London , 1

BvSB

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1938

SHACKEU, A\D BATMS, JOHSSOK's-COriST.

TO ALL
INHABITANTS OF ENGLAND WHO VALUE A FREE PROTESTANT
CONSTITUTION ;
TO ALL WHO REGARD THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH AS THE
GREATEST OF NATIONAL BLESSINGS ;
TO ALL WHO ADMIRE THE ANCIENT SYSTEM OF GOVERN
MENT SO LONG PURSUED BY A PATRIOTIC TORY
ADMINISTRATION ;
AND LASTLY,
TO ALL WHO CONTEMPLATE WITH DREAD THE ASCENDANCY
OF POPISH AND WHIGGISH PRINCIPLES AMONG US ;
TO ALL SUCH,
OF WHATEVER RANK OR STATION IN LIFE,
TtfE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY ADDRESSED.

THE

GRAND VIZIER UNMASKED.

At a moment like the present, when the
destinies of England appear, as it were, to
hang upon the will and wisdom of one man,
when all those whom we have most honour
ed for their patriotic integrity and long
s'
tried experience in public affairs, as states
men, are reduced to the rank of private
citizens, and when the nation, which had
been accustomed to repose with confidence
on their wisdom, is unable to place the
same confidence in their successors, it be
comes a sacred duty to sound the alarm in
every dwelling, and to proclaim in every
ear, truths which must needs rouse up the
B

spirit, and influence the resolves of every
honest-hearted Englishman.
That the voice of truth has, however,
been suppressed in this free country, at the
moment when it ought to have sounded
loudest, is unequivocally confirmed by the
present state of the public press. Not a
Paper does aught but re-echo the praises of
him whose creature it has become, and the
base adulation of those who bow the knee
to Baal, is only equalled by their abuse of
the high-minded and disinterested states
men who refuse to sanction a faith which
they disbelieve, and to burn incense upon
an altar which they abominate.
In proportion, however, to the magni
tude of this attempt to delude the public
mind, must be our dread of the minister
in whose name it has been effected ; and we
trust that the revulsion of public opinion,
so soon as it does take place, will be such
as to overthrow all the machinations of those
who have endeavoured to mislead it.

" Heaven defend me from my friends*"
is an old saying, but one of daily applica
tion ; and the bitterest enemy of Mr. Can
ning could not have wished for more than
to see him surrounded, as he now is, by
venal newsmongers, and parasitical adhe
rents. To him, their undeserved praise
is indeed satire in disguise, and the louder
their clamour against his political oppo
nents, the more forcibly does it convince
us, how weak must be a cause which re
quires such contemptible auxiliaries. Still,
however, though the poison may be weak,
and the constitution of the public mind
too strong to be injured by it, prevention
is always better than cure, and the less of
Mr. Canning's political poisons are now
swallowed, the less eventual mischief will
be produced by his present ascendancy,
throughout the kingdom at large.
It is our object, therefore, in the follow
ing pages, so to dev elope a few leading traits
of Mr. Canning^ political character and
b2

past conduct, as to enable the simplest
mind to judge for itself, whether in times
present or times to come, he is a fit person
to preside over the councils of this country.
That done, the vindication of His Ma
jesty's late ministers, from the absurd and
false charges of disloyalty and misconduct,
which the new Premier's friends have
endeavoured, by a sort of popular outcry,
to raise against them, will become clear
as noon-day, and the simplest reader will
at once be able to understand who are the
real and who are the pretended friends of
the King and of the people.
First, it may be asked, what ought to be
the main ingredients in the character of an
English Prime Minister? — and what an
swer more suitable can we return, than to
exemplify the Earl of Liverpool ? Like him,
he should possess devotion to the Church,
and loyalty to his King— like him, he
should display the virtues of sincerity,
integrity, consistency, and independence

of character — like him, by first command
ing the respect, he should ensure the confi
dence of his countrymen.
Now let us examine how far the life, and
speeches, and actions of Mr. Canning cor
respond with those of his lamented pre
decessor. Is he a devoted champion of the Protes
tant Church ?
God forbid ! answer at once all his ad
mirers. He a bigot — he a lover of high
churchmen— he a defender of the faith?
No, no ; an enlightened mind like his, soars
far above these vulgar prejudices of vulgar
statesmen, and except out of respect for the
conventional usages of society, for, ilfaut
quelquefois respecter les prejuges du peuple,
we fear that he is as careless as he is
ignorant of the interests of the church esta
blishment. We appeal with perfect confi
dence to those who know him best, and
admire him most, as to the truth of
this assertion, which is, in fact, the highest

praise that he can receive from the disciples
of the liberal school ; and if he be equally
sincere with many among them who advo
cate the same doctrines, he will be not less
pleased to command such a distinguished
phalanx, than they can be to range them
selves beneath his banners.
Let it not be thought, however, that
from his character in private life, or from
the eulogiums of his friends alone, we form
this estimate of him. We refer to the
whole of his public conduct upon the Ca
tholic Question, and appeal unhesitatingly
to the common sense of every reader, to
determine how far a man, heart and soul
interested in the prosperity of the Church,
eould have ever advocated such a cause in
such a manner. If ever a statesman indeed
committed himself most grossly upon sub
jects of religion, it is Mr. Canning ; and
although at different periods he has found
it necessary to assume a virtue when he had
it not, he wore the cloak so clumsily, and

exposed his ignorance sasillily, that Achilles
m petticoats could not have made a more
ridiculous figure than Canning in the gown
of a doctor of divinity. It would be easy
to quote instances without number, in
printed speeches of the Right Honourable
gentleman, which record his blunders in
this respect; and the castigation of Dr.
Phillpotts, as preached by Sir John Cop
ley, under the severity of which he writhed
so lately in the House of Commons, must
be familiar to the minds of all our readers.
If, however, any one among them require
more direct evidence, we beg to refer him
to the single speech on the Catholic Claims
in 1825. He will there see by what learned
and logical arguments our Saviour's awful de
nunciations against wilful disbelief of scrip
ture truths, as interwoven with the Atha-
nasian Creed, are proved to be exactly the
same as the anathemas of the Pope against
such as believe these truths, and disbelieve
in Popish corruptions. He will there see

how exactly the sacrament of confession
and priestly absolution, correspond with
the directions for the Visitation of the Sick
in our Liturgy, and how the dependence
for salvation upon works of supererogation,
by which the redundant virtues of one
saint may atone for the vices of fifty
sinners, is more likely to produce good
subjects than the Protestant doctrine, which
insures a virtuous life as the sine qua non of
all true belief. He will there see how non
sense such as this, because set off by the
meretricious accompaniments of wit and
eloquence, which adorn every thing that he
touches, was received amid the cheers of the
enemies of our church, who thronged the
opposite benches, and he himself sat down
by them as worthy to fill the theological
professor's chair in the New London Uni
versity. That a statesman should, indeed, be
necessarily a divine, is quite another ques
tion ; but we hold that the Prime Minister

