not wanting in instances of corrupt and mischievous 
 Judges. The question then immediately occurs, has human nature 
 altered ? Perhaps it has. The climate does wonders^ The climate 
 of England has changed, and the iniquity of Law Courts may have 
 ceased with the vineyards and convents of ancient times. It is a 
 theory worthy the Quarterly Review, and may prevent a disagreeable 
 reflection suggested by the subject. Judge Blackstone however will 
 be handed down to posterity as a supple courtier, who quoted opinions 
 in the House directly contrary to what he had written in his com- 
 mentaries. His commentaries were favourable to the cause of Wilks 
 and Liberty, his opinions in the House were at Vv-ar with his com- 
 mentaries, and Junius observes, that " when the contradiction was 
 •' unexpectedly urged and str.red him in the face, instead of defending 
 '< himself on the spot, lie sunk under the charge in an agony of con- 
 ** fusion and despair." This argues that the lawyer and the courtier 
 hnd not quite swallowed up the man ; for in these days law3'^ers do 
 mot sink down under the load of their baseness, but encrease their 
 effrontery as charges thicken against them, and they assume courage 
 r.nd confidence in proportion to the magnitude of their corruptness. 
 A ministerial lavvyer is now thoroughly understood by all the world; 
 lie has so braved public opinion by the enormity and violence of his 
 Lfrvilily, that i:^\ men know him to be dead to feeling and incapable 
 of iccciving additi()nal d><grace. The mind is overpowered with 
 
43 
 
 contemplating liis political wickedness; and visited with the dis- 
 ease of Hamlet, we instinctively mistake the least noise of his move- 
 ments for the rat that is behind the arras and gnawing the edifice in 
 secret though certain mischief. Polonius died as a spy, his imitators 
 perish like vermin, but not till they have done more harm than he 
 was able to perform, and unlike him they do not expiate it with their 
 blood. If patriotism is a virtue, if to adhere to liberal and honorable 
 principles is worthy a good citizen, and if to desert them is tlie stigma 
 of a bad one, if consistency is desirable, if public faith is not a solemn 
 farce, and if political treachery is doubly disgraceful whea repiud by 
 great and speedy emoluments, then is disgrace heaped higli as Atlios 
 this very moment on the heads of some whose rewards, rich as they 
 are, scarcely equal the violence of their political transmigrations. 
 
 The cockles and darnels, the thorns and the thistles that choke ,up 
 the soul of man, were first known when our ancestor gave up Heaven 
 for a bribe. With true parental ciffection those that expound the 
 book where the fact is related, carefully imitate the lady from wl^oin 
 they are sprung, and the Lawyers of the Christian, equal in turpitude 
 the Lawyers and the Priests of the Jewish system. The perfeclitju 
 of wickedness is never seen but in a Priest or a Lawyer, for it is only 
 thesd^men that have time, talents, opportunity, and the full swing, of 
 power, to make crime a study and to luxuriate in baseness untouched 
 and unreproved. Believe us. Sir John, vice is a small weed in the 
 souls of felons ; and the audacity of house-breakers, the impudence 
 of prostitutes, and the excellent penmanship of forgers, will give ycm 
 but a faint idea of that purulency and venom v%^hich sin attains when 
 covered by ermine or decorated with lawn. The devil is fond of 
 dignity. He goeth through dry places seeking rest, and tliat house 
 which has been swept and garnished by a genteel education, which 
 has been polished by high-breeding, which has been gilded with ill- 
 gotten gold, which has been warmed with the smiles of a court, and 
 irrigated Math taxes* extorted from a suffering and starving people, 
 is the residence of residences for Satan, the delightful pavilion which 
 he and his seven friends are pleased to make their favorite abode. 
 On a general principle and guided by abstract deductions of philo- 
 
 • The apostate Burke was fond of declaring that the taking of taxes fvoir. tl^e 
 people was of immense benefit to the plundrrm ; " for they were showered hack on 
 " their heads in the shape of expenditure and encouragement of trade." 
 
sophy, if we wished to find the most corrupt man in a kingdom, we 
 should walk up to an Attorney General and mildly say unto him, 
 *' thou art the man/*— -we should reflect, that as his dignity can only 
 be attained by wading through moral mud, that as all jobs must be 
 jobbed by him, and all Government iniquity put in execution by his 
 management, so is it a necessity that he must be a very abandoned 
 and a very desperate character. We should carry our calculations 
 still farther, we should argue that as a manifest and glaring derehc- 
 tion of principle must make the person so disgraced hopeless of ever 
 regaining popular approbation, and consequently regardless of popu- 
 lar aversion ; * such a man should be singled out above all others to 
 receive the rewards of a Ministry, if such a Ministry there be, that 
 stands by the gross terrors of force, and is upheld from day to day 
 by villainy, selfishness, and ancient oppressions. These principles 
 would guide us in the difficulties of all history, we can imagine that 
 Ahab and Jezebel employed sucli an Attorney General to plunder and 
 murder Naboth, for who could be " those two men, sons of Belial who 
 *' bare witness against him, saying, that he blasphemed God and the 
 " King," but the Attorney General of Jerusalem assisted by a Crown- 
 Lawyer ? Are not the same arts practised in modern Europe still ? 
 Have we not seen the day when miserable deluded wretches, whose 
 gnawing and empty stomachs had driven them to utter something 
 seditious, are placed at the bar, and volubly accused of every crime 
 against God and the King by clever and eloquent Lawyers, instructed 
 by all means to hang them if possible ? In fact, that old remark, 
 '' that the Law is a cobweb which catches weak insects, but through 
 which the larger ones break with ea§e," is a remark that will stand 
 good as long as those systems stand in which Lawyers are promoted 
 for their servility and Judges rewarded for their obedience. In 
 these days we do not hear of the gross and open bribing of Judges, 
 either for their votes or their corrupt judgments, t Sir Nicholas 
 
 * That such is not the case in England at present will b.e no confutation of our 
 general theory — one solitary exception would only prove the rule. 
 
 f Sir Nicholas Stratham, second Baron of the Excheq^uer, 7th ^dw. IV. who fi?st 
 abridged the year books for the use of students, left a will dated July 15, A. D. 
 1472, containing the following remarkable clause — it is extracted from the Preroga- 
 tive Court of Canterbury. 
 
 " Item I received XV marks of — Bemont, a worshipful Squier of the "West 
 
 *' Counti, by the hands of Page in the last Parliament^ I did nothing therein there- 
 ** fore, and if I did, yet it is much against my conscience for so moche as I was of y« 
 *♦ Parliament and sholde bee indifterent in everye matter of th.e Parliament, I wUl 
 ♦' he have it ageyne." 
 
45 
 
 Stratham has long been dead, but perhaps the eyes of thinking men 
 are turned to the general conduct of those political machines, whose 
 uniform tendency is to increase power, to diminish liberty, and to 
 please Government. Nay, the interests of the Aristocracy require 
 strong arts and powerful pampering, the game laws and the local 
 oppressions of Magistrates call loudly for judicial tenderness, whilst 
 the jobs and infamy of Corporations and Close Boroughs require ft 
 careful though constant protection of the Bench. To steer through 
 all these demands on benevolence is a hard task for him that 
 dispenses the law, for though the King cannot dismiss he can pro- 
 mote, and Majesty can say to a Judge what he cannot say to the sea, 
 " so far shalt thou go and no farther." Bishops and Judges are 
 seldom paid in hard cash, for this plain reason, that the Court is 
 generally too poor and profligate to meet the vastness of their 
 demands : but they are paid by promotion, and a Clerk of the 
 Closet and a Serjeant, know by heart all the gradations through 
 which it is possible for them to rise, till their labours are finished in 
 the splendour of the Upper House. It is curious to observe how 
 faith and politics evaporate before the warmth of corruption ; and 
 that kingdom is already pointed out by the European Geographers 
 where a Unitarian and Socinian Chancellor will ere long be called 
 upon to dispense large Church patronage to Trinitarian and Ortho- 
 dox Priests. The old mode of violence and authority that once was 
 applied to Judges is laid aside as clumsy and dangerous: Courts 
 have profited by the fable of the wind and the sun, and know by 
 experience that you may melt when you cannot overpower the poor 
 though sturdy traveller. The men in power copy their masters too. 
 The ranting and bullying of a Jeffreys, and the grim demeanor of an 
 EUenborough are quite exploded. We live in an age of exterior 
 gentleness and real cruelty ! we smile and weep, and say soft things, 
 or ejaculate pious sentences, and run through all the regions of cant 
 with a grace and suavity perfectly bewitching; we shed rivers of 
 tears in condemning an atrocious murderer like Thurtell, tears that are 
 noted in the book and put in the bottle, and which are praised and 
 admired in three hundred Newspapers, from Berwick upon Tweed, to 
 Dover. When a modern Judge weeps, hemp flourishes. Hypocrisy 
 and bowing descend even to Under Sheriffs, the Chaplain is 
 gentlemanly in his hints, and the Hangman arranges the fatal knot, 
 with a sigh and a compliment that captivates all beholders. All 
 
 F 
 
tl\e58 tilings are tjigus of tlie GOLDEN. AGE, an age which wit- 
 .^i^siesa small Island ofthe world/ di^P^i^^i^g fifty, million^, annually, to 
 .the adherents of a petty though powerfld faction, powerful in 
 nnliuiited and lon<>,--enjoyed monopolies. Perhaps in kingdoms 
 where enoriiious abuses are in danger of being swept away by an 
 oppressed and enriiged people; it is expedient that the tools of 
 Government should be bland and smooth in tlieir attacks on the 
 ■Constitution. Your readiiig. Sir John, will immediately bring to 
 your recollection th^ case of Sir John Finch, Lord Keeper in the, 
 lleign of Charles L who was impeached for high treason by all the 
 Commons of England, for his corrupt and infamous conduct in the 
 case of the ship-money, — of him. Clarendon says, " Undoubtedly my 
 ** Lord Finch's speech in the Exchequer Chamber made ship-money 
 " nlucli more abhorred and formidable, than all the commitments by 
 ." the Council Table, and all the distresses taken by the Sheriffs ii> 
 ," England— ^for he took up ship-money where Mr. Noy left it, and, 
 r" being a Judge, carried it up to that pinnacle from whence he 
 " almost broke his own neck, having in his journey tliitlierj had too 
 '■" much influence on his brethren, to induce them to concur in a 
 '*' judgment they had all cause to repent." Had this amiable Cor- 
 Iruptionist been less violent and boisterous in his baseness, he might 
 have skved his head and attained his purpose much more easily. 
 Lender in vwdo, foHltcr in re, is a prudent and useful maxim for all 
 those employed in the dirty work of Government, since even a 
 packed Jury will revolt at a dictatorial and imperious style, and 
 ■when we are casting round for coadjutors in villainy, it is expedient 
 to coax and not to command. Of the same Sir John Finch a speech 
 was made in the House of Commons, by a Mr. Rigby, too apposite 
 to be omitted. — "Some men, Mr. Speaker, have objected to us, that 
 " in judgment we should think of mercij. But I am sure that the 
 " spirit of God said, be not pitiful in judgment, nay, it saith, be not 
 \'^ pitiful of the poor in judgment, if not of the poor, a latiori, not of 
 : *^ the rich. There's the emphasis. We see by the set and solemn 
 '*' appointment of our Courts of Justice, what provision the wisdom of 
 ■^' our ancestors hath made for the preservation, honor and esteem of 
 *' justice ; witness our frequent Terms, Sessions, and Assizes, and in 
 " wliat pomp and state the Judges in their circuits, by the Sheriffs, 
 *' Knights, and Justices, and all the country are attended oft-times 
 ;'•' for the liSngiiig of a p_oQ^- thief, for the. stealing of a hog, or 
 •i 
 
47 
 
 *^ sKeep,- nay iil'sbmercajies far tlie stealing of a penny, 7/i fcn^remjt 
 'fiand now SHALL NOT SOME OF THEM BE HANGEl),i1^ 
 'iSfXHAT HAVE ROBBED US -OF ALL OUR PROPEUTYy 
 '5 and sheered • at once all our sheep, and taken all we have 
 '/ itway, and would have made us indeed poor Belizarios to have, 
 "begged for half-pennies, when they would not have left us one 
 " penny that w6 could have called our own ? Let us therefore now, 
 '/" Mr. Speaker, not be so pitiful in judgment as to liave no judg- 
 *5;ment, but set the deplorable state of Great Britain now before our 
 " eyes, and consider how our most gracious Sovereign • hath been 
 " abused, and both he and all his subjects injured by these wicked 
 " instruments. For which. Sir, my humble motion is, that witli 
 " these particulars we become not^so merciful, as to the generality, 
 *tthe whole kingdom, to grow merciless." (State Trials, vii. S\3.) 
 ♦' Allusion is here made to the inequality of law for the poor and the 
 rich, an irteqiiality often complained of, and perha])s witii justice. 
 The Poacher would ask the Lawyer why he was to plod his weary 
 way on the revolving wheel for the offence of taking a brace or two 
 of redundant birds, which birds the law declares to belong to no one> 
 and to be the property of any man .'' He would also iisk wliy steel- 
 traps and spring-guns are set in the M'oods to murder. him r Why 
 the Judges tolerate these instruments, when if a Game-keeper with 
 his reasoning powers and capable of discerning right from wnmg, 
 had been stationed instead of the spring-gun to destroy him, he 
 would be hanged as a murderer, though the spring-gun, maj-, and 
 most probably would, kill an innocent wanderer in the \vi)ods, whilst 
 the game-keeper would only select determined poachers ? I'o do 
 mischief to the innocent is thus no offence, to injure tlie offending is 
 felony, A deduction worthy of our venei'able institutions. 
 
 The Plough-Boy who is punished for playing at scotch-Imp or 
 nine-pins during Church service, would demand -why the Parsr n 
 walks abroad untouched, and plays at cards and other unlawful 
 games that the Canons of the Church expressly prohibit ; and he 
 
 • The Honorable Speaker is bold in his expressions, and yet Uic han"ir.^ of 
 Judges, the impeaching llishops, and cashiering of Kings arepoli'tital intidnus tl?at 
 convey strong moral lessons to those that mistake the .spirit of the Constitiuion, aiid 
 require such mementos to call them to order. The Ir^st Ji'ishop whose corduct came 
 before Tarliament is still living, Royalty was in jc-o] ardy in the per.'on of Quc'ci 
 Caroline, so that it is evident we Iiavc not laid addc tljc pijxiibC ci iUlaeking at 
 Intervals the most sacred characters. 
 
 r 2 
 
48 
 
 may stare with astonishment when the same worthy person sallies 
 out in neat buckskins, to leap over all ditches and set all decency at 
 defiance. The wretched Egyptian, descended probably in a right line 
 from Pharoah, who for sleeping in an out-house, " and not giving a 
 good account of himself," is consigned to the treadmill, might de- 
 mand why so many young gentlemen of quality who wander about 
 Bond-Street, and never can give a good account of themselves, who 
 every night sleep in places less reputable than barns and out-houses^ 
 »nd who fill up the vacant hours of the day at the gambling table 
 ftnd the hell, are praised by their cotemporaries, and looked up ta 
 with pride and pleasure as the ornaments of the town and the boast 
 ©f the country. The unfortunate woman of the streets might enquire 
 why no Duchess is ever lodged in the Poultry, why no Dowager 
 and her favorite captain are brought up by the night watch, and 
 why no notorious widow of fortune is stopped in her impudent 
 career. The Beggar, who asks for public charity and seldom finds 
 ft, plight point out the lazy sons of the pension list who ask for 
 thousands where he wants a penny, and find with ease what he with 
 difficulty can acquire by appealing to the passions. The man that 
 steals a shilling from a shop counter might demand justice on the 
 Lord, who takes away vast sums from the people without askirg 
 their leave, and every rogue in the lower orders might find himself 
 multiplied and magnified in the ranks of higher and more genteel 
 society, whose offences the law never touches and never disturbs. 
 Perhaps the excuse for all this wiU be in the turbulence of the people, 
 an excuse which is founded on a mistake, or supported by a lie. 
 The people are not turbulent, they are contented and enduring 
 For in fact, the patience of the lower classes, in submitting to priva- 
 tions and insults, is only surpassed by the callousness of their betters 
 in witnessing them. The people do not rise till they are trod down. 
 They dp not turn upon their tormentors till they are goaded to mad-, 
 ness, They do not complain till the thumb^screws have been ap» 
 plied, and have been strained to the last turn. But with the highe» 
 classes the moment oppression falls upon their wicked heads, the 
 moment that agriculture* is injured, or trade in decay, all the honors 
 ^ble monopolists fly to arms in the House, and menace Ministers with 
 divisions ^nd difficulties. The merchants of printed rags and paper.^ 
 promises have entirely defeated Ministers this very Session ; Can^ 
 ping has complained in the House, that the E^nk^rj? have leagued to 
 
49 
 
 defeat Government, and have succeeded ! and we all know that 
 these Honorable men |of the Honorable House, refused to continue 
 the property tax, though Ministers declared that Government must 
 stand still if it was withheld; and we saw, in the year 1823, one 
 hundred and sixty Honorables voting for Reform in Parliament, 
 and supporting the great Yorkshire petition. Depend upon it. Sir 
 John, rebellion and revolution will be effected by the country-gentle- 
 men at last ; the measures adopted by Government will thoroughly 
 and speedily bring certain ruin on the landed interest, and when all 
 thing? are in dismay and confusion amongst the Squires and Knights 
 of rotten-boroughs, the corn-laws will be wrested froni them, and 
 that greatest and vilest of monopolies, that ''job of jobs" as Lord 
 King has properly termed it, will be finally abolished, and drive 
 them to that state of despair when in headlong rage they will push 
 Government to the wall, and carry with a large majority Reform in 
 Parliament No Dragoons or Congreve Rockets avail against voting 
 and impoverished Squires ; it is in vain to marshal pious and obe- 
 dient Judges against an enraged majority, the Law cannot touch 
 them, and the Hangman is doomed to heave an unavailing sigh a? he 
 sees these untried Aristocrats hurrying by him to extinguish abuses 
 at St. Stephens in an angry division. Ask Canning, Sir John, if he 
 had rather face forty thousand weavers with pikes anti bludgeons, <^ 
 three hundred country-gentlemen roaring out in the House, that 
 ♦* something must be done ;" and enquire of Prosperity- Robinson if 
 he would not prefer half a million of mad paupers in Spitalfields to 
 fifty of his own party frowning on the left side of the House } When 
 these days come it will be fruitless for you. Sir John, to appeal to 
 your commentaries on the prayer-book, aaid to ejaculate with dou- 
 ble zeal against " sedition, privy-conspiracy and rebellion."— The 
 Squires, the Lords, and the Magistrates will take new views of tho 
 subject, and in answer tp that petition which has been repeated for a 
 century without success, you will at last behold them desperately 
 determined, in spite of the smiles and blandishments of the Treasury 
 Bench, "TO EXECUTE JUSTICE AND MAINTAIN TRUTH." 
 In your next perambulations you will behold the Grandees of 
 Yorkshire terribly crest-fallen, and in the Spring Assizes of 1827, 
 you will observe signs of aristocratical sedition frightful to behold ; 
 many an abuse-loving Squire will be abusing Ministers, many a job« 
 supporting Aristocrat will be canvjissing ike least possible quantity 
 
50 
 
 dt'-l^ciFiiatttieiitary ftdfol'm; knd many a Magistrate will be declaring 
 that their eyes are at last opened to the real state of the country. 
 The abuses of P^ngland cannot long go on. An honest man wishes 
 to accelerate their dissolution, a rogue naturally desires to retard it ; 
 but rogues and honest men will at last be united in saving themselves 
 and the Nation. 
 
 We are, with the greatest respect and esteem. 
 Sir, 
 Your obedient servants, 
 
 JUNIUS ANB PHILO-JUNIUS. 
 York, Feb. 18, 1826. 
 
 BANKS. 
 
 THOSE sinks of iniquity, the provincial Banks, still draw the 
 attention of the public. Some of them which liave withstood the 
 severe tugs made at their nerves, talk of a dissolution of partnership. 
 In the last ten years one hundred and sixty-eight Banks have broken. 
 
 A. D. 1816 37 
 
 J817 3 
 
 1818 5 
 
 1819 " 12 
 
 1820 4. 
 
 1821 11 
 
 1822 9 
 
 1823 9 
 
 1824 9 
 
 1825 47 
 
 1826 22 
 
 In this year, of which only two months and A half have elspsed, 
 twenty-two have smashed, so that if the year goes on as it has begun, 
 at least a hundred will be destroyed ; or if the system should con- 
 tinue for a century, sixteen thousand eight hundred of these highly 
 respectable establishments would be gazetted. The Ministers who 
 liiive undergone a scries of defeats the whole cf tliis Scssitn, who 
 
51 
 
 have been passing under the yoke ever since the King's Speech was 
 delivered, who have been beat m all their plkns aiid compelled to 
 amend and alter them till they bear no resemblance to their original 
 appearance, hiave been most preeminently drubbed b/ th^ Bankers. 
 Their first scheme was to crush provincial small notes in six months, 
 but on feeling the pulse of the House the term has been extended t^ 
 three years, and before the three years' come the whole plan will be 
 altered. Canning has said in the House, " that he had not at first 
 ''yielded to the apprehension which had been so generally, and as it 
 " now turned out, so justly entertained, that the Country Bankers 
 " 7Voiddfor the purpose of clef eating the measures of' Government, resort 
 '' to the expedient of curtailing their circulation. He was sorry to 
 " find, that notwithstanding the confidence with which he had re- 
 '^ sisted the apprehension it 9ras now verijied, and the Country 
 " Bankers had resorted to the contraction of the currency with a view 
 '• to thwart the proceedings which had been adopted" It is rumoured 
 that they are going to give up their silk-schemes, and be vanquished 
 in their last hold of philosophy and self-applause : wretched crea- 
 tures ! how they must lament in the Cabinet, that they did not dis- 
 solve Parliament last autumn before they liad cut such a disgraceful 
 figure, and were harrassed by the' execrations aiid hatred of the whole 
 kingdom. 
 
 ^r. Hume proposed in the New Bills^ ''that if the Banker refused 
 " to pay in specie, the holder of the note might, at the expiration of 
 ^' seven days, apply to a Magistrate, who should be empowered to 
 " levy a distress upon his property till the claim was satisfied.'* 
 ^'' I'o this it was'replied, tiiat if the clause was passed no Banker in 
 his sober senses would dare to issue small notes !!! What is it then 
 l)ut asserting thtit these fellows are licensed to plunder the poor 
 without redress ? If a poor man might be protected in the manner 
 proposed by Mr. Hume, it would take away a great deal of the 
 objection to Banks, and be some security to the public. It is need- 
 less to observe that the amendment was negatived by a majority df 
 163 to 19. Lord Milton voted in the Minority. 
 
THE PROTESTANT CHAMPION. 
 
 " SHEW me thy faith by thy works ;" is a text from a Protestant 
 
 Book that every body has heard of. The faith of the Duke of York 
 
 has been divulged and published in his golden oath, a specimen of 
 
 his works may be seen in the following letter : * 
 
 " To Mrs. Clarke. 
 
 '' How can 1 sufficiently express to my sweetest, my darling love, 
 the delight which her dear, her pretty letter gave me, or how much I 
 feel all the kind, things she says to me in it. Millions and millions 
 of thanks for it, my angel ! and be assured that my heart is fully 
 sensible of your affection, and that upon it alone its whole happiness 
 depends. I am, however, quite hurt that my love did not go to th^ 
 Lewes Races: how kind of her to think of me upon the occasion ! 
 but I trust that she knows me too well not to be convinced, that I 
 cannot bear the idea of adding to those sacrifices which I am but too 
 sensible that she has made to me. News, my angel cannot expect 
 from me from hence ; though the life led here, at least in the family 
 I am in, is very hurrying, there is a sameness in it which affords 
 little subject for a letter ; except Lord Chesterfield's family there is 
 not a single person except ourselves that I know. Last night we 
 were at the play, which went off better than the first night. Dr. 
 O'Meara called upon me yesterday morning and delivered me your 
 letter ; he wishes much to jyreach before Royalty ; and if I can put him 
 in the way of it I WILL.* What a time it appears to me already, 
 my darling, since we parted ! how impatiently I look forward to 
 next Saturday se'nnight — God bless you my own dear, dear love ! 
 I shall miss the post if I add more. Oh, believe me, ever to my last 
 hour, yours and yours alone." 
 
 " To be left at the Post Office, Worthing." 
 
 This letter was published in 1 809, in all the Newspapers of the 
 day, together with two or three others which shall not be forgotten. 
 A Royal Author is such a rarity that it is incumbent on the reading 
 j)ublic to encourage them as much as possible. We hope these letters 
 will be handsomely printed at the Clarendon Press. 
 
 • It will be remembered, however, that the object of making this gentleman a 
 Bishop did not succeed, for " old Snuffy could not bear hira — and the King did not 
 ** like the O in his name." 
 
53 
 
 POETRY. 
 
 EPITAPH ON DR. PIIILPOTS OF DURHAM. . 
 
 Dr- Philpoti who may be considered one of the forlorn hope of the Church's politici, 
 and who is famous for some furious pamphlets, such as Clergymen write when 
 they write on the side of the Court, is not yet dead ; but we choose to consider him 
 80, not that we wish the worm to be feeding sweetly on him, for we had rather 
 that he should live long and write much, being thoroughly convinced, that every 
 pamphlet he writea will do his cause infinite mischief. Behold his Epitaph. 
 
 WEEP not for Philpots ! for it is no ill, 
 To go to that which he so long did fill — 
 He filled himself with all the tithes he got, 
 And being full at last, is gone to pof. 
 
 TO LORD KING ON THE CORN LAWS. 
 
 Quern das lineni, Rex magne, laborum ?" Vi«6ir. 
 
 HOW can you, my Lord, thus delight to torment all 
 The Peers of the realm about cheapening their corn ? 
 
 When you know, if one hasn't a very high rental, 
 'Tis hardly worth while being very high born. 
 
 Why bore them so rudely, each night of. your life, 
 
 On a question, my Lord, there's so much to abhor in ? 
 
 A question — like asking one '* how is your wife ?" 
 At once so confounded domestic and foreign. 
 
 As to weavers, no matter how poorly they feast — 
 But Peers and such animals fed up for show, 
 
 (Like the well-physicked Elephant lately deceased) 
 Take a wonde ful quantum of cramming you know. 
 
 a 
 
54. 
 
 You might see, my dear Baron, how bored and distrest, 
 Were their high noble hearts by your merciless tale ; 
 
 When the force of the agony wrung ev'n a jest, 
 
 From the frugal Scotch Wit of my Lord Lauderdale. 
 
 Bright Peer ! to whom nature and Berwickshire gave 
 
 A humour, endowed with effects so provoking, 
 That when the whole House looks unusually grave, 
 
 You may always copdude that Lord Lauderdale's joking. 
 
 And then those unfortunate weavers of Perth — 
 
 Not to know the vast d fFerence Providence dooms, 
 Betwixt weavers of Perth and Peers of high birth — 
 
 'Twixt those who have Ari/ -looms, and those who've but looms. 
 
 To talk now of starving ! — as great Athol said, 
 
 (And the Nobles all cheered and the Bishops all wondered) 
 
 "W^hen some years ago he and others had fed 
 Of these hungry devils about fifteen hundred ! 
 
 It follows from hence — and the Duke's very words 
 
 Should be published wherever poor rogues of this craft are, — 
 
 That weavers once rescued by starving from Lords, 
 Are bound to be starved by said Lords ever after. 
 
 When Rome was uproarious, her knowing Patricians 
 Made bread and the circus a cure for each row ; 
 
 But not so the plan of our noble physicians, 
 
 " No bread and the treadmill's" the Regimen uozc. 
 
 So cease, ray dear Baron of Ockhara, your prose 
 
 As I shall my poetry— nnVAcr convinces ; 
 And all that is spoken or written but shows, 
 
 When you tread on a Nobleman's cqiv how he winces. 
 
 EXPI/ANATION The joke on the com is borrowed from Lord Lauderdale. 
 
 The Noble Earl said, Wednesday, March 1, " when he heard the petition came* 
 '* from Ladies' Boot and Shoe-makers, he thought it must be against the corns which 
 " they inflicted on the fair sex." 
 
 The Duke of Atliol said, that " at a former period, when these weavers were 
 " in great distress, the landed interest of Perth had supported 1500 of them. It 
 " was a fwtir retutn for these very men now to petition against the persons who had 
 " fed them." 
 
55 
 
 WE COPY THE FOLLOWINS LETTER FHOM THE YORKSHIRE GAZETTE OF 
 8ATUUDAY LAST. 
 
 To ilu Editor of the Yorkshire Gazette. 
 Sir, 
 Within the last three weeks, I have received no less than four or five anonymous 
 letters, full of the usual scurrility and abuse, and written upon the supposition of 
 my being the author, or partly the author, of the Electors' Guide. 
 
 It might perhaps be more dignified to take no notice of this, but it will probably 
 be more convenient to make a short reply. 
 
 Ever since I have lived in Yorkshire, (now 16 years), I have published nothing 
 whatever, within the county, (however insignificant ) to which I have not put my 
 name; Whenever 1 have published any thing out of the county appertaining to 
 any raan in it, (as in the instance of the Tread Mill), I have always taken care that 
 the party concerned should be the first informed of what had been done. Upon these 
 two rules I have constantly and invariably acted, and wiil constantly and invariably 
 act. I have not written one line in the Electors' Guide, and whatever be the 
 merit or demerit of that work, I am in no way concerned in it. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH, 
 
 No. VI. will be published, Saturdaj/, April 1. 
 
 The THIItD EDITION of No. I, on Ike " Catholic Question/ 
 is published this day, Price Is. 
 
 Communications Cposl paid) to the Publisher, are thankfully received, 
 YORK, March n, \S<i6. 
 
 J. Kcndstvr, Printet. 
 
(pas EI.ECTOW8 &mos* 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 A CHABGE OF 
 
 JSOS ORACB THE ARCHBISHOP OF ITOHK 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CLERGY OF THE DtOCMSE t 
 
 A SECHET ; 
 
 A GOOD ACTIOK, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THK 
 
 WREEHOImOERS 
 
 (©DITO'J^ <^m H'^WIU 
 
 CONDUCTED BY A COMMITTEE OF YORKSHIRE-MEN. 
 
 PUBLISHED nv G. BOLLANDi LOW OUSEGATE { 
 
 Jtyiti SOtD BY LAJTGDALE, KKARESBRO' ; BA1NE3, LEEDS; HOLMES, 8H£r<< 
 
 field; THOMAS AND HUNSLEr, DONCASTER; NOBLE, HULL; JOHKSOV/ 
 
 BEVERLEY; AINSVVORTH, SCARBRO' ; SMITHSON, MAL TON ; TURKE% 
 
 DRirriELD; bell, Richmond; drakard aicd wilson, stamford^ 
 iYNCH, Manchester; rocliffe, Liverpool; WHiTTlEy 
 
 PEESTON; KEATING AND BROWX ; AND BOOKER^ L0i^' 
 DON ; AND MAY BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLEAS.' 
 
 1836. 
 
Mm: 
 
THE EImECTOWS GUmEm 
 
 A CHARGE OF 
 HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE, 
 
 BY a poetical license, innocent we hope, and not intended to give 
 offence, we suppose that his present Grace the Archbishop of York 
 has been buried — the date of his death it is not necessary to fix, let 
 it be any given time from ten to twenty years, or longer, as it may 
 suit the taste of the Reader. His successor, we wish to be considered 
 a Prelate not adverse to a salutary reform in Church and State, 
 raised to the exalted See of York by the mere force of his character, 
 talents, learning and piety, unconnected with noble families, and 
 selected for his eminent situation for his known liberality. Such a 
 person in such a situation it will be said is ideal and impossible ; we 
 hope not : at any rate we wish it to be supposed, that as the time of 
 delivering the following charge is a period of universal confusion and 
 dismay, from the political disorders of the State, and as the popular 
 cry against Church property has reached its utmost limit, so the 
 rulers have found it necessary, as a last resource, to advance liberal 
 characters to the Bench of Bishops, in hopes that the weight of their 
 influence may retard the inevitable Reform with which the Church 
 is threatened. We suppose, that at the time of delivering this charge 
 the table of the House of Commons is covered with petitions against 
 Church property j that County Meetings, praying for the abolition 
 of tithes, have taken place in Yorkshire and all the great counties and 
 towns in England, that all the kingdom is in a stir, and Oxford and 
 Cambridge employed in printing nothing else but books to prove, 
 that the whole object of Chribtianity was to establish tithes, and that 
 
these books are laughed at ^vith unmercitul scorn, hy every man and 
 woman (excepting Clergymen, Qergy men's wives, and Clergymen's 
 daughters) from Durham to Dover. In such a state of things, we 
 imagine the Clergy of this Diocese assembled in great trepidation at 
 the Cathedral, to hear the primary charge of Atopus, the new Arch- 
 bishop ; we suppose, that an immense multitude of people are assem- 
 bled there also from motives of curiosity, that several Government 
 reporters are at hand Avith their note-books, and that universal atten- 
 tion and anxiety pervades the immense audience that crowd the choir 
 of the Cathedral. 
 
 Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of York, at the Primart/ 
 Visitation^ hy the Most Reverend Father in God, Atopus, Lord 
 Archbishop of York. 
 
 Reverend Brethren, 
 
 If on any other occasion than the present it were my lot to address 
 an audience but half as numerous as that which is now assembled 
 in this sacred edifice, I should feel myself overpowered with diffi- 
 dence, and entirely unable to express myself with any sort of com- 
 posure ; but as I am urged by the strongest sense of duty to my 
 present arduous undertaking, and as I feel myself bound as a man of 
 honor as well as a Minister of Religion, freely to express my senti- 
 ments at this momentous crisis ; I trust that neither my courage nor 
 my voice will fail me in proclaiming these sentiments which I have 
 prepared with labour, diligence, and zeal. It is needless to anticipate 
 those sentiments, but when they have been delivered, I trust that 
 tile aro-uments with which they are supported, will render it unne- 
 cessary to urge any apology or to pray for a candid and impartial 
 hearing. 
 
 By the earnestness of your looks, my Reverend Brethren, by the 
 intense anxiety of the laity, by the sentiments lately divulged in the 
 newspapers, and by the clamours of the mob this very day, it is evi- 
 dent, that but one thought can be occupying all our minds, on which 
 all here present expect me fully to deliver my opinions. A Bishop 
 teat holds the office appointed by the Apostles, and who considers 
 liimself their lawful successor, cannot speak too plainly and openly : 
 without any further circumlocution then, I shall enter at once into the 
 
subject of Church property, for it is that subject which now draws 
 universal attention, and which I consider myself bound to discuss. 
 
 I candidly tell you, that I am a decided enemy of Tithes and 
 Church Lands, and all endowments of any sort or description whatso- 
 ever settled upon, or to be enjoyed in any manner directly or indi- 
 rectly by a Christian Priesthood. My propositions are these : 
 
 1. That Church property is incompatible with the Gospel. 
 
 2. That it has materially impaired and exceedingly injured the in- 
 terests of the Church of England. 
 
 3. That it has been a means of securing at all times a large majority 
 of profligate, idle, and unchristian Pastors in our Church. 
 
 4. That it is a bonus held out to indolence and ignorance, pro- 
 ducing no good, and impossible to produce any thing but spiritual 
 mischief. 
 
 5. That it has been the means of introducing §t different times 
 sundry heresies and unsound Doctrines in our Church, and must do 
 so as long as it is tolerated. 
 
 6. That many sound and pious Pastors have written or spoken 
 against its continuance. 
 
 7. That it never was the intention of those that made the Church 
 of England, to continue Church property. 
 
 8. That Tithes are a vexatious and intolerable burthen on the peo- 
 ple, injurious to agriculture, and noxious to many of the national 
 interest^. 
 
