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The Black Dwarf

18/11/1818

Printer / Publisher: T.J. Wooler 
Volume Number: II    Issue Number: 46
No Pages: 8
 
 
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The Black Dwarf

Date of Article: 18/11/1818
Printer / Publisher: T.J. Wooler 
Address: 58, Sun-street, Bishopsgate
Volume Number: II    Issue Number: 46
No Pages: 8
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THE BLACK DWARF. & Eons on aiieeftli> ^ uWcattom EDITED, PRINTED, AND PUBLISHED BY T. J. WOOLER, 58, SUN STREET, BISHOPSGATE. Communications ( post paid) to be addressed to No. 4, Catherine Street, Strand. No. 46, Vol. I I . ] WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1818. [ PRICE Id. Satire's my weapon ; but Pm too discreet To run a- muck and tilt at alt I meet'. LETTERS OF THE BLACK DWARF. From the Black Dwarf, in London, to the Yellow Bonze, at Japan. R E P R E S E N T A T I O N O F WESTMINSTER. MY FRIEND, To be present at a Westminster Meeting, is to mix in an assembly that w ® uld do no discredit to the best days of Republican Greece, when the - whole of her citizens were met together, in their own name, to transact their own business. There, embryo generals and expectant legislators stood by to receive the appointment of their fellow citizens, emulous of the glorious destiny of being constituted the servants of their country. There, as in Westminster, often prevailed a variety of opinions, a diversity of councils, and sometimes the most able candidates could not find means to conquer the interest excited, or remove the prejudices that prevailed, for the less worthy candidate. It is this difference of opinion which best characterises free men. The slave dare not express what he feels, and hence the unanimity that perjades the ranki of lesj < yr ^ n.' The* free Titali' ' dares to speak, and mil speak; and as the same object is seldom seen by many in the same point of view, it will follow that each will express the difference he perceives. The visitors of a Westminster Meeting should always have these preliminaries before them, as keys to the conduct they will witness. A spectator not acquainted with them, would wonder how such an apparently disunited assembly could make a stand, and that a most successful one, against the ministers of the crown, and the borough- faction, in the very centre of the congregated influence of both. The solution of the enigma is easy. The great majority aim equally at the same ends, the defeat of tyranny, and the acquisition of reform. But the means are various, and each would choose that which is most consonant to his own views. One would fight the ministry with the vigour and forcible eloquence of youth; another would send into the arena the tempered reason, and conclusive experience of age. One would have wealth and influence, and connection, to awe thecorruptinto silence.— Another would have talent and firmness, to blazon the turpitude he thinks it impossible to shame. All these opinions have their champions ; and the contention as to the best, fills the assembly with clamour, and often throws it into confusion. But the atmosphere is kept salubrious by the genial breeze of mutual freedom. It may blow too strongly sometimes, for the delieate corruptionist, or the sickly patriot; but it will always ubsitle into a genera! determination to do what to each cems best calculated to ensure the good of all. Like the j I or>! y wear it in a land, of Hectors, | 1 / neves, supercargoes, sharpers, and directors.— POPE. ancient inhabitants of this island, when assembled in their petty tribes, to choose a commander in chief, each would propose, and loudly contend for, the merit of its favorite officer; but the united army would not the less serve the elected generalissimo, though many a brave battalion would have preferred the honor of the command to have rested on its private leader. Let the expression of opinion scare the timid, and alarm the knave. Honesty, freedom, and virtue, never yet blushed in any man, to find themselves more successful in another. Sir Francis Burdett took the chair yesterday, to preside at one of the most numerous assemblies that could take place. The room was literally crowded to excess, and many listeners on the stair- case were ardent participators in the spirit that pervaded the body of the meeting. The question was to determine on the most proper person to be put in nomination against the ministerial candidate, as the representative of Westminster, at the ensuing election. At the commencement Sir Francis recommended unanimity RS the only means of ensur/ itg suc'Css; nnd a hearty eo- o^- aration in the endeavour to return the man, upon whom the choice of that assembly should fall; announcing at the same time that Mr. Douglas Kinnaird declined to offer himself. Mr. Bruce, one of the gallant liberators of Lavalette, proposed Mr. John Hobhouse. This gentleman is known to the literary world, as the author of his Travels, some political essays, and notes on the Poems of Lord Byron. Mr. Bruce delivered a warm encomium, warranted by private friendship, and his view of our political interests. In his opinion Mr. Hobhouse was the best possible candidate; and he was borne out by the acclamations of the assembly, that he had not stepped far beyond the " modesty of nature," in his commendations. It is probable, however, that Mr. Hobhouse owed more to his exertions on the late election in favour of Sir Francis Burdett, than to any thing which could be said of him by Mr. Bruce. Mr. Thelwall, after an absence from public life of one- andtwenty years, made his re- appearance on the political stage; and gave an excellent exhortation to the different parties to be united. He wisely remarked that there were only two parties that ought to exist, the ene that should be united, to prevent being plundered, and the one that was united to plunder all it could. His reasoning was tolerably accurate ; but when he recommended the meeting only to rally round a man who could unite all parties, he spoke of an impossibility. Where is the honest man whom all parties will agree to follow? Who is praised by all parties, must have flattered allparties ; and the character of Joseph Surface is much too fine for any really good man to wear. The audience were next entertained by 311 THE BLACK DWARF. 31S the proposition of Mr. Cobbett. Nothing could better exemplify an abstract right. Any individual had a right to propose a man distant two thousand miles, without any extraordinary means to procure his return, or any expectation that he could be returned without them ; but he was put in nomination amid the liberal opposition of many, and the enthusiastic cheers of a few. Nobody, however, would make a better Member of Parliament than Mr. Cobbett, as Parliament is now constituted. But how to get him there is the question ; and to get him there for Westminster was not even a question. He despises the company he would meet with, he says, a great deal too much, to pay very high for a seat amongst them; and without paying, there is no more entrance there, than at any other theatre or cockpit. Every individual, however, though he could not have a representative, might propose one: and Mr. Cobbett was proposed. Mr. Hunt, descending from his recently- expressed opinion, of being himself a candidate— no matter what has produced the change, announced himself not as the rival, but the seconder of the nomination of Mr. Cobbett. In so doing, he brought forward