others connected with this trade, were prepared to follow up Mr. Huskisson's further arrangements (regarding it, when the operation was postponed-and we speak advisedly, when we say this-with disappointment ;) while the appointment of the Wool Committee has left manufacturers in a state of suspense as to the future intentions of ministers, which must militate materially against that extension of business which a straight-forward course would have produced. Yet under all these embarrassing circumstances, the new commercial policy progresses; and this is the important point to shew, which we hope we have done in this article; because no cabinet can withstand public opinion. Whether the conduct of the present ministers in commercial affairs proceed from ignorance, timidity, or an unworthy motive, the British community ought to know the value of that system now so dangerously tampered with; and if that unerring judge can say, that the system has been tried and found wanting, then let the government proceed in its work of spoliation.

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE'S OPINIONS UPON
TOLERATION AND LIBERALITY.

"We are driven into a corner, and we must either make a desperate effort to preserve our constitution, or lose it altogether. Deserted or unsupported by those in power, we see ourselves on the brink of ruin; and is it to be imagined that we can or will ignominiously abandon our sacred duty, and basely yield either to our betrayers or our enemies?"-Letter of the Duke of Newcastle to Lord Kenyon.

THIS will do. When a Duke, who returns thirteen members to the House of Commons, rushes into print, and proclaims his fears for the overthrow of the constitution, there is some chance that the world is going right. In “ the good old times," when such as the Duke of Newcastle took "no care for the morrow,"-when "the people, the slaves of ignorant and barbarous petty tyrants, had neither industry, nor commerce, nor property," the champions of exclusive rights took the field in other guise than his doughty Grace now wears. "A stout and well-fed nobleman, cased in all the iron he could support, and mounted on a great horse," then rushed from his castle amongst an unarmed and half-starved rabble, and soon settled, very much to his own satisfaction, any apprehensions that he might have of their growing insolence. the Duke of Newcastle is fallen upon evil days. Even his "baker's dozen" of members, lifting up a voice in the legislature as loud as any fiftieth of the whole representation, cannot preserve his Grace from the " thick-coming fancies" of that night-mare of liberality which lies heavily upon his breast. "There is no balm in Gilead" for his troubles. Manfully, therefore, does he gird himself for the battle, and prepare to slay his enemies with ink. Desperate is the struggle between his love of ease, and his fears for that glorious constitution, of which his thirteen boroughs comprise so important a portion; but his duty is

all-paramount, and, like another Curtius, he leaps into the gulph. Very affecting is the declaration which precedes the onslaught:

"I am not more given to dilation with my pen than I am by word of mouth; I never use either but by compulsion; and if I could now conscientiously avoid the labour and the consequent discomfort, I have every inclination and every motive but one, for consulting my ease, and indulging in that privacy which, perhaps, may be most congenial to me. Such a course, however, consistently with what I conceive to be my duty, I cannot find it within me to pursue. I must embark in the same vessel with you, and sink or swim in our endeavour to preserve the religion which we love, the constitution which we reverence."

What a picture is this of the enormous wickedness of the times in which we live! To see a duke, born only to be "clothed in purple and fine linen, and to fare sumptuously every day," thus driven, “by compulsion," to dilate with his pen (an infinitely harder process than to dilate with his mouth) and endure the "labour" and " consequent discomfort" of absolutely writing as many words as make a column and a half in a newspaper-is a frightful exhibition of that horrid levelling system which has been produced, as his Grace wisely says, "by the spread of knowledge, or philosophy, or liberality, the very sound of which makes the heart sick.”

The advocates of the education of the people have always maintained that the diffusion of popular learning would have the effect of putting the higher classes upon their mettle, compelling them to read and think, lest their comparative ignorance should stink in the nostrils of all observers. We fear that his Grace of Newcastle, being of an ardent temperament, has been somewhat too anxious, with reference to the interests of his "Order," for a display of these his new acquirements. His spelling is correct, and his grammar is decent ;-but his conclusions are fearfully illogical. There is not a cobler, or a cotton-spinner, throughout the United Kingdom, who will not thrust his fist through the tattered drapery of his Grace's patriotism and disinterestedness. When he declaims about "the religion which we love, the constitution which we reverence"-the "unwashed artificer" will ask, of how many benefices the Duke of Newcastle is the patron, and how many votes he commands in Parliament, not forgetting the Hundred of East Retford. With this clue to his Grace's anxious fears about church and state, it is more than doubtful whether all the eloquence which has cost so much "labour and consequent discomfort may not be utterly thrown away. The number of those who have any sympathy with the Duke of Newcastle are few-and they have arguments in their pockets worth all the novel learning in his Grace's study. He is certainly in an unhappy condition; for he is obliged to appeal to an audience whom he despises, in default of finding a select and powerful few to back him up with bible and bayonet. "It may sound finely in a republican ear to be told that all are bound to participate in the management of the national interests, and that the will of the people should direct the affairs of the country. I cannot subscribe to such dangerous doctrine as a maxim; I see the mischief of a popular assumption of the Executive, and I would, if I could, avoid it. But, unfortunately, we have no choice now! WE ARE DRIVEN INTO A CORNER, An appeal to

