keep strictly and solely to the subject of tampering, as alleged against Mr. Sheridan and his agents. Yet (and I beseech you to mark and to remember the fact,), Mr. Hart's evidence, which related solely to matters during the election, was taken by the House; and, as to its being afterwards effaced, of that we shall speak more by-andby. Mr. Sheridan's avowed object in bringing forward Mr. Hart was to shew, that Mr. Paul had employed vile agents against him; and, for this purpose, he had possessed himself of certain notes, written by Mr. Paul to Mr. Hart, during the election. I have, at page 370, truly given the whole of the history of this connection with Mr. Hart, whom I, however, think a much honester and worthier man than many an one of several hundreds that I have known in the world, and that I could now point out to you. But, yet, when Mr. Hart was called to the bar, Mr. Paull must have felt great anxiety, because he was not permitted to explain the nature and duration of the connection between him and the witness. But, Gentlemen, the man whose breast speaks peace need be afraid of nothing; no, not even at the bar of the House of Commons petitioning against a ministerial member. Mr. Hart stated, and he truly stated, that he had never had any knowledge of Mr. Paull until the Westminster election, when he voluntarily offered his services; that he was not of Mr. Paull's Committee; that he was no agent of Mr. Paull's; that he never had, in his life, received, either directly or indirectly, a sixpence of money from that gentleman. Mr. Sheridan, who you will perceive was at once an advocate for himself, a judge, and a juror upon this case, asked Mr. Hart, 66 were you not frequently in Mr. "Paull's carriage, during the election?" I was once, " from accident, in Mr. Paull's carriage. It "was on my representing to him, that, at "the distance of two streets, there were The answer was: 46 "No. twenty voters, upon whom I wished him "to call without any delay. He leaped rapidly into his carriage, and I followed "him, without being asked." Such was the purport of his evidence; indeed such it appears to have been, almost word for word. Now, mark. Every question, which in the most distant manner, related to the election, Mr. Paull and his counsel were strictly for bidden to put. All the questions put to Mr. Hart related to the election solely. All the answers were in Mr. Paull's favour; and the whole of Mr. Hart's examination was, upon the motion of Lord Howick, ordered to be expunged !——As to the notes 1 of Mr. Paull to Mr. Hart, they were merely expressive of approbation of his zeal; approving of the cards that he had got printed and circulated; and saying that Mr. Paull would canvas the places that he had pointed out to him. Now, mark again. These notes, which had been procured by Mr. Sheridan from Mr. Hart, were produced to Mr. Paul by Mr. Sheridan with solemn pomp; they were instantly acknowledged by Mr. Paull without his first reading them; but, Mr Sheridan, when called upon to give them in evidence, declined, upon saying, that it never had been his intention to use them! First the notes are obtained from Mr. Hart; they are caused to be proved by Mr. Paul, with a view of shewing his intimacy with Mr. Hart; Mr. Hart is then called in, but gives no evidence that is not creditable to Mr. Paull; and then, when Mr. Paull naturally wishes to be called to the bar in order that the nature and duration of the alleged intimacy may be explained, Mr. Sheridan, in order to prevent this explanation, puts up the letters, produced before by him and proved by Mr, Paull, and says, "do not mean to make use of them " To you, Gentlemen, a bare statement of these facts is quite sufficient.But, it is further to be noticed, that this cou nection with Mr. Hart; this having accepted of the voluntary services of Mr. Hart, was intended to cast an odium upon the charac ter and upon the general conduct of Mr. Paull. But, Mr. Sheridan, after being acquainted with the imputed character of Mr. Hart (which Mr. Paul was not), finds him out; possesses himself of Mr. Paul's notes to him; and brings him up as an evidence upon his own side. Mr. Paull, the moment he was informed of the imputed character of Mr. Hart, did, as I stated at page 370, instantly order him to be discountenanced, and absolutely refused ever to speak with him again, though at the evident risk of doing much injury to his election. You, Gentlemen, will want nothing but the facts to guide you in forming a judgment upon the conduct of the two men.As analogous to the case of Mr. Hart, and as illustrative of Mr. Paull's conduct during the election, suffer me to remind some of you, and to inform others of the case of Mr. Le Maitre, who had voluntarily come to the committee room, and was there engaged in endeavouring to trace out for us a better mode of canvassing, when Mr. Paull recollected