many heavy accusations against Mr. Hobhouse, for being the son of a father who was once the avowed advocate of liberty, but was afterwards converted to a saving faith in pensions, loans, aud contracts. On further enquiry it appeared, however, that if his father had renounced his political creed, Mr. Hobliouse had politically renounced his father;— that he was an alien from his family, because he had renounced the deserted principles of his father ;— and the assembly deemed it not an unfavourable sign in a young man, to forego personal interest, when principle was to be sacrificed to secure it. Sir Francis Burdett quoted iEsop in his favor; and compared the conduct of his accuser to that of the wolf, who not being able to fix the crime of disturbing the water upon the lamb, said it was either his father, or his grandfather, or some one of the family who had committed the offence. Mr. Hunt strongly recommended Mr. Cobbett to the notice of the assembly. He was, he said, a man of the greatest talent, of the greatest integrity, and of the greatest virtue;— that he gladly withdrew his own claims in Mr. Cobbett's favour, and hoped the choice of the meeting would fall on his exiled friend, who had been driven out of the Country by a most wicked administration. What effect this might have had in favour of Mr. Cobbett, is not quite certain ; for Mr. Hunt was not satisfied with his vindication of Mr. Cobbett. He must also vindicate himself from a charge preferred against him at the last Election for " riding about the Country with another man's wife," and being called u a sad fellow," for it, bv Mr. Cobbett. This charge was founded upon a letter purporting to be the handwriting of Mr Cobbett, with the Botley post- murk upon it, bearing the usual stamp of authenticity, and directed to a Mr. Wright, then a publisher, or agent of Mr. C. This, Mr. Hunt says, upon the authority of a Register not yet come to hand, aud a paragraph which lias found its way into the Liverpool Mercury, is A FORGERY— that Mr. Cobbett denies ever having charged him with such a heinous offence— and, that consequently it was very infamous in any man to talk of such a thing !— Reformers, thou seest, my friend, can be as great babies as^ other men. A large and important assembly are compelled to hear these squabbles, and suspend public business, because, in reply to Mr. Hunt's misrepresenting one letter, Mr. Cleary feels himself justified in producing another that complains of Mr. Hunt's " riding about the country with another man'$ wife!" A staunch royalist, now, would have smiled at such an accusation, and thought what had the sanction of royalty to recommend it, could be a disgrace to no one. Yet, if morality be in question, methinks the gentleman had better served his cause by disproving the fact, than by calling the accusing authority in question. It is not to be disguised that it is the opinion of many, such charges could only be preferred for the purpose of creating confusion. It was happy that the good sense of the meeting left Mr. Cleary and Mr. Hunt to settle the dispute. At present the word of the former cannot be impeached by the assertions of the latter. Mr. Hunt produced his paper; Mr. Cleary produced the letter, in the hand- writing, and with the signature, of Mr. Cobbett. That it could not be forged for any election purpose is satisfactorily proved by the testimony of many who saw it, more than twelve months before the election took place; and many who are acquainted with the writing of Mr. Cobbett, say it is genuine. Mr. Hunt says it is a forgery ; he has now only to prove it. Mr. Cleary has pledged himself to abide the result, even at the hazard of his life. But really, when the welfare of a nation is at stake, these paltry disputes about gigs and mistresses, whether true or false, ought to be set aside. When this storm had blown over, and, in sooth, long did it shake the vaulted roof with its thunders, ( for no lady ever contends for the last word with more pertinacity than Mr. H . ) Mr. Wishart rose, and proposed Lord John Russell, a young nobleman of good family; and who, it is declared, upon the authority of Mr. Wishart, is willing to let the people who hold houses be free once in three years ! He is a descendant of the Russell who bled for more essential freedom; but if he have learnt wisdom by the fate of his ancestor, who can blame him? But again, who, of the admirers of his ancestor would elect him ? i He is however a nobleman, and yet young. The doctrines, fashionable in the sphere in which he moves, may have left some prejudices hanging about a good heart and sound head. Yet people should not be obliged to ask young lords what degree of liberty is good for them! To say the least of it, it sounds unpleasantly to an enlightened ear. Mr. Wishart has a house; and thinks a vote once in three years trouble enough for him. He was therefore right in proposing Lord John Russell, who spoke ably against the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and who dislikes a tory administration, with which very few honest men can be pleased. The merits of Lord John were admitted; but they were not of the description required. Besides, he has a seat already in tbe house; and to sit for Westminster might administer to his ambition, but not to his utility. To do him justice it must be stated, that his proposer said he did not wish to oppose the choice of the meeting, if that choice did not fall upon him. This was very properly leaving the people to judge what they thought would suit themselves. Thou wilt naturally ask, upon the question of the representation of Westminster, what is become of M A J O R CARTWRIGHT ? Ah ! my friend, thou art not aware what a set of inconsistent beings are assembled round the standard of liberty. The Major, by some inveterate destiny, will not grow younger ! Time, that plods on with all, will not stand still with him ! This is a grievous complaint, and cannot be ameaded. There is, too, an obstinate race of beings, whose eyes he has opened against their will; and to be revenged of 725 THE BLACK DWARF. 72 6 him, they will not confess that they can see. They are like ungrateful patients, who remember more of the pain of the medicine than the benefit of the cure. They like health and vigour, but hate the physician for the painful process by which he gave them. To stem the torrent of prejudices, is only the work of a Hercules like himself. It has been the work of his life ; and when he has levelled to the ground the prejudices against the opinions he has taught so long, they rise up renewed against himself! Some of his opponents measure his strength and faculties by their own ; and conscious they must have fallen, unequal to the toil he has gone through, they exclaim, " Oh! he can do no more! It is quite impossible that he can do any more!'" All the reasons that recommend him are overlooked; and those only remembered which appear to oppose his pretensions. This is so general, that Sir Francis Burdett declared " it would be impossible to carry the election of Major Cartwright!" WHY, I must confess I cannot learn. I know he will neither buy nor court the situation. But why is it not voluntarily offered— unless there be more weakness, and less virtue in Westminster, than is generally supposed ? It is now, however useless to complain. The Committee of Westminster has convened the electors, and the choice has fallen on Mr. HOBHOUSE. He is to be the standard bearer of the cause, the herald of the host of freedom. Those