DOMESTIC POLITICS. My son, fear thou the LORD and the King; and meddle not with them that are given to change. Proverbs, Chap. xxiv. v. 21. THERE is a great renovating power in the British mind, a vis medicatrix, that has always sustained it under its injuries, and generally recompenced the suffering of the time, by a noble and permanent accession of vigour. The outrages of the common enemies of society are at length compelling the spirit and honour of the friends of good government and rational religion to take the field. An association, on a scale of great extent in number, principle, and public influence, has lately been formed in London, for the purpose of resisting to the utmost, the progress of revolutionary fanaticism. The names already comprehend the chief of that class which forms the sinew of the public strength-members of the different learned professions-commercial men of known respectability-and persons of independent private income. All this is, so far, an actual accession of strength to the state; for few of this Association have been in the habit of taking a part in public affairs; their activity is so much raised up from the inactivity of the friends of order, they are a real draught from that great levy of unexerted force which makes the strength of England; and the summoning of this band is at once a security for the crisis, and a pledge, that the true and ancient resources of the national spirit are as undiminished as ever. A meeting has been already held; and the "Constitutional Association” has properly begun, by publishing a statement of its views. The following are the principal pass ages. 66 Possessing, as this nation does, a Constitution which is the envy and admiration of the world—at peace with every other country-covered with the glories of a long, an arduous, and a triumphant contest-enjoying an impartial administration of justice and subjected to the mild and paternal government of a patriotic Sovereign, it might have been hoped that all ranks and degrees of men would have bent in humble gratitude for such unexampled blessings to the Almighty and Merciful Disposer of human events. "But that this is far from being the case, and that, on the contrary, a spirit of hostility exists against our most sacred and estimable institutions, we have only to appeal to the uniform testimony of those numerous loyal Addresses which have of late been laid at the foot of the Throne by Corporations or Meetings of Individuals. Framed by bodies of men in different and distant parts of the kingdom, without concert or communication, and containing opinions drawn from actual observation and conviction, these addresses indisputably prove at once the lamentable existence of the evil, and its fearful extent ;they prove that it menaces not the predominance of this or that party in the state, but the safety of the state itself; not the separate interests of this or that class of men, but the liberty, the property, the security of ALL. "The CONSEQUENCES which have already resulted from this perversion of public principle, are but too obvious. Among them are to be numbered, a daily weakening of the bonds of union between the humbler ranks of society and their natural guardians and protectors-insubordination-disregard of the laws, and frequent attempts to obstruct their operation-increase of crimesdenunciations of hatred towards the greatest and best men in the country-mockery of Religion-querulous impatience of all controul and restraintvain and ostentatious contempt of all sound learning, experience, and knowledge-interruption of the courses of honest industry-and derangement of the great concerns and enterprizes of the nation. "The CAUSES of the evil are no less apparent: it may be distinctly traced to VOL. VIII. 3 K the machinations of a comparatively small number of individuals. These persons act partly by means of the turbulence and excitement of public meetings, at which the most unfounded and inflammatory speeches are delivered; and partly through the medium of a licentious press, which, without excepting even the day of sacred rest, inundates the nation with an unexampled profusion of slanderous, seditious, and blasphemous publications. "The Press has unhappily become, in the hands of evil men, a lever to shake the very foundations of social and moral order. It cannot but be matter of serious alarm to observe that a very large proportion of our periodical publications is under the direction either of avowed enemies of the Constitution, or of persons whose sole principle of action is their own selfish interest. By these, and by occasional writers of a like character and description, every artifice is employed, with daily increasing boldness, to render the people discontented with the Government and disobedient to the Laws; to persuade them that they are betrayed by those who should protect them; to seduce them from their affection and allegiance to their Sovereign; and, finally, to bring about a Revolution, to which the wealth, the prosperity, the internal happiness, and the political greatness of the Empire, must inevitably be sacrificed. "As it is clear that isolated, individual exertion, would be utterly inadequate to cope with all the evil energies now arrayed against public order and the public peace; so it is to be feared, that the Government