It may be urged that this has, for the most part, arisen from the common order of things: and we can readily believe, that from the moment when a free constitution was our's, we were destined to make a progress beyond the rest of the world in knowledge, activity, wealth, and power. And it will readily be conceded too, that from the moment when the art of printing was displayed to our forefathers, it was in fact decreed, that a day should come when knowledge would be communicated to every one, even the lowest orders of the civilised world. This may be. Nature however will not do all : she requires artificial assistance to prune and trim ou occasion, as well as to foster and to aid. The age of luxuriance, if unrestrained, is but the forerunner of decay.

In the first place then, since the benefits of general education are extended to all, let us inquire what sort of political instructors the common people, or in other words, the numerical majority of the nation, are likely to meet with: they doubtless need some, and, unless I am mistaken, every step made, and every advancement any how gained, has in this country a tendency finally political.

I

They have instructors however. There are a numerous set of writers who publish popular journals at a cheap rate, attainable to the poorest individual, and these are almost all produced on that leisure day-Sunday. They treat almost wholly of political matters, or if any extraneous subjects are introduced towards the conclusion, they appear only as secondary to the chief object. They are all writers on one side in politics, as will soon be seen there is now, believe, no opposition to them in any quarter; one or two attempts having been made, but soon failing for want of due support. Cobbett's two-penny Register is the first of this description, but there are also many others; a few quotations from which shall be introduced for the sake of illustration, and in order to show to that part of society who have hitherto neglected to look after these men, or, perhaps, too confident in appearances of present security, disdained to regard these attempts, what sort of language it is they employ, and what are really their aims and intentions.

The first quotation is on a familiar subject; and shall be taken from a weekly paper called the Gorgon, which is circulated at the cheap rate of one penny each number.

"There, however, remains one resource for people in the country. It is not to petition the House of Commons, nor the House of Lords, nor the Regent-no; we have had enough of that folly already: do not go there to be laughed at: you might as well 'bay the moon.' What we recommend is-RESISTANCE.-Yes: unite and resist manfully. Who are they that would humbug you out of your rights and property?"

June 6, 1818.

The next quotation is from Sherwin's Political Register. Price two-pence.

"The approaching dissolution of this infamous assembly, cannot afford us the least hope of obtaining a more just or liberal one, whilst they have the means of constituting a majority by their own. nomination; therefore I should be sorry to hear that any person, who might wish to reform that House, should either waste his time or his substance in returning any of those members who compose what is termed the Whig Party, or Opposition; as experience has taught us that those men are as inimical to the interests of the people as the other party; and I have no hesitation in asserting that our enemies would be deterred from pursuing those stretches of power, were they only opposed by the voice of the people out of that house, rather than by a systematic opposition to every act either liberal or illiberal, by men, who may be fairly considered as hired for that purpose only."

March 14, 1818.

"In the last number of the Register I gave a brief description of the characters of the members of that House, which insultingly forces its decrees upon the public under the title of legislation.' Sherwin's Political Register. Feb. 13, 1819.

After endeavouring to degrade the existing government, the next step is to persuade the people at large that they are themselves the fittest to supply their places.

The next quotation is from the Edinburgh Reflector.

"But while men are indifferent to the politics of their rulers, and unambitious to possess a rank as men in the state, the progress of this cause will not be so rapid as many sanguinely suppose. Nothing can be more ludicrous than to hear people boasting of their country, of the name of Briton, of their freedom and their glory, when these same persons are probably no more entitled to call themselves free, than the veriest slaves in the Seraglio of the Grand Turk."

No. X. Sept. 1818.

In similar style the Black Dwarf expresses himself on the subject of some act of parliament lately 'passed:

"The poor may well wish to be legislators for themselves, when such legislation disgraces the statute book. In that junta of St. Stephen's, there was no one who saw the iniquity of such a proceeding or if there were one, the complaisance which even good men agree to pay to knaves in that assembly, stifled the voice of justice in embryo."

June 6, 1818. Price 4d.

On another occasion, the existence of the monarchy is threatened in direct terms; and rebellion is called (in the words of La Fayette)

a sacred duty.' We may again refer to Sherwin's Political Register:

"Of America it might truly be said what has been falsely and vainly said of this ill-fated land, that she is the envy and admiration of the world.' America is a thorn in the bosoms of the despots of Europe; she may proudly bid them defiance. The people of France have once shewn their tyrants the consequence of irritating them too far, and will again regenerate when left to themselves. Let us unite and be firm."

March 14, 1818. Price 2d.

"I say whilst such things are permitted by him, (the King), it can be taken in no other light than a conspiracy, not to protect, but injure; he cannot be considered a father but an enemy; and a continuance of this system will convince the people that monarchy is incompatible with freedom."

March 14, 1818. Price 2d.

In another paper the same subject is pursued under the form of a letter to the King, intended to be after the manner of Junius:

"If, Sir, my limits would permit, I might explore the page of history, and open your eyes to the dreadful calamities which ministers, of a similar description to those you are now confiding in, have brought upon their deluded Prince. I would most particularly direct your attention to the reign of Richard the Second, and its melancholy sequel. The reverses and calamities of this ill-fated sovereign, fell upon him at a time when every thing seemed favorable. to the exercise of that arbitrary power, which, in his name, his ministers, like your's, had the unprincipled audacity to assume. The great offices of the crown, and the magistracy of the whole kingdom, were (then as now) put into such hands as were subservient to all the views of the ministers. They had also a PARLIAMENT ENTIRELY AT THEIR DEVOTION; but all these advantageous circumstances served only to prove, that a British Prince who suffers his ministers to rule by tyranny and oppression, can have no permanent security against the just resentments of an injured and exasperated nation."