of a Protestant King, should be either able
to distinguish clearly between scripture
truths and papal heresies, or honest
enough to avow his ignorance, and at any
rate, wise enough to avoid any exposure of
it. Above all, his own good sense, if not
his principles, should have taught him to
curb the spirit of ridicule, when treating of
the most awful of all subjects ; and whatever
be his own opinions, he should have been
the last man in this country, to insult the
national faith, by comparisons not less
odious than unwarrantable.
All this may answer very well for a
season, in order to obtain the cheers of the
Humes and Broughams of the House of
Commons ; but what, issuing from their lips,
might pass away like the idle- wind, be
comes important and influential, when
coming from an official quarter ; and it
remains for our readers to judge, how far
one who thinks thus, and expresses himself
thus, and advocates thus a question in-

10
volving such fearful consequences, is him
self a fit person to watch over the interests
of the Church Establishment.
Will any one now lay his hand upon shis
heart and say, that the Right Honourable
G. Canning, is a sound, and wise, and con
scientious Churchman ? Will any one rely
with confidence upon his judgment, in
regard to what may or may not affect her
safety ? And can those who are truly her
friends, stand by at this awful crisis, and
contemplate without dread, the religious cha
racter of him, who has just been raised to
the highest pitch of ministerial greatness ?
If so, they are men of a cooler and
more phlegmatic make, than him who has
now the honour to address them ; and al
though himself unconnected with the
Church, he calls upon them, as well for
her own sake, as for the sake of the State,
into whose constitution she is ingrafted,
to make common cause against any possi
ble constitutional changes, which may be

11
attempted by that minister, and his Popish
confederates. That the Catholic Question
is not to be made a Cabinet measure, we
owe not to his forbearance, but to the
fortitude and high principle of our gracious
Sovereign ; yet there are, unfortunately,
other ways by which its progress may be
accelerated, in defiance of His Majesty's
known wishes ; and the best proof that it is
so, will be found in the extravagant re
joicings, with which Mr. Canning's eleva
tion is hailed by the friends of Popery, not
less than by the internal enemies of our
own Church. All alike make head together
against her, and all alike make common
cause with him, whose attainment of power
is associated in their minds with the attain
ment of power by themselves. How then
is it possible, that the same individual
should be true to the interests of both ? He
cannot serve two masters, and whatever
difference of opinion may exist on other
points, we are persuaded that no true

12
Churchman can place confidence in the
chosen supporter of his enemies. If he
does, he must, like the Israelites of old, be
unable to see with his own eyes, or to hear
with his own ears ; and although a Nero
fiddled whilst Rome was burning, we trust
that the people of England will awake, ere
it be too late, and save from impending
ruin, that glorious constitutional fabric, of
which the Church is the key-stone and
foundation. If Mr. Canning be an unsound Church
man then, as he undoubtedly is, we quite
agree with Mr. Peel and his friends, in
thinking him on that account alone, a very-
dangerous Prime Minister ; but setting
aside all question about the Church, let
us examine into his claims for our support
on general political grounds.
Is he, we proceed to ask, a consistent
statesman ?
In regard to his mode of advocat
ing the Catholic claims, Dr. Phillpotts
has clearly proved the contrary; but we

13
will not judge him by his conduct on that
one question. Let the history of a long
political career speak for itself, and guide
our endeavours to form a just estimate of
his political character.
Bred up among the noblest, and educated
by the most learned of the land, he was
ushered into public life, after enjoying
every advantage which could substantiate
good principles and develope superior
talents with the greatest possible success.
At the time therefore, when, like another
Hercules, he had to make his election
between two great parties in the State, from
whom did he receive his political creed ?
Why, from Sheridan, the champion of Whig
principles. — "His first political lessons,"
says his panegyrist, Mr. Moore, " were de
rived from sources too sacred to his young
admiration to be forgotten. He has carried
the spirit of those lessons with him into the
councils which he joined, and by the vigour
of the graft, which already indeed shews

14
itself in the fruits, bids fair to change alto
gether the nature of Toryism."
In other words, Whiggism was his first
political creed, and the support of
Whiggism his youth's disinterested choice.
But, unfortunately for his honour, though
not for his interest, he was soon quick-
sighted enough to perceive, (at Sheridan's
own suggestion, it is said) that the laurels
of Whiggism were barren laurels, whilst
Toryism opened the door to power and
place, as well as fame.
At the time , therefore, when that early
political friend, to whom he had ingenu
ously unbosomed himself, made known to
the world, that a new star was about to
appear on the Whig horizon, he made his
debut in the House of Commons, in Janu
ary 1794, as the partizan of Mr. Pitt. The
Whigs he loved, but the Tories he loved
still better, for the Tory sun then shone in
meridian splendour, and under it he
basked, until, like the parasite plant which

15
gives strength to its own supporter, he
clung to the British oak, and became a
valuable auxiliary branch of Mr. Pitt's
administration. Let it not be thought, however, that in
adopting Tory leaders, he wholly abandoned
Whig principles. At the formation of Mr.
Pitt's new administration in 1805, when
the resources of that master mind were
again called forth by the unanimous voice
of the country, it is on record* that Mr.
Canning wished, " like his friend Sheridan,
and like all liberal men," for what was then
called a broad-bottomed administration ;
that is, one in which all opinions and all
creeds were to be harmoniously blended
together, like tunes at a Dutch concert, or
rather like a Spanish olla podrida, where
the crabbed acidity of a puritan, might be
sweetened by the juices of a bon vivant,
and the vulgar tastes of democracy and
* Vide Parliamentary Debates, March 6, 1805.