that he was one of the persons, who had been accused of having had a share in what was called "the pop gun plot." Mr. Paull, without a moment's hesitation, ordered that he should be sent away from the room, with an order to the door-keeper not again to admit him. Against this I remonstrated. I observed, that this was to sanction the abominable principle which the hired "Anti-Jacobins" were daily preaching up; that, at this rate, there never would, and never could be an end to those mutual animosities, by the means of which Pitt had ruled the nation for seven years with the Habeas Corpus Act suspended; that, though Mr. Le Maitre had been accused, he had been found not guilty, and that, at the very worst, he was only one of those reformers, whom Mr. Grey (who has now changed his name to that of Lord Howick), Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Tierney, Mr. Sheridan, and others, had justified, and some of whom had actually been acquitted in a court of justice, upon the opinion of the judge, expressly declared, that they had act ed merely upon the principles inculcated formerly by Pitt and the Duke of Richmond; that Mr. Le Maitre might have been a jacobin, but that Redhead Yorke, who had lain, under such a charge, some years in jail, was now a remarkably loyal man, and received, I believed, some of the public money annually, having lately conducted a paper called " THE PILOT," under the auspices of the Secretary of the Treasury, even during the administration of those famous "king's friends," Mr. Addington and Lords Eldon and Hawkesbury; that Mr. Huskisson, a member of the late ministry, a bosom favourite and a creditor of the late "heavenborn" person, who lent £40,000. of the public money to Boyd and Benfield, was a member of the Jacobin Club at Paris, where he preached the destruction of titles and of tithes; that this gentleman, who has now a pension of twelve hundred pounds a year out of the public money, and Mr. Windham were, at one and the same time, members of the Mother Club of the Jacobins at Paris; and that, considering the age of Mr. Le Maitre, and taking into view all the above mentioned circumstances, it would be excessive folly, not unmixed, I was afraid, with some degree of baseness, to turn our backs upon him. Notwithstanding this remonstrance, however, which was, too, if I recollect right, backed by Mr. Powell, Mr. Paull insisted upon the step being taken, and to me, though much against my will, fell the the task of communicating his wish to Mr. Le Maitre, who behaved upon the occasion as a man who deeply felt the imputation cast upon him, but whose public-spirit triumphed over his private feelings.-To those amongst you, Gentlemen, who were intimately acquainted with our proceedings, the state ment of this fact was not necessary. You know, that the whole of Mr. Paull's conduct was fair, honourable, and open. And, as to notes, I, probably, wrote five hundred during the election; and, I hereby give perfect liberty to every person in possession of letters, notes, or cards of mine, upon the subject of that election, or, though in the remotest degree, connected with it, to make them public, at any time, or in any manner, that they please. I should in vain attempt to recollect whom I wrote to or what I wrote; but, though I cannot trust to my memory, I can safely trust to those principles, upon which we all acted in that glorious struggle against the combined efforts of our profligate though powerful enemies. In calling your attention to the third topic which I had in view, I feel that something more than a mere rhetorical apology is necessary. What I have to say here, relates principally to my own conduct; but, I beg leave to assure you, that, though I am not without a desire, and a very anxions one too, to stand well in the opinions of the sensible and honest part of my countrymen, and particularly in your opinions, I should not, at the present time, make any remark upon the part of Mr. Homan's evidence, which related to the circumstance of Mr. Drake's having been at Botley, did I not think that my silence upon the subject might, possibly, in one way or another, prove, in some degree injurious to our public cause— -Mr. Homan, on the 5th instant, informed the House of Commons, that, at a recent meeting between him and Mr. Drake, at which meeting, observe, Mr. Sheridan also was present, Mr. Drake told him (Mr. Homan), that he had just returned from Hampshire, where he had been hunting with Mr. Cabbett, who lived in a pig-styc.As to the place, in which a man lives, the thing, especially as connected with transactions like those of which we are now speaking, is of very little consequence; and, if Mr. Drake were, in a quiet moment, to ask his heart which was most to be envied, William Cobbett in a pig-stye, or Richard Brinsley Sheridan, with Right Honourable" thereunto prefixed, in Somerset