Mr. URBAN, M. Temple, May 5. S trait we hear of the true

to the view he takes of the matter, finds very little difficulty in condema

narch endears him the more to our recollection, I cannot but think you will consider the following brief conversation to be worth preserving.

His Majesty one day observed to the late Col. Price, that he had an intention of ordering a certain Tree to be taken down; asking at the same time the Colonel's advice, but expecting an entire acquiescence in the idea. Col. Price respectfully ventured to say, that he was of a different opinion. "Aye," replied the King somewhat hastily, "that's your way; you continually contradict

nie."

If your Majesty,” replied the Colonel," will not condescend to listen to the honest sentiments of your faithful servants, you never can hear the truth." After a short pause, the King very kindly laid his hand on the Colonel's shoulder-"You are right, Price. The Tree shall stand." Yours, &c. CARADOC.

F you can spare a little room for the minor politics of the day, I would avail myself of this indulgence, by offering some remarks on an article which appeared a few days ago in the "General Evening Post." This was a notice of a proposed alteration in the Bankrupt Laws, with a view to check that extravagance and waste of property by which creditors are so much injured; and which extravagance it is proposed to punish by withholding the certificate, &c. There can be no question as to the propriety of some device or law to check this extravagance; but the difficulty, I shrewdly suspect, will arise from the very different opinions mankind, in our days, entertain on the subject. The words extravagance, wasteful ness, prodigality, every man professes to understand; and, according

com

of these vices. Hence, in 99 discussions out of 100, no doubt whatever would be started, and all would unanimously agree, that a bankrupt who had been extravagant, wasteful, and prodigal, did not deserve the indulgence shewn to those who were merely unfortunate, and had never mitted a single act to which any reasonable man could apply the above epithets. But, Sir, although these words bore a plain and intelligible meaning in their travels through the mercantile world, when they travelled alone, the case is very materially altered since they happened (I know not on what unlucky day it was) to go beyond their boundaries, wandered considerably Westward of Temple Bar, and got into company with the words fashionable and genteel. Since that unhappy period, all our ideas of their sense, their merit, and their usefulness, have become confounded; and so far are we from agreeing unanimously, that scarcely two men can be found who do not most widely differ in their opinions as to what is, or is not, extravagant. Nor is this to be wondered at; for, since extravagance went into partnership with fashion, the former name has been sunk in the latter, and if my Lord Chancellor should send a question on the subject to be tried by the Courts below, it would be absolutely necessary that half the jury, at least, should be composed of men who had been merchants or traders for 40 years, and could consequently remember the meaning affixed to certain words, when trade flourished, and bankrupts were few; when a distinction was preserved in the orders of society, and when Temple Bar was an impassable limit.

Such a period (about 40 years ago) I am old enough to remember, and

to

to remember with those full and distinct impressions which early events always leave on the memory. And I can without the least hazard of contradiction assert, that our tradesmen now live in a way, which 40 years ago would have been reckoned not only dangerous to their credit, but to their understanding. I will quote only one instance:lf, in 1777, a tradesman had invited his friends to dine with him at six o'clock (which means se ven), I appeal to all who can remember that period, whether he would not have risked either a commission of bankruptcy, or a commission of lunacy? The latter, I am inclined to think, would have been the first suggestion; and remembering the modes of life, and the general sentiments of the times, I have no doubt that the exclamation would have been, “He is surely mad, who would wait for his dinner till six o'clock !"

I mention this instance, Sir, be cause I mean to insist upon it as a good criterion of a man's affairs; and therefore a proper subject for the consideration of the Noble and Learned Lord who presides over the affairs of Bankrupts. Where certain effects follow certain causes, the connexion inust be allowed; and although I may risk the imputation of being an oldfashioned fellow, or an old-fashioned Quiz, whose notions are as antiquated as the flaps of his waistcoat, or the cock of his hat, yet I have no hesitation in declaring, in the face of open day, and in the columns of the Gentleman's Magazine, that Late Din ners and Bankruptcies have gone hand in hand.

