she unfortunately resolve upon hostilities! we anticipate her remonstrances, complain for her of injuries that she does not herself perceive, " marshal her the way that she should go," and plainly give her to understand, that our support will attend her throughout any contest she may unfortunately provoke! This, I grant you, is one of our best manœuvres; it is not every day that we have an opportunity for this; but there are many other nearly as good. Of foreign Princes, while they are in alliance with Government, we speak with contempt, both as to their councils and their strength, thus teaching them to think themselves hated or despised by the people of England: as soon as any of these change their cause and array themselves with the enemy, we then exaggerate their resources, and hold them up as examples of wisdom to others. When Ministers suppose themselves to have performed a notable exploit in depriving some other country of the force which was about to be employed against this, we brand that enterprise with every term of reprobation which language can supply, tell all Europe that the people of England abhor it, encourage the weakened state not to desist from its enmity, and draw up, as it were, a new charge for France to place in her list of accusations against the tyrants of the seas. Then, to the whole world, whatsoever be the topicextraordinary means of retaliation to be provided for any extraordinary hostility, alliance made, negotiation commenced, or broken off-we explain how hopeless every effort must prove which can be directed against the enemy, and tell that enemy more than he himself affirms of the mischiefs his hostility inflicts upon England. Junior. And what will all this do for us? Senior. This will produce for us that degree of public misery, without which we have little chance of rising into power. This will render it impossible, that England shall have either a war which can succeed, or a peace which can be endured. This will overwhelm the manufacturer with despair, and gradually shake the very basis of public credit. This will Junior. But, if we thus produce misery, or materially concur with the course of events to produce it, why should we expect the people to reward us by raising us into power? Senior. A little reference to your own experience, short as it is, and a little attention to the manner in which we proceed to our end, will convince you your question is unnecessary. Do we not always foretel the calamity for which we hope ; and even when our words alone create the evil, are they not those of warning against it? When we thus make prophecies the instruments of our purpose, their completion, far from telling against us, becomes our recommendation. Are we ever ashamed of them? On the contrary, do we not constantly quote them, as evidences of our well-meaning discernment, and of the industry with which, if we could, we would have prevented so much harm? Look, for instance, to Ireland, our topic, at all times, let the main subject before us be what it may. I need not tell you, that whatever grievances the people of that country may justly complain of from negligent landlords, from absentee landlords, from middlemen, from the unwillingness of landed proprietors to employ their capital in the improvements which would supply the poor with useful labour-whatever grievances they may feel from these and other causes, with which no government can meddle, and which can only be remedied by the gradual cultivation of good will between the higher and lower classes of sufferings arising from the war, or other political calamities, they have absolutely none. Politics to them are nothing. A trading and a manufacturing people must watch watch the course of public events, for their condition is affected by them; but the poor Irish peasant, as he does not thrive with their gains, so he does not suffer with their losses, or tremble with their cares: that is, he does not, if left to himself. The mass of the population of Ireland is the only considerable body in Europe not at this moment suffering, more or less, from political causes. And yet these poor people we can make politicians. We talk loudly of their sufferings; and as they, like all mankind, have sufferings, their attention is, of course, easily gained. They are astonished indeed at first to hear, that their grievancesproceed from the ill management of the State; but we continue to affirm and they to listen, till at last an unthinking and warm-hearted people believe exactly what we wish them to believe. They also hear from us, and that almost every day, how very dangerous they may become to the State. When they after.. wards act upon this belief and knowledge, when the empire shakes with their convulsions, who accuses us? We, on the contrary, accuse those whom we pretend to have warned by the prophecies then fulfilled; and they think it sufficient to justify themselves. You see, therefore, that if your mode of creating calamity be but that of throwing out warnings against it-if your prophecies be of such a nature, that they work their own verification, the very act of producing public misery may become the means of winning public confidence, and, of course, of gaining power.. Q. E. D. Junior. Satis et optime fecisti.. [Exeunts. THE ARMY. Dum superest aliquid, cuncti coeamus et arma, [From the Morning Chronicle.] TO LORD VISCOUNT MELVILLE. MY LORD, IT has been stated in a Morning Paper, that you declared in the House of Lords, that "thoughtless profligates, men who disregard life because they are insensible to the blessings of existence, make the best soldiers." I take it for granted, that such words were never used by Your Lordship; but, I think, Your Lordship ought to have informed the public, that the statement is false. Such words, at this time, ought not to be supposed for a moment, to proceed from any man who had ever been admitted into the Council of His Majesty; because the meaning they convey, is nothing less than that he who uses them, conceives that the only purpose of an army is to establish and defend tyranny; for "thoughtless profligates" must ever be ready and prepared to cut the throats of the people, and subserve the purposes of men as profligate as themselves. When the people of England contended for their privileges, their freedom, their houses, their firesides, in the time of Charles the First, sober well-educated men joined hand in hand, and soon proved to the commanders of profligates, that men, high-minded men, who know their rights, and value existence and freedom, are the best soldiers. The people of England conceive, at this moment, that they have something to defend; they conceive, that if the Emperor of the French were to subdue this country, they should suffer much; but if they are to be told that they are to be governed by an army of "thoughtless profligates," it will soon become a matter of in difference difference to them, whether that army be French or English. The character of the soldiers of every country determines its fate. When Rome armed her "profigates," her liberties expired. When Greece was defended by her noblest youth, she trampled upon her enemies, and triumphed. When England armed her sober agriculturists, she established her freedom, and the virtuous sons of her colonies formed a glorious constitution of liberty for themselves and their children. We do not want, my Lord, an army of profligates. No, my Lord, we wish still to call our houses our castles (notwithstanding the Excise laws and the Property-tax); they may be humble, when compared with Melville Castle, but we wish them to be secure ; we wish that he who labours, should eat his bread in peace; we wish that the helpless should be hedged about with the law; we wish still to have something which is properly our own, and therefore we dread an army of profligates. It is well for us, it is well for the Throne, that if ever such language as this, so falsely ascribed to Your Lordship, should be used in Parliament, there will be found of the Royal Family, one or more, who will spurn it with indignation and contempt. I AN OLD SOldier. MORE ABOUT THE ARMY. [From the Morning Chronicle, March 31.] MR. EDITOR, AM not so indignant as your correspondent seems to be respecting the sentiments of a Noble Lord on the new mode of recruiting the army. I take this to be merely another branch of the new system of morality which is about to be established. I am not therefore surprised, and, to tell you the truth, I expect greater matters than these. I should 4 ** not |