Hi
jacobinism, corrected by the high-bred pre-,
lates of aristocracy.
It was well at that eventful moment, that
a Pitt was lord of the ascendant; and
instead of suffering the substantial interests
of the country to be at the mercy of poli
tical adventurers, each anxious to secure a
place under the specious garb of liberality,
he knew that a house divided against itself
can never stand, and that to reconcile opi
nions diametrically opposed, is as absurd a
task, as to expect that parallel lines can be
made to meet, by increasing their numbers
and their length. Mr. Fox and Mr. Tier-
ney both tried it in vain once, and not
only lost their characters, but their places
in the attempt ; and since, in regard to the
public, it is certain that one, party or the
other must make concessions, Mr. Pitt
was not the man to diverge, by a single
step, from the straight forward path of
constitutional duty.
To him therefore in whose steps he indeed

17
walked, though if his own friends are to be
credited, in a very different spirit, Mr. Can^
ning performed the ministerial Ko-to, and
being unable to join a broad-bottomed ad
ministration, he condescended to join one,
which Pitt in his wisdom directed upon old
fashioned English principles. Here was
liberality, here was ministerial friendship,
here was respect for the voice of the King
and of the country. The early, the still
fondly cherished opinions of his youth, are
again nobly sacrificed at the shrine of perso
nal ambition, and rather than not serve his
country at all, he is contented to serve it
in any manner, which the ruling powers
of the day may be pleased to dictate.
Such, be it known to the people of this
country, is Mr. Canning's political con
sistency — but pass we from the times above
spoken of, to more recent periods of his
tory. We agree with Mr. Moore in think
ing that the old leaven of Whiggery still
remained in his composition, notwithstand-

18
ing his assumption of the badges of Toryism,
and it is not difficult to trace the progress
of acknowledged liberalism on his part, in
exact proportion to the progress of his
political importance.
After ^he death of Mr. Pitt, he became for
the first time, comparatively speaking, his
own master, and soon avowed his deter
mination no longer to bow to any one.
Hence he was betrayed into those personal
expressions of contempt for a brother col
league, which were universally considered
as not less derogatory to his character, upon
private than upon public grounds ; and
having on that occasion made a false esti
mate of his own power, he was driven as it
were, vi et armis, out of the Cabinet, leaving
Lord Castlereagh master of the field. It is
but justice to him to admit, that for a long
time he kept his resolution not to serve
under his more powerful rival, until one
day, like Tremaine suffering from ennui
during his retirement, it is said that he

19
stumbled across the Roman sentiment,
" Non me impedient privatae offensiones
quo minus pro reipublicse salute etiam cum
inimicissimo consentiam." Struck by its
magnanimity, he agreed to represent His
Majesty in a country where there was
neither Court nor King ; and although, by
Portuguese statesmen with whom we have
conversed, his arrival at Lisbon was con
sidered as a job by which his pockets were
to benefit, and for which Portugal was a
mere pretext, we, ourselves, are willing to
give him full credit for so disinterested an
imitation of Roman magnanimity. This
first step taken, for ce nest que la premier
pas qui coute, he consented, on the same
high-minded principle, to do what in 1812
he had vowed to the Liverpool electors that
he never would do, namely, " to acknow
ledge a second leader ;" then it was that the
same identical Mr. Canning, but " quantum
mutatus ab illo," allowed Lord Liverpool to
place him in office under the overshadowing
c2

20
influence of the very man whom in his offi
cial capacity he had once affected to despise.
During the remainder of that truly noble
and truly consistent statesman's career, he
was contented to play an inferior part, and
nothing remarkable occurred in his public
conduct worthy of notice, except a little
innocent flirtation with the Whigs — and a
corresponding display of sympathy on their
side, towards one whom they always
thought at bottom too good and too liberal
for his colleagues. Although himself a
plebeian, he adopted as his own the ancient
aristocratic motto, " I bide my time ;" and,
to use his own expressive language, as
applied to the country at large, " while ap
parently passive and motionless, he silently
concentrated the power to be put forth on
an adequate occasion."
In 18 17. the Edinburgh Review said
what in effect was the bitterest of all taunts
to any one who set a value upon what men
vulgarly term honesty, but which present

21
experience unhappily verifies ; namely, that
he had only made use of Tory principles as
a stepping stone to power, and whenever
he might gain the latter, he would reject
the former as unworthy of him. As the
witches predicted that Macbeth would be
King, so did this modern oracle of the
north predict that Canning would one
day attain the acme of political greatness.
Ambition was in the nature of both — but
who fanned the rising flame ? Who sug
gested to the one that he should play
the traitor, and to the other that he
should act the hypocrite, until the attain
ment of the desired object might render
all further acting unnecessary ? One was
a soldier, the other a statesman of fortune ;
and if the first, after wading through
slaughter to a throne, brought down on his
own head eventual ruin, the last may at
this moment be building up a tower of
strength, of which the greater it now may
be, the greater shall be the fall thereof.

22
Certain it is, that if Mr. Canning be,
as he has always professed to be, a Tory, no
witch's prediction could be more ominous
of ill, than the adulatory support of the
enemies of Toryism ; and unless he adopt all
as well as a part of the principles by them
assigned to him, these same Whigs will
only lure him to his own destruction, and
rejoice at last with a fiendish joy at the fatal
completion of their prophecies-
It is not, however, our present business
so much to speculate upon the future as to
form an estimate of his conduct in times
past; and let us now listen to what he
himself said of himself at Liverpool in
1812, namely, that — " He inherited Mr.
Pitt's principles, and would always adhere
to his opinions as the guides of his own
public conduct." A noble pledge, well
worthy of the writer in the Antijacobin;
and how has it been redeemed ? Why, by
a gradual violation of those opinions as
far as the limited extent of his power would

23
permit, under Lord Liverpool's adminis
tration, and by (the removal, one by one,
of all those ancient landmarks in the state,
which antiquity has hallowed, and upon
which the political greatness of the country
has been hitherto triumphantly established.
Who recognised the principle of negro
emancipation, unaccompanied by compen
sation, a measure not less at variance with
his own opinions, as expressed in Mr. Hus-
kisson's letter to Mr. Gladstone, than with
every sound principle of justice and colonial
policy ?
We answer, Mr. Canning.
Who originated and carried the partial
adoption of certain principles in political
economy, of which the excellence, even in
theory, solely depends upon their univer
sality, just as a watch, however beautiful,
is worse than useless, unless all its springs
and wheels are set in motion together ?
. We answer, Mr. Canning and his friend
Mr. Huskisson.

