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MR. " PUBLIC INSTRUCTOR" ROEBUCK. 



IP a late Chancellor of Exchequer deserved the nick-nomen of " Pros- 

 perity Robinson ;" or Mr. Spencer Percival that of *' General Fast ;" 

 surely the Honourable Member for Bath ought ever to be known as 

 " Public Instructor Roebuck :" not that he is, in the smallest degree, 

 competent to the task such a cognomen sets him ; but because he has, 

 without call or solicitation, taken upon himself to enlighten the empire in 

 all matters touching " politics and morals." 



We need scarcely inform our readers, that Mr. Roebuck has been for 

 some months amusing himself and a select number of friends, namely, 

 Messrs. F. Place, Grote, Hume, et hoc genus* by publishing a series 

 of pamphlets for the avowed purpose of instructing the people in legis- 

 lation, and of " modestly discovering that of themselves which yet they 

 know not of." 



Now that the party warfare of a most important session is over, we 

 are led to inquire, in the absence of more engrossing subjects, what are 

 the pretensions of Mr. Roebuck to the vast work he has voluntarily 

 undertaken ? But, in pursuing this inquiry, we wish most distinctly to 

 be understood, that our remarks will be simply directed to the self- 

 assumed character of "an instructor to the public ;" for it is right we 

 should confess, that the whole of our knowledge of that character has 

 been gleaned from his speeches in parliament, his pamphlets, and a cer- 

 tain correspondence between him and a Mr. Stirling. 



The qualifications demanded of a political instructor are, manifestly, 

 honesty, sound understanding of the principles and practice of govern- 

 ment, and the capability of communicating the elements of his know- 

 ledge, in language plain, forcible, and apt. Does Mr. Roebuck possess 

 these requisites ? Let us see. 



The first desideratum involves a discussion of no small delicacy. To 

 moot the question of honesty, in reference to any particular individual, 

 would^entail upon one having the fear of the law of libel before his eyes 

 a most dangerous line of argument ; but, to accuse a person of so much 

 moral dishonesty, as will induce him " to bear false witness against his 

 neighbour;" or to be guilty of "legally evadingf" established enact- 

 ments," is, we believe, less dangerous : at least, we hope so, for of these 

 last are we obliged to charge the Honourable Member for Bath. 



Referring to the correspondence before mentioned, we find, that in a 

 pamphlet on " the Stamped Press and its Morality," Mr. Roebuck stated, 

 not doubtingly or equivocally, but positively, as if he knew from his 

 own knowledge, that Mr. Stirling was an editor of the " Times" news- 



* The whole incorporated into a self-constituted body, entitled A Society for 

 the Diffusion of Moral and Political Knowledge." 



t Mr. Roebuck's own expression : vide his first pamphlet, p. 5. 

 M. M. No. 11. 3 O 



