BRUNSWICK AGITATION IN THE COUNTY OF KENT.
TOPICS OF THE DAY.
"Why do the heathen rage so furiously, and the people imagine a vain thin?. ?"—Is a state of quietude so irksome, that, like per- sons troubled with the nightmare, we would make a stir at any rate? Are we so tired of being still, whilst our neighbours are in agitation, that we must needs get up a bit of a disturbance among ourselves, and emulate, with tiny waves on our fish-pond, the biF- lows of the deep ? But perchance the people, who are just now so busy in the south-east corner of this island, are prompted only by the laudable desire of clearing their throats and exercising their legs. This is not an improbable supposition, inasmuch as we find one of the trumpeters of the commotion forbidding the "men of Kent" to "grudge the breath of their mouth," and exhorting all men, "landlords with their tenants, fathers with their sons," to repair to Penenden Heath—for what rational object, but to breathe the free air and stretch their limbs ?
Not many weeks ago we were living in profound repose, and saying to ourselves, as we read of Brunswick meetings and Mr.
LAWLESS'S progress, " Suave man ma,gno"—are not the same heavens overhead, and the same people in power now ? Is not the country blessed with an Administration without any alloy of Whiggenhi And yet are not the persons now so busy in commo- tion a part of the people called Tones—a party wont to deprecate all political ferments, all assemblages of the people, and all appeals to the " popular arbitriment," of which they now speak as reve- rentially as the veriest Whig who ever declaimed at a Foxite din- ner! "There is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out." The old sage was not wholly without reason, when he desired to be laid in his grave with his face downwards, that as the world, he said, was going to be turned upside down, he might ultimately find himself right side uppermost. The good people—" nobility, gentry, and yeomanry"—about to repair to Penenden Heath, amuse themselves with the idea, that an excursion calculated for the benefit of their health will be attended with some additional advantages. That the latter are merely imaginary, and that the only solid good is what will redound in the shape of an increase of appetite for the beef and pudding, we shall endeavour to show. A population, now, it is said, amounting to seven millions, in a neighbouring island, has long been subject to sundry privations, called by those who imposed them disabilities, and by those who suffer under them penalties. The lapse of time, the increased facility of communicating with one another, the consequent spread of information, and the exertions of individuals, have diffused very generally throughout this population a strong desire for the removal of those penalties or disabilities. The seven millions, now united as one man, are bent upon obtaining an equal footing with their fellow subjects of the empire. At present they demean themselves peaceably, and all who have authority among them are exercising it to keep them at peace. But besides being a dense, it is also a wretched population, and attributes, right or wrong, its hardships to the political disadvantages under which it labours. And though those who have got the upper hand, and are for keeping it, have many goodly reasons to urge why a portion of their fellow subjects should be depressed below their own level, the latter can see nothing in them but the argument of the strongest. How long may so heavy a cloud hang together? What puff of wind, how small soever, may not one day bring it down in a deluge on our heads ? Up to nearly the present moment we have quietly watched the gathering of this cloud—satisfied with an annual skirmish of ora- tory in Parliament, or an annual motion to satisfy, and an annual resolution to reject the claims of the seven millions. But within the last few weeks a portion of those who have been contented hitherto with the annual Parliamentary rejection of all measures of accommodation, are suddenly mustering in hot haste, and proposing to ride or drive, walk or run, to Penenden Heath.
We desire to learn the reason of this commotion. Are the prin- ciples of the Government or its policy unchanged ? If so—what cause have the Ascendency folks to fear lest their fellow subjects should be put on a level with themselves ? Why not wait and let the Commons, as before, pass a bill for the Lords to reject ? Such must be the issue, if the policy of Government is unchanged. How bootless then is this boot-and-spur work—unless, indeed, pudding and beef be at the bottom of the business—worthy motives, we grant, for a ride to Penenden Heath.
But this very agitation, so little to be expected of a party that has always preached up political lethargy—these clubs and cabals —newspaper wrath and eloquence—out of doors musterings—all evince the extremity of fear. And from what can their fear spring, but from the prospect of a change in the measures of Admi- nistration, from which alone their ascendency has anything to ap- prehend ? They must suspect, then, that Government is prepared to accede to the claim to equality preferred by the seven millions, either from an apprehension of the danger of withholding the boon, or from a conviction of the great increase of strength that would redound to the empire from conceding it.
Suppose their suspicions take the first course—what do they amount to in plain terms ? That the Duke of WELLINGTON'S Government is intimidated l—a worthy suspicion to find entertain- ment with those who a little while ago were loudest in praise of the Great Captain's energy and decision. But if the Duke of WELLINGTON cannot contemplate the present posture of things without misgivings, how is a yeoman or gentleman living at Seven- oaks in Kent entitled to look upon it with equanimity? The lion trembles, and the ass breathes defiance! Monstrous. The Bruns- wickers of Kent must then suppose that the Government has no adequate cause for apprehension. Now see what an unworthy thing they make of the hero of Waterloo ! The Duke is not only, in their estimation, capable of being intimidated, but of yielding to an insufficient danger—he who for years faced a military enemy in the field, is so scared by a political one, that he is unable to measure the magnitude of the peril that surrounds him : and so the "men of Kent," or a parcel of them, must rendezvous on Penenden Heath to "strengthen the hands of Government," and recall the Administration from its panic ? We have them between the horns of a dilemma : Is Government afraid with reason ?—who then has a right to be bold ? Is it apprehensive without reason ? —why does not a meeting on Penenden Heath call for a change of Ministry?
But Government may be hanging in doubt; and the array of drab great-coats on Penenden Heath and elsewhere may determine its measures. Does the sagacity of a squire of the county of Kent conceive that, when a great question has been in agitation for years, they who are most concerned to understand the state of parties, .know so little how the latter are balanced, as to need a country bumpkin to inform them ? Does he imagine, that in the county of Kent, for example, the proportions between Catholic and Anti- Catholic strength must for ever remain unknown, without a muster on Penenden Heath ? Or does his wisdom suppose that Government will rate the strength of a party higher, because of its clubs, its banners, its committees, and its vapouring ? or see with less alarm the united millions of Munster and Leinster and Con- naught, because a portion, and that possibly not the greatest either in number or importance, of the agricultunsts of each county at home makes a demonstration of defiance ?
But the Brunswick Clubmen disdain the supposition that the Duke of WELLINGTON'S Government can be intimidated, or needs strengthening. Why then have they enrolled themselves in what was once their abhorrence—a political club for the purpose of carrying or preventing a political measure ? There remains the other suspicion, that Government is about to adopt different measures or principles—that, perceiving how the great current of human affairs is setting in towards equality of rights and privileges —how civilization is smoothing down all the roughnesses left on the surface of society by ancient barbarism—it is wisely resolved to go in the van, instead of being drawn along in the rear of a march which it can no more stop than it can set limits to an advancing tide. If, then, from a consideration of the general welfare—the desirableness of equal privileges—of removing all heartburnings—all distinctions whatever, even of the value of a straw, between one class of religionists and another, Government is disposed to accede to the prayer of the seven millions, what, in the name of goodness, do these Brunswick people in our parts mean ? Can it be that their purpose is intimidation ?—Verily we believe we have c ome within less than a mile of the truth. Go- vernment is no longer subservient to their whims or their appre- hension—their pride or their prejudices ; and therefore they are clubbing and caballing to make themselves seem formidable. Voilic —the only possible ground left for either a Brunswick meeting or a Brunswick club to stand on.
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