1829.1 Police, Press, Popery, and Foreign Relations. 365 



sensitiveness is capable of any designs beyond those of some beggarly 

 pretender to the emoluments of place. How many actions for libel did 

 old red-nosed Noll bring ? How often did he make a private excursion 

 to swear to his character at the Old Bailey ? How often did he humbly 

 submit it to a dozen cheesemongers, or the confederate wisdom of a jury 

 of cobblers, good men and true, that his politics and his pi-inciples prayed 

 their clearing? No, Cromwell, with all his misdemeanors, had the 

 common dignity to disdain such clearance ; he had, too, the common sense 

 to know that the suit and the success would equally render him con- 

 temptible ; and if his lofty spirit ever conceived the idea of this pitiful 

 expedient for a pitiful popularity, it shook off the thought instantly, like 

 a dew-drop from the lion's mane. What register lives to tell of Napo- 

 leon's appeals to briefs and bags for the vindication of his character ? 

 Where are his depositions before the worshipful board of aldermen of 

 Paris, or his recorded triumphs in the Place de Greve ? With what 

 coimtenance would he have looked on some wretched Archchancellor, or 

 simpering secretary, suggesting the prosecution of a writer who " sus- 

 pected" the first consul of a design to grasp the diadem ? But Napoleon, 

 criminal as he was, yet had the spirit of a man capable of sovereignty. 

 He scorned to waste his indignation on trifles — his gaze was upward — he 

 had neither the time nor the taste for casting a jealous and restless eye on 

 every man round him, the miserable faculty of discovering contempt and 

 disgust in every glance that was casually turned on him, or the still 

 more miserable propensity to pursue with personal wrath the ima- 

 ginary crime of doubting his immaculate virtue. It is a truth older 

 than the pyramids, and that v^ill last when they are scattered into the 

 dust of the desart, that " no man can serve two masters," the love of a 

 bold superiority over his kind, and the love of a petty vindictiveness ; 

 the brow that is to wear a crown will never be blackened by the smoke 

 of the lamps of some obscure resort of rabble-justice. If we were to 

 hear any man fanciful enough to-morrow to accuse the Duke of Wel- 

 lington of having the sceptre of England in his sword case, we should 

 ourselves stand forward as his defenders, plead his visit to the Old 

 Bailey in final answer to the charge, and at the instant disarm the adver- 

 sary of aU power of accusation for ever. 



Yet, excepting this absurdity, we think the Morning Journal entitled 

 to the full protection of every man who values fearlessness, vigour, and 

 intelligence in the press of England. With its casual challenges of 

 public^men we have no present question. The Morning Journal is to 

 the generality of the journals what the trumpet is among instru- 

 ments : if its sound be not bold it is without use ; its place is in the front of 

 the battle, and if it be blown at the right time, and with the right so- 

 norousness, who shall criticise the tone that stimulates the shrinking, 

 and leads on the brave to that charge where victory is freedom, secu- 

 rity, and glory ? 



But, as if to give the decisive proof that the attack on the press is not 

 the casual, individual act of hasty anger against a single antagonist, 

 but has the sinister impartiality of a general hatred, the Standard has 

 been next ranged in the list of proscription. For what immediate 

 offence this can have been done, we cannot assist the public by the slight- 

 est conjecture. It would be the highest burlesque of law and lawyers 

 to suppose tliat the true cause was the alleged one of that list of suspi- 

 cions, beginning with — " If his Grace now wants character and tlic 



