3<?6 



Stale of Public Affairs in October, 



wich the alarming presages of some ge- 

 neral convulsion. The questions, tlien, for 

 Ibe people lu consider, in order to avert 

 the danger, were, first, whether they 

 should state their complaints to the go- 

 vernment? Secondly, whether, if they 

 Itiade the statemtnt in the way proposed 

 to-day, that statement vvonid be heard? 

 And, thirdly, whether, if heard, redress 

 •would be obtained, or any remedy ap- 

 plied ? But, whatever the result, he 

 would exhort the people to make their 

 *ase known— to proclaim their grievances. 

 What, said he, shall we in Mich a direful 

 Mate of distvess, allow ourselves to regard 

 tliose impudent hypocrites, to whom we 

 mainly owe that distress, when they tell 

 us, that we ought to sit down in patience 

 to enjoy the comforts of our holy religion ? 

 Do these hypocrites tliemjclves ever 

 tamely submit to any injury they can re- 

 dress, or to any evil they can remove? 

 Are they to he found ever quietly en- 

 during any privation — No — they have 

 abundance, while so many of you starve ; 

 yet they recommend you to snbrait to 

 wrongs, which, if they touched themselves, 

 would lender them restless and indignant^ 

 But shall we attend to such canting im- 

 postors? Shall vvc permit oursclve' to be 

 eajoled out of our senses, as we have been 

 out of our moncv ? Shall we herd the as- 

 sertion of those impostors that our dis- 

 tresses are merely temporary ? Would 

 that we could believe this declaration! 

 But it would be inconsistent with the 

 honour of British intellect, to subscribe to 

 the sopiiistry upon which that declaration 

 rested. The declaration and its authors 

 were, indee(i, pretty uiuch lui a par. 

 Those authors have sustained the base 

 sjsteni which has paralysed o\ir industry, 

 stid iiumdatcd the coimtry with (he most 

 Vagrant corruptions that have ever <li&- 

 ■raced or afflicted any nation. Is it pos- 

 sible then to rest ram indignation, when 

 we hear those men, who have preyed like 

 •vultures on the vitals of the country, and 

 Wlio, even now, are revelling in every va- 

 riety of luxury, tell us to wail with [)a- 

 tience ; that time will remove all our dif- 

 ficulties ; that things, truly, will yet take 

 their natural cnursc ; and that our present 

 distress is merely the consequence of 

 peace ? Is it possible not to feel astonish- 

 ment, and souiething more, when at such 

 • crisis we reflect upon the thousands dis- 

 tributed among sinccurists and courtly 

 Sycophants— when we see such immense 

 Aums squandered in the construction of 

 sopfrniuuerary palaces and superfiuous 

 streets, while thousands of those who pos- 

 sess as pme and honorable blood and feel- 

 ings, quite as virtuous as ever belonged to 

 ro>alty, are literally starving ? But pro- 

 fusion and proliigacy, and insensibility to 

 flie state of the people, stare one in ihe 

 lace in every dirtctioD. Tliere ar« at 



[Nov. 1, 



present in this country four persons, one 

 a lord spiritual, and the others three lords 

 temporal, who take from tlie public purse, 

 for doing nothing, no less than 150,0001. a 

 year. Now, gentlemen, it will be in your 

 recollection, that according to a calcula- 

 tion of Arthur Yonng's, which was laid be- 

 fore a Parliamentary Committee some 

 years siucc, 160,0001. a year would suffice 

 to supply 25,000 persons with bread, so 

 that the four lords to whom I have al- 

 luded, who are literally a burden upon the 

 country, receive as much for doing nothing 

 as would serve to support twenty-five thou- 

 sand of the crowd that are starving. Yet 

 those selfish drones who thus prey upon 

 our resources, presume to insult the coun- 

 try by recommending charitable contribiu 

 tions for the people, while they take carfe 

 to hold tiglit their own purse strings, giv- 

 ing merely such a trifle as serves only t9 

 offend the understanding of the country. 

 Such is the fate to which Great Britain has 

 been degraded, after having so long occu- 

 pied the most eminent station, after having 

 so often stood forth as the liberator of na- 

 tions, as the advocate of the oppressed, 

 and the support of the needy. This golden 

 mine, as all the nations of Europe have 

 occasionally found if, is now, alas, so ex» 

 hatistcd, as to be compelled to receive as 

 elemiosyiiary donation, and from whom? 

 from a Frenchman, from a Bourbon too — • 

 from a member of that family which is 

 truly endeared to us by their tolerant 

 spirit and liberal conduct towards Protes- 

 tants, and still more for bavins; so materially 

 routributed to wrest America from the 

 dominion of Tugland. But tiicre is some- 

 thing so odious and contemptible in the 

 conduct and character of this family, that 

 an Englishman, tenacious of the couse- 

 <piencc of his country, must feel peculiarly 

 iiumbled by the circumstance to which I 

 have alluded. For who that is sensible of 

 pride could wisli to owe any obligation to 

 such a family, who are as silly in their su- 

 perstition as they are inhuman in their 

 policy, who are at once cowardly and 

 cruel, who the moment Bonaparte lauded 

 in France wiiliont any army, skipped away 

 from Paris like sn many grasshoppers. Is 

 it possible not tocomparc the circumstance 

 of Englishmen receiving bounty from such 

 a family to the farcical exhibition of Bri- 

 tannia begging, like Belisarius, for a half- 

 penny. But all this disgrace is owuig to 

 the oligarchy that misgoverns England. It 

 miuht be observed, that although he be- 

 lieved most of those who heard him very 

 well understood what that misery meant, 

 some might require an e\planation of oli- 

 garcliy, aud he would therefore explain it. 

 An oligarchy meant snpicme power in the 

 hands of a few, and such was the bane of 

 this country. Yet that oligarchy professed 

 to be actuated in all its conduct by the 

 love t'f the country, while, in tact, their 



