Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

way or the other; that the papers should "be ready when called for; that he certain.

[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

ly did not wish the ministry to take any part against him; that as the subject it"self would be brought forward as a party question if brought forward at all, the ministry might perhaps, deem it their duty to take some share in the debate. Through "all these transactions, his royal highness "must have been at a loss to discover any "thing which could reasonably indispose "the ministry against him. The administration, indeed, had endeavoured in vain to annex his royal highness, by a distinct pledge, to their own immediate party. "But bis royal highness could have no sus"picion, that, by adhering to the uniform "maxim of his life, he must necessarily give offence to any party whatever. His Loyal highness, moreover, never hesitated to avow, that he would always persevere in that line of acting which he should

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

men, they seem to have entertained no in"considerable personal animosity against "his royal highness. Party-feeling seldom proceeds so far as the unwearied persecu "tion of individual enmity. There have, indeed, been instances, in which the whole weight of a party has been brought to bear against an individual; but in these cases some reasonable cause might be assigned "for such excess of bitterness. But in what "has his royal highness so offended all, "that he is not only deserted by all, but

66

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

persecuted by all? Surely there must "be some cause beyond what appears."

-Then follows an eulogium upon Lord Castlereagh, and upon Lords Hawkesbury and Liverpool, who are acknowledged to have yielded protection to the Duke against the workings of factionHere, then, we have stated the causes, which, according to this writer, placed the two parties in enmity to the Duke of York, which causes appear to me to be quite insufficient to produce such an effect. The Opposition, indeed, if they suppose, that the Duke contributed towards putting them out of their places, depriving them of so many good things, may well dislike him; but, then, unfortunately for the argument of this writer, he himself states, that the inventions of malice and slander against the Duke were exhausted by the Treasury writers, under the Whig ministry, long before there was any notion of their places being in danger; and, it appears, as we shall see in detail, by-and-by, that, if this writer is to be believed, the Duke made frequent and fiuitless complaints to that ministry respecting the attacks made upon him in their jour nals. So that the pretended slander, malice, and libelling, all existed before there was any proposal of a party nature made to the Dake. And, as to the present ministry, how could they be seriously affected by his declining to become one of their party? They wanted no support, and, if they did, it surely was not the way to obtain it, to side with persons who slandered the Duke, who, they had every reason to believe, possessed

such powerful influence in a quarter so important to be conciliated. There is no sense in this accusation against either of the parties. The cause of what is called hostility is quite inadequate to the producing of such an effect. And what is this hostility? How and when has it appeared? I have perceived to hostility, in either of the parties, against the Duke of York; and except upon one particular point, I have observed in the daily prints, no inclination to criticise either his general or particular conduct. On the contrary, I am greatly misinformed, if, upon the occasion of Col. Cochrane Johnstone's court-martial, that gentleman was able to get inserted, in any one of those papers, a very mid, and even a very humble representation of the hardships which he conceived himself to have experienced; nay, I state as a fact, that he was unable to get inserted, except in one or two papers, and there by the means of heavy payment, even a bare statement of the fact of his honourable acquittal. So that, it does not appear, that, in either party, there ever existed any settled disposition to annoy the Duke of York This writer forgets all the good, which the" hireling edi

tors," as he calls then, have said of the Duke of York. He and his Duchess have been the almost constant theme of their praise. They could not walk up any street together, but the conjugal circumstance was noticed in detail, even to motions and glances. All his birth-day festivals, ali his reviews, all his motions have been noticed, and at every notice there has appeared to be, a valship in the sycophaney of the different editors. Nay, I defy this writer to refer me, even at this day, to one single paragraph in any daily paper, containing a censure, or even a free remark, upon the conduct or the character of the Duke of York. What does this writer want, then? What does this half-ideot, for such he must be, want of the poor degraded press? Does he want it to expose itself to the contempt of even the lowest of the rabble? What does he want? I should like to have his answer to this question. Now we come to notice the complaints, which this writer says, were made by the Duke to the Whig ministry, and what he says is very well worthy of being remembered.- -"These incessant