the nation is our only resource." Such is his Grace of Newcastle's lament to Lord Kenyon; and it is really marvellous, that with the very small portion of sense required by persons of this letter-writer's condition, for the management of their worldly affairs, he should adopt such a singular mode of propitiating " the nation." His Grace, in effect, says -I believe that none but born-legislators—" those who are rocked and dandled into statesmen"-should participate in the management of the national interests;-and I also think that "the will of the people" should have nothing whatever to do with the direction of "the affairs of the country." I would, if I could, avoid having any thing to say to you. But, unfortunately, I cannot avoid it. You have been going on for the last two hundred years, gradually destroying the relics of that feudal system which gave such as me irresponsible power, and which allowed us to harrow you in every way that was agreeable to our excellent pleasures. But, since you first began to bring the rights of the aristocracy and of yourselves to an issue, in the year 1640, you have been going forward, increasing in wealth, in knowledge, and in power; and you have become stronger than ever within the last twenty years. I am, therefore, driven into a corner, and have no choice now, but to appeal to you—to you, who are my natural rivals-but whom I hope to satisfy that the exclusive protection of my interests, by the rejection of every measure calculated to advance the general interests of the community, and secure equal laws to all classes of the people, is the only way to prevent "a national demoralization"-to put an end to "the hateful system of liberality and conciliation". "to preserve our glorious constitution "-and " to merit the favour of God and man."

Now, all this is a little inconsistent; and it argues the existence of something more than the ordinary self-admiration of the peerage in his Grace of Newcastle's mind, that he should believe in his power of enlisting the nation under his banners, when he so unreservedly hates and despises the people. But his inconsistency does not stop here. The especial object for which he appeals to his natural enemies is, "to decide whether these kingdoms shall be at once the cradle and the citadel of Protestantism and real liberty, or the hot-bed of Popery, with its scarlet train of mental and political despotism." As mere lovers of curiosities, whether in nature or art, we honestly confess that we, individually, would decide for the cradle and the citadel; for it must certainly be uncommonly pleasant to be rocked to rest and defended from all enemies at the same moment:-and as for a hotbed, full of scarlet-runners, there are many things in the way of horticulture much more agreeable. But then the cradle-citadel is to hold real liberty, and the scarlet hot-bed is to grow mental and political despotism. We shall, therefore, before we march in his Grace's van, endeavour to understand what his real liberty is;-and, without going into his historical account of the administrations of the last twenty years, we shall confine ourselves, in this search, to the manner in which he views the government of the Duke of Wellington :

"I shall omit all further comment, and proceed at once to the change of Ministry in January last. Every heart beat with high expectation-every patriot rejoiced in the anticipated appointment of the Duke of Wellington to the head of affairs. The lover of his country fondly hoped that the time

had at last arrived when an end would be put to the hateful system of liberalism, neutrality and conciliation; he made sure that the high character which had formerly distinguished the nation would be recovered, and that in the place of national demoralization, a new system would be established, calculated to restore the national energy, by an undeviating rectitude of principle, the character of which would be stamped by the uncompromising character of the government. We all know how the result fulfilled our anxious expectations.

"The last session of Parliament I consider to have been by far the most disastrous of any in the memory of man: it was pre-eminently stained by liberalizing religion, and this, I believe from my conscience to be a fatal stab to the Established Church, as well as to the peace of the country and the existence of the constitution.

"By an utter dereliction of principle we have sought to appease those who are actuated by no principle but a hatred of order: we thus depress and disgust our most valuable friends; we invest our enemies with the power taken from our friends; and, to fill up the measure of our misdoing, we offend our God in the disowning of Christianity.

"I simply ask, if we desert our God, will he not desert us? will he not be avenged upon such a nation as this?"