 9. That they have been a very great cause of the great proportion 
 of dissent in the kingdom at present; and have caused almost ALL 
 the infidelity and Atheism, that at various periods have disgraced our 
 country. 
 
 10. That Church property is unequally proportioned, as if it was 
 with an intention to crush merit and piety, and encourage vice in our 
 Priesthood. 
 
 1 1 . That the whole body of the Church has degenerated into a 
 political machine, in consequence of the manner of distributing its 
 wealth — and that our establishment is at present corrupt, unpopular, 
 and useless. 
 
 12. That if Church property was speedily abolished, our Church 
 would in a very short time gain an ascendancy over the people to 
 which it has hitherto been a stranger ; and that our Priesthood wcuUl 
 
 A 2 
 
8 
 
 be ten times more powerful than it is at present, and that dissent 
 would rapidly decrease. 
 
 13. That it is possible without doing injustice to any one, to abo- 
 lish and finally extinguish Church property, and all endowments of 
 every sort and description. 
 
 These are my propositions. I shall not take them in order, as 
 each is so closely connected with the other that it is difficult to sepa- 
 rate them, but I trust that you will find them all sufficiently proved 
 in the course of this address, which shall be as short as the importance 
 of the subject will permit. 
 
 The origin of tithes in England, at least that origin which the law 
 books give us, is at once unjust and ridiculous. We are told that in 
 the year 794, OfFa, King of Mercia, the most potent of all the Saxon 
 Kings of his time in this island, made a law, whereby he gave to the 
 Church the tithes of all his kingdom for ever. 
 
 This act of strict equity was to expiate for the death of Ethelbert, 
 King of the East Angles, whom in the year preceding he had caused 
 basely to be murdered. Thus it seems, that for the crimes of the 
 Monarch, not only all his people then living were taxed, but we his 
 unoffending posterity, are groaning under the imposition, though 
 much more than a thousand years has elapsed from the crime which 
 appears to have given them birth. It is needless to go through all 
 the various contending evidences of antiquarians on this subject — of 
 those who endeavour to give tithes the greatest antiquity, and of 
 others who strive to make them appear as modern as possible. The 
 writers attached to eccleciastical endowments argue with great 
 warmth for their antiquity ; to do these authors therefore justice, I 
 will take them on their own grounds, and supposing that the earliest 
 account, Jiamely, the reign of OfFa, or the eighth century, is correct 
 and warranted by history, I shall argue that if 1 bring my proofs 
 against the property in question, they will apply with a double vigor 
 and force, the older that tithes are proved to be. Let us therefore 
 take it for granted, that English tithes began in the eighth century. 
 Any of my Reverend Brethren the least conversant in these matters 
 will remember that one of the chief causes of the Reformation, per- 
 haps the only one that made the Reformation popular, was the great 
 clamour raised against the wealth of the Roman Catholic Church, and 
 that the only means of bringing about the Reformation, was by 
 
enticing the avarice and profligacy of Henry VIII. to seize the pro- 
 perty of the Church, and to appropriate it for his own wants or 
 pleasures. Without this device it does not appear that a Protestant 
 Prelate would be now standing at the altar of York Cathedral. My 
 studies in the Scriptures, and my reflections on the ways of Provi- 
 dence, lead me to an opinion that the wickedness and vice of men, 
 are often used as means to bring about the predetermined council 
 and wisdom of Heaven. I have often observed in history, how the 
 plans invented to suppress Religion, have turned out in the end the 
 only method that could possibly have been adopted, to promote her 
 interests and increase her glory. In this manner I behold the finger 
 of Providence most strongly exerted in the seizure of Church proper- 
 ty in the Reign of Henry VIII. The means employed by that cruel 
 tyrant were unjust, arbitrary, avaricious, and wicked; he plun- 
 dered the Abbeys, Priories, and Monasteries, with a savageness un- 
 known to Heathen marauders and pirates ; he paid his commissioners 
 to forge false reports against the morals of the religious houses ; he 
 carried his Acts and Ordinances through Parliament by mere terror 
 and violence ; he threatened the convocation of the Clergy and both 
 the Universities into a seeming compliance with his will ; he mur- 
 dered his ancient, reverend, and virtuous Tutor, the pious and 
 learned Chancellor; and several Prelates, Abbots, Princes, and Ladies 
 of noble birth who resisted his imperious tyranny ; and by fraud and 
 violence unequalled in the annals o£ the worst of those mortal mon- 
 sters the Roman Emperors, at last affected the unholy purpose of 
 dragging the vast plunder of the Church, into his insatiable and hun- 
 gry treasury. I call it an imholy purpose, because it was suggested 
 by unholy motives. That bloody and unprincipled tyrant was actu- 
 ated by no feelings but the immediate gratification of his own lusts and 
 appetites, and to indulge them to the full, he committed a robbery so 
 extensive and enormous, as even William the Conqueror dared not 
 attempt when he gained this land as a violent and victorious pirate. 
 And yet had Henry VIII. been moved with a sincere love of Religion, 
 he might have effected all his purpose without committing one crime, 
 or raising the animadversions of one writer of posterity. His course 
 was clear before him. The abuses of the Convents, such as tliey 
 were, (and wherever endowments exist, some abuses must exist 
 also,) should have been fairly and candidly stated by commis- 
 sioners not instructed to fabricate falsehoods ; the revenues mark- 
 
10 
 
 ed for the public, sliould have been registered at their full va- 
 lue ; and in all cases where the near relations of the founders of 
 religious houses were living, and in a state that required relief, the 
 property of such houses, as well real as personal, should have been 
 restored to them after the death of all present incumbents. That 
 would have been justice, and not plunder. If any persons from 
 religious scruples still refused to claim the property that once be- 
 longed to their family, the property in that case, real and personal, 
 should have reverted to the Crown , after the death of present incum^ 
 bents. By these means at the end of fifty years all Church property 
 would have fallen into the original proprietors, or to the King ; and 
 all such property reverting to the Crown, should have been set aside 
 for the benefit of the public, apportioning a certain number of acres 
 to certain parishes, for the relief of the poor, and the foundation of 
 charity schools, libraries, &c. &c. Thus justice would have been 
 done to all parties ; injustice to no one, excepting that theoretical 
 injustice to Religion, which I do not acknowledge. The means how- 
 ever adopted were widely different, and the possessions of Religious 
 Houses were divided as plunder amongst retainers of the Court and 
 pi'ofligate Noblemen, who were thus bribed to support a new Re- 
 ligion, if Religion it could be called, and to desert that one in which 
 they had been educated. Good however proceeds out of evil. 
 Great as was the misery consequent on the seizure of Monasteries, 
 and terrible as were the murders by which they were supported, 
 still wealth was taken from Priests, and wherever wealth is taken 
 from Priests, immense moral advantages are the immediate and 
 evident result. But in addition to this, A GOOD EXAMPLE WAS 
 SET, an example which I need not remind you, my Reverend ! 
 Brethren, the English nation is now determined to profit by. 
 
 It is evident that the present establishment began by seizing 
 Church property : it has no other origin ; for there is this advan- 
 tage in the youth of our Church that we are once able to explain with 
 certainty, the most minute particulars of its commencement, unem- 
 barrassed by the mist of antiquity and the doubtfulness of ancient 
 times. What do we see in the origin of the Church of England ? a 
 few Privy Councellors, a few Bishops, and an infant King establish- 
 ing entirely a new Religion, and going on from day to day, seizing 
 still more of the shattered rclicks saved from the wreck of that once 
 enormous machine, the Roman Catholic oidowments. The CJuirch 
 
11 
 
 of England may be said to be founded entirely by Archbishop Cran- 
 mer ; he was an amiable man, but very unstable and infirm of pur- 
 pose, and by his timidity and vacillation has injured his cliaracter in 
 the page of history, and did little credit to the cause he espoused. 
 Such as he was he founded the Church of England ; he and Kidley, 
 sometimes perhaps assisted by Latimer, wrote the Homilies of the 
 Church of England, and under their authority and influence the 
 famous XXXIX Articles were framed. To Cranmer and his assistants 
 for these two works, I and all of us here present must feel tlie 
 deepest gratitude. It pleased God by the Articles and Homilies to 
 form the Church of England, and to give us that faith of which all 
 of us here present are humble though I hope sincere Ministers. To 
 Cranmer, I also feel that I owe another debt of gratitude for hi« v/ell 
 known sentiments on Church property ; sentiments, which though 
 familiar to us all, I cannot refrain from quoting at length as being so 
 entirely consonant with my own feelings. 
 
 A letter of Thomas Cranmer, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury', to 
 Cromwell, on the new foundation of Canterbury Church. "My 
 *' very singular good Lord — After my most hearty commendations, 
 '^ this shall be to advertise your Lordship that I have received your 
 ^Metter, dated November 27, and therewith a bill concerning the 
 " devise for the new Establishment in the Metropolitan Church of 
 '^ Canterbury, by which your Lordship requests our advise there- 
 " upon, by writing, for our mutual consents. Surely, my Lord, as 
 *' touching the books drawn and the order of the same, I think it will 
 ''be very substantial and godly foundation, nevertheless in my 
 " opinion, the Prebendaries which will be allowed £40. a piece, 
 " yearly, might be altered to a more expedient use. And this is my 
 " consideration ; for having experience both in times past and also in 
 ''our days, how the said sect of Prebendaries have not only spent 
 " their time much in idleness, and their substance in superfluous 
 " belli^-cheer, I think it not a convenient state or degree to be main- 
 " tained, considering first, that commonly a Prebendary is neither a 
 " learner nor a preacher, but a good viander. Tiien by the same 
 " name they look to be chief, and bear all the whole rule and pre- 
 *' eminence in the College where they be resident, by means whereof 
 /' the younger of tlieir own nature, given more to pleasure and good 
 ^' cheer or pastimes than 'to abstinence, study and learning, shall be 
 " easily brought from their books to follow the example and appetite of 
 
12 
 
 " the said Prebendaries, being their heads and rulers : And the state of 
 '* Prebendaries hath been so excessively abused, that when learned 
 " men have been admitted into such room, many time they have 
 " desisted from their good and godly studies, and all the virtuous 
 " exercises of preaching and teaching. Wherefore if it may stand 
 " with the King's gracious pleasure, I would wish not only that the 
 " name of Prebendary were exiled his Grace's foundation, but also 
 '^the superfluous condition of such persons." 
 
 Edward VI. in a tract " On reformation of many Abuses :*'— 
 " But because those Bishops who should execute discipline in cor- 
 *' recting manners — some from Papistry, some from ignorance, some 
 '* from age, some from their ill name, some from all these, — are men 
 " unable to execute this discipline, wherefore it were necessary that 
 " those who were appointed to be Bishops or Preachers were honest 
 " in their lives and learned in their doctrine, that by rewarding of 
 " such men others might be allured to follow their good life. But as 
 *' for Discipline, I would wish no authority given generally to all 
 " Bishops, but that commission be given to those that be of the best 
 " sort of them to exercise it in their dioceses." 
 
 From this Epistle, no doubt can remain as to the intentions of him 
 \\vAt founded the Church of England, and by this letter, and this letter 
 alone, I would challenge all the Churchmen of this kingdom to shew 
 by what arguments they can resist the seizure of our rich and un- 
 merited endowments, which are kept up, in my opinion, entirely and 
 solely for political purposes. We, however, who trace our origin to 
 the Reign of Edward VI. should do well to become thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with that period, not content with skimming over the 
 plausible emptiness of Hume, but in diligently inquiring into the 
 works of the antiquarians that treat of that reign. Perhaps, my 
 Reverend Brethren will be astonished to hear, that the Privy Council 
 of Edward VI. made as great a blow at Church property in this 
 diocese as was achieved by any sovereign ; and yet the Privy Council 
 were all most orthodox Church-of-England men, and made the pre- 
 sent Establishment. The Collegiate Church of St. John of Beverley, 
 was once possessed of very ample endowments. It had a Provost, 
 eight Prebends, a Chancellor, Precentors, Vicars Choral, &c. &c. and 
 property, that in these days could not be valued at less than £12,000. 
 per annum. But all this College, and all its wealth was seized in the 
 Reign of our Protestant King, Edward VI. and the prebendal houses 
 
13 
 
 granted to Michael Stanhope, and John Bellew ; and that so quietly, 
 that few persons not versed in local antiquities are aware of tlie fact. 
 What would be said in these days at the hint at such a measure in 
 this Diocese ? Every Churchman would declare that it involved the 
 universal ruin of the Establishment, and yet it has been done, and 
 ■will now be considered as a good example in assisting Parliament, 
 how to dispose of the endowments of York and Ripon Cathedrals, 
 which certainly can have no better title to be spared than Beverley 
 Cathedral could urge in the Reign of Edward. Had the eight Pre- 
 bends of Beverley Cathedral now existed, what would have been the 
 consequence? the Provostship would probably at this moment be 
 attached to some old and useless Prelate, brother, or son of a Prime 
 Minister in the last century; and the eight Prebends would, in the usual 
 process of jobbing, be given to sons and nephews of Archbishops, 
 to Fellows of Colleges, and furious pamphleteers in the cause of the 
 Court. I am glad Beverley Cathedral is stript of her wealth. 
 
 Not to dismiss too lightly a period that must be of such great 
 interest to the Clergy of the Establishment, 1 cannot omit the extra- 
 ordinary fact, that in this reign when our Religion commences. Arch- 
 bishop Cranmer helped himself to the Rectories of Whalley, Black- 
 borne, and Rochdale ; and that the Bishop of Litchfield and Coven- 
 try were gratified with the perpetual advowson of Wolstainton, in the 
 county of Stafford, Belgrave, in Leicestershire, and of Pigtesley, 
 Buckley, and Towcester, in Northamptonshire. The Dean and 
 Chapter of Westminster were allowed to seize the College of St. 
 Martin Le Grand, in London, whose ancient and venerable Church 
 had received the right of sanctuary in the Reign of William L and 
 this Church they defiled by letting the body, choir, and isles to a 
 citizen of London, which he shortly pulled down, excepting the East 
 end^ which he turned into a tavern ! ! ! But the sacrilegious Dean 
 and Chapter soon smarted in their turns for their impiety, as it was 
 liinted to them that the Lord Protector intended to pull down West- 
 minster Abbey and build himself a palace with the materials. Ben- 
 son the Dean, to save the Church, made a lease of 99 years to Lord 
 Thomas Seymour of seventeen of the best manors of the Abbey lying 
 in the county of Gloucester, and by these means contrived to pro- 
 pitiate the Protector ; though not without making large concessions 
 to one Sir John Mason the Protector's favourite. The historian tells 
 us, that the Dean having thus stripped his Church of all its fair 
 
 B 
 
1^ 
 
 fippiirtenances, died of ?. broken heart. Ilud that worthy Ecclesiastic 
 etudied his Bible in that spirit which is expected of all Christians, he 
 , would have found more reason to rejoice, than to repine for the loss of 
 his wealth, nor should he have forgotten, that he himself had set the 
 example of profanation by the lease of St. Martin I.e Grand. One 
 more instance I beg leave to produce from this reign. Sir Philip 
 Uobey, Ambassador from London to tlie Imperial Court, in a letter 
 to the Lord Protector, dated 1548, thus proposes to annihilate in 
 one full svv'oop the dignities of our Church. " Yesterday was mns- 
 *''tered here (Brussels) five bands of horsemen, in number 1500. 
 " Among whom by all men's reports that saw them there were so 
 " many toward and handsome Gentlemen, so well horsed and armed, 
 " and in all points so well in order, as hath few times in so small a 
 " company been seen. Which when I heard, remembering what great 
 " service such a number of chosen men were able to do, especially in 
 '' our country, where is so much lack of good horsemen, it caused 
 " me to declare mider your Grace's direction, what I thought ear- 
 " nestly to wish with all my heart, that standing with the King's 
 " Majesty pleasure *«// the Prebends within England were converted 
 " to like use, for the defence of our country." It is needless to 
 point out to you the amazing clamour that would have been raised 
 against the famous Duke of Wellington, if from the Congress of 
 Vienna, he had sent a similar proposition to Lord Liverpool or 
 any of the Ministers of George IIL So extremely lax were the doc- 
 trines held by the 7iursing-fathers of the Church of England, that in 
 tliis Reign an act was also passed, taking away the last remnant of 
 Election of Bishops, and making their future appointment to consist 
 in tlie patent of the King, in which patents a clause was inserted, 
 '•' quamdui se bene gessevint" as long as iheij shall behave welly — a 
 clause which made the Bishops much the same as a Justice of the 
 Peace, and put them on an equality with bum-bailiffs and gangers. 
 When Queen Mary ascended the throne she made great use of this 
 clause in the patents of the Protestants Bishops, and in the instru- 
 ment issued from the spiritual courts for the burning and deprivation 
 of Bishop Hooper, the quamdui se bene sesscnt is trumphantly though 
 insultingly noticed. 
 
 • " What ALL my little ones 
 
15 
 
 The attacks upon Church jDrojrerty >\Tre suspended in the Rei^m 
 of Queen Mary, who shewed a strong propensity to restore the Ab- 
 bey Lands, but they were revived under Elizabeth, and inucli en- 
 couraged by Leicester, whose object was apparently to confiscate all 
 the great endowments, which he would have done, had he not been 
 thwarted by the influence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to whose 
 opinion the Queen always paid the greatest respect James L owing 
 to his extreme aversion to the Puritans, whose doctrines he plainly 
 saw were inimical to the wealth of the Clergy, discouraged any at- 
 temps at further confiscation, and upheld the Church with a In'gh 
 hand and a resolute firmness, ever guiding himself with the maxim. 
 " No Bishop, no King," a maxim which I am sorry to say has been 
 frequently used by the people in a widely different sense. In short, 
 in the reign of this hj^pocrite Monarch, the Court took a new turn, 
 the sanctity of Church property for the first time since the Reforma- 
 tion was all the fashion, and that most monstrous of all doctrines, the 
 divine Right of Tithes, was broached and preached by the Bishops and 
 the Chaplains of the Court. In this reign however the famous John 
 Selden, of gigantic learning, published a book against tithes, which 
 from the vast erudition that it displayed and the weight of th$j 
 Author's name, drew upon it the animadversion and fury of all the 
 high Church Party. To use the words of the historian Heylin, one 
 of Selden's greatest adversaries, " fearing the issue of the business, 
 " and understanding what displeasures were conceived against him 
 *' by the King and the Bishops, he made his personal appearance in 
 *' open Court at Lambeth, January 28, l6*I8, where in full Court he 
 *' tendered his submission and acknowledgment, all of his own lumd"! 
 *^ writing in the following words. — < My Lords, 1 most humbly ac- 
 " knowledge xxiy error which I have committed in publishing the 
 " history of tithes, and especially in that I have at all (by shewing 
 *' any interpretations of holy Scriptures by meddling with Councilji, 
 " Fathers, or Canons, or whatsoever occurs in it) offered any occasitm 
 " of argument against any right jure dirino of the Ministers of the 
 " Gospel ; beseeching your Lordships to receive this ingenuous and 
 " humble acknowledgment, together with the unfeigned protestation 
 " of my grief, for that through it 1 have so incurred his Majesty's 
 " displeasure conceived against m,e in behalf of the Clmrch of 
 " England. *' John Sf.ldex." 
 
16 
 
 • From this disgraceful transaction, we may judge, my Reverend 
 Bretliren, of the general temper of tlie Church in those days, and 
 fully does the state of the Clergy in that reign come up to our expec- 
 tations, after witnessing such a transaction as I have just mentioned. 
 The Dean of Westminter, who was also Bishop of Lincoln, and finally 
 Archbishop of this Diocese, the Lord Keeper Williams was one of 
 the leading courtiers and executors of all the jobs taken in hand by 
 the King or his favorite Buckingham ; and to give you some notion 
 of his episcopal morals and virtues, he himself paid a French girl, the 
 /mistress of the Spanish Ambassador, to be better informed of the 
 . secrets of the Spanish Court. This woman was the Bishop's hired 
 spy and informer. At the same time Archbishop Bancroft, of Can- 
 terbury flourished, a Prelate famous for his cruelties and avarice; so 
 ,mean and odious was his character, that when he died this epitaph 
 . was made on him. 
 
 " Here lies Kis Grace in cold clay clad, 
 " Who died in want of what he had." 
 But one Prelate of greater renown than any in the English Esta- 
 blishment sprung up in this reign, a man that made his way through 
 all the usual arts of Court servility and intrigue, till in the next reign 
 he was elevated to the See of Canterbury — I mean Archbishop Laud, 
 who carrying all that is odious in Prelatic servility and avarice to its 
 highest possible pitch, at last dragged both Crown and Altar into the 
 dust, and was the primary and efficient cause of the destruction of 
 his Royal Master, Charles L and of the establishment of a Pepublic 
 ■ in England. There is always a strong popular feeling against ecclesi- 
 • astical government when it is mixed with politics, but when tlie 
 - Church, not content with a mixture in the State, claims a hrge share of 
 secular power and authority and acts as second Monarch or Viceroy, 
 it is impossible to prevent a dreadful Revolution of the whole nation, 
 in which all ranks of men unite to terminate so hatefid and noxious 
 a system. In the Reign of Charles L the Church of England was 
 entirely abolished, and had it not been for the avarice and baseness 
 of the Puritans, Church property never would have been restored 
 again. The Purit^m Divines and popular leaders who had »ucceedtd 
 in destroying the Establishment by loud and i'urious exclaniations, 
 against the wealth of the Church and the possession of tithes, no 
 sooner had ousted and robbed the ancient Clergy, then they them- 
 selves took possession of their living?^ and ri^itlly exacted their tithes. 
 
17 
 
 Here the nation was infamously cheated a second time. Instead of 
 doing justice to the pubhc, the degraded faction only effected a change 
 of masters — they robbed Peter to pay Paul ; and thus for the se- 
 cond time was the most glorious opportunity of reforming the Church 
 of England let slip and lost for centuries. On the restoration of 
 Royalty in the person of Charles II. justice required that the Puritan 
 divines should be ejected to make way for the old lawful Clergy; and 
 thus two thousand Ministers were turned out of their livings and the 
 ancient Parsons assumed their seats with redoubled appetite for tithes 
 and dignities. It is evident that if tithes had been abolished entirely by 
 the long Parliament, and not revived during the Protectorate, it 
 would have been impossible to restore them on the return of Charles 
 II. and even as it was, nothing but the exertions of Clarendon, could 
 have effected the new birth of our Establishment, so difficult was it 
 to remove the prejudices against the Church of England. But as the 
 nest had been kept warm by the Puritans, the Bishops resumed their 
 iseats, had the Rookeries been cut donm our order would have been 
 compelled to trust to him, that feedeth the ravens and clotheth those 
 who have not little faith. Since the Restoration, the Church of 
 England and the kingdom has been cursed with eccleciastical endow- 
 ments, and with tithes, which I shall now consider as they bear upon 
 the present day. 
 
 The general rule repeated in all the Books of the common law is, 
 " that tithes shall be paid only of such things as increase every year, 
 *^ and once in the year." Ex annuatis reiwvanlibns simid el semel: but 
 this rule is in almost all cases void and nugatory, for it has also been 
 established, that by ancient CUSTOM the Parson may have tithe of 
 any thing. Another general rule, equally useless where the Parson 
 is opposed to his flock, is that animals ferce naiurce, wild by nature, 
 such as rabbits, hares, pigeons, fish cannot be tithed, and yetcusiow. and 
 indeed the opinion of some great lawyers sets this aside, and the rea- 
 son given is characteristic and curious— ''add to this that by feeding 
 *'and maintaining deers and conies, &c. &c. not only large quantities 
 " of land may be employed, and the prqfiis of than in a great measure 
 ** taken from the Parson, but great jirofit may also accrue thereby to 
 *' the owner of the land."* From whence we learn that it is impossi- 
 
18 
 
 ble for the ow^^er of l^id to make a profit on lils own propert}^ with- 
 out the Parson thrusting- in his religious fingers into his parishioners 
 purse. In these things uhich " encrease every year, and once in the 
 year," and which pay tithes, the lawyers have included *bees ! 
 bricks, calves, cattle, cheese, coals, holly (notoriously an ever-green), 
 horses, lead, milk, goats, wind-mills, pigs, salt, &c. &c. And of all 
 extraordinary things, smoke has been made titheable, and one of the 
 means of supporting our venerable body. It is impossible, my Reve- 
 rend Brethren, to suppress a smile at such egregious swindling, 
 swindling, which unites so much folly with it, and which to the 
 plainest understanding must appear preposterous and ludicrous. A 
 Reverend Brother, for whom I have a great respect, told me that on- 
 demanding this tithe, which his predecessors had found valuable, an 
 old woman replied, " he might take it in kind if he chose," an advice 
 which I strongly urged as sound and salutary, but which my 
 Reverend Friend did not seem inclined to follow. Would that all 
 tithes could thus be got rid of by a joke ! But thus it is, that on one 
 pretence or another the Clergy, to the great detriment of agriculture, 
 have contrived to exact tithe upon every imaginable thing ; and not 
 only have they injured, and do daily injure agriculture by this wicked 
 and unjustifiable practise, but man}^ great improvements in manu- 
 facturing districts have been prevented by their monstrous claims, 
 and many towns and cities thrown into the utmost confusion by the 
 revival of obsolete and unknown demands, raked out of obscurity by 
 some hungry antiquarian of the Cliurch, whose eyes are so sharp 
 after hidden treasures, that the moth must have greatly corrupted it to 
 prevent his finding it out, " aurum irrepertum, et sic melius situm." 
 To me it has always been a cause of serious lamentation and misery, 
 when a Clergyman, newly presented to a living, begins the hateful 
 operation of increasing his tithes, for it presents a scene shocking 
 even to a Heathen of humane mind, but to a Christian, impious and 
 offensive to the last degree. The Parishioners immediately reflect 
 that the new teacher of righteousness is come to get money, and not 
 to heal souls, and that every additional guinea to be extorted by the 
 new modus is to be raised on the hypocritical pretence of supporting 
 a Religion which the Parishioners know dees not allow such sup- 
 
 .'^ic vcs roil votis mcllificatis j>pco I" 
 
1^ 
 
 port. How many are the instances that I have witnetscd of hem't- 
 burnings and hatreds, between the Parson and the Parishioners by 
 this system ! how infinite the mischief done to our Church, how 
 great and decisive the benefit conferred on the Dissenters by our 
 avarice and extortion ! These cases are generally aggravated tenfold, 
 by the consideration that the persons wlio are thus vigilant for their 
 wealth, are most supinely indifferent about the faith they preach — 
 and that tithes are enjoyed in proportion to the little claim that can be 
 urged by the enjoyer. Ha:l St. Paul possessed revenues equal to 
 Winchester and Durham united, it would not have been too much for 
 the labours that he achieved and the funds he required for his univer- 
 sal plan of preaching and founding of Churches, and yet by his zeal, 
 his self-denial, his activity, his vigilance, and his piety, he did more 
 for Christianity than all the Bishops of Durham and Winchester since 
 the days of William the Conquerer. For this rule is invariably true ; 
 the more wealthy Priests are, the more wicked they are, and the cor- 
 ruption of Religion is always proportioned to the endowments that 
 her Ministers enjoy ; whilst those Clergymen who have the smalleat 
 possible means, are the most active in their duties, and most worthy 
 of the respect of their fellow-creatures. The Church of England at 
 this moment is in the annual receipt of five millions of money ; au 
 immense sum, and which if added up for some years back amounts 
 to a heap frightful to contemplate. We will strike off two millions in 
 the calculation, and suppose that for the last century she has only 
 received three millions a year, so that by this reduced scale she has 
 taken three hundred millions sterling ! three hundred millions ! why 
 all the world should have been converted for this sum, and not a 
 Heathen should exist from Philadelphia to China. What would St. 
 Paul have said, had a wise man told him, that after a certain number 
 of centuries a small island in an obscure and cold part of the world, 
 should be paying five millions of money every year to his spiritual 
 descendants and successors ? and yet I believe that he perceived the 
 times, and in his epistle to the Thessalonians not obscurely pointed 
 out this atrocious system, which he emphatically calls ** the mystery 
 of iniquity," and which was beginning even in his days, with the 
 avarice or sloth of some of the Gospel Ministers. Oh how differently 
 did he himself think of the support of the Church! hear his words. 
 ** So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to liav« 
 " imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own 
 
20 
 
 ** dear soulsj because ye were dear to us. For ye remember. Brethren, 
 ** our labour and travail ; for labouring day and night, because we 
 " would not he chargeable lo any of you, we preached unto you the 
 ** Gospel of God. Ye are witnesses and God also, how holily and 
 " justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that 
 " believe." And yet we are the successors of this blessed Saint!!! 
 That the effect may not be lost, 1 immediately subjoin a scheme of 
 Archbishop Bancroft for augmenting the wealth of the Church, and 
 presented by him, but without success to Parliament, — 'Hhat all pre- 
 *' dial tithes of benefices with cure may be paid in kind hereafter — 
 " that the personal tithes may be urged on 0«/A, being confessed to be due 
 *' bylaw — that the Abbey Lands now exempted may pay tithes in kind 
 " to the Parsons and Vicars in whose parishes they lie — that all lands 
 " altered within these sixty years past from tillage, may pay tithes ac- 
 " cording to the value they formerly paid — that Parsons and Vicars 
 " may have riglit and freedom of common with the rest of the Parish- 
 *' ioners — that the ancient eccleciastical constitution in England for 
 *^ paying of tithe — ^lambs and wool may be renewed and established — 
 " that it may be lawful hereafter for any well-disposed man or woman 
 " to give, purchase, or lay tenements, rents, lands and annuties in fee 
 *' unto the glebe of the Church notwithslanding the statute of mortmain — 
 " that the tithe ofoade, hops, roots, coals and other minerals, and like- 
 ** wise of lime-kilns and brick-kilns may be truly paid to the Parson 
 " or Vicar that liath cure of souls— that Parliament will grant a sub- 
 " sidy for the redeeming of impropriations, and tliat the same redeem- 
 " ed may be of the Bishop's patronage in whose Diocese they lie." 
 Of these modest and Christian proposals, there were twenty-eight 
 all in the same strain, not one of which however had the good luck 
 to meet with any notice from any member of Parliament then living 
 ■ — for though politicians attached to the Court are always ready to 
 shew the little piety thej^ have, by dividing for the Church whenever 
 her present wealth is hinted at, yet it is stretching their faith too far 
 to ask for more tithes from the Squires and Lords who legislate for us. 
 Indeed so unpopular are tithes, in spite of the vast political aid that 
 the Church gives to all Ministries of all times and parties, that it is 
 u)y humble opinion they would have been abolished long ago but for 
 the danger impending on lay if the Clerical tithes are injured, and 
 for the vast patronage that some great persons enjoy in their large 
 family li\ ings. The lay tithes are generally supposed now to be the 
 
21 
 
 only bulwark of tlie Clmrch, the only expedient which secures voles 
 in favor of our endowments. The poet Southey, in his well known 
 life of Wesley, says " that in this distempered age they are the best 
 " safe-guard the Church possesses/' and the well known Canning, of 
 political notoriety, used always to urge this argument as the only one 
 he knew in defence of the Establishment;* an argument which I 
 need not remind my Reverend Brethren, involves every fallacy and 
 every thing illogical and inconsequential that can be included in so 
 small a space, or so confined a range of words. But thus it is with a 
 Representative Chamber, constituted on such corrupt principles as 
 that which now presides in this country, truth and honesty are 
 scarcely ever attended to, but those arguments are only used which 
 strike the selfish passions and secret vices of the Representatives, 
 and which whisper a note of fear to monopolies and disgusting jobs. 
 This certainly can be the only meaning of the words of Southey : at 
 least, I can put no other construction on them. Many writers how- 
 ever, who have written in these days in defence of tithes, have left 
 the old ridiculous plea of sacredness and sanctity, and have rushed 
 headlong into the tumultuous and dangerous ocean of political eco- 
 nomy, and have endeavoured to prove by arithmetic that tithe is no 
 grievance, being a portion of the rent of the land. This doctrine, by 
 far more absurd than even the "■ sacredness" formerly attributed to 
 this hateful tax, has been abundantly and amply confuted in the most 
 conclusive manner — but let us just suppose this doctrine on their 
 own view of the case. If tithes are not paid by the consumer, as it 
 is contended, then they are a portion of the rent of the land — let us 
 adrfiit that. It will also be granted, that every acre in England not 
 specially exempted, whatever sum it may yield under the name of 
 rent, returns to the clerical incumbent a tithe of its gross produce. 
 It follows, that the lowest possible rent of land in England — for tithe 
 is rent by the axiom — is a tenth of its gross annual produce. If this 
 be the case in England, it must be so universally wherever land is 
 
 • *•' The difficulty of the Hon. Mover's case was, that it went directly against all 
 *'• that had hitherto been considered as established. If the House should agree to 
 *' the Hon. 3Iover"s (Mr. Hume) resolution, there was nothing to prevent them from 
 '' seizing on the property of C^orpovations. Then again, why was the House to stop 
 ** with tithes of the Church ? why not also possess themselves of the lay tilhes ? — 
 * (Hear, hear, hear )" &c — Canning's Speech in the House on the Irish Ciiurch 
 tskbl shment, Feb. 22, 182a. 
 
2a 
 
 appropriated and brought into cultivation. It is well known, that 
 the farmer on the banks of the Ohio, so far from paying a tithe of his 
 produce as rent, pays no rent at all. The same might no doubt be 
 observed of lands much nearer home. The lowest rent of land there- 
 fore, is not the tithe of its produce, and where such a portion is ex- 
 tracted by provision of law, that portion is not rent of land, but a tax 
 on produce. But if tithe is rent, the American Government by 
 imposing tithe on those lands in the back settlement which now yield 
 no rent at all, might at once raise a rent without any difficulty ! thus 
 then tithe is not rent, but something else — it is a tax on the produce 
 of the earth, and an oppressive burthen on agriculture. 
 
