MR. " PUBLIC INSTRUCTOR" ROEBUCK. 471 



of " Cleave's Police Gazette," and would be glad to hear the second 

 resolved by the dosers over Mr. Roebuck's pamphlets.* 



We have next to inquire, if Mr. Roebuck understands the theory and 

 practice of government ? This will cost but little trouble. One sentence 

 from his article, " On the Means of Conveying Information to the 

 People," will speedilysettle the amount of our instructor's political acumen : 



" We (namely, the writer and his clique) believe that no people can be well 

 governed that do not govern themselves!" 



This sentence is evidently an attempt to express the epistolicum of 

 republicanism, but is as untenable and fallacious as any jumble of words 

 can well be ;f and to attempt the refutation of a proposition so silly, 

 would be idle : the instructor, however, saves us the trouble, for, in the 

 very next page, he flatly contradicts himself thus : 



" It is clear, that although the people ought to govern, they cannot do so directly, 

 and by themselves." 



These two sentences, taken from a pamphlet professedly written to 

 expound the views of Mr. Roebuck and his pamphleteering companions, 

 must show at once their total ignorance of legislature, limited, constitu- 

 tional, or republican. And, although we do not always see the justice 

 of picking out, as we have done, one sentence to refute sentiments 

 expressed in another yet, in this instance, we can plead ample 

 justification : first, because the contradiction is unequivocal and positive ; 

 next, because the context neither qualifies nor excuses it ; and, lastly, 

 because the premises first predicated are untenable, and consequently 

 undeducible ; so that, without making a fresh proposition, the writer 

 must have abandoned the argument for want of materials for deduction. 



But this ignorance is not confined to the science of legislation. The 

 total independence of elementary knowledge displayed in the Roebuck 

 pamphlets, brings us to our third consideration : the capability of 

 expressing ideas in language plain, forcible, and apt. 



To comply with this condition, it is plain, two things are necessary : 

 that the teacher should have ideas to express, original and essentially 

 his own ; and that he should be acquainted with the common rudiments 

 of the English grammar. In both these essentials, our " public in- 

 structor" is more than deficient. He seems entirely unpossessed of any 

 idea which has not been previously propounded and published, from the 

 davs of the "gagging bill" and "Corresponding Society," to those of 

 the surpassingly talented, but frequently wrong-headed, William Cob- 

 bett. The arguments of Mr. Roebuck or, rather, those he takes the 

 liberty of borrowing seem to undergo a similar process to the pouring 

 of water through a sieve. From the extreme instability of his senti- 

 ments, and the confused manner in which he attempts to express them, 

 it would seem that they are imbibed for the especial purpose of manu- 



* We are, certainly, of opinion, that some alteration in the stamp act, as 

 regards newspapers, is loudly called for; but while in its present state, the law 

 ought to be obeyed; and it is obvious, that a member of Parliament should be the 

 last person either to evade or break it. 



j- We suppose the instructor means, that no people cap be well governed that 

 do not govern each other. 



