VOL. XII. No. 16.

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SUMMARY OF POLITICS. EDINBURGH REVIEWERS.- When Swift wrote the above-quoted sentence, he must have known, one would think, something of men, who like the Edinburgh Reviewers, first assaulted a man with words, and thep went out to give him " satisfaction, upon the condition that both parties should load with paper bullets; so that even the conduct and character of these men present us nothing new under the sun. That they are as great cowards in politics as they have been, before the Bow-Street magistrates, proved to be in the field, will very soon appear; and to accomplish this purpose I have set apart this day, promising my readers not frequently to occupy their time with this, or any similar subject.--The reason, which the Reviewers have given, for attacking me, is this: that, as my present opinions are of mischievous tendency, it is right to contrast them with my former opinions, and, by showing that they widely disagree, to disarm my present opinions of their effect upon the public mind, which effect they assert to be very extensive.--In this very reason. is contained my justification for an exposure of their inconsistency, their selfish motives, and their profligate principles; for, though I may fairly presume, that the writings of these unknown adventurers have, comparatively speaking, but little effect with the public; yet, that effect, if it be of mischievous tendency, it is my duty to destroy if I can; and, at the same time to prevent my own character and conduct from remaining misrepresented, however few may be the persons, whom the misrepresentation may reach. The charges, preferred by the Reviewers against me, range themselves under two distinct heads: first, that of inconsistency; second, that of now promulgating doctrines tending to weaken the attachment of the people to the present system of rule, and particularly to the House of Commons. But, before I proceed to the examination of these charges, it is proper to notice the obvious cause, whence the preferring of then, has proceed ed. Upon reading their review (if such it must be called) of my writings, a question which must have occurred to every one, was;

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"how has it happened, that these persons, "who began their work much about the "time that Mr. Cobbett began his Political

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Register, never thought proper to notice "that work until now?" It is not their custom to review neu's-papers. May be so ; but how come they to have done it now? Why, the doctrines of the Register became so very dangerous, and its influence so very extensive, that it was absolutely necessary to endeavour to apply a remedy. Very well; but why delay this absolutely necessary work so long? The real cause was the following passage in the Register of the 21st of March last, Vol. XI. page 440: To see my Lord Henry Petty, who, backed and cheered by a daily in"creasing brood of young friends, equal, in every qualification to those of Pitt, 'and anxious, like them, to prove their natural' "attachment to the country, by drawing "their nourishment from her paps, &c. &c." This, they knew to be pointed at them; they felt the justice of the description, and that, too, at the mortifying moment, when those paps were, quite unexpectedly, torn from their hungry jaws. This, joined, perhaps, to apprehensions of the future, was obviously the cause, and the sole cause, of what they call a review of Cobbett's Po"litical Register", ten volumes of which work,in the course of five years, having, as they confess, an almost unparalleled extent of circulation, they had suffered to pass entirely unnoticed.- In this review, they have quoted many passages from my, former writings, relating to actions as well as to men, contrasted them with those of my latter writings, relating to the same actions and the same men, and exhibited a complete disagreement, between them. And, if I myself had not, in due time and place, noticed this disagreement, and accounted for it, their criticism would have been fair enough, but, at every stage of change in my opinions, I myself have observed upon such change, and have, in a manner satisfactory to myself, at least, accounted for it. I beg leave to refer the reader particularly to my remarks upon the Middlesex Election, in 1804, Vol. VI. pages 331, 370, and 446; to my letter to Pitt, in Vol. VI. page 449; to my ap

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swer to the defenders of Lord Melville, in Vol. VIII. beginning in pages 513 and 545; and to my answer to the Morning Chronicle's charge of inconsistency, which answer will be found in Vol. X. beginning at page 748. Upon these articles alone I venture to rely for a complete justification of every charge preferred against me by the reviewers, upon the score of my inconsistency. "But," it may be said, so thought not the reviewers." Suppose so; but, how comes it that they have taken no notice whatever of these articles, not even in the slight way of allusion? The articles might, in themselves, be of little importance; but, when the professed object, and the sole object, was to expose iny inconsistency, it was, surely, incumbent upon the expositors, not only to notice my explanations upon the points, as to which they charged me with inconsistency, but to shew, that those explanations were not satisfactory. I contend that they are satisfactory; a pretty good proof that the reviewers thought that they were so, is, that they have cautiously avoided any allusion to them; and, than this caution of theirs we need not, I think, ask for any better test of their justice and candour. They say, that a change of opinion, upon abstract principles, may be readily allowed to any man; but, when, at one time you find him applauding the self-same act, which, at another time, he condemns, he is to be set down as detestably inconsistent. But, if these persons had not been under the influence of that " pitifully vindictive motive, which, at the outset, from an apparent anticipation of the charge, they are very pointed in disclaiming, they would have observed, that, besides the nature of the act itself, was to be taken into view, the degree of true information, which, at the respective given periods, I possessed, relative both to the nature and motives of the act in question. For instance, I am informed that a gentleman has given a poor labourer money to pay his rent; I, at once, applaud the act. I find, afterwards, that this money was a bribe for a vote at an election; I, at once, condemn the act. Is there any inconsistency here? The reviewers quote my former opinions relative to Mr. Horne Tooke's trial, the substance of which was, that, though acquitted, he was guilty of treason; and then they quote passages, lately written by me, from which it may fairly be gathered, that I think him to have been, not only an innocent, but an injured man. But, they should have noticed; 1. that I was abroad during the time of the trial, and for six years afterwards; 2. that I have stated myself, that