who wish the Major had been chosen, will not be the less zealous to render the principles triumphant, although they are not advocated by the same voice. Mr. Hobhouse brings youth and eloquence to assist us— he has sworn to defend our rights — and shame, nay more than shame befal him! May the daggers of those he deceives with so fair a shew of virtue, meet in his bosom, if it harbour any reservation against their cause! If he be capable of misleading the confi. dence so spontaneously, so generally offered to his asking! Sir Murray, too, the gallant Sir Murray Maxwell, is also in the field. But he will not now be the cats- paw to pull the chesnuts out of the fire— he will only eat them, when they are pulled out. Eighty- four electors have applied to him, but his stomach and his purse are equally out of fighting condition. He will be at no " pecuniary wot personal expence!" There is cash enough in the treasury, tor the " revenue is improved.'" The " parish committees " are all on the alert. They expect no volunteers, and so are prepared to press all they meet into the service ! Their electioneering press- gangs will shortly be put in commission, and more pretended hurts, and sham illnesses may be the result. Poor Sir Murray, he is not yet recovered! Nor, if he have the slightest spark of spirit, will he ever recover, from a sense of the degraded condition into which the ministers plunged him on the last occasion. There is now time for action; and, what is not less essential to victory, union in the councils. The impossibility of returning either Mr. Cobbett, or Lord John Russell, and the alledged impossibility of returning Major Cartwright, has, apparently by common consent, notwithstanding much sacrifice of feeling, placed the banner in the hands of Mr. Hobhouse. The Westminster Committee has now done its duty. The contest is thrown into the hands of the electors at large. One gentleman attempted to censure the proceedings of those who had convened the public meeting. He accused them of being a junta, a set of dictators, and usurpers of the general right. To this it was admirably replied by the Chairman—" When the " Committee hesitated to act at the beginning of the last " election, it was objected to them, that they could do no- " thing— that when their services were wanted, they could " not act! Now they had acted, now they had convened " their fellow- citizens, they were reproached with usurpa- " tion, with improper dictation. The Westminster Com- " mittee had no power— it could only recommend measures, " and give effect to the voice of the electors at large." On all public occasions some must a c t ; and those who will not take the trouble to do any thing, have no right to complain of what is done. In council every man should endeavour to carry the best and most effectual measures— in the field, every one should endeavom' to shorten the battle, by obtaining the victory. The list of radical reformers is now, thanks to the efforts of Major Cartwright, so extended, that the difficulty is not where we shall find a man, as the case has been, but whom we shall chuse out of many. This idea was enforced by Sir Francis Burdett, as a proud source of congratulations; among many names eligible even for the representation of Westminster, the Baronet named Sir CHARLES W O L S E L E Y , whose stern opposition to a corrupt system has long rendered him the hope of the oppressed in his own county, and the terror of the oppressors every where. The great mass of soulless animals who follow the majority, now begin to look about, to see how the balance hang § . The manly letter of Sir CHARLKS has startled them. Some with idle hostility push out their horns, with all the anxiety of restless snails, equally afraid to stay within, or to peep out of, the shells of their pride and their prejudices. It is a source of proud gratification to see the rolling mass of opinion gathering as it goes from all quarters, and becoming daily increased with the virtue and talent of all degrees. The bloated hag of corruption trembles at the entrance of her loathsome den. She will not long be able to gather up her polluted folds in the temple of St. Stephens. The sister hag of the paper throne in Threadneedle- street, nods also to her final fall; a very short period only can elapse, before she must read the recantation of her errors, seated on the fragments of her ruins. Her darling sons already see the symptoms of approaching dissolution. She, herself, indeed, like a consumptive patient, imagines her disease abated, and talks of renovated health and strength. But the palsy of her frame upon the slightest motion,— the hectic of her eye, as she gazes at the airy spectres that flit before her,— tie shades of the almost countless victims to her misdeeds, all demonstrate how ill she is at ease. The best friends of humanity can only wish her " a quiet, easy death." Thy well- wisher, THE BLACK DWARF. DISPATCHES EXTRAORDINARY FROM SAINT HELENA. THE Public are cautioned from giving any credence to the assertions in the B L A C K D W A R F , and jacobin publications, that no conspiracy has been detected at St. Helena. A most black and horrid conspiracy has existed; and, it is feared, now exists in that island, having for its " object" the liberation of Napoleon, by means of a " communication " with England 1 The following dispatches will shew that " the plot'" was not only real, but well calculated to effect the diabolical purpose of once more placing an able man upon 311 THE BLACK DWARF. 31S an European throne ! The public will excuse us for not furnishing more than the necessary " extracts," to demonstrate the plot, and the wise and vigilant means, which the " most excellent governor," as our friend S L O P calls him, ( Sir Hudson Lowe) adopted. Extract from a Dispatch to Lord Bathurst, dated St. Helena, June 1, 1818. " Considerable alarm was excited here this morning, by ' c the discovery of engravings of a steam engine, a boat, and " an air balloon, in a volume, sent out among others, from " the Continent to Napoleon Bonaparte. I consulted with " all the learned men in the island upon the question, whe- " tlier Bonaparte might not escape by means of the eugrav- " ings, as well as the real machinery. Their opinion was against me ; but, relying on the well- known aphorism, " that there is nothing impossible to God, I deemed it my " duty to take all imaginable means of security. I first " ordered the books to be burnt, and then directed more " ' rigorous measures ' to be adopted at Longwood, the " nature of which your Lordship will better understand by " the following Reports from the commanding officer : "— ( Copy.)