and Legislature themselves might find the contest difficult, without the active, zealous, and persevering co-operation of the loyal and well-disposed part of the community; which co-operation, to be effectual, must be the result of a regular and systematic union of individuals. "Persuaded that by these means alone the progress of seditious principles can be arrested; and feeling that to arrest it, if possible, is the bounden duty of every good subject and sincere patriot; the members of this Society have adopted the following resolutions : 1st. That they will use their best exertions to maintain order, and to support the due execution of the Laws. 2d. That they will employ their influence, individually and collectively, in discountenancing and opposing the dissemination of seditious principles. 3d. That they will encourage persons of integrity and talent in the Literary World to exert their abilities in confuting the sophistries, dissipating the illusions, and exposing the falsehoods, which are employed by wicked and designing men to mislead the people. 4th. That they will resort to such lawful measures as may be deemed expedient to restrain the publishing and circulating of seditious and treasonable libels. That this is a manly, rational, and seasonable call upon British patriotism, there can be no doubt; that it will be a successful call, leading to a solid and lasting public benefit, is as little to be doubted, as the result of any attempt, in which the weakness of man follows the line of his duty. Their resolutions have the merit of distinctly and simply explaining their objects. The line of demarcation between them and the declamatory extravagance that flourishes over the manifestoes of Reform is ob vious. Mystery in public declarations is always for the purpose of delusion; and the plain language of those Resolutions is intrinsically a proof of their honesty. They comprehend nearly all the forms in which a good subject can assist the cause of the country. Fersonal exertion, to support the laws; personal influence, to disseminate salutary principles; personal expenditure, to encourage men of ability to the vin"dication of the public cause, through the press; and as the crown and seal of all, a determination to keep up a constant and vigorous appeal to the laws for the suppression of the enormous abuses of the press. If this discipline is followed in sincerity, there can be no fear for the result. The "Constitutional Association," limits itself to our Civil Polity. The interests of religion are left to the associations, formed for the peculiar purpose of their defence. It is possible that there may be found individuals, neither corrupted nor insincere, who will question the fitness of interfering in matters which seem the proper object of government. To those an answer ought to be given, and it is easily given. The essence of the English constitution is freedom; and, therefore, the essence of the authority of government is opinion. Without the national reliance, the most powerful administration is feebleness; it is met, at every step, by some new obstacle; it may carry on, for a time, a heartless, tormenting, losing warfare, against the embittered and pursuing animosity of the nation; but it must finally, and that at no great interval, find its resources cut off, and its only hope in a degrading capitulation. With the public faith for its ally, there is, humanly speaking, no limit to its power; it is the Giant, with the hundred hands, yet lifted and mighty only for the purposes of preservation; it has found the spot from which the realm, and with it the world, is to be moved; it stands a conspicuous and magnificent concentration of the mind, and soul, and strength of the commonwealth, resistless for good, weak only for evil; an image of an earthly providence, perhaps as perfect, as it may be permitted to our intellects to form. No ministry has ever been able to despise the national feeling with impunity. It is their business to lead; but, to make their power perfect, it must be shared; to lead, they must in some degree follow; the noble equipment and tackling of the ship of the state will not carry it forward over the first surge, without the mighty impulse, the "popularis aura." Their system, stately and illustrious as it may be, must stop, in all its orbits, with the first stoppage of that invisible and fluctuating ocean in which they float, which they impel, and by which they are impelled. It is in the spirit of that wisdom which built up the constitution that the national mind should go vern itself; that administration should chiefly display its higher opportunities in hints and suggestions of good, in clearing away the obstructions to the view of the general interests, rather than in the absolute compulsion of the public mind, to whatever rank of virtue. And this wisdom works well, for it is grounded in a knowledge of that human nature which will act vigorously only where it acts upon conviction, and which feels no conviction complete but the reresult of its own labours. The charge of corruption in the popular heart is fully made out. On what other principle are we to account for the sudden insolence of the agitators of the rabble, the power of every outcast to raise a popular ferment, the new faculty of ignorance to wage battle against knowledge ;-of beggary and shame to shake honourable opulence and ancient dignity ;— of blasted tergiversation and vulgar ferocity, in all its shapes of burlesque and terror, to stir up rebellion in the bosom of the land. Can there be a more singular, or more fearful phænomenon than this, to see the multitude suddenly giving unlimited reliance to individuals, to whom not the most trusting Reformist of the hundred thousand would lend five shillings on his personal faith; to see offences against the state and religion registered among the first claims to confidence, until the very brand of the law becomes a badge of distinction, and Newgate a necessary step to the power of inflaming the people. That there should be candidates for those desperate and guilty distinctions, is to be wondered at only by those who are ignorant of the cravings of poverty and vice, or how rapidly they are maddened by gross ambition and personal hostility. From the beginning of history, the temptation, the mind, and the means of all demagogues, have identified the family. The casual difference in their close, makes but slight distinction in this long pedigree of guilt. The same habits of Hagitiousness and profligacy, black falsehood and thirsty cupidity, stooping to any prostration to slake its throat in the "sacred well" of the national freedom, property and blood, are characteristics of the race. of those men, some have been of a rank of accomplishment and ability, that might almost excuse their influence But on the national fates,potent and lof ty spirits, made to wield the elements of disorder, and awing men into a brief admiration even of their violence by its splendour. But our disturbance is fated to come from a lower source; we are to have none of the excuses of a vague wonder at the noble influences convertible to our misfortune. We are not to be withered by the lightning; no generous future superstition is to dignify our raiments, as of the victims of what in the moral world might be looked on as little less than a resistless destiny,- -a stroke of the lightning that makes the spot memorable, if not hallowed. We are to be consumed by the steams of the marsh, that nothing but our own indolence suffers to remain offending Earth and Heaven. It is this strange submission to an influence which it requires only the common feeling of a manly mind to extinguish, this shrinking before baseness, disgrace, and imposture, that marks the peculiarity of the moment, and with it makes the necessity for the union of all honest men. The keys of our Citadel are not to be given up to the requisition of the first insolent outlaw that comes with a troop recruited from the jail and the highway, and dares to beard the armed and lawful strength within. The value of such associations is clear, on the simple ground that the first necessity of the loyal is to know each other; thus gaining the strength that belongs to a knowledge of strength, and a knowledge of those in whom confidence is to be placed in the hour of difficulty. Another result is the operation of combined force, the mutual thought of intelligent minds, the united vigour of brave hearts. If Associations in this spirit had been fixed in the more important towns, it is impossible to doubt that the libel, outrage, and treason against church and state, which have for the last two years covered a large portion of England with all but open insurrection, would have been crushed at once. Would the corrupting and infamous caricatures against the King have stared upon us from every stall in every village? Would the missionaries of plunder and massacre have made their regular visitations through the land, not simply untouched by authority, but in its defiance? Would the whole Host of Rebellion have been suffered to muster and equip itself in the face of day, and receive its hourly orders from the Staff in London, without the seizure of a despatch? If those things have been done, and are doing, even while my pen is tracing this paper, it is because there have not been Associations to put a stop to the system at once. Government have been vigilant, but it must again be said, that the direction of its services must be rather to suggest than to act. They are the grand jury of the constitution. They examine in the first instance; but beyond that brief office, the greater part of their duty is devolved into other hands. The true court is the nation; and there is passed the only sentence that can be enforced without reproach or fear. We have before our eyes a remarkable instance of the superior advantage with which the rights of the community may sometimes be vindicated by an Association. The government prosecutions for blasphemy had failed to an alarming extent; something scarcely less than a conspiracy to acquit, seemed to have grown up in the jury box, and the officers of government were avowedly repelled from prosecutions where no verdict was to be found, and where the simple fact of having been thought culpable by the legislature made the fortune of the culprit. There is a fashion in all things; the fashion of acquittal in all cases of blasphemy was advancing into an established rule; and the outrageous menaces, mixed with outrageous panegyrics, which were used to break down the timid, or bring over the fools of popularity, were on the eve of destroying all