whether it rest with the government or individuals, qualification is
disregarded. These are some of the inevitable consequences:--1st. The
office of clergyman is sought by the very last people who ought to
receive it. However brainless or profligate a youth may be, he still
must enter into holy orders, because his friends have property or
interest in the church; perhaps they select him for it in preference to
his brothers, because he happens to be the dunce of the family. 2ndly.
The system directly operates, not only to keep ability and piety at the
lowest point amidst the clergy, but to render that portion of them which
may be forced into orders useless to the church. 3rdly. The clergy and
laity are separated from and arranged against each other. The minister
has no interest in conciliating, preserving, and increasing the flock;
its favour cannot benefit, and its hostility cannot injure, him. To give
all this the most comprehensive powers of mischief, almost any man may,
so far as concerns ability and character, gain admission into holy
orders. A clergyman may be destitute of religious feelings, he may be
grossly immoral, he may discharge his duties in the most incompetent
manner, and lose his flock; he may do almost any thing short of legal
crime, and still he will neither forfeit his living, nor draw on himself
any punishment."
All unbiassed individuals must acknowledge the likeness of the picture
here drawn, notwithstanding the high Tory quarter from which it is
painted. We are willing to acknowledge that these abuses have been
practised ever since the unholy alliance between church and state; but
they were certainly carried to a greater extent in the last two reigns
than previously known. The whole church-system, indeed, presented this
anomalous, inconsistent, but distinguishing feature: while the country
was drained for its support, the actual working clergy, as we have
shewn, were paid as the most degraded parish hacks; when the enormous
revenue which the system produced, and which was amply sufficient to
support the whole, by a proper equalization, in comfort and
respectability, was swallowed up by a few court-sycophants, who were
pampered by the very excess produced by the starvation and degradation
of their less fortunate (or more conscientious?) brethren! Little
serious amendment in the particulars here complained of, however, can be
reasonably expected, till this all-corrupting and derogatory alliance of
God and mammon shall be severed; for never have we so much cause for
fear as when the enemies of public freedom are concealed under the garb
of sanctity. The spiritual peers themselves seem fully determined to
hasten this "consummation so devoutly to be wished;" for they must have
but little foresight if they cannot see that their mad opposition to the
wishes of a united and determined people will, ere long, bring their
already dilapidated building about their own ears.
Every person who will not abjectly resign his common understanding, and
will bend his mind to investigate, IMPARTIALLY, what has been passing
ever since the landing of Queen Charlotte upon our shores, must be
satisfied of the bitter provocations which the British public have
received,--the indignation arising from which has now burst forth, never
to subside till some reparation be made. There are appointed limits to
every evil; there are periods when things must reach their utmost
boundary; when even forbearance becomes a crime. Such has been the issue
of the long-concealed mysteries of state. Englishmen, we trust, will no
more tolerate tyrannous power, murderous injustice, and oppressive
enactments. The march of intellect has proclaimed her inquisitorial
privileges; the enlightened understanding of the people of 1832 have
discovered, to the utter dismay of tyranny, that no satisfactory reason
can be assigned for the enormous load of taxation with which they have
so long been oppressed. The discovery is now made, that there is no
justice for the poor man, or man of inferior grade; but that all
enactments have been scrupulously made in favour of the rich and the
great. Impunity has been their privilege, while the mass of the
community were forced to subscribe to the bitter penalty. Times have
been, we are sorry to say, when even MURDER, if committed by rank, might
be glossed over by a privy council, while the poor man, agonized by the
reflections of his own accusing mind, was coldly, and even with
asperity, consigned to the gallows! The lady of rank,--even of the
_highest_,--might have an illegitimate offspring, and secretly hide her
shame by consigning it to an asylum; but the poor woman, who had strayed
from the path of virtue, through poverty, must be confronted with the
moralizing, austere, brow-beating, clerical magistrate, reproached for
her unfortunate lapse from rectitude, and be committed to the treadmill!
Such an unequal administration of justice, we repeat, has been; but God
grant that it may never occur again!
The present emancipation of the human mind from ignorance and
vassalage, through the medium of dauntless and cheap publications, has
discovered to all classes of the community that the administration of
our national affairs have never been satisfactorily explained; that all
has been artifice and delusion; that the rulers of the country have
assumed to themselves an extraordinary stretch of power,--a power above
law,--employing the country's revenues in enriching themselves,
corrupting the sources of justice, and plotting schemes against the
happiness of mankind generally. Hence, the people, weary of their
burdens, with no prospect presented to them of having their condition
ameliorated by their rulers, and disgusted with those who have so
constantly deluded and insulted them, have at last been goaded into the
exhibition of a determined spirit no longer to submit their privileges
and their liberties to such a state of misrule. They have, indeed, as if
with one accord, protested against all further fraud, imposition, and
slavery. They are determined to have a parliament of their own
selecting, and to demand that the principles and legitimate rights of
the British constitution be restored to their pristine vigour.
It may here be proper to inquire, "Who and what are they that have so
long opposed the just rights of the people?" Is there a member of the
House of Lords who has been elevated to the peerage for the last sixty
years and upwards, excepting some few individuals in the army and navy,
who does not owe his wealth and title to his weight, interest, and
exertions to further and perpetuate the corruption of the House of
Commons, or for some courtly servility or secret crime committed to
pamper the self-love, or to gratify the vindictive feelings, of their
royal patrons? Let the facts recorded in our volumes supply the answer.
The PEOPLE, however, are not now to be blinded with the glitter of
nobility, or their ears startled by the pompous-sounding title of "My
lord." They will rather view such ennobled characters in the light of
enemies to their country, and pensioners on their industry. They have
exhibited themselves as a proud, arbitrary, and selfish faction, leagued
against the spirit of liberty, and anxious for nothing but their own
individual aggrandizement. But as all unconstitutional power, sooner or
later, is sure to over-reach itself, they have, by their exactions,
frauds, and galling oppressions, sown the seeds of their own
destruction. The people of England are naturally of an easy and
contented disposition; but even their inherent generosity will not brook
being treated exactly like the subjects of Russian Nicholas,--the
assassin of the gallant Poles!