 If such is not the case, why was an act of Parliament passed in the 
 Reign of Edward VI. exempting newly enclosed grounds from pay- 
 ing tithe for a certain number of years ? Was it not because tithe 
 was felt to be a tax on industry, and that if urged in an infant state 
 of society, the country would be ruined by it ? Surely if payment is 
 withheld till a certain number of years, it is evident that it is so with- 
 held from motives of charity, and that whenever such payment is 
 required it will be oppressive and injurious ? But one great mischief 
 of tithe is, that they increase so immensely above the calculation of 
 those that first invented them or laid them on. This is evident. If 
 the price of corn is 60s. the quarter, the tithe is 6s. ; if the increased 
 difficulty of production should raise the produce^to £5. the tithe will 
 be increased to 10s. ; if to £6. the tithe will rise to I2s. ;• and so on : 
 titlie always increasing in proportion to the difficulty of raising pro- 
 duce, a most horrible and tyrannical rule, but which is nevertheless 
 the case. But tithe increases in value, as well as amount, with the 
 increasing difficulty of raising food. Thus when the produce is in- 
 creased from 100,000 to 200,000 quarters, not only is the amount of 
 tithe advanced from 10,000 to 20,000 quarters, but owing to the 
 augmented cost of production the price of corn might be tripled. 
 Thus tlie 20,C00 quarters, although only double in quantity, might 
 be six- fold increased in value, as compared with the 1 0,000 quarters 
 which were raised before. For if 10,000 quarters were taken as 
 tithes, when the price was 25s. the quarter, the value of the tax 
 would be £l2,0C0.. If the price rose to 75s. its value would be no 
 less than £75,000. Or to put it in another light, when the value of a 
 bushel of wheat in money was 3s. the tithe raised the price to 3s. 4d. 
 and took from every £lOO. worth of produce, £l6. 13s. 4d. but 
 
as the difficulty of producing food increased, and when in conse- 
 quence of this difficulty the price rose to 5s. the bushel, the tithe 
 raised the price to 5s. 6d. and took from every £lOO. worth of 
 profit the vast sum of £27- 10s. In short, however the argument 
 may stand, tithe is felt by all farmers, and I am sure by the farmers 
 of Yorkshire, as a very grievous and intolerable tax ; and what is 
 felt by the pocket no arguments can ever confute, and the attempt 
 to urge such arguments is in my opinion only adding insult to op- 
 pression. All these things are bad and cruel enough in England, but 
 in Ireland they are ten times worse, for there the collection of tithe 
 is the greatest possible affliction that can be imagined to visit a 
 country, it is an affliction that harrasses the living, that adds many 
 to the dead, and is the practical destruction of all equity, mercy, 
 and judgment in that long-afflicted and miserably tormented island. 
 For it is not enough that famine and political persecution afflict and 
 and oppress poor Ireland, but the tithe-proctor and the Parson with 
 dragoons and cannons, come to finish what before was imperfect. 
 A famous Orator has eloquently said, " with regaid to the legality of 
 "the conduct of the Clergyman who in rating his parishioners t»kes 
 " advantage of famine, and brings up as it were the rear of divine 
 ** vengeance, and becomes in his own person the last great scourge 
 " of the husbandman ; with regard to the legality of the conduct of 
 '* a Clergyman, who not only takes the advantage of a famine, but joins 
 «' a famine price to a plenty produce, and by one and the same act 
 '^ punishes human industry, and aggravates physical misfortune, as to 
 *^ the legality of such conduct I shall say nothing — it may be perfectly 
 ** consistent with his temporal claims, but blasts his spiritual preten- 
 " sions for ever." * 
 
 The time would fail me, my Reverend Brethren, if I were to go 
 through all the evils that the people of England and Ireland endure 
 by the exaction of tithe, I must therefore hasten to notice the still 
 greater harm that our venerable body suffers, both individually and 
 generally, by the continuance of what the people so loudly and so 
 justly complain of: for to me it appears, that the general debasement 
 of the civil, political, and religious character of the Clergy, a debase- 
 
 * We refer the reader to the JHector's Guide, No. I. frcm page G to page JG, for 
 a full and complete account of all the horrors ard atiotities ragirg in Ireiaiid authis 
 present day, under the pretence of keeping up our Ei:tallii}Lii;ei*i^ 
 
 c 2 
 
24 
 
 ment which is too notorious to be denied, is a calamity that ought to 
 call forth all our tears and all our ])rayers Ever since the Reign of 
 James I. the Church of England has been a great state machine for 
 supporting the Ministry of the day, of whatever party or opinion 
 that Ministry might belong, and has by the dirty work of more than 
 two centuries, accumulated such a load of moral filth on her character, 
 as would require more than the waters of the Alpheus* to wash away 
 the con upted mass- I know not wliy any of us should deny this 
 glaring truth, we all of us acknowledge it with sorrow in our private 
 conversations, why then should we conceal what everv adult in Eng- 
 land is aware of? As long as human passions are worked on by 
 bribery, as long as gold can canker faith, as long as expectancy can 
 supi)ress honesty, and as long as rewards can entice away the truth, 
 so long must the Church of England, in her present unamended state, 
 continue to be a vast edifice of corruption and slavishness. How can 
 we expect any thing else from the constitution of our secular affairs ? 
 Does not the Lord Chancellor give away upwards of 1000 livings? 
 and are not each of those livings to all intents and purposes a bribe ? 
 Yes, my Reverend Brethren, a bribe to betray the people, and to sell 
 the souls of the receivers to iniquity and sin. 
 
 How many livings then of enormous value are also given away by 
 the Crown, or in other words by those that rule in the Cabinet ? 
 Every Bishopric, and every Deanery in the kingdom is a large and 
 splendid bribe, a bribe almost always applied for bad purposes, and 
 .producing bad consequences. Do any of you here suppose that a 
 Bishop of Landaff could stop his ears to the voice of the charmer, 
 charming him wisely with the sweet sound of the bells that tinkle in 
 th^ Catliedral of Durham ? do you suppose that a pious Prelate does 
 not attend to the vast difference between ^777- and, £:^ 4,000. per 
 annum ? do you imagine that a Bishop of Cliesier's sacred lips do 
 not water for the honey collected in the golden hive of Winchester? 
 and ilo you suppose that even a well-gorged Bishop of Lincoln has 
 not meditated on the six thousand charms of a Deanery of St. Paul's, 
 which are tenable with his present wealth ? What can make human 
 nature, dried up and evaporated in a Bishoj)'s mind, what can there 
 be \\\ the sanctity of our lawn, that prevents bad purposes and evil 
 
 •" T;:e river that Hercules tuinfU ilirough the stables of Augeas, 
 
25 
 
 dispositions festering and rankling beneath its snowy gi'aces ? 
 nothing, my Reverend Brethren, but the grace of God, and a 
 thorough regeneration of our souls, which if a man has felt, he will 
 not receive the vast bribes of the Cabinet? Give a poor nian half a 
 crown and he will wallow in the mire and rake in a dunghill, give 
 him a guinea and he would eat filth and garbage to please you — ^give 
 a Dean a Bishoprick, and he will vote steadily for the Ministry, give 
 him a richer Prelacy and he will crawl till his knees can crawl no 
 longer ; the higher the bribe, the baser the action ; so that even the 
 rabble understand this simple maxim, and have shewed us well their 
 opinions by writing on the walls of the cities ^' as base as a Bishop." 
 Yes, my Reverend Bretliren, and I, with pain and grief of heart re- 
 peat the posie " as base as a Bishop ;" because my intimate acquaint- 
 ance with ecclesiastical affairs make me feel Avith shame and horror, 
 that the charge is true and cannot be denied. 
 
 Of the politics of the Church I need not say mucli, for we all of us 
 know that she always has steadily and perseveringly aided the ag- 
 gressions of arbitrary power, and sided with every thing unpopular 
 against the people by whom she is supported. And here I notice 
 her moral deficiencies in a double view — first, her perversion of Scrip- 
 ture to suit her slavish purposes, and secondly, her infringing her 
 own rules that she herself has laid down. It is the constant cry of 
 all Court preachers, that the good Christian must submit to all political 
 grievances, and never raise his voice against the rulers — the Christian 
 they say has nothing to do with politics, the powers that be, are to be 
 obeyed ; we must not resist the ordinances of God, for all that is 
 ordained is ordained by God ; and we must be subject not only for 
 wrath but for concience' sake. Here however let me remark, that this 
 advice was written to the early Christians living under a Heathen 
 Emperor, and knowing none but Heathen Governors. St. Paul would 
 allow no resistance to Nero. The sword must never be drawn against 
 the Heathen tyrant, who for a time was to be pern;itted to rage against 
 the Church unrebuked and unreproved, till he, to whom vengeance 
 belongeth took the cause into his own hands, and avenged the blood 
 of his Saints, But how is the case changed when our rulers are sup^ 
 posed to be Christians, and when all of us are children living under 
 one Sovereign of the same faith and fold ? Is any one so wicked and 
 debased in his principles, or so ignorant of the Gospel, as not to per- 
 Ctiive th4t when the State and the pco|:le are all Christians, that bath 
 
^6 
 
 State and people must submit to Christian rules? And ^vill any one 
 dare to say, that when our pastors and our rulers are upholding vice, 
 pati'onisiug corruption, encouraging sin, debasing the Gospel, ruining 
 the faith, and by a general system of political degradation, weighing 
 down the morals and virtue of the nation, that it is not the duty of 
 every Christian, hi) all lawful means^ to rouse the community to 
 all LiAvful resistance to an amendment of the evil way ? I, as Arch- 
 bishop of York and Metropolitan of England, openly declare, that in 
 such cases lawful resistance is a part of the Religion of the land, that 
 we are betraying our trust if we keep silent, that neutrality is a crime, 
 and abstinence from Reform is a sin that will lie heavily at our doors. 
 The Judges have frequently declared from the bench, that Christi- 
 anity is part and parcel of the law of the land, if such be the case, 
 what have we Clergy, and what have I, Archbishop to do, but to 
 exert ourselves day and night to reform this part and parcel of the 
 law of the land ? Christianity is our care and our guard, we must 
 not be dumb dogs lying down to slumber, we must bark loud and 
 long in our barking, and give tongue vehemently and without delay 
 when the thieves and robbers are climbing into Christ's fold to steal 
 the wool and murder the sheep. But what has been the case with 
 too many of us hirelings ? we not only see the wolf coming and then 
 flee away, but we like traitors, assist the felon in catching and scatter- 
 ing the sheep ; and this we do because we are hirelings and care not 
 for the sheep. There are two sorts of resistance — rebellion, and argu- 
 ments for Reform. For the first, I know no answer but punishment, 
 for the second, I recognize none, but a granting of the Reform re- 
 quired. The first is sin, the second is virtue; and if ever a pious 
 Christian allows himself leisure time from his pure works of Religion 
 and charity, let him occupy himself with all his powers of bo ly and 
 mind, in the good and glorious work of advancing the Reform in the 
 Christian Church and Christian State to which he belongs. In the Old 
 and the New Testament, I read of nothing but political resistance 
 displayed in the characters of the great men that figure in their 
 sacred pages. And why was this so ? because the prophets knew that 
 they belonged to a faith of which their Kings were professors, but 
 which by their evil acts they were injuring and debasing. If it was 
 good in them to thunder upon wicked governments and wretched 
 abuses in God's Church, it is good in us also to follow tl ©'r example 
 —their motives were love of Cicd and their coui.try, let our njotives 
 
27 
 
 be the same, let us fear the face of no man living, thougli glltterlnir 
 in gold, part of which he offers us to bribe us from our duty ; but let 
 us stand on the hill, and give the word of truth with the voice of 
 honesty, till we shake corruption to the roots and tlirow down Mam- 
 mon from his pedestal. Hear what Jeremiah says to his King, '' shalt 
 " thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar ? did not thy 
 '^ father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was 
 *' well with him ? He judged the cause of the poor and needy, then 
 '* it was well with him — was not this to know me, saitli the Lord ? 
 " But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetous- 
 " ness, and to shed innocent blood, and for oppression and for 
 '' violence to do it. Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning 
 " Jehoiakim, King of Judali, they shall not lament for him, saying, 
 " ah my brother ! ah my sister ! they shall not lament for him, say- 
 '' ing, ah Lord ! and, ah his glory ! but he shall be buried with the 
 " burial of AN ASS, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of 
 " Jerusalem." The same punishment that might be expected for an 
 English Bishop, who should dare to say one half of these words and 
 publish them against the Court, was inflicted on Jeremiah — ^he was 
 cast into prison, and the King himself took out his pen-knife and cut 
 the book to pieces in which the words were contained, and threw the 
 book into the fire ! But mark our inconsistepcy ; we publicly read 
 this strange political story in our churches, our articles proclaim that 
 all Scripture, and consequently this story is dignified with Divine 
 inspiration, and yet if any one imitates the conduct of the prophet or 
 follows his example, the corrupt part of the Clergy cry out, that the 
 ordinances of God are insulted ! Isaiah is not behind Jeremiah in 
 zeal of expression — " thy princes are rebellious and companions of 
 " thieves, evenj one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards : they 
 " judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come 
 *' unto them" — and he discovers the cause of all this corruption to be 
 that which I urge as the origin of all our degradation — '' their land is 
 *^ full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures." 
 Ezekiel declares of Church and State, *' that the Princes are like 
 " evening wolves ravening the prey, to destroy souls, and TO GET 
 " DISHONEST GAIN; and her prophets have daubed them (the 
 *' Princes) with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies 
 " unto them ;" and Hosea speaking of the Divines of his day, saith. 
 
28 
 
 " they make the King glad with their wickedness, and the Princes 
 " with tlieir lies." 
 
 •7'hat ('ourts should hate Priests who indulge in the language of 
 truth is certainly no wonder, and that on the contrary, they should 
 encourage with large bribes those who will speak soft things to them, 
 daub them with untempered mortar, and divine lies to them, is still 
 less wonderful ; and there is no wonder at all, that plenty of Priests 
 should be found to close with these encouraging views of the Court, 
 and that mutual corruption should find mutual corrupters. I read of 
 these practises in the Book of Kings; — Jehoshaphat, King of Israel, 
 and Ahab, King of Judah, entered into a league against the King of 
 Syria, but being anxious to receive divine encouragement for the war, 
 they inquired of all the prophets, about four hundred men, whether 
 it v/as expedient to go to battle. All the prophets were courtly and 
 soothing on this occasion, but King Jehoshaphat still wished to hear 
 the opinion of one Micaiah, whom he requested might be sent for. 
 King Ahab vehemently opposed it in these words, " I hate the man, 
 *' for he doth not prophecy good concerning me, but evil." Never- 
 theless, in compliance with Jehoshaphat's request, the King of Judah 
 consented to send for the uncourtly prophet, who when he arrived, 
 found the four hundred sleek Priests promising all manner of gentle 
 things to his Majesty, and encouraging him to go to war. In spite 
 of this edifying example, Micaiah opened upon him all the curses 
 with which he was charged, and told him that the war would be the 
 ruin of the two kings. When he had finished, one of the courtly 
 Priests struck him on the face, and Ahab exclaimed in a rage, " did 
 " I not tell thee he would prophecy no good concerning me, but evil ?'* 
 —the King did more, he sent Micaiah away in the custody of his 
 officers, with this message to the governor of one of his cities, " thus 
 '•' saith the King, put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread 
 '' of affliction, and with water of affliction, till I come in peace." 
 Thus the honest Priest went to jail, and the King went to war ; the 
 Priest was released with triumph ; the King's blood was licked up 
 by the dogs : what became of the courtier Priests we know not. In 
 short, the whole politics of the Bible are resistance, reform, and the 
 most unmeasured and uncourtly language. All the Priests and 
 Prophets held up for our example, strongly set themselves up against 
 the abases of the Church and State ; they were commissioned to 
 
29 
 
 announce to erring Kings tiiat they would bd dethroned, they pro- 
 nounced their dethronement, they anointed usurpers, they roused the 
 people, they preached, they exhorted, they travelled about in a fury 
 of resistance, and generally saw performed what they themselves had 
 prophecied. In the sacred pages, I see Dynasties set aside with very 
 little ceremony ; it is a perpetual scene of Revolution and Reform, 
 a perpetual lesson to the people, that Monarchies were only hereditary, 
 where the virtues of the Monarchs made it requisite that their families 
 should stay on the throne. In all cases of mis-government, a Revolution 
 was the constant and unvarying restorative for Church and State. Reho- 
 boam, who refused to listen to the people, who refused to take off any 
 of the taxes and imposts raised by his father, and who told the people, 
 " that whereas his father chastised them with whips, he would chastise 
 " them with scorpions," met, as was his due, with the immediate revo- 
 lution of the kingdom, and to punish him for his audacity, saw two- 
 thirds of his Empire wrested from him. We are expressly told, " that 
 *^ the cause was from the Lord :" perhaps some modern Prelates would 
 have said otherwise ; but I will set the Bible always against the 
 whole bench of Bishops, and its little finger will be heavier than 
 their loins. 
 
 That which is true in principal to-day, is true in principal to-mor- 
 row, and thus it is, that in the new Testament, the leaders and the 
 rulers of the Jewish people are assailed with similar rudeness and 
 absence of respect. ""Woe, unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
 " crites, for ye make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but 
 'Mvithin they are full of EXTORTIOxV and EXCESS— thou blind 
 " Pharisee cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that 
 '•' the outside of them may be clean also ; woe, unto you Scribes and 
 " Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which 
 " indeed appear beautiful outwards^ but are within full of dead men's 
 " bones and all uncleanness: even so, ye also appear outwardly righte- 
 " ous, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. — Ye ser- 
 *' pents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of 
 " Hell." If there be any rule safe for a religious man in framing hig 
 politics aright, it is in these words, *^*the Scribes and the Pharisees sit 
 '* in Moses's seat, all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, do: 
 " but do ye not after their works; for they say and do not, for they 
 " bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's 
 " shoulders, but they themselves, will net touch them with one of their 
 
• so 
 
 " fingers." Every word of this is applicable to the present day, ami 
 i'tVe copy Iiim who delivered the words, our course is clear before 
 us, personalb) to submit to oppressions and abuses, morally to resist 
 them, with fill the powers of our heart and understanding. This is 
 my rule for my private conduct, and if I am wrong I must meet with 
 some proof of my error that I never yet have seen. 
 
 Slavishnqss of conduct and abject obsequiousness, are however most 
 evident means for pocketing large rewards, so that a convenient lan- 
 guage has been invented by the Clergy for carrying on the trade of 
 ecclesiastical bribes. If you will be my tools, says the Minister, 
 1 will call you orthodox pious men, on whom the Religion of the 
 country depends — and we, answer the Priests, will vote for you in 
 the upper House, and tamper for you in the lower, if you will defend 
 Church property and give us plenty of it. This, my Reverend 
 Brethren, is an unceremonious abridgment of the doctrine of obe- 
 dience, but we all of us know that it is too true, and both old and 
 young, who have seen the Prelates plodding their way through poli- 
 tical dirt, are bound to acknowledge this painful truth. Cant is odious 
 and sickening at all times, and many smart things have been said 
 by our venerable order against the cant of Methodists, and of the 
 Evangelical Clergy, but the cant of political hypocrisy is by far the 
 most odious thing that I ever have witnessed. " Let every soul be 
 *' subject to the higher powers,'* says lean Landaff, stepping into golden 
 Lincoln. — " Oh, by all means !" echoes pious Carlisle, as he slides off 
 the thorns of poverty to the rose-bed of Durham, "for the porvers that 
 'he are all ordained of heaven," — " To be sure," adds orthodox Here- 
 ford, as be approaches Winchester Cathedral with smiles and joy ; 
 " and it is the dutij of all men to be subject not only for wrath, but for 
 '" conscience sake." — " No doubt of it," replies an expectant Dean, 
 whose name is entered in the newspapers for a Mitre, " and we all 
 '•' of us know that these flthy dreainers who despise dignities shall re- 
 « ccive the greater damnation" — " Doubtless, doubtless," exclaim all the 
 Priests and Deacons from Northumberland to Dover, into whose 
 capacious bosoms are showered all the gold of the Chancery and the 
 Treasury tithes, and who in all commotions and famines, whether by 
 corn-laws or taxation, display their loyalty and faith, by publishing 
 Sermons on " the noise of the waves, and the madness of the people." 
 In these days, slavishness and servility of mind are recommended 
 with that suavity and gentleness of language, which the time requires; 
 but yet the Clergy are constantly urging it in spite of the Bible, and 
 
^1 
 
 in defiance of the Gospel. We are always a century behind-hand the 
 rest of the world in our opinions — a century do I say r a thousand 
 years. We are always tying clogs round the legs of intellect, v.e are 
 always adding weight to the chains that confine Common Sense, a 
 prisoner in the cage of lies. The Revolution, to which the present 
 reigning family ow^e their title to the throne, was opposed throughout 
 by the Clergy, and the principles on which it was founded, were by 
 them proclaimed as treason and sedition. Five years before the 
 Revolution took place, the Convocation of Oxford passed a solemn 
 decree against all liberal principles for ever, and in language that 
 became such Reverend men. These are some of the Articles con- 
 demned by them, extracted from the writings of the philosophers of 
 tlieir day : — " All civil authority is originally derived from the peo- 
 « pie — there is a mutual compact, tacit or express, between a Prince 
 " and his subjects — and if he perform not his duty, they are dis- 
 " charged from theirs. — That if lawful governors become tyrants, or 
 " govern otherwise than by the laws of God and man, they forfeit 
 " the right they had unto Uieir government. — The Sovereignty of 
 " England is in the three estates, viz. King, Lords, and Commons, 
 " the King hath but a co-ordinate power, and may be over-ruled by 
 " the other two — ^there lies no obligation upon Christians to passive 
 " obedience when tlie Prince commands any thing against the laws of 
 " the country, and the primitive Christians chose rather to die than 
 " resist, because CJiristianiLy was nvi settled bj/ the laws of the Empire. 
 " — Self-preservation is the fundamental law of nature, and super- 
 " sedes the obligation of all others, whensoever they stand in com- 
 
 *' petition with it." Then follows the Decree, '' we decree, judge, 
 
 " and declare, all and each of these propositions to be false, sediti- 
 " ous, and impious, and most of them to be also heretical and blas- 
 " phemous, infamous to the Christian Religion, and destructive of all 
 " government in Church and State. We further decree, that the 
 " books which contain the aforesaid propositions and impious doc- 
 f' trines, are fitted to deprave good manners, corrupt the minds of 
 f* uneasy men, stir up sedition and tumults, overthrow states and 
 *' kingdoms, and lead to rebellion, murder of Princes, and Atheism 
 " itself. And therefore we interdict all members of the University 
 " from reading the said books. And we also order the before- recited 
 " books to be publicly burnt by the hands of our Marshal, in the 
 " Court of our Schools." 
 
And yet five years afterwards, th« whole kingdom acted upon all 
 these condemned article!^, which became the standing law of the land, 
 and were hailed with joy by all but tlie Clergy, as the safeguards of 
 our Constitution. So little does bigotry and the slavishness of Priests 
 avail against public opinion, when public opinion is fairly expressed I 
 Nor should it be forgotten, that in spite of all this amazing anxiety 
 to crouch and fawn at the footstool of power, the Clergy have ever 
 exhibited an equal capacity for joining sedition and rebellion, when 
 they find it on the strongest side ; the whole history of England, 
 from the beginning to the end, proves this fact, and Oxford herself, 
 the very centre and focus of darkness and servility, the place from 
 which more than half of all the Clergy proceed, will afford us ample 
 and amusing proof. Five years after she had published this infamous 
 and unchristian Decree, she publislied an address welcoming the 
 arrival and victory of William III. who to all intents was a successful, 
 though a glorious Usurper, and who dethroned the lawful-reigning 
 King of the Realm. With similar consistency, she urged Charles I. 
 to the execution of all his cruelties and oppressions, and yet when he 
 had been beheaded by the people for his tyranny, she elected the 
 Usurper Cromwell as her Chancellor, conferred tlie same dignity on 
 his son Richard, and with equal facility and faitli, veered round on 
 the Restoration, and tossed up her learned cap for Kings and Legiti- 
 macy. It is curious also to observe, that though the Bishops were 
 the chief cause of the Revolution, and threw the spark into the barrel 
 of gunpowder, yet only six of them adhered to their old master, or 
 refused to join the Usurper; so constantly do they follow that side 
 which is the strongest, and desrert that which is the weakest. Two 
 Prelates in all our history are famous for their honesty in political 
 conduct, Thomas Merkes, Bishop of Carlisle, who after the deposition 
 of Richard II. opposed the new Monarcli, Henry IV. in a long speech 
 in the House of Lords, and Archbishop Grindal, who for resisting 
 the unjust commands of Elizabeth, was like the Bishop of Carlisle, 
 deposed from his Prelacy. If to these two, you add the six Prelates 
 that adhered to James II. after their rcsixfa/icc had deposed hivi, \c>\\ 
 will then have the sum total of honest politiciil Bishops in the Eng- 
 lish history — Eight !!! would that this little leaven could leaven the 
 whole lump. We need not however go to such remote times for the 
 public delinquencies of our Church ; we have seen \\\x\\ our own eyes 
 Jiow invariably the Clergy step forward tis political agitatcri*, and 
 
9$ 
 
 endeavour with all their arts to widen the breacli between the 
 governors and the governed, in times of sedition and difficulty. Thug 
 they only keep their rule of quietism and Christian meekness on one 
 side of the question, they only shew themselves good citizens and 
 humble pastors for their own party — if ever any politics are gaining 
 ground contrary to their interests, who so turbulent imd designing 
 as the Clergy ? who in the famous trial of her Majesty Queen Caro- 
 line, consort of George IV. were half so noisy and mischievous as the 
 Clergy ? did they not preach from the pulpit atrocious libels against 
 the Queen of the Realm ? did they not w rite pamphlets, and issue 
 their slavish manifestoes, to urge the views of the Ministry against 
 the wishes of the whole people of England? and were not some of 
 them justly punished for their unlawful and unchristian conduct ? 
 and did not the Bishops vote for a dissolution of the marriage tie, * 
 though such dissolution without a legal divorce is forbidden by the 
 Christian and Canon law ? This is the last attempt of the Prelates 
 against the royal family of this kingdom, the last instance that I can 
 refer to, though perhaps some of us may live to see such sedition 
 repeated, when a suitable occasion occurs. The only rule for sacer- 
 dotal loyalty is to follow steadily the strongest side, and to cry with 
 fervent piety, " woe, woe, woe, to the vanquished !" 
 
 To prove still farther the invariable tendency of a rich priesthood, 
 I might call to your recollection, that in all provincial elections of 
 any consequence, the Clergy, in violation of their hypocritical rule o£ 
 quietism, rush headlong into the storm of local politics, and Ofi the 
 side of the Ministry let slip no arts however vulgar and common 
 place, however mean and pitiful to secure voters fur their party. 
 They canvass their parish, they lavish the bribes, if bribes are requi- 
 site, they issue their threats, they publish their election-papers, and 
 shew themselves no mean masters of ale-house arts, and popular cor- 
 ruption, t Not content however with the usual electioneering trie ks, 
 they do that which no other part of Christian society ever condescends 
 to take in hand: they rouse the hatred of one denomination of 
 Christians against the other, and by the horrid crime of fomenting 
 
 • The predecessor of Atopus, it will be remeuibcred, rcfured on this oc asion to 
 vote with the Court:, and by his rr.finJy ai.d spirited conduct gained the aflection of 
 all the people in his Diocese. 
 
 t In the last contested.Election for ^Veslir.orclaril, cnt hundred and cv.e Clergy^ 
 men voted on the Court side of the j'oll ! 
 
religions anhmtosity and discord, reap the harvest of their malignity 
 and gatlier the fruits of their spite. No one but a Priest ever dreams 
 of making use of Religion for an election ; but many of us, my 
 Reverend Brethren, I am sorry to say, are too ready to set one sect in 
 battle array against the other, to inflame the public mind with con- 
 troversial quarrels, and to extract the Venom of the Devil from the 
 faith of Christ. With minds so perverted and abandoned, some of 
 the Clergy debase themselves by pandering to the passions of pro- 
 vincial newspapers, and step from the pulpit, to the uncharitable desk 
 of the editor, and the vulgar sheet of weekly falsehoods. Arts and 
 conduct like these should fill us all with shame, shame that any of 
 our order should so degrade themselves, though 1 trust, and feel con- 
 fident, that none of the Clergy of York can be included in this severe 
 reprehension. To finish this part of my discourse, I feel it to be a 
 painful truth, that though no men preach up political quietism so 
 much as the Clergy, yet no men so resolutely infringe the doctrines 
 that they preach ; that they are only quiet, and meek, and lamb-like 
 on the side of liberality and all patriotic virtues ; but in favor of 
 servility, court-tricks, and moral degradation, they are noisy as lions, 
 and ravening as wolves. They fully display the double character of 
 the sheep and the wolf, they bleat in the presence of superior power, 
 and howl against weakness and inferiority. Beware of them, they 
 are in false clothing. 
 
 From all that has been said, it is at; undeniable truth, that the 
 extreme unpopularity under which we labour at preseiit is, the result 
 and the reward of our own corruption; and the effect that our 
 immense endowments produce, both on ourselves and on those that 
 are injured by our expensive Brahminical privileges. The first cause 
 oi^ our unpopularity is, the financial and agricultural distress which 
 those privileges create, and the second is the evident deterioration of 
 our moral character, by the long enjoyment of vast and unmerited 
 wealth. If we were exemplary in our civil, religious, and moral 
 characters in proportion to the treasures that are lavished on us, I 
 think that the people might be persuaded in many cases to bear with- 
 out complaining the difficulties we occasion ; I think that if they saw 
 every Clergyman dedicating himself heart and soul, to the service of 
 CmkI and of his universal fold with that zeal and self-denial which 
 but few of us exhibit ; if we, who have large livings and vahuible 
 pluralities, expended most of the nioiuy we take from the people in 
 
85 
 
 acts of public and private charity, and in encouraging- every tiling 
 conducive to the good of our Parishioners, they would perhaps over- 
 look the burthen of supporting us, in gratitude for the good we confer. 
 But when the majority of us ever have been, and ever must be, by the 
 nature o( thing-s careless to our duties, indifferent in our ministerial 
 conduct, and in a vast many cases openly profligate, and wholly dedi- 
 cated to the pleasures of the field, the table, or polite society, how can 
 we as rational men expect a popularity which we do not deserve, or look 
 for affection which is not our due ? The people are remarkably acute 
 in their perceptions, every man and woman now can read the Bible, 
 and the Bible is such a standing comment on our Clerical conduct, tliat 
 it is in vain for us to hope to regain the ground we have lost, by a 
 little exterior decency or skin-deep morality. If we were as moral 
 as Seneca, as learned as Friar Bacon, and as grave as Solomon, it 
 would not satisfy our flock: the people expect, and they have a right to 
 expect too, work, hard work from us ; we of all men in the workl ought 
 to be most inured to labour and most dedicated to business, and if we 
 would know the extent of labour required of us, let us study the 
 Epistles of St. Paul, copy his example, and do the work of an Evan- 
 gelist. The labour of genuine piety cannot however be directed by 
 rules> it must be taught by inspiration, and unless it is felt at the 
 heart it is in vain to suggest it to the head. And yet, as a bodi/, we 
 never can perform this labour and execute this charge committed to us, 
 unless our riches, the root of all the mischief, be plucked up and cast 
 away ; exceptions to the bad majority there always will be, and I hail 
 them with gratitude whenever I see them, and am glad that they are 
 so numerous as they are, but still, as a body, under the present system, 
 we must be a great and opprobrious example of corruptness and irre- 
 ligion. It is in vain, my Reverend Brethren, for me or any of my wor- 
 thy coadjutors in the higher ranks of theChurch, to hope for any amend- 
 ment by our pastoral charges and fatherly exhortations ; they have 
 ever been found to offer a feeble barrier to the headlong vice of 
 human nature, and he that does not mind the Homilies and Canons 
 of our Church, will listen with cold indifference to his Prelate though 
 exhorting him with tears and supplications. We have Moses and tlie 
 Prophets to instruct us, the Gospel and the Epistles — who then shall 
 hope to add to these omnipotent monitors, surely if these ghostly 
 advisers are disregarded, a Bishop must be a vain man to think he can 
 gain attention. I consider the discipline of the Church of England 
 
Sft 
 
 a solemn comedy ; I perceive that it is meant to bs golemn, but that 
 it only excites the laughter of spectators, and the secret ridicule of 
 the Clergy themselves, who are tlie actors in the (h-ama. We have 
 Homilies of the strictest and severest tone, we have our Canons 
 which are a dead letter, and are scarcely ever attended to or thought 
 of, and yet we keep up the ceremony of quoting them and referring to 
 them as if we respected their authority. The 75th Canon of the 
 Church of England expressly forbids tiie Clergy playing at cards, 
 it does so in the plainest terms that can be devised, and yet I know, 
 that one half of the Clergy of my Diocese totally disregard this 
 Canon of their Church, and in spite of all eccleciastical law indulge 
 themselves in this respect, to the scandal of all discipline, and the 
 grief and pain of all good men. I am determined that no Clergyman 
 in my Diocese shall, with my knowledge, ever play at cards, I Avill 
 urge the whole power of my episcopal authority against such offen- 
 ders, and I wiir make them sensible that thjeir Bishop knows and 
 respects the Canons of his Church, and will force his Clergy to 
 observe them. Let any Priest or Deacon henceforward, on his peril, 
 presume to play at this unlawful game, and they shall feel that I have 
 authority, and >vill exercise it too. It is certainly a hopeless case to 
 expect by any strictness, that the Church may be reformed under the 
 present system, but it would be wicked in me with my eyes open, to 
 allow tho^e who are under my government, daringly to break the laws 
 of that establishment to which we belong; I will keep the laws, and see 
 that they are kept by my Clergy. 
 
 Many Prelates from a laudible anxiety to reform the lax morality 
 of the Clergy, have laid down strict rules as to Residence and 
 Non-residence, by which they have removed part of the scandal from 
 our Church, but still Non-residence is an enormous evil in the land, 
 and when pluralities are allowed to the powerful Clergy, and immu- 
 nities granted to the Dignitaries of the Establishment, it is clear that 
 there are means for evading discipline whenever an urgent case is 
 produced ; and such cases are constantly produced by the connexions 
 and friends of the Archbishops and Fsishops. Indeed, it appears to 
 me, that the main body of the Clergy become daily more and more 
 secular in their pursuits and habits, and I think the Church has 
 lately been injured more by the fashionable school of decent gentle- 
 manly Parsons, than by the ol 1 profligates and roaring drunkards 
 tliat flourished 30 or 40 years -dgo. A young Clergyman now a days 
 
i;« perfectly correct in his exterior conduct as far as we see in public, 
 he never swears, he does not use filthy conversation, he is not marked 
 by immorality of an oiFensive sort, he does not get drunk, and he 
 says nothing that is not perfectly polite and agi'eeable : but in other 
 respects, he certainly endeavours in every possible way to avoid 
 the example of the Apostles, however trifling, or however important. 
 His first care is his dress ; * to put on so much of the secular habit as 
 his tailor can invent, without being quite a finished layman : and inge- 
 nious have been the devices to attain this desirable point ! the coat 
 may be of a mixture of colours, not absolutely black, it maybe cut in the 
 height o£ the fashion, provided it has not metal buttons ; the waistcoat 
 may be decorated with bars of black and white, or grey and white ; 
 the breeches may be of any texture or colour, and the boots may be 
 the most elegant and polished that art can produce ! — ^nay the coat 
 may be blue if it has not metal buttons, and in short, the science of 
 of evading the disgraceful appearance of a Priest has been studied so 
 successfully, that few persons can distinguish a Priest from a layman. 
 Thus equipped, the Priest may pass the day in tender blandishments 
 with the fair sex, in graceful display of sinews at cricket, in playing 
 fantasias on the fiddle, or piping madrigals on the flute, or in leaping 
 over five barred gates after foxes, or filling his bag with the slaughter 
 of the turnip field. In the evening, the pious youth, in all respects 
 dressed like a layman, can pirouette in the ball room, gamble at the 
 card-table, whisper in the saloon, flirt in the gallery, and make bows 
 in tlie drawing-room. On Sunday, the lithographic Sermons will 
 lessen his Sabbath toil of the necessary homily, he need '* never men-* 
 
 • Dr. Blomfield, Bishop of Chester, in an agony of decorous horror at the dandy 
 appearance of his Priests, suggested the propriety of a Parson-livery to put an end to 
 the scandal. — " I cannot pass hy this opportunity of expressing my anxious wish, 
 " that some regulations should be devised for the unifortn and dhtinct'ivc dress of the 
 " Clergy," (Charge to the Clergy of Chester, page 16.) 'J'he learned Prelate did 
 not however describe the uniform for the Church-Militant ; perhaps this point should 
 be left to the head of the Church, who might issue hi-s orders from the head quarters 
 in the (razette. " His Majesty has been graciously pleased to order, that all Priests 
 " and Deacons shall be habited in the manner following : a I'riest in the morning, 
 '* a black hat, brim six inches deep, crown four Inches high, a white ribbon to tie the 
 *' same : coat, black or purple with white collars ; white buttons ; and the flap only 
 '* four inches long, triangular ; waistcoat, cream coloured (alluding to the wearer skim- 
 *' ing the cream of good things) with rolling collar ; neckcloth, black silk ; breechei, 
 " co«/<;«r-r/t-ror/>»or<;M^ with white bnttons ; red stockings; no shoes, but sandals 
 "■ in the manner of .VpoUo, the first tithe-taker ; a black cane of the regulation length : 
 '* pockets in the breeches very lar^rc^ &c. &c. &c." 
 