[ocr errors]

attacks could not but very seriously affect his royal highness, and after having "maintained a dignified reserve as long as

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

human patience could support it, he at length found it necessary to demand an inquiry into his conduct.-Nothing could "be so ridiculous as the affected astonish

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

"Who has presumed to attack the interest or the reputation of your royal highness? "There are laws in the country to which

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

your royal highness may appeal. Why "should there be a formal inquiry where "there is no formal charge? Why should "the ignorance or malignity of the daily papers be raised into the consequence and dignity of having called forth an official inquiry? If any thing has been said or written against your royal highness, of which "all his majesty's ministers must solemnly "disavow even any knowledge, the "Attorney General should be ordered "forthwith to commence a prosecution; "and if your royal highness be unwilling personally to give your instructions to "that officer of the crown, they may be

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

given to the treasury, by your royal high"ness's secretary. But his majesty's mi"nisters would think themselves deficient "in a due sense of what they owed to their "own dignity as his majesty's councillors, "if they adopted a popular rumour as sufficient grounds for an official inquiry."

-Well, this was pretty well, I think. What more did this writer wish them to do? He will tell us directly, in speaking of what he says has been the conduct of the present ministry, upon a similar occasion.

It may be urged, indeed, in reply "to all that has been said above, that the "attacks complained of, have not been "made with the knowledge, and still less "with the consent or concurrence of his

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

very existence of the facts alleged; that "the law was open to his royal highness, "and that the Attorney General might be "instructed to prosecute; that they had no "influence or authority over the free press; "and that they advised his royal highness "to hold all such libellous accusation in the

contempt which it merited-It is no"torious, however, notwithstanding all

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

nymous actimony. We are persuaded "that his royal highness most fully acquits "his majesty's ministers of any inmediate participation in such libels. But the encouragement, the countenance, the im. punity of these libellers, is the efficient "cause of the whole. Would the Etors "of the Daily Papers thus write, unless

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

they were persuaded that they were ad"vocating a cause generally pleasing to "their patrons? As to a legal remedy for "this torrent of libel and invective, though

a jury of his countrymen weld visit the bellers with melted punishment, his royal highnest, we believe, will not be lightly persuaded to intro-lace a practice "which he has never approved. There

have been perhaps already too many go"vernment prosecutions, and a precedent "s may thus be constituted, which, much to "the injury of the free press, inay be here. "after acted upon. Add to this, that there "6 may be innumerable allusions, inuen"docs, and even assertions, which may "Live substance enough to wound, and that most deeply, but are not palpable enough for the visitation of the law. "The libellers of his royal highness have "been too long practised in their school, "to commit themselves to the hands of a

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

jy. Let any man of honest feelings

read sole of the cold-blooded articles

which have lately appeared in mamy of

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

So, here we have an expression of thi writer's wishes. He seems to allow, that nothing has been said of the Duke that even our libel law can lay its fangs upon, or, at least, with a fair chance of success; and, therefore, as the newspapers aro, as he says, as completely at the command of the two parties, as if the leaders of those parties were the actual editors; and, as, with regard to the Treasury papers, "a billet from

[ocr errors]

Downing Street is never refused admit"tance, accompanied, if required, by an "ample confirmatory comment," he would have had orders issued from Downing Street to those papers, to insert certain billets, and to refuse others, relating to the Duke of York. This writer must be an enemy of the Duke, under the mask of friendship; for, is it possible to form an idea of any thing more low, more mean, more shubby, more scurvy, more dirty, more base, than going to a ministry, and asking them to ob tain the publication or the suppression of paragraphs, respecting him, in prints, which be must regard as being edited by the most venal of mankind? Asif he had said to himself: no; the law will not do; the law cannot find any hold in the publications against me, and besides I do not like the publicity of law; I will, therefore, have recourse to corruption; I will, by the means of inence purchased with the public money, get a good word from those whom I despise This is what this writer imputes to the Duke of York, and this he does under the mask of friendly compassion. This he does under the pretence of defending the royal chief tain against the attacks of his calumniators. I do not believe, that any act more base

