THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



OP 



POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND THE BELLES LETTRES. 

 VOL. XIII.] FEBRUARY, 1832. [No. 74. 



A PROJECT FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL IGNORANCE. 



(REJECTED BY THE EDITOR OF THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.) 

 THE MARCH OF KNOWLEDGE. It is full time that the career of 

 this democratic principle should receive a check. We do not allude 

 to its fatal effects upon the continent a Bourbon in exile a Polignac 

 in captivity a Miguel in danger ; let foreign nations protect them- 

 selves ; our own perils are too many and imminent to give us time or 

 space to discuss those of our neighbours. Our object is to kindle a 

 flame of resistance to the further advance of knowledge in our native 

 land. There is no chance of quiet until we overcome this domestic 

 enemy. Jeremy Bentham is not a more irreclaimable radical, nor 

 Daniel O'Connell a more indefatigable agitator. It is this unseen but 

 restless demagogue, that has raised the cry of reform from every corner 

 of this deluded country. Hence the broken sleep of my Lord Duke of 

 Northumberland ; hence the shattered health of his grace of Newcas- 

 tle ; hence the tear on the venerable cheek of my Lord Eldon. The 

 classic union of ease and dignity is dissolved ; there is no repose in the 

 snuggest sinecure ; no peace of mind in benefice or bishopric all be- 

 cause of knowledge. While we yet speak, it menaces the chastity of 

 the constitution in Scotland, and its very life in Cornwall ; fulminates 

 fierce anathemas against the patriotic section of the peerage ; and darts 

 a sacrilegious glance at the temporalities of the church. Were principles 

 indictable like persons, knowledge would long since have been tried for 

 sedition, perhaps for treason, and sent to the colonies, or the gallows. 

 It would hardly have escaped so many Tory administrations to become 

 the ally and instrument of Whigs and Radicals. The Attorney-Gene- 

 ralship of Sir James Scarlett would have saved us the trouble of devis- 

 ing the plan which we now offer to the conservative party, and which 

 we humbly submit is the only way left to avert their ruin. We speak 



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