— Longwood, June 2, -- past 5, p. m. " Have just ordered the troops to close upon the house, placed a centinel at each window, and one upon the top of every chimney, to give the earliest notice of any movement within the house. Prepared the signals for the distant stations ; stopped a field mouse going in a direction contrary to orders; and fired at a crow who did not answer signal. The sentinel on the south chimney reported that he heard a cough within, which alarmed us a little; but, upon recollection, we remembered the orderly book had noticed that Count Montholon was afflicted with a cold. Doubled the sentinels, however, as this might be all a contrivance to escape, Just at dusk, saw something like a boat at a great distance; made the requisite signals, and ordered the whole troop under arms. An impertinent fellow of a Waterloo corporal said it was a false alarm; ordered him a dozen the following morning, for thinking, and grumbling to do his duty. A strange noise heard at half- past seven, for which no one could account. After a strict search, found a cat, belonging to Napoleon's establishment, and shot her instantly for being out of bounds, at an unseasonable hour. Recommend the centinel, who first gave the alarm, to particular notice. The cat might have had a letter tied round her neck, but we did not perceive any. At nine, alarmed again by an unusual noise. All on the a l e r t ; but the centinel at the east bed- room window, peeping through a hole, which he gallantly made with his bayonet, found that it was only Napoleon pulling otF a tight silk stocking. Countermanded the signal for the garrison to get under arms, and reported " all's well." I t is, however, the opinion of the guard, that Napoleon ought to pull off his stockings before the watch is set. At ten, all was quiet; but in less than half an hour thought we heard something stirring. Called upon the sentinels to be very vigilant, and had the satisfaction of bayoneting a large rat, evidently from the town, and within half a mile of Longwood. We found nothing about i t ; but, from its avoiding the guard, it was evidently about nothing good. It will be returned in the report to- morrow, in order that it may be transmitted to England, in justification of the " rigorous measures" adopted to prevent unseasonable intruders. Your Excellency will not fail to observe, that it was shot within bounds. At twelve, thecentinel on the north chimney fell down, apparently dead. Gave the signal for a general muster, fired the beacon and the signal guns. The troops were assembled at all the stations, the ships lighted, and cleared for action ; all were in full march for Longwood ; when, on the arrival of a reinforcement, we proceeded to examine into the cause. Found the man quite recovered, but not able to assign the cause of his falling down. Burst open the doors, and discovered Count M. warming a basin of gruel for the Emperor. It appeared he had lighted a fire for that purpose, and the smoke had half- suffocated the centinel, who was asleep on the chimney ; ordered the man five hundred lashes in the morning. The governor gave a verbal order that no gruel should be warmed in the night in future, on his own responsibility, until he can apply to Lord Bathurst, to have it enacted by the Parliament of Great Britain. Bonaparte and Montholon were insolent enough to laugh at us. Who knows after all, whether it were not a stratagem to stifle the soldier, and get out of the chimney. To be sure they did not know the man was there. Stopped one of the servants, who, in the confusion, attempted to go into the garden. The fellow pretended a necessity ; but it was not in our orders to allow of necessity at unseasonable hours. One of the centinels picked up a piece of paper within, which was handed to the Governor, who promised to reward him if it contained any thing. Count M. in a great passion, swore he would light fires in all the chimnies. Obliged to take down the centinels, lest he should ; but ordered all to stand with bayonets fixed, ready to fire, should he pop his head out of the chimney. Wished for day- light. The centinels report noises every five minutes. Dreadfully alarmed for two hours, when the dawn began to peep. Insisted on seeing that Napoleon was safe. All well at five, and ordered the soldiers to stand at ease. Saw the old crow who refused to answer signal the night before ; and ordered a file to fire at him. Wounded, and took him prisoner. Looks very suspicious, and waits the Governor's orders. Drew off the men from the windows, but directed them to keep a sharp look out. Retreated, as the day advanced, to fifty paces from the house; relieved guard, and sent eighteen to the hospital with sick billets, on account of the hard duty of the night! " Commanding Officer. " Your lordship will not fail to appreciate the extraordinary vigilance of these meritorious soldiers ; and while you commiserate their incessant duty, you will be pleased to learn, that they bear all like heroes. I must beg of your lordship to get the act of parliament amended, to cover all the cases alluded to in this report. It will be also requisite to enact, that no ship shall be seen from the island ! that no friend of Napoleon shall live at Rome, Munich, Paris, or London !— that Lord Cochrane shall not venture into these seas !— and that no secret outlets shall exist in the island! I t will be as well also to insert a clause, forbidding Bonaparte to complain I and warning all the live and dead stock of St. Helena from being seen within the prescribed limits after five o'clock. There is no other way of guarding against attempts to escape. I have forwarded two or three documents, which I do not understand, as evidences of the traitorous intention of Napoleon and his friends. There are also some books which I do not think it necessary for Bonaparte to read, and a copy of the verbal orders which I have 311 THE BLACK DWARF. 31S been obliged to give to amend the defects of my written instructions. I have sent home Mr. O'Meara. He has no suspicions, no cowardice, no cruelty about him, and is therefore quite unfit for this climate. I tried to frighten him into a proper sense of loyalty, but it would not do. Pray remember him on my account, and discourage all his reports in favour of Napoleon and to my prejudice, & c. & c. & c." BANK NOTES. The Westminster Meeting excludes the intended address to the Directors of the Bank of England. We must, however, offer them the following atrocious instance of the scandalous negligence of their servants, and the villa'nous impudence with which all are treated, who fall under their suspicion. The parties who have suffered on this occasion, it may be hoped, will call the oppressors to a strict account. It is a public duty, and the public, in justice to itself, will take due care that poverty does not prevent the injured individuals from demanding, aye, and obtaining justice too ! in spite of the " R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y ' ' and " respectability" of the insolvent concern which it is attempted, by such infamous means, to boltster up. P A R I S H C O N S T A B L E S. A genuine Bank of England note, without any clerk's signature has lately been found in circulation : and before its genuineness was ascertained at the Bank, the persons to whom it had been paid for labour ( Haynes and others of Paddington Wharf) were detained as prisoners, upon a charge of attemping to pass what was erroneously considered a forged note. If the following affidavits of Haynes and his brother's wife ( published in the Observer) may be credited, the conduct of the constables was outrageous :— " I, Mary Haynes, wife of James Haynes, of Edgeware- road, do certify, and am ready to make oath, that on Friday night, the 23d of October, I went with my husband's brother, Joseph Haynes, to Mr. Smith, broker and constable, of Bell- street, Paddington, to pay him a sum of money he owed to him ; I tendered him a one pound note, which my brother had received the same day at Mr. Tlioroughgood's, in Titchfield- street, Riding- house- lane, and which had Mr. T.' s name written on the back. Smith said that he had g change, and requested my brother to go to the Key public house, which is hard by, and be would bring us change instead of doing so, he brought two constables, and gave me, my brother, and