 Given at the Church-Guards, — £ldon. 
 
'* tion Hell to ears polite," arid Ladies and Gentlemen will unani^ 
 mously declare him a charniing young man, and a highly respectable 
 Clergyman. In some places such a youth may have fair hopes of a 
 living from his Bishop, but in ray Diocese, I advise him to beware 
 lest he approach too near to my ecclesiastical eye. He will hear of 
 Episcopacy in a manner he does not like. We are now tormented 
 with legions of these gentlemanly vermin, vermin more odious to me 
 than wolves were to Alfred, whom I would fain tie together two and 
 two by the tail, and send with fire-brands to consume themselves and 
 all the cockles and darnel in the harvest of the Lord. The great pes^ 
 of this last asra of the Church of England is polite hypocrisy, I se^ 
 «11 England overrun, with these spruce fox hunters and dexterous 
 destroyers of game, I behold, what they call gentlemen smiling in 
 every pulpit, and simpering at every visitation. Gentlemen indeed ! 
 what has Christ to do with gentlemen? when were such unholy anno-- 
 malies first heard of in the Church? was St. Paul a fox hunter and a 
 player of cards ? did St. Peter disgrace himself with the polite amuse^ 
 ments of our Gentlemen- Priests ? wretched men — how sincerely do 
 I pray, that all these offensive excrescencies on Religion may be lop- 
 ped off and thrown into the fire. 
 
 And yet it is for this part of the Priesthood, by far the most aban^ 
 doned and disgraced of all that act the hypocrite at God's altars, that 
 we are told our Church endowments are chiefly required, " if you do 
 *' not offer sufficient rewards," they say, " to men of birth and education, 
 ** they never would consent to enter into the Church, and thus the 
 .** country would lose their talents." Well let them and their talents 
 go to the dogs together : Christ does not want these men of education 
 and birth, our Church stands in need of no maker of Latin verses or 
 translator of Aristotle to fight her battles, we want not waltzers and 
 hunters, and let those that like, caper and quote polite literature in any 
 other place, than in the sacred precincts of the Church of England. It 
 is not by such gentlemen as these that the Church was established, Cran- 
 ner and Latimer w ould have turned sick on beholding them, but it it 
 by such wretches as these, that the Church will be destroyed. Heaven 
 grant, that they may be the first to be crushed in the ruins ! 
 
 To make complete however, the erroneous system under which the 
 Church is at present conducted, the Prelates and Dignitaries have 
 hitherto thought proper, to add to our miserable confusion by internal 
 discord and contention. The Evangelical Clergy are the only part of 
 
si 
 
 our body that enjoy the affections of the people, and they deserve'tni* 
 popularity by tlieir real piety and disinterestedness of conduct : yet, 
 it is against these excellent and religious Ministers, that the Bishops 
 and Archdeacons and all their dependents have hitherto turned the 
 whole weight of their influence, and all the powers of their petty and 
 pitiful persecution. 1 could make you blush, my Reverend Brethren, 
 with anecdotes that I could relate of episcopal oppression, exercised 
 over those Curates who are called Calvinists or Evangelical : I could 
 recount long stories of vexatious and unjustifiable measures, urged 
 without remorse, to silence and terrify poor and humble pastors from 
 their duty ; to make them relinquish their support of Bible Societies, 
 and all the Associations which the zeal of the People has promoted for 
 the extension of Christianity. The Dignitaries have raged againA" 
 what they call Methodism, and have put in motion all the engines 
 of their authority to " harry these pietists out of the land :" they 
 are furious at the sight of a Bible Society, but they are rejoiced at 
 the orthodoxy of fox-hunting pluralists ; they storm when endea- 
 vours are made to convert the Jews, but they lavish their praises orf 
 lazy and well-gorged Deans, whose only occupation is to issue furious^ 
 government pamphlets from the Cathedral close — all that is snoring 
 in the fat slumbers of the Church, all that is dull and orthodox^ 
 oppressive and fashionable, lazy and ministerial, meets with their 
 high encomiums and approbation ; but vulgarity and zeal, activity and 
 charity, poverty and faith, a love of God, and a contempt of the world, 
 is marked out for their aversion and persecution, is stigmatized in 
 their charges, and reprobated in their private conversations. It is in 
 vain for this oppressed part of the Clergy to appeal to the true doc- 
 trines of the Church, the Bishop and the Archdeacon never listen ; 
 the Curate is poor and therefore heterodox ; of low origin, and there- 
 fore an enemy to the Establishment ; power and high birth can rebel 
 in heresies unreproved ; a Dean may strut in heterodoxy, but the 
 Evangelical Curate, whose whole worldly possesions are £80. pel? 
 annum, is silenced and sent out of the Diocese. 
 
 " Quantum quisque sua nummorum servat in area 
 Tantum habet et fidei ; jures licet et Samothracum 
 Et nostrorum aras, contemnere fulmina pauper 
 Creditur, atque Deos, Dis ignoscentibus ipsis." 
 To draw towards a conclusion. We have but one alternative left j 
 there is but one cure for all these mighty evils, and that is A CO!^i 
 
FISCATION OF CHURCH PROPERTY BY ACT OF PARLIA- 
 MENT ; I think we have now come to that point, tliat crisis in the 
 disease when it is no longer possible to talk of expedients: I think, 
 that in the political difficulties ^vitli which the nation is threatened 
 from the inevitable explosion of national credit, and the necessary 
 extinction of the national debt; it is incumbent on us " whilst it is 
 day," to make such terms as we can find the Parliament ready to 
 listen to. T\te days of national corruption are hastening to an end ; 
 Reform is thundering at the door, and all parties look to Church 
 property as offering pecidiar facilities for retarding the fiscal calami- 
 ties of the nation. When a Minister is hampered in the Revenues, 
 when taxes fail him, when agriculture and trade can no longer bear 
 the pressure of legal robbery, when all expedients have failed, and all 
 quackery has been confuted ; he then forgets his orthodoxy, he leaves 
 his faith and love of Priests, and is one of the first to lay his paw upon 
 the golden granaries of the Church. The seizure of five millions per 
 annum is a tempting bait for a bankrupt Chancellor of the Exche- 
 quer ; I should be sorry to hear him calculating our wealth, and 
 should tremble if Government demanded a return of our emoluments. 
 If with blind obstinacy we resist all terms, and will not listen to 
 reason, I sh^U call to mind those days when the lamp-posts were 
 decorated with Clergymen, and when Deans and Prebends supplied 
 the place of whale-oil and coal-gas. I am sure, that none of my 
 Reverend Brethren are anxious thus to illuminatethe towns and cities ; 
 I think they would rather creep under a bushel than risk such distin^ 
 guished martyrdom; and yet in a grand national starvation, I would not 
 answ'er for tlie consequences if nothing is altered, if all remains aaJt 
 is, and no Reform is admitted as feasible. ^itl 
 
 The plan w hicli I suggest for our salvation is short and simple ; 
 that after the death of all present incumbents the payment of tithes' 
 in England and Ireland shall cease and determine; that after the 
 death of present proprietors all Cathedral lands, prebendal houses, 
 closes, fields, woods, tenements, and real property of every possible 
 description, in any way belonging to any spiritual person in his 
 spiritual capacity, be confiscated and become the property of llie 
 Crown : that Commisi^ioners shall be appointed to make returns of 
 tlie population and wants of such towns and cities where CJuirch 
 property formerly existed ; that a convenient portion of sucliitx- 
 tinct Churcli property, according to the wants of ihe^place, be bet 
 
41 
 
 aside for the benefit of the poor, for public education^ «ind all 
 other charitable purposes ; that in places where only tithe has been 
 taken, the Parishioners shall be compelled to pay a sum of money 
 equal to thirty years' purchase of the said tithe, and such monies shall 
 be applied to purchase lands and real property for the charitable pur- 
 poses aforesaid : That of the residue of all Church property, after all 
 such purposes have been fulfilled, a large and ample portion in land 
 be set aside for keeping all Cathedrals and great Churches in repair ; 
 which duty shall devolve on the Crown, and be managed by Archi- 
 tects and Commissioners appointed by the Crown for that very pur- 
 pose — that all Spiritual Courts be immediately abolished — that a 
 Convocation of the Clergy take place every year, and such laws and 
 Canons be adopted for the better regulation of the Church, as the 
 Archbishops, Bishops, and Clergy shall think fit— and that all statutes 
 and acts of Parliament now in force, in any way respecting the 
 government of the Church of England be repealed, revoked, and 
 abrogated, any act to the contrary notwithstanding. To prevent d 
 possibility of any complaints of injustice, I should wish those Clergy- 
 men who have bought livings for their families, to have the principal 
 and interest o£ their money restored to them, from the produce of 
 Church property after sale ; and that ample provision be made for 
 all the widoAvs and orphans of poor Clergy ?imv Iwing. By this plait 
 no robbery would be committed on any individual ; that phantom 
 and mettiphor " the Church," would suffer in theory, but till yoit 
 really see that respectable person in tears, you need not trouble 
 yourself with means for stopping them. I cannot conceive what 
 objections a reasonable man could raise to this scheme, and I am sure 
 that it is wiser to make such provision for ourselves whilst we have 
 the opportunity, than to shut the door against mercy, by obstinacy 
 and pride. Literary characters have so long busied themselves 
 against our order, and tJie people have so long groaned under our 
 " extortion and excess," that it is madness to conceive that we shall 
 be able to retain our '' dishonest gains," and I hope and trust, that 
 they will soon be taken from us. If any of my Reverend Brethren 
 should entertain fears, that there would not by tJiis plan be sufficient 
 maintenance in future for tlie Clergy, let him qin'et himself oh 
 that head; let him learn, that the Clergy of America receive by 
 volunUry contributions £i30(). per. annum, on an average; that the 
 Metliodist preachers receive £l50. per annum, bv voluntarv contrii 
 
42 
 
 butions ;'and that the Clergy of the Scotch Kirk are equally well pro- 
 vided for by the same means ; it is therefore a groundless fear to 
 imagine, that the people are disinclined to support a conscientious 
 Priesthood, and I think that the fear is generally expressed by those 
 ■who are too idle to work, too indifferent to Religion to become honest 
 Ministers^ and too fond of the unrighteous Mannon to serve the 
 children of Christ. 
 
 Having said so much for what I conceive to be the public cause 
 and the public good, allow me, my Reverend Brethren, to add a few 
 words for myself. I am aware of the danger incurred, and the ob- 
 loquy and hatred I am likelj' to meet with, for thus boldly expressing 
 my opinions upon so delicate a subject ; I know that such sentiments 
 as I have delivered would be disagreeable to our order from any one, 
 but proceeding from an Archbishop, and delivered at his primary 
 visitation, they cannot fail to draw upon the author the spite and ani- 
 madversions of those that entertain different sentiments. This how- 
 ever you will please to call in mind, that though I am a Prelate of the 
 Church of England, I also serve a superior Master, who is the head 
 spiritual of this,, and all other establishments in the Christian world. 
 I feel that the Gospel is the guide of my conduct ; I reflect that I 
 am a lawfully appointed successor of the Apostles, whom Christ com- 
 manded to go out into the world, without scrip, or purse, or shoes, 
 or silver, or gold : I notice with qare, that they were to caiTy wo 
 purse at all, and if they were to carry none, it is clearly a strict pro- 
 hibition against providing any money at all. I observe that St. Paul 
 worked with his own hands, to prevent himself being a charge to his 
 flock, and 1 read of the Seven Churches without the most remote 
 allusion being made to tithes, pluralities, Church-lands, and endows- 
 ments. I think if St. Paul had seen St. Peter riding in a coach and 
 four, and enriching himself with £20,000 per annum, he would have 
 strongly rebuked him ; and my reading in eccleciastical history, 
 informs me, that Church wealth was unknown for three hundred years 
 after the death of Christ. Surely no one will be so impudent as to 
 assert that tithes were an apostolical institution ; and surely no one 
 will say that the arguments which applied against Roman Catholic 
 tithes, do not also apply against Protestant tithes.* In short, I con- 
 
 • The goo(^ Archbishop seems to think, that what is sauce for a gcosc is sauce for 
 % g»ndcr, and that if tJie old nidownientu w«re considered euper?!li<iou«, the new rinc« 
 
43 
 
 scientiously feel, that by promulgating these sentiments, I am restor- 
 ing the old way ; I feel that Antichrist is nothing but Church- wealth, 
 and that wherever such wealth exists. Antichrist flourishes. — I there- 
 fore believe, that the present state of the Church of England is the 
 Antichrist of Scripture : and that it never will be void of this sin, 
 till we are thoroughly purged of our riches, and put away the cursed 
 thing from amongst us. I am however prepared to hear the old cry 
 raised against me, " Great is Diana of the Ephesians !" — because this 
 our craft, is in danger to be set at nought — to those however who raise 
 the cry, I shall answer in the words of the town clerk of Ephesus: " if 
 *' ye inquire any thing concerning these matters, it shall be determined 
 '' in a lawful assembly" — that is, I appeal to a Reformed House of 
 Commons, and if they condemn me I will submit, and resign the 
 Archiepiscopal functions. In the mean time I boldly declare, " that 
 '* after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my 
 " fathers," — ^my worship is simplicity and poverty, let those that 
 choose pronounce it Heresy. 
 
 Posterity however, will do justice to my sentiments. The day will 
 come when human passions, and human avarice and selfishness will 
 be quelled, and when truth will make her way in spite of calumny 
 and misrepresentation. I am content to endure in this my short life, 
 all manner of hatred and unpopularity, and I know where to find my 
 consolation in the hour of need : but never will I abate one jot of my 
 sentiments, for all the terrors of authority or the violence of malevolent 
 rancour : if it were necessary, I would go to prison and to exile, I 
 would endure the universal hatred of all mankind, but as long as I 
 have the pen of a ready writer, and the tongue of an honest man, you 
 shall find me, my Reverend Brethren, firm at my post, and awake at 
 my watch. The last hope of my enemies will be in private slander, 
 that weapon which is too successful for a season ; but even here they 
 vrill find me " touching the law blameless," they will find that I give 
 
 cannot be exempt from the same accusation. We cannot conceive a better preamble 
 to a bill for making the Church disgorge, than one now on our statute Books, muta. 
 tis mutandis. *' And whereas, Popish Priests and other emissaries of Rome are en- 
 *' couraged in their plots by enjoyinff several estates and revenues^ or the rents and 
 *' profits thereof, which have been given for or towards the education of youth in the 
 ** Roman Religion, or for the maintenance and furtherance of some Popifh supersti- 
 ** tion, which estates would much better and more reasonably be applied to the uw of 
 *' the public." 1 Geo. I. Scss. 2. Cap. 50. 
 
 Change the word Popiih for Proteiianty and it would be exacdy the thing. 
 
44 
 
 all my good-5 to feed the poor ; tliat I have dismissed the state of a 
 Bishop, and keep only two servants; that I rode to the Cathedral on 
 an ass ; that I liave a table spread every day for the poor in the 
 Hospitals and Halls of Charity, and that being anxious only to do 
 what I think right — I shall not mind if they write this epitaph on 
 my tomb, HERE LIES AN ARCHBISHOP THAT ROBBED 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 A SECRET. 
 
 WE are going to divulge a secret tliat has been kept for three 
 whole years ! Our readers will remember, that a County Meeting 
 took place, January 2i2, 1S23: and that at this Meeting, a petition 
 for Reform was agreed to by a majority of 7000 to 2. The happy two* 
 were Mr. Stuart Wortley, and Mr. Richard Fountayne Wilson ; 
 the Pylades and Orestes of the Rotten Boroughs, beautiful in their 
 lives, and in death, we trust they will not be divided. This said pe- 
 tition, which passed with such a great majority, was very near being 
 totrdly defeated, and run the risk of a rejection. The case was tliis, 
 at Etridge*s Hotel, were collected eighty-seven spanking Whigs, all 
 j)roper men, well-dressed, very polite, and desperately iiear starvation. 
 These worthy agriculturists after several conclaves, agreetl to the 
 great petition Avhich was signed by 1 8,000 Freeholders ; but at the 
 l^lephant and Castle, a highhj respectable public-house in a back 
 street, were also assembled, about forty grim Refonners, very plain 
 in tlieir habits, not owning one acre of land amongst them, but in- 
 vested with supreme authority over the People. The Hotel Gentle- 
 men had sundry twinges respecting the Elephant and Castle Gentle- 
 men, and when it was announced, that at the Elephant and Castle, 
 Sir Charles Wolsley had taken the chair, on the night previous to the 
 "great Meeting, the misgivings became so powerful at the Hotel, that 
 a deputation was agreed on of two veteran Whigs, to come to some 
 terms with the Elephant, The Elej)hant looked at the petition 
 intended to be presented next morning, and did not like it ; and the 
 deputation cara6 back to the Hotel, announcing that the ElephfUit 
 
45 
 
 was sulky and would not come to terms. What was to be done? Th^ 
 Elephant wanted to give the Church a push, but the Hotel-Confedera- 
 tion dared not assist him, and yet if the great beast was not tame be- 
 fore morning, it was certain that he would toss them and their petition 
 to a thousand pieces. What then was to be done ? this question w as 
 asked by all — and it was agreed, that they must trust to fortune; and 
 so they went to bed, but not to rest. In the mean time, the Ele- 
 phant was digesting an amendment, which ran thus. After the pre- 
 amble — " in order to effect these objects in view, your Petitioners 
 ** pray 
 
 1. " That all places, pensions, sinecures, and reversions be entirely 
 *' and finally abolished, except in such cases, where they have been 
 " really merited by long and meritorious service in the cause of the 
 " people. 
 
 2. " That all rotten Boroughs be universally disfranchised without 
 " delay, and their charters conferred on several wealthy and populous 
 " districts of country now unrepresented. 
 
 3. " That it speedily be Uiken into consideration by your Honor- 
 " able House, how far the National Debt, without bringing on uni- 
 " versal bankruptcy and confusion, can be paid. 
 
 4. " And that certain lanc^ called Church lands, and certain pro- 
 " perty called Church property, be taken into consideration, and in 
 " all cases, where monies arising from such Church property is ex- 
 " orbitant, excessive, and unnecessary for any ecclesiastical purposes, 
 " that such monies be forthwith applied to relieve the public bur- 
 " thens, in such manner as shall seem fit and convenient, allowing 
 " always a proper and decent stipend for spiritual instruction. 
 
 " And your Petitioners will ever pray ." 
 Every one that knows the habits of the Elephant will see that this 
 amendment, for him, was very mild and gentle — too mild we think, 
 but nevertheless intended to conciliate. On Wednesday morning, 
 Jan. 22, (and desperately cold it was,) the Hustings were crowded 
 with Reforming Grandees, and the yard below was crowded with Re- 
 forming thousands, — the Elephant was expected every moment to 
 make his appearance, and the Hotel trembled, but as the High Sheriff, 
 (Mr. Bethell,) was opening the business of the day, a whisper ran along 
 the Hustings that the Elephant intended to keep quiet, and that all 
 was to go off unanimously. Joy, joy, joy, to the Hotel ! we all had 
 dimples on our cheeks in a moment, we never looked so lovely, such 
 
 F 
 
46 
 
 frisking and smirking, and such brilliancy in our arguments, as quite 
 astonished the Freeholders ! we felt lighter by several tons, and all 
 ended with a grnnd acclamation, and " hnzza, my boys, for Liberty." 
 Wnat however has been done, F'reelioiders, since that Wednesday 
 for the people? absolutely nothing — we have been glutting ourselves 
 hi the treacle-pot of prosperity, and all our evils have remained un- 
 reformed ajid unamended; and now that despair lias superseded pros- 
 perity, we feel ten times wort^e for our apathy ; as every silly child does 
 that is occasionally indulged with sweatmeats in a serious illness. 
 
 REMEMBER ! ! ! at the next County Meeting, which will take 
 places ere very long, v^ e will have the Elephant out and feed liim with 
 ginger and cayenne overnight; he shall not be drugged with lauda- 
 num as he was before, but he shall come out roaring mad with rage, 
 lashing his proboscis, and trampling the Hotel into pieces smaller 
 and more worthless, if possible, than bank notes. The feast of the 
 Elephant will come, at last; and then a fast will take pUvce a^ the 
 Hotel 
 
 A (iOOD ACf ION. 
 
 I/ET us do justice to all men. A poor family, somewhei'e in the 
 
 neiglihourhood of MelU^n, for want of rent had a distress warrant 
 
 issued against them, by which their beds were tnkpn from them, and 
 
 thev turned out without house or home. A present Candidate for 
 
 tliis CoTU)ty passing by, saw the poor w oman weeping at the door 
 
 w ith her children, whilst the auction was going on. He went into 
 
 tlie house, inquired into the case, paid all the rent, and gave no sn:aU 
 
 sum of money in addition, to the grateful and overjoyed fiimily. I'his 
 
 Mys a good action, and came from a benevolent hf?art, and shall not 
 
 lose its reward. How strange it is^ that a person capable of so mucli 
 
 ftfiljarky ^njl kindnes*, should harden his h^jq-t agaipst the cries and 
 
 ^iiti^'»r5 ot^ the persecuted Catliolics in Ireland, and shut Ips ears to t]\e 
 
 iUvoicc of brotherly l<>ve and reason, Mhere religious bigotry and ppe- 
 
 j^;.jiij[|if^^eGynpei-nedr })ut thus it is; many of those whp ]nvv^' p^^aiter^d 
 
 dii\^^ ^'pilji )\iti\ tli^ic qqiTupt politics, and done a]l manner uf \vivkt:d- 
 
47 
 
 ness* in public, are in private amiable, and even religious men. To 
 such persons however, when they come into the open field of politics, 
 no mercy should be shewn ; they must not be pardoned, because they 
 are virtuous. King Charles was an amiable man in private life, and 
 yet he justly met with a painful death as a public traitor to his country^ 
 and most of those who have injured the Constitution of late years, have 
 been irreproachable in a domestic view. But a man may be a good 
 husband, and rob the people ; he may be pious, and yet do mischief 
 witli his bigotry ; he may be the best of fathers, and yet like to see 
 the military trampling down the populace ; he may be chaste as an 
 anchorite, and yet pocket largely the plunder of the nation. It is no 
 excuse at all, that a public delinquent is privately virtuous ; nay, the 
 excuse makes liim worse — ^lie saw the better part, he knew what was 
 right and avoided it. A man who is a villain in private, cannot be 
 expected to be virtuous in public. We conceive that domestic transr 
 actions sliould never be taken into consideration in politics. Brutus 
 saved his country by condemning his sons to death ; an4 all who 
 wish to appear on the public arena must be prepared for the rules of 
 the place, where 
 
 verso police vulgi 
 
 Quemlibet occidunt populariter. 
 If the most virtuous man in England, endowed with every intellec- 
 tual charm, and decorated with every specimen of domestic rectitude 
 were proved to have plotted against the liberties of his country, or to 
 liave aided and abetted those politics which Iiad brought on national 
 calamities, we would without the least hesitation in the w orld condemn 
 him to death, and with our own hands sign his deiJtl) waprajlt^ It is 
 the most atrocious of principles, to sacrifice the interests of the people 
 to the private reputation of individuals- 
 
 • It is perhaps needless to observe, that this does not apply to the gentleman in 
 (juestion. M'e differ from him in politics, and wish to get rid of liim, but to charge 
 him with any thing but his Bigotry and hatrtd of Kcforniis the last of out intentions. 
 We have no doubt he acts in these particvJari conbcicntiously, and we are very glad 
 to hear, that he is a friend to the aboliton of Slavery, but we want a great deal juyre 
 than this in a County Member ; and thus st^ do not want him. 
 
iVb. Vll, will he published^ Saturday, April 22. 
 
 The Elector* s Guide will terminate with No. VIII. to which 
 will be added an hidex, as it is the intention of the Manager}}, that the 
 work should form one Octavo Folutne, for political reference. 
 
 Comimmications fposl paid J to the Publisher, are thanhfulli/ receivedi 
 YORK, April 1, 1826. 
 
 m 
 
2R027 ELECTOWS\^ GUmE, 
 
 No. VII. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS 
 
 UPON 
 
 COUNTY REPRESENTATION; 
 
 A FULL ACCOUNT 
 
 OV THE 
 
 COUNTY MEETING, Sfc. S^c, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE 
 
 FREEHOLDERS 
 
 OF THB 
 
 (BDiiri^^ir (DIP nmMi^ 
 
 CONDUCTED BY A COMMITTEE OF YORKSHIRE-MEN. 
 
 gorlt : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY G. BOLLAND^ LOW OUSEGATE ; 
 
 AND SOLD BY LANGDALE, KWARESBRO' ; BAIXES, LEEDS; HOLMES, SHEF* 
 field; THOMAS AND HUNSLEY, DOKCASTER; NOBLE, hull; JOHNSON, 
 BEVERLEY; AINSWORTH, SCARBRO' ; SMITHSON, MALTON ; TURNER, 
 DRIFFIELD; BELL, RICHMOND ; DRAKARD AND WILSON, STAMFORD} 
 LYNCH, MANCHESTER; ROCLIFFE, LIVERPOOL; WHITTLE, 
 PRESTON; KEATING AND BROWN; AND BOOKER, LON- 
 DON ; AND MAT BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 1826. 
 
«^€ii^so /^^ao'T'o^a'aL ^WJic 
 
 ^a.4:eia.-%i:^ 
 
THE ELECTOR'S GUmE, 
 
 It..: 
 
 THE Managers of the Elector's Guide having reached No. VIL 
 intend to offer it as a farewell to the public. The very near approach 
 pf the General Election has so many calls upon the time of most 
 persons in the County, that they also feel that they cannot dedicate 
 so much attention to the work as it requires ; and having discussed 
 the Catholic Question, Slavery, the Corn Laws, Taxation, and sundry- 
 notorious Jobs, they consider that the state of Representation is the 
 only important question not discussed. On Wednesday, Jan. 22, 
 1823, a Coimty Meeting was called " for the purpose of taking into 
 f' consideration the present state of the House of Commons, and the 
 ^' necessity of a Reform thereof." At that Meeting, the whole ques^ 
 tion was most ably argued by all the leading persons in the County, 
 and we consider that we cannot do better than reprint the Report of 
 the Meeting, as all the principal arguments will be found in the 
 speeches of the Gentlemen that supported the glorious cause of 
 Reform in Parlianient. 
 
 It is needless to observe, that the entire mass of grievances which 
 exist in the kingdom, would be immediately abolished by a Reform in 
 Parliament, fqr as every abuse is kept up entirely by a small part of 
 the Aristocracy, who owing to the corrupt state of Representation 
 have a majority in the House''— ««^ Reform must shake their power 
 and restore the people of England to their liberties. The smallest 
 degree of Reform ever proposed, is a restoration of triennial Parlia-. 
 ments ; that is, that no Parliament should last beyond three years : 
 and though this is apparently no Reform, and nothing but a matter 
 of justice, yet even if that was restored to us, and supposing that the 
 Rotten Boroughs were not touched, yet still that would shake the 
 aristocratical tyranny ; fgr as the seats would only be of half their 
 present value, and as it would be requisite to appeal twice as often to 
 the People, the Gentry never would dare to vote in tlie way they do 
 now. But what is more essential, at the very first commotion or 
 clapaour from tlie peoplo, they would be compelled to grant still far-^ 
 
 A 2 
 
ther Reform, as the constant feeling of again meeting the People so 
 soon, would not allow them to tieat with contempt the wishes of the 
 nation, and to answer them with bloody and contemptvious laws, as 
 they do at present. All the sufferings of the People of England arise 
 from the dominion of the Aristocracy ; and from nothing else. To 
 talk of the power of the King is all nonsense and deception. Every 
 person knows that the present system is kept up entirely by a faction 
 of Lords and Grandees, who keep the Crown and the People both in 
 check. The King has nothing to do with the business ,' all Kings of 
 England must, as matters stand at present, select those men for 
 Ministers who have a majority in the House of Commons. Th^ 
 House of Commons ever since the year 1715, has only represented a 
 majority of a faction — it is all a fallacy to consider the House of 
 Commons representing the people ,• it only represents a knot of Lords 
 and great men, who by jobbing and caballing have made themselves 
 so strong as to overpower another knot of Lords and great men out- 
 witted in jobbing. The Lowthers have sixteen seats in the House ; 
 and they, by uniting with other Lords who have also seats, make a 
 majority in the House of Commons. If the Lowthers and a dozen 
 Tory Lords were to turn against Ministers, Ministers would go out : 
 but the people would have nothing to do with it. There is just 
 enough appearance of election in the House to amuse the people : all 
 that expense of the seven years election makes a clamour in the 
 kingdom, and amuses the populace; but the majority of seats, in 
 spite of the clamour, are returned by corrupt influence, and so the 
 People are hoodwinked and cheated. If there was a Reform in Par- 
 liament, in three months from this time we should only have to pay 
 a qujirter of the present taxes ; but as it continues ^t present, taxes 
 go on increasing, and will do so till Reform puts a stop to the job. 
 
 In the year 1715, the popular influence was so much dreaded that 
 the Aristocracy determined to put a final stop to it, by altering the 
 Elections from three to seven years, This they did without any law 
 or justice, and with no reason but a lust of dominion. However it 
 was effectual, and from that n^oment the power of the People of Eng- 
 land was cut up by the roots. That infamous Act runs thus : '' An 
 ^' act for enlarging the time of continuance of Parliaments, appointed 
 " by an act made in the sixth year of the Reign of King William and 
 *' Queen Mary, intituled, an act for the frequent meeting and calling 
 ♦' qf Parliaments. Whereas in ajid by 'A\\ act of Parlianient, made iii the 
 
" sixth year o£ the Reign of tlieir late Majesties, King William and 
 " Queen Mary, (of ever blessed memories,) intituled, an act for the 
 " frequent meeting and calling of Parliaments : it was among other 
 " things enacted, that from thenceforth, no Parliament whatsoever, 
 " that should at any time then after be called, assembled, or held, 
 " should have any continuance longer than for three years only at the 
 " farthest, to be accounted from the day on which by writ of sum* 
 " mons the said Parliament should be appointed to meet ; and whereas 
 " it has been found by experience, that the said clause hath proved 
 " very grievous and burthensome (to the Gentry) by occasioning 
 " much greater and more continued expenses in order to elections of 
 '' Members to serve in Parliament, and more lasting and violent heats 
 " and animosities among the subjects of this realm, than was ever 
 " known before the said clause was enacted ; and the said provision, 
 '' if it should continue, may probably at this juncture (when n restless 
 " a?id Popuh faction are designmg and endeavouring to renew the 
 " rebellion within this kingdom and an invasion from abroad,) be 
 " destructive to the peace and security of the Government : be it 
 " enacted, that this present Parliament, and all Parliaments that shall 
 " at any time hereal'ter be called, assembled, or held, shall and may 
 " respectively have continuance for seven years, to be accounted frpm 
 " the day on which by writ of summons this present Parliament hath 
 *' been, or any future Parliament shall be appointed to meet." 
 
 Thus was the People of England robbed of its just inheritance, and 
 the Parliaments held since that time have loaded us with the Na- 
 tional Debt, and |^ken from the People more than two thousand 
 millions of money. And thus they will go op, addipg to the burthen 
 till liefqrm is extorted. 
 
 There was a time howeyer, when we hail neither Rotten Borpughs 
 nor seven-year Parliaments; but when the whole kingdom was fairly 
 and fully represented by its lawful Representatives, whom the King 
 and his Ministers did not fear to meet face to face. But we had then 
 no National Pel)t, Qf this we give a proof from a writ of Edward I. 
 to thp Sherifi'of Northamptonshire, 
 
 " Th^ King, to the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, grppting. Because 
 ** we desire to have a conference and treaty with the Earls, Barons, 
 " an4 other great men of our kingdom, to provide remedies against 
 *' the dangers the same kingdom is in at this present time : therefor^ 
 " we have copimanded them that tluy be with us at WpstpiinjJter, ot\ 
 
•'the next Sunday after the feast of St. Martin, in winter next 
 *• coming, to treat, ordain, and do so as those dangers may be 
 '/prevented. We command and firmly enjoin thee, that without 
 *^ delay thou dost cause to be chosen and to come to us at the time 
 " and place aforesaid, two Knights of the County aforesaid, and of 
 " every City two Citizens, and of every Borough two Burgesses, of 
 *' the most discreet and fit for business; so as the said Knights may 
 ** have sufficient power for themselves and the community pf the 
 *' County aforesaid, and the said Citizens and Burgesses may have 
 *' the same power separately from them, and for themselves and the 
 *' communities of the Cities and Boroughs, then to do in the premises 
 '' what shall be ordained in the common council." 
 
 The same Monarch issued a writ to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 "The King, to the Venerable Father in Christ, and by the same 
 *' Grace Archbishop of Canterbury, greeting. As the most just law 
 " established by Princes, doth appoint that which cojicerns all should 
 ** be approved by all, so it evidently shows, that dangers common to all 
 
 " should be obviated by remedies provided by all. We firmly 
 
 *^ enjoin you in the faith and lov^-by which you are bound to us, that 
 ** on next Sunday after the fe^st of St. Martin now coming, you be 
 " at Westminster : and then and there treat, ordain, and appoint 
 ^' with us, and the rest of the Prelates^, great men, and other inha- 
 *' bitants of the kingdom, how to prevent the dangers and mischiefs we 
 *' apprehend." 
 
 Thus we see that in the old time they had no notion of any Act of 
 Parliament passing without the consent of the People-^or that which 
 concerned all should be approved by all, not by Rotten Boroughs, 
 bought up by Bankers and called Representative seats of the People. 
 But enough has been said : the rest will be proved by what follows, 
 so that in the words of Pitt, spoken by him in 1782, we may take 
 leave of our readers. 
 
 *' Without a Parliamentary Reform, the Nation will be plunge^ 
 ^< into new wars : without a Parliamentary Reform you cannot be 
 " safe against bad Ministers, nor can good Ministers be of use to you, 
 *' No honest m^i can, according to the present system, continue 
 '' Minister." 
 
 Pitt nevertheless did continue Minister under that system, and 
 therefore he was not an honest ^lan. 
 
A FULL REPORT OF THE 
 
 YORKSHIRE REFORM MEETING, 
 
 HELD IX THE 
 
 CASTLE YARD AT YORK, 
 On Wednesday the ^2d of January, 1823. 
 
 Extracted from the York Herald of Jan, 25. 
 
 THE public Meeting of the great and opulent County of York, 
 called by the High-Sheriff, in compliance with a Requisition signed 
 by nearly 2500 freeholders, and which has excited so much interest 
 throughout the whole kingdom, was held in our Castle Yard, on 
 Wednesday last, " For the purpose of taking into consideration the 
 *' present state of the House of Commons, and the necessity of a 
 « Reform thereof." 
 
 Notwithstanding the very inclement state of the weather, there 
 were between five and seven thousand persons present. The Under 
 Sheriff had caused very comfortable hustings to be erected, calcu- 
 lated to contain about 600 gentlemen, and he had also paid every 
 attention to the clearing away of the snow from the Castle Yard, and 
 to every other requisite convenience for the public. 
 