In recurring to the period of Queen Charlotte's tyranny, the enlightened
mind must feel petrified at the callous delinquency displayed by her
ministers. It is indeed hardly to be credited, that she should have
found men,--we will not say _English_-men, because some were of another
country,--so congenial to her own views and sentiments. To paint this
German princess and her adherents in their proper colours would be
impossible; but every crime and enormity was sanctioned in her reign
(for George the Third was a mere cypher in the affairs of state) that
crime and enormity can be supposed to comprehend; spoliation, murder,
incest, espionage, sanguinary plottings, the most inhuman outrages,
persecution, and oppression were of common occurrence. Who, we ask, was
the secret contriver, aider, and abettor of most of the ills Queen
Caroline endured? Who pocketted enormous sums from the illegal sale of
cadetships? Who made unfair use of government information to speculate
in the funds for the sake of "filthy lucre?" Who indulged in improper
intimacies with that wholesale inventor of taxes, William Pitt? Who
conceived some of the diabolical plots, executed, too fatally executed,
against the holders of her favourite prince's bonds? And who wrote, as
well as commanded to be written, such tender, comforting, and promising
letters to the late Dr. Croft, just before and immediately after the
execution of that cold-blooded deed,--the murder of Princess Charlotte?
The answers will easily be supplied by the intelligent reader. But let
us hope the day of retribution is fast approaching, when Justice will
preside at the examination of all the circumstances attending that most
unnatural act,--the foulest, blackest crime "that ever yet this land was
guilty of." Had the secret actions of Queen Charlotte been generally
known in her life, she would have appeared the basest and most abandoned
of women; but the deception and shew of virtue which she so artfully
practised made people think her the most amiable of queens. Had she not
have shielded her myrmidons from exposure, they would, long ago, have
appeared to the public eye as a class of beings of the basest and most
odious description. Impeachment had followed impeachment, and the law
would have denounced them as men who had violated every principle of
honour, of humanity, and of Christianity!
Some of our readers may probably view these reproaches as unmerited
aspersions, or hateful invectives, proceeding from a vindictive,
malignant, and democratic spirit, and their author deserving to be
anathematized as the most execrable of the human race. But TRUTH,
irrefragable Truth, is our defence; she has now burst her bonds, and
will no longer be prevented, by the threats of power, from boldly
speaking out! Common observation, indeed, might have ascertained that
the unnatural and usurped power, which so long controlled the destinies
of this country, was of a _foreign_ character, and totally at variance
with the constitution and chartered rights of Englishmen! Did not JUNIUS
expose the illegality of this power? and did not the noble-minded
CHATHAM remonstrate against it? But though Tyranny and Corruption
trembled to their very centres at the attacks of these champions of
liberty, the base fabricks remained unimpaired till the death of their
mistress,--the puissant Charlotte of Mecklenburgh Strelitz!
We come now more immediately to the consideration of those political
transactions that ensued when the final incapacity of George the Third
to discharge the duties of his sovereignty was made known. At this
period, Queen Charlotte, in collusion with her hopeful son, the Prince
of Wales, came into full power, which she exercised with a spirit truly
in accordance with her restless ambition and mercenary desires. A system
of despotism, veiled under the specious garb of piety and the country's
safety, was immediately put in force; and new taxes levied under various
pretences, but in reality for the purpose of bestowing wealth on her
zealous adherents. Indeed, in every proposition of the "devourers of the
public wealth," for increasing the amount of "SECRET-SERVICE MONEY," a
zealous abettor was always found in the queen. German craft is never at
a loss for deceptive plans, nor is German prejudice easily pacified. No
machinations were too hideous, nor too infamous, when suggested by the
one to gratify the other. If the queen and her son had gained what they
strenuously endeavoured to obtain--ABSOLUTE POWER--who would not have
justly felt alarm, not merely for the liberties of his country, but for
his own individual safety? The proscriptions of the Roman Decemviri and
the more recent and horrible cruelties of the French Robespierre are
appalling instances of what people CAN DO when armed with absolute
power. Had these guardians of the British public, therefore, but
succeeded in obtaining such power, to what lengths they would have gone
may be estimated by the crimes they actually did commit and countenance
without it! Where would the voice of mercy have prevailed on them to
sheath the sword of persecution? Their ministers, by distorting the
constitution from its original meaning, presumed to tear Englishmen from
the bosom of their families, without any assigned cause, loading them
with irons, and immolating them in damp and dreary dungeons! Some
actually died, horrible as the fact may appear, under this treatment,
while the survivers were released without any investigation, without any
trial whatever,--nay, without their even being made acquainted with the
nature of the suspected offence,--and denied the slightest redress for
their cruel injuries! Considering, we say, that such monstrous injustice
was practised, it is not too much to suppose that, with absolute power,
the same parties would have erected the triangle at the Royal Exchange
and at the Mews! We might then have expected to see Englishmen running
naked through the streets of London, with caps of burning pitch upon
their heads, and blood streaming from their lacerated bodies, or
observed them hanging on the lamp-posts, or before their burning
dwellings! Did not these horrors actually take place in Ireland in the
years 1797 and 1798, when the tyrannical Castlereagh held a public
situation in that betrayed, forlorn, and persecuted country? At the very
time these atrocities were committed in Ireland, spies, informers,
executioners, and all the refuse of society, were employed as the
principal instruments of Castlereagh's government; and when Queen
Charlotte and her son made that Hibernian monster minister of this
country, Castle, Oliver, and Edwards, with many other such wretches,
shared the smiles and favours of himself and his colleagues.
The history of Caroline of Brunswick, in whose unhappy fate every person
possessed of Christian feeling and principle must be interested, also
fully evinces the hateful passions of Queen Charlotte's heart. That
victim of a detestable conspiracy was the object of a sanguinary
determination from the moment she so unhappily came over to this
kingdom. Queen Charlotte, finding herself then defeated in the ambitious
desire she had always cherished, that one of her own relations should be
the future queen of England, became this noble-minded woman's most
uncompromising and inveterate enemy. Into the highest favour and most
unlimited confidence, her majesty now received the abandoned Lady
Jersey, though she _pretended_, with so much austerity, to preserve the
unsullied PURITY OF HER COURT; but this pretension was only made the
better to impose upon the country, and to effect the destruction of the
guiltless and unoffending niece of the king her husband! Her majesty,
however, did not live to see such a wicked scheme accomplished.
When the husband of the unfortunate Caroline attained, by the death of
his father, to regal authority, surrounded by the titled hirelings of
his own creation and the dependants on his bounty, he judged the
opportunity peculiarly favourable to the final ruin of his
long-persecuted consort. Every plot, therefore, that could be devised by
a servile ministry and a corrupt parliament, was put into active
operation for the purpose of depriving her of those constitutional
rights which the demise of George the Third had entitled her to expect.
