1 WM. COBBETT. London, 9th March, 1810. plain it to the Freeholders of Cambridge- | tempt for the persons, connected with the shire. The truth is, that this complaint press, which his speech was calculated to was of a piece with all the rest of Mr. make the world believe he had. Yorke's conduct for some time past. It was intended to prevent, or check, the expression of wholesome truths in the House, and to prepare the way for the prevention of a repetition of them out of the House. COBBETT'S This scheme, however, has hitherto failed, Parliamentary History and, I trust, the people of Cambridgeshire will set upon it a mark of their reprobation. Want of room compels me to postpone the observations, which I intended to have made upon the case of MR. FULLER; upon the CITY OF LONDON PETITION against the pension to Baron Douro and Viscount Talavera (the town where our sick and wounded were left) and his two generations; upon the not hearing any thing lately about the Rev. Mr. Beazeley, who offered the Duke of Portland a bribe and who wrote a No-popery pamphlet; upon the subject of the Catholic Claims, and the dispute about the Veto; and, though last not least, upon the subject of the Honourable WARWICK LAKE'S Court-martial, respecting the putting of an English Seaman on shore upon a desert Island, not forgetting the conduct of SIR ALEXANDER COCHRANE, and which subject must and will find its way to the heart of every man in this kingdom. In consequence of a wish expressed by MR. WRIGHT, the Editor of the PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES, I think it right to state, that, in my observations upon the conduct of MR. WINDHAM, at page 206 of this volume, where I say, that MR. WINDHAM consulted with Mr. Wright as to the best place of standing in the House and the way to modulate his voice, it was not meant to convey the idea, that Mr. Windham was the first mover as to such consultation. The fact, as Mr. Wright says, was the contrary. He first mentioned the thing to Mr. Windham, in consequence of his being requested so to do by several of the Reporters, who expressed their regret that they could not hear him distinctly. But, the circumstance was not stated by me as containing matter of blame, any more than was the other circumstance of Mr. Windham's taking so much pains to have his speeches printed and corrected, to do which I myself had urged him many and many a time. Not in the way of blame were these things mentioned; but merely to show, that, at the bottom of his heart, he had not that con OF ENGLAND, Which in the compass of Sixteen Volumes, royal octavo, will contain a full and accurate Report of all the recorded Proceedings, and of all the Speeches in both Houses of Parliament, from the earliest times, to the Year 1803, when the publication of "Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates" commenced. The numerous Subscribers to the above Work are respectfully informed, that the Sixth Volume, embracing the period from the Accession of Queen Anne, in 1702, to the Accession of King George the First, in 1714, will be ready for delivery on Saturday the 31st instant. Trial of Mr. PERRY, and Mr. LAMBERT, for a LIBEL, continued from p. 352. Gentlemen, I most perfectly acquiesce in the clear truth, propriety and necessity of the rule which his Lordship has laid down, as to the description of matter which I may desire to be read. If I were so far to forget the respect which I owe to the Court and to you, as to desire passages quite extraneous and foreign to the subject to be read, and attempt to create an argument from them, I should be properly rebuked by the Noble and Learned Lord. But I am not so bewildered. I know that nothing would be more absurd than to at tempt to join things which have no connection. If we were charged, for instance, with the insertion of a paragraph offensive to morals, or with any crime the most intolerable and abhorrent to our natures, such as blasphemy or impiety, and that we were to bring a thousand paragraphs to prove our loyalty or our patriotism, they would not, and they ought not to stand us in any stead, for we can only adduce that which is pertinent to the matter in issue. But when I agree to this, I must lay in my claim, that the mere disjunction of paragraphs, which are kindred in tenor, and appropriate to the case, shall not nul calculated to heal, not to foment, the divisions of the empire, but that he could not view what was proposed as tending to that end.” This will serve to shew you what was the feeling of the mind of that great and superior Statesman, as to the character and tendency of the system to which he was invited to accede, and in which his declaration is distinctly stated, that his conduct and principles had always been calculated to heal, not to foment, the divisions of the Empire," but that he could not view what was proposed as tending to that end." Upon this the narrative proceeds to reason, and the whole ten argument is to shew that by a different course of proceeding-namely, if the Noble Lords had been commanded to attend his Majesty in person, there would have been an immediate