I there had the means of obtaining scarcely any other but the ministerial prints, or, at least, that, in fact, I did obtain scarcely any other;, and, 3. that my change of opinion, upon this subject, arose, as I have stated myself, from a sober and careful subsequent perusal of the whole of the proceedings upon that trial, from which I imbibed the conviction (as I am sure, every candid man will that reads those proceedings), that Mr. Tooke and his associates had only acted upon the very principles, which Pitt had before professed, and which he had acted upon as an associate of Mr. Tooke; that they had no other object in view than that which he had, at the time alluded to, professed to have in view, namely, to obtain a real representation of the people in parliament; and that, of course, they were men most shamefully persecuted. -In like manner, as to the subject of parliamentary reform, my change of opinion has arisen from a change in the degree of the true information that I possessed. These reviewers know well enough, from the account which I have given of my progress in life, in this very work which they pretend to review (see vol. VIII. pages 513 and 545), that it is next to impossible, that I should have become acquainted with the real state of the house of commous, at the time when I insisted that no reformation in that house was necessary. This they must have known; and, the fact was, that, though I knew that the law of elections was grossly violated, in many cases, I had not the means of ascertaining the extent of the violation; much less had I the means of trying it by the test of the great constitutional laws, and of tracing it down in its varions pernicious consequences; and which means of information have now produced, in my mind, a thorough conviction, that, unless the law of elections be duly executed, and the constitution be thereby restored, this country, in its present form of internal policy, cannot be of long duration. Let it be always observed, too, that in my former remarks, respecting par liamentary reform, I never separated the proposition from the party, by whom it was urged, which party I suspected (and, as it now appears, very justly) of employing that proposition, with other means, merely for the sake of getting their rivals out of place and themselves into place. Had the propo sition come from men, of whose general 'character and views I thought favourably, I should certainly have taken time to inquire, before I condemned it.The reviewers have contrasted my recent with my former expressions and sentiments with respect to

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the king and his family; and, if they have discovered a difference, that difference is not only satisfactorily accounted for upon the above general ground; but, has been accounted for upon specific grounds by me. I have, however, no complaint to make upon this head; because, though the reviewers have garbled and misrepresented a passage that they notice, they have given quite as much as I think sufficient to do away this part of their charge, especially as they have no "great objection to the substance" of my present expressions.→→→→ Several persons, with whom I was acquainted, when abroad, have, upon their coming to England, expressed their astonishment at this change, which the Edinburgh Reviewers have noticed. I have uniformly referred them to the articles of the Register, above pointed out; adding, stop a couple of years, and then "tell me what you think ;" and, in all the instances, in which I have had an opportunity of knowing the result, the change in their sentiments has perfectly corresponded with that in mine. In fact, when all the circumstances are duly considered, when it is considered under what strong prejudices (prejudices of eight years cultivated growth) I started in England, the wonder is that I overcame them at all; and, had I been, like the Edinburgh Reviewers, a hunter after the public money, I should, like them, have been, to this day, the eulogist of every one who had had that money, or any portion of it, to bestow.Every man is free to change his opinions, provided he can give a sufficient reason for the chauge; and a sufficient reason I have, regularly as I have proceeded, given, and in the most undisguised manner, for the change in mine. Let us see, therefore, whether these reviewers can say the sante for themselves. They have praised, tintil the late change, every ministry that has been formed since their work began. They were delighted with Addington, enamoured of Pitt, and they adored (for good reason) poor Mr. Fox, upon whom they were fastened by Lord Henry Petty. They grossly satirized Lord Lauderdale, while out of place, and more grossly flattered him, when he came into place. They eulogized Pitt's system of finance to the skies, and that of Lord Henry Petty's (the very reverse of it) to the third heaven. But, as to men, they niay behave better than they have heretofore done, or worse, and so justify a change in the sentiments respect ing thein; measures of finance are intricate, and admit not easily of comparison of opinions regarding them, especially as every year must make an alteration in the state of