A

was ever before imputed to any human being. If such be the friends of the Duke, well may he, with the poet, call for a defence against them; and, if the contents of a paragraph, in the Morning Post of the other day, be correct, he means to try the force of the law upon this libeller, at least, who, though he complains of anonymous slander in others, takes special care all the while, to keep his own name out of sight, What! go sneaking to the ministry to beg of them to speak a good word for him to the editors of the newspapers! Foh! it is so rank, it so stinks of meanness, that one's bowels are disordered at the thought, especially when imputed to a modern CORIOLANUS." I am not for appeals to the law, respecting matters of this sort; but, something should certainly be done by the real friends of the Duke of York, to convince the world, that this part at least, of the pamphleteer's statements is false. I, for my part, shall anxiously wait for the contradiction, and shall hasten to give it to the world. What! (I cannot get it out of my mind) go to the ministry to supplicate their interference with the public papers! It is such an abominable story; such atrocious slander, that, surely it will be speedily contradicted. Why, if this statement be not proved to be untrue, who will ever again pay attention to any thing which those papers may say in favour of the royal soldier? Will not the public have reason to suppose, that the parties have, at last, been prevailed upon to issue their orders to the newspapers? It must be contradicted and it will, and I beseech my readers to watch, with me, for the appearance of the contradiction.

This supreme ass of a writer, after having accused the editors of ignorance, malice, and so forth, and candidly acquitted the ministers of any direct share in the "libels," as he calis all the publications not flattering to the Duke of York, tells his readers, that many of those editors are even well"wishers to his royal highness, and few,

66

[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]

or none, of them have any personal ennuity against him- But," adds he, "his "royal highness has the misfortune to have fbeen the topic of the day; they are compelied, therefore, to say something of "him, and they consider it as their duty to "render that something as palatable as pos"sible to their patrons." Here, then, the ministers, or, at least, the leaders of the parties are the sole cause of this hostility of the press against the Duke of York. But, this same wiiter has confessed, that Lords Hawkesbury and Liverpool had taken the Duke under their protection; he pronounces a high eulogium upon Lords Castlereagh and

Eden, and boasts that the Duke has the friendship of the Duke of Portland So here are one of the Secretaries of State, the Secretary of State for the war départment, the Lord Chancellor, and the First Lord of the Treasury, and yet the Duke has no friends. He is "neglected by one party "and passed over by another." How happens it that these persons have nothing to do with the press? Did the Duke apply to them in vain? Why could they not have intefered, if any one could, to alter the tone of the press? This man contradicts himself. He does not know what to say. It is evident that he knows he is stating falsehoods. But, he must be half an ideot at least, or he never would have put pen to paper. -The challenge which he throws out to the editors is curious enough. "Let "them," says he, "produce a distinct "charge, and they shall have a distinct

[ocr errors]

answer; but, whilst they only beat about "the bush, in what manner is their desul"tory malice to be brought within the pale "of an argumentative defence?" · Within the pale of the law you thean, cunning and spiteful ideot as you evidently are. That is the pale wherein you want to see them. Will you, malicious and vindictive coward, insure them from that pale? This is what you should do before you challenge them to