24
Who tampered with the currency, and
encouraged the bank in their system of
over issues, until the evil was irremediable,
and then, by a sudden check, made that
evil productive of tenfold ruin, and by
becoming the first to sound the alarm, aug
mented instead of palliating the mischief ?
We again answer, Mr. Canning and his
friend Mr. Robinson.
Honour to whom honour is due — praise to
whom praise — the thunder of free trade may
have originated with his friends the Whigs,
but his was the glory of allowing its sound
to be heard among the nations, and with
generous philanthropy of increasing their
commercial resources at our expense.
Who fabricated a paper constitution for
the Portuguese, and imposed it upon a
nation obviously incapacitated for the right
enjoyment of it, and then shipped off an
army to Portugal, in order that English
bayonets might support, what " a nation
swoln in ignorance and pride," refused to

25
stomach? Who, in his celebrated speech
upon the occasion, instead of contenting
himself as vulgar statesmen would have
done, with a simple explanation of the
casus foederis, indulged his imagination
in the most inflammatory effusions of ultra
liberalism ? Who talked of letting slip the
revolutionary furies of war, of which we
held the leash, at our own good will and
pleasure, to the subversion of all kingly
governments ? Who, by rousing the fears,
and insulting the feelings, and alienating
the confidence of our European allies,
sowed seeds of discord, which may ere
long spring up, like those of Cadmus, as
armed men, and replunge us into all the
miseries of war ? Who disclaimed in the
closet what . he had just spoken in the
senate, and fixed an eternal seal of repro
bation upon his own sayings? Who, in
stead of modestly calling out, like Cardinal
Wolsey, ego et rex meus, forgot His Ma-

26
jesty altogether on that memorable oc
casion ?
" I" said he, " called a new world into
existence — I redressed the balance of the
old," feeling doubtless at the time a secret
presentiment, that the making use of His
Majesty's name at all, in a revolutionary
harangue, would have been more incon
sistent than the omission of it.
Who, then, is responsible for all this
unstatesmanlike conduct ?
We answer, Mr. Canning.
Who, so late as the present year, de
clared Catholic Emancipation to be the
only panacea for the miseries of Ireland,
and from his seat on the Treasury bench,
as a cabinet minister, preached up insur
rection to the deluded Irish, by saying,
that unless they obtained immediate relief,
he anticipated consequences which were to
be imagined, rather than described ?
The Right Hon. George Canning.

27
Who endeavoured to undermine those
agricultural laws and regulations, which
Mr. Pitt once called the sinews of Eng
land's greatness, and but for which our
aristocracy would be only a name, our
agricultural interests a shadow ?
Who but Mr. Canning? And if through
the vigilant determined resistance of the
country gentlemen, headed in one House by
the indefatigable Sir Thomas Lethbridge,
and about to be supported by the principal
nobles of the land in the other, he was
forced so to modify the intended system as
to neutralize all its properties, the nation
thanks them, not him, for the result; while
the real political economists who have been
deluded by his promises, declare very pro
perly, that half-measures are worse than
none at all.
Who, lastly, in consequence of a suc
cession of opposite councils, and changes
without number in the established order of
things, which at one period were declared

28
to be brimful of prosperity, and six months
after proved to be pregnant with ruin
— who is the author of the distress and
misery, under which the country now
labours in an unexampled degree ? Again
we answer, Mr. Canning ! for he in 1825
took to himself the credit of advocating
and acting upon the free trade system—
his therefore, in 1827, be the discredit of
having entailed upon the country all its
present ruinous consequence.
Now let us ask, how all this tends to
prove the consistency of Mr. Canning?
Was this conduct to be expected of a
staunch disciple of Pitt — was this in
strict accordance with his principles and
opinions ?
We answer unequivocally, No ! But, says
the Right Honourable Gentleman, in 1 825,*
I am now twelve years older, and twelve
years wiser, than when I called myself a
* Vide Parliamentary Debates.

29
perfect Pittite. — Since then, I have seen
new lights, and intend to improve upon
my master, " whom in his brightness I
admire; but cease to adore when he
suffers an eclipse." — Shade of Pitt ! Oh
that thou couldst arise, and listen to this
language of thy foster child — that thou
couldst hear Canning exclaim, " William
Pitt was indeed a great statesman, but I
am a greater than he ; enlightened by
Jeremy Bentham, clarum et venerabile
nomen, and assisted in my deliberations
by the seven sages of modern Greece,
Hume, Burdett, Hobhouse, Brougham,
Bowring, Ellice, and Ricardo ; I am now
perfectly well able to ridicule all his finan
cial blunders, and to cull out the good from
amidst the evil, with which his policy was
encumbered." Oh, blessed change ! Oh nimium, felices
sua si bona Norint, are the people of this
country, with the pseudo-pupil of Pitt,
already risen in his own estimation far

30
above his illustrious master, at the head of
public affairs, who now for the first time
kindly undertakes, in the absence of a
Peel, an Eldon, a Wellington, and a
Bathurst, with the remainder of Mr. Pitt's
ancient colleagues, to form an administra
tion of which he himself is to be the Alpha
and the Omega. When the news of Lord
Melville's resignation arrived at Edin
burgh, it is said that the people cried out,
with one accord, Prodigious ! ! ! and well
indeed they might ; but our surprise will
be still greater, if Mr. Canning is able, in
spite of themselves, to force down the
throats of our aristocratic neighbours, a
ministry of which the only clue to ascer
tain the probable principles is to be found
in the political life of Mr. Canning.
For our own parts we freely confess, that
in endeavouring to ascertain what he is
and what he is hot, we have involved our
selves in a .labyrinth, from which the
adoption of one opinion can alone extri-

31
eate us : namely, that he is a man of no
fixed principle at all, except inasmuch as
personal ambition may be denominated a
principle. Consistency must indeed by this
time be altogether rejected by him, as a
superfluous appendage of official greatness ;
and provided he can keep his place, now he
has gained it, what boots it to him who
are his colleagues ? He stands therefore on
a sort of debateable ground ; and jingling
the seals of office in one hand, with the
Treasury bags in the other, he cries out in
loud but coaxing accents, " Come hither,
come hither, my lords and gentlemen,
who'll buy, who'll buy dukedoms, stars,
ribbands, places, peerages, and pensions,
for sale to the highest bidder."
" With the King, and Heir-apparent, and
Treasury, and Press, all united in my favour,
who shall dare disbelieve that I am the
idol of the country ; but the Tories appear
shy of me, and refuse my proffered dain
ties. The Speaker, Lord Colchester, even

32
Wallace, who was so loth to depart, de
clines the home office and a peerage — then
must I turn to my old friends the Whigs ;
and why not? If in Castlereagh's time I
served etiam cum inimicissimo, by how much
more ought I now to divide my sway etiam
cum amicissimis ? We have lately differed
only in name, our hearts have always been
united. * Lord Lansdowne, will you take the
seals of office under me?' ' Not unless Catho
lic Emancipation is made a cabinet measure.'
' But his Majesty will not allow me.'
' Then I will not accept office upon such
terms,' answers his lordship, proudly — ' I
at least have a character for consistency to
maintain, and 2, value character above
place.' "
We hope, for the honour of the Whig
aristocracy, that his lordship will maintain
his ground, and will not suffer his own
high sense of rectitude to be perverted by
the sophistry of less disinterested advisers.
The general and very natural sentiment,