prospect of a change of system that would have tended to heal, not to foment, the divisions of the Empire." And this is particularly expressed in the next passage, to which I beg leave to draw your notice-where it is said: Now, Gentlemen, let me beg of you to attend to the immediate cause and reason of the appearance of the paragraph complained of in my Paper of the day mentioned. There is, as I said before, a full,dency, purport, and drift of the subsequent temperate, and faithful narrative of the offer of negociation which had been made by Mr. Perceval and Lord Liverpool, to Lord Grenville and Lord Grey-and there is contained in that narrative a train of reasoning upon the terms of the overture that had been made, on the answers thereto, and on the result. Having prepared and digested this paper, and delivered it to Mr. Lambert for insertion in The Morning Chronicle, I met with this paragraph in a respectable and well-written Sunday Paper (The Examiner), and finding it to harmonize with the Essay I had prepared-I took it as a fit and appropriate postscript; a just corollary from the foregoing propositions, and I directed it to be copied accordingly. I do not come here, therefore, to prate about negligence, or oversight, or creeping in by accident-No, I took it with my eyes open, in the morning, with my senses fresh, and with the entire approbation of my judgment as to its innocence. The first passage in the narrative, Gentlemen, to which I would beg leave to draw his Lordship's attention and yours, is in the second column of the second page, and is as follows: "Lord Grenville arrived in town on Thursday last, the 28th, at night, and, it is understood, that on the 29th he communicated to Mr. Perceval that he could not, consistently with his principles, have any interview, or enter into any discussion with him, with a view to his forming an ACCESSION to the present Administration, as he considered their measures to be most objectionable in every respect, and he could never approve the principles of their formation. It is understood that when he said this, he begged to express his most invariable and profound sentiments of respeet for his Majesty; that his conduct and principles he trusted had always been "If the question relates to prospective measures, whether of war, negociation, commercial intercourse, or domestic economy. If in those great leading lines of Government the conduct is to be directly the reverse of that which has been pursued, who shall represent to the Sovereign the wisdom of the measures that are to be proposed, or the mischief of those that are to be abandoned? Are those whose aid are asked in the crisis and exigency of public affairs, to be shut out from this communication; and is it to be entrusted to those who have a direct interest to give the representation a false colour, and, independent of interest, have views of the ques tion calculated to mislead their judgment." So much for my meaning, as to the change of system, meaning a total change of measures only, but that that total change would bring a crowd of blessings in its train "immediately and of course." Ah! but the period was to be postponed-No blessings till after the demise of our Sovereign Lord the King-and the crime of the charge is, that I postponed this happy period until that day which we all trust may be so distant. Read the paragraph which introduces that which speaks of the King, and of the Heir Apparent, together with that paragraph itself-and then see, Gentlemen, what interpretation you will put upon my adopted paragraph, It is as follows: "Awful as the crisis is, and arduous as the task would be, we may conclude from their principles and conduct (meaning the principles and conduct of Lord Grenville and Lord Grey) that they will be ready to devote themselves to the service of their King and Country. But they cannot, consistently with these principles, permit Lord Liverpool and Mr. Perceval to be the persons to communicate their thoughts and views-a rule of action which we conceive to be most correct; not dictated by any narrow-minded principles of exclusion, but resting upon those sound and well considered views of the constitution which ought to govern their conduct as statesmen in this most important and interesting matter. of his wisdom, and paternal solicitude for the happiness of his people, but the opinion and feeling of the illustrious personage, the highest subject in his empirethe most interested next to himself in its welfare-and whose example of reverence and devotion was so well calculated to inspire confidence and attachment in every class of the community? Gentlemen, this paragraph, so expressing his Royal Highness's sense of his Majesty's paternal wisdom and solicitude, I declare this day, in the presence of God and my country, I wrote, and that it expresses my own sentiments as one of his Majesty's most humble subjects. nal solicitude, and there is the cheering prospect of their being perpetuated by the description of the virtues of the Heir Apparent. I feel that I am brought here improperly, and that, instead of being charged with this as an offence, I