The Duke of York stipulated with the king that, in the event of a
divorce being granted, his majesty _should not marry again_,--otherwise,
he threatened to take part with Queen Caroline! So much for the
consistency, love of duty, and purity of motive, which the duke boasted
in the House of Lords as solely actuating him in the line of conduct he
had followed in opposing the queen!
The injurious reports which ministers circulated regarding Queen
Caroline's conduct rendered it impossible for her majesty to remain
abroad, even if she had so wished; for they presumed to treat her as the
most abandoned of the human race, and therefore it became necessary for
any virtuous woman, thus publicly accused, to appear in person, and
assert her innocence. In the whole management of the ensuing "trial"
against this ill-fated queen, justice, feeling, honour, and common sense
were all equally outraged! What was the tribunal before which her
majesty was called? How was it constituted? Who sat there "to administer
evenhanded justice?" The ministers who brought forward the charges
against their queen, the officers of the king's household, two of the
king's brothers, with many other _noble_ persons closely connected with
the court, who held places and pensions at its will, and looked up to it
for new honours, for patronage, for wealth, and for power! Were such
people, then, calculated to administer justice? Justice, indeed! Was the
refusing a list even of the names of the witnesses impartial justice?
Was it impartial British justice, when the ministers of the king sat as
judges, jurors, and accusers? Like triple-headed monsters, did they not,
in that joint capacity, most profligately bribe, clothe, feed, house,
and amuse a horde of discarded miscreant Italian servants? Was the
instructing, drilling, marshalling, living, and conversing _all_
together of these wretches, who were watched and kept under lock and key
by these Cerberi, an example of the impartiality of British justice? Was
the permitting the witnesses instantly to return to their den and
communicate all their evidence to those who had not been before the
House of Lords another proof of the impartiality of what is commonly
termed "the highest court of judicature of the first nation in Europe?"
Was the treating her majesty as guilty before her trial a fair specimen
of the beauty of this court? Monstrous profanation of terms! Was ever
common sense so insulted? Was justice ever so outraged? Were those
iniquitous proceedings an evidence of that
"Justice, by nothing biassed or inclined,
Deaf to persuasion, to temptation blind;
Determined without favour, and the laws
O'erlook the parties to decide the cause?"
When the law-officers of the crown declared, that "there existed no
grounds upon which legal proceedings could be instituted," two obvious
and distinct paths were open to ministers. They had their election to
advise, either that her majesty should return to this country with all
the honours and constitutional privileges belonging to her high station,
or else that she should be prevailed upon to establish her court abroad.
Yet ministers determined to deviate into a dark and crooked path. They
did not venture openly to advise that the queen should return; and yet,
as if determined that she should come to this country, they took care to
render it impossible for her to remain abroad! Was not the name of the
noble-minded Caroline insultingly excluded from the Liturgy? And what
reason was assigned for so unjustifiable a proceeding? The Archbishop of
Canterbury and other church pluralists gave this: "If any defiled name
should there be inserted, the principles of morality would be invaded,
the foundations of religion would be sapped, and the destruction of our
constitution must inevitably follow!" Now, even allowing the queen to
have been the abandoned character represented by her hireling
enemies,--nay, more, had she been a MURDERESS,--these impudent and
canting hypocrites need not have searched far for a precedent to prove
her eligibility for a place in the Liturgy! Were Henry the Eighth, Queen
Mary, Charles the Second and his queen, James the Second and his queen,
all pure and undefiled? But the place-hunting clergy need not have gone
out of their own generation for an example of infamy. What were Queen
Charlotte, George the Fourth, the Duke of York, or, though last, not
least in the VIRTUES of his family, the _undefiled_ Ernest of
Cumberland? Our volumes fully explain what they were! and yet their
names graced the Liturgy, as the Attorney-General has declared that the
words "Royal Family" comprehend _all_ the individuals of the royal
family. But it may be objected that the names of York and Cumberland
were not _specifically_ mentioned in the days of Queen Caroline's
persecutions. Well, then, the Prince of Wales' name, at least, did
figure in our Prayer Book, and was he "pure and undefiled?" The _pious_
sons of the church formally prayed that "God would endue him with his
holy spirit," &c.; but it did not appear, by his actions, that their
prayers produced the least effect. When he became king, he was prayed
for, "to be endued with heavenly gifts, to incline to the will of God,
and walk in his ways." Did his infamous conduct to his wife, and his
living in open adultery with the Marchioness of Conyngham and others,
qualify him for a place in the prayers of the church, as "pure and
undefiled?" If ministers, therefore, consented to deprive the queen of
this dignity, because of her imputed immorality, might it not have
proved a precedent against George the Fourth himself? The lawyers, even
Lord Eldon, if it had suited his purpose, might have afterwards cited
the case of Caroline as a case in point, while the country could not
refuse to dethrone the king on the same plea as they had dethroned the
queen, more particularly as it was so easy a matter to prove the gross
adultery and immorality of George the Fourth; for his derelictions from
virtue were as notorious as the sun at noon-day. Would to heaven, we
say, that a king might have been dethroned for immoral conduct, as the
world had not then been so cursed with their atrocious deeds. When at
foreign courts, her majesty justly claimed the honours pertaining to her
exalted rank, but was insultingly told that she was not known as a
queen! Thus subjected, _untried and unheard_, to every indignity which
could only have followed upon proof and condemnation, her majesty had no
alternative left but to return to England, and boldly face her
mean-spirited and unmanly enemies. Had her title been proclaimed, had
foreign courts been instructed to receive her with the honours due to a
queen of England, her continuing to remain abroad would not have worn
the appearance of shrinking from the defence of her reputation,--a fear
to which she was utterly a stranger. Her noble soul scorned danger; for
a braver heart than her's never beat in human breast. But her husband's
ministers rendered her absence from this country incompatible with her
honour; they _forced_ her to return, and they, and they alone, were
responsible for all the mischief that might have ensued to the country
from such an unavoidable step on the part of the queen. No one, we
think, will doubt that the most serious mischief would have occurred, if
these men had persisted in their headlong career. But, _like all
cowards_, when they found the danger hovering over their _own_ heads,
they shrunk from the contest, and took refuge in a timely retreat!
