29 OCTOBER 1842, Page 9

The London publisher of Colonel Thompson's Collected Works hair sent

to us, in three or four successive packets, a series of articles, bearing the title of "Exercises, Reviews, and Actions," which appear to have been published in several provincial papers nearly at the same time, though but for the anxious zeal of the central agency they would pro- bably have escaped our notice. The drift of these papers, so far as we have read thew, is twofold—first to cry up Colonel Thompson; second, to cry down the Spectator. Against the former object we have nothing to say. The writer takes exceptions to the spirit of cur review of the Colonel's volumes, on the 10th of last month. We are not in the habit

of replying to strictures on our criticisms ; and of the review of Colonel Thompson's Works we will only say that we think it just, and are sure that it was not unfriendly : Colonel Thompson's publisher, or any person who chooses, may rate the Colonel higher or lower than we did—that is not our affair.

The crying down of the Spectator is conducted much in the usual spirit.icnd manner of the Grub Street portion of the Whig-Radical press. The grand tactic is to ascribe to the Spectator words which it never used, or, by means of garbled extracts, to give those which it did use a false meaning. Thus, we once spoke of Sir Robert Peel's Govern- ment as a necessity of the time, and again, as " the Government which God has given us ' : separating the latter expression from the context, Colonel Thompson's friend rings the changes upon it, not in its natural sense as expressing something against which it is useless to struggle, but in a forced and ridiculous sense as meaning a government jure divino. The last of the papers, forwarded to us this week by Colonel Thomp- son's publisher—" No. V."—contains a specimen of this honest work, of a more tangible kind. In the Spectator of the 1st October the following paragraph appeared- " The Income-tax is likely to prove more dangerous to Sir Robert Peel than be supposed, or than it need be, through gross mismanagement of the details. Some country papers have complained that the provision to secure secrecy, by which householders are empowered to forward their returns under sealed cover to a superior officer, is frustrated by the local Assessors' breaking the seal. In- stances have come within our own knowledge of needless, and therefore unjust, trouble given : even the returns are negligently served, and when application is made at the offices they are frequently found to be unprovided with them. People the less grudged the tax, odious as its very name was, because they thought that it would be well managed; and they regarded the Premier's re- pute for business-like qualities as a guarantee that it would. They did not in- deed think that he would himself do duty in every office, but they expected him to see that others did theirs. Has that been looked to ? Are the subordi- nates who execute the law fitted for their office by ability, zeal, and discretion ? is the army of tax-collectors free from traitors—political adversaries of the Government, who would like to make the tax not less, but more odious? The First Lord of the Treasury ought to be able to answer these questions; and to say that the management of the tax has been intrusted to those who are not only able and honest in their own persons, but capable of choosing their subor- dinates properly. At all events, It is manifest, from the very proceedings of the functionaries and the construction of the returns, that the system itself is faulty. It might be worth the while of the Minister to investigate this matter." The review of our review, issued from the central office of Colonel Thompson's publisher to his convenient journals, after saying, "We always like that our opponents should speak for themselves," gives the following garbled extract from the above paragraph- " lathe army of tax-collectors free from traitors, political adversaries of the Government, who would like to make the tax not less, but more odious ? The First Lord of the Treasury ought to be able to answer these questions, and to say, not only that the management of the tax has been intrusted to those who are not only able and honest in their own persons, but capable of choosing their subordinates properly.

• • • "it might be worth the while of the Ministers to investigate into this matter."

The comment upon this skilfully garbled quotation is as follows- " Seriously, it is proposed, and proposed too by the Spectator, that, in order to render the tax, they do not venture to say agreeable, but 'less odious,' there shoula Le a scrutiny into the political opinions of every person employed in the machinery of this impost—Commissioners, Sub-Commissioners, Assessors, and the army of collectors—and that all those whose political opinions ore op- posed to the present Government should be dismissed! The Spectator does not say by whom the vacancies should be filled up; but the only inference must be, that they are to be devoted admirers of the Peel Administration. We can- not infer that they are to be devoted admirers of the property and income-tax in its present shape, because we question if as many devoted admirers of the tax could be found as would be requisite to collect it. That as many might be found as would give their strenuous support both to the tax and the Govern- ment, so long as the tax and the Government were the means of supporting them, we can understand, exactly as we can understand the Spectator's strenu- ous support of the Government. In the Spectator there is not a word about a "scrutiny into political opinions :" it is only partisans of the personality of the late Ministry, placed in office by them and gratefully employing their official position to thwart and weaken their present superiors, who are involved in the hypothesis—an hypothesis chosen for its apparent extravagance, as the only intelligible solution of a suicidal conduct in the Government. But, taking the whole of the paragraph from which the words on which the false charge is grounded have been dug out, it is clear that even this suggestion is a very subordinate and parenthetical part of the whole. The paragraph is nothing more than a condensed repetition and application of what the Spectator has all along said of the Income- tax,—that it was necessary to readjust the disturbed balance of finance ; that it was an approximation to the right principles of taxa- tion; but that many of its details were objectionable, and likely to prove oppressive in the working. Viewing the Income-tax in this light, the Spectator has seized every opportunity to illustrate the necessity of working the tax in such a manner that faults of detail belonging to the measure of Sir Robert Peel might not be made an annoy- ance to the people, or twisted into fallacious arguments against the sound principle of direct taxation. The paragraph in question is a fair appeal to the prudence of the Minister with a view to this end. And this attempt to promote general comfort and sound principle, irre- spective of party, is perverted by a garbled quote- on and lying com- Mentary into a recommendation of "persecution for conscience sake" ; the eleve of the School for Scandal who plays this juggling trick saying, hypocritically, at the same time—" We always like that our opponents should speak for themselves"! This gross perversion of truth is a vice too common among the soi-disant " Liberal" writers ; and it has contributed not a little to bring the party to its present low estate of feebleness and humiliation. In another particular Colonel Thompson's champion follows the usual party tactics—in the liberal imputation of corrupt motives. We favour emigration ; Colonel Thompson has written againt it: hence our sup- posed hostility 1 This is purely absurd : there is baseness as well as absurdity in the inuendo at the close of the commentary above quoted, and sprinkled over his voluminous abuse, which being interpreted means, we suppose, that the Spectator is bribed by the present Govern- ment. It is pretty well known, that no consideration of private advan- tage ever influenced a sentence of the Spectator, either in politics or

literature. If any one thinks that be knows otherwise, let him state his facts in plain terms : if not, the indirect implication is just as much a deliberate lie as if it had been roundly asserted—a lie, only the courage to utter it wanting.