should have received the thanks of every good friend of the Monarchy for the sentiment I promulgated. Is there any thing here that talks of postponing the blessings to another reign? "We ought to add to this statement, No, directly the reverse. There is present that his Royal Highness the Prince of consolation held out to the people in the asWales has, upon this most curious and in-surance of his Majesty's wisdom and paterteresting occasion, taken a line which must exalt his character and endear him to his country. The sentiments of his Royal Highness on the awful crisis of the empire, and of the character of the measures which have led to that crisis, are not unknown. He feels on the subject like every other enlightened man, but more strongly, perhaps, because he has a deeper interest than any other in its welfare: but, from some unfounded rumours respecting his interference in the arrangements which were in contemplation, the Prince has thought it his duty to express to his Majesty his firm and unalterable determination to preserve the same course of neutrality which he has maintained, and which, from every feeling of dutiful attachment to his Majesty's person, from his reverence of the virtues, and from his confidence in the wisdom and solicitude of his Royal Father for the happiness of his people, he is sensible ought to be the course that he should pursue. We have no doubt but that this assurance of the filial respect of the Heir Apparent, in not interposing his high influence in the forming of an administration, will be most acceptable to his Majesty." I pause here, Gentlemen, and fairly put it to you, whether I might not safely leave my whole case, and that of my faithful friend, in your hands here, with this demonstration of my feelings, with this declaration of my opinion before you. Will any fair man say that I do not in this paragraph inculcate the duty of love and reverence for his Majesty, by stating, not merely my own ideas of his royal virtues, I confess my astonishment that we should be brought here upon such a charge. And I have endeavoured in vain to find a reasonable justification for the Law Officers of the Crown in this proceeding. I cannot bring myself to believe, that they acted on the hasty and intolerant animadversion that was made upon the text by a rival Journalist the next day-an animadversion that was more than ordinarily coarse and violent, but I cannot help thinking, that the comment of the Morning Post has been officiously read, so as to make the impression in some quarter from which this prosecution originates: and that it is not the well-considered result of an examination of the paper by the Learned Gentlemen themselves. [Here the Attorney General interrupted Mr. Perry, and appealed to the Court. He said, that he had remained silent longer perhaps than he ought, and suffered the Defendant to wander from the point at issuc; but now that he was drawing into observation persons not in the Cause, and not in Court, and even naming them, he must interfere, and say that he could not submit to the irregularity. Lord ELLENBOROUGH said, that if Mr. Attorney General had seen reason to stop Mr. Perry before, be might have done so. If he had himself seen any material cause for interference, he certainly should have felt it his duty to have done so-although when a Gentleman came into the Court to speak for himself, they must not be fastidious if he did not entirely regulate himself by the established forms of their proceeding. Mr. Perry certainly must abstain from personal allusions. Can these words involve even the insinuation of disrespect to his Majesty's sacred person? May they not rather be fairly construed into a most courteous and loyal compliment? Have I not a right to say that the duration of his Majesty's happy reign, the Fiftieth Anniversary of which we are now celebrating as a Jubilee, has given the finest opportunity (of which the paragraph speaks) for the Heir Apparent to learn the means by weich he may make himself nobly popular? Was there ever an Heir Apparent since the Revolutionsince the establishment of the Monarchy Mr. PERRY said, My Lord, I respectfully submit to the rules of Court, persuaded as I am that my ignorance of its forms will not be taken as a trespass; and that under your Lordship's protection I-since the beginning of the world, that shall not be unnecessarily narrowed in my defence. I was only endeavouring to find a notive to account for the prosecution, and I am perfectly sensible that their motives can be no justification of my conduct, if wrong.*] Mr. PERRY proceeded-Gentlemen, take the paragraph by itself, unconnected with the illustration which I have given, and see if it can be tortured into the meaning which is put upon it. It does not alledge that the successor of our present Sovereign Lord is to be more popular, it states only that he has the finest opportunity of becoming nobly popular. * The following is the passage alluded to: 66 Never, surely, was any thing more calculated to insult the good sense or horrify the pure and amiable nature of his Royal Highness, nor was ever any thing more calculated to call forth the indignation and execration of a loyal and admiring people, upon the wretch who is capable of broaching ideas so repugnant to the feelings of the illustrious Heir Apparent, and to the ardent wishes of every good and virtuous subject. To the indignation and execration of the British nation do we therefore consign this damning specimen of the abominable and infamous sentiments by which the base faction are impelled in their most unprincipled and diabolical pursuits."