The real liberty of the Duke of Newcastle is, we thus see, a liberty which shall put an end to "the hateful system of liberalism, neutrality, and conciliation ;"-which shall invest the government with an “uncompromising character; "-which shall render religion intolerant and persecuting; which shall consider all who dissent from the worship by law established as "those who are actuated by no principle but a hatred of order;" and which, finally, shall regard every attempt to unfetter the consciences of mankind, as an offence against God, which will bring down his vengeance" upon such a nation as this." How say you, people of England, will ye throw up your caps for the real liberty of the Duke of Newcastle,-the liberty of Miguel of Portugal, and of Ferdinand of Spain,-the liberty of the Inquisition? Poor man! "History," as he says, "has, indeed, become an old almanac ;" upon minds like his, "all past experience is thrown away." He may live to see the time, when his thirteen boroughs shall be worth no more in the market than an old lettre de cachet of France, or a repartimiento of Peru. He is, indeed, driven into a corner, and, like a scorpion hedged round with fire, gives himself the coup de grace. We can scarcely help pitying the author of such a miserable exhibition of human weakness; and, indeed, we have some gratitude to his Grace for hastening on the period when ravings, such as these, shall be as powerless with the government as they are ridiculous with the people. The time is fast approaching when administrations will have to decide, whether they shall be regulated by a regard for the universal interests of the community, or fettered by the commands of a presumptuous and drivelling oligarchy. In seven years more, the government will not dare to hesitate, whether it shall give a seat in parliament to the hundred thousand acute, intelligent, industrious, and wealthy manufacturers and artisans of Birmingham, or to the weak, uninformed, idle, and proud Duke of Newcastle. But his Grace hurries on this natural consummation. Even the job which drove Mr. Huskisson out of office cannot satisfy him. He complains, that 66 an inaction totally inexplicable, possesses the government;" he asks," what is to prevent "traitors from rising in every market-place of every town of

Great Britain, to vomit forth their pestilent harangues?" He wants hangings and headings for imaginary seditions; he requires penal laws for Catholics, and new Test acts for Dissenters; he demands that religion shall be illiberalized, and that all improvements in our institutions, "the very sound of which makes the heart sick," shall be arrested and driven back. Now, the nation will not exactly consent to this, even to purchase the approbation of such an interpreter of the wishes of Heaven, as the Duke of Newcastle;—and as his Grace of Wellington "dares not to act of himself, but wishes to be backed by popular support," we have considerable doubts whether even he may not one day see the policy of cutting the rope by which the crazy raft of the Duke of Newcastle and his crew hangs on to the vessel of the state; and leave them to their own pilotage through the billows of public opinion. Such a letter as that before us may have an amazing effect in the advance of such a determination.

Before we leave his Grace of Newcastle to his natural obscurity, we have a few words to say to a very large portion of our fellow-subjects. Many of the Dissenters of Great Britain, particularly those of the Calvinistic persuasion, in their hatred of Popery as a dogma, have been inclined to resist those claims of our Roman Catholic fellowsubjects to the rights of conscience, which, as a general principle, they (the Dissenters of England) have so strenuously maintained. The opinions of the Duke of Newcastle may open their eyes upon this mistake. The same intolerance, fierce, uncompromising, bloody if necessary, which deprives the Catholic of civil rights, would have kept the badge of humiliation upon the Dissenters for ages, had public opinion not been too strong for it. "The last Session of Parliament," says this bigot of the Upper House," I consider to have been by far the most disastrous of any in the memory of man: it was pre-eminently stained by liberalizing religion; and this, I believe from my conscience to be a fatal stab to the Established Church, as well as to the peace of the country and the existence of the constitution. By an utter dereliction of principle, we have sought to appease those who are actuated by no principle but a hatred of order." Protestant Dissenters! will ye continue to sail in the wake of these blind, arrogant, antiquated, uncharitable, and irreligious opinions?-Will ye continue to sanction the persecution of your fellow-Christians at the bidding of a few insatiate oligarchs, who prostitute the names of their country and their God to their own selfish apprehensions? Be no longer deceived. The same mind, (a weak and ignorant one we grant, but no bad specimen of those whose notions he represents,) which denounces threefourths of the people of Ireland as traitors, and would stir up a civil war of extermination in that unhappy country, maligns the Dissenters of England as men "who are actuated by no principle but a hatred of order." Be consistent in your love of toleration. Apply your reason to the overthrow of all civil disabilities on the score of religion; look at the founders of Brunswick Clubs as the real enemies of peace and order; and pray that in our " citadel" of liberty, which, God willing, we shall still preserve, there may be found "a cradle" large enough to rock to sleep that numerous family of grown children, of which his Grace of Newcastle is so distinguished a suckling.