times such diffidence must not however be carried so far as to produce an useless inaction; yet if none of these master-spirits will rouse from their apathy, or if wrapped up comfortably in an official surtout, they will persist in confining their talents to the notoriety of popular occasions, and shine out only when they can be applauded and admired, it must necessarily fall to the lot of more unimportant, but not less anxious members of the community, to step forward in defence of our Constitutional and social relations.

The country has for many, far too many years, been cursed with political quackery; and too many of our fellow-subjects have surrendered their better judgments and cheated understandings, to the guidance of a low, unprincipled, and uneducated genius, whose audacity is only to be equalled by his vanity, and whose acuteness was never unaccompanied by a malignity of intention, or the attempt at some infamous and traitorous design. Fortunately, the non-fulfilment of all the predictions of this giant in words, and baby in actions, has at length produced in you a sense of inward shame, mortification, and self-abasement, that you should so long have remained dupes to his subtleties, have listened and trusted so believingly to hopes which have falsified the ear, and clung so obstinately to the completion of expectations, which have proved as blighted fruit in an untimely season." Can you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?

Where so many good and able men would cheerfully and willingly have advised and guided, you have preferred to follow a jacko'-lantern, a will-o'-the-whisp. If, however, the experience of the past create circumspection, and the very opposite to what has so pervertingly and obstinately been dinned into your ears, become the correct guide for future opinions,

the evil may yet right itself; for you will have learnt to judge certain persons by contraries; believing always the reverse to what is advanced by an habitual and fre quently detected impostor.

It is fortunate that the conduct "of bad men exposed," leads to this contrariety, otherwise the mischief would be incalculable or incurable; and it is only upon this principle that we can account for the preservation of the Constitution in Church and State, surrounded as it is on all sides by an immense majority of scribbling opponents.

We trust that the time is now arrived when the poison will be met by an antidote, and the nauseous effects of former pills be obviated by more genuine prescriptions.

THE COUNTRY CONSTITUTIONAL GUARDIAN is not the production of one self-announcing quack, but is the deliberate undertaking of varied talent, and united judgment. Its never-ceasing aim will be to enable you to form correct and firm decisions upon constitutional subjects, and the policy of government; to provide you with a clue to the motives which actuate public men, and the causes which produce public measures.

Hitherto, all important political discussions have emanated from London; and it being the seat of Government, and fountain of news, information or opinion from any other source, appears to be unaccredited. But we, who now invite your attention, begin to suspect, that you countrymen have too long and too tamely submitted to the lead of the metropolis, and have too inconsiderately pinued your faith upon its daily journals, till your senses have become bewildered, and you have been almost drawn within the vortex of their flippancies.

The non-residents from the metropolis, and many in the metropolis, anxious for the future, can therefore no longer quietly look on, and my with a criminal apathy, the thre Cu the

B 2

ing steps of civil commotion treading upon the heels of the Constitution. Political associations are but the airy castles of timidity, and the mutually abusive jargon of the Metropolitan Journals, is but the humbug of a trade (mostly carried on by hired pens) well understood by its rival proprietors, and serving only to confuse and irritate the public mind.

What do the squabbles of the Old and New Times concern the community, who know that their mutual enmity arises from personal pique? How can we surrender our faith to a demi-official Journal, once the inveterate opponent to the same government and the same principles which it now injures by injudicious advocacy? Can the Ethiop change his skin, or the leopard his spots ?

An able, decided, and intelligent journal, not too obtrusive of its own dogmas, but conducted by men of known ability, and men who will, and can, and dare be known, uniting in themselves talent and responsibility, is yet a desideratum in the mighty metropolis. For the want of such a leading journal, one which should convince the understanding and not excite the passions, and tear politics to rags, every London apprentice fancies himself at least, equal to the chancellor of the exchequer.

John Bull, if he will but continue honest, go to prison with perfect sang-froid, and confine himself to political badinage, will better help to open the eyes of the commonalty to the manner how things are got up in London, than any journal we know; in his way he is unique and piquant. It is not, however, every political opponent which should be made the subject of personal ridicule; but such ephemerals as Wood, Waithman, Barnes, Parkins, Wilson, and all others of a similar celebrity, are in themselves flimsies of h singular construction, that ule alone is applicable to their

sions

be intest literature;

cases. But we must and do reprobate the random artillery which fires indiscriminately amongst its opponents, and attacks all, as irreconcilable enemies.

THE OLD TIMES AND ITS COPYISTS, THE SUNDAY JOURNALS IN LONDON (two or three excepted, out of twenty-five or twenty-six,) forced forward the late investiga tion, and PRODUCED THE 14TH OF AUGUST.

The 14th day of August last has opened the eyes of the COUNTRY; that brutal day gives it reason to dread the influenza of a metropolis, where mob law triumphed over the civil power, and has since been upheld by the politesse of a coroner, and the finding of two inquests.