 Amongst the gentlemen on the hustings, we observed — Lord 
 Viscount Milton, M. P. the Rt. Hon. the Lord Mayor of York, Sir 
 Francis Lindley Wood, Bart. Sir Wm. A. Ingilby, Bart. Sir Charles 
 Wolseley, Bart. Walter Fawkes, Esq. Marmaduke Wy vill, Esq. M. P. 
 Robert Chaloner, Esq. M, P. J. A. S. Wortley, Esq, M. P. J. C. 
 Ramsden, Esq. M. P. John Wharton, Esq. M. P. Ottiwell Wood, 
 Esq. R. M. Beverley, Esq. J. W. Clough, Esq. G. Baker, Esq- of 
 Elemore, G. W. Wentworth, Esq. Godfrey Wentworth, jun. Esq. 
 John Lee, Esq. John Lee, jun. Esq. R. Fountayne Wilson, Esq. the 
 Hon. Ed. Petre, Charles Howard, Esq. Rev. W. Wharton, Rev. 
 Henry Chaloner, Rev. Mr. Frank, Samuel Wilks Waud, Esq. V. 
 Beilby, Esq. Alderman Dunslay, Christopher Wilson, Esq. Mr. 
 
8 
 
 Allen, Malton, Mr. Iveson, Beverley, Mr. T. J. Woder (London), 
 Geo. Strickland, Esq. Sir W. Pilkington, Bart. Jas. Hamerton, jun. 
 E.sq. T. W. Tottie, Esq. J. Brewin, Esq. Hon. Sir R. L. Dundas, 
 Hon. G. H. L. Dundas, G. F. Barlow, Esq. William Lee, Esq. Cap- 
 tain Barlow, H. Fawkes, Esq. William Walker, Esq. T. M. Bdrret, 
 Esq. R. C. W. Peirse, Esq. Rev. J* Monson, Joseph Wood, Esq. W. 
 B. Wainman, Esq. John Egremont, Esq, John Hague, Esq. W. B. 
 Wrightson, Esq. Thomas Meynell, Esq. Arthur Heywood, Esq. W. 
 R. Crompton, Esq. B. Flounders, Esq. Henry Witham, Esq. Wm. 
 A. Busfield, Esq. Rd. Sykes, Esq. R. K. Dawson, Esq. Rev. H. Foord, 
 John Hutton, Esq. George Savile Foljambe, Esq. Sir Henry Good- 
 ricke, Bart. Rev. Edward Wyvill, Rev. W. Wyvill, Wm. Hotham, 
 Esq. Thomas Rawson, Esq. &c. &c. 
 
 At about a quarter past eleven the High-Sheriff arrived, and Mr. 
 James Russdl, the Under-Sheriff, read the Requisition. 
 
 The High-Sheriff then stepped forward, and said — Gentlemen 
 Freeholders !— In compliance with the requisition you have heard 
 read, and which v/as most numerously and respectably signed, I felt 
 it my duty to call this meeting, and thus to give you an opportunity 
 to exercise your undoubted privilege of assembling together to peti- 
 tion the Parliament of your country. (Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, 
 I have only to request, which I do most earnestly, that with what- 
 ever ardour the subject may be discussed, you will give every 
 speaker, however his sentiments may differ from yours, a fair and 
 candid hearing ; for by so doing, you will best serve the cause of 
 truth, and stamp upon the freeholders of this great and opulent 
 county, the character of a temporate and enlightened people — (Loud 
 and long continued cheers.) 
 
 Walter Fawke?, Esq. then (amidst thunders of applause from every 
 part of the Castle Yard) addressed the meeting in nearly the following 
 words : — 
 
 Gentlemen— It has frequently fallen to my lot to have the honor 
 of addressing myself to you within these walls — But, under no 
 circumstances did I ever present myself to your notice, so truly 
 momentous, of such vital importance to the country, as the present' 
 Gentlemen — on this day, no effort will be required to rouse your 
 manly and patriotic feelings to resist the insolent menace of foreign 
 aggression. You are not to be urged, on this occasion, by your tone 
 and decision, to add confidence and strength to the arm of executive 
 
9 
 
 government, to save your country, your altars, and your homes, from 
 a foreign yoke. You are not assembled to sway, to give higher 
 authority to the votes and voices of your representatives, by a formal 
 and solemn expression of your will, which the law of the land 
 authorises you publicly to declare, whenever you conceive the situa- 
 tion of the country requires your direct interference — on any common 
 occasion, to induce them to oppose this or that unpopular impost — • 
 or, to withdraw their support from some undeserving, but, perhaps, 
 favorite minister. You have not to put yourselves on your guard 
 against " Malice domestic, or foreign levity." No, Gentlemen, you 
 are assembled for another and a loftier purpose — One with which all 
 pitiful party politics have nothing to do — One from which all the 
 baser passions, which too commonly sway our nature, are, I trust, 
 entirely excluded — One in which prejudice, favoritism, and factious 
 oppression, have nothing to do. — And did I not assert this, sure I am, 
 I should not be doing justice to the feelings of those I see before me, 
 who have pressed forward from every part of this extensive county, 
 to engage in the noblest of all causes — To save a sinking country, by 
 the restoration of her liberties, through the constitutional assertion of 
 their own invaluable and inalienable rights. (Cheers.) 
 
 Gentlemen — You are called here to-day seriously and strictly to con- 
 sider, and to denounce (unless you hear arguments to silence our pro- 
 positions,) not the actors simply, but the corrupt and unconstitutional 
 system on which all public men have so long and so fatally acted. — 
 No, Gentlemen, that system must be got rid of, which has enabled 
 one set of men — a cabal, to rule, without almost any controul, for 
 near half a century, under a denomination unknown, until the begin- 
 ning of the last reign, by means of corrupt majorities in that assembly, 
 emphatically called, "Yours," the Commons' Chamber. A system 
 under which the country has been loaded with burthens, under 
 which, if some relief be not speedily afforded, one portion of the 
 community, and that the largest and perhaps the most useful, must 
 inevitably sink — arising out of an extravagant expenditure of the 
 public money, so enormous, that it would be incredible, if it were not 
 proveable. A system under which all our political rights have been 
 deeply and permanently invaded, and wholly abandoned whenever 
 the executive called for the surrender of them. A system, which is 
 seen in an almost universally prevailing venality. In large, and, as 
 our ancestors thought, unnecessary standing armies in time of peace. 
 
10 
 
 A system^ seen in tlie blush which must tinge the cheek of every 
 genuine Englishman^, when he considers that his country — that Great 
 Britain, heretofore, on all occasions, the asylum of liberty — that the 
 country of Elizabeth and William has held any communion with the 
 despots of the continent, who have conspired to crush the rising 
 liberties of mankind, and who have, in their vile note, had the 
 audacity to declare, that they conceive the efforts of these gallant and 
 oppressed descendants of the men who bled at Marathon, and fell m 
 their country at Thermopylae, to emancipate themselves from the 
 ferocious, cruel, and bloody rule of the Musselraen, as a criminal 
 effort. In a host of idle placemen, sinecurists, and pensioners, wal- 
 lowing in luxury, while thousands of their countrymen are steeped 
 in poverty to the very lips. In the workings of spies, hired to 
 stimulate the people to the commission of outrages, which they had 
 manifested every disposition to avoid ; in the restraints put upon the 
 liberty of the press, on the modern practice of Westminster Hall ; 
 and in the visitation of all those who have dared to oppose themselves 
 to its baneful effects, with every sort of aggravated fine and imprison- 
 ment, capital punishment, and unconstitutional oppression. (Loud 
 applause.) 
 
 Gentlemen— As my opinions on the subject under consideration 
 have been very long known to you, both by word of mouth and 
 through the medium of the press, I will not be guilty of tautology, I 
 will not trouble you with a repetition of them on the present occasion. 
 But, indeed, what need to recur to them. Political knowledge has of 
 late been diffused with rapidity and success ; and who. Gentlemen, 
 in your situation in life, can be at this day ignorant, that the great 
 Charter of your Liberties, that the Bill of your Rights, declares that 
 one of your Rights, and that by far the most material one, is the 
 Right to be represented in a Free Parliament. (Applause,) 
 
 Gentlemen — Touching a question, such as that under our discus- 
 sion, facts, stubborn facts, carry more weight with them, than all the 
 periods of brilliant and fascinating oratory ; and should I be able to 
 convince you of the absolute necessity of a very material change in 
 that branch of your government, to which is entrusted the protection 
 of your liberties and property, it will give me more satisfaction, be- 
 cause I shall then be assured that your conviction rested on a more 
 solid foundation than all the declamatory or rhetorical flourishes, 
 which a subject so fertile and popular, might enable me to display to 
 
11 
 
 you. Gentlemen — I have already stated, that tlie evils which the 
 country is enduring, and those with which it is menaced, are in a 
 great measure owing to a debt, hanging like a millstone about the 
 neck of the country, arising from an expenditure, so profuse, so un* 
 heard of, that it would be considered as a fiction, if it were not clearly 
 and undeniably demonstrable. " Gentlemen — A few words on this 
 head, and then let us seriously consider whether such a complete 
 abandonment as I conceive will be apparent, of all regard for the 
 pecuniary interests of the people on the part of their representatives, 
 be not attributable to a defective system of representation : whether, 
 in short, the members of an assembly, sympathising with those who 
 deputed them, would ever have suffered the ministers of the crown, 
 to place the country in that state of imminent danger and financial 
 embarrassment, which now appals the stoutest hearts among us ; a 
 state from which, great must be the skill, and comprehensive and 
 vigorous, and fertile must be the mind, that can " restore us, and 
 regain for us our happy and blissful state." 
 
 Gentlemen — I dare not trust wholly to my memory, in calculations 
 6o astounding as those I am about to submit to you. I have, there- 
 fore, prepared some tables, which will point out, I trust intelligibly, 
 the point I wish to establish. — And Gentlemen, if they make the 
 same impression on your minds as they did on mine when they first 
 met my view, all that I can say is, that my errand here will be very 
 nearly accomplished (Applause.) 
 
 Gentlemen-^ Will it not astonish you, when I tell you, that in one 
 King's reign of 5Q years, three times the sum has been expended, 
 which the nation had expended during the reigns of all previous 
 sovereigns, thirty-one in number, from the Conquest, and in a period 
 pf 700 years, Now to the proof, 
 
 US 
 
12 
 
 Mr. Fawkes here read Tabl« I. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Kings. 
 
 Cost, each „ . 
 year. ^'''^'^ 
 
 Total cost 
 each Keign. 
 
 1066 
 
 William I. 
 
 £400,000 
 
 21 
 
 £8,400,000" 
 
 
 1087 
 1100 
 
 William II. 
 Henry I. 
 
 360,000 
 300,000 
 
 13 
 35 
 
 4,550,000 
 10,500,000 
 
 >■ Norman. 
 
 1135 
 
 Stephen 
 
 250,000 
 
 19 
 
 4,7.'50,000 
 
 
 1154 
 
 Henry II. 
 
 209,000 
 
 35 
 
 7,000,000' 
 
 
 1189 
 
 Richard I. 
 
 159,000 
 
 10 
 
 1,500,000 
 
 
 1199 
 
 John 
 
 100,000 
 
 17 
 
 1,700,000 
 
 
 1216 
 
 Henry III. 
 
 80,000 
 
 56 
 
 4,480,000 
 
 - Plantagenet. 
 
 1272 
 
 Edward I. 
 
 150,000 
 
 35 
 
 5,250,000 
 
 1307 
 
 Edward II. 
 
 100,000 
 
 20 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 
 1327 
 
 Edward III. 
 
 154,129 
 
 50 
 
 7,706,450 
 
 
 1377 
 
 Richard II. 
 
 130,000 
 
 22 
 
 2,850,000^ 
 
 
 1399 
 
 Henry IV. 
 
 106,000 
 
 14 
 
 1,400,000 1 
 
 \ 
 
 1413 
 
 Henry V. 
 
 76,643 
 
 9 
 
 689,787 > Lancaster, 
 
 1422 
 
 Henry VI. 
 
 64,976 
 
 39 
 
 2,534,064 
 
 
 1460 
 
 Edward IV. 
 Edward V. 
 
 100,000 
 
 22 
 
 2,200,000 
 
 -York. 
 
 1473 
 
 Richard III. 
 
 100,000 
 
 2 
 
 200,000 
 
 
 1480 
 
 Henry VII. 
 
 400,000 
 
 24 
 
 9,600,000^ 
 
 
 1509 
 
 Henry VIII. 
 
 805,000 
 
 36 
 
 30,400,000 
 
 
 1547 
 
 Edward VI. 
 
 400,000 
 
 6 
 
 2,400,000 
 
 - Tidors,' 
 
 1553 
 
 Mary 
 
 450,000 
 
 5 
 
 2,250,000 
 
 
 1558 
 
 Elizabeth 
 
 500,000 
 
 45 
 
 22,500,000 
 
 
 1602 
 
 James I. 
 
 680,000 
 
 22 
 
 13,230,000' 
 
 
 1625 
 
 Charles I. 
 
 395,819 
 
 24 
 
 ^i^,4<99,655 
 
 -Stuarts. 
 
 1648 
 
 Charles II. 
 
 1,800,090 
 
 36 
 
 64,800,000 
 
 1684 
 
 James II. 
 
 2,001,855 
 
 4 
 
 8,007,420 
 
 
 In 
 
 622 
 
 244,377,377 Spent. 
 
 1689 
 
 1702 
 1719 
 
 1727 
 
 William & M. 
 Anne 
 George I. 
 George II. 
 In 
 
 £. 
 
 72,127,500 
 122,373,531 
 
 79,832,160 
 276,349,773 
 
 £. 
 5,342,778 I 13^ 
 9,597,924 12 f 
 6,386,572 12i 
 8,249,247 33i 
 6931 years £795,060,249 
 Yrs. 
 1760 Geo. III. 16,230,026 
 70,071,169 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 Spent In 622 years.. • £244,000,COQ 
 
 On an average £400,000 a-year. The nation incurring not one 
 shilling of debt — all expenses paid within the year — and at the close 
 of each year every man's property unincumbered. 
 
 33 1 o 
 
 26 j "' 
 
 Debt. 
 
 89,000,000 
 
 59^000,000 
 
 2,832,000 
 
 59,000,000 
 
 129,832,000 
 
 Debt. 
 357,441,262 1000,000,000 
 
13 
 
 At the close of the Reign of Geo. II. spent..., £795,060,34-7 
 
 Debt 129,000,000 
 
 With a charge of £8,000,000 a-year for the expenses 
 of the government. 
 
 Such was the situation of things in 1760, 
 
 In the single reign of the late King, spent £2,357,000,000 
 
 Three times the value of the whole kingdom. 
 
 Debt ........ ..... • •"■• 1000,000,000 
 
 A greater sum than all the land in the country is worth — if every 
 acre was sold at 25 years* purchase, on the annual rents. 
 
 During the period of the late King's reign, the price of the pro- 
 duce of the kingdom in the articles of food and clothing, according 
 to the most moderate computation, has increased from 100 to 200 
 millions per year — which excess of 100 millions added to the increase 
 of our taxation, makes the enormous sum of 150 millions a-year addi- 
 iional cost, to be paid by the subjects of this realm, more than was 
 paid at the period of the late King's accession to the throne — a sum 
 equal to five times the amount of the rental of all the land in England. 
 Gentlemen— There are some minds upon which figures do not make 
 much impression, from their not being much used to their consi- 
 deration. Let me endeavour then to impress the magnitude — the 
 appaling magnitude of this sura — ^by a mpre familiar way of stating it. 
 Fifty thousand guineas. Gentlemen^ laid sid^ by side, would not ex- 
 tend above a mile ; but the sum squandered as I have now stated, 
 would reach Jour times round the whole globe — the "great globe it-; 
 self" a distance in one latitude of forty-eight thousand miles. (Loud 
 cries of " shame "J 
 
 Gentlemen— Let me now ask what description of the community it 
 is, that is called to pay the interest of this enormous accumulation of 
 debt — Who pay millions a-year for their beer and porter ? millions 
 for their breakfasts ? millions for all those articles which swell the 
 amount of the customs and excise — ^Not the higher orders, but the bulk 
 of the People. — I have seen a calculation in which it is stated, that our 
 population, consisting of about 17,000,000 of souls, embraces about 3 
 millions of heads of families, containing from 5 to 6 persons in each 
 " — of these 17 millions, those who are maintained without labour, 
 amount to less than one- thirtieth. It therefore follows, on an equal 
 division, that the industrious classes of the community pay, in the 
 proportion of 14-5 millions, to 3 millioiw paid by the higlier classes. 
 
14 
 
 ^d yet a pitiful fraction of these latter classes, have usurped one 
 claim as their right — an almost exclusive privilege of imposing taxe^ 
 gn the tvhole. I mention these calculations, adding the observations 
 I have superadded, to show that the gentlemen around me, and who 
 have called you together, have not done so in the hopeg of obtaining 
 ^ny benefit to themselves — ^that they feel for the burthens of tlie 
 whole community — and that they only call for Reform because they 
 are satisfied it will be of advantage to ^11 the inhabitants of the 
 empire. — (Cheers. J 
 
 Gentlemen— I shall proceed to point out to you, how the House of 
 Commons is at present constituted, with reference to those whom 
 they are supposed to represent. 
 
 Mr. Fawkes now read Earl Grey's petition. According to this 
 petition from the friends of the people, presented to the House of 
 Commons, May 6th, 1789> it appears that a majority of the members 
 is returned to the House of Common^ (for England and Scotland) by 
 less than 15,000 eleptors ; 
 
 ENGLAND. Member*, 
 
 Returned by 35 places, where the election^ are a mere matter of 
 
 form ,.., , , 70 
 
 By 46 places, in none of which the voters exceed fifty , . 90 
 
 By 19 places, in none of which the voters exceed one hundred 37 
 By 26 places, in nqne of which the voters exceed two hundred 52 
 
 Tptal for England ,..,.. 249 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 By 20 counties with less than 1 00 v oters each , . . , , ,..,,. 20 
 
 By 10 ditto with less than 250 voters each 10 
 
 By 15 districts of burghs, with less than 125 voters each 15 
 
 Total for Scotland ^45 
 
 For England. ..,,., .1.- 249 
 
 Total,....,.., 294 
 Being 14 more than a simple majority of the House. 
 Mr. Oldfield's statement — rHiif. of Burghs, 2d Ed.) 18l6. 
 
 Members returned by 87 Peers in England and Wales 218 
 
 By 21 ditto in Scotland • SI 
 
 By 36 ditto in Ireland ••••• -^l 
 
 Tptal returned by Peers 300 
 
15 
 
 Members returned by Commoners in England and Wales ...... 13t 
 
 By 14f Commoners in Scotland 14 
 
 By 19 ditto in Ireland 20 
 
 Nominated by Government * * l6 
 
 Total 187 
 
 Total number returned by Nomination 487 
 
 Independent of Nomination 171 
 
 Total number of Members * > • 658 
 
 Lprd John Russell's statement. 
 
 The Votes of the English Borough Members upon the Reduction of 
 
 the Public Establishments, when analysed, stand thus : 
 
 Fo?'' Agst, 
 
 In 33 Boroughs, under 1000 inhabitants each 12 44 
 
 In 35 ditto, under 2,000 15 45 
 
 In 76 ditto, under 5,000 48 93 
 
 In 25, under 10,000 22 27 
 
 In 31, above 10,000 38 21 
 
 Such facts as these require no comment ! 
 
 Gentlemen — The act of settlement, which was made for the greater 
 security of the king and his subjects enacted, that the better to secure 
 the liberties and property of the latter, no placemen or persons holding 
 situations, who might thereby be influenced by the ministers of the 
 Crown, should sit in the House of Commons. The table I am going 
 to submit to you, and about which there can be no cavil, will exhibit 
 to you, how much of late the patriotic spirit, to say nothing of the 
 letter, for a part of it has been repealed, for reasons 1 leave you to 
 guess, has been adhered to. 
 
 Mr. Fawkes then read— 
 
 1. The Committee report to the House, that 57 members of parlia- 
 ment hold offices under the crown ; the net emoluments of which are 
 £108,565. lis. Od. 
 
 2. That there are 13 members of Parliament holding offices in the 
 appointment and at the pleasure of public officers, the emoluments of 
 which are £28,107. 4s. 2d. 
 
 3. That there are 7 members of Parliament holding offices or pensions 
 for life, imder grants from the crown, the emoluments of which are 
 £9,658. 8s. lOd. 
 
10 
 
 4. That there is one member of Parliament holding ofKce for a term 
 of years, under grant from the crown, or other public ojffice, the 
 emolument of which is £l5. <)s. Id. 
 
 5. That there are 4 members of Parliament holding offices for life, 
 under appointments from the chiefs in the courts of justice, or from 
 other public offices, the emoluments of which are £ 10,030. Is. 3d. 
 
 6. That there are 5 members of Parliament holding pensions, or 
 sinecures, or offices, chiefly executed by deputy, &c. the emoluments 
 of which are £7/^78. 
 
 7. That there are 2 members of Parliament holding the reversion of 
 offices under the crown, after one or more lives, the emoluments of 
 which are £6,489- 
 
 8. The committee further report, that there are 79 members of 
 Parliament holding naval and military commissions, 59 of whom hold 
 other offices, and are. included in the preceding classes. 
 
 Thus we have 89 members of the House of Commons, receiving 
 from the pockets of the people, the sum £170,343. 14s. 4d. — To 
 which should be added 20 from the 79 members, who hold naval and 
 military commissions, not holding other places, making together 109 
 members who are more or less dependant on Government. — And to 
 the sum of £170,343. 14s. 4d. should be added the pay of the 79 
 officers, which, if taken at £500 a-year for each of them, will amount 
 to £39,500 — ^making a total sum of £209,843. of the public money, 
 received by 109 members of the House of Commons. (Cries of 
 " Shame.") 
 
 But, Gentlemen, this is not all. T shall now show you what the 
 families and patrons of those who are placemen and pensioners, and 
 sinecurists, &c. in the House of Commons, receive from the pubhc 
 purse. Gentlemen — Where I might be in an error on the slightest 
 point, I will not mention the precise sum to a fraction ; but on the 
 most careful analysis, it is found to exceed considerably one million of 
 money. 
 
 Gentlemen — After making this communication to you, I feel satis- 
 fied I should only weaken the effisct they are so well calculated to 
 produce, by adding any observations of my own. If they do not 
 satisfy you of the necessity of a Parliamentary Reform, no additional 
 arguments of mine could be of any avail ; you would scarce be con- 
 vinced, though one were to come from the dead. 
 
IT 
 
 Gentlemen— As Mr. Canning did me the honour to notice my 
 feeble exertions in his celebrated attack upon the cause of Par- 
 liamentary Reform at Liverpool, I must take this occasion to attempt 
 to make some reply to his remarks. Gentlemen — Though I always 
 had the misfortune to be opposed to Mr. Canning as a politician, still 
 I must say, that there are few men to whom I have listened with 
 more satisfaction and delight. His speeches always appeared to me 
 to be compounded of talent, learning, eloquence, and wit, and I only 
 regret that so much vigour and intellect have not been employed in 
 a better cause. From a man so gifted, however, commendation must 
 always be acceptable, and I wish him to believe that I was far from 
 being insensible to the opinion he did me the honour to say he had 
 formed of me. I trust, therefore, he will give me credit, when I say 
 that my present observations are made without any tincture of per- 
 sonal hostility. I shall ever admire Mr. Canning as an admirable 
 orator ; but as a logician, I must still take the liberty of differing 
 from him. In his late speech, at Liverpool, Gentlemen, Mr. Canning 
 st.?ted, that he considered our government as a limited monarchy, 
 and that an independent House of Commons was incompatible with 
 its existence. Now, Gentlemen, I consider Mr. Canning's major 
 proposition as false, and therefore his premises to be decidedly dis- 
 putable. Our constitution, if all public writers and commentators 
 on our form of government are not mistaken, is not otie limited 
 monarch) i but a compound of three limited estates. — L A limited 
 monarchy — 2. A limited aristocracy — 3. A limited democracy. By 
 what logic, then, does it follow, that because each branch is limited, 
 one branch should be impure in its construction ? If this reasoning is 
 just, why should not an hundred Commoners be thrust into the 
 House of Peers, on the score that a pure aristocracy is compatible 
 with the existence of a limited monarchy ? Why should not even 
 the King have associates given him on tlie plea, that power lodged 
 with one individual, is incompatible with the existence of deliberative 
 assemblies ? 
 
 Augustus was a Prince of whom it was said, that he ought never 
 to have lived, or never to have died ; but were not the benefits of 
 his administration, more than counterbalanced by the subsequent 
 atrocities of Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero? 
 
 This, however. Gentlemen, is the boasted system of virtual repre- 
 sentation, which is no more than a pitiful modification of no repre- 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 scnldlion at all — a plan to impose upon the weak^, for the benefit of 
 the interested and the cunning. It is the same thing, -whether the 
 pretended representative body be influenced by one man or two hun- 
 dred ; in the first place it is a disguised tyranny ; in the other, an 
 odious and dangerous oligarchy. 
 
 (xentlemen — 'How simple is truth— into what errors, perplexities, 
 and difficulties ate we not plunged, when we politically wander from 
 her paths. Why not consider our constitution as composed of three 
 different estates, as all its ablest expositors have represented it, each 
 pure and perfect in its nature, but of opposite tendencies when in 
 action, kept in their places by alternate attraction and repulsion ; and 
 like the planets, preserving their motions and completing their orbits, 
 on the unvarying plan of harmony and order. This opinion, Gentle- 
 men, seems to have been forced on Mr. Canning, by an idea he has 
 formed, that the government could not be carried on, unless the exe- 
 cutive had a controul over the people in the House of Commons.— 
 But whence this novel doctrine I would ask — That institutions in- 
 tended for the benefit of the public can only be maintained by the 
 existence of abuses } In my view, this is downright and absolute ty- 
 ranny in disguise ; for whatever may be the benefit of a controul 
 over the people, through the medium of the House of Commons, may 
 be said, and has been said, of the benefits of absolute despotism in the 
 hands of a single individual ! (Applause.) 
 
 Mr. Canning, however. Gentlemen, says that this oligarchy, this 
 government of the few, cannot be disturbed, because it would be an 
 act of arbitrary injustice to disfranchise the close boroughs. But I 
 would ask, how would an act of injustice be thus done to the proprie- 
 tor ? That law must first be shown to me, which gives one man a 
 title to as much weight in the councils of his country, as all the 
 inhabitants of Westminster, or this county, consisting of 1,173,187 
 souls, or any other county put together. If his borough were dis- 
 franchised, he would still have a vote for his county, and that, I con- 
 tend, is all the right that belongs to him. But, Gentlemen, if these 
 vested rights, as they are called, are to be preferred to the safety of 
 the country, what were are to think of the deposition of James II — 
 He was an hereditary King — ^had he no vested rights in the proudest 
 possession upon earth ? Yet, when it was considered that the safety of 
 the state required it, this was no plea, his subjects at once compelled 
 him to abandon his throne, — nor, did they either think it necessary 
 
19 
 
 to make him any compensation for the loss of it^ for they sent him to 
 beg. Oh ! St. Helena ! with all thy native and all thy added thorns, 
 what a paradise, what a bed of roses thy rock must have been in com- 
 parison ! — they sent the infatuated Tyrant to begins daily bread from 
 the bitterest enemy of his country ! (Cheers.) 
 
 Gentlemen — The imminent dangers incident to the change, are 
 next put forward, dressed in all sorts of exaggerated horrors to alarm 
 you. But surely you must recollect that more serious alterations have 
 occurred in your history than those you now call for, and have been 
 parried into effect without in the slightest degree endangering the 
 safety of the community. What think you of the reformation and re- 
 volution ? what of the two unions with Scotland and Ireland ? when 
 two distinct and ancient legislatures were not reformed, but positively 
 stihverted. Were not members given to Chester and Durham, when 
 they complained they were not represented, without any body urging 
 the absurdity of virtual representation. Have not Shoreham , and Ayles-. 
 bury, and Cricklade, and Grampound, been disfranchised, without 
 any body uttering a whisper of complaint, without the slightest 
 appearance of danger ? What should prevent them — the extinction 
 of other rotten and close boroughs similarly circumstanced ? But 
 Mr. C. says, he would sacrifice Grampound, to save Old Sarum — that 
 18, he would through a tub to the whale now and then, provided the 
 mass of these places, giving government a controul over the peoplet 
 were so preserved intact — because he says a popular parliament 
 would do now what a popular parliament did before, subvert the 
 Monarchy and decapitate the King. In proof of this, Mr. C. quoted 
 the resolutions of the long parliament. Now Gentlemen — I do not 
 accuse Mr, C. of garbling these resolutions, but there is one most 
 material fact he forgot to state, which overturns the whole of his 
 reasoning, and gives ten-fold weight to mine ; which makes his ba- 
 lance as light as a feather, and fills mine with damning proofs of the 
 mischiefs of the system I have been attempting to expose. He forgot 
 to slate of what description of members this parliament was composed. 
 
 Here Mr. Fawkes read Table V. 
 
 1, The resolutions voting the House of Lords, and the Kingly 
 office useless, were passed Jan. 4, 1 649. 
 
 2. On the 22d of January, 1643, 50 members of the House of 
 Commons were expelled (Vide JournaJs) for deserting the service of 
 tlie House. 
 
 c2 
 
20 
 
 3. On the 29th of June, 16*44, by an ordinance, ^00 members who 
 had adliered to the King were disabled from sitting in Parliament, 
 during the existing Parliament. 
 
 4. And on and after the 5th of December, l648, by pride's purge, 
 143 members were secluded or imprisoned. 
 
 5. The remaining members, 89 in number, 1 6 county members, 
 6 citizens, 67 burgesses, arrogated to themselves the sovereignty of 
 the nation, and voted the resolutions alluded to by Mr. Canning, 
 December 4, I649. — Now, Gentlemen, comes the jet of my argu- 
 ment: out of these 89 members, 6? were returned for what Bishop 
 Burnett called — The rotten part of the constitution — The close 
 boroughs. (See Mr. Colman Rashleigh's able and admirable letter to 
 Mr. Canning.) Such were the proceedings of the rump of a borough 
 faction, in the year I649. Is the same combination now-a-days 
 impossible, improbable, or hypothetical? Have we forgotten the 
 intrigue in the case o^ the India Bill, when this faction coalescing, 
 made the House of Commons vote contrary to the feelings of the 
 King and the wishes of the people ? What, if the King and a 
 majority of this powerful body should unite, what, upon earth, could 
 save the country, but the measure we advocate 1 
 
 Gentlemen — I have now as far as in me lies, done my duty to the 
 great cause I have so long and ardently espoused. Let me again 
 exhort you to lift up your powerful and constitutional voice, to rid 
 the country of that system in which you can view nothing but misery 
 and perhaps national convulsion, the inevitable ruin of the landlord 
 and the tenant, the dilapidation of the cottage and the extension of 
 the workhouse. Let the system be changed, and you will at once 
 exchange the rule of those men who may have ruined you, and who 
 have most assuredly deluded you — who have ascribed your distress 
 to almost every cause but the real one — who have, for the last seven 
 years, been dinning in your ears that your privations would only be 
 temporary — that the sun of your prosperity was, indeed, behind a 
 cloud — but that it would only be obscured for a moment — when the 
 fact is — that the gloom has been gathering deeper round us from the 
 moment this prediction was made. Call again, I say, for this change, 
 not of men but of measures-— and in the great storehouse of the talent 
 and natural and acquired intelligence of your country — you will, 
 depend upon it, find rulers — who governing in justice and equity-^ — 
 in the spirit of conciliation and sympathy-— with tho«e whose interests 
 
21 
 
 are entrusted to their care — ^vill have no other object than to " scatter 
 plenty o'er a smiling land"— and who would think themselves richly 
 repaid, in " reading their history" in the expressive eyes of a con- 
 tented, happy, grateful, and adoring country. 
 Here Mr. Fawkes read the following 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 At a PUBLIC MEETING of the COUNTY of YORK, convened hy 
 the High-Sheriff, and held at the Castle of' York, on WEJX 
 NESDA Y the 22d Day of January, 1 823 ; 
 
 RICHARD BETHELL, Esq. High-Sheriff, 
 
 IN THE chair: 
 
 liesolved, 
 1 St. That the Constitution of this Country is a Government of three 
 independent Estates, a limited Monarchy, a limited Aristocracy, and 
 a limited Democracy, that each of these has its distinct and peculiar 
 functions and privileges ; and, that one of these Estates cannot un- 
 duly influence the functions of either of the others, without disturb- 
 ing that balance which is essential to secure and perpetuate the 
 various advantages, which may be derived to the People from a 
 Government so constituted. 
 
 2d. That the House of Commons as at present composed, does not 
 express the national will ; on the contrary, it has too generally proved 
 its readiness to comply with the dictates of whatever minister may 
 have dispensed the favors of the crown. 
 
 3d. That the effects of the present state of the House of Commons 
 have been the wanton and profligate expenditure of the public 
 money; and the unprincipled creation and continuance of useless 
 places and unmerited pensions, in defiance of the loud and general 
 expression of the public feelings. 
 
 4th. That the heavy pressure of a load of taxes, imposed for tlie 
 purpose of supporting an extravagant civil list and of maintaining a 
 ruinously large military and colonial establishment, is totally incom- 
 patible with a state of profound peace and acknowledged security. 
 
 5th. That the only measure which can remedy these evils, and 
 preserve the Country from the dangers that may be anticipated from 
 a continuance of them, is a speedy and effectual Reform in the Com- 
 mons House of Parliament. 
 
 ()th. That a Petition founded on the above Resolution^ be prepared 
 and presented to the House of Commons. 
 
22 
 
 7tli. That the Petition now read be adopted by this Meetinjr, and 
 that the Members for this County be requested to present the same 
 to the House. 
 
 8th. That a Committee be appointed to superintend the signing of 
 the Petition. 
 
 9th. That such committee do consist of the first 72 gentlemen who 
 signed the Requisition to the High Sheriff, and that they have power 
 to add to their number. 
 
 10th. That the said committee have power to appoint Sub-Com- 
 mittees in different districts of the county, and that such Sub-Com- 
 mittees have power to add to their numbers. 
 
 The worthy speaker having read the above, proceeded as follows :— . 
 
 Gentlemen — It was well and wittily said by Louis XIV. when he 
 sent James II. to try to recover his dominions, that the best wish he 
 could make him was — " That he should never see him again." In 
 like manner. Gentlemen, perhaps the best wish I can make you is— 
 (for the day is too far spent for me to engage in any other public 
 matters) that the prayer of our petition may be heai'd, and that I 
 may never have an opportunity of addressing you again ! 
 
 Throughout the whole of this speech, as well as at its close, the 
 cheers of the multitude were not only loud but almost incessant. 
 Mr. Fawkes then moved tlie Resolutions, which are inserted in 
 another part of this Paper. 
 
 The Hon. E. Petre then came forward to second the resolutions, 
 in doing which, he conceived that he would be wanting in candour and 
 sincerity in his political course, if he did not confess that he had but re^ 
 cently become a convert to the great cause of Parliamentary Reform. 
 Though once in error, he had now seen his error, and most conscienti-^ 
 ously differed with the opinions he had previously held. He was aware 
 that such a declaration was hostile to the opinions of many, who, in 
 private life, he greatly esteemed, but it was such a declaration of his 
 sentiments, which he felt it his duty to make, When he saw an as- 
 sembly of Kings on the continent, for the purpose of maturing the 
 designs of despotism — when he also saw the arm of power at home 
 extended, not for the happiness of our fellow subjects, but to aug-. 
 ment their misery, by the most cruel and despotic measures- — when 
 he saw the miseries and distresses of the country increased, by place-* 
 men added to placemen, day after day, surely it was the duty of a 
 man to come forward and acknowledge his error in ever having 
 
sanctioned such proceedings. In his opinion, therefore, a thorouj^h, 
 constitutional, and effectual reform in the Commons' House of Par* 
 liament, was absolutely requisite — a reform, which would restore 
 that sympathy, to use the words of a great statesman, which ought 
 to exist between the electors and the elected. Such a reform was the 
 only effectual remedy for the grievances of the nation ; and impressed 
 with these sentiments, he begged leave most cordially to second the 
 resolutions of his honorable friend. (Loud Cheers.) 
 