Palace, I do, I must confess, not think so badly of the heart of Mr. Drake as to entertain much fear that the answer would be unfavourable to me; so that, it is hard to say, considering the na tural confusion of the mind of the Bishop of Killala's nephew, what distinct rational object he could have had in view, in thus gratuitously treating his honourable and right honourable bearers with a sally, which, in all probability, escaped from Mr, Drake over a bottle. But, Gentlemen, Mr. Drake's going a hunting with me is quite another thing; and, though Mr. Sheridan was, as the newspapers inform me, so candid, so very candid, as to observe to the House, that, notwithstanding the rumours that were afloat respecting Mr. Cobbett, he had reason to be satisfied, that I had not had any hand in the "abominable conspiracy," which had (good man!) been carrying on against him; though this virtuous person had the excessive candour thus to compliment me at the expense of Mr. Paull, Mr. Powell, and at the expense of your and the nation's cause, I cannot so let the matter pass. His compliments, as I had the honour to declare to you, at the Crown and Anchor, I despise. Nor should I (for there is no accounting for tastes) be but very little anxious about the opinions of those, to whom, upon any occasion, he might immediately address himself. But, to you, Gentlemen, you, the free and independent, the unplaced, unpensioned, unbought, unsold, and unperjured electors of Westminster, I owe a full and true account of Mr Drake's visit to me; and that account I will now give you.- -Some time about a month ago (for I cannot, at this moment, lay my hand upon the letter), Mr. Paull wrote to me, stating, that the principal witness against Mr. Sheridan, whose name was Drake, found himself so annoyed by appli cations on the part of Mr. Sheridan and his agents, that he had expressed a wish to retire to the country, until near the day of trial; that, to this wish, he, Mr. Paull, had consented, with the unanimous advice of his legal advisers; and, he added a request, that I would provide a lodging for him until the time before mentioned. Owing to my being very much engaged, the letter (it being at the latter part of the week) was not sent for to Bishop's Waltham, until two days after its arrival there. When I got it, I wrote for answer, that, though I was sure, that nothing dishonourable would be thought of, either by him or Mr. Powell, and, though the characters of Messrs. Plomer and Warren were a sufficient guarantee for the legs → lity of the step proposed to be taken; yet, that, such was my aversion to every thing scret or covert, that, with all my regard for him, with all my gratitude towards him for his unparalleled exertions in the public cause, and with all my anxiety for his success, I could not consent to have any hand in this auair. This letter was scarcely gone from my House, when Mr. Drake arrived, accompanied with other persons, in a post-chaise. They went to an inn in the village, and Mr. though I will ask you no questions touching your evidence, I most earnestly exhort 66 you to speak the truth, let the consequence be what it may." To which he answered, that nothing should tempt him to deviate from the truth; and here we parted; he going towards the ian, and I to my work in the garden, at which I was when he ar rived. After he was gone, however, I must confess, that the reflection of having been, for the first time in my life, guilty of what might, I was afraid, be considered as a breach of hospitality, and that, too, towards one, who, whatever his faults might be, had been half shot to picces in the service of his country, gave me great pain; and now that I am fully acquainted with all the circumstances, now that I see the unfounded clamours that have been raised against this gentleman, I am convinced, that, in being over scrupulous, I acted wrong; a conviction, the feelings arising from which are by no means assuaged by the reflection, that a suspicion may, possibly, have been entertained of my having wished to secure a reputation for pu rity at the risk of that of my friends; which, however, I trust you will believe, nothing could be further from my heart. I remain, Gentlemen, Your faithful friend, than And obedient servant, Drake came to me alone, beating a short Bolly, March 12, 1907. SUMMARY OF POLITICS. The articles, which would have come under this head, must, on account of the foregoing letter, be postponed till my next. I must, however, beg leave to refer iny readers to the petition of the Honourable Cochrane Johnstone, which, thanks to Mr. Whitbread, has been presented to the House of ComBions and ordered to lie upon the table. Every man in the kingdom should read this petition.I also beg leave to point out to the particular attention of the reader, the letter, signed A. O upon the important sub-ject of the poor, in the writer of