And is not the next occasion for a mob in London to be expected by the Country with more than usual apprehension? That mob, irritated by the verdict of one of those inquests, and demanding vengeance against some unknown murderers, and expiation for unatoned blood, will, it is feared, come prepared to put the exercise of the civil power to a severer test, than they have ever yet done; and as they will look upon the soldiers in a body, as concealing among themselves the individual murderers, is there not reason to dread the conflict of such exasperated and exasperating spirits? The civil power has proved unequal to the preservation of the peace of the metropolis, and the London radicals have laid good excuse for that very military government, against which its spokesman (the Times) is continually railing. To such a state of things has the press of London brought its overcharged population. For its consequences must the Country prepare; not with a timid apprehension, but with a bold determination to second, uphold, and strengthen the firm resolutions of the government. Let the Country, by its unanimity, enable the administration to put on an imposing, an awful attitude. Lon

don has played, trifled, and argued with the radical hydra too long; and Lord Sidmouth has been dangerously amiable in his forbearance towards it. We feel confident, that among all the cities and towns in the united realm, no such mob (we mean in proportion to the population of London,) could have been brought to act as that of the 14th of August last. We are confident that from among all the sheriffs of the united realm, no such conduct would have emanated as Mr. Sheriff Waithman has been guilty of. For the folly of it we pity him; but for the illegality of it, the Country demands his trial. The Country requires to know, whether such conduct is or is not legal; if legal, is the example to travel down into the thirty-nine counties, which it must and will do, unless the power of the law, and the execution of the laws be in this instance enforced and made manifest?

Is there any other corporation in the United Empire which would have believed this sheriff's story of the carbine levelled at him, upon his mere assertion, and have voted him thanks for his contempt of personal danger, and the risking of his life in the public service? When his statement of the whole affair has been officially impugned, and when a judge of the law had expressed a dislike, to pin his faith upon his veracity.

Is there any other mayor in the united realm, than the present chief magistrate of the metropolis, who would betray such a want of judg. ment, and such a gross political bias, as to allow himself to be a

* HYDZA, a monster with many heads, formerly an allegorical beast, but now a real one, consisting of J. C. He, H. Ht, W-d, W-th-n, C-b-t, P-k-ns, He, W—I—n Sir Bob Lord B-r-n, Lord C-ne, F-v-1, T-mp-n, F-r-n, W-ll-r, S-rw-n, B. S-1-y, C-1-e, Lady M-g-n, L. Ht, Ppps, &c. &c. Legs to the beast, B-rn-. For the scene of its occasions, inquire at The Times office.

We shall, in the progress of our undertaking, have so frequent occasion to dwell upon the consequences of these and similar circumstances, and to expose them to the ridicule of our countrymen; that for the present we shall ask, have we not proved that there is good occasion to counterpoise the opinions of the Country against the Metropolis, where such occurrences not only take place, but the majority of whose journals advocate their propriety?

We have shewn, at least, some strong points of justification. We thus particularize them :-We find a mob evidently acting under previous arrangement, and with a wellcombined system of attack-a major-general in the army among that mob, in a conspicuous characterof whom more anon.

We find the system both of offensive attack and defensive measures of such mob so complete, as to baffle the power of the civil magistrate, and to overcome the inefficient military preparation made for the occasion. We find among that mob a sheriff of the city of London and Middlesex, whose conduct amounts to, and may be fairly construed to imply, a participation by inuendo or inference, in the designs of such mob. We find an alderman of London, being also a magistrate for the county, in which such concerted rebellion takes place, also in the midst of it; we find a communication established between the

many good and eminent members of the community, upon the merits and policy of this well-intended combination; and as we conscientiously think great public danger may arise from a reliance upon any effects to be produced by it, we feel it important at our very outset to state the grounds of our dissent. Besides, by so doing, we shall at once place our countrymen in possession of the extent and independence of our own political creed.

The Constitutional Association is the effect of an ultra-loyalism. It goes beyond the constitution in the attainment of its objects, and when it proclaims or points out a weakness in the government, it ought to prove that there is an imbecility in the executive, and of course a defect to be supplied. There is nothing more dangerous than for a nation to rest its hopes, and surrender its confidence to an ephemeral society; when the constitution has already specially provided a legal officer to perform the very duties which such association obtrusively undertakes. The thing to be done is excellent; the mode of its performance erroneous; and if we are not wrong in this opinion we may add," that a good intention set about in an injudicious manner, will fail in its object." Time will soon discover the correctness or incorrectness of our opinion, for which we offer the following arguments.

The Constitution acknowledges, in its executive administration, a legal officer of high rank, and personal responsibility, in the character of an attorney-general, whose duty it is, to protect and defend the rights of the crown. All political libels are breaches of the king's peace, and offences against the crown. The crown, in this legal sense, is not meant the prerogative of the king, but is an emblem of the three estates of the realm, King, Lords, and Commons. When, therefore, the attorney-general appears in his character of public prosecu

tor, he appears no less for the dignity and majesty of the crown, than for the immunities of the nobility, and the rights of the people. Suppose, for example, such a fellow as Humpty Dumpty, were to say "the king ought to be arraigned," and for no other reason than because he did not think his late wife the grace and ornament of society, and accused her wrongfully. Such an assertion would be a libel. Though such libel should be personally aimed at the king, yet it would as much concern the lords and the commons; because it tended to bring into contempt and hatred one of the three estates of the realm. It would be prosecuted by the Attorney-general.

Suppose such another wooden head were to assert, that "the peers ought to be deprived of their dignities, their patrimonies seized, and themselves reduced to the rank of linen-drapers and brewers' drug merchants;" such would be a libel, not against them personally, but as against another of the three estates, and would be prosecuted by the Attorney-general, and the issue would equally affect the king and the people, as the peers themselves.

As a third case, suppose in a moment of spleen, some disappointed, funeral-going sheriff were to write "that the people of England were a nation of rogues, and deserved nothing but a military government." It would be a libel, to be prosecuted by the Attorney-general, as a libel against the house of commons, which is the type or symbol of the people; because it tended to destroy the equilibrium of the three estates, by seducing the crown and the nobility to encroach upon the rights of the people as represented by parliament.

Libels may be against religion, but religion is part and parcel (as the lawyers term it) of the law of the land, acknowledged as such by the three estates of the realm, and its preservation is equally interesting to, and incumbent upon all,