a

"distinct charge." How many miscreants have we seen challenging the press in this way, and, the moment, they could get a hold, appealing, not to the force of reason, not to the test of truth, but to the fangs of the law, and that, too, by a form of process which prohibits the accused from urging, in his defence, the truth of his statements.- -The editors, poor fellows! How base we are, are we not? What vile scoundrels we are, for not speaking out plain upon all occasions!It is stated by this writer, towards the conclusion, and that too in a very peremptory tone, that the Ministry and the Opposition must disavow the attacks of the press upon the Duke of York. We shall see, now, whether this disavowal will be made. The pamphlet has certainly stated some very ugly things about. the conduct of the parties. He has represented them as contending for the favour and the patronage of the Duke, and, being unable to gain him to themselves, have, out of revenge, persecuted him. He has stated pretty plainly, that Mr. Canning paid his court to the Duke; that that gentleman voluntarily made professions of kindness to wards the Duke; and that Lord Moira and Mr. Windham did the same. It would be a shame to suppose that a wretch like this has

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

cer

his royal highness, we believe, was not " even asked to take any part in the contest, "and least of all, to take that unfair part, "which is inferred in the language of the vague rumour. The noble person in ques"tion would scorn to gain his purpose, if purpose he had, by such arts-his com"manding abilities-his habits, and knowledge of business, distinguish him eminently. If there be any one who would most passionately scorn the indirect aid of "the alleged intrigue, and who "tainly stands in no need of it, it is the per"son in question. His Majesty knows the worth of such a servant, and will not hastily either deprive himself of it, or by withholding any merited grace, diminish "the zeal of his service. Upon this subject, "therefore, we will most decidedly state, "that his royal highness had no concern "whatever, and that he knew not that the "emulation existed, except by general re"port." The hint of preference is here pretty broad; and the rebuked rival will, doubtless, take care what he is about, if the facts alluded to be true. We see through all this, that it is clearly the opinion of this writer, that the Duke of York is, in fact, the master of the destinies of all the men whom the king employs, under the name of ministers; and that, if they displease him, they fail not, sooner or later, to meet with punishment.But, in the meanwhile, the press, tame and humble as it is, adulatory as are its columns when the subject is any one of the royal family, is, in this writer's opinion, too bold. It is not yet humbled enough. It is not yet sufficiently corrupt; or at least, it is not yet enough under the controul, as this writer thinks, of the Duke of York. The complaint against the minister, is, however, very unjust in one point of view; for, if the Duke will be of no party; if he will be a member of no mi

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

-But, it is very strange, it is wondertal, that the Duke of York should stand in need of any protecting influence with the press. What protection should he want? If the press say of him what is not true, why are its sayings not answered? For this writer does not pretend, that any thing in favour of the Duke, has ever, in any quarter, been refu. sed admission; and, besides, if the sayings are false, the falsehood will appear of itself, in a very short time; when the promulgators of it will sink into merited contempt. This base writer sets out, with laying it down as a maxim, "that no characters are so obnox"jous to unjust reproach as those of the great; and that the pedestal upon which public characters are raised into more conspicuous view, renders them, at the same time, more assailable objects of envy "and malignity." If to publish truth were not criminal in law, this maxim might hold good; but, I appeal to the reader, whether it holds good amongst us, at this time, and whether he does not see daily proofs of the fact, that the great do, without any one's venturing to comment upon their conduct, that which would render common men subjects of loud and general execration. how many instances are now at the point of my pen! How base, how cowardly, and yet how insolent is it in any one to accuse the poor writers in England of a propensity to assail the great!Amongst all the anecdotes, in which this writer has thought proper to deal, he does not seem to have paid much attention to that which related to the subject the most generally interesting to the public; namely, the supposed disputes in the cabinet respecting the Duke of York's going to Spain, which he slightly touches upon, at the end of his pamphlet, thus: "The point of fact is, perhaps, that such

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

appointinent was never solicited on the

one part, or offered, except formally, on "the other. If the nature of the service "had been such as to require the employ"ment of the Commander in Chief, the

ministry would, doubtless, have intimated "it to his royal highness." Aye, aye, I dare say they would; I dare say they would. It is all very well. The ministers did not, then, I suppose, think that the nature of the service

« AnteriorContinuar »