a friend of my brother's, who was in the tap- room, and who was called to prove that he saw Mr. Thoroughgood give my brother the note paid to Mr. Smith, into their custody ; and they treated us in the most violent manner possible, handcuffed them, and attempted to handcuff me; but, by my entreaties, and informing them that I was sickly, and subject to fits, they at last consented to let me walk to the watchhouse without being ironed. We were rudely dragged along the streets to the watch- house, and there detained till 8 o'clock next day from our families, although the officers were convinced, on the preceding night, that the note we had offered to Smith the constable, was taken by my brother from a respectable tradesman, Mr. Thoroughgood. We were dragged along the streets from the watchhouse to Marlborough- street police office by the constables, and there we were kept three hours, and discharged at last without being asked a single question, by either the magistrate or any body else. The note taken from us was found to be a good one. We were afterwards informed, that the constable had thought it was a bad one, because the Bank- clerk had omitted to sign it. When we were taken into a little room at Marlborough- street police- office, we were told " it was all over, and we might go about our business ;" and a new note was given to my brother for the one taken from him. In addition to the above I have to add, that I have been in a state of great indisposition ever since I was dragged to the watch- house, in consequence of the treatment I received from the constables, and the dampness of the prison. " MARY HAYNES, her X mark." " 1, Joseph Haynes, do certify, that the above statement made by Mrs. Haynes, my brother's wife, is true; and in addition, I and my friend were kept in a dark hole at the watch- house of St. Maryle- bone, from 7 o'c lock on Friday night to 11 o'clock on Saturday morning ; and there was sufficient time for the constables to have taken us before a magistrate on Friday evening, if they had chosen, for we were locked up in the watch- house by 7 o'clock. ( Signed) " JOS. HAYNES, Nov. 13, 1818." ARREST OF GENERAL GOUUGAUD. This gentleman, a French officer during the Revelution, who is guilty of the unpardonable crimes of thinking Napoleon a better soldier than Wellington, and of writing an account of the Battle of Waterloo to prove it, has been seized and conveyed out of the kingdom. This outiage will not now excite a comment. England is no longer the refuge of the brave, or the sanctuary of the wise. The administration of the day have " spread our disgrace as far as our reputation ever has extended ; to borrow the words of Mr. flobhouse, who designated it as " the vilest and basest administration that England had ever seen. " The seizure of General Gourgaud, by the King's writ, was carried into effect in the grossest and most brutal manner. Every thing corresponded. The minor ruffians played their parts as well as their masters. Some assert this proceeding was necessary to save the character of Sir Hudson Lowe ; others, in tenderness to the reputation of the Waterloo Duke. We only know it to be an infamous stretch of power— an unwarrantable violation of the law, and these things are now too common to enlarge upon. But we venture to say, the event will not justify the treatment of Napoleon, nor palliate the assassination of Ney! MISCELLANEA. MUMMY AT A I X - L A - C H A P E L L E . — T h e papers announcet as a wonder, at a place where all is mummery— and where MUMMIES of all sorts are exhibited; painted, and patched, and pye- bald, to amuse each other. The only difference is, that the shewman of the common mummy is not so expert as the exhibitors of the royal mummies! The latter are so dexterously wire- drazen that they can walk and dance, and even seem to talk, though they have as little brains as their Egyptian ancestry. C O N T R A D I C T I O N S . — D r . Slop is dreadfully enraged that the King of France should be compelled to recal the murderers of his brother! The King of France, however, recalls them under another character— that of the Saviours of France — as the men with whom alone the nation he calls his, will act. The men to whom at last he must be indebted far his crown, if thev do not chance to prefer a republic. The Conscripts cry already " L O N G LIVE THE N A T I O N ! " And the K I NG must join this cry, or retire with Dr. SLOP into some private corner, to curse Reform, and the Rights of Man. T O C O R R E S P O N D E N T S. A variety of Letters have been received, and will be attended to as early as possble. 311 THE BLACK DWARF. 31S TO THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. L E T T E R I. Tunbridge ( Veils, Sill November, 1818. MY LORD, " The constitution of every free government is subject from time " to time to a sort of dangerous crisis, which demands the attention " of all who are concerned for its preservation." " If the coustitu- " tion is only through age impaired, it must be called back to its " first principles; but if some new emergency has arisen, a new " remedy must be applied ; such an one, however, as is agreeable " to the nature of the constitution, and capable of being woven into " the very spirit of it, lest it should chance to form an interest " contrary to it, and in the event prove more fatal than the dis- " order. " The history of this country abounds with more of these criti- " cal periods than any other; and it is owing to the proper use " our ancestors made of them, that our government has long been " advancing by various steps towards perfection; they withstood " the repeated attempts both of papal innovation and regal oppres- " sion ; and though their struggles frequently produced violent " fevers in the state, yet the constitution al ways came forth in more " perfect health, and some new security was obtained for our free- " dom.*" Such, in 1757, were the words of the late Earl of Liverpool,- and they were words of wisdom. Whether, my Lord, he who now addresses you have, or have not, in his " Bill of Rights and Liberties," rightly prescribed for our present state fever, the public must decide ; but we have among us an active party, who put forward bold pretensions to skill as state physicians, claiming as such, not only hereditary talents, but a sort of exclusive privilege; who do not as yet wholly subscribe to his doctrine. This party are wont to plead their family skill, exhibited on occasion of that distemper, which they are fond of telling us was cured inl688, by that State Reform, called the Revolution. Wishing to expostulate a little with these doctors, meaning, as your Grace must perceive, the " regular Whig party," not only on their neglect and improper treatment of their patient, but likewise touching radical defects in their prescriptions; it has appeared to me, that this expostulation cannot be made with more propriety than through the person of the Duke of Bedford. The name of Russel, written for England's welfare in the family's blood— the ducal rank ; and yet more, the sentiments you have deliberately expressed, give you decidedly the first place in your party. Those only who intimately know me, can estimate the value in which I hold the letter received oil the 29th of April 1805, wherein your Grace says—" I should be ashamed to give support to any " set of men who did not feel the necessity of a radical amendment " in the whole system of our government. The source of our evils " is an inadequate defective