which excellent letter, the check-population philosopher, Mr. Malthus, has met with a formidable op ponent, who will, I confidently hope, continue on till he has completely put down the hard-hearted doctrine of this misanthropic economist. FOOR LAW'S. Sir, labour under a natural stigma; they are naturally despised. Their interests are at best but coldly and remotely felt by the other classes of society. Mr. Malthus's book has done all that was wanting to increase this indifference and apathy. But, it is nei ther generous nor just, to come in aid of the narrow prejudices and hard-heartedness of mankind, with metaphysical distinctions and the cobwebs of philosophy. The balance inclines too much on that side already, without the addition of false weights. I confess I do feel some degree of disgust and indignation rising within me, when I see a man of Mr. Malthus's character and calling standing forward as the accuser of those "who have none to help them, as the high-priest of "pride and covetousness," forming selfishness into a regular code, with its codicils, institutes and glosses annexed, trying to muffle up the hand of charity in the fetters of the law, to suppress "the compunctious visitings of nature," to make men ashamed of compassion and good nature as folly and weakness," laying the flattering unction" of religion to the conscience of the riotous and luxurious liver, and " "grinding the faces of the poor" with texts of scripture. Formerly the feelings of compassion and the dictates of justice were found to operate as correctives on the habitual meanness and selfishness of our nature: at present this order is reversed; and, it is discovered that justice and humanity are not obstacles in the way of, but that they are the most effec-· tual strengtheners and supporters of our pre-vailing passions. Mr. Malthus has "admirably reconciled the old quarrel between speculation and practice," by shewing (1 suppose in humble imitation of Mandeville) that our duty and our vices both lean the same way, and that the ends of public virtue › and benevolence are best answered by the meanness, pride, extravagance, and insensibility of individuals. This is certainly a very convenient doctrine; and, it is not to be wondered at, that it should have become so: fashionable as it has.* While the prejudice: infused into the public mind by this gentleman's writings subsists in its full force, I am alinost convinced that any serious attempt at SIR,As the proposed alteration in the system of the Poor Laws, must naturally engage your attention, as well as that of the public; and, as the authority of Mr. Malthus has often been referred to, and has great weight with many people on this subject, it may not be amiss to inquire, how far the reputation which that gentleman has acquired, as a moral and political philosopher, can be safely reposed on as the foundation of any part of a system which is directed to objects of national utility, and requires close, comprehensive, and accurate reasoning. You, Sir, are not ignorant, that a name will do more towards softening down prejudices, and bolstering up a crude and tottering system, than any arguments whatever. It is always easier to quote an authority than to carry on a chain of reasoning. Mr. Malthus's reputation may, I fear, be fatal to the poor of this country. His name hangs suspended over their heads, in terrorem, like some baleful meteor. It is the shield behind which the archers may take their stand, and gall them at their leisure. He has set them up as a defenceless mark, on which both friends and foes may exercise their malice or their wantonness, as they think proper. He has fairly hunted them down, he has driven them into his toils, he has thrown his net over them, and they remain as a prey to the first invader, either to be sacrificed without mercy at the shrine of cold, unfeeling avarice, or to linger out a miserable existence under the hands of ingenious and scientific tormentors.-There is a vulgar saying, "Give a dog a bad name, and hang him." The poor seem to me to be pretty much in this situation at present. The poor,cise of his favourite virtue. *The late Sir W. Pulteney, whose character for liberality is well known, was firmly persuaded that the author of the Essays on Population was the greatest man that ever lived, and really wished to have bestowed some personal remuneration on Mr. M. as his political confessor, for having absolved him from all doubts and scruples in he exer bettering the condition of the poor will be ineffectual. The only object at present is to gain time. The less it is meddled with either with good or bad intentions, the better. Tampering with the disease "will but skin and film the ulcerous part, while foul corruption, mining all within, infects unseen." I have not confidence enough either in the integrity, the abilities or the power of our state-doctors