33
however, of the more plebeian Whigs; is to
come into office upon any terms, and since,
say they, we cannot induce his Majesty to
turn Catholic, for the sake of easing our
conscientious scruples, why should not we
for his Majesty's sake turn Protestants, and
await a more favourable opportunity for
the advancement of the Catholic cause ?
At any rate, they can lose nothing by our
desertion of them, though we may be
great gainers by it ; and after all, however
important the Catholic cause may appear
to the individuals interested, they consti
tute a minority of the nation, and ought
not the duty of recognizing the Sovereign's
choice of a prime minister, to be para
mount to all other considerations ?
If, as we tell the world, the late minis
ters, who declined the honour of serving
His Majesty, under Mr. Canning's direc
tion, partly from a fear of his injuring the
Protestant cause, and partly from a distrust
of his political character, were guilty of
* D

3

an attempt to fetter the royal prerogative,
should not ive be still more guilty of the
same offence, by refusing to serve his Ma
jesty under a man in whom we do confide,
and of whose policy we approve, merely
from a dread of injuring the Catholic cause,
which we have pledged our honour to
advocate ?
If they, the Tories, were guilty of the
grossest ingratitude to their royal benefac
tor, by giving up power, wealth, place, and
patronage, from a conscientious sense of po
litical rectitude, how much more ungrateful
would it be in us to refuse acceptance of
all those blessings which Mr. Canning now
proffers to us in his Majesty's name, for
the mere sake of political consistency"!
They indeed might love the Protestant
church, in whose doctrines they believe,
and dread the ascendancy of the Roman
Catholic Church, whose doctrines they
reprobate ; but all the world knows that we
care as little for the one as for the other,

35
and have only one interest in common with
the Catholics, namely, the attainment of
political power.
Twice have these cogent reasons been
urged upon Lord Lansdowne by his right
honourable and honourable and learned
partizans, and twice we understand his
Lordship to have answered that " consis
tency" was to be his political motto.
Still they have not been rebuffed. Lord
Lansdowne, say they, is a peer of the
realm, and we are, most of us, simple
commoners; Lord Lansdowne has large
possessions, and we are political adven
turers ; Lord Lansdowne stands so high on
his own independent footing, that Mr.
Canning can scarcely raise him higher,
and he may, by trusting to that leader's
waxen wings, fall like another Icarus in
the attempt ; but we have nothing to lose,
and every thing to gain. As Greeks, we
may redeem our credit in the city, by
lending the sanction of Government to a
D 2

36
new Greek Loan ; and if we have robbed
Peter of his dues, we can at least pay Paul,
by aiding in the deliverance of the Greek,
instead of the Romish Church.
Mr. Hume shall make out both army and
navy estimates, as Treasurer of the Navy
and Secretary at War, on a new economical
plan ; and Burdett, Hobhouse, Canning,
Huskisson, &c, will form a Board of Par
liamentary Reform ; Jeremy Bentham shall
be our Chancellor in Ireland ; Lord Archi
bald Hamilton, Advocate-general and
Manager of the Scotch boroughs ; Mr.
Brougham and Mr. Denman, Attorney
and Solicitor-General to His Majesty ; Mr.
Fowel Buxton, Minister for the Colonies ;
Sir Alexander Grant, Speaker of the. House
of Commons; Mr. M'Culloch, President
of the Board of Trade ; Mr. Peter Moore,
Keeper of the King's Bench Prison ;
Messrs. Ricardo shall be Contractors for all
Loans, past, present, and prospective, which
may be wanted to defray the expenses of

37
maintaining paper constitutions in foreign
countries, on a proviso that they shall only
charge fifty per cent, commission ; Lord
Cochrane shall take command of the Naval
Force in the Mediterranean ; and His Royal
Highness the Duke of Sussex shall be
Chancellor of the University of London,
which will now be placed on an equal foot
ing with Oxford and Cambridge.
Such, doubtless, are some of the schemes
pursued by these" wise Grecians in their
camp at Brooks's ; and so justly proud are
they of their heroic achievements in the
land of liberty, that they already propose
to designate their embryo ministers, The
Greeks, par excellence, as the last Whig
Ministers called themselves, The Talents.
If their ambitious dreams be not realized
through Lord Lansdowne's sense of honour,
or any other cause, they will have proved
to the world that they are not less unskilful
than inconsistent diplomatists, since the
will to govern is acknowledged by them,

38
the power alone is wanting, and Lord Lans^
downe, whichever course he may now
pursue, will either reflect a tacit reproach
upon them by not acceding to their wishes,
or by sharing their inconsistency, fall in his
own esteem, and lose the confidence, not
only of the Catholics, but of all straight
forward, high-minded Englishmen.
This attempt of Mr. Canning and the
Whigs to rob the Catholics of those claims
on their support, to which honour on the
one side and confidence on the other, ap
pear fairly to have entitled them, re
minds us of a little fable of Cowper, in
which he supposes a boy, when asked to
join in robbing an orchard, to have the
same conscientious scruples for which com
mon report now gives Lord Lansdowne
' credit :
They spoke, and Tom ponder 'd : " I see they will go,
Poor man ! what a pity to injure him so ;
Poor man ! I would save him his fruit if I could,
But staying behind will do him no good.

39
If the matter depended alone upon me,
His apples might hang till they dropp'd from the tree ;
But since they will take them, I think I'll go too,
He will lose none by me, tho' I get a few."
His scruples thus silenced, Tom felt more at ease,
And went with his comrades, the apples to seize ;
He vow'd and protested, but join'd in the plan,
He shar'd in the plunder, but pitied the man.
In our present case, the apples are the
ministerial places, and the Catholics, who
are robbed of their just rights, according
to the Whiggish doctrines, and who ought
to be, if they actually are not, part-owners
of the state orchard, are the persons in
jured. Lord Lansdowne vows and protests — but
will, as we fear, though for his own sake we
hope even against hope, that he will not be
induced to share in the Treasury plunder
— and pities the poor Catholics, whom he
would be too happy to serve, if he could, by
the sacrifice of every thing except place.
Since then we are now to have a broad-
bottomed administration, such as Sheridan

40
assures us Canning wished for in 1803,
yet refused to join in 1806, and which is to
be Protestant by name and in spirit, as far
as His Majesty is concerned, but Catholic
in spirit as far as the majority of ministers
are concerned — it already bids fair to out
rival that of the Talents in liberality and
consistency, if not likewise in durability.
Sit suo similis. patri !
The characters of those already named
are not unknown to the public.
First comes that liberal-minded gentle
man, and accomplished scholar, and able
common lawyer, Sir John Copley — a man
in every thing, except forensic eloquence
and wit, far superior to Lord Erskine, but
quite his equal in ignorance of the prac
tice and precedents of the Court of Chan
cery. The letters said to have passed between
him and his new patron, with a sight of
which we have been favoured, cannot but
amuse our readers.

