WHAT WOULD THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND DO ?
MR. WARBURTON put this question at the meeting in the London Tavern on Tuesday; and he answered it by another: if the King of England should dissolve Parliament before it met—if the King of England should attempt to establish a censorship, or abolish the liberty of the press—would not the people of England rise like the French in the cause of liberty? And all the assembly said Amen! Now we are very much disposed to question John Bull's readiness to take arms in defence of liberty at all, and more espe- cially were it attacked in the way Mr. WARBURTON supposes. Let us suppose, in the first place, that Mr. GEORGE COLMAN the younger, or the editor of the Post or John Bull, or any other individual equally competent, were appointed to supervise our ar- ticles before they saw the light—to strike out a word here, an in- ference there, an irritating fact (which even we, mild as we are, and calm to boot, sometimes indulge in) in a third place : Mr. WARBURTON'S argument is, that forthwith we should have a mus- ter of fists and sticlis and rusty muskets in Wellington Street, five hundred strong, determined to maintain the unshorn honours of the SPECTATOR, or to perish in the attempt. What our numerous and good friends the public would do in case of an open and direct attack, we do not pretend to say ; but if we may judge from their conduct when the attack is covert and indirect, we should be in- clined to conclude that were Sir ROBERT PFEL to issue an ordi- nance for our suppression to-morrow, we should be left to fight our own battles, as we have been hitherto. In what way do the public behave when an Attorney-General, or any other prosecutor public or private, enters the lists with that all-beloved engine of liberty the press, an assault upon which would, we are told, be felt so keenly ? How many defenders does the ark of England's safety find among the twelve good men and true that are ever and anon selected to investigate its little aberrations ? When people go down the-Strand, and gape to the deserted abode of the Morn- ing Journal, they are exceedingly apt to maledicate the name of Sir JAMES SCARLETT. Had he no companions in his attack on the champion of Toryism? Where was the John Bull Jury, which were so impatient to condemn, that they exclaimed, in the midst of ALEXANDER'S speech, they had heard enough ? No, no ; it will not be a censorship of the press that will arm again the vo- lunteers of England, or call forth the energies of St. Giles's for any other purpose than the picking of pockets or plundering of shops. But if Englishmen would not arm against a censorship, much less would they arm against the rest of CHARLES'S plans. Has Mr. WARBURTON reflected on their nature? Does he not see, that though they were plans for the contraction of the elective franchise in France, they would go to extend it most widely in England? We are accustomed to talk about the direct taxes of France, but we forget that there every description of rate is paid by Government. The direct tax includes them all. The qualifi- cation of CHARLES'S ordinance was three hundred francs, or 12/.
Now just conceive a proclamation, issued by King WILLIAM the Fourth, say on the 25th of next July, ordering that every man who pays twelve pounds per annum of poor-rates, church-rates, watch-rates, tithes, or taxes, should in future have a vote for a member of Parliament,—conceive such a proclamation to be made, it would in one instant sweep away all the rotten boroughs in England, Ireland, and Scotland ; it would annihilate all the close corporations, abolish all distinctions of holding, and make every man, in fact, who rented a house or a piece of land to the amount of 30/. per annum a voter, and a voter by ballot into the bargain. Does Mr. WARBURTON really imagine that all England would rise in arms against such a proclamation? Why, we talk of our Sailor King, and our Popular King, and by and by we may per- haps speak of our Citizen King, as the French do ; but were he to make a regulation of such a kind, instead of running to meet him, and throwing our caps in the air at his approach, and strewing roses and daffodils under his horses' feet, we verily be- lieve we should be tempted to deify and enshrine him at once. Instead of pouring incense over his remains, we should be for locating him in Westminster Abbey while living. The honour- able and worshipful proprietors of the Gattons and the Old Sarums, the Westburies, the Aldboroughs, the Knaresboroughs, the Maltons, the Newports, and the Newarks, and all the other arks of the aristocracy, might rise in rebellion at an attempt to cut such a huge half-moon, such a monstrous cantle, out of their fair privileges;—they might battle against it; but trust John Bull, if he interfered, it would not be to join them. He might possibly look contentedly on while our small privileges, perhaps even while his own, were being put down ; but though penalties might not stimulate him, rewards would infallibly do so. He would fight to get, as the French did in the first, whether he fought to keep or not, as they have done in the second revolution. And this leads us very naturally to notice an absurd calumny which has been circulated respecting the Duke of WELLINGTON. We do not allude to his alleged approbation of- Prince POLIGNAC -and his notable compeers, which has been contradicted by the Court Journal, the Courier, and the Times; but to a rumour that the Duke, had his friend the French Minister succeeded in his plans, would not have cared to follow them up at home. Now this, we think, requires no contradiction. We may trust to the Duke's prudence as our best guarantee against so violent and illegal an extension of our privileges. There is no danger that he will cut off his nose to be revenged of his face, after so foolish a fashion. The fixing of a general qualification for all electors in town and in country, the vote by ballot, and in districts, limited, not by boundaries that reason never sanctioned or has long ceased to sanction, but by the number of qualified voters in each, may con- stitute an wra in our future history ; but it will be, we suspect, a distant one. Long ere that sera arrives, the Duke and those who record his doings will rest from their labours, neither misled by the flattery of friends nor disturbed by the opposition of foes.
Previous page