Nothing in the whole history of human suffering could equal the wrongs
of her majesty. With respect to the bill of Pains and Penalties, the
various records of persecution may be searched in vain for a case so
foul, so false, so full of premeditated and disciplined perjury,--the
inquest on Sellis was JUSTICE when _compared_ with this, though the hand
of Lord Ellenborough may be traced in both. The mock "trial" of
Caroline, Queen of England, we say, cannot be matched for rancour,
cruelty, for monstrous and unnatural malignity. There never was a case
at all like it: it is without an example in history, and can never
become a precedent; for future generations will read it with pity and
with horror. The foul charges preferred against the queen by the lowest
of the low were disproved by noblemen of the first consideration, by
ladies of the highest rank and of the most unblemished honour, by
gentlemen of family, of education, and integrity, and by distinguished
and gallant soldiers. The evidence of such respectable characters as
these present a picture of her majesty which future generations will
admire and venerate. But it is impossible that impartial and discerning
Englishmen should believe that the "Bill of Pains and Penalties,"
nominally aimed against the queen, had not, for its main objects, the
doing away with trial by jury and the liberty of the press, and, on
their ruins, to establish a system of absolute despotism. Whether these
effects were originally foreseen and intended by the sagacious
projectors of that wicked measure, is a matter of little importance; it
is quite obvious that such would have been its consequences. The
place-loving Lord Eldon, however, tried hard to make people believe that
bills of Pains and Penalties were then "part and parcel" of the
constitution of the kingdom. But a trial of such an indescribably
infamous description was never before attempted; and even if it had
been, Lord Eldon, as a good chancellor, ought to have declared against
it, instead of attempting to defend and perpetuate it. With overbearing
oligarchs, any sort of precedent was deemed sufficient; and it is rather
wonderful that they did not, by the help of precedent, endeavour to
re-establish the STAR CHAMBER! If they had succeeded in such a point,
the first of the kind attempted in modern times, the faction would,
doubtless, have considered themselves authorised, whenever it had suited
their views, to proceed by a bill of Pains and Penalties against any
obnoxious individual, instead of going before a common jury! To
establish such a monstrous system, we repeat, was one of the real,
though disguised, objects of ministers, in the prosecution of Queen
Caroline; for they perceived the progress of political knowledge, and
felt alarmed lest they should lose their arbitrary authority, if they
could not adopt some such tyrannical measure to frighten the people into
obedience. It was the glorious majesty of the press that bravely
defeated such infamous machinations against liberty, for which future
generations will have cause to venerate and worship it.
The queen, however, was most grievously slandered and ill-treated by the
Tory portion of public writers. Nothing, indeed, could have been more
villanous than the charges which blackened the columns of certain
newspapers,--journals that, in their general colouring, were too foul
and too dark to obtain belief. Well remunerated by government, the
scurrilous editors of such libels against female majesty appeared to
exult in the pain they inflicted; so long as they satisfied the hateful
revenge of their abandoned employers, their end was answered. However
much such prostitution of talent is to be lamented, there was yet a
worse crime committed by the enemies of Queen Caroline. The ministers of
the "established" church scrupled not to take part against her, and,
instead of confining themselves to the exposition of the mild and
forbearing doctrines of the Christian religion, not unfrequently
indulged their wicked disloyalty by delivering the most foul and
blasphemous denunciations against their queen, even from the pulpit!
This, of course, could only be done with a view of pleasing those who
had "rich livings" to reward their misplaced zeal. One of these
contemptible _reverends_, by the name of Blacow, was so violent against
her majesty, that the queen's law-advisers thought it right to punish
his impertinence by an action, in the Court of King's Bench, for a
malicious libel, which was contained in a sermon preached by him in St.
Mark's Church, Liverpool, and which was afterwards published in the
shape of a pamphlet. The jury having found the reverend defendant
guilty, the following sentence was passed upon him by the presiding
judge:
"The defendant," Mr. Justice Bailey said, "had been convicted of a
libel, contained in a sermon preached by him. He was a clergyman, and
had uttered the libel within the church. It was, he rejoiced to say, a
rare instance of so sacred a place being corrupted to such purposes(?).
Of all other places, the house of God, where charity and brotherly love
alone should be inculcated, was the last which should be made a theatre
for attacks upon the characters of living persons. Every man had enough
to do to look to his own character, and it was not necessary to go
abroad and make ourselves inquisitors into those of others. This libel
was uttered at a time, and upon a subject, upon which there was no great
unanimity of thinking, and was therefore, in its nature, calculated to
excite far other feelings than such as ought to be indulged in within
an edifice devoted to God. The defendant had exercised a most wise
discretion to-day, in the line of conduct which he had adopted; and the
court had reason to believe that, looking back to his past conduct, he
felt contrition for what he had already done. Under all these
circumstances, the court having taken the whole matter into their
consideration, did order and adjudge that, for this offence, the
defendant was to pay to the king a fine of one hundred pounds, be
imprisoned in the King's Bench Prison for six months, and, at the end of
that time, give securities for his good behaviour for five years,
himself in five hundred pounds, and two sureties in one hundred pounds
each, and to be further imprisoned until these sureties are perfected."
Thus foiled in patronizing clergymen and public writers to vilify their
queen, as well as being compelled to abandon the "Bill of Pains and
Penalties," ministers began to feel alarmed lest her majesty should
publish an exposition of those state secrets and crimes, which she had
so frequently threatened. A more certain plan, therefore, to rid
themselves and their abandoned king from this dread of certain disgrace,
if not of entire ruin, was now secretly put in force; and her majesty
was devoted to a premature end, as we have before explained. One thing,
however, we have forgotten to mention in our account of that period,
which is this: Lord P----, one of the then ministers, and who is now a
member of the _Whig_ government, was fatally correct in FORETELLING the
death of this injured woman; for he very incautiously said, in a letter
to a friend, "THE QUEEN WILL BE DEAD IN LESS THAN FOURTEEN DAYS!" The
letter containing this fatal prediction is now in being; but we could
not prevail upon its possessor to allow us to publish a copy of it.
If we have been too prolix in our account or too severe in our remarks
respecting our late basely-treated queen, we hope our readers will
excuse us. We certainly might say much more, but the subject being one
of importance to history, we could not reconcile it with our duty to say
less. We are sure every generous-minded Briton will lament, with us, the
untimely end of her majesty. Alas! that the page of history should be
darkened by such foul transactions as Truth has obliged us to record!