41
Dear Copley,
I wish you could contrive to call on me. Except
on account of Dr. Phillpott's stinging pamphlet, which I
have now forgotten, Believe me, that I always have been,
Your's very truly,
(Signed) GEORGE CANNING.
Dear Canning,
Except for forty-eight hours, I have always been,
and still am, Your's very truly,
(Signed) JOHN COPLEY.
The amende honorable thus made on
both sides, it is distinctly specified by Sir
John's own friends, that Canning made the
first bow to him, he did not make the first
to Canning, and the bitter draught once
swallowed by the Premier at His Majesty 's
desire, he soon begins to feel the all pleasant
effects of it, in the agreeable convenient
talents of the new Chancellor.
Interea perpotat amarum,
Absinthi laticem decepta que non capiatur,
Sed potius tali factu recreata valescat.

42
The future character of the new Chan
cellor will be determined by his maintenance
of the Protestant cause with the same zeal
which he shewed as a member of the House
Commons, and as much wisdom as his vene
rable predecessor.
Lord Plunket, the new Ministerial Peer,
is transplanted from Ireland, his native
soil, where his talents, if well-directed,
might have been eminently useful, to a
country in which, as far as the legal profes
sion is concerned, he is an entire stranger ;
and it is only in consequence of the strong
feeling of the Bar, and his own high sense
of rectitude, that one of the highest judi
cial situations in the kingdom has not been
made a convenience of by Mr. Canning, in
Order that the Irish orator might support
him in the House of Lords.
Of Lord Harrowby we shall say nothing.
He is an angel of light, though a fallen angel
in comparison with some others, and as a
sincere advocate of Catholic Emancipation,

43
he cannot, if he places confidence in Mr.
Canning, be accused of inconsistency.
Lord Bexley, " among the faithful faith
less only found," went out by mistake, poor
man, and crying peccavi, was pardoned by
the Gran Lama, whose high priest he is
now appointed.
The only inference to be drawn from
hence, is, that Canning must find himself
very very weak, or Lord Bexley very
strong in these eventful times. And if the
new minister be supported by the third
party in the state, to whom he has so long
trimmed and truckled, as well as by Whigs
and Catholics, such an alliance will, we
apprehend, be equally creditable and agree
able to all parties,
Lord Dudley, once a Whig, is a scholar
and a wit, and a nobleman whom as such
any minister might be proud to number
among his personal adherents; but we
understand that his lordship has, for reasons
best known to himself, declined the offer
made to him, and does no more than hold

44
a provisional appointment as Foreign Se
cretary. Lord Seaford is a West India planter,
and we only trust that he will serve the
nation at large more successfully in the
Cabinet than he has hitherto done the colo
nial part of it as chairman of the West
India body. If placed there, he can only
shine with borrowed light, and if displaced,
nobody will miss him.
Lord Granville is a respectable nobleman,
and has been an ambassador ; ergo, he will
of course be an efficient Cabinet Minister, if
made one, under the tutelary guidance of
his patron.
For Mr. Robinson we entertain the
highest possible respect, and firmly believe
that had he been chosen as Premier, no
secession from the Cabinet would ever have
taken place. His character stands by far
the highest of the triumvirate of which
Mr. Huskisson is the remaining member,
and of him we shall only say that his an
cient Jacobinical principles are, if possible,

45
still more dangerous than those of his friend
Mr. Canning.
In an inferior capacity, under the lat-
ter's guidance, he has done more mischief
to the commerce of this country than he
is ever likely to remedy : and if, as it is
said, he now shrinks from the post of dan
ger to the covert retirement of the Home
Office, his successor will undertake the
performance of an arduous task.
The idea, however consistent with the
other inconsistencies of Mr. Canning, is,
if true, at any rate creditable to his judg
ment ; for a timely retreat is always better
than obstinate persistance in error, and he
must by this time be pretty well convinced,
that out of the bills of mortality, the free
trade system has very few supporters.
What the political economists and
utilitarians will say to this desertion of the
cause, for espousing which he has been so
much vaunted, is his own business entirely;
and if in the endeavour to please all parties,

46
he should, like the man in the fable, be at last
rejected by all, it will, we think, be a very
natural sequel to the whole performance.
We have, in Mr. Addington's time, seen
two different parties professing distinct
motives, but aiming at the same ends ; and
if we should now have a double opposition,
it would be absurd enough to witness old
George Tierney exclaiming, like the inn
keeper at Brentford, when plagued by a
double rival,
" We are the old Opposition on the right ;
The others have set up in spite."
But the occasion is too serious for plea
santry ; and now that after a long, perhaps
a tedious, but certainly a faithful enume
ration of those traits in Mr. Canning's
political character, which are directly the
reverse of his predecessor's, we may fairly
inquire what are the grounds upon which
he is entitled to our support.
His great parliamentary talents are com
monly urged by every fond admirer as a

47
triumphant answer to this question ; but
what talents possessed by him have not
been possessed in a still higher degree by
Charles Fox and Sheridan. Yet their talents
never entitled them to public confidence as
ministers of this country. We ask, if he is
a sound Churchman, and we are told that
he is a great orator : we ask if he is a con
sistent statesman, and we are told, that
he is a clever one. But to those higher and
more substantial attainments of the heart
as well as head, of political consistency as
well as ability, which constitute political
greatness, and in which alone the nation
can place dependence, we never yet
heard Mr. Canning's own fondest admirers
assert that he laid claim.
On what, then, does he rest his claim
to the support of our late ministers and
their Tory adherents, against their own
conscientious sense of his incapacity for the
situation which he now occupies ?
The answer is, His Majesty's commands;

48
and because, for reasons only known to
His Majesty, the King is graciously pleased
to appoint him Minister, we ar.e expected
to sacrifice faith, conscience, principle and.
reason, at the shrine of that minister's am
bition. Undoubtedly, say his supporters, if
respect for the Sovereign, and love of the
public service should require it. But after
all, what are the high Tories required to
sacrifice, when Mr. Canning enters into
office with an express proviso on the part
of His Majesty, that the Catholic question
shall not only be left unmooted in the
Cabinet, but that there shall be a Protestant
Chancellor and a Protestant Lord-Lieu
tenant as well as Secretary in Ireland i
This we know for v certain, to have been
stated by His Majesty to the Archbishop of
Canterbury and the Bishop of London, at
the interview with which they were lately
honoured, together with a distinct assur
ance on the part of His Majesty, that his
own feelings on the subject, were as

49
decidedly anti-catholic as those of his late
revered Father : nay more, His Majesty was
graciously pleased to declare, in further cor
roboration of those sentiments as entertained
by him, that when the Whigs came into
power in 1806, the then Prince of Wales
obtained from Mr. Fox a pledge, that he
would never harrass the King's mind, by
any ministerial discussion of the subject.
We mention this as a curious historical
fact, now for the first time published, and
to the truth of which we solemnly pledge
ourselves. It is deeply important on the present oc
casion, inasmuch as it shews the perfidious
insincerity of the Whigs, at a very similar
epoch of British history, Mr, Fox accepted
office, after giving that pledge, and after
receiving:, as we also believe to have been
the case, a letter from the King himself to
the same effect, in the substance of which,
he and his party acquiesced ; thereby vio
lating all his pledges to the Catholics.