-MORNING POST, 3rd October, 1809.. The allusion was really made to the above article, in order to shew the Editor of that paper (who when out of political contest is a most friendly and obliging man,) and to shew Editors in general, how indiscreet it is to throw unprovoked odium upon one another. If the press would only be true to itself, it would be unassailable. did possess such opportunities as his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales? Did ever Prince study the art of Government in such a school-or did ever Prince undergo such a probation, as the length of his Royal Father's reign, and the fearful events which have passed under his eye, have afforded to his Royal Highness? Nay, after all, what is this, but what happens every day in colloquial discourse when it is a common flattery? Gentlemen, if I had not determined to abstain from every thing that could have the air or tone, or emphasis of elocutionthat could be thought to be an attempt to engage and to work upon your feelings,-I could here adduce the most beautiful and the most tender passages from ancient and from modern writersfrom the pages of the historian and of the poet, to shew that in all times and by the most sublime allusions, it has been considered the most endearing sentiment to the heart of a parent, that his virtues and his glory were to survive, and even to be transcendant in his son. But I am not come here, Gentlemen, to attempt to stir the emotions, but simply to address the understanding-And I may surely say, without disparagement of the Parent, that the Son may be nobly popular by following the example he has set, by treading in his steps, by having become so intimately acquainted with the character, with the feelings and with the interests of the people he will in due course of time be called on to govern-and what I con, ceive to be also most favourable, that he will be of a mature age, to chuse the persons, of whose experience, ability and maxims of Government he has had such means of being so thoroughly ac quainted, as to enable him to give to his own free choice of his Administration the confidence of his subjects. But, Gentlemen, I am able, fortunate- | ly, to shew you, by that which must be present to all your recollection, that at the time of the publication of the paragraph in question, there was a great topic of public interest in universal discussion, the nature and meaning of which you will discover in the context to which I have drawn your regard. At that time Parliament was not sitting. Public agitation was at its height: The topic was in every mouth; and the Morning Chronicle was the field of discussion on one side, as rival Journals were on the other. It was perfectly understood what was meant by the allusion of Lord Grenville to the principles which would tend to heal, and not to foment the divisions of the Empire. And to shew you that at the time my reasoning on the subject was taken and construed to mean distinctly, that the blessings which would crowd upon us by a change of system, would arise directly, and not remotely, if the Noble Persons who had been applied to as fit and proper Ministers, to strengthen and uphold the then enfeebled, tottering and disorganized Cabinet, had had the opportunity presented to them of impressing on his Majesty's Royal mind the conviction with which they were themselves impressed, I have only to recall your memories to the discussions of the time, and to the declarations which were understood to come from authority. Nay, I can shew you, that the reasoning of this very paper was so understood by that authority, and so answered on the very day subsequent to my publication. I presume, my Lord, I may be permitted to read, as a part of my speech, a paragraph to this effect, in direct answer to my article, from a paper which was published the day after? Lord ELLENBOROUGH said, that if it was a paper published after the appearance of the paragraph in question, it certainly could not avail the Defendants in shewing their mind or intention in the previous publication; and he informed Mr. Perry, that he could not draw any inference from any paper whatever, without putting it in and proving it regularly as evidence; in which case the Prosecutor would have the power to adduce evidence to rebut it if he should think fit. Mr. PERRY. I thank you, my Lord. Gentlemen of the Jury, I am grateful to his Lordship for the information by which (To be continued.) More LONDON :-Printed by T. C. HANSARD, Peterborough - Court, Fleet - Street: Published by R. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent Garden :-Sold also by J. BUDD, Pall-Mall. |