 J. A. S. Wortley, Esq. then stood forward, and was received with 
 the greatest disapprobation. He was afraid (he said) he should have 
 to ask for a great deal of the indulgence of the meeting, because 
 what he should advance was entirely at variance to what had been 
 brought forward by his honorable friends who had preceded him. 
 
 The noise here became so great, that Mr. Wortley could not be 
 heard one single syllable. 
 
 Mr. Fawkes came forward and entreated the meeting, as candid 
 Englishmen and as electors of the county of York, to hear Mr. W, 
 When silence was obtained, 
 
 Mr. Wortley resumed. As he said before, what he should advance 
 would be repugnant to the feelings of a majority — a great majority 
 of those who heard him, because he was averse to the political opini- 
 ons of most present on this subject. He might say many tilings which 
 they might contradict, but having a great duty to perform, he threw 
 himself on the candour and good nature of his auditory, who he 
 hoped would not take it wrong by his using the word fallacy, when 
 he §aid, he would show the fallacy of the arguments which had been 
 advanced. Though what he should say might irritate some, he would 
 only say, that he did not wish, in the slightest degree, to irritate any 
 person in the world. If he spoke, he must speak boldly ; and though 
 he might not convince any that the arguments which had been ad- 
 duced were specious arguments, he hoped he should be heard — if not, 
 he had better not speak at all. He knew he should have the candour 
 of the hon. mover and seconder of the resolutions, who had brought 
 them forward with as much candour and fairness as ever he had heard 
 in his life. If the hon. mover were right in his premises, he (Mr. W.) 
 would admit, he was right in his conclusions ; and if so, the meeting 
 had a right to call upon the House of Commons to reform itself. But 
 he would begin with denying his premises — ^he had taken a wrong 
 view of the House of Commons, which for the last 400 years, had been 
 
24 
 
 as it was at present, during the whole of which time the same external 
 influence had been exercised by the aristocracy and the crown.— 
 C Cries of' No ! no I ) 
 
 If he were successful in proving- this, the premises of the honorable 
 mover must be false, who called the present influence of the aristo- 
 cracy and the crown in the House of Commons an usurpation ; and 
 if the state of things had been so for 400 years, he would ask, had we 
 not, under the present government, enjoyed many great blessings. 
 (Noy no, and laughter. J Ever since the time of the reign -of King 
 Henry the 8th and Queen Elizabeth, the peers and the crown had 
 influenced the return of members for boroughs. It had been stated 
 that this was an usurpation of the aristocracy, by the boroughs having 
 fallen into decay. He would be very glad for any one to point out to 
 him the period when Old Sarum was better than it is now ; and also 
 several other boroughs, which are called rotten ones ; in his opinion 
 they were always the same. The honorable mover had noticed a 
 speech of Mr. Canning's, but there was another speech delivered by 
 that gentleman, which he had not noticed. It was delivered by Mr. C. 
 in the House of Commons during the last session of Parliament, in 
 answer to Lord John Russell, when he brought forward his motion 
 on this subject. In which Mr. Canning clearly proved that the 
 influence of the peers, in returning members for boroughs, had 
 existed so long since as the end oi' the 1 6th century, when the Earl of 
 Essex not only nominated the two members for Stafford, but also 
 wrote down the names of the members for tlie borough of Maiden, 
 and for several other boroughs. He (Mr. W.) mentioned this fact, 
 to show that this state of things had been, for a great length of time, 
 and still continued to be, whether good or bad he did not say. This 
 mode of representation had been so for many hundred years back, 
 for in a book on this subject, he found that during the reign of 
 Henry the 6th, one place, called a borough, containing only one 
 inhabitant, returned a member to Parliament, and continued to do so 
 to this day. (Hisses. J He well knew that this mode of reasoning 
 was tedious, but as he intended to prove that the arguments of the 
 honorable mover were fallacious, he could not prove it better than 
 by facts — and though a detail of facts might be tedious, he knew of 
 no better plan. — Newton, in the Isle of Wight, was a borough in the 
 time of Elizabeth, when the members were nominated by tlie steward 
 of the lord of the manor, and that borough still continued the same. 
 
85 
 
 Hett such butsts of disapprobation were evinced, that Willan, the 
 I'eformer, of Dewsbury, stood on the front of the hustings, and 
 was just about to speak^ but the High-Sheriff interfered, and soon 
 obtained silence, when 
 
 Mr. Wortley said : " I challenge my honorable friends around me 
 to prove that any place beneath the influence of the aristocracy is 
 different from what it was 400 years ago." (Hisses.) In the re- 
 mainder of w hat he had to say, he should take it for granted that he 
 was right in that respect; and as such, he should ask a few questions. 
 The first was, whether, under such a government, we had not expe- 
 rienced a great number of blessings ? (Cries of " Yes! Taxation!") 
 He would refer to Lord John Russell's speech, and begged to 
 observe, that with his Lordship, he admired the wisdom, the patience, 
 and the perseverance of the people, in that revolution when King 
 James abdicated the throne ; for they reflected the greatest glory on 
 theniselves, in bringing their country safely through difficulties and 
 dangers the most imminent. Our liberties were certainly at that time 
 fixedi In the Edinburgh Review, it had Very properly been stated 
 that that was the beginning of a new era, an happy era, when prac- 
 tical liberty and practical influence commenced. — If a reform in the 
 House of Commons had then been effected, such things would not have 
 followed. He did not mean to say that the representative body spoke 
 different language to that of the people, because he believed that the 
 representative body generally agreed with the great majority of the 
 people. (Cries of "No, no, they don't") As the national debt had 
 been mentioned, he must state what he conceived had involved us so 
 much. First, it was the American war; and secondly, the French 
 war. In the commencement of the foniner war, he must say that the 
 House of Commons spoke the language of the people. For himself, he 
 was astonished that there was not more wisdom in this country than 
 to go to war with America. (Cries of " Taxniion, without represent aiion, 
 produced it.) Was not the American war a most popular war ? (No.) 
 He would refer to the speeches at that time delivered. Mr. Burke said 
 to his constituents at Bristol, that he had become unpopular, because he 
 liad declared that the war was uncalled for by this country. Part of the 
 national debt, therefore;, was to be laid to the blame of the people and 
 not the House of Commons. He knew that there were those around 
 hira who would say that the American war became unpopular be- 
 &re it was concludecL 
 
26 
 
 Lord Milton being loudly called for, the meeting appeared quite 
 tired of Mr. Wortley's " argumenls" and evincing a desire to hear no 
 more of them, 
 
 The Hon. E. Petre stepped forward and urged the meeting to act 
 a manly part, by hearing Mr. Wortley out ; for by doing so, he w as 
 sure they would further the cause of Reform. 
 
 Mr. Wortley again resumed. He would still throw himself on the 
 indulgence of the meeting and beg a patient hearing. If the voice of 
 the people had been attended to, he believed that the war with America 
 would have been brought to an end before it was ; but when a state 
 was once engaged in war, it was not easy for those persons who were not 
 actually in the M'ar itself, to judge of the most proper time of putting 
 a stop to it. He wished that the people, before they agreed to go to 
 war, would but consider, by stopping it at a limited period, what 
 injury they might do to their country. (Cries of " No ! not io their 
 counirT/, to the Holy Alliance") The language of the continental 
 sovereigns he held in as great abhorrence as his honorable friends 
 around him did, because he considered it to be subversive to the 
 liberties of our country. (Hear, hear,) He begged to refer to the 
 French war ; and a great number present could recollect the begin- 
 ning of that war, and what vast majorities went with government to 
 go to war with that country. (No, no.) On that subject, Mr. Fox 
 more than once declared that he had become unpopular by opposing 
 it. In 1803 that war was again resumed; and who would say that 
 then it was unpopular ; when his honorable friend the mover of the 
 resolutions, in that very yard, excited and roused the feelings of the 
 people against the enemy. On these occasions, then, he would ask, 
 were government the sole cause of the burdens which we had now 
 upon our shoulders .'* Even when the House of Commons thus acted 
 with the voice of the people, still it was said they were not the repre- 
 sentatives of the people. Had the House of Commons done nothing 
 for this country } (A voice from the crowd exclaimed, '' Yes ; they 
 have given us the six acts") Were there no institutions in this 
 country w^hich the House of Commons had fostered and cherished ? 
 Was it not the protector of personal liberty ? (No, no.) Had we 
 not administration of law, not only pure, but even unsuspected? 
 (No.) Was not this country considered by other nations as the 
 nurse of genuine liberty } Was not this country, in point of fact, 
 indebted to the House of Commons, in a great degree, for the bless- 
 
27 
 
 ings it enjoyed ? His honorable friends might talk to him of a 
 Reform in Parliament, but until they laid down some specific plans, 
 he must oppose them. It was reasonable to ask what change was 
 specifically wanted, that he might judge of its merits, and decide 
 whether or not it deserved his support. 
 
 Mr. Wortley's voice was again lost amidst the hisses of the people, 
 when the High-Sheriff again interfered, and said, " Gentlemen, if 
 you attach any value to free discussion, let me entreat you to be 
 silent." 
 
 Mr. Wortley repeated, that before any change could be effected, a 
 plan must be laid down ; for we were not to be told that the House 
 of Commons was not fit to govern, when it had governed so long. 
 Those who wanted a Reform, could not agree amongst themselves aS 
 to the nature and extent of the Reform they required. Neither 
 could Sir Francis Burdett nor Mr. Lambton, who had actually brought 
 forward their schemes. — Some who advocate a moderate reform^ 
 were for the aristocracy to retain a portion of their influence, or 
 to have a compensation for giving it up. There were some, he 
 alluded not to those around him, who had declared publicly what 
 their objects were, and whose opinions were of such a nature, that 
 he would resist them to the last moment of his existence, and witli 
 the last drop of his blood. C Cries of' " Bravo, and Off, off." J Those 
 measures could not, he contended, lead to any thing else but a 
 national bankruptcy, to a breach of faith with the public creditor. 
 
 The hisses, &c. again became so great, that Mr. Fawkes endea- 
 voured, but in vain, to obtain Mr. Wortley a hearing ; upon which 
 he retired, amidst cheers and hisses. 
 
 Lord Milton then advanced to the front of the hustings, but Mr. 
 Wortley being called for, the noble lord retired, and 
 
 Mr. Wortley again addressed the meeting. He had always, ever 
 since h« had any connexion with this county, said he was hostile to 
 the sentiments now advanced — he always appeared there as the de- 
 clared enemy to the opinions of the meeting. [A voice from the 
 crowd reminded Mr. Wortley that he had occupied too much of the 
 time of the meeting, and requested him to be brief]] He said that 
 he should have finished long ago, if he had not been interrupted and 
 annoyed, but really that Avas not the way to make him briefj and he 
 could assure the meeting that there was nothing very agreeable in 
 the situation in which he stood. (Hear.) He would say a word or 
 
28 
 
 two on the subject of placemen, as they had been aUuded to. It was 
 most assuredly true that there were at present 89 placemen in the 
 House of Commons — but of late ypara they had been reduced, for 
 about half a century ago, there was 200, therefore it must now be 
 better. (Hisses.) 
 
 If the object of the meeting had been to reduce or increase the 
 number of placemen, he should have known to what extent he could 
 have supported or opposed the measure; but as no specific plan of 
 reform had been la,id down, he could not do so. He could not say 
 that the House of Commons was such as ought not to exist ; although 
 he was far from approving of every measure it adopted. He was; 
 ready to admit, that amendments might be made ; that there were 
 defects in that institution, as there must be in all others; and he 
 would further say, that to remedy such defects to a certain extent, 
 he was more likely to join than others who were then listening to 
 him ; (hear, hear.) but he never would sanction any resolutions cry- 
 ing down the House of Commons, as unfit to carry on its share in th^ 
 government of the country. He would not call what he should do^ 
 " reform," because if he did, some would expect more from him than 
 they would get. On this point, however, he must contend against 
 his hon. friend, that the influence of the crown was greater now 
 than it was fifty years ago. It had, he knew for ^ fact, decreased 
 during the last thirty years, by the resources which it formerly de?? 
 rived directly from the reyenue, which had been entirely cut ofF.—t 
 The state of the public press very considerably diminished tlie influx 
 ence of the crown; 30 or 40 years ago, a newspaper could only be 
 obtained once a week, noAV every person in every village were in-. 
 forming themselves by means of the newspapers ; and this, he cour 
 tended, was calculated to decrease the influence of the crown, aiK^. 
 have a direct controul over the House of Commons. These Avere the 
 reasons why he dissented from the mover of the resolutions, antj 
 having stated them he should retire. Hie co^ild not see how the 
 three estates of King, Lords, and Commons, could apt separately 
 from each othier ; but, in his opinior., as had been tlie case for the last 
 400 years, the House of Commons must necessarily be influenced by 
 by the crown and the peers. After thanking the auditory for their 
 patience, although as he observed, they casually interrupted hini, 
 iVlr ^\ retired fiiiudst great disapprobation. 
 
Lord Milton then presented himself, and was received with 
 cheers. He -was sure that it was to the interest of all, that the speech 
 of his hon. colleague (Mr. Wortley) had been heard, as well as tlie 
 speeches of the mover and seconder of the resolutions. He apprehend* 
 ed that truth was the only object to be obtained ; which could not be 
 accomplished without the arguments on each side were balanced. They 
 had, therefore, done perfectly correct in hearing Mr, VV, because from 
 his (Mr. W.'s) historical knowledge ancl acuteness of understanding—? 
 he should suppose that they had heard all Ithi^t ponld possibly be ad- 
 vanced on that side of the question. He (the noble lord) was a party 
 jn calling this meeting, because he conceived it necessary that the 
 opinions of the people should be made known on this most important 
 of all questions. It was now 1 6 years ago, since he was first returnecl 
 as member for this great county. During the most of that time, he 
 had been the opposer of every thing like parliamentary reform. If 
 there were any yalue in consistency, it was npw his duty to state the 
 grounds upon which his opinions had been changed. (Hear ! hear !) 
 It was many years a^go, since he first began to doubt the correctness 
 pf the opinions he then entertained. He communicated his suspif 
 C'ions to those nearest him ; he confided them to those in whom he had 
 ever found consolation and friendship. But he thought his constitu- 
 0nts, of alj others, should be the last to whom his change of senti* 
 ments should be made known ; for, in his opinion, it would have 
 been inconsistent for t}iem to have known them sooner. If he were 
 not to be subservient to a court, he ought not to be subservient to 
 his constituents ; and if he had been subservient to the latter, they 
 Avpuld have had no security against his being so to the former. At 
 the last election, therefore, although the suspicions, which he had 
 previously entertained, had nearly ripened into opinions : yet on that 
 subject he did not at that time allow one single word to escape hi§ 
 lips. But now, he would declare the grounds on which he had 
 changed his opinions. In the first place, he must say, that the trans- 
 actions in the year 1817 ; the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, 
 upon pretentions the most frivolous — pretences brought into action by 
 the meanest and most scandalous proceedings — the siending of spie:^ 
 amongst the people, to excite tumult, nnd then take advantage of 
 it, to adopt the most tyrannical measures ; it was then that he first 
 thought that the humbler classes of the people were not those v/hp 
 could look for protection to the House of Commons. (Hear.) In 
 
so 
 
 I8I9, when the country wag trying the great experiment of returning 
 to cash payments, the great difficulty of which the ministry of this 
 country must have known, the faciHty with which the House of 
 Commons sanctioned the imposition of three millions of fresh taxes, 
 when the country, from one end to the other, was wringing with 
 the cry of retrenchment and economy, increased his suspicions. 
 (Hear.) Then the memorable l6th of August, and every thing that 
 grew out of it, the laws, the six acts, which were passed in the ses- 
 sion of I8I9, and which converted the last year of his late Majesty's 
 reign, which ought to have been a jubilee, into one of discredit 
 and disgrace to the country, which, in many material points, had 
 destroyed the constitution of the nation. The facility with which 
 the House of Commons lent itself to those acts, by which the per- 
 sonal liberties of the people were restricted ; which still remain on 
 the statute book, and by which the magistrates were empowered to 
 search any Englishman's dwelling-house for arms. The passing of 
 those acts confirmed those suspicions. But, last of all, he would call 
 their attention to that transaction, which, more than any other, ex- 
 cited the feelings of the people — he meant the proceedings against 
 her late Majesty. (Hear ! Hear !) He desired the meeting to bear 
 them in mind, though the propositions against her were never agitated 
 in the House of Commons, there was, nevertheless, the motion made in 
 the year 182 1, after the abandonment of the bill of Pains and Penalties, 
 brought forward by Mr. J. Smith, (to whom his lordship passed a very 
 high eulogium,) to restore her name to the liturgy. If that question 
 had been debated in that yard, he would ask, how many hands would 
 have been raised against her majesty ? (Cries of not one.) Would it 
 nothavebeen carried in her favour, with an universal burst of applause.'* 
 {Cries of yes, it rvould !) Yet in the House of Commons, it was not so; 
 not the slighest impression was made there — No person voted for that 
 measure except those who might be called the regular opposers of the 
 administration. — {Hear /) — Not a single individual at least, he would 
 say not five individuals, who did not regularly vote in opposition to 
 the ministers. He then saw that the opinions of the people of this 
 country had not that proper influence on the House of Commons, 
 which he contended they ought to have. ( Great applause.) He would 
 not go to the lengtli of saying, that every sentiment which might be 
 entertained by the people for a moment, hastily taken up, and which 
 plight 30on pass away, ought to have an equal efiect, to their uicre 
 
SI 
 
 deliberate and sober opinions — But to prove tliat the opinions tlie 
 people then entertained relative to the proceedings against her majesty^ 
 had been grounded on serious deliberatioUj he would ask^, if after the 
 lapse of two years, they had seen any reason to change those opinions — r 
 {Cries of no! no !) — therefore, he contended, they ought to have had 
 their full weighton the conduct of the House of Commons. {Applause.) 
 
 I will ask (said his lordship) whether any of those qualities can be 
 applied to the House of Commons, as at present constituted. Had they 
 a jealous eye towards the magistracy, with respect to the conduct of 
 the magistrates and yeomanry of Manchester ? Had they evinced an 
 anxious care over the public money, when they voted the arrears to 
 the Duke of Clarence ? Had they shewn a wiUingness to hear the com- 
 plaints of the people, when they passed those six acts, subversive of 
 our liberties, by which magistrates were empowered to search our 
 houses for arms ? and by keeping those acts on the statute, long after 
 the pretences on which they were grounded, had passed away. Had 
 they not, in every dispute between the people and the administration, 
 presumed against the former ? Did they not presume that the people 
 at Manchester were wrong, and that the magistrates and yeomanry 
 were right } (Hear, hear.) Did not, then, the House of Commons 
 answer the description he had been making of them. He would ask, 
 if this were not a monstrous state of things ? Was he then to shut his 
 eyes } Was he to blind himself? Was he not to suffer conviction to enter 
 his mind } It was, he said, whilst thinking on all these things, that 
 he had come to the conclusion that that house was not what it ought 
 to be. {Applause.) His hon. colleague had asked why they did not 
 propose certain specific plans ? He would answer, because a meeting 
 of tliis description was unaccustomed to deliberate, and was conse- 
 quently incapable of entering into the requisite details to carry any 
 plans into effect ; but they had a right to complain, and say that 
 things were not as they ought to be ; and to refer to those who liad 
 the best means of carrying plans into effect. The people had a right 
 to complain, that they might make an impression on the minds of the 
 representative body, if indeed any impression could be made upon 
 them — and they ought to take such complaints into their serious con- 
 sideration. {Hear, hear, hear.) 
 
 His honorable friend and colleague had said that the three estates 
 of the constitution could not act without influencing one another. 
 Why, no man in his senses could ever suppose otherwise ; for it was 
 
S2 
 
 fequaliy as impossible that the different plan^tr' wliich Uat^l round 
 the sun, would not act upon and influence each other^ A minister of 
 the cabinet in the House of Commons, the other dayj declared that 
 the influence of the crown was necessary to counteract the voice of 
 public opinion. I f such an extraordinary doctrine had been advanced 
 by a person of no consequence! or influence, he would have passed it 
 by without notice ; but when it was held and sent forth by a minis^ 
 ter of the crown, and a, representative of a borough in this county ; 
 when he heard the brother of Lord Grantham (the honorable F. 
 Robinson) say that the influence of the crown was requisite for such 
 a purpose — ^wllen lie heard it said by a man of amiable character and 
 perfect honesty, for such he believed him to be, although he had 
 never agreed with him in politics in his life, it became his Lordship 
 to inquire what might be the consequences, were such doctrines 
 acted on. His honorable colleague had also stated that the influence 
 of the prcas had diminished the influence of the crown ; but he did 
 not tell us that there were two sides of the presa.—^Hisloj'dship would 
 ask him if ev&t he had heard of a paper called "John Bull." (Hear.) 
 A great number of his learned friend's arguments, if examined^ were 
 no arguments at all, especially that which regarded the influence of 
 the press. His colleague had said that there were a great number of 
 newspapers ; but he (the noble lord) would ask him why the influence 
 on one side the question should not be as great as the other ? (" Aye," 
 exclaimed a gentleman on the hustings, " if there be an equal degree 
 of truth on one side as the other.") When he saw John Bull, a news- 
 paper set up by the patrons of " social order," for the purpose of 
 checking the licentiousness of the pfess> dive into the secrets of 
 private families, he had a right to feel some suspicion as to the purity 
 of their motives. He had now, clearly and fully, stated the reasons 
 which had led him to be a convert to parliamentary reform, and had 
 answered several of his honorable colleague's arguments, in some of 
 which was a great deal of historical truth — ^boroughs certainly were 
 formerly wdiat they are now ; and he also agreed with him (Mr. W.) 
 that this country had experienced a portion of blessings— these were 
 undoubtedly powerful arguments on that side of the question. His 
 honorable colleague had said that in the year 1596, the Earl of Essex 
 sent his mandate to the Sheriff, to return the members for Stafford, 
 but he ought at the same time, to have shown that at the time of 
 Elizabeth, there was a great deal of liberty ; but that he could not. 
 
33 
 
 The kingdom certainly enjoyed a deal of external glory, for Elizabeth 
 was a great, wise, and powerful princess. 
 
 If he were asked his advice, he would say use moderation. Grea* 
 causes had seldom been carried by violence. If they embarked in this 
 great cause, they must, to use the language of scripture, be " as wise aa 
 serpents and harmless as lambs." They must have no eye to persons 
 —nothing of a personal nature should enter their feelings. In their 
 deliberations on the best means of accomplishing their object, they 
 should divest themselves of all prejudices and partial affections, and 
 have in view only such measures as would, in the first place, prove 
 advantageous to the public ; and, in the second, be capable of being 
 carried into execution without difficulty, without danger, and without 
 confusion : without difficulty, because they always should apportion 
 their efforts to their means ; — without danger, because if some things 
 were bad, there were many that were good, and respect should be paid 
 to the good ; — without confusion, because confusion, of all things 
 was the worst — bad of itself, and bad because it invariably leads to 
 tyranny. In the history of the world we had abundant proof of this 
 fact, for it bore him out in saying, that whenever there was a state of 
 anarchy, a state of tyranny always followed. It had been such in all 
 times and in all countries. It was seen in our own country, in the 
 middle of the seventeenth century, when the remains of the long 
 Parliament voted the Kingly office as useless, and by this and other 
 violent proceedings, gave scope to the predominancy of the army and 
 tyranny of Oliver Cromwell. It had been seen also in another coun- 
 try, and depend upon it, the result would be the same here. For 
 these reasons, liis lordship would recommend zeal to be tempered 
 with moderation ; and that no more should be attempted than what 
 could be accomplished. Whatever (said the noble lord) was in his 
 own power, he would undoubtedly do. — (Applause.) He believed 
 that in the present state of the country, the only measure which could 
 prevent the Government from becoming very like arbitrary, was Par- 
 liamentary Reform. A tyranny more odious or more safe to the tyrant 
 could not be seen, than the one in which the forms of a free constitu- 
 tion were preserved. Sucl? a tyranny had nothing in it to excite to 
 resistance, because in the worst state of absolute tyranny, there was 
 at least that hope, that something might be done to drive the people 
 to resistance ; but in a tyranny carried on under the appearance of 
 liberty, there could not be even that desponding hope, if such an ex- 
 it 
 
^^ 
 
 pression he might be allowed to make. — {Loud applause.) He had, he 
 doubted, detained the meeting too long ; he, therefore, thanked them 
 for their kind hearing j and concluded by stating, that the reasons 
 he had assigned were those which had made him a convert to the 
 cause of reform. The noble lord retired amidst loud and repeated 
 cheers. 
 
 Marmaduke Wyvill, Esq. (one of the worthy representatives of this 
 city,) briefly noticed and refuted the various arguments which had 
 been advanced by Mr. Wortley — in the course of which Mr. W. first 
 alluded to the fallacious assertion, that the present state of the repre- 
 sentative body is the same as it was 400 years ago ; and, he very 
 judiciously asked, if the fact that evils did exist many years ago, was 
 any justification of their continuance. (Loud applause.) Mr. W. 
 then adverted to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, as a 
 scandalous infringement on the liberty of the subject, and to the 
 unmanly persecution of the broken-hearted Queen, as an act of hos- 
 tility against the petitions of the people, and as an unfeeling violation 
 of the most sacred demands of justice and humanity. (Great ap- 
 plause, and cries of shame.) He had heard the American war 
 termed a popular one — ^but, was it in reality? It was only the 
 natural consequence of the British government demanding from the 
 Americans "taxation, without representation." But, he might say 
 more — that war was not only unprincipled in its origin, so far as this 
 country was concerned, but, it was designedly commenced to prevent 
 a reform at home, and to divert the attention of England from its 
 own national abuses. (Cheers.) Mr. Wyvill then directed the 
 attention of the meeting to the late great increase of taxation and of 
 poor-rates, as proofs of the inadequacy of the present administration ; 
 and, whilst he most earnestly urged every person present to proceed 
 in his exertions for a reform, he pledged himself undauntedly to go 
 on in the patriotic course, till the baneful influence of the crown 
 shall be entirely removed from that house, where the real repre- 
 sentatives of the people ought constitutionally to assemble. ( Great 
 applause, ) 
 
 R. M. Beverley, (of Beverley,) Esq. was the next speaker. He 
 stated that he had determined not to take a part in this day's discus- 
 sion, and nothing could have made him alter that determination but 
 the extraordinary arguments that had been brought forward by the 
 hon. member for Yorkshire (Mr. S. Wortley) which from their pecu- 
 
m 
 
 liar weakness had encouraged him, incompetent as he was, to enter 
 the lists against him. If any thing could have strengthened him in 
 the determination of silence he had previously made, it was hearing 
 the splendid and magnificent eloquence of the lion, mover of the 
 address, for it ill became him to be harnessed in the car of reform, 
 with so stately and proud a steed as the ungovernable rhetoric of Mr, 
 Fawkes : 
 
 " That mighty courser of etherial race, 
 
 " With neck in thunder clothed, and long-resounding pace." 
 But when he had observed that the noble lord had omitting answer- 
 ing some of the arguments of the hon. member for Yorkshire, he 
 could not resist the temptation he felt of himself answering that hon. 
 speaker seriatim, and following him step by step through the bog of 
 corruption, at last come to the firm ground on which he rested his 
 own principles. (Loud cheers.) And he felt confident that even 
 his weak hand and feeble breath, could blow down the tinsel fabric 
 that the hon. speaker had reared. 
 
 The honourable speaker had founded his arguments mainly on the 
 antiquity of abuses, and seemed to plume himself prodigiously, that 
 they were as ancient as the time of Henry VIII. ; but if the antiquity 
 of the thing were an argument in its favor, he (Mr. B.) had a much 
 better weapon supplied to him by that very argument ; for he could 
 go so far back as the time of William the conqueror — he could go 
 back near a thousand years, and remind the honourable gentleman 
 that when William of Normandy demanded the kingdom of the law- 
 ful monarch, Harold, and founded his demand on an old will that 
 nobody knew any thing about — Harold returned for answer, that if 
 such a will was genuine, it was utterly illegal, because it had been 
 made '' absque generali senatus et populi Anglio consensu" without 
 the general consent of the people and Parliament of England ; (Hear, 
 hear,) a clear proof that the consent of the people and the parliament 
 united were considered essential in those days ; though in these days 
 such an opinion is unfortunately not much in vogue ; and it would 
 take up too much time to wade through all the tyrannies of English 
 history to prove how that right had been lost in the halcyon days of 
 liberty and happiness under Henry VIII. But it appeared a miserably 
 inauspicious aera on which to found the origin of the present perfect 
 system of corruption, in which the honourable member for Yorkshire 
 seemed so much to rejoice, in the days of Henry VIII. ; that monarch 
 
 F 2 
 
36 
 
 •who by n?o.y^ people was consklered one oftlit most execrable and mer- 
 ciless tyrants that hiid ever sal on tlie throne of any country under 
 Heaven — that tyrant who had killed two Queens and broken another 
 Queen's heart ; for whatever the honourable gentleman might think 
 of this founder of the blessings of corruption, yet he (Mr. Beverley) 
 could never think that the freeholders of the County of York were 
 
 too fond of any King that had broken any Queen's heart (Loud 
 
 cheers, and cries of*^ No, no." ) 
 
 But this argument of antiquity of abuses rendering them therefore 
 all that was desirable, and all that was virtuous, might have been used, 
 and indeed always has been used against every reform, and every 
 alteration of abuses, however gross, profligate, and abominable. This 
 was the argument that was used against Christianity ; and if it could 
 be supposed, that the House of Commons were all i^agans instead of 
 Chri^tians, tliere is very little doubt but that the Gospel, if now pro- 
 duced for the first time within the walls of 8t. Stephens, would be 
 voted also, scandalous, and seditious. (Laughter.) 
 
 The hon. gent, had talked a great deal about the blessings we had 
 enjoyed of late years under the present system ; but it would seem 
 that diiferent people had wonderfully different opinions of the mean- 
 ing of a blessing — for he (Mr. B.) could never rank the six acts and 
 the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and all the minor afflictions 
 and mean oppressions of the ministry, amongst blessings ; he never 
 <?ould reckon that celebrated lawgiver, the late marquis of London- 
 derry, a? a blessing — nor could he consent to enrol amongst the kind 
 dispensations of Providence, that other wonderful patriot and pro- 
 digious statesman, l^t^ly dropped down from Heaven, in the shoes of 
 the Marquis of Londonderry — he meant Mr. Canning. So that what 
 some people thought blessings, it would appear others, by a misno- 
 mer per]]aps, would call curses, {Loud cheers and laughter.) 
 
 The hpn. gent, had stated on some writer's authority, that if the 
 House of Conimons had been reformed and had expressed the wish 
 of the people at the time of the revolution, that glorious event never 
 would have taken place, a? the mass of the people were decidedly 
 adverse to changing the lawful dynasty— that might be true ; but it 
 sliould never be forgotten for an instant, that the cause of a revolution 
 could never have occurred under a reformed Kopse of Commons: the 
 tyrant James IL would never have dared to attempt to overthrow our 
 l^wfi and our religion, if awed by the voice of the people^ expretsed 
 
37 
 
 in a ;jMrr parliament ; and though th^ r«*voliitIon woiikl not have hap- 
 pened, that would have had previously happened preferable to a 
 thousand revolutions, namely a reform of the House of Commons, 
 and for which we have been fighting and toiling ever since the revolu- 
 tion . — ( Applause. ) 
 
 The same answer would apply to that more specious and more 
 hackneyed argument, used by the honorable gentlemen, *Uhat 
 we cannot in justice accuse the House of Commons of burthening 
 the country with the increase of the national debt, when that increase 
 was caused by the American and French wars, that were so eminently 
 and notoriously popular ; for we should endeavour to speculate how 
 the proposal for war would have been received in a really reformed 
 House ; there might have been great enthusiasm and a great clatter 
 about glory and all that specious nonsense ; but a little cool reflection 
 •would have shewn the real representatives of the people that they 
 could not pay for their glory, and after a sufficient parade of threaten- 
 ing speeches, it is certain they would have sat down, preferring 
 economy and safety, to extravagance, bankruptcy, and ruin. (Hear, 
 hear, hear.) 
 
 There had been one part of the hon. gent.'s speech which he would 
 revert to with more satisfaction, or to speak more properly, with a hope 
 of satisfaction, since the language in which the hon. gent, had couched 
 that part of his speech, had been involved in so much obscurity 
 and mystery, that he did not feel himself intitled to speak 'yvrith 
 decision in its explanation — he alluded to that part of the honourable 
 gentleman's speech in which he had talked of co-operating with the 
 views of the reformers, if they only went so far as preventing all 
 placemen from sitting in the House, and abolishing all unnecessary 
 places — in which he had said, that he perhaps would join in urging 
 a " Place Bill i?i the House ;" (here Mr. Wortley denied he had ever 
 said or meant so, and after some desultory conversation, Mr. Bever- 
 ley proceeded to say) " if the honorable member for Yorkshire speaks 
 undecidedly on this subject, let us know his real views on this dis- 
 puted point ; for it is very difficult to get at his real intentions and 
 wishes, and if he will propose a Place Bill in the House, then I think 
 we shall feel satisfied in his conduct, and approve of one part of his 
 political career at least. (Cheers.) 
 
 But of his decided and unhesitating opinion of another subject we 
 can have no doubt, since the honorable gentleman most plainly and 
 
S8 
 
 distinctly stated, without any modification, that he did not think the 
 power oi" the crown had increased of late years. It would not be neces- 
 sary to bring more than one answer to this, when it was remembered 
 that that very House of Commons itself, that purely modified, that 
 perfectly constituted collection of senators, gifted with all wisdom 
 and all virtues, the praise and glory and envy of the universe, had 
 itself declared, at the end of the American war, that the " Power of 
 the Crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be dimin- 
 ished." What would the honourable gentleman say to this ? Surely 
 he would not set his opinion against that of the House of Commons, 
 whose proper corruption and excellent system of bribery, he so much 
 admired ? (Hear, hear.) If he did so, it was lamentable to see two 
 such friends at variance — it was distressing to see a difference and 
 a contention between the great fountain of truth and its chief 
 apostle ! (Loud applause and laughter.) 
 
 The honourable gentleman had further observed, that if the influ- 
 ence of the crown had increased, there might be set against the force 
 of popular sentiments, and the means of conveying those sentiments 
 by the public newspapers ; but what, in the name of truth, was a 
 newspaper, or ten thousand newspapers, if the spirit of liberty was 
 wanting ? The existence of newspapers might possibly be the most 
 glaring proof of slavery and despotism; in no country is a newspaper 
 published with greater accuracy than in China ; the Pekin Gazette 
 comes out with great pomp and solemnity every day, and is read with 
 avidity by tlie three hundred millions of that enormous empire ; and 
 yet in spite of this popular newspaper, there is not a more rascally, 
 bare-faced, and intolerable despotism under the canopy of heaven, 
 than the government of China: for where the rights and liberties of 
 mankind are wanting, the public voice is of no use, and the press and 
 its blessings are then like rain on the sands. In praise of the House 
 of Commons, the honorable gentleman had argued that it was a great 
 arena of eloquence ; but what was the eloquence of Parliament 
 compared with the magnificient and eternal rhetoric of Cicero and 
 Demosthenes. The eloquence of the English House of Commons 
 could no more be compared with the great standards of Grecian and 
 Roman oratory, than a fartliing candle can with the sun, and for this 
 plain and well known reason, that where the voice of the people is 
 not all-powerful, eloquence can never go beyond a certain point, 
 tliere can reign a false and specious sort of rhetoric, but so far and no 
 
S9 
 
 farther, and till the wishes of the people were imrestrained, perfectly 
 free and absolutely predominant, We can never expect to hear oratoiy 
 farther advanced than its infancy, or perfected beyond its rudiments. 
 