50
Notwithstanding this, the subject was in
truded upon his Majesty's attention, in the
most disgraceful manner, by the present
Earl Grey, and the immediate, consequence
of their perfidy to the spirit, if not to the
letter of their engagements, with his late
and present Majesty, was the dissolution of
the Whig ministry.
Facts like these speak volumes. What
sincere Protestant can hereafter place con
fidence in an administration, of which the
Whigs constitute a component part, in which
the Roman Catholic interest greatly prepon
derates, and at the head of which is a Ro
man Catholic statesman like Mr. Canning ?
If we be distrustful, who can now say, that
we have not shewn good cause for anxiety
and alarm? If others are more confident,
let them remember, ere it be too late,
that rashness is nearer allied to folly than
to wisdom ; and mischief, which by due cau
tion might have been averted, often becomes
through the neglect of it irreparable.

51
We believe it was Sheridan first said, in
the House of Commons —
" Hark, in the lobby, hear a lion roar ;
Say, Mi\jSpeaker,'shall we shut the door ;
Or, Mr. Speaker, shall we let him in,
To try if we can turn him out again ?"
The application of this to Mr. Canning
and his Popish and Whiggish confederates,
is unfortunately but too obvious.
In regard to the interesting facts which
we have just communicated, it is impos
sible not to feel that such a declaration
from such a quarter at such a moment, en
titles the Monarch to the unbounded confi
dence and gratitude of his subjects. Pledged,
however, as Mr. Canning is, to the Catholic
cause, by his very last speech this Session,
if by nothing more, in which he records
his conviction, that indescribable horrors
must ensue, if it be not immediately car
ried ; trusted too, as Mr. Canning is by its
advocates, and supported as he is by its
supporters ; our admiration of the King,
£ 2

52
who imposed such hard conditions, is only
equalled by our distrust of the Minister
who accepted them. Committed as he
was to the Catholics before, and pledged
as he is to the King now, he must in his
future conduct either continue to act the
hypocrite, or deliberately play the knave.
If true to their cause, he accepts office
upon pledging his honour to certain con
ditions, and keeps them in the letter only,
but violates them in the spirit by in
direct means, as we fear he will do ; or by
selecting a better moment to strike the
blow, he will in that case be a very traitor ;
but if he prefer the safer course of loyalty
to the King, or be constrained nolens volens
to adopt it, the Catholics will then justly
accuse him of
" Paltering with them in a double sense,
Which keeps the word of promise to the ear,
Yet breaks it to the hope."
At all events he must either become faith
less to hi& party or faithless to his King, or

53
hypocrite to both, and whichever course he
may pursue, he proves himself by his own
act to be unworthy of the confidence of
all. Is this then the Sun round which such
men as Peel, and Eldon, and Wellington,
are expected to revolve, because, forsooth,
his Parliamentary talents, combined with
other secret causes, have gained him a tem
porary ascendancy. Forbid it, justice ! for
bid it, integrity ! forbid it, heroism ! forbid
it every virtue possessed by them, and not
possessed by him in common with them.
Forbid it the spirit of true loyalty — not
that loyalty, now for the first time vaunted
as such, which consists in abject submission
without regard for higher motives to the
man, whom a particular concurrence of cir
cumstances may for the moment enable to
gain the royal ear ; but that loyalty, which,
animated by a high sense of honour and sanc
tioned by religion, enables British statesmen
at the hour of trial to act as faithful council-

54
lors of their Monarch — that loyalty which
forces from their lips at every hazard, an
avowal of their conscientious feelings, and
which induces them to resign power, wealth,
and place, not even excepting Royal favour,
rather than hold them for an instant at the
expense of their own principles, under a
man whom they believe to be unprincipled.
We retort, therefore, upon him, who
makes it, the charge of disloyalty and
disaffection. The characters of our late
ministers stand aloft in proud pre-emi
nence, far beyond the reach of factious
abuse ; but let Mr. Canning's friends say in
what manner he ever afforded particular
proof of his disinterested loyalty to the King.
We feel indeed convinced that the pre
sent sunshine of Royal favour, emanates
more from the high-minded forgetfulness
of the past which characterizes the Monarch,
and inclines him towards a powerful Par
liamentary suppliant for office, rather than
from any strong feelings of approval on the

55
one side, or personal devotion on the other.
In the same manner that His Majesty ac
cepted him at Lord Liverpool's desire for
merly, he has now condescended to receive
him again in that nobleman's room ; but
the colleagues, who would have served with
him as an equal, are nearly unanimous in
rejecting him as ahead; and foreseeing that
he would no longer be restrained within
bounds, by their superior wisdom and dis
cretion, they resign the power for which
they were responsible, upon the belief that
it could never be exercised under such di
rection, without the risk of ruin to the coun
try, and dishonour to themselves.
Let the Nation now judge between Mr.
Canning and his friends, and the late Minis
ters and their friends, and say who most de
serve the confidence and admiration of the
country — which is most magnanimous, the
sacrifice of principles to ambition, or of
ambition to high principles?
Suppose it, however, urged that the con-

56
ditions imposed upon Canning, were in
reality sufficient safeguards against his
abuse of power — we answer, that His
Majesty's will is law, in regard to the
choice of a Prime Minister, whom as sub
jects we will endeavour to honour and
obey ; but as brother colleagues, it became
the duty of statesmen to decide conscien
tiously how far the new Premier's political
character entitled him to their confidence
and support. If their consciences would not
allow them to agree in opinion with His
Majesty, as to that Minister's eligibility for
such an office, how could they consistently
co-operate with their Royal Master, in a mea
sure of which they disapprove, and for which
as parties they would have been responsible ?
Besides, however great the present King's
influence may be in preventing present
mischief, and none can estimate it more
highly than ourselves, it cannot counter
act all future dangers ; and where the cha
racter of a new Minister is questioned, it