Thousands and tens of thousands of the hard-earned money of the
tax-payers of this kingdom, with the pledge of peerages to add to the
"illustrious dignity" of the House of Lords, were presented to the
persons who effected these diabolical acts of atrocity. The money might
possibly have been paid; but, in one or two instances, the perpetrators
of these sanguinary deeds became too remorse-stricken to wait for the
honours of nobility, and made their exit from the world by committing
suicide!
The public must have been frequently surprised at the number of persons,
of obscure origin, who, without having either distinguished themselves
in the world by their talents, or conferred the least benefit upon their
country, were ennobled, loaded with wealth, and received into favour,
by the profligate George the Fourth. But the following anecdotes, among
many others that might be adduced, will explain to our readers the
secret causes of such advancement.
* * * * *
Mr. William Knighton was a surgeon, and in his professional capacity
attended Sir John M'Mahon (whose numerous villanies we have before set
forth) in his last illness, and immediately upon his decease took
possession of all his papers, and carried them away, under pretence that
M'Mahon had given them to him. When the prince's _grief_ had a little
subsided, he went for these papers, but, to his great surprise and
consternation, found all the drawers empty! He sent for Mr. Knighton,
and asked him about the matter. "Yes," said Knighton, "M'Mahon gave them
to me!" "But you mean, of course, to restore them?" "Yes, certainly; but
only upon a proper remuneration." "Oh!" said the regent, "I always
_meant_ to give you M'Mahon's place!" Nor could he do less, since he
then had made himself master, not only of the _private secrets_, but
_public ones_ also, which were of the greatest possible consequence. The
Duchess of Gloucester was present at this dialogue between her brother
the Prince Regent and Mr. Knighton. Our informant had this account from
her royal highness' own lips, who also added, "And so my poor brother is
obliged to keep this viper about him!" But the ministers said, "The
prince may entrust his future secretary with his _private_ affairs, but
his _public_ ones belong to us alone, as keepers of his conscience." Mr.
Knighton, however, was compensated for this "loss of secrets" by
receiving the _honour_ of knighthood. He was also employed to deliver a
certain titled lady of an illegitimate child, in Hanover-square, and his
faithfulness, in keeping this secret from the public, was rewarded by
making him a present of the house, most elegantly furnished, in which
the disgraceful affair took place!!! Sir William Knighton had likewise a
thousand pounds per annum for his professional attendance on the king!!!
* * * * *
Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, who was some time private secretary to his late
majesty, also acquired place and wealth by possessing himself of his
master's private transactions. This gentleman was sent from Windsor, by
George the Fourth, to the Earl of Liverpool with a large bill for
diamonds due to Messrs. Rundell & Co., and for money to pay it. The bill
was so large (seventy thousand pounds) that the prime minister
_insisted_ upon knowing who these diamonds were for. Sir Benjamin very
reluctantly confessed that they had been purchased for Lady Conyngham!
Lord Liverpool instantly took Bloomfield with him in his own carriage to
Windsor, and requested an audience of the king. His lordship, much to
his credit, emphatically told his majesty that Sir B. Bloomfield must
resign, or he himself would. The king was so enraged with his secretary
for informing the earl of these particulars, that he struck Bloomfield a
violent blow, when the mortified knight quickly asked, "WHO POISONED THE
PRINCESS CHARLOTTE?" It was owing to this circumstance that Bloomfield
was sent as ambassador to Sweden, into _honourable_ exile, and, to
soothe his wounded pride and prevent his exposure of certain infamous
transactions, in which he himself had acted a very prominent part, he
was shortly after created--a LORD!!! A good round sum of money was also
given him to hush up the matter. We cannot help admiring the conduct of
Lord Liverpool in this instance,--the only one, that we are acquainted
with, which deserved the thanks of his country; for his lordship boldly
refused to pay for the aforesaid diamonds without the consent of
parliament, which the king, for shame, could not agree to!
* * * * *
The Duke of Wellington, who has been frequently termed the mushroom
duke, obtained his wealth and titles for exposing the brave army of
England to unnecessary dangers and hardships. The position which he
chose for that army at Waterloo would have assuredly proved its entire
destruction, if it had not been for the treachery of Field Marshal
Grouchy, one of Napoleon's generals! But the Wellesley family were in
possession of the STATE-SECRETS, and it was therefore deemed prudent to
shower wealth and honours upon the whole family.
* * * * *
Mr. Conant, the chief magistrate of Bow-street, was knighted for
conducting the secret investigation against the Princess of Wales in
1813.
* * * * *
The Marquis of Conyngham, it is well known, obtained his title through
the prostitution of his wife to the libertine George the Fourth. The
baneful influence which this designing woman exercised over his majesty,
to the very last moments of his life, is a deplorable fact, which not
only proved mischievous to the best interests of the country, but will
for ever brand the name of her contemptible husband with derision and
disgust. This shameless mistress stood as the fountain of emolument and
preferment, and she took every advantage of that situation to promote
the aggrandizement of her family. The indulgent country, however, would
hardly have found fault with this second, Mrs. Clarke, had not, in some
instances, the very laws of the constitution been infringed, and the
domestic policy of the country become endangered, by the effects of her
improper influence, which, as it was _secret_, was fraught with the
greater injury. Had the marchioness confined herself to benefitting her
own family, the mischief would not have been so deplorable; but when the
highest offices in the church were bestowed on persons scarcely before
heard of,--when political parties rose and fell, and ministers were
created and deposed, to gratify the ambition of a prostitute,--then the
palace of the king appeared as if surrounded by some pestilential air,
and every honourable person avoided the court as alike fatal to private
property and public virtue. Thus the entrance to Windsor Castle became,
as it were, hermetically sealed, by the "lusty enchantress" within, to
all but her favoured minions! The court of George the Fourth certainly
differed from that of Charles the Second, although the number and
reputation of their several mistresses were nearly the same in favour
and character; but George the Fourth had no confiscations to confer on
the instruments of his pleasure, and therefore took care to rob the
country of gold to make up such deficiency. The reigns of these two
monarchs, dissimilar as they might be in some respects, nevertheless
possessed this resemblance: that an illegitimate progeny of royalty were
thrust forward to the contempt of all decency, and proved a heavy tax on
the forbearance of virtuous society. The wicked George the Fourth, as we
have been very credibly informed, gave the Marchioness of Conyngham more
than half a million of money, as well as bestowing many titles to
gratify her insatiable ambition. We really have no words to express our
abhorrence of such proceedings!