 The noble lord, in answering his honourable colleague, had alluded, 
 
 perhaps somewhat too learnedly, to the course of the planets round 
 the sun, and there was one planet whose motions he had said ought 
 to be strictly watched, lest it should disturb the harmony of the 
 system : without entering into astronomical explanations, it might be 
 conjectured that this heavenly body was not one of the regular 
 planets, but rather a violent and outrageous comet, flaming in eccen- 
 tric orbits through the frightened realms of space, adding nothing to 
 the beauty, but much to the terror of the system, and shaking from 
 its horrid head pestilence and war. This was the body that ought to 
 be watched ; this was the dangerous cancer of corruption that jeo- 
 pardized all it approached, and which ought only to be removed and 
 annihilated, that the whole system might be perfect in its harmony, 
 undeviating in its rules, and fearing nothing from too much attrac- 
 tion, or too much violence. (Loud cheers.) Having discussed the 
 principal arguments of the honourable gentleman, there was one more 
 argument that ought to be alluded to, because it appeared to convey 
 greater weight and be more specious in its appearance, than any that 
 the hon. gent, had brought forwards ; for it was not uncommon to 
 hear it said, in answer to the cry for parliamentary reform, that our 
 demand is plainly superfluous, for if we have any grievances, we have 
 three means of redress ; if your rights and your liberties are invaded, 
 go to the courts of law, and you will be reinstated by the usual 
 course of justice ; but if that should fail, then appeal to the House of 
 Commons ; and should a parliamentary application fail, the voice and 
 the unanimous cry of the people in your favour, will bring you re- 
 dress, and heal your wounds. Let it be answered to this, that except 
 in the ordinary cases of meum 8^ tuum, the courts of law are as sus- 
 picious and objectionable places to expect to find equity in as any in 
 the kingdom ; for if it be some case of particular and extraordinary 
 importance, such as the case of the Manchester riots, or the Man- 
 chester murders, or whatever it is proper to call them, you must be 
 out of your senses to hope to have justice done you by the lawyers ; 
 that sly race of mellifluous orators, who, having well emptied your 
 purse, and exhausted your patienee, lead you through a maze of error, 
 disgust, and disappointment, and leave you to bewail your misfor- 
 
40 
 
 tunes, or to tlnk in despair ; for with th« lawyer* and the judget, 
 pQwer has too much influence ; and having talked so much of our 
 sovereign lord the king, it is to be feared they are inclined to act for 
 him too. (Cheers. J 
 
 From the courts of law you hurry with a petition to the House of 
 Commons, confident that the representatives of the people will listen 
 to your prayer, and be feelingly alive to your grievances ; but there 
 your petition is received with respect indeed, and having gone 
 through some little mock solemnities, it is ordered to lie on the table, in 
 the blessed hope of everlasting rest; or if more than usually impor- 
 tunate, is voted a seditious performance, and sent into the streets by 
 a large majority. C Unbounded applause. J As a last source, you go 
 with your melancholy story to the people, that high and enthusiastic 
 and generous people, the people of England, who give you their 
 sympathy, their energies, and their good wishes. But what more 
 can they do to help you ? For you are called seditious, and asked 
 why you do not go to the proper place, the courts of law ? Thus we 
 are banded about without hope or help, every one strikes us off with 
 his racket, and tells us to go to somebody else ; that other person 
 begs we will go to the proper person ; that proper person cannot be 
 found for love or money ; and thus having wasted all our energy 
 to arrive at the fountain of justice, we are compelled to give up the 
 pursuit, and become the victims of despair. — Mr. Beverley concluded 
 with saying, ^' Our final, though distant hope then is in a system not 
 *'yet come, a system in which truth and justice will be strictly 
 " attended to, when your grievances will be listened to, when your 
 " rights will be cherished, and your prayers and petitions, your 
 *' hopes and your wishes, no longer despised, and no longer insulted ; 
 " — all which alone can come to pass in a thorough and radical 
 ** reform of the House of Commons, of which I am proud to own 
 '* myself a zealous, though inadequate advocate." ( Great applause. J 
 
 Mr. Wooler ( being now called for from every part of the Meet- 
 ing) immediately stepped forwai'd and said — Gentlemen — On pre- 
 senting myself for the first time to the freeholders of Yorkshire, and 
 on the discussion of the most important question that can agitate the 
 subjects of a free state, it would perhaps be necessary that I should 
 offer some apology for the liberty I have taken ; but, the consideration 
 that the voice of every freeman is requisite to swell the congregated 
 effect of public opinion, I have been induced to offer myself to your 
 
41 
 
 notlcfe, not merely ou my own behalf, but on the behalf of number* 
 in this county, who have requested me to attend tiiis meeting, and to 
 bear testimony to their ardent devotion to the cause of radical reform. 
 {Applause.) In this cause, I should be as unwilling as any man to 
 perceive the effects of union destroyed by any captious dispute about 
 terms, provided that the great object of a reform, commensurate with 
 the evils to be redressed, is constantly kept in view. — And though I 
 am free to confess, that if I had drawn up the resolutions which have 
 been read to you to-day, I should have employed other language, and 
 had recourse to a more detailed view of the subject, there is nothing 
 in the resolutions to which I can object, provided the terms used are 
 permitted to bear their natural signification, and their unsophisticated 
 meaning. They contain a plain declaration that the House of Com- 
 mons, as at present constituted, represents neither the wishes nor the 
 interests of the people ; and they demand a speedy and effectual re- 
 form, as the only remedy of which the evil admits. An effectual re- 
 form must be one that shall go to the root of the evil ; and effectually 
 eradicate even the germs of latent corruption — and this effectual re- 
 form is all that the most ardent reformers require. With respect to 
 the constitution, of which we have heard so much to-day, I have 
 merely to observe, that I can find no traces of its existence at all, ex- 
 cept in such public meetings as the present. {Hear, hear.) I was 
 taught in my youth to venerate it as something almost exceeding the 
 perfection of mortal wisdom ; but I have found it in more matured 
 years, to be little more than a creature of fancy, an imaginary bird 
 of paradise, said to have been seen here, and heard of there ; but as- 
 suredly not existing in the sanctuaries which have been supposed to 
 be its peculiar residence. (Hear.) Yet, in public assemblies some 
 traces of its ancient lustre may be seen ; and I trust it will be fostered 
 there, until the latent flame revives in every bosom, and reanimates 
 a drooping land. Poor, indeed, would be my estimation of that consti- 
 tution, if it were what the gentleman on my right hand (Mr. Wortley) 
 has depicted it. His argument that you should continue slaves^ 
 because you have been slaves for 400 years, and that the length of an 
 usurpation sanctifies the tyranny, is something rather more candid 
 than I should have expected at his hands. I admire candour above 
 all things ; but there is one remark in his observations which I think 
 he will himself regret he has made, when he sees the inference to 
 which it leads. He said, against certain modes of parliamentary 
 
4^ 
 
 reform lie would contend to the last hour of his existence, and to the 
 last drop of his blood. The first part of this declaration is praise- 
 worthy ; for an honest man would constantly oppose what he deemed 
 to be en^oneouS;, with all the pertinacity of a steady adherence to the 
 truth ; but when he talks of opposing opinions to the last drop of his 
 bloodj he betrays that ferocity which disgraced the inquisition of 
 Spain, and which has been the concomitant of despotism in all agea. 
 Every man has the right (and its exercise is the criterion of his free- 
 dom) to promulgate his opinions, fearlessly, and freely ; but no man 
 can have the right to suppress, or to promulgate opinion, by any 
 species of compulsion. The gentleman is, howevei', entitled to our 
 thanks for his exposition of the constitution, since he has avowed he 
 only values it for its defects ; and that its abuses are sacred in his 
 eyes, because they have existed four hundred years. (Loud applause.) 
 
 To this it may be replied by a simile, which has been used before, 
 
 but which is not the less valuable on that account. Suppose it were 
 proposed to put a stop to murder or robbery, which might have been 
 frequent at any given place, would it be any answer to show that the 
 place had been the resort of robbers and murderers for a great length 
 of time ? Or, rather, would not the notoriety of the abuse, be the 
 great reason why it should be suppressed, and its agents punished. 
 {Hear J hear. J This gentleman has led you to imagine that If any 
 instance of usurpation could be pointed out, he would concede that it 
 ought to be remedied. I will give him one — ^the first legislative en- 
 croachment upon the rights of the people, with which I am acquainted i 
 namely, the statute of Henry Vllth. disfranchising all freeholders 
 under a certain annual amount, because it was apprehended, as 
 stated in the preamble to the bill, that their attendance at elections 
 might be inconvenient. — This was a gross act of arbitrary power, for 
 which the monarch ought to have forfeited his head, and the legis- 
 lature to have been banished from the possibility of doing further 
 mischief. {Loud and long cheering.') That there have since been 
 equally gross encroachments on the liberties of the people is equallif 
 notorious ; but that they form any ground for the defence of corrup- 
 tion, is a ridiculous and a contemptible fallacy. {Cheers.) The gen- 
 tleman on my right hand (Mr. Wortley) seems to think this the age 
 of blessings ; and, amongst other topics of congratulation, he appealed 
 to the liberty of the press, as a proof of the existence of something 
 like liberty in this country. But he should have added, that if the 
 
43 
 
 press is free, it is free, not by the permission of the faction which 
 governs the country, but in despite of it. He should have added, 
 that the courage and perseverance of the independent part of the 
 press, had enabled it to triumph over laws that were intended to 
 bind it in eternal fetters: and that it is not by legislative enactments, 
 but from a determmation to do its duty in contempt of them^ that the 
 press remains free. (Long and continued applause.) 
 
 The hon. gentleman had stated that the age of practical liberty and 
 parliamentary influence began together. They did so. But we shall 
 find on inquiry into the reason, and the facts, to be but little favour- 
 -able t© the principle of parliamentary influence. What are the facts ? 
 it was discovered that an open tyranny could not prevail in England; 
 that when the sword of barefaced despotism was drawn against the 
 rights of freemen, a thousand and ten thousand swords were ready to 
 leap from their scabbards to defend them. And when the era of prac- 
 tical liberty began, the principle of parliamentary influence was devis- 
 ed to undermine the growing liberties which it had been found unsafe 
 openly to attack. The battlements of the fortress, which could not 
 be taken by storm, were assailed by this influence ; and what had 
 resisted all the force of open despotism, feU before the more wily 
 snares of this parliamentary interest, which Mr. Wortley contends 
 ought to exist, because it has existed, and to be perpetuated, because 
 it has been intaroduced. {Cheers.) Against this absurdity I protest ; 
 and say, that if it should be persisted in, until the people are reduced 
 to the necessity of vindicating their own rights, the fault will not be 
 with those who have been continually warning them not to venture 
 too far, but with those who have provoked public patience beyond 
 endurance. (Applause.) For the country, in such a ci'isis, there is no- 
 thing to fear. — Neither its inhabitants will be swept away, nor its soil 
 be destroyed; but those who have been the instruments of producing 
 the public mischief, will be the suiFerers; and to them will be justly re- 
 ferred the responsibility of hazarding public rights, to secure private 
 emoluments. 
 
 The reformers have been accused of disloyalty ; but those who 
 are aware of certain notorious facts, will be compelled to admit that 
 the faction which mis-governs the country, have bound both king 
 and people in one common thraldom ; and that the reforn^ers have 
 been only anxious to break the fetters >vhich disgrace them botli. 
 Those who want facts, may have this striking one, that the ministry 
 
 F 2 
 
44 
 
 has, within this last few months, plucked the brightest jewel from 
 the prerogative, in forcing the admission of Mr. Canning into the 
 cabinet, as a minister of the king, in contempt of the royal antipathy 
 to such a measure. And here let me incidentally remark, that the 
 assertion of the honourable gentleman, that the hon. house of which 
 he is an honourable member, has generally been in unison with the 
 wishes and interests of the public, is just as true as that his senti- 
 ments are in unison with the almost unanimous feeling of this meet- 
 ing against them. (Cheers.) And let me add, that a claim from 
 him for a specific plan of reform, was at best but an idle quibble, since 
 we want no one to inform us that no sort of reform would suit him, 
 and that his objection to every species of reform w^ould be the same, 
 namely, that he did not like it. But we are much too far advanced 
 in our determination that reform is essential to the salvation of the 
 country, to care for such trifling as this. When the time arrives 
 that the question of what reform shall be necessary, shall be fairly 
 agitated, if I have any voice, I, for one, shall have no hesitation in 
 declaring, that when it can be pointed out to me that God has 
 stamped the exclusive mark of slave on the forehead of any man, I 
 will admit that he is not entitled to the exercise of the elective fran-. 
 chise ; but until that shall be the case, I will not allow the right of 
 any borough monger to place his cloven foot upon the breast of any 
 one, and mark him for exclusion from the common right of th© 
 species to which he belongs. 1 have before said, that I would not 
 have couched the resolutions of this day in the terms in which they 
 have been submitted to you ; that although I should have deemed it 
 necessary to have embodied a distinct recital of the evils we have 
 suffered, and the specific measures which would have afforded us the 
 requisite relief, though it might have required all the parchment iu 
 the country to have engrossed the sum total of our complaints ; yet, 
 under all the circumstances of the case, and being disposed to give 
 full credit to the declarations of those who are converts to the justice 
 of our cause, I cannot avoid recommending that union, which, if it 
 can be obtained upon principle, is essential to .the progress of the 
 cause of reform, I cannot but recommend an adoption of tlie present 
 resolutions ; convinced that if the gentry of the county who surround 
 me in such great numbers, will but give full effect to their spirit, by 
 a corresponding energy of mind, tlie benefits of the meeting of thin 
 (lay will be remembered and felt Jong after every individvial here 
 
45 
 
 present lies mouldering in the tomb. (Loud and long coniimied 
 cheering, from every part of the Castle Yard.) 
 
 Mr. Wortley said he should only reply to one observation made 
 use of by the last speaker, and that was, as he (Mr. W.) believed such 
 a reform as many called for could not be accomplished without a 
 national bankruptcj^ and without a revolution, because the latter 
 always followed the former — he would repeat his assertion, and do 
 so in the face of the whole county of York — that he would resist 
 such measures to the latest moment of his eJtistence, and with the 
 last drop of his blood. 
 
 Sir F. L. Wood, Bart, then read the following 
 PETITION. 
 To the Honourable the Conimons of the United Kingdom of Great 
 
 Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembhdy 
 The humble PETITION of the FREEHOLDERS of the COUNTY 
 
 of YORK, 
 SHEWETH, 
 
 That your Petitioners are duly and deeply impressed with venera- 
 tion for the constitution of this realm, as consisting of King, Lords, 
 and Commons, and are anxious to preserve, in purity and vigour, 
 the privileges of each component part, being convinced that the 
 same are well adapted to the benefit and protection of the people. 
 
 Impressed with these sentiments, this county" has not been for-* 
 ward to complain of the conduct of Parliament; but the recent 
 proceedings of your honorable House, w^hich has, in each successive 
 session, given fresh proofs of its deviation from public opinion, have 
 convinced your Petitioners that neither their interests nor their 
 wishes are duly attend to in your honorable House. 
 
 Instead of a determined resistance to the encroachments of power, 
 a tender care for the rights of the people, a jealous eye over tlie 
 executory and judicial magistracy, and a vigilant watch over the 
 public treasure, it has been the misfortune of your petitioners, to 
 witness too ready a compliance with the wishes of whatever minister 
 may have dispensed the favours of the crown. 
 
 Of this unconstitutional tendency in your honorable Plouse, your 
 petitioners feel the fatal effects in the wanton and profligate expen- 
 diture of their resources, in the maintenance of a military force 
 dangerous to their liberties, in the enactment of laws inconsistent 
 with the spirit of the constitution, and in the frequent neglect with 
 
46 
 
 •which the petitions of the people have been treated in that quarter, 
 where they ought to have experienced the readiest, and most anxioui 
 attention. 
 
 The evils of an inadequate representation have been complained of 
 by eminent statesmen of all parties and at different periods, but to 
 your petitioners these evils appear greatly aggravated by the addi- 
 tional power and influence over your honourable House, which are 
 derived from the present large collection of taxes, and the unpre- 
 cedented amount of our civil, military, and colonial peace establish- 
 ment. 
 
 Your petitioners beg leave to represent, that if the state of your 
 honourable House and the circumstances which affect its inde- 
 pendence, are at all times subjects of great public interest, they are 
 more peculiarly so at a time when the absolute Monarchs of Europe, 
 not content with arbitrarily governing their own dominions, are lea- 
 gued together in an alliance, the avowed object of which is to check 
 the progress of liberty, and to prevent the establishment of repre- 
 sentative governments — an object which they have but too successfully 
 carried into execution by the military occupation of those countries to 
 which they have power to dictate. 
 
 Your petitioners apprehend no such immediate violence to the 
 British constitution, but they are fearful lest a pernicious influence 
 should destroy the basis of their liberties, and ultimately convert the 
 forms of a free constitution into the convenient instruments of an ar- 
 bitrary government. 
 
 Your petitioners, anxious that parliament should avail itself of the 
 present period of peace and tranquillity, to enter into a full con- 
 sideration of the state of the House of Commons, respectfully but ear. 
 nestly entreat your honorable House to enquire seriously into the causes 
 of a state of things injurious to themselves and dangerous to their 
 posterity, and by a speedy and effectual Reform of your honorable 
 House, to adopt the measure which alone can remedy the evils of 
 which they complain, and restore that good agreement and perfect 
 sympathy, which ought ever to prevail between the House of Commons 
 iand the people. 
 
 Sir Francis having read the petition, moved that it should be 
 ^adopted by the meeting— and said, he had ever differed with Mr, 
 Wovtley in political opinions, and believed he everlastingly should. 
 jHe (the hor;. bc^onet) approved of Mr. Wortley's open and candi<:l 
 
47 
 
 conduct in standing there alone, in preference to exercising the sub- 
 tleness of that Minister of the Crown, who had been stopped on his 
 road to India. — (Hear, hear.) Mr. Wortley, by going so far back 
 as the reigns of Elizabeth and Charles II. for his arguments, and by 
 endeavouring to prove too much, had proved nothing at all. (Hear,) 
 He trusted that unanimity would pervade the conduct of the re- 
 formers. He was glad to hear the last speaker recommend the waiv- 
 ing of minor differences, for the purposes of union amongst all classes 
 of reformers.— There was a dangerous expression, which had crept 
 into print, but which he trusted he should never hear of again, '^ a 
 physical force" — ^all the force the reformers had used or wished to 
 use, was the moral force of the people of England. If the reformers 
 persevered in their conduct, their cause would, he believed, ulti- 
 mately prove triumphant. Because the corruptions of Parliament 
 had existed for a long period of time, were we to give up our right 
 of improving the Constitution ? No ! the House of Commons was 
 not like a picture, to be mellowed by time, but an edifice, which was 
 to be made commodious and comfortable for the inhabitants to occupy. 
 The worthy baronet concluded by declaring that the petition entirely 
 met with his humble, but cordial support. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 Mr. Strickland rose, he said, to second the petition ; in doing this, 
 however much he might have had felt inclined to trespass upon the 
 time of the meeting with observations, in addition to the addresses we 
 had already heard upon the great cause on which we were assembled, 
 he should consider it unreasonable to do so, after the long and anxious 
 attention which they had already shown. {Cries of " Go o?i, well 
 hear you all night") But, Gentlemen, I cannot remain in total silence. 
 In tlie few remarks I shall make to you, 1 shall draw your attention 
 first to that which has been one principal subject of discussion, 
 namely, the propriety of making our petition general in its expre«- 
 sion, or of its entering more minutely into an explanation of 
 the extent and meaning of the term parliamentary reform. In 
 opinions upon this subject, seem mainly to have rested tlie harmony 
 or division of this meeting. {Cheers.) The question of parliamen- 
 tary reform is not a new one — it has agitated men's minds for many 
 years, during a great part of the last century — we are not now to be 
 asked what is meant by that term — its meaning is written in the dis- 
 tresses of the country, in characters so clear and so distinct, that they 
 who " run, can read." {Loitd applause.) There is one circumstance. 
 
4^ 
 
 which seems to point out most distinctly tlie necessity of an improve- 
 ment in the representation. That the public mind is so strongly 
 impressed with a belief, that that representation is not a sufficient one, 
 —that we are presented with this strange anomaly : that before a di- 
 vision of the House of Commons is considered, as expressing either 
 tlie opinion of the assembly, or through that assembly of the public at 
 large, it is become a custom to strike out from every ministerial ma- 
 jority 80 or 100 votes, as being dead votes, under an unconstitutional 
 influence, and, therefore, not possessing a deliberative capacity. It 
 would be premature and unnecessary now, to enter into a minute ex- 
 planation of all in which such a reform ought to consist, of all that ia 
 expected from it — such discussions we may safely leave to the Houses 
 of Parliament themselves, or if they do not meet our expectations, to 
 those future county meetings, which in the exercise of our ancient, 
 our undoubted, and our constitutional rights, I trust, we shall often 
 hold in this place. (Loud cheers.) Many persons, and those whose 
 names bear with them high authority, seeing the rapid progress 
 which corruption, profusion, and extravagance, have made in the 
 affairs of our government, arguing likewise, from the well known 
 effects which such things have invariably produced in other coun- 
 tries, have imagined that they see only in the future, increased sepa- 
 ration between the people and the government, convulsions, and 
 revolution. For such an opinion, I need not quote the well known 
 expressions of the great Lord Chatham, as to what may be appre- 
 hended from a refusal of a timely reform of the representation. — 
 (Applause.) A living writer has vsaid, that he considers such a revo- 
 lution to be inevitable. Let me not be mistaken ; I state this opinion 
 not as coinciding to it, but under the hope of being able to refute it. 
 {Cheers.) Could I, indeed, for one moment, believe that extravagance 
 and misrule should continue their progress with gigantic strides, un- 
 checked and uncontrouled by the public voice. — Could I believe, 
 that that corrupt influence, which, in the words of Mr. Wilberforce, 
 " meets ev«ry man every where," will go on undiminished ; then, 
 indeerl, I should join and coincide in the most gloomy anticipations. 
 But, I rest my opinion upon the well-known character and energy of 
 the people of England, upon their increased intelligence, upon the 
 history of my country. For the greatest part of the last 30 years we 
 have been engaged in never ceasing arduous foreign warfare; we 
 have had no breathing time— no opportunity of looking into our 
 
Id 
 
 internal situat{<^n->~But the time has now indeed come, when tv#ty 
 man learns, send knows, and feels the embarrassments which stir* 
 round him. (Appfuvse.) 
 
 In that very British valour, which has fbught the battles of Europe 
 and been victorious, I see grounds for confidence, and hope of better 
 times for Eng-land. — For the secret of those victories is told in afeW 
 words : in slavery is cowardice, freemen only are brave. In these 
 events then, I perceive only fresh proofs of that determined love of 
 freedom, which has long been the boast, the happiness, and the glory 
 of this country, and a sure earnest that we shall make timely, tem- 
 perate and constitutional efforts to obtain redress of our grievances — 
 That we shall never submit in indolence and in apathy, to have Our 
 properties exhausted in unlimited, boundless taxation, and our liber- 
 ties trampled to the ground by an overwhelming corrupt influence. 
 No, Gentlemen, I believe the time is not far distant, when the pe6pU 
 of England will be prepared to present universal petitions to the 
 Crown and to the Houses of Parliament, expressed in terms so tern* 
 perate, but at the same time so firm ahd so determined, that ^i 
 House of Commons itself will not be inclined to turn a deaf tut to 
 our prayers. (Cheers.) And, when the desired reformation shall 
 have taken place, confidence will be restored between the people and 
 the government ; and, as all government is founded in opinion, trie 
 King will be seated more securely upon his throne, and the British 
 Constitution will be handed down to future ages, as it long has been, 
 the best example of liberty to the whole world. (Loud and continued 
 Cheers.) 
 
 Mr. Baines begged to make one observation, and that was, the 
 great pleasure he felt at the conduct of both the representatives of the 
 county on that day. — From what had passed, he would wish to 
 di'aw one inference relative to hira who had stood alone, as the 
 oppt)ser of the meeting. He (Mr. B.) did not say that the whole 
 county of York was assembled, but the sheriff summoned the whole 
 county when he called the meeting. From the situation in which he 
 stood, he could only observe one single hand held up against the resn- 
 lutions, and, unfortunately for the freeholders, that was the hand of 
 one of their representatives — the hand of one of the representatives 
 of their opinions ! What was the reason ? Was it because there were 
 no other anti- reformers in the county? No! but because none else 
 thought their opinions worth advancing. This fact ought to «et the 
 
 Q 
 
50 
 
 the hon. member a thinkings; and if that were the case, might they 
 pot hope that instead of ha vhig one representative converted to the 
 cause of reform, they would have two. What an acquisition it would 
 be! and would to God it were the case ! that the man was added to 
 the list, who had that day stood the battery of public indignation ! 
 (Hear, hear, a?id laughter. J Perhaps it was the inclemency of the 
 weather that had prevented the tory politicians from attending the 
 meeting ; for they were no winter politicians It might be said of 
 thera as it had been of others with respect to religion, they want to 
 go to heaven in silver slippers. {Laughter.) It could not possibly 
 be supposed that we were without tories in Yorkshire. No ! so long 
 ag there were sixty millions of pounds to collect, and a large portion 
 of it to be expended, there would nev^r be a scarcity of tories. 
 {lledr.) There were (added Mr. B.) more than one present to whom 
 that remark cquld by any possible means be applied. When the 
 sheriff made up his returrj, and when asked what had become of the 
 genius of tory ism, he (Mr. B.) believed his answer would be, non 
 est inventus. {Great applause.) 
 
 F. Ghomley, Esq. now, in a short address to the meeting, proposed 
 the 8th, ^th, and ICth resolutions, which were immediately seconded 
 and adopted. 
 
 These resolutions, &g. were then read and put separately to the 
 meeting, by the sheriff, all of which passed unanimously, except two 
 or three, when Mr. Wortley and Mr, Fountayne Wilson held up 
 tkeir hands ?igainst them, 
 
 The business of the meeting being thus brought to a conclusion. 
 Lord Milton (amidst loud cheers,) proposed a vote of thanks to the 
 High-Sheriff, for his readiness to call the meeting, and for his dignified 
 and impartial conduct in the chair. Th^ motion was seconded by 
 Mr- "VVortley, who, with very good humour, remarked that although 
 he had previously experienced a little opposition from the meeting, 
 vet he hoped that in support of the last motion of his honourable 
 friend and colleague, they would all be of p«^ mind / (Laughter and 
 Cheers.) The vote was then carried with great applause- 
 
 The High- Sheriff returned thanks. He remarked that whilst h« 
 felt that he had done no more than his duty, he could not refrain 
 from observing, that no meeting could possibly have conducted itself 
 in a more orderly, peaceable, or dignified manner, than ^hat at whic^i 
 he had now presided. 
 
51 
 
 This gentlemanly acknowledgment of the High Sheriff was felt by 
 all present, and after greeting him with three cheers, the multitucje 
 dispersed under impressions the most satisfactory and anticipations 
 the most pleasing. 
 
 In short, we never before witnessed a meeting so respectably 
 attended, nor at which was exhibited so decided and general a spirit 
 in favor of the important objects proposed. It was, indeed, a meet- 
 ing worthy the great county of York, and which the friends of cor- 
 ruption may remember with shame and with awe, whilst other 
 counties may imitate its firm and temperate proceedings with locaj 
 and with national advantages. 
 
 YORK, April Z2, 1826. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 J. Keudtcw, rriat«r. 
 
OF A 
 ARISING OUT OF 
 
 A DESIGNED COUNTY MEETING, 
 
 WITH A 
 
 PREFATORY ADDRESS 
 TO THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWN. 
 
 To the Marquis of Laiisdown. 
 My Lord, 
 I solicit your attention to the subjoined letters ;— though 
 arising out of a pro\incial transaction, their object is strictly 
 national: they comprise a view of our political divisions, and 
 prove, it is hoped, that new principles of Government must hence- 
 forth be relied on : that the reign of party is no more. We have 
 heard, from high authority, that party must rule this kingdom : 
 we have heard, from authority not inferior, that it ought to rule. 
 Fully aware of the baleful influence of party-spirit, I can yet 
 allow thus much, certainly no more, that party, combining and 
 stimulating, may prevail, where better motives would not succeed. 
 But of the value of party combinations it is idle to talk when their 
 efficiency is daily expiring. It is obvious to all but the Tory 
 himself, and even he perceives a glimmering of the truth, 
 that the sway of the Tories, as a party, is drawing towards its 
 close. The Tory, the Radical, nay the moderate Reformer^ will 
 tell you, to a man, that the pretensions of a mere Whig Admi- 
 nistration are absurd. The Reformers do not constitute a party ; 
 they are divided ; with the exception of a few powerful leaders, 
 their more active portion is efficient by numbers only. Of these 
 three bodies any two might for awhile govern the country. Sup- 
 pose a Whig and Tory union, (I fear during the pendency of the 
 Yorkshire Requisition some such measure was in agitation) that is, 
 suppose some considerable division of those who have hitherto 
 supported ministers, v/ere to act in co-operation with the Whigs, 
 it is evident this ci-devant Tory body would, for a short period, 
 assume the direction of affairs : its cry to the ^TTiigs would be 
 " this is too strong — that tends too much towards popular mea- 
 sures — the other introduces dangerous innovation — yield in these 
 points, or we rejoin our forsaken friends ;" and the WTiigs must 
 yield. At length either WTiig principles would be frittered down 
 to nothing, or the Tories would re-unite. An union between 
 Whigs and Reformers woidd be very differently circumstanced: 
 
neither party would have forsaken friends to rejoin : the two must 
 be cemented together^ or separate and fall. Each of these parties 
 has much to learn — the Whigs vigour, and the Reformers mode- 
 ration : and no douht a cordial union would teach the very neces- 
 sary lesson. But will they now unite ? It is to be feared not. 
 The Whig must be somewhat longer out of place, and somewhat 
 more diffident of his single-handed power : the Reformer must be 
 shown, what he yet has neither seen nor believed, that the Whig 
 will support, with cordiality, a liberal Reform. There is another 
 preparatory lesson which more than Whigs and Reformers have to 
 learn : the contemplation of their own errors and of the merits 
 of their opponents : at present every description of politicians is 
 satisfied with viewing that in which himself excels, and that in 
 which his adversary errs. The immediate tendency of our situa- 
 tion is towards a continued and feeble Tory Administration, or 
 towards a substituted feeble Administration of Whigs. Nothing 
 can be more feeble than the existing government : it is rashly bold 
 to conceive, but utterly impotent to execute : it can propose laws 
 at which the spirit of freedom shudders, but those very laws con- 
 vert freedom into licentiousness : instead of adding penalties, they 
 virtually repeal the penal code. 
 
 Every government, my Lord, must be feeble, insufficient for 
 its great and indispensable purposes, where the spirit of the ruler 
 is in direct opposition to the will of the subject; too much is 
 attempted, nothing attained. If we suppose a government simply 
 of Whigs, this change, decisive of its fate, is sure to occur; it 
 would lose the Court, but would not gain the people. Perhaps, 
 my Lord, it is best for us, that the strong and marked superiority 
 of Toryism in Parhainent should for a while continue; and on 
 this ground, it may bring the existing disease to a speedy and a 
 mild crisis : the violent, but somewhat more distantly threatened 
 crisis, is national insolvency: a crisis, in some form or other, 
 obviously revolutionary. If the general disgust of the nation 
 should precede inextricable pecuniary embarrassment, (and a small 
 matter would bring us to this state) a new political combination, 
 consistent with all the existing powers and authorities, might 
 supersede the fact of revolutionary measures. Voluntary combina- 
 tion of the only parties which can usefully combine seems so hope- 
 less, that it is for this milder crisis we should prepare ourselves, 
 and our first object should be to consider, how best it can be regu- 
 lated, to what desirable purposes most easily turned. It is to 
 principles, my Lord, we at last must look as a rallying point — it 
 is principles which must form th^ basis of a new political combi- 
 nation : it is by the adoption of these only, and adherence to them, 
 that we can anticipate and prevent the more awful crisis, towards 
 whieh we rapidly verge. Of these principles, short, simple, and 
 obvious, — Reform in Parliament is markedly the first, as the on* 
 
 >iii 
 
which alone can give security for the establishment of the rest. 
 Till the influence of the people, in the House of Representatives, 
 shall exceed that of the Court and of the Nobility, not one of 
 the great points on which national security hinges can be obtained 
 — neither public economy, a free trade, nor a new modeled sys- 
 tem of taxation. Nor, till this is secured, will that first of 
 political grievances — the fermentation of a dissatisfied people, ever 
 be allayed. If it is said a scheme of union independent of parties 
 is only to make a new party, selected from all others, the answer is 
 obvious: any poHtical combination may, and probably will, in 
 time, become a party, but so long as principles only form the 
 rallying point, as contradistinguished to the power and influence of 
 individuals, there is no party. 
 
 I confess, my Lord, amongst our difficulties and uncertainties, 
 what I have hitherto constantly had in view, as a first object, was 
 a popular WTiig Government ; a government of able and experi- 
 enced statesmen, invigorated and supported by an union of the 
 people : this now seems unattainable ; that it is so is to be regret- 
 ted on the sound principle, that a known and moderate good is 
 never to be relinquished for an unknown and fancied prodigy of 
 excellence. 
 
 I unhesitatingly address these thoughts to a \^Tiig Nobleman. 
 If wiser in views, or, (may I say,) more influenced by party, your 
 Lordship shall reject them ; your Hberality will at least excuse 
 where your reason cannot concur. 
 
 I am, with the highest feelings of respect. 
 
 Your Lordship's obedient servant, 
 A FREEHOLDER OF YORKSHIRE. 
 
