THE CHRONICLE. 
ceedings falls with accumulated 
weight on the authors and the per- 
petrators of such mischief; nor can 
we avoid observing in the circum- 
_/Stances of this transaction evident 
symptoms either of sgme gross de- 
fect in our general system of police, 
or of the most supine and culpable 
negligence in those whose imme- 
<liate duty it was to have protected 
the places of public worship, as well 
as the lives and property of their 
fellow-citizens; and we trust-that 
the executive government, which 
exerted so much Jaudable activity 
to repress the disorders en the first 
notice, will proceed more fully to 
vindicate its own dignity and the 
national honour, by seriously en- 
quiring how it came to pass that 
they were permitted to rise un- 
_checked to such a height of de- 
structive fury. Whatever may be 
the event, we desire to assure you 
of our warmest affection, of our 
steadiest support. Although in this 
instance the storm has fallen on you 
alone, we all feel ourselves to have 
been equally within the aim of the 
spirit which directed it; nor shall 
we ever attempt to elude similar 
violence by meanly abandoning the 
common cause, or deserting our 
brethren in the hour of distress. 
Our adversaries betray little ac- 
quaintance with the character and 
principles of the men whom they 
presume to insult and vilify, if they 
Mwnagine that the spirit of the Dis- 
senters is to be subdued and broken 
by the means which have been em- 
ied at Birmingham. Such mea- 
sures can only tend to cement more 
closely our bond of union, and to 
invigorate our efforts to procure 
the repeal of those invidious and 
injurious laws, by which we are 
held forth as the proper objects of 
TT 
69 
suspicion and insult to the unthink- 
ing vulgar. Persuaded that we have 
not merited those absurd and mali- 
cious imputations by which igno- 
rance and bigotry have always at- 
tempted to excuse illegal violence, 
we boldly appeal for our justifica- 
tion to our general conduct, when- 
ever, on great national emergencies, 
we have been drawn forth to action. 
We cannot point out any other 
criterion of our principles as a 
body, than the uniform tenor of 
our public conduct. We know that 
on such occasions we shall be found 
ever to have shewn the most affec- 
tionate and invariable’ attachment 
to the constitution of this kingdom, 
as settled on the principles of the 
glorious Revolution, on which alone 
depends the title of the present 
august family to the British throne; 
and on this fair and open ground 
we challenge any class of our ene- 
mies to a comparison. But al- 
though we have no wish to conceal 
our sentiments; yet maintaining, as. 
we shall never cease to do, the 
equal right of every citizen to all 
the common beneiits of society, we 
apprehend that to call on us to pur- 
chase protection, safety, or even 
the good opinion of our fellow-sub- 
jects, by any avowal which the law 
does not require of all, or by any 
silence which it does not univers- 
ally enjoin, is an assumption of” 
superiority, which liberal minds will 
disclaim, and to which, conscious 
of no inferiority but in numbers, 
of no guilt but the Icve of liberty 
and our country, we see not the 
smallest reason to submit. We 
trust that our countrymen will at 
length discover that it is not our 
fault if some degree of discontent 
be ever the eftect of oppression. 
We shall not relinquish the attempt 
E3 to 
