POLITICAL SKETCHES. TORYISM-RADICALISM-WHIGGISM. [The following Sketches were written for a Calcutta Periodical, and were intended as a kind of squib or satire to illustrate the violent prejudices of Political parties against each other. I should be sorry to be thought to write in my own character in either of these sketches. Each article is to be regarded as the production of an hostile party.] TORYISM. By a Whig. A TORY has no public virtue. He is selfish, mercenary and illiberal. He has no generous impulses, for they are inconsistent with his duty. He is like a man who has sold himself to the devil. His soul is not his own. He must watch the countenance of Power, and make his features obedient to the emotions of other men. He has no opinions. He "thinks that he is thinking," when he is only acting as a bare recipient of the thoughts of others. In the late King's* time a Tory's countenance was the glass of Royalty. As his Majesty could turn to no side of his state apartments, without finding his figure fifty times repeated in the mirrored walls, so the Royal mind in all its different moods was reflected in the faces of his parasites. A Tory is of necessity a slave, for who but a slave could look upon a fellow-creature, however high his political position, with that utter prostration of spirit which is required in the worshipper of Princes. A King according to a Tory, can do no wrong. He is infallible in all things. It is blasphemy even to speak of a King's natural infirmities. Lord Castlereagh was shocked at the Examiner for denying that a Prince of 50 years of age was an Adonis; and the Editor was cast into a jail for two years, as a slight punishment * George the Fourth. for his audacity. A true Tory would almost as soon question the purity of his Creator as of his King. Mr. Croly, a clergyman, thinks the character of the late King* immaculate, and has written a book to prove it. Tories would disinherit their children for the vices which are graceful in a King. George the Fourth who (when Prince Regent) was expelled from a Sporting Club for a mean and disgraceful imposition; who was an adulterer, a gambler, a drunkard, and a cruel husband, has always been spoken of by the most puritanical Tories with a profound respect! Mr. Southey, in one of his Laureate Odes, was not ashamed to call upon the Princess Charlotte to follow in the foot-steps of her father! He could think of no purer model of propriety and morals! "Look to thy Sire, and in HIS STEADY WAY, As in his Father's he, learn thou to tread." What amazes an honest man is the brazen-facedness with which people who most affect a moral squeamishness in other matters, will sing the praises of a regal reprobate and defend the worst crimes of a Tory Ministry. The writers in a Tory Periodical, who held up Shelley and others to the execration of mankind on account of their religious opinions, do not hesitate to defend every possible vice of which a Ruler may be guilty. There is an acrimony, an intolerance, an almost demoniacal ferocity in these champions of orthodoxy, which is in startling contrast to the character of the religion they profess. Nothing can be more violently opposed to the precepts and example of their divine Master, than the bitter and unrelenting spirit of their opposition to all those who have sufficient virtue and energy to say a good word or to strike a generous blow in the cause of freedom and mankind. Southey's attack on Byron and the detestable personalities of the Age and the John Bull may be referred to as exhibitions of genuine Toryism. Can such moral assins, can such slavish adulators of the great, be tolerated by men of liberal and independent minds? Can men who have a native purity of heart or rectitude and dignity of understanding extend forgiveness to those who systematically oppose the greatest happiness of the greatest number-who systematically defend the vilest actions of men in power-and who systematically support every ancient corruption and abuse? It is wonderful how the Tories have contrived to hold up their heads for so long a period, in defiance of every nobler impulse of the human heart. It strikes one with astonishment to hear a man, apparently anxious to obtain the good opinion of those around him, avow a Tory creed. He would scarcely do worse if he were to confess himself an atheist. To profess Toryism is to profess a belief in the infallibility of Kings-a determination to support the few against the many-an opposition to all liberal and enlightened measures-a jealousy of the Press-a hatred of eivil and religious freedom-a contempt for the poor, and an unbounded idolatry of power! Toryism fades before the advance of liberty and knowledge. It is like an obscene thing that revels in darkness, and is frightened at the approach of day. It lives and breathes, and has its being only in darkness and corruption. The March of Intellect," is never spoken of by a Tory unaccompanied with bitter execrations or a burst of hysterical laughter. 66 "Oh! sound of fear Unpleasing to a Tory's ear!” 66 Out of compliment to the powers that be," the Tories attempt to check the progress of this majestic world." They forget that Canute could not stop the waves that broke at his regal feet. They are like dame Partington with her mop-driving back the Atlantic. The mere fact that the Tories have been compelled to retreat, not by the manœuvres of a particular political party, but by the impetuous energy of the public mind, roused and enlightened by the Free Press and a fresh spirit of inquiry, is of itself an overwhelming condemnation of their doctrines and their conduct. They have long carried every thing before them with a high hand; but their reign is past. The last drop of bitterness has made the cup to overflow, and mankind will no longer be oppressed and insulted with impunity by sycophants, corruptionists, and tyrants. The whole spirit of literature, politics, and social life is diametrically opposed to all their views and habits. If Toryism had been suffered to obtain an undisputed influence over the destinies of nations, human nature would have experienced almost as severe a curse as that which drove our first parents from the gardens of Paradise. No reform-no improvement in morals, politics, or religion would have gained its sanction. "The Wisdom of our Ancestors" would have descended wholly unaffected by newly discovered truths. We should have still burned witches and tortured heretics. To carry back the speculation to remoter periods, we should have regarded even our Saviour himself as a blasphemer against an established religion. Whatever is, is right. Let nothing already established be altered.-Our ancestors were wiser than we are. No innovation! No new doctrines! What has long been believed in by the wisest of our forefathers must be true! Let us fear God, but honor the King. A King can do no wrong”—these are the watchwords of Toryism! It is glorious to observe how this bigotry, despotism and meanness is passing away, like the morning mist, before the light of knowledge. As of all the influences that have operated in producing this magnificent change, we are most indebted to the inestimable blessings of a Free Press; these remarks shall be followed by a tribute to its merits from Richard Brinsley Sheridan, one of the most brilliant of British Orators. "Give me but the liberty of the Press, and I will give to the minister a venal house of peers,—a corrupt and servile house of commons, the full swing of office patronage, the whole host of ministerial influence,-all the power that place can confer to purchase |