the debt, and, consequently of the capacity to pay it off, or keep up the value of the stock. Let us, therefore, select a case, relating to which there has been not even the least varition in the circumstances, and scarcely a possibility for men, generally well informed, and always residing upon the spot, to have derived any new light or information, whether from reading, or from experience; and that case is, the question relating to the Roman Catholics of Ireland." -The reader has been before informed, that these reviewers, upon the formation of the Whig Ministry, were imported from Scotland by that profound statesman, Lord Henry Petty, with whom they had been punning companions at Edinburgh. They found England more salubrious, I suppose; for here they stuck, and were, by one means or another, in a fair way of being fastened upon the devoted body of this " lazy and

vicious" country, several of them having actually begun to draw blood, when the king (save his majesty for it !) brushed both them and their silly patrons off, in a moment when they least expected it. It has been contended, I know, that they held that our

laziness and vice" proceeded from too full a habit, and that it was necessary, in order to restore us to a perfectly healthful state, to draw off the superabundant circulation. But, whether from motives of humanity, or from other motives that it would be needless to describe, fastened and fastening upon us they were; their legs were thrown daily under the table of some minister of state, whose jokes they cheered, and whose follies they laughed at, when, in the morning, they met and compared notes, at their snug economical apartment; their straight backs, high chicek-bones, and modest faces, were seen in all the passages and offices of Whitehall, whence their lucubrations were dispatched to Edinburgh. From such a state of possession, and especially of prospect, to be ousted, in the twinkling of an eye, without either writ or summons or intimation of any sort; to find them. selves, like the drunken cobler in the play, returned, as if by enchantment, back to their onions and beer, was too much for even their patient natures to bear; and,, it was just at this time that my unhappy Regis ter of the 21st of March happened to salute them. Upon me, therefore, and upon the authors of their fall (the king and new ministry) they fell in their next Numbers. The way in which they have sought revenge upon me the reader has already seen, and he shall now see how they have, in the same number, attacked their more

formidable enemies; but, as he proceeds, he will please to observe, that this article, respecting the Catholics of Ireland, is, presently, to be contrasted with another article of theirs upon the self-same subject, there having been, with them, no new means of information, nor any, even the smallest, alteration in the circumstances of the case.

They are reviewing a pamphlet of Mr. Parnell (who also had a place under the late ministry), which pamphlet is called, "an apology for the Catholics of Ireland," and the object of which is, to shew, that lord Howick's famous bili ought to have been adopted." If," say they, bursting forth in patriotic fury; "if ever a nation

exhibited symptoms of downright mad"ness, or utter stupidity, we conceive these

symptoms may be easily recognized in the "conduct of this country," (that is to say, king and parliament, mind!]" upon the Ca"tholic question. A man has a wound in "his great toe, and a violent and perilous "fever at the same time; and he refuses to "take the medicines for the fever, because "it will disconcert his toe! The MOURN"FUL and FOLLY-STRICKEN BLOCK"HEAD forgets that his toe cannot sur“vive him ;——that if he dies, there can "be no digital life apart from him; yet he lingers and fondles over this last part of "his body, soothing it madly with little

plasters, and anile fomentations, while "the neglected fever rages in his entrails, "and burns away his whole life. If the

comparatively little questions of Esta"blishment are all that this country is capa"ble of discussing or regarding, for God's "sake let us remember, that the foreign

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conquest, which destroys all, destroys this "beloved toe also. Pass over freedom, in"dustry, and science and look upon this great empire, by which we are about to "be swallowed up; only as it affects the manner of collecting tithes, and of read"ing the liturgy-still, if all goes, these must go too; and even, for their interests, "it is worth while to conciliate Ireland, to "avert the hostility, and to employ the "strength of the Catholic population. We plead the question as the sincerest friends "to the establishment ;-as wishing to it all the prosperity and duration its warmest "advocates can desire-but remembering

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always, what these advocates seem to for"get, that the establishment cannot be threatened by any danger so great as the perdition of the kingdom in which it is "established."