* * * * *
Towards the close of George the Fourth's wicked career, he pretended to
be very much attached to the drama, and that accomplished and
fascinating actress, Miss Chester, was therefore engaged as READER to
his majesty. Sir Thomas Lawrence, at that time engaged in taking a
portrait of this lady, as well as one of the king, was entrusted with
the delicate negotiation. A meeting was soon obtained, and a kind of
excuse adopted to have Miss Chester near the king's person, as "PRIVATE
READER," at an annual salary of six hundred pounds! Thus was another
beauty added to the royal establishment, and her name emblazoned in the
"red book" of the country's burdens. For the kind attentions this lady
bestowed on the "polished" monarch, she has lately been admitted to that
refuge for royal mistresses, titled dames, and pensioned members of the
aristocracy--HAMPTON-COURT PALACE! Without disputing Miss Chester's
claims to be maintained at the public expense among the noble drones
there domiciled, it is not without something like disgust and
indignation that we view one of our most ancient kingly edifices, built
by the liberality of the nation, and at this moment supported by the
public purse, being converted into an asylum of this description.
Englishmen are thus taxed to support the paramours, and minions of
royalty in ease and luxury! But we need not confine our indignation to
this one royal residence; for is not Bushy Park within a mile of
Hampton, where the progeny of an actress kept at that place form now a
portion of our _noble_ aristocracy? We do not charge these unworthy
doings exclusively on the Tories; for, alas! the Grey Whigs seem to be
treading very closely in the footsteps of their predecessors in office,
by tolerating such royal doings, as well as filling their own pockets
and that of their families.
* * * * *
From such disreputable means of acquiring title and wealth, England has
long been imposed on, and the ancient nobility of the country degraded.
Any pre-eminent degree of merit, if exercised for the country's benefit,
was sure to render its possessor a certain object of George the Fourth's
vengeance. His private court, therefore, found their best security in
their want of virtue. By a voluntary submission to the tyrant's
caprices, they retained the _high privilege_ of his smile and favour,
and built the bulwark of their safety on their _own personal
insignificance_! And yet, strange as the infatuation may appear, these
very creatures fancied their nature had undergone a real metamorphosis
by his majesty granting them a title; they considered themselves refined
by a kind of chemical process, sublimed by the sunshine of royal favour,
and thus separated from the dross and the dregs of ordinary
humanity,--from that humanity of which the mass of mankind partake, and
which, contemptible as it may seem to upstart lords, is the same with
the prince upon the throne and the beggar upon the dunghill. But from
such proud characters, we may trace the present contempt in which
nobility is almost universally held. The great endeavour of George the
Fourth's favourites has been to keep "the people" at a distance, lest
their own _purer_ nature should be contaminated by plebeian society; and
the first lesson they teach their offspring is, not to revere God, but
to maintain their own dignity in the scale of being! To men of such
principles, the king had only to make his wishes known, however
monstrous and unjust they might be, and they were immediately, and, in
too many cases, _fatally_ executed. Under such a government as that of
the last sixty years and upwards, it was fortunate indeed to escape
notice,--to creep through the vale of obscurity, and to die in old age,
without the prison, the pointed steel, or the poisoned cup! From a
vigorous mind, in every way calculated to find pleasure and honourable
employment in noble and virtuous actions, George the Fourth degenerated
into a monster, delighting in baubles and in a wantonness of wickedness
that produced the most flagitious habits, and which rendered him the
most despicable man in the whole circle of society; yet he was
designated "the most accomplished gentleman of the age!!!" We are aware
that he was surrounded with flatterers and sycophants, who wished to
gratify their _own_ avarice and pride by extending _his_ tyrannical
power; but ought such a mean excuse to be urged in extenuation of his
crimes? A man, like him, endowed with nature's choicest gifts, both of
mind and body, which were farther heightened by the most liberal
education, should have spurned such minions from his presence, and kept
company with none but the virtuous and the patriotic. Away, then, with
that vindication of George the Fourth's unjust deeds, which would fix
the stigma of crimes, prompted by his _own_ love of sensuality, to the
"advice of evil counsellors!" Evil counsellors would not have dared to
present him the cup of flattery, if he had not shewn himself so
greedily desirous of swallowing its contents. Let every friend of man
and of his country, then, guard against two similar reigns of horror,
and defy, as we do, fines and imprisonment, in attempting, by every
lawful and rational means, to push back the gigantic strides of tyranny,
whether in a king or an overbearing ministry. Even now we are cursed
with a power, generated by Queen Charlotte and the late king, her son,
which is trying, by every scheme of ingenuity and desperation, to bring
back its former unjust, intolerant, and corrupt ascendency, both in
church and state; but who is there that can contemplate the possibility
of such a state of affairs occurring again, without feelings of horror?
What man in the possession of his senses but would exclaim against the
national misfortune of having another Pitt, a Liverpool, a Londonderry,
a Canning, or a Wellington, in power? Awful, however, as the havoc
appears which these men have made, the country need not yet give itself
up to despair. We believe that there is a fund of vigour in the empire
that may stand experiments, the least of which would shake the sickly
frames of other empires to dissolution. There is probably no dominion on
earth that has within itself so strong a repulsion of injury, or so
vivid and rapid a spring and force of restoration. Its strength is
renewed like that of the young eagle; and it is this very faculty of
self-restoration that has so long allowed the empire to hold together,
notwithstanding the infinite speculations, tamperings, absurdities, and
crimes of men in power, under the guidance of Queen Charlotte and
George the Fourth. Yet is it right that England should be kept merely
above bankruptcy, while she has the original power of being the first,
most vigorous, richest, and happiest portion of the world? Where does
the earth contain a people so palpably marked out for superiority in all
the means of private and public enjoyment of affluence, influence, and
security? The most industrious, strong-minded, and fully-educated
population of the world inhabit her island. She has the finest
opportunities for commerce, the most indefatigable and sagacious efforts
and contrivances for every necessity and luxury of mankind;
inexhaustible mines of the most valuable minerals, and almost the
exclusive possession of the most valuable of them all,--COAL; a
singularly healthy and genial climate, where the human form naturally
shapes itself into the most complete beauty and vigour; a situation the
most happily fixed by Providence for a great people destined to
influence Europe,--close enough to the Continent to watch every
movement, and influence the good or peril of every kingdom of it from
Russia to Turkey, and yet secured from the sudden shocks and casualties
of European war by the Channel, of all defences, the cheapest, the most
permanent, and the most impregnable!