-

I do not make this assertion on slight grounds. Forty years ago the most reputable Citizen of London dined betwixt two and three o'clock -I will not say how his table was provided but I will say, there was no plateau running down the centre. There were no beathen gods in butter, and no British heroes in barley-sugar. For some years the above hours were the regular ones; and a Gazette, exhibiting more than four or five bankrupts, was a rarity. At length we passed from three o'clock to four, and there made so vigorous a stand, that, although there was a corresponding increase in the list of bankrupts, there was nothing very alarming, unless to fellows like myself, who, from

a tenderness of prophetic feeling, are apt to take the alarm rather suddenly. At length, about 1788 or 1789, we got to five o'clock; and with five o'clock commenced the æra of fraudulent bankruptcies, of men breaking for half a million, who never had been bona fide worth the interest of that sum. Then came among us that precious Pandora's box, of accommodation bills, for which there were regular offices, and a regular manufacture carried on. All the satisfac tion, however, was, that the gentlemen who carried on this kind of trade, and carried themselves into the Ga zette, disdained to dine before five o'clock; and although their creditors found very little in their warehouses that could be turned into money, they found their cellars well stocked with French wines of the most prime vintages; and with this, and the service of plate, the carriage, and the country house, they very often were able to get together a dividend of two-andninepence in the pound! This was a matter of great relief to the assignees, for it was the last as well as the first, and consequently these useful agents were released from their cares almost · as soon as they had entered upon them.

These things, Sir, were the produce of five o'clock dinners! We are now got to six o'clock, and even to seven o'clock; and we average in bankruptcies between 40 and 50 per week. This all comes of late dining I bave a right to say so. When certain circumstances go hand in hand, and seem inseparable, I have a right to conclude that there is a connexion between them. Whether this connexion can be dissolved by any new law, is a question I shall not discuss. But of this I am certain, that the new law, be what it will, can have little effect, if the Commis sioners do not, in addition to all other necessary researches, particularly inquire at what hour the bankrupt was accustomed to dine? With me this would be decisive; and if I could find any tradesman who kept his guests starving till seven o'clock, I should, without any hesitation, deny him his certificate.

I am, Sir, begging your allowance for the length of my epistle, your humble servant, and one of your oldest Readers,

SEXAGENARIUS..

Mr.

Mr. SOUTHEY'S Apology for his
"Wat Tyler."

In a Letter addressed to WILLIAM SMITH, Esq. M.P. [Of this publication the following are the leading passages.]

FOR the book itself (Wat Tyler), I

deny that it is a seditious performance; for it places in the mouths of the personages who are introduced, nothing more than a correct statement of their real principles. That it is a mischievous publication, I know; the errors which it contains being especially dangerous at this time. Therefore I came forward without hesitation to avow it; to claim it as my own property, which bad never been alienated; and to suppress it. And I am desirous that my motives in thus acting should not be misunderstood. The piece was written under the influence of opinions which I have long since outgrown, and repeatedly disclaimed, but for which I have never affected to feel either shame or contrition; they were taken up conscientiously in early youth, they were acted upon in disregard of all worldly considerations, and they were left behind in the same straight-forward course, as I advanced in years. It was written when Republicanism was confined to a very small number of the educated classes; when those who were known to entertain such opinions were exposed to personal danger from the populace; and when a spirit of anti-Jacobinism was predominant, which I cannot characterise more truly than by saying, that it was as unjust and intolerant, though not quite so ferocious, as the Jacobinism of the present day.

"In my youth, when my stock of knowledge consisted of such an acquaintance with Greek and Roman History as is required in the course of regular scholastic education, when my heart was full of Poetry and Romance, and Lucan and Akenside were at my tongue's end, I fell into the political opinions which the French Revolution was then scattering throughout Europe; and fullowing those opinions with ardour, wherever they led, I soon perceived that inequalities of rank were a light evil compared to the inequalities of property, and those more fearful distinctions which the want of moral and intellectual culture occasions between man and man. At that time, and with those opinions, or rather feelings (for their root was in the heart, and not in the understanding), I wrote Wat Tyler, as one who was impatient of all the oppressions that are done under the Sun.' The subject was

injudiciously chosen; and it was treated as might be expected by a youth of twenty, in such times, who regarded only one side of the question. There is no other misrepresentation. The sentiments of the historical characters are correctly stated. Were I now to dramatize the same story, there would be much to add, but little to alter. I should not express those sentiments less strongly; but I should oppose to them more enlarged views of the nature of man and the progress of society. I should set forth with equal force the oppressions of the feudal system, the excesses of the insurgents, and the treach ery of the Government; and hold up the errors and crimes which were then committed, as a warning for this and for future ages. I should write as a man, not as a stripling; with the same heart, and the same desires, but with a ripened understanding and competent stores of knowledge.

"In my productions Mr. William Smith may have seen expressed an enthusiastic love of liberty, a detestation of tyranny wherever it exists; and, in whatever form, an ardent abhorrence of all wicked ambition, and a sympathy not less ardent with those who were engaged in war for the defence of their country, and in a righteous cause,-feelings just, as well as generous in themselves. He might have perceived also, frequent indications, that, in the opinion of the youthful writer, a far happier system of society was possible than any under which mankind are at present existing, or ever have existed since the patriarchal ages,—and no equivocal aspirations after such a state. In all this he might have seen something that was erroneous, and more that was visionary; but nothing that savoured of interperance or violence. I insist, therefore, that inasmuch as Wat Tyler may differ in character from these works, the difference arises necessarily from the nature of dramatic composition. I maintain that this is the inference which must be drawn by every honest and judicious mind, and I affirm that such an inference would be strictly conformable to the fact.