confidence in the administration of the laws. The whole transaction is matter of history, and of the most instructive nature to those who would judge of the force of fanaticism, and of its fitting remedy. The evil of the blasphemy was notorious, it glared upon the public eye from every corner of the realm. The Hydra had ten thousand heads, all alike armed and active, but not one was cut away. To the remonstrances against this course, and some of those remonstrances were made by the very men who had "fed the dragon, and worshipped before it ;" the answer, even in Parliament, was given by asking, "Are we to throw down the law before this new madness? Are we to assist in raising bankrupt villainy to wealth and popular notice? Are we to give loathsome imposture and brutal atrocity a direct claim to the subscriptions of Radical Baronets, Peers, and Dukes, by proving the criminal to be deserving of the severest exercise of justice? No, we must wait for better times, the delusion of the day will expire with the day. We will not hazard all that remains of dignity to British Legislation, by committing it in a struggle with offences which look to our prosecution as their necessary seal of reward.". In this exigency, and nothing could be more pregnant with alarm to the well-wishers of English freedom, an Association, unconnected with Government, honourably came forward, and, with whatever hopelessness, dragged a notorious trafficker in impiety and sedition before the tribunal. It can be no aspersion to a jury who did their duty, to say, that the private nature of the prosecution was of advantage to the soundness of their judgment. Politics were not standing on the table to overawe or corrupt. It was a decision of scarcely more than private quarrel. Carlile, after an attempt to earth himself in the old refuge of rabble passions, was dragged out, and, upon the clearest evidence of wilful and boastful villainy, convicted. But this sentence was not upon a solitary ruffian. It struck the whole tribe at once, The fact that a blasphemer could be convicted, broke the spell both of the inactivity of the friends of order, and of the impunity of its enemies. From that hour every prosecution (I believe without a single exception) succeeded. The dungeon or banishment has relieved the country of the burthen of nearly all the original malefactors. But the breed is not extinguished. While the union of passion with ignorance is to be found in the heart, it will find room for discontent. In that mighty mine of the national spirit, there will be the material of explosions mixed with its nobler products; and it is to make these innoxious, by the letting in of light and air, that human science may be most wisely employed. Popular ignorance of the Truth is the natural stimulant, as it is the common security of the disturbers of civilized life. The cavern shelters the robber, and sometimes the robber is tempted by the cavern. There will be evil, perhaps, at all times, or till that higher dispensation in which religious men hope that all enormous error will die before the crowned glory of Christianity; and it may be, that all our human diligence will not be able to conquer the malignant influences that are made to desolate and destroy. But it is something to be able to remove the evil from our doors, to sit in the midst of our families without seeing the spirits of our children tainted by infidelity, to lay our heads on the pillow without dreading in every sound of the night, the footsteps of massacre. If there must be a reserve of evil to show the future age the contrast, produced by religion and the laws, to that fearful period when the moral world was a waste, abandoned to the domination and wanderings of savage nature; it must be our honour to raise the great fence against this rabid appetite for blood; to appoint to the lion and the tiger its wilderness, beyond which it must not stray; and as our strength grows, push into the thicket and the swamp, and subdue their sterility, and drive their monsters farther within their place of desolation. A feature of the highest importance in the objects of the "Constitutional Association," is new, or has been but feebly shadowed out before. It is the 3d Resolution, "That they will encourage persons of integrity and talent in the literary world, to exert their abilities in confuting the sophistries, dissipating the illusions, and exposing the falsehoods, which are employed by wicked and designing men to mislead the people." Under what forms this service may be summoned, is yet to be developed. But the establishment of the principle is invaluable. The feeling against the abuse of the press is universal. But the abuse is not to be checked by impotent alarm. The press is not to be put down by power. As well might we attempt to put down the pestilence by imprisoning the air. The abuse is to be purified by the use. The same instrument, that " pastorale signum," which the lips of sedition inspire with sounds of discord and bloodshed, must be taught the sounds of peace. It will echo the one as truly as the other. The activity of the public mind cannot be extirpated, but it is the part of wisdom to turn this weedy and pernicious exuberance into productiveness and beauty. The press must be taught to speak the truth, no less to the people than to the King. 4 |