When these immense and enviable advantages are compared with the present
state of England, heavy indeed must the sins of our rulers appear! But a
new class and character of hostility is now happily starting up to
oppose further inroads upon our liberties, and the question will
speedily be brought to a decision, not between the obsolete and formal
parties of the two houses of parliament, but between the Treasury bench
and the delegates of "the people,"--that people itself shewing a bold
and virtuous character, commissioning its representatives with a voice
of authority, and exhibiting a rigid determination to see that their
duty is done, unexampled in the history of Britain! This is the kind of
spirit that has long been wanted, and we look to it as the sure cure for
the decaying vitality of the constitution. We are no advocates for a
revolution brought about by popular passion, by the vulgar artifice of
vulgar demi-gods, by the itinerant inflammation of pretended patriotism;
but the present state of public feeling appeals not to the ambition of
the democrat, to the baseness of the incendiary, the sordidness of the
plunderer, or the fury of the assassin. There is nothing in it but the
natural expression of honourable minds, disdaining to look calmly upon
injustice, extortion, and royal profligacy, whether practised by Whig or
Tory, and however sanctioned by time. The people are indignant at the
callous venality of public men, and feel themselves insulted by the open
spoil which bloated sinecurists and state-secret keepers have so long
committed upon the honest gains of society. They cannot see the
necessity of that strangling burthen of taxes which makes industry as
poor as idleness, and they shrink from the view of their withering
effect on the freedom and prosperity of England. The people who observe
matters in this light are not the wild haters of all governments, nor
the sullen conspirators against the peace of mankind; but the father of
the industrious family, the man of genius, honesty, and virtue, the
sincere patriot, are those who now feel themselves compelled to come
from their willing obscurity into the front rank of public care, to
raise up their voices, till now never heard beyond the study or the
fireside, and demand that the House of Commons shall at last throw off
its fetters, scorn the indolence, meanness, and venality of the Upper
House, knowing no impulse but its duty, no patronage but that of public
gratitude, and no party but its country! Such feelings are so just, that
they have become universal, and so universal, that they have become
IRRESISTIBLE! The minister, be he Whig or Tory, must yield to them, or
he instantly descends from his power. All candidates for public
distinction will thus be compelled to discover that the most prudent
choice, as well as the most manly, generous, and principled, is to side
with the country. Then may we hope to see sinecures extinguished; the
obnoxious patronage of government destroyed; every superfluous expense
of the public service rent away; the enormous salaries of ministers and
the feeders on the civil list reduced; the annuities to ministerial
aunts, cousins, and connexions of more dubious kinds, on the pension
list, unsparingly expunged; which, by disburthening the nation of
unnecessary taxes, will enable the Englishman to live by his labour. If
these things may be done by the Russell reform bill, it will be only by
a circuitous process. BUT ENGLAND HAS NO TIME TO WAIT. What must be done
at last cannot be done too speedily. The truth is, that the nation is
disgusted with the insolent extravagance of the Grey cabinet, which
utters the most zealous declarations of economy and withdrawal of taxes,
while the people remain unrelieved of a single impost. They observe a
premier lavish of the public money on his own family, while a Chancellor
of the Exchequer starts up, and sapiently condemns certain members of
the Whig government for refusing their salaries! Thus the old Tory
system is still attempted to be perpetuated, under the banners of the
Whigs; the tax-gatherer makes his appearance with undiminished demands;
the necessaries of life increase in price as they decrease in
excellence; every thing, in short, that man eats, drinks, or wears,
loads him with an additional tax, paralyzing his industry, and
overwhelming him in poverty.
Every candid and impartial observer will acknowledge that the public
voice is not raised against government itself, nor against the many
admirable institutions of this country; but against the perversions of
government; against unconstitutional and wicked rulers; against abuses
of trust, office, and authority; against impositions and corruptions
pervading every department of the state, which have been reduced to
system, and teem with every species of fraud, tyranny, and oppression;
against the Star Chamber of Toryism; against the misappropriation of
unnecessary, extortionate, and oppressive imposts; against despotic
enactments; against fictitious prosecutions and arbitrary imprisonments;
against the perversions of law and the decrees of political judges;
against spies and hireling ruffians, suborned to deprive the subject of
his liberty, aided by the corrupt practices of heart-hardened clerical
and other magistrates; against packed juries, and the artful
construction of libel; against the iniquitous forms and delays of the
chancery and other courts;--against these, we say, and all such
violations of the chartered rights of Britons, is that voice proclaiming
its DETERMINATION TO BE FREE!--to be masters of their own wealth, their
own industry, their own personal security, and their own liberties! The
people of England will no longer be swayed by those upstart peers which
George the Fourth created. What claims have such state-pensioners on
public confidence? Why should sensible men give up their judgments to a
selfish and hypocritical faction of--LORDS? What better, in the name of
heaven, are they than the rest of human creatures?
"Remove their swelling epithets, thick laid
As varnish on a harlot's cheek; the rest,
Thin sown with ought of profit or delight,
Will far be found unworthy."
It is, indeed, idle to suppose that the present highly-enlightened
inhabitants of this country can be thwarted from their wishes by the
vote of such men; for almost all the ancient nobility are with the
people. Englishmen, we repeat, care not for the vote of time-serving
lords, for the prayers of worldly-minded bishops, or for the tears and
vehement gestures of ex-chancellors! The people have resolved to redeem
the constitution from their polluting hands. The pupils of those who
have brought the country to its present impoverished state by their
misrule, during the last two reigns of vice and profligacy, will seek in
vain for the support of the people of 1832! A different form of
government is now dawning upon us, and the Tories have "fallen, for ever
fallen!" Murder, we trust, will now no longer be committed with impunity
by rank; exactions, weighing down a people's existence, will cease; the
needy will no longer be required to pamper the insatiable avarice and
voluptuousness of the great; a system of pure justice in the
administration of national affairs will rectify those abuses which have
for so many years ingulphed the kingdom in misery. If the people do but
prove true to themselves, nothing can now prevent their emancipation
from the thraldom of that overgrown power, by which they have cruelly
been enslaved. Yet the disease has been so long accumulating, that it
still lies deep, and will require both energy and skill to eradicate it.
