( 488 



NOTES FROM THE DIARY OF A SUB-EDITOR. 



TORIES IN FRANCE AND RADICALS IN ENGLAND. There is, with- 

 out question, no country that has fought for, and yearned after 

 liberty, with such intensity as France ; yet there is scarcely a nation, 

 except the Sublime Porte, and (as an Irish friend adds,) the rest 

 of Russia I which possesses so little of that blessing. Since" the 

 Gallic era, 88," our neighbours seem to have been industriously em- 

 ployed in " pickling rods for their own backs." Robespierre, Napo- 

 leon, and Louis Philippe, may all be regarded as scourges, especially 

 selected by the people. Five years ago the press of Paris,was threatened 

 by the ordinance of Charles X. with loss of liberty ; and her citizens 

 fought the " good fight," and gained a more glorious, brilliant victory, 

 in the best of causes, than history has hitherto recorded ; while now, in 

 this present anno domini, 1835, they are actually suffering, without 

 murmur or complaint, the very thraldom which, in 1830, they were only 

 threatened with ; or, if they do complain, " roar you as gently as any suck- 

 ing dove." With the explosion of the infernal machine, came the arrest 

 of all the editors of all the anti-ministerial journals the " pet of liberty" 

 could lay hands on ! without one spark of evidence or glimmer of sus- 

 picion, but merely because these unlucky ecrevains publics might have 

 been concerned in the diabolical plot; while it is very possible that these 

 editors contributed materially to promoting the Duke of Orleans to the 

 brevet rank of king, vice Charles X. cashiered. Of a truth, the spirit of 

 liberty across the channel is, in American phrase, "progressing back- 

 wards," which the daily accounts from Paris sufficiently testily. The 

 correspondent of a morning paper, dating " Paris, Oct. 4th," writes : 

 " Our Doctrinnaires are still most rancorous against the Whig Ministry of Eng- 

 land for having suffered Mr. O'Connell to speak openly of a Reform in the House 

 of Lords!'' 



" Suffered," quotha! why, if Messieurs the Doctrinnaires are "most 

 rancorous" at the ravings of O'Connell, it is fair to infer, that they would 

 positively expire with rage, were they to read the revolutionary drivel- 

 ings of Roebuck, or hear the incendiary magniloquence at some of our 

 public meetings. Such an orator, for instance, as Dr. Wade, " the peo- 

 ple's parson," would be the death of them. It would grieve us to be- 

 come accessaries to the decease of one of the Parisian Cabinet ; but, 

 if any of its members happen to peruse the following extract from the 

 speech of Dr. W^ade at the Radical Association meeting, we should be 

 sorry to answer for the consequences : 



" After some observations on the question of primogeniture, the reverend Doctor 

 went on to say that all the Royal Families of Europe were mad. They had four 

 or five good Lords, and now and then a good Bishop ; but he might say, as it was 

 said in the scripture, when speaking of the multitude being fed by five barley 

 loaves and two fishes, what are these among so many ?" ''(loud laughter.) 

 Vide Morn'my Advertiser, Oct. 6th. 