representation of the People in Parlia- " ment; and until that source is cut off, in my humble judgment, " abuse and corruption will never cease to flow in a thousand dif- " ferent channels. I hope and trust the day is not far distant, when " that most desirable event, a substantial and radical reform in the " Representation of the People, may be brought to bear: in the " mean time, let them see the extent of their grievances, let them " know whence they arise, and let them coolly and dispassionately " form their own judgment upon the best, and surest remedy : it is " at hand, simple, and easy of attainment." Since the writing of that letter, the suffering people, as your Grace must know, have not only shown that they do " see the ex- " tent of their grievances," but that they likewise perfectly well " know whence they arise." " Coolly and dispassionately " have they formed their judgment upon the best and surest " remedy." With your Grace, also, tliey say " it is at hand, ' simple, and easy of attainment." But for so doing, minisas devoid of integrity as of shame, accuse them of trea- * Discourse of a Militia. son ; boroughmonger legislators commit actual treasons as means of persecution; aud even WHIGS — certain learned gentlemen among the foremost— instead of flying like Hampdens and Pyms to their redress, heaped on I hem scurrility, as contemptible for its stupidity, as it is unprincipled— having no possible object, but to uphold that atrocious » ystem of corruption, which must be put down, and totally annihilated, if we mean to be free. Lord Liverpool we see, writing prior to the present reign, had well remarked, that the corrections of a decayed state ought to agree with its first principles; and that when new emergencies arise, new remedies need to be applied, but such only as accord with the nature and spirit of the constitution. At the time of thus writing, that Noble Lord had seen but little, indeed, of that mass of evil which your Grace has since witnessed. Well may you, therefore, more pointedly observe that Reform, to do its office, must now be, not merely in unison with" the nature of the constitution, but radical, that is, to the full extent of its principles. But, indeed, a slight degree only of consideration will suffice to make this truth manifest. Our ancestors in. curing, from time to time, all former fevers in the state, applied the knowledge of the age in which they lived, always meaning that their remedies should be radical. That they proved otherwise, was not for want of a right intention, but because of a deficiency in legislative skill. In no period prior to our day, did an English gentleman ever talk of being a moderate reformer, proposing to do his work by halves. The heroes of Runnymede intended nothing, less than a step- by- step redress of grievances. Where they bound a treacherous king as it were in chains of iron and fetters of brass, setting over him a coercive police of twenty- five barons, to keep him to his good behaviour by force of arms, by the taking of his castles and all other operations of war, it is sufficiently evident that they meant their reform to be radical. This rude species of legislation, in a semi- barbarous age, radical as it was thought, and energetic as it cerlainly was, proved only a mere pruning of the brutish feudal system. But as science advanced, legislation improved, notwithstanding the alloy which royalty and aristocracy, in partiality to their own interests, threw in. Coming down to the revolution, effected in an age of light compared with feudal darkness, still we find reform intended for radical ; for who would apply the appellation of moderate to a measure in which the actors brought into the country a foreign army, expelled their king, and seated a new family on the throne ? My present object, however, is to remark, that the reformers then, as before, availed themselves of, and were governed by, public opinion, which of course depended on the knowledge of the age. It was as impossible for the knowledge of 1688 to have regulated its reform according to the ignorance of 1215, as that the ignorance of 1215 could have performed what was achieved in 1688. How then shall we be able to respect any person of the present age, either for capacity or for integrity, who can propose to us any arbitrary conceit, under the denomination of parliamentary reform, which would disgrace our better knowledge in the science of representation, while at the same time it must shock our moral feeling for its unprincipled contempt of national right and public justice ? But, indeed, so faint is become the coward muttering of dishonest faction, opposed to the audible and authoritative voice of freedom and truth, that we may confidently expect a parliamentary reform truly radical, as the only one our enlightened and critical age could endure. When your Grace shall replace before your mind's eye the deplorable condition of our country, which, thirteen years ago, you so truly depicted; and when, at the same time, you shall review that ceaseless torrent of corruptions, of violences and insults to the nation, as well as the innumerable stabs given within those thirteen years by assassin hands to the English Constitution, most certain I feel that your Grace and 1 cannot have different opinions on the nature of the crisis in which we stand. That in which our ancestors stood at the eve of the kin"- expelling 7 33 THE BLACK DWARF. T34 Revolution of 1688, wak in Viy deliberate judgment, by no means fo be compared to it for avfulness. That it is, therefore, not one, in which the descendants of the people who boast of that achievement, ought to shrink from the duties they are now called on to perform, was sufficiently declared, as well as the course now to be taken distinctly marked, in a single sentiment, which a late numerous meeting of friends to Radical Reform did me the honour to adopt, at my recommendation, as one of their patriotic toasts— ' Take your choice— Civil Government, or Military Despotism ; ' In other words, Burdett's Bill, or Castlereagh's Bayonet.' The Bill here meant was of course that to which the baronet's propositions, tendered to Parliament on the 2d of June, were the preamble:— Propositions which shew that the Bill itself, cannot in essentials differ from that which, as abovementioned, is already before the public. Awful, however, as the present crisis may be, and pregnant with whatever danger, ' tis not for patriot Englishmen to feel dismay. It would be to insult human reason, to suppose that a people, who are in the first rank of nations for knowledge and genius of every kind, and whose courage is proverbial throughout the whole world, could be placed in any circumstances of difficulty or danger, or could be entangled in any species of political thraldom, out of which, by their will and their energy, they could not triumphantly extricate themselves to the confusion of the undermining, corrupt, and if necessary, to the sure destruction of the most daring traitors. While, for the most part, the great and wealthy, as if spellbound, have hitherto with averted eye withholden their aid to the diffusion of just principles; while the country gentlemen, the merchants and master- manufacturers, as if besotted, have manifested sufficient insensibility to their country's danger ; yet the English blood that warms the hearts of that most numerous class on whom, not only the civil welfare but the martial glory of our country mainly depends, has glowed with indignation