"Do not, however, Sir, suppose that I shall seek to shrink from a full avowal of what my opinions have been neither before God or man am I ashamed of them. I have as little cause for humiliation in recalling them, as Gibbon had, when he related how he had knelt at the feet of a Confessor: for while I imbibed the Republican opinions of the day, I escaped the Atheism and the leprous immorality which generally accompanied

them.

them. I cannot, therefore, join with Beattie in blessing

66

the hour when I escaped the

wrangling crew,

From Pyrrho's maze, and Epicurus' sty;" for I was never lost in the one, nor defiled in the other. My progress was of a different kind. From building castles in the air to framing commonwealths, was, an easy transition; the next step was, to realize the vision; and in the hope of accomplishing this I forsook the course of life for which I had been designed, and the prospects of advancement which, I may say without presumption, were within my reach. My purpose was, to retire with a few friends into the wilds of America, and there lay the foundations of a community, upon what we believed to be the political system of Christianity. It matters not in what manner the vision was dissolved. I am not writing my own Memoirs, and it is sufficient simply to state the fact. We were connected with no clubs, no societies, no party. The course which we would have pursued might have proved destructive to ourselves; but, as it related to all other persons, never did the aberrations of youth take a more innocent direction.

"At no period of my life have I held any opinions like those of the Buonapartists and Revolutionists of the present day; never could I have held any communion with such men, in thought, word, or deed; my nature, God be thanked! would always have kept me from them instinctively, as it would from toad or asp.

"Greater changes in the condition of the country have been wrought during the last half century, than an equal course of years had ever before produced. Without entering into the proofs of this proposition, suffice it to indicate as among the most efficient causes, the steam and the spinning engines, the mail coach, and the free publication of the Debates in Parliament; hence follow, in natural and necessary consequence, increased activity, enterprize, wealth, and power: but, on the other hand, greediness of gain, looseness of principle, half knowledge (more perilous than ignorance), vice, poverty, wretchedness, disaffection, and political insecurity. The changes which have taken place render other changes inevitable ; forward we must go, for it is not possible to retrace our steps; the hand of the political horologe cannot go back, like the shadow upon Hezekiah's dial; when the hour comes, it must strike. :

"Slavery has long ceased to be, tolerable in Europe: the remains of feudal

་

oppression are disappearing even in those countries which have improved the least; nor can it be much longer endured, that the extremes of ignorance, wretchedness, and brutality, should exist in the very centre of civilized society. There can be no safety with a populace, half Luddite, half Lazzaroni. Let us not deceive ourselves. We are far from that state in which any thing resembling equality would be possible; but we are arrived at that state in which the extremes of inequality are become intolerable. They are too dangerous, as well as too monstrous, to be borne much longer. Plans, which would have led to the utmost horrors of insurrection, have been prevented by the Government, and by the enactment of strong, but necessary Laws. Let it not, however, be supposed that the disease is healed, because the ulcer may skin over. The remedies by which the body politic can be restored to health, must be slow in their operation. The condition of the populace, physical, morai, and intellectual, must be improved; or a Jacquirie, a bellum servile, sooner or later will be the result. It is the people at this time who stand in need of reformation, not the Government. The Government must better the condition of the populace; and the first thing necessary is to prevent it from being worsened. It must no longer suffer itself to be menaced, its Chief Magistrate insulted, and its most sacred institutions vilified with impunity. It must curb the seditious press, and keep it curbed. For this purpose, if the Laws are not at present effectual, they should be made so; nor will they then avail, unless they are vigilantly executed. I say this, well knowing to what obloquy it will expose me, and how grossly and impudently my meaning will be misrepresented; but I say it, because, if the licentiousness of the press be not curbed, its abuse will most assuredly one day occasion the loss of its freedom.

"This is the first and most indispensable measure; for without this all others will be fruitless. Next in urgency is the immediate relief of the poor. I differ toto cælo from Mr. Owen of Lanark, in one main point. To build upon any other foundation than Religion, is building upon sand. But I admire his practical benevolence!-I love his enthusiasm and I go far with him in his earthly views. I sincerely wish that his plan for the extirpation of pauperism should be fairly tried. To employ the poor in manufactures, is only shifting the evil, and throwing others out of employ, by bringing more labour, and more produce of labour, into a market which is already overstocked.