58 THE APPRENTICE. 



were inspired with all the spirit of heroism, and whom 

 we would have supposed lions in the field, slunk 

 frightened at the hostile preparations against them, and 

 were heard of no more.' Severities comparable both to 

 the massacre of Glencoe and to the firing of a pistol over 

 a bear's nose are not easily imagined, but it would be 

 hard to debar boy litterateurs from saying all the fine 

 things which turn up, in discussing a subject, merely be- 

 cause they occur on opposite sides of the question. Very 

 young and very old politicians are generally Conservative, 

 and the former invariably express the highest moral and 

 religious sentiments. Our retrospective essayist has little 

 or no sympathy with the patriots. ' Reform,' he writes, 

 ' was but the name which a few designing men had affixed 

 to a daring rebellion ; and whose aims were that after 

 having pulled down with the teeth of a deluded multi- 

 tude those men whose tyranny was most obnoxious, to 

 set themselves up as rulers, and in their turn be tyrants. 

 Happily their conduct and principles were of such a 

 nature, as to exclude from their meetings men of piety 

 or true independence : the religious opinions of Cobbett 

 held back all true Christians from his standard, and the 

 enthusiasm with which Carlile was defended disgusted 

 all men of sense or feeling. At their meetings it was im- 

 possible to be an oppositionist ; and though they termed 

 themselves men of liberty and forbearance, the man who 

 dared openly to oppose their schemes ran the risk of 

 having his brains beat out. Indeed, the liberty they 

 would have secured for themselves was of no universal 

 kind ; it was a liberty which only bad men would have 

 profited by, and from which the virtuous would have 

 turned with disgust ; those laws which bind the victorious 

 would no longer have existed ; and instead of a few there 

 would have been a multiplicity of tyrants/ 



