constitutional force being one of the causes 

 of our national poverty, its immediate and 

 effectual reduction is indispensibly neces- 

 sary to the freedom and prosperity of 

 Britons, and of the people of Europe in ge- 

 neral, with whose true welfare our own is 

 vitally connected. 



" That our national distress imperionsly 

 demands the most prompt abolition of all 

 useless places, and sinecure pensions, 

 vi'bich constitute so grievous an addition to 

 onr insupportable burthens, and the imme- 

 diate adoption of the most rigid economy 

 in every branch of the public expenditure. 



"That long experience has but too fully 

 proved, that the only efficient hope of the 

 people is in themselves united, to exercise 

 their constitutional powers, in order to se- 

 cure a free, full, and frequent representa- 

 tion of the people in the Conjmons House 

 of Parliament ; tlie want of vvliich repi esen- 

 tation havin;; been the primary source of 

 our multitudinous evils, the possession of 

 such a representation will be tiie only 

 tranquil, sure, and etfectual mode of ob- 

 taining indemnity for the past, and security 

 for the future. 



"That we earnestly recommend to every 

 county, city, town, and parish, in Great 

 Britain, innnediately to assemble, and to 

 direct their efforts steadily and perseve- 

 ringly to obtain a reduction of taxes, a sys- 

 tem of rigid economy in every department 

 of Government, the abolition of useless 

 places and sinecures, and a reform of Par- 

 liament j the attainment of which obji^cts is 

 iudispensibly necessary to the satiety and 

 lionour of the crown, and to our existence 

 as a free and flourishing people : and this 

 meeting farther recommends, lliat no tem- 

 porary expedients may be allowed to dis- 

 tract the attention or divide the exertions 

 of the people from their endeavours to 

 obtain every one of these important ob- 

 jects. 



TRANCE. 



Wellington has relumed totbe Conti- 

 nent to direct the operatious of the com- 

 bined armies — and the ferment of pub- 

 lic opinion in France seems to require 

 every exerton of skill — if the pluns of 

 the confederates arc to be, or can be, 

 persisted in. 



Forour parts, we forliear toexprcssonr 

 opinion ol the present order of thinscs in 

 lliatdevotcd country, because our princi- 

 ples might lead us beyond the laws of dc- 

 cornui. Ikitiio eonnucutury is necessary 

 on the facts which eviry day are pub- 

 lished relative to the measures of tiie 

 restored Bourbons in I'rance , Spain, and 

 Naples. We confess we had hopes that 

 the phiiosophieal spirit' of the age, and 

 their own adversities, might have im- 

 proved their public policy; but tiie spirit 

 of bi)fotry and despotism appears to be 



Alo.NTHtr AIau. No. 2.^b. 



State of Public Ajfairs in August. 1 jf 



interwoven witli their natural constitu- 

 tion ; and tliey seem themselves to think 

 so, for they take pains to make it 

 appear tiiat tliey consider all tlio.se 

 measurqs to be meritorious and glorious 

 which sViock the good intelligence of the 

 rest of the world. However, if the Bri- 

 tish, Russian, Austrian, and Prussian ar- 

 mies were withdrawn, and the l-'reiicli 

 themselves continued to be satisfied, it 

 would not then become the British 

 press more than it becomes foreign 

 governments to interfere ; and, if we 

 now make a remark, en passant, it 

 is merely because a British army is em- 

 ployed to support such things, and be- 

 cause the confederated armies are under 

 the direction of a Britisli general ! 



The letter of our Parisian correspon- 

 dent contains this mouth tiie following 

 statements, upon which no observatiou 

 of ours can be necessary :— 



'' The French poet, Pn-ou, in one of his 

 epigrams, desoibes Natuic defending her- 

 self against tiie attacks of Disease. A 

 blind man, the physician, was called in to 

 part the combatants; he laid about bira 

 stoutly with his staff, here aiul there, at 

 random, till one of the parties fell — it was 

 Nature. France, at this moment, repre- 

 sents Nature, ill the epigram of Firon,an(l 

 the niini-ters and priests the blind man, 

 called in to relieve her. Almost every 

 step taken by the existing government ap- 

 pears, in the eye of Reason, as designed to 

 precipitate the ruin of what they are in- 

 tended to establish on more solid bases. 

 New victims offer themselves every day 

 as agents of the wild and ill-conceited 

 plans to recover the sha.lnw of liberty ; and 

 the work of vengeance follows close in 

 their train. Thus, conspiracies, proscrip- 

 tions, and death, roll on in a rapid course. 

 The number of spies paid by government, 

 at various prices, from live pence to a 

 pound sterling, are supposed lo e.\cecd a 

 million and u half, or three times the num- 

 ber employed by the former government j 

 they arc lo be met with in every shape- 

 as your supposed fiiends, your domrstic?, 

 the porters nf the hotels, the letter-car- 

 riers, the shfK-ldacks, the water-bearers, 

 and even the beggars in the street; the 

 latter of whom, paid at the rate of ten sous 

 per d.em, lake tl.cir stations close (;> voiir 

 door, waicli all your visitors, mark your 

 going out and coming in, and regularly re- 

 port the reMilt of iheir observations to the 

 police. If jun sii'^pcct, tVom seeing such 

 a peison always near your door, that he or 

 she is a spy, nay, if you know it, you can- 

 not comju'l tiiem to decamp without an 

 order from the police-office, who affect to 

 oblige you, remove the party, but send a 

 worse. 



" As tlie founders of the revolution abo- 

 A a lisLetl 