57
becomes the duty of all who distrust him
to resist from the beginning, upon public
grounds, the march of his political great
ness. Another Pharaoh may arise in the
land with very different constitutional feel
ings from those of his predecessor, and
who shall then be our safeguard against his
Prime Minister's unconstitutional proceed
ings ?
The man who out of mistaken ideas of
respect and submission to the choice of
his present Majesty, should have contri
buted to that Minister's attainment of
supreme power, might then discover his
error only when it was irremediable, and
become a party to his own wrong.
Let the zealous enemies, or the lukewarm
friends of the Protestant cause, and the
personal adherents of Mr. Canning, quocum-
que nomine gaudent, whether Whigs, Catho
lics or Liberals, contribute to his support.
Let high-minded noblemen stoop if they
please to the embryo Minister ; and high-

58
bred noblemen, w6 say it rather in sorrow
than derision, barter boroughs and prin
ciples for Ministerial Patronage. Let
those who called themselves Pittites when
Pitt was first Lord of the Treasury, call
themselves Canningites, now a greater
than he presides there. Let Vicars of Bray
and other churchmen of the same school,
bow down before the mighty dispenser of
Church patronage. Let all the wise men of
the world, in short, come forward and adore
the Rising Suit, and throw & specious gloss
over the rottenness of their new Idol, by
decorating it with imaginary virtues, in
order to disguise their own innate corrup
tion. Such men as those above spoken of
in every age and every clime will be always
found to prosper, and we look not for their
support ; but to a higher and a nobler, and a
far more numerous, as well as influential
class of men, we boldly make our solemn
appeal on this most solemn of occasions.
We call on the Nobility and Gentry of

59
the land, that Aristocracy which is the
boast of Europe, and to the due prepon~
derance of which in our national councils,
may be chiefly ascribed the social greatness
of the country — upon them we call, in full
persuasion that they will exercise their
constitutional power in withstanding to the
utmost the elevation of a man, whose in
terests and theirs are diametrically at
variance. A noble example has been set for their
imitation by the most high-minded States
man, and the wisest Judge, and the greatest
Military Commander of the age, and nobly
has it been followed by their respective
political friends and supporters. All the an
cient colleagues and adherents of Mr. Pitt,
have revolted with becoming indignation
from the councils of one who in the first
blaze of expected power renounces the
principles of the man who made him what
he is, and to whom he vowed eternal alle
giance. Let not our readers be deceived

60
by vulgar artifices ; this is no private quarrel
between man and man, but a political
separation upon pure political grounds, and
if the character of the individual has in
creased in particular instances the general
feeling of distrust of his public character as
a statesman, the fault must surely be his
whose conduct has incurred the imputation.
To all churchmen who value the Religion
of their Fathers, and attribute its preserva
tion, ina main degree, among us, to its secure
Establishment — to all who regard its ascen
dancy in the State, as essential to the safety
of the State, and the loss of that ascendancy
as tantamount to ruin — to all such, whatever
be their rank and station, we appeal with
perfect confidence, in the hope that .they
will seriously bestir themselves, in oppo
sition to a minister, who evidently seeks to
build his greatness upon their weakness.
— to our Protestant Dissenting brethren,
who, whatever may be our differences on
minor points, unite with us in dread of

61
Popish artifices and detestation of Papal
Supremacy — lastly, to the enlightened Yeo
manry and Commonalty of the land — men
who value their liberties more than life, and
who consider our Protestant Constitution as
the main prop and safeguard of them —
to all who regard Political Integrity and
Consistency as the main qualifications of
a Prime Minister, and who prefer the
security of our agricultural, commercial,
manufactural, and colonial interests,, as
provided for by our forefathers, to spe
culative and dangerous innovations —
to all who have been accustomed to ad
mire a Peel, and to look up to him as the
nation's hope, we now address ourselves, for
their unanimous and effectual support
against the rival who would not hesitate to
sacrifice the nation's vital interests for the
sake of his own personal aggrandizement.
For a time, the voice of faction, and in
trigue, and political corruption, may pre
vail ; but we well know that the man in

62
whom the majority of people in this free,
Protestant country, place the greatest, nay
the only real confidence, is Peel. A
Canning they may admire, as a wit, and an
orator, and a clever political adventurer ;
but Peel is the statesman, whose character,
like Lord Liverpool's, has by its uniform
consistency, commanded the respect, and
thereby insured the confidence of his fellow-
countrymen. To him, who is a true Pittite, we may
now justly apply as prophetic Mr. Can
ning's own eulogy of his great master:
" At the footstool of Pow'r let Flattery fawn,
Let Faction her idols extol to the skies ;
To Virtue, in humble resentment withdrawn,
Unblam'd, may the merits of gratitude rise."
Let those then, who now wander about, un
certain which side to choose, and are afraid
of commiting themselves, remember that he
who is not with us is against us. Now is the
time for those who are honest to evince
it by their actions, as they have heretofore

63
done by their words. Now is the time to
crush the canker of Canning's power in the
bud ; and that will be done not by loitering
at home idle, but by bestirring themselves
in a manner worthy of their characters as
English patriots, to avert the evils which
long continued lethargy will inevitably
produce. Let the voice of the country be raised
as in days of yore ; let it burst asunder the
bonds by which a venal and unconstitu
tional press has attempted to bind it, and
let the sentiments of the English people be
transmitted through the medium of their
Representatives to the King.
Upon such an occasion, England's main
reliance is upon her Representatives in Par
liament assembled.
If they beWhigs, and Liberals, and Catho
lics, let them support a Whig and Liberal
administration; but if they be sound Protes
tant Tories, sent there by Protestant consti
tuents, let them beware of the awful re-

64
sponsibility which attaches to them, and
instead of supporting a Minister of whose
principles and intentions they are dis
trustful, merely because he is now Mi
nister, let them support the cause of the
Constitution as established in Church and
State. Let the country gentlemen re
member, that the concessions reluctantly
made by Mr. Canning, as a junior colleague
of a Tory Administration, will not long be
acted upon now that he stands at the head
of a Liberal administration ; and if they aid
in establishing his power now, they may
rue it for ever.
When the horse had once allied himself
to man, he could never regain his former
independence. " Non equitem dorse non frasnum depulit ore."
So will it be with the landed interests of
this country, if they once acknowledge
Canning for their master. So may it be
for the Church Establishment and other

65
Protestant communions, if they adhere to
the supporter of Catholic emancipation ;
and so will it be for the nation at large if,
deluded by his sophistry, and dazzled by
his talents, and captivated by his eloquence,
they surrender their solemn judgment and
vital interests to the personal ambition of
Mr. Canning.

THE END.

SHACKKLL ANB BAYI.IS, JOHNSON VoJUKT, FLB15T-STRE1ST.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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