Independent Whig. Feb. 8, 1818. Sunday, Price 94d.

"When a reflecting man views the condition of the present government, it is almost impossible for him not to feel for the situation of the Royal Family. With all its wickedness there is something in monarchy that excites pity. Surrounded by an almost impenetrable barrier of treachery, falsehood, and fraud, a monarch is liable to be called upon at any time to answer for crimes which are committed in his name, but which he has neither the means nor the ability to prevent. His servants may be considered as being engaged in a

continual conspiracy to take away his life, for they know well the danger to which he is exposed."

Sherwin's Pol. Register. Sept. 12, 1818. Price 2d.

Where appears also, an elaborate semi-ironical tirade, intitled the Blessings of Monarchy.

"Princes can do no wrong; and, were it possible for them to be vicious, they have the power to forgive themselves, being the head of national religion. Recollect the benefit we enjoy in our holy religion is connected with the king's enjoyment of Anna Bullen. You Jacobin Sherwin, you see your mistake: the princes' fountain of comfort originates in the Scriptures, and nature."

A penny-worth of what you please to call it. 1818.

The Yellow Dwarf used chiefly to distinguish himself by his extreme rancor against the clergy, generally dedicating one half of his paper to this purpose: he even introduced the name of a very active and respectable divine, and endeavoured, as far as his feeble power of satire would permit, to hold him up to the ridicule of the people: he shall speak for himself, however, (for he speaks very plainly) as to the cause of his hostility to the church.

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"One mischief of this alliance between church and state (which the old-fashioned statesman understood so thoroughly, and the modern sciolist only by halves) is, that it is tacit and covert. The church does not profess to take any active share in affairs of state, and by this means is able to forward all the designs of indirect and crooked policy more effectually, and without suspicion. The garb of religion is the best cloak for power. There is nothing so much to be guarded against as the wolf in sheep's clothing. The clergy pretend to be neutral in all such matters, not to meddle with politics. But that is, and always must be, a false pretence. Those that are not with us, are against us, is a maxim that always holds true. These pious pastors of the people, and accomplices of the govern ment, make use of their heavenly calling and demure professions of meekness and humility, as an excuse for never committing themselves on the side of the people: but the same sacred and spiritual character, not to be sullied by mixing with worldly concerns, does not hinder them from employing all their arts and influence on the side of power, and of their own interest. Their religion is incompatible with a common regard to justice or humanity; but it is compatible with an excess of courtly zeal."

Feb. 7, 1818. Price 4d.

Nor was the Yellow Dwarf the only one who pursued this line: the following is an address to the Archbishop of Canterbury, quoted from "The Axe laid to the Root;" or "A Fatal Blow to Oppressors :"

"As the apostle Paul; like him you would go forward, under the

influence of that which you swore you possessed; being more tame than the ass, you would bear the hardships of hunger and cold; such conduct would illuminate the world, and set religion on high; it would show the infidels their deficiency; they would be compelled, seeing your good works, to glorify your Father which is in heaven: then would the oppressors of the day, with the attorney-general and a ministerial judge, their cruel instruments, with all their profession for holiness, be compelled, not only to bow and let the stormy breath of Hone pass over their defenceless heads, but they would also shrink into nothing."

No. VI. 1818.

The two following quotations need no preface;

"In the first place, if an Englishman was to utter a disrespectful word against what is called the regal authority' (whether intentionally or not, or whether he was aware of the consequence or not) he is liable to be hanged, and his head severed from his body, and placed upon a pole for his friends to go and amuse themselves with, by contemplating those ghastly features, which, no doubt, were once as agreeable and fascinating as they are now become loathsome and disgusting. This agreeable spectacle must be rendered doubly interesting, from the intercourse between them being rigidly prohibited from his first apprehension until the ̊ fulfilment of this admirable' and humane law."

The Reformer, or Williams's Political Register.

"Suppose Toby, the sapient pig, had been born the hereditary monarch of this land, should we not have expected that his privy counsellors, and his prime ministers, and his secretaries of state, and his bishops, and his archbishops, and his deacons, would have been congenial swine? Would it not have been declared treason to kill a grunter of any description, whether he were found wallowing in the farmer's dairy, instead of the kennel, or feasting in the farmer's granary, instead of wandering in search of acorns in the forest? Pigs, in such a case, would have been objects of peculiar veneration. Princes might have woven petticoats for them; and the gravest and wisest of mankind have held bacon in a just and loyal abhorrence."

Black Dwarf, p. 375.

The same author speaks in the following language of the hopes of the factions, at the time of the disturbances that took place in the midland counties in the year 1817:

"The press was armed in favor of reform to a degree unprecedented. It was the power of a Briareus, who brandished a hundred thousand arms, and spoke with more than half a million voices. -The agents of the corrupt system trembled in their dark recesses -the hour of retribution seemed at hand:—and a reviving nation