at the public wrongs; and, among that class, as we have seen, the particular knowledge most essential to our salvation has spread with lightning's speed. If there be those among the elevated, who, with their classic lirature, are disgracefully ignorant of better things; if the proud I arisee shut his eyes to political light, and the learned lawyer j restitute his tongue and his pen to pervert the truth, and debase his very soul in tbe service of faction, yet, in that industrious class, the main strength of the nation, patriotism finds its millions, who with your Grace, know the true cause of their wrongs, and likewise know, as evidenced by their thousand of petitions, signed by more than a million of them, that " the best and surest remedy is " at hand,"— as well as that " it is simple, and of easy attainment." Then, whether we look upwards or downwards, is the crisis fo be trifled with ? Is it a time for empyrical nostrums ? or for party experiments on the patience of an aggrieved people, the very handicrafts of whom, or, in the language of a learned divine, " the " lower orders have now more intelligence than the highest had a " century ago;" that is, touching " the political state of man."* Most certain it. is, that they now far better understand the principles of Representation, and consequently of Political Liberty, than those principles were understood in any prior age, even the learned age adorned by the Harringtons and the Hampdens, the Sidneys and the Seldens, the Marvels and the Miltons, illustrious as were those great men as scholars. Nay, it is but strict truth, that even Locke himself, who wrote on government before the borough treason had converted taxation into a scorpion scourge of despotism, had a less accurate knowledge of the principles of Representation, and, of course, a less vivid sense of its infinite importance, than the weavers and cordwainers of our day. To be without a discernment of the instructive truth in this case, or without joyfulness at this vast increase of human knowledge, as means of establishing human liberty, as well as of increasing human virtue and happiness, were to be without the prime qualification for the statesmanship now required. In this enlightened state of the public mind, could a rational person gravely offer, by way of reforming our representation, any * See Universal Suffrage vindicated in The Black Dwarf, of the 11th of March, 1818. project or scheme which thousands in the community could expose as grossly unjust, as palpably open to corruption, or as evidently defective in any respect ? True it is, that touching a discovery of the longitude at sea, for the preservation of our ships, the safety of our mariners, and the benefit of our merchants, a great pecuniary reward, as a stimulant to genius in pursuit of the object, is held up by parliament to be paid by the public; while yet it is equally true, that no such reward is promised to him who shall discover the means of preserving the great vessel of the state itself, in which the lives, liberties, and fortunes of the whole nation are embarked; and who, for that purpose, shall clearly delineate tbe mode of perfectly uniting the practice with the theory, the variety of the parts with the simplicity of their union, and the solid, substantial benefits, with the abstract science and principles of Representation. But will any English gentleman, who has an ambition to serve his country in this way, be on that account the less solicitous to render his work perfect ? Will he not be conscious that a nobler reward than money can confer shall await his success ? In an ardent age, when excellence is so universally in request, that rewards are for ever proposed for the best academic discourse, the best poem, the best mechanic invention, or the best mode of even cultivating a turnip— indicating that honour and distinction attaches to superiority in whatever interests society ; as ridicule or disgrace clings to puerile projects, abortive schemes, or disreputable devices ; of what materials must that, low or sordid mind be composed, which, in a matter so infinitely important as that of parliamentary Reform, should be capable of not honestly aiming at all possible excellence! Of our state, with Harrington we may say, that " long tumbling " and tossing on the bed of sickness must speedily terminate in " death or recovery;" but yet the latter can only be brought about by a treatment conformable to science and to nature. How, then, must the moral ear and the public mind be shocked at those mock prescriptions of factious empyrics, composed only of trash, to the exclusion of specifics, which equally disgust radical corruptionists and radical reformists— the former, because they sicken at the very name of reform— the latter, because of those prescriptions having, iiAfact, nothing but the name ! When patients are themselves physicians, ' tis presumptuous folly to scribble nonsense for their cure. By all, my Lord, who are not utterly devoid of sense or reflection, the alternative of the crisis, in which, with anxious apprehension, we stand, is strongly felt, if not clearly comprehended. But, even among the most attentive, there is one difference of opinion, on which, as it should seem, hang suspended in the scales of our fate, consequences so opposite and so awful, as to excite in the contemplative mind an interest the most painful, as thereon probably depends the salvation or final ruin, the happiness or endless misery of our country. There are those, and among them persons of acute penetration, who hold it to be as certain as man's mortality, that the day is not distant when we are to behold the complete downfal of the Bank Paper Edifice, and with it the phantom called the funds. It is then, tliev foretel, but not till then, that we are to have a radical reform of the Representation of the People in Parliament. Reasoning, but too plausibly, from past experience, from the complicated texture of the present system, and the inveteracy of its corruptions, they cannot be persuaded of even the possibility of a prior reform. But, considering the comparative absence of a metallic currency in our highly commercial country, a sudden downfal of the paper edifice might produce a dire convulsion, even a dis ruption of society itself, and an anarchy terrific in the very contemplation. Out of such a chaos, what almighty hand shall draw forth for our security, a Reform, which, as " Representation is the happiest discovery of political wisdom," were the consummation of social order, and the highest point in the perfection of government ? Among another class of reasoners, of whom the writer professes to be one, another opinion prevails; namely, that, in consequence of the vast influx of political light, which has of late, by the dis 311 THE BLACK DWARF. 