to be willing to trust it entirely in their hands. They risk nothing if they fail. The patient is in too desperate a state to bring any imputation on their skill; and, after all, it is only trying experiments in corpore vili. The only thing they need be afraid of is in reality doing too much good. This is the only error which would ever be forgiven by those whose resentment they have most reason to dread. This however there will be no danger of. The state of public feeling, the dispositions of individuals, the narrow jealousy of parties, and the interests of the most powerful bodies of the community will, I suspect, suffer little effectually to be done for bettering the condition, exalting the character, enlightening the understandings, or securing the comforts, the independence, the virtue and happiness of the lower classes of the people. But, I am not equally sure that the means employed for this very purpose may not be made a handle for stifling every principle of liberty and honour in the hearts of a free people. It will be no difficult matter, as things are circumstanced, under pretence of propriety and economy, to smuggle in the worst of tyrannies, a principle of unrelenting, incessant, vexatious, overruling influence, extending to each individual, and to all the petty concerns of life. This is what strikes me on the first view of the subject. I would ask, is Mr. Whitbread sure of the instruments he is to employ in the execution of his scheme? Is he sure that his managing partners in this new political firm of opulent patronage will not play the game into the hands of those whose views of government and civilisation are very different from his own? But, it seems, that whether practicable, or no, Mr. Whitbread must bring in a Poor Bill. The effect of it appears to me to be putting the poor into the wardship of the rich, to be doing away the little remains of independence we have left, and making them once more what they were formerly, the vassals of a wealthy aristocracy. For my own part, who do not pretend to see far into things, and do not expect miracles from human nature, I should wish to trust as little as possible to the liberality and enlightened views of counity somiresor to the tender mercies of justices of the peace. The example of Scotland is held out to us as a proof of the beneficial effects of popular education, and we are promised all the same advantages from the adoption of the same plan. The education of the poor is the grand specific which is to cure all our disorders, and make the leper whole again; and, like other specifics, it is to operate equally on all constitutions and in all cases. But, I may ask, is the education of the poor the only circumstance in which Scotland differs from England? Are there no other circumstances in the situation of this country that may render such a scheme impracticable, or counteract its good effects, or render it even worse than nugatory? Is knowledge in itself a principle of such universal and indisputable excellence that it can never be misapplied, that it can never be made the instrument and incentive to mischief, or that it can never be mixed and contaminated with "baser matter?" Do not the peculiar principles and discipline of the church of Scotland, does not the traditional and habitual faith in the doctrines of religion, do not the general manners not of the poor only, but of the other classes of society, does not the state of cultivation, do not the employments of the people, the absence of luxury, and temptations, the small number of great towns, and the remains of ancient manners, tend to strengthen, to for ward, to give consistency to, and secure the good effects of education? Or, will Mr. Whitbread say that he can supply the place of these with a beadle, a white wand, a spelling book, and a primmer? Supposing it practicable, will the adoption of a general plan of education have the same effect in our great manufacturing towns, in our seaports, in the metropolis, that it has in the heart of Scotland, or in the mountains of Cumberland? Will it not have the contrary effect? It is not reading in the abstract, but the kind of reading they are likely to meet with, and the examples about them leading them to emulate the patterns of sobriety and industry, or of vice and profligacy held out to them in books, that will do either good or harm to the morals of a people. In the country the people read moral or religious, or, at least, innocent books, and therefore, they are benefited by them; in towns, they as often meet with licentious and idle publications, which must do them harm. It is in vain to say you will give them good books, they will get bad ones. Will those hot-beds of vice, the factories of Manchester, &c. be less fruitful for having the farina of knowledge sprinkled over them? Will not corrup tion quicken faster, and spread wider for KALT PE |