by what injudicious measures of the Eng"lish government the spirit of Catholic op position was gradually formed; for, that "it did produce powerful effects at a subse"quent period, he does not deny; but con"tends only, (as we have Beibre stated), that these effects have been much overrated, and ascribed solely to the Catholic religion, when other causes have at least "had an equal agency in bringing them "about. He concludes with some general "remarks on the dreadful state of Ireland, "and the contemptible folly and bigotry of “the English; remarks full of truth, of

good sense, and of political courage. How melancholy to reflect, that there would be "still some chance of saving England from "the general wreck of empires, but that it

causes which have always settled the des "tiny of great kingdoms, and which may "level Old England, with all its boasted

freedom, and boasted wisdom, to the dust. "Nor is it the least singular among the po "litical phenomena of the present day, that "the sole consideration which seems to in"fluence the unbigotted part of the Eng "lish people, in this great question of Ireland, " is a regard for the personal feeling of the "monarch. Nothing is said or thought of "the enormous risk to which Ireland is ex

posed; nothing of the lucrative apostacy "of those from whom they experience this "treatment; but the only concern by "which we all seem to be agitated is, that "the King must not be vexed im his old

age. We have a great respect for the "king; and wish him all the happiness compatible with the happiness of his people; but these are not times to pay foolish compliments to kings, or the sons of kings, or to any body else: this Journal has always preserved its character for courage "and honesty, and it shall do so to the last. If the people of this country are solely occupied in considering what is personally agreeable to the King, without "considering what is for his permanent good, and for the safety of his dominions; "if all public men, quitting the common "vulgar scramble for emolument, do not "concur in conciliating the people of Ire"land; if the unfounded alarms, and the comparatively trifling interests of the clergy, are to supersede the great question "of freedom or slavery, it does appear to us quite impossible that so mean and so

foolish a people can escape that destruc"tion which is ready to burst upon them; a destruction so imminent, that it cau "only be averted by arming all in our de"fence who would evidently be sharers in "our ruin, and by such a change of system "as may save us from the hazard of being "ruined by the ignorance and cowardice of "ANY GENERAL, or by the SCRUPLES "of any human being, let his DIGNITY "be what it may."- -Now, leaving the remarks here made about a mournful and folly stricken blockhead; about foolish compliments to kings and the sons of kings; about the salvation of the country being bartered for places and reversions, and pensions to aunts; about the necessity of such a CHANGE OF SYSTEM as may save us from the hazard of being ruined by the ignorance or folly of any general, or by the scruples of any human being, let his dignity be what it may; leaving these remarks to be compared with the complaints which these reviewers make against my "inflammatory" expressions and sentiments, the reader has only to bear in mind, that they here, in July, 1807, give it as their settled opinion, that, to conciliate the Catholics of Ireland by concessions of some sort, thereby to induce them heartily to aid us in defence of the whole kingdom, is the way, and the only way, of obtaining a chance of saving the country. Now, then, let us hear what they said upon a proposition of the Bishop of Landaff, who, in a speech which he published, in 1804, upon the subject of the defence of the country, suggested, amongst other things, concessions to the Irish Catholics, as the means of calling them forth heartily to assist ns in that defence." We," say the reviewers," venture to affirm, that a more

singular idea never entered the mind of a "practical statesman, than that of obtaining "unanimity, in a season of imminent public "danger, by stirring a discussion of the

points at issue between contending sects. "If by the force of reason, Bishop Watson "believes it possible to lull the jealousy of "the Irish Protestants and English High "church-men; if he thinks a vote of

more especially in the sister kingdom. "But in the present critical emergency, "all prejudices are to be weighed by the

proportions of those whom they sway; " and what aur author terms the neglect "of the dissenters,' is only the salutary wa"ving of a discussion, that would certainly

estrange one great body of men from the common cause, in whichsoever way it might happen to terminate --There needs no comment upon this. The instance is quite complete; and the motive for the change of opinion is by no means hidden. In 1804 these "courageous and honest" gentlemen found it suit their views to commend every thing done by the Addingtons; and, in 1807, they were enlisted under Lord Henry Petty and Lord Howick. Had they, in imitation of me, given, as they proceeded, a reason for this change of opinion; had they said, as I have said, and that, too, upon this very subject, we once thought, that, to "stir the question relative to the Irish Ca"tholics would, during a season of immi"nent danger from without, tend rather to "weaken than to strengthen the defence of "the kingdom; but, upon more mature re"flection, and upon having received (as was "the case with me, upon all the points,

whereon they have charged me with in"consistency, new and better information,

we now think, that to stir this question, "and to make some concessions to the Irish "Catholics, and thereby strengthening the "defence of the country, is the only way to "obtain a chance of escaping from the im"minent danger which threatens us from "without:" had they thus acted, they would have been chargeable with no inconsistency, and the man who, upon this score, should have brought such a charge against them, referring, at the same time, to their reasons for the change, would have found his charge fall dead to the ground; and, if he had cautious

had, in due time and place, given for the change, he would have exposed himself, as they have now exposed themselves, to the risk of being regarded as actuated by pitiful vindictiveness, instead of that love of truth, without which criticisin, which ought to