31S persion of dense clouds of error, burst on us from that sun of the mind, Divine Truth; laying open to our view corruption in all its ramifications, as well as the misery it produces, and dispelling the noxious vapours of alarm; while it displays in all its beauty universal Freedom, parent of content, order and tranquillity, we shall preventatively, and as it were instinctively, take up radical reform as our natural shield against all adversity; urged to the work, and quickened in its performance, by an imperious sense of imminent danger. In proportion, however, to the diffidence with which it may be right to entertain an opinion of the stability of the paper currency, HI the same proportion, superadded to intellectual reasons the most convincing, arid moral motives the most binding', the wiser part of the aristocracy and the opulent may be at length expected to arrange themselves, ere too late, 011 the side of such a parliamentary reform, as sound knowledge in the science of representation may require. A comparative sketch of the different consequcnces to be looked for, under the supposition of a downfal of the paper edifice uuder a rotten'borough House of Commons, or under one previously re formed may have its instruction. On one hand such an event during the continuance of such a cor rupt House, while the whole nation groans under the grinding oppression of a usurping despotic oligarchy, who can no otherwise uphold their immensely complex system of tyranny, than by main taining, at the people's expense for the people's slavery, one immense standing army of military mercenaries, and another such standing army of civil myrmidons;— such ail event under such circumstances — when all would necessarily be a wild distraction, because none could repose confidence in the wisdom or the good intention of their rulers, and when revenge would have all possible stimulus to take its full swing— must of necessity produce a volcanic irruption, to which nought in history, except the French Revolution, may be compared. In what direction, or to what extent, the rivers of revolutionary lava would burn up and bury under them palaces and parks, offices and institutions, cannot be precisely foreseen; but it would be fortunate, indeed, for the cowardly and base alarmists, who have been so conspicuously instrumental in causing the present calamities of their country, as well as for those with whom they confederated in the mad and fiend- like attempt to extirpate truth and freedom by fire and sword, dungeons and tortures, should they not, 11 that day, have reason to repent of their treasons! At all events, such horrors are to be deprecated and prevented; and more especially 011 acccount of the hazard that, even from an English chaos, a new beneficent creation might be less likely immediately to arise, than that for a while a desolating fury, civil discord and bloodshed might prevail, before the stores of knowledge in which the community is so rich, and the characteristic love of our republican constitution,* could have time to allay the storm, and finally to adjust a reformed government to the general satisfaction. Now, 011 the other hand, we have, my Lord, to consider our motives to a Radical Reform, that, in addition to those permanent blessings which must grow out of its nature, should have the further recommendation of a charm, capable of averting from us a convulsion that may uproot the very state— a convulsion which may happen at a moment when extreme oppression, insult, and aggravated provocation may have worked up the passions of the people to a moral hurricane, which no power could resist, no reason control, until its desolating rage should be spent. As, when tempestuous winds cease their furious lashing and a calm ensues, the waves of an angry ocean presently subside into a * That this is the proper character of the English government, all its essential principles proclaim; and, among other documents of former days, we may read it even in speeches from the throne. When English kings, ministers and parliaments are republican— that is, when they respect the freedom and the interest of the PUBLIC, the people never fail to respect them. When kings, ministers, or parliaments set themselves in opposition to that freedom and that interest, it is the highest earthly duty, and the paramount temporal interest of the people to oppose them. ' glassy smoothness, so an angry people soon become appeased, when the lash of oppression ceases to inflict its torments. It not having been in the power, as it. seems to have been the wish, of their inveterate tyrants to metamorphose Englishmen, from being among the very best, into the very worst of mankind, but the generous character of the nation being still conspicuous, ' tis morally certain, that the passing of a " Bill of Rights and Liberties" would instantaneously, with an electric influence, calm and harmonize the public mind, into a temper, patiently to attend a developement of the efficacy of Radical Reform, in healing the wounds of the state, in the redress of grievances, and in the full diffusion, with all practicable speed and all possible diligence, of the inexpressible blessings of free government. Knowing that in place of the ignorant, pillaging, and mis- goverriing tyrants who merit nought but detestation, their affairs and interests would for the future be in the guardianship of men annually elected throughout the kingdom for their wisdom and virtue, and therefore possessing their affections and confidence ; then, not even the downfal of the paper fabric, nor other untoward occurrence, the effect of past ill- government, could cause either tumult ® r consternation. Conscious that the national wisdom and virtue was assembled in council, and knowing that God and Nature have not interposed any bar to a redress of political grievances, a free people must know that every such grievance would be redressed by real representatives, doing for them in Parliament what they, if present, would do for themselves. The distress that threatens from a failure of paper money, being a consequence of mis- government, is here contemplated as a political grievance; but, in the hands of an honest Parliament, not one that is without a remedy. Now, my Lord, when a volcanic revolution seems to hang over us, suspended bv a slender thread, say, whether the nation ought any longer to endure a detested boroughmoiiger usurpation, to the utter destruction of its liberties, and rapidly hurrying it to an Algeriue slavery and barbarism ;— or ought instantly, with a voice not to be resisted, to demand a radical reform, that should not only renew its liberties, but likewise fence them round with securities infinitely superior to any thing heretofore experienced ! This superior security in future, arises from superior knowledge in the science of representation, of which the patriots of Runnymede knew nothing, and even those of the Revolution, but little; or, instead of a mere declaration of rights, they would have given us possession. In even the writings of the immortal Locke on Government, we have but a morning twilight on this topic, compared with the present meridian splendour I have the honour to be, & c. & c. JOHN CARTWR1GHT. A W O R D TO T H E W I S E IN THREADNEEDLESTREET. Dealers in rags ( I would ye were ill rags, For rags were always the reward of merit), It grieves my very soul that Satire wags Iter finger at ye with a seornful spirit. But men of credit, characters of note. Censure did ever to her rage devote, And styles ye ( such impertinence won't falter) Priests of the modern Moloch's blood- stained altar. But /, Sirs, venerate the zeal, The generous love of public weal, That leads ye thus to pimp for law's fierce lust; And, grand purveyors to the gibbet, Procure examples to exhibit Of criminals suspended; scenes which must To other high- placed rogues urge this reflection— Ropes and suspensions have a close connexion. R O D E R I C RANHOM. Printed and Published by and for T. J. WOOLER, 58, Sun- street, Bishopsgate. Sold at No. 4, Catherine- street, Strand; where all communications ( post- paid) are requested to be addressed.
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