 Co tt)e WM^iq^ of ¥orfe0]&ir^» 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 A County Meeting,* under your auspices, is said to be in 
 agitation, — a measure, according to the plan on which it is con- 
 ducted, eminently conducive to give quiet to the country, or feebly 
 demonstrative of common party objects. If a vigorous alteration 
 of system, an avowed adoption of popular principles, is the basis 
 
 • Early in the month of October last, the question of a Yorkshire 
 Meeting respecting the Queen was in agitation : after being for a while 
 postponed, it was actively resumed. From the very first an opinion was 
 held that no County Meeting could be calleil, in which Reform would not 
 be brought forwards; and further, that that topic migltt to be a component 
 part of any Requisition to the High-Sheriff. The warm friends of Reform 
 were known to be on the alert, ready to take their station in the Castle- 
 Yard, whenever opportunity should offer. It was conceived. Reform ought 
 to be adverted to as a medium of fixedly connecting the Whigs with a 
 change in the representative System. The Queen's name was considered 
 as no more than a pretext, the real object being the overthrow of a Tory, 
 and substitution of a Whig Ministry ; and it was deemed requisite the 
 Whigs should be told, till they pledged themselves to a Reform in Parlia- 
 ment, they had no public support to expect. After various fluctuations. 
 
of your meeting, it may save the state ; — if a substitution of one 
 set of Noble Lords and Right Honourable Commoners for another, 
 is the main point — without pledge, condition, or declared principle 
 of future government ; of Whigs only will your meeting consist ; 
 by Whigs only will it be supported; to VVhigs only can it be -a 
 source of hope; and in none but Whigs will it inspire either con- 
 fidence or fear. You, Gentlemen, and your friends, lie under a 
 most unhappy mistake ; you consider all that are against your ene- 
 mies as for you; — four-fifths of the country are against the 
 Tories, but not one-fifth of it deems the principles ordinarily 
 avowed by Whigs to be adequate to the necessities of the times. 
 A curtailment of expenditure far beyond any thing your friends 
 have yet proposed, and a Reform in Parliament, which your party, 
 as a party, has never yet supported, are the two principles which 
 must be avowed and pledged, ere the confidence of the country 
 can be obtained. Grant that the general odium incurred by the 
 Queen's prosecution should collect a large assemblage, no doubt 
 the strongest reprobation of Ministers, as authors of the proceed- 
 ing, will be exhibited — but go further than this ; bring forward 
 the topic of a WTiig succession, unaccompanied by declaration or 
 pledge, in a moment all enthusiasm will vanish, a solemn silence 
 prevail, unless, perchance, " Reform, Reform," re-echo through 
 the Castle-yard. 
 
 the Requisition was abandoned a little before the meeting of Parliament. 
 That a vast majority of Yorkshire Freeholders was ready to adopt the 
 strongest vote of censure on the Queen's prosecution, was never for a 
 moment doubted. The policy which neglected to call a Meeting to discuss 
 Reform was markedly short sighted. If the Whigs do not call such a 
 meeting, cannot a meeting be called independent of them? If the high- 
 est orders of the County avoid Reform, may not the second and third 
 orders take it up. A hundred names in a Requisition, with £1000 a-year 
 each, are at least equivalent to one name with £100,000. It is with parties 
 as with governments— if there is a different tone of feeling in the leaders 
 and the led, a new regime is scarcely to be avoided. At the commence- 
 ment of these letters, it was the Yorkshire Freeholder's earnest 
 wish and first object to consolidate a Whig Administration with the 
 people — at their close, he is compelled to say, raise yourselves above all 
 party connections, and ^make a union on principles. The first of these 
 letters was written with a view to induce the Whigs to adopt Reform as a 
 partj/t and was published in Mr. Haines's Leeds Mercury, Dec. 9. The 
 second followed a fortnight afterwards ; the third was called for by a very 
 well written letter signed " Amicus Patrice,''' in which pure Whig prin- 
 ciples entirely predominated. When the author had got thus far, he 
 thought it but fair, having censured the Whigs, that the Tories and 
 Reformers should each have a portion of notice ; and the two succeeding 
 letters seemed the more necessary, as combining with the former ones, they 
 would comprise a succinct view of the state of parties. It must be recol- 
 lected, that the letters being written for detached publication must each 
 exhibit a perfect whole— something of repetition was hence unavoidable — it 
 must also be considered, that being addressed to diflferent parties, they 
 each in turn adopted something of the arguinentum ad hominem. The 
 prefatory letter exhibits features obviously differing from several parts of 
 the original papers : in fact, during the period in which the whole were 
 written, various occurrences, equally unforeseen and important, took place, 
 of which a somewhat new view of the state of public affairs was the 
 necessary consequence. There can be little novelty in a composition of 
 this character ; but useful truths require frequent repetition. 
 
That the Court feels compelled to something of a ministerial 
 change seems certain — that the change may be as little as possible 
 felt, my Lord Grenville is called into the Royal presence— a Tory 
 amongst Whigs, and a Whig only amongst Tories. But conceive 
 such an Administration to be formed as you, Gentlemen, would 
 approve, even putting aside, for the present, the one vital principle 
 — Reform in Parliament, your Administration must address the 
 Throne to this effect — " We can, in very few words, characterize 
 the plan of Government we have to lay before your Majesty; 
 •whatever our predecessors have pursued, it is our duty to avoid ; 
 whatever they have done we must undo. From the year 1793, a 
 system of boundless extravagance has been carried on in every 
 department of the state ; universal economy must henceforth 
 prevail :* out of the late expenditure, a Government by influence 
 has arisen ; we must throw ourselves on the country at large, and 
 rise or fall by the effect of our measures on public happiness and 
 opinion. General suffering has laid the foundation of general 
 discontent; your Majesty's late Ministers thought only of Pains 
 and Penalties — of imprisonment, fine, and transportation ; we 
 shall endeavour at once to remove the discontent, and the laws 
 vainly meant to suppress it. At the end of nearly 30 years' expe- 
 rience of what has been emphatically called '' the Pitt System," 
 we find your kingdom approaching to insolvency ; the produce of 
 its agriculture and manufactures loaded with taxation, till it can 
 neither procure a market abroad nor a price at home ; its revenue, 
 from the altered state of currency, doubly oppressive on your 
 subjects, and yet inadequate to the national expenditure. Year 
 by year the severity of the law has increased, yet year by year the 
 cries of a starving and irritated people are more loudly heard ; till 
 the public voice having in vain hurled its clamours against your 
 Ministers, the Throne itself is at length no longer held sacred/' 
 Far more than this might be said by a vigorous and resolute Mi- 
 nister ; less than this cannot be said by a firm and honest one. 
 Now, I ask you. Gentlemen, can an Administration thus address- 
 ing the Throne, retain its authority a single hour, except it is 
 generally and vigorously supported by the country ? If it is, the 
 Court must yield— retain the men and adopt the measures — but 
 of all this your Administration dares not utter one word till it is 
 firmly compacted with the people. Can the Whig Nobility and 
 
 • No economy, it is to be feared, will avail, which is not aided by a 
 diminution of the annuities paid to the public creditor— he is receiving, or 
 will presently receive, nearly the double of his original contract. Mr. 
 Cobbett's clear views on this subject are well worth considering. Indeed 
 there are many other topics of prime national importance discussed by Mr. 
 Cobbett with such deep and anticipating sagacity, that no general disaj). 
 probation of his political opinions ought to prevent their receiving uni- 
 versal attention. He says, — People must come to his shop at last. In 
 fact, they have already ceme to it — not as fair and open customers, but 
 with a view to tear his name from his goods, and then wear them as 
 their own. 
 
6 
 
 the "VVTiig Gentry, aided by their dependents and retainers, uphold 
 an Administration speaking thus? — not even whilst the words are 
 uttering! To uphold it would require all the united force of a 
 whole united people. Yet thus far you have not united with the 
 people, have taken no measures tending towards union; and 
 moreover have, through the speeches of various of your leaders, 
 in a manner as unjust to the people ag ruinous to yourselves, 
 derided and insulted their most efficient party. You may, I allow, 
 simply as a body of Whigs, creep into Administration — remain 
 there quiet and unobtrusive, bearing the mere exterior semblance 
 of power, till the present fervour of the nation has subsided — and 
 then receive the parting boAv — dupes of the Tories and the Court, 
 and the laughing-stock of the Country. 
 
 Publish your Requisition, Gentlemen, without delay, but 
 publish it supported by an unequivocal pledge, that the voice of the 
 people shall he your voice — the measures of the people your measures. 
 I do not ask you to run into wild and impracticable theories, but 
 tell the people they shall possess a House of Commons which, 
 selected by themselves, and answerable to them only, will make 
 the sense of the nation the guide of national conduct. Do this, 
 and Toryism has received its death-blow — rational liberty achieved 
 its long-protracted resurrection. 
 
 A FREEHOLDER OF YORKSHIRE. 
 
 Gentlemen, — Imagine a new Administration efficiently per- 
 forming its duty; commercial freedom will lay open to foreign 
 competition trades now protected ; thinned or suppressed estabhsh- 
 ments will raise the clamour of disbanded officers ; a temporary 
 pressure on the rich will be necessary for the permanent relief of 
 the poor ; hence a fruitful source of anger and discontent; and ag- 
 gravated partial munnurs rising into universal disgust, the favourite 
 Ministers and measures of the Court will be eagerly restored. A firm 
 union of the scattered forces of opposition can alone prevent this 
 re-action ; and hence Parliamentary Reform is the sole basis of a 
 system, vigorous, efficient, and lasting. Allowing that substantial 
 Reform would be an innovation whose consequences could with no 
 certainty be foreseen, and that' it might divide even the Whigs 
 themselves, what is the alternative— what the obvious and necessary 
 result of a want of that union which Reform alone can give } 
 
 Suppose the present Ministry to retain its power ; trade may 
 here or there for a while bear the semblance of revival, but a few 
 occasional checks excepted, the tendency of manufactures and 
 agriculture is to gradual decay. \V^e have capital and hands for 
 three times the goods that can be sold abroad or consumed at home ; 
 but neither the merchant nor the farmer will long continue to 
 accumulate an unsaleable stock, eicher in cloth, cotton, wheat, or 
 
sheep ; for a while extra capital may be employed in extra produce, 
 but this must soon cease, and presently half the population will 
 be unemployed, because there is neither rent nor profit to cause 
 consumption. Here then is the obvious and not far distant ap- 
 proach of universal distress, and that attributed, and not without 
 reason, to the burthen of taxes. The continuance of heavy taxa* 
 tion under such circumstances is impossible, and with taxation, 
 the funds, whose very essence it is, will be swept away ; and can we 
 imagine, that the Government, in which the funds and taxes had 
 their origin, and which is pledged to their continuance, will survive 
 their extinction ? A nation without a heavy debt may reform through 
 popular commotion, with one, it will inevitably revolutionize. 
 
 Or it may be the Whigs will come into power unsupported by 
 the body of the nation. If their measures are vigorous, the pre- 
 texts for destroying them are obvious — if their administration is 
 feeble, they become the easy victims of general contempt: on 
 either supposition, the restoration of the Tories is certain ; and 
 to what will then the attention of the kingdom be directed, — whence 
 relief from grievances then sought ? Not from the Tories, as they 
 are considered the origin of all the evil ; not from the Whigs, as it 
 will now be riveted in general opinion, that not having caused the 
 evils, neither can they cure them. To no party now known, will 
 the public mind be directed ; to no portion of either House of 
 Parliament. New and untried schemes, through new and untried 
 agents, will be the loud and general cry. We are told, indeed, 
 that forty or fifty men now in Parliament, must one or other of 
 them govern the kingdom : a very different doctrine will be the 
 result of the state of things described. It will then be deemed 
 sufficiently obvious, that a thousand times the forty or fifty now 
 looked up to exclusively, may be found in a population of 20 mil- 
 lions ; and that it is not greater intellect but merely greater readi- 
 ness in the routine of business, which practised politicians possess. 
 It will be observed, and with justness, that wherever there is a 
 market for talents, talents equal to the supply will be found; 
 that generals are never wanting, where merit is raised from the 
 ranks ; nor politicians where monopoly is proscribed. The prac- 
 tical consequences of doctrines like these need no detail. 
 
 But setting aside national embarrassment as a source of 
 change, is not all Europe calling for an equal representative 
 system.? Can England escape the contagion? has it escaped. J* 
 Is an active, zealous, enlightened, and determined pohtical popu- 
 lation alone to fail in its attempt at popular authority ? It is only 
 by the wilfully blind so idle a hope can be entertained. Give the 
 people speedily a Reform, moderate, but on popular principles, and 
 it may long remain : wait till they take a Reform, and clearly they 
 will never be the active instruments in taking- a Reform where all 
 their own rights and wishes are not fully guaranteed. 
 
8 
 
 Does any peaceable Reform involve in it the mischiefs inevi- 
 table from a continuance of the present system ? Can we not see 
 with reasonable certainty j, the consequences of popular franchise, 
 are they not already known ? We have already representation 
 on its broadest basis, inhabitancy — we have it grounded on free- 
 dom, on freehold, on taxation, on assessment. The number of 
 electors in the kingdom is yet comparatively few, the value of 
 the franchise is therefore comparatively great, not merely as a 
 privilege but as an object of corruption, and hence something of 
 a permanent election contest is exhibited in many free towns, 
 the political temper of the times strongly combining with local 
 stimulants. If the objections to popular franchise are well found- 
 ed, it would be in these towns that habitual vehemence and fer- 
 mentation would be found ; where election rights were not 
 involved, all would be peace. Experience is directly the reverse 
 of this. Wherever there is an elective franchise, the people are 
 quiet ; they feel the pressure of our situation, they feel too, a 
 proud and satisfied consciousness, that their votes may tend to 
 remedy the national grievances. Multiply these free towns, ex- 
 tend the county franchises, and we shall see the same quiet 
 throughout the kingdom, now manifested wherever a reasonable 
 political privilege exists. Whatever of dangerous discontent does 
 appear, it is seen where the people are not represented ; where 
 they see political evils without a hope or prospect of opposing or 
 overturning them. Is this state of political ferment hkely to 
 subside ? from what causes can it subside ? are we in a way to 
 remedy the real grievances of the nation ? If the want of fran- 
 chise were an artificial grievance, will it cease to be felt as a real 
 one ? Will the stim.ulants of discontent ever be wanting to keep 
 up a discontented spirit— places and pensions, and close boroughs, 
 decaying trades, heavy taxes, and severity of laws? If the 
 sources of discontent were as fictitious as the friends of power 
 declare them, will they ever cease to co-operate with the political 
 claims of the people, in perpetuating a dangerous ferment ? On 
 your conduct. Gentlemen, the alternative may depend, of a re- 
 formed and invigorated Constitution, or aggravated discontent, ter- 
 minating in the overthrow of the State. 
 
 A FREEHOLDER OF YORKSHIRE. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR Or THE LEEDS MEK.CUBY. 
 
 I have observed the very gentlemanly letter of your Correspondent 
 Amicus Patui^, and fully conceding to liini the difficulties, vexa- 
 tions, arid niiscVdefs attendant on a preliminary pledge, I still adhere to its 
 necessity, as the sole ground of efficient supjiort to a Whig Administration. 
 It is not enough that the good sense of his observations is admitted by 
 Wlugs; to be of any avail. Reformers of every class, must allow their 
 justness: it is a simple question of fact — will the Whigs without a pledge 
 obtain powerful support in the country — no matter what they are entitled to, 
 what support will they vicci rcz//* unpledged ? — That is tiie single point of 
 consideration. The political converse of your correspondent must be very 
 limited, if he expects that general support of the Whigs will precede a 
 declaration on their part in favour of an efficient Reform- 
 
9 
 
 Co tfie Uetovnxtv^ of ¥otife08ire* 
 
 Gentlemen, — Your party is divisible into two very distinct 
 classes, — that of the Radicals (1 imply no disrespect in the term) 
 and that of the Moderates. To the Moderates, commencing with 
 triennial Parliaments, and an extensive suffrage, and closing, after 
 various modifications, with that effort of vigorous patriotism, the 
 disfranchisement of Grampound, I do not at present address 
 myself. The motives of the Radical may be esteemed, though his 
 plan is not approved : he declares that justice and utility equally 
 call for his system, and that if it has been tried but once it has 
 that once been tried with success ; — there is, in fact, something so 
 dignified and honourable in claiming for all a portion of those 
 political rights acknowledgedly a trust for all, that the genuine 
 Radical is an object of respect rather than of insult. Now, though 
 the Radical would treat with just disdain a man who called for the 
 abandonment of his principles, he may yet listen with 'patient 
 attention to the detail of those motives, which should for a while 
 suspend their full assertion. Were your principles exactly mine, 
 and did I hold a conspicuous place in your councils, I should 
 unquestionably address you thus : — " Whatever people calls at 
 once for a great change in the national institutions calls in vain, 
 unless it is unanimous, or united with the highest classes of society. 
 It becomes, then, a matter of ordinary prudence to accommodate 
 our demands to our powers, and to be satisfied with what is sub- 
 • stantially excellent, till those difficulties are removed which prevent 
 the attainment of what is best. Any system of representation 
 which gives the nation at large a full controul over the House of 
 Commons, secures the great object of the Radical; — it may not 
 secure this object precisely in the manner wished by him, but 
 should he sacrifice the end, the substantial good, for a mere con- 
 test about the means. Whenever the means are offered us of 
 securing a good Parliament, let us not reject them because it is 
 not precisely oiir Parliament — let us, as we can, get a good Parlia- 
 ment, as the first step to a better ; and from a better we shall easily 
 obtain the best. If we now demand that which appears to us the 
 best, an annual one, and that through the means which appear to 
 us the best, universal suffrage, let us consider how great is the 
 probability that we may gain nothing at all ! What are the power 
 and influence on which we must rest our hopes of success ? Our 
 numbers are great, but their activity is confined solely to manufac- 
 turing districts — the people are universally inclined to our views, 
 but elsewhere ihey have never been united to support them, nor is 
 there any probability of union. In the agricultural districts the 
 population is thin and dispersed, and little conversant in politics ; 
 the landed interest, too, is universally attached to Moderate Re- 
 form. In towns and cities unconnected with manufactures the 
 spirit of Radicalism does unquestionably appear, but it appears in 
 
10 
 
 detached bodies, and with nothing of permanent action. Are our 
 principles extending through the middle and higher ranks ? — so 
 far from it, that the strong objection to bringing forwards Reform 
 in any shape is, lest our interference should re-shape it into 
 Radicalism. We have numbers simply — not influence ; and till 
 an accommodating spirit is exhibited on our part, the Moderates in 
 Reform, perhaps nearly equal to ourselves in number, and far, 
 indeed, exceeding us in the means of impressing Government, will 
 continue that sullen silence they have so long preserved. If, as a 
 matter of curiosity, (I put it in no other way) it were asked what 
 are our powers on the principle of actual force ? I answer no- 
 thing ; for numbers are nothing opposed to the government, the 
 laws, the state revenue, the aristocracy — nay, 19-20ths of the 
 middle ranks. Five and twenty years ago a strong popular sensa- 
 tion pervaded the whole of Ireland, as vehement as any love of 
 Reform can be, more universal than any party spirit here known ; — 
 whether the Irish were actuated by political or religious feelings 
 matters nothing — their enthusiasm was at the highest point, and 
 all restraint was abandoned. What was the result ? The Irish 
 people, till the experiment was tried, full only of confidence and 
 exultation, were surrounded, cut down, . dispersed. Everywhere 
 the victims of their unhappy delusion, they only riveted the chains 
 they had attempted to tear off. No doubt the will of the people 
 has prevailed against the Government in France, in Spain, in 
 Naples, and why ? Foreign Governments, essentially bad, are 
 supported by none but their interested tools. The British Consti- 
 tution, however perverted from the want of popular controul, is 
 yet essentially excellent, and the object of general veneration — it 
 is abused, not worthless — it calls for Reform, not abolition ! 
 
 We are told, indeed, and that with great apparent probability, 
 that the system cannot last— that the magnitude of evil will pro- 
 duce its own cure— that if we lie by, and let things take their 
 course, all will be done we want. To what this amounts I shall 
 hereafter attempt to explain ; but no man, with a grain of pru- 
 dence, will let evils cure themselves by their enormity — he will not 
 let events take their course, till the whole country is a scene of 
 ruin and confusion. When the system shall be broken up, what 
 will the inevitable and immediate consequence be ? Loss of rent, 
 stagnation of trade, extinction of profit, suspension of labour. 
 Though the trader's visible capital will remain, credit will no longer 
 exist, as his invisible capital is annihilated— in a country which has 
 not a gold and silver medium, without credit, (there can be no 
 credit in a revolutionary state) the most ordinary sale of commo- 
 dities is at an end— in fact, the breaking of a few banks only, in 
 Ireland, some months ago, suspended trades necessary to existence. 
 A far easier progress, and a far happier result seem within our 
 power. Union will produce Reform: Reform the diminution of 
 
11 
 
 taxes and the restoration of trade ; public happiness will follow, 
 and public happiness obviously grounded on extended Parliamentary 
 suffrage. Can there be a better security for the ultimate attain- 
 ment of every Reform the country shall still continue to demand? 
 A FREEHOLDER OF YORKSHIRE. 
 
 Co tje il?orre0pottliettt DC tifte jHrrtuig, 
 
 SIGNED "AMICUS PATRIiE/' 
 
 Sir,— Your letter, epitomising Whig pohtics and Whig pre- 
 tensions, demands more than the notice of a postscript. Whig 
 doctrines, you impUedly tell us, are so excellent, that if Reform 
 do not appear amongst them it may well be dispensed with ; and 
 you give us pretty clearly to understand, that if we wait for a 
 Whig pledge, we may wait long and in vain. It is probable, Sir, 
 you too faithfully record what is thought and resolved by your 
 party. But the real question is, not the abstract, but the current 
 value of Whig doctrines : not what they were worth, and what 
 they could purchase sixty years ago, but how far they will go at 
 the present rate of exchange. It is, I fear. Sir, with the Whigs 
 as with another noted pohtical party; during their recess from 
 power they have forgot nothing, and learnt nothing. All their 
 claims on public confidence, (well founded, I allow, for the first 
 half of the 18th century) are still present to their memory: but 
 they have yet to learn, that a new century calls for a new system. 
 I will not enter into a contest on comparative value, it is sufficient 
 for me, as a practical fact, that simple WTiig principles can, in 
 the present state of the country, give no set of men an efficient 
 influence or authority. If your situation in life. Sir, is that of a 
 country-gentleman, look around you, call over the names of your 
 neighbourhood and your district, mark the preponderance at your 
 Riding Sessions or your County Assize ; hand about your requi- 
 sition, mount the hustings in the Castle-yard ; it is in these scenes 
 between the Whigs and the Tories alone that the contest lies — let 
 rank, let fortune, let talents have their due weight, and your 
 party will thrice-fold be borne down by the weight of your adver- 
 saries. Go into Parliament, take every advantage that your strong 
 hold, the Borough system, can give, do you there number even 
 one-fourth of your pohtical foes ? Descend to the trading class ; 
 a new scene here appears ; not one quarter is attached to the pre- 
 sent system ; are three-fourths, then, Whigs ? Of the true and 
 genuine Whig scarce one is to be found : this class, I allow, is not 
 Radical ; it is not the less for Reform. It is here that direct taxa- 
 tion most heavily presses, it is here, therefore, that taxation is 
 most odious : the labourer murmurs at his taxes, and well he may ; 
 but it is the tradesman who most sensibly feels them, as they are 
 palpably placed before him in the repeated calls of the collector. 
 To the organization of the House of Commons this excess of tax- 
 
12 
 
 ation is universally attributed, and its re-organization is the uni- 
 versal wish. It is not Annual Parliaments^ or Universal Suffrage, 
 that the trader calls for, he is no strenuous advocate of popular 
 rights; reduce his taxation, and be you Tory, Whig, or Radical, 
 you secure his vote. In so much as he is against ministers he is 
 for the opposition, but tell him of a government by which Reform 
 is not pledged, and he turns from it with aversion. The labourer 
 is Radical, universally, without exception; I do not speak of 
 individuals, but of collected numbers. Send your orators amongst 
 the people, your Tierneys or your Lambtons; they will be listened 
 to, applauded, because they revile those whom the people hate — 
 but bring forwards a Hunt, a Cobbett, or a Wooler, and your 
 Whig orator is no longer heard or thought of: there is perhaps not 
 one town in the kingdom where, such being the experiment, such 
 would not be the result. These, Sir, are truths, most serious 
 truths — known well to every class of your enemies, but froni 
 which your friends, buoyed in self-complacency, have resolutely 
 turned away their eyes. The Whigs never have known, never 
 would know, the real state of their credit with the people. They 
 hold select meetings, assemble at tavern-dinners, spout party- 
 toasts, proclaim a routine of principles, applaud themselves in the 
 speeches of their orators, and take the echo of their own voice for 
 the acclamation of the public. It is in a delusive confidence the 
 mischief lies; a Hanoverian Wliig was more acceptable to the 
 Court than a Jacobite Tory ; but with an Hanoverian Tory no 
 Whig can ever come into competition : call to your recollection 
 that you were never more than tolerated by the Court, that you 
 are now scarcely tolerated by the people ; and this elevation of 
 mind, grounded on the few splendid names, titles, and fortunes 
 you enumerate, will sink into a due and most useful humility. I 
 may appear to you, Sir^ to speak with the warmth of prejudice, 
 but be assured I speak neither in anger nor contempt. Your prin- 
 ciples of liberty were excellent for 1688, useful for 1750, but are 
 obsolete for 1831. You have learnt nothing, the people have 
 learnt a lesson never to be forgot, a wise lesson or a foolish one does 
 not matter. You have long said government is for the people, the 
 people now proclaim that, as it is for them, so it shall be by them ; 
 and till you too have learnt this lesson, all your former knowledge 
 will be vain. When a debtor is unable or unwilling to pay twenty 
 shillings in the pound, he is often willing to compromise for ten ; 
 the creditors generally, and with wisdom, accede to this— profit by 
 this example; compound whilst composition is in your power. 
 Annual Parliaments and Universal Suffrage are 20 shillings in the 
 pound — triennial Parliaments, and an ample franchise, are a com- 
 position very likely to be accepted —and if, for giving this, you 
 don't get a complete acquittance, you will obtain a letter of 
 licence, which may prove fully equivalent. I am. Sir, your's, 
 A FREEHOLDER OF YORKSHIRE. 
 
13 
 
 Co tifte Cotie0 of ¥orfe0!jire» 
 
 Gentlemen^ — I am not a politician, who, to use a quaint 
 yet significant phrase, cries " rogue- thief,'' to all his opponents. 
 As amongst the Tories there are most corrupting influences in 
 operation, there are perhaps more Tories directed by interest 
 than either Whigs or Radicals : hut as a class, I both esteem 
 and respect the Tories of Yorkshire, firmly believing them to be 
 guided in the general tenor of their views, by motives, however 
 mistaken, yet truly honourable. Not taking the character of 
 the Constitution from this minister or that law, from a period of 
 happiness, or from years of misery only, but '^' all in all,'' they 
 deem it superior to whatever history has exhibited, and would 
 preserve it entire. There cannot be change without danger, is 
 the Tory maxim, and it is a maxim founded in truth. No 
 Reformer can assert that an alteration in one part of the fabric 
 may not seriously affect the whole ; therefore no Reformer ought 
 to feel either surprise or displeasure, that to retain things as they 
 are is the Tory's first object. Conceding this, and can more be 
 asked, I yet deem your party infatuated : you sound the praises 
 of the Constitution, and justly ; you proclaim its danger, on not 
 less solid grounds, but you will neither see the causes from 
 which the danger proceeds, nor use an effort to avert it. For 
 thirty years a popular spirit has been rising in the country : I 
 do not hesitate to say, that this spirit puts the Constitution in 
 hazard; and could we quietly choose between it, with all its 
 goods and ills, all its uncertainties as well as its hopes, and 
 the preceding course of political events; he would be a bold 
 man who should venture peremptorily to decide. But there is 
 no alternative, no choice ; you have a million of men in the 
 kingdom formed to political habits, -and calling for political 
 rights — you have millions on millions whose habits are hourly 
 forming, and yet you rally round the Throne, and set the people 
 at defiance ! The Whigs are inconsistent ; they would give a 
 liberal Government, yet deprive a political people of an active 
 share in it. The Tories are infatuated, they would give the 
 people no share in the Government, and would even repress by 
 law an energy of political enthusiasm grounded on permanent 
 causes, and expanding in all directions. But this, you will say, 
 is mere declamation — be it so — we will then come to facts. About 
 the year 1792, your new penal code commenced; a wild enthu- 
 siasm pervaded part of the nation — you set Church and King 
 mobs (mobs in those days you know were very excellent praise- 
 worthy things) against Jacobin and Reform mobs ; the battle 
 was pretty equal ; you liad half the people, you had also nine- 
 tenths of the Aristocracy — what came of your plans ? — the 
 people heard for 30 years together of their own rights and privi.. 
 
14 
 
 leges, and at last determined that tho' " Church and King" were 
 in themselves very excellent things, and worthy all reverence; 
 yet that " the people" had an unquestioned claim, to participate 
 in political authority. To this conclusion your wars and your 
 taxes, your loyalty and your influence, your perversion of old 
 laws and fabrication of new ones, have brought the whole king- 
 dom. And how will you mend the case ? You had half the 
 people for you — you have now the whole against you — you have 
 entirely, or nearly, lost the middle ranks of society, and your 
 portion of the rich and great is strikingly diminished. If you 
 could not counteract the expansion of popular principles thirty 
 years ago, with comparatively no taxes, comparatively flourishing 
 trade, comparative public opinion to support you, what are now 
 your hopes or expectations ? Can you write down the leaders of 
 democracy.'' You can imprison, but can you silence them? Can 
 you, or would you if you could, remove those fixed supporters of 
 popular declamation — places and pensions and taxes — spies, in- 
 formers, and sinecures. After experience of the past, what can 
 be' your hopes of the future .'' Can you render the claims of the 
 Reformers unpopular ? Can you render taxation popular ? 
 Can you lessen it ? Can you restore trade ? Can you keep up 
 rents ? Can you provide labour for the poor ? Of the nume- 
 rous things which must be done to save the nation you cannot 
 do one — you will not, for the whole spirit of your party is to rally 
 round the Throne, and insult the people ! to gain as far as you 
 can, the influence of the high, almost careless how you aggravate 
 the bitterness and animosity of the low ! Whence this wretched 
 and ruinous system } from party spirit, that miserable foe to 
 truth, integrity, candour, sense, and justice. One party is de- 
 termined to rally round the Throne, that is, despise, revile, 
 insult, abuse, calumniate, and depress the people. Another party 
 resolves to govern on that excellent foundation of all that is 
 valuable, " Whig principles." What with this band of politi- 
 cians is truth } " Whig principles." — What candour ? " Whig 
 principles." — What sense ? " Whig principles." — What justice ? 
 Why, '' Whig principles !" I can most excuse on this point, 
 yet not one iota praise, the party of the people. Whatever in 
 reality may be the best system of Representation, it is as infallible 
 a truth to a poor man, that as he is taxed he ought to vote, as 
 it is a truth to a rich man, that as he is rich he is intitled to 
 influence. The rich man's claim is allowed to the utmost extent 
 of his hopes ; the poor man's is met with rejection, insult, and 
 the penalties of the law ! If the effervescence of party zeal can 
 ever be intitled to palHation and excuse, it is in the case of the 
 people of England. Cast off this spirit. Gentlemen, I earnestly 
 entreat you — let your integrity and better sense prevail — view the 
 situation of the country as it is — consider the powers and influ- 
 
15 
 
 «nces operating on its safety, and employ your thoughts, not in 
 abuse of the people, but in the securest methods of gratifying 
 their claims. — I am, &c. 
 
 A FREEHOLDER OF YORKSHIRE. 
 
 Every empiric is forward to state the present symptoms and character 
 of a disease ; but it is the skilful physician alone who dares venture on a 
 prognostic. A political empiric may, however, affect even to prognosticate 
 without hazarding his discernment, as Whig, Tory, and Radical, proclaim 
 a result of our constitutional disorders, substantially the same. They all 
 declare the probability of a crisis involving our present institutions in immi. 
 nent hazard : the Tory refers this to the seditious attempts of the people ; 
 the Whig to the irritating misconduct of the Tory ; the Radical to the 
 progress of a system involving in it the principles of ruin ; — we may, there- 
 fore assert, at least without a charge of singularity, that the Government 
 of the country is in danger. The prudent prognosticator will not, perhaps, 
 choose to proceed further : I shall yet venture another step, and trace the 
 probable course of events, to the first point of the crisis, beyond which 
 it must be presumption, not sagacity, that will venture to speak with 
 decision. 
 
 There has for several years been a fall in prices, which is yet continu- 
 ing, and how far its operating causes may extend, cannot certainly be 
 foreseen. If we allow an ultimate, and not far distant fall of 40 per cent. 
 £60 purchasing what heretofore cost £lOO, we are perhaps considerably 
 within the mark ; we will take it at that average. For the £50 which was 
 paid in one or other species of taxation five years ago, 50/. nominally will 
 still be paid; but in fact, (50/. commanding a much greater amount in 
 purchase than before,) above S3l. If the public creditor receives more, it 
 is clear the public debtor must pay more ; and if out of an income of 500/. 
 per annum, 50/. was somehow paid in taxes, it was one-sixth of the whole 
 income; but if 83/. is paid out of 300/. it is nearly one part in 3^. But it 
 is further to be considered, that real income, as well as nominal, is falling 
 off; from decay of trade and rents, there are less general means of obtaining 
 the necessaries and comforts of life than formerly ; and, viewing the present 
 aspect both of commerce and agriculture, a reo/ failure in income, of one- 
 third, is a low estimate. We shall then presently come to this — to pay in 
 some form of taxation, 83/. out of 200/. instead of 50/. out of 300/. about 
 two parts in fire, instead of one in six. That in possibility a nation might 
 adapt itself to this change will not be denied, but it is evident the universal 
 struggle will be to keep up old appearances, old comforts and luxuries to 
 the greatest extent; and the period will unquestionably arrive when the 
 claims of ordinary expenditure (these obviously will not be times for credit) 
 will have exhausted the means of individuals till the demands on the part of 
 Government can no longer be answered. The case may be put in a form 
 more easily apprehended by the mind, thus ; a form in too many places 
 already exhibited in a partial manner. The difficulties of the tax-payer 
 are likely to arise at first in some one principal class of taxes, most probably 
 the assessed. No voluntary resolution or concerted scheme not to pay 
 taxes can ever avail, as Government would apply the whole of its powers to 
 overcome the opposition; but we are supposing a case of general necessity, 
 
16 
 
 general inability to pay. Now a litwited number of defaulters may be sold 
 up on non-payment of taxes, or have writs issued out of the Exchequer; 
 but neither a kingdom, or even a county, can be sold up, or served with 
 legal process. Where the inability is general, tiie tax must be remitted ; 
 and where once the want of means to pay the tax-gatherer is allowed as a 
 valid excuse for non-payment of taxes, the present system is, I conceive, 
 at an end : real inability in one case, would be followed by pretended in 
 another ; the excise would share the fate of the assessed taxes ; the customs 
 that of the excise ; and so on. Non-payment would be, as it were, legiti- 
 mated, and against any measure of legal force in any case whatever, tlie 
 voice of the whole kingdom would be raised ; there would be no direct com- 
 bination, but one general effort to be relieved from taxes, and one general 
 disposition to aid the relief of others; — when the bank was once broke, the 
 whole body of waters would flow over with torrent irresistible. Prior to 
 this universal embarrassment of the people, the Government itself must 
 have become greatly embarrassed from the deficiency of taxation, grounded 
 on decreased consumption ; the insolvency will in fact, be mutual, neither 
 can the subject pay the Government, or the Government the subject. It 
 is easy to foresee, that a sudden sensation pervading the whole kingdom, 
 must simultaneously ensue, and it is most difficult to conceive that the 
 established authorities of the country would in this case, retain either influ- 
 ence or power. If a county or a division of the kingdom, Yorkshire or 
 Ireland, is in a state of entire disorder, it may be compressed by the re- 
 maining portions of the empire ; but no vigilance of Government, no dis- 
 tribution of its oflScers, agents, or force, can meet the emergency of the 
 whole country, universally disorganised. This dissolution of our present 
 system seems to imply neither premeditation, combination, or even violence, 
 but to result from one universally prevailing impulse. Beyond this period 
 all is uncertainty and conjecture. Should the people universally and vigor- 
 ously unite to prevent the restoration of those authorities which they will 
 clearly identify with restored taxation, a scheme of unqualified democracy 
 may prevail ; should, on the other hand, a very strong combination of the 
 higher orders attach themselves to the broken remnants of authority, under 
 pretence of a restored Constitution and a strong Government, military des- 
 potism would be infallible: for the people could be kept down only by 
 military law ; a district of a country may be under military controul, and yet 
 the remainder of the state may be free— the universal prevalence of military 
 authority is essentially military despotism. Bnt a third case may arise: 
 the continued conflicts of the two parties above described, may depopulate 
 the kingdom, destroy its resources, and render it a prey to some foreign 
 despot, who may be ambitious to rule ivhat once was the British Empire ! 
 
 These consequences of our present state are foreseen and avowed : is 
 one effort made to avert them ? Not one, by any party. The Tories prose- 
 cute the Queen, the Whigs attack the Tories, the rest of the nation stand 
 by, amused spectators of the conflict — now huzzaing the Whig, now the 
 Tory, as either may give his adversary a neat hit ! For the country, nothing 
 is done— the interests of party usurping all attention, those of the kingdom 
 are forsaken. A FREEHOLDER OF YORKSHIRE. 
 
 Edward Baines, Printer, Leeds. 
 
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