1829.] The Forty Shilling Freeholders. 13 



Acuities that may have compelled the suppression of that word. Our motto 

 has been, and shall be Vive le roi, quand mime. Yet we cannot help ad- 

 verting, on this occasion, to the former language of a man whose name it 

 now disgusts us to pronounce — the redoubted Dr. Philpotts. " Looking," 

 says this man, " to the unconstitutional power possessed over the great 

 majority of the Irish representatives by the popish priesthood, and look- 

 ing, too, to the avowed hostility of themselves, and the most prominent 

 of their lay adherents, to the Established Church, can it be safe to give 

 them the great additional power of choosing from those very adherents 

 a large and important part of the British parliament ?" We answer, 

 with the universal voice of England, that nothing short of the most 

 unaccountable bhndness could have done it. Can any friend of the con- 

 stitution wisli to see the writ of summons to parliament, " for some great 

 and weighty affairs, concerning us, the state, and defence of our kingdom, 

 and of our church of England and Ireland," directed to men of such lan- 

 guage and intentions ? Certainly not. Above all, can a prince who has 

 sworn to maintain, to theutmostof his power, the laws of God, the true pro- 

 fession of the Gospel, and the Protestant religion established by law, can 

 he give his royal assent to a bill which would confer on eighty, perhaps 

 an hundred, of the bitterest enemies of the Protestant church, power to 

 interfere in all its concerns, and defeat and annihilate all its laws ? 

 Thank God," pursues the conscientious Dean, " thank God, our king 

 himself feels that he cannot, and has proclaimed, on his royal word, that 

 he wiU not ; and every loyal subject, be his own opinion on the great 

 question what it may, will exult in the conscientious decision of the 

 sovereign, and gratefully acknowledge a new and powerful claim on the 

 attachment of his people." 



So much for the pledges of Dr. Philpotts, before a visit to the seat of 

 rvisdom ! made him see with other eyes, turned his imagination upside 

 down, inoculated him with admiration for every nonsense or knavery 

 that could drop from official lips, and made him, if he has any feeling 

 left, the most miserable man alive. So sink the apostates; so be 

 rewarded meanness of spirit ; so may the swallowers of their own words 

 feed on the bitter banquet of their own reflections. For this fellow we 

 have the deepest scorn. Lawyers are bred to artifice ; ministers and 

 party men naturally learn that their principles are a part of their trade ; 

 but a clergyman, the professional teacher of morals, honestj^, and 

 Christian self-denial But we are sick of the subject, and of the man. 



We shall tell these apostates, that though they have triumphed over 

 the Constitution, they have not yet triumphed over the Nation. The 

 STRUGGLE IS BUT BEGUN ! the march to Moscow has been made, and 

 the work of devastation has been remorselessly done ; but the march 

 Jrmn Moscow is the thing — and then, God defend the right ! 



Once more we tell our countrymen to do all things but despair. The 

 astonishing treachery that we have witnessed, has actually smitten down 

 public resistance, as if by a thunderbolt. But there is in England a 

 mighty reserve of strength and recovery, beyond the reach of man ; the 

 old recollections of Freedom, the native disdain with which the High- 

 minded hate the corrupt — and more mighty than all, that hallowed and 

 unearthly Religion, which must not be polluted by the touch of the 

 idolater. Once more we say, England will be herself again ; and may the 

 Eternal Power, in whose hand are the issues of life and death to 

 nations as to men, speed the time ! 