They must, therefore, be upon their guard against the machinations of
their wily enemies, who will magnify every little ebullition of public
feeling into an attempt to overturn the existing institutions of the
country. Sensible men, and true friends to the constitution, and
therefore to the king, who forms so considerable a part of it, will
understand the Tory cry of "SEE THE EFFECTS OF POWER IN THE HANDS OF THE
PEOPLE!" and will not be led into a fear of some future evil, from
popular commotion, by such an attempt to divert them from their
constitutional rights. In this respect, vigilance is highly necessary to
protect them from the secret depredations of their former artful
tyrants, who are ever on the alert to regain their lost power. Let the
people, then, avoid all riots, tumults, and popular commotions, with the
utmost care, and preserve peace, good order, and security to all ranks
of society. True patriots will be careful to discourage every thing
which tends to destroy these natural fruits of a free constitution, not
only because whatever tends to destroy them tends to destroy all human
happiness, but also because even an accidental outrage in popular
assemblies and proceedings, as we have before shewn, is used by the
enemies of freedom to discredit the cause of liberty. By the utmost
attention to the preservation of the public peace, Englishmen will
defeat the malicious designs of servile courtiers; but, whatever may
happen, they will not desert the cause of humanity. Through a dread of
licentiousness, they will not forsake the standard of liberty. It is the
part of fools to fall upon Scylla in striving to avoid Charybdis. Who
would wish to see restored the despotic sway of Queen Charlotte and
George the Fourth, through the fear of a few transient outrages being
committed by the excitation of a long-insulted people? Both these
extremes are despotic while they last; but the former is a torrent that
would rush its headlong course for ever, if it met not a barrier
sufficiently strong to resist its power, while the latter may be
compared to a spring flood, that covers the meadows to-day, and
disappears on the morrow. The learned and eloquent DR. PRICE has a
passage so applicable to this subject, that our readers must excuse our
introducing it. This humane philosopher observes,
"Licentiousness and despotism are more nearly allied than is commonly
imagined. They are both alike inconsistent with liberty, and the true
end of government; nor is there any other difference between them than
that one is the licentiousness of great men, and the other the
licentiousness of little men; or that by one, the persons and property
of a people are subject to outrage and invasion from a king or a lawless
body of grandees; and that by the other, they are subject to the like
outrage from a lawless mob. In avoiding one of these evils, mankind have
often run into the other. But all well-constituted governments guard
equally against both. Indeed, of the two, the last is, on several
accounts, the least to be dreaded, and has done the least mischief. It
may be truly said, if licentiousness has destroyed its thousands,
despotism has destroyed its millions. The former having little power,
and no system to support it, necessarily finds its own remedy; and a
people soon get out of the tumult and anarchy attending it. But a
despotism, wearing a form of government, and being armed with its force,
is an evil not to be conquered without dreadful struggles. It goes on
from age to age, debasing the human faculties, levelling all
distinctions, and preying on the rights and blessings of society. It
deserves to be added, that in a state disturbed by licentiousness, there
is an animation which is favourable to the human mind, and puts it upon
exerting its powers; but in a state habituated to despotism, all is
still and torpid. A dark and savage tyranny stifles every effort of
genius, and the mind loses all its spirit and dignity."
MR. BAILEY, of Nottingham, an independent writer of great talent, has
well defined the causes of political convulsions, and the line of
conduct to be pursued by "the people" in times of great excitement. In
that gentleman's "Discourse on Revolutions," he says,
"That the progress of civilization may be retarded in states, by the
measures of governments, cannot be doubted. That the tendencies towards
disturbance in states, which inevitably await on advancing civilization,
may be restrained in their development by a politic or resolute
government, even whilst its policy is anomalous to the spirit of the
age, can as little be doubted. But what, it may be fairly asked, is in
reality gained by this procedure? The principle of revolution is not
annihilated, the nature of social man is not altered, the impetus of
knowledge is not weakened, the momentum of public opinion is not broken!
After every thing is done which cunning or tyranny can suggest, to avert
the day of demand and concession, IT WILL ARRIVE, when demand will be
made in a voice of thunder by an infuriated populace, and concession, of
the most humiliating description, be granted by an abject sovereign!
"As fires longest pent up in obscurity at length burst out with the most
resistless fury, so revolutions longest deferred are attended, in their
crisis, with the most terrible consequences. Were the rulers of nations
actuated by a spirit of sound wisdom, those dreadful convulsions could
never arise in states, on account of social rights, which, after causing
the death of thousands of the citizens, and desolating towns and
provinces, leave palaces in ruins, and thrones vacant.
"Revolution ought always to be the work of the government, not of the
people, except through the expression of public opinion. This is the
only species of power which the people can beneficially employ for the
redress of grievances,--at least, in old states, where a long indulgence
in habits of venality and corruption by the government, and a
widely-extended ramification of interests springing therefrom, and
pervading all classes of the community, must create a strong disposition
in favour of the existing order of things among large masses of the
citizens. Physical force ought never to be employed for the correction
of social evils, until every species of negative resistance has been
proved to be unavailing.
"When despotism has arrived at that state of audacious temerity, that it
makes a mockery of suffering, and tramples on remonstrances, sacrificing
alike the property, the persons, and consciences of men to its
ungovernable lust of dominion, it is justifiable to arraign such tyrants
at the tribunal of nature, that so their impotence may be exposed, and
their crimes punished."
Let us hope, therefore, that Englishmen, in freeing themselves from
despotism, will studiously avoid such scenes as lately took place at
Bristol. Britons should recollect that a determined and virtuous people
can do any thing and every thing by firmness and quietness; but all
violence defeats its own ends, and gives advantage to our enemies. A
thorough reform in church and state MUST take place; a crisis is at
hand, and those who wish to see England escape a trial of misery and
blood will heartily wish, and openly and resolutely demand, to see a
change of that long system, under which Corruption has thickened round
the high, while Poverty and Taxation have smitten the low. A longer
delay to remedy these evils may unhappily irritate the people into a
spirit of vengeance, which the tears of Lord Eldon, the bullying of the
Marquis of Londonderry, the professions of a Whig ministry, the
intrigues of German women, or the threatenings of Wellington's bayonet
law would vainly attempt to oppose! Sullen visions are now upon the
clouds, to which place-hunters and renegados are afraid to lift their
terrified eyes. But if they tremble at those visions, what will be their
fate when they ripen into substance, and let loose their thunders upon
the heads of the enemies of our country? May the necessity for such
vengeance be obviated by a timely concession to the constitutional
demands of an enlightened people is our sincere prayer!