conviction, was fined. The trial is briefly reported in the Appendix to the 10th vol. of the State Trials, p. 85. And, at the end of this report is printed a letter to the Lord in as often as they please. And, though it "be said, it is all but voluntary giving, yet, "it is a sort of compulsion, by the solenini"ty in the church, and vying with others, "and being marked out, if refusing or giv 66 he did not particularly mention; if he had, he surely would not have forgotten the invaluable one of being abused, and almost cursed, for not giving their money to a voluntary contribution.We must not, however, leave this Lloyd's Fund to work its way, though we were to be loaded with curses more bitter than that of Ernulpus. It may be, and it is, too much to hope from the people by whom the scheme was projected and carried into execution, such fruits of amendment as those pointed out by my correspondent, in the Register of the 28th of December last; but, if these men shall not, and that very soon too, place the disposal and management of their fund, as well as of any future augmentation of it, under the only constitutional superintendance, I hope, and confidently rely, that their proceedings will be checked by parliamentary interference. In better times; in times when men yet adhered to the principles of the constitution; in times before the Pitt system had confused and confounded men's notions of constitutional rights and duties, it would not have been necessary to call to the recollection of the reader any instances of the very great jealousy which has always been entertained of voluntary contributions for national purposes (even though to be disposed of by the Crown) without consent of parliament; and, as to members of parliament themselves, it is, surely, even now unnecessary to refer them to the learning, on this subject, contained in the precedents of Mr. Hatsell; Vol. II. pages, 71 and 72. But, as the Fund Dealers have thought proper to press into their service the clergy and the churches; and, as the clergy have (with more alacrity, I hope, than thought, in most instances) lent themselves, their churches and their sacred functions to further the purposes of those Fund-Dealers, it may not be amiss, in addition to what hased body of men, who hold a regular board already been said upon the subject, to admonish them, that, unless the law be changed since 1719, this perversion of their cl.urches and their characters is an offence af common law, punishable by fine, imprisonment, and the pillory; and, so firm was my conviction of this from the out-set, that, if a collection had been made at the church of the parish where I live, I was resolved upon putting the law, upon this subject, to the test, and upon deciding the great question now at issue, whether the Funds had actually superseded the law of the land, or not? For an offence, analogous to those we have been speaking of, a clergyman of the name of HENDLEY was, with others, prosecuted in the reign of George I. and, in ing meanly."How true! How just! How wise the law; and how grossly has it now been violated! These researches have not been made for the purpose of defence against the aspersions and calumnies of such men as the Goldsmids and the Angersteins, and the rest of that committee, who caused placards to be stuck up about the metropolis, accusing, by implication, all those of a want of patriotism, who did not subscribe to the fund; nor against the more bitter calutonies of such men as Mr. Nicholas Bull and Dr. Ireland of Croydon: they have been made for a much more important purpose; that of preparing the public raind for the discussions, relative to the subject, which, at a very early stage of the session, will, surely, take place in parliament. From the churches alone, it now appears, that more than 60,0001. have been collected by a self-creat at a coffee-house in London, and whose and the Directors of the Royal Hospitals for Invalids. They have sent out their decrees to the governors of our islands aad provinces, who have, several of them, raised money upon the people under their government, and have remitted it to Lloyd's, making their reports to the Committee, without any permission from king or parliament. Private soldiers and sailors hate made application to the Committee, and grants have been made by it, in consequence of such application. And, shall the parliament; if the ministry do: if the king's servants wink at this daring, this audacious contempt of the law; this most dangerous invasion of the royal authority and office; if the "king's friends;" if the ever-famous "king's friends" wink at this, for fear of offending the loan-makers, shall the parliament wink at it too? If there be no one to speak for the king's prerogative, shall thete be no one to speak for the privileges of the people, thus set at nought by the means, so well described by Judge Powys? Will the House of Commons stand quietly, and look on, while a quarter of a million of money is thus levied upon their constituents without their conseut, and a considerable portion of it through the means, of collections in the parish churches? 17 they do, we may continue to talk about the great powers and the watchfulness of the House of Commons; but, there will remain but very few persons, upon whom such talk | will make much impression. It is said, indeed, that the ministers themselves niean to d something; but, what that something will be, that it will go no further than a udserable compromise, have we not reason to fear? That they (or, at least, the more retional part of them) have not countenanced the impudent proceedings at Lloyd's, is ecmain; and, except in one instance, that of a letter, in the CoURIER, in defence of Dr. Ireland and Colonel Robinson, which letter, from its indescribable dullness, one world attribute to Dr. Ireland him.elf, the ministerial papers, though devoted to the fuldealers, have, of late, said very little in defence of the corporation at Lioyd's. But, this is a grievance, the redress of which ought not, for one hour, to be left to the ministers. It is one which calls alond for the interferance of parliament; and particularly of the House of Commons. Hure are the means of rewarding and the meintaining of an army and a navy raised withwat even the semblance of their assent; and that, too, through the instrumentality of the magistrates and the clergy, acting upon letsers missive, openly and expressly acting up | i on letters missive from a self-cre.del cotmoration at Lloyd's, transmitted to them under the freck of the Secretary of the General Post-Olice. Would it not be a libel upon the House of Commons to suppose, that they would wink at such an outrageous violation of their privileges? Somebody must begin. The thing must be put a stop to; for, proceed it cannot, without withdrawing the array and the navy from the king; and, if this terrible mischief were less to be apprehended than it is, what a prece lent, if nothing be done as to those ministers of the church who have made collections, will be established? Money may be, by them, raised upon the people for any purpose Why not for a disabled minister, as well as for a disabled seaman or soldier? Why not? And, when the people come to consider, that the army and the fleet can be rewarded by voluntary contribution, would it be very extraordinary, if they should think that to be the best way, and should regard it as unreasonable to be taxed for that purpose, especially as a considerable saving must arise from the money being distributed by men, who so generously perform the office of distributors without taking any salary for sodoing ? So numerous are the cris, attendant upon this audacions Innovation, that there is no getting rid of them. They meet us like thorns in a hedge, and stick about us like burrs. Yet, amongst them all, that which first of all perceived and pointed out to the public, is by far the greatest, namely, that of creating, in the army and the navy, a feeling that slo profor the duration of the Funds to the duration of the Alonarchy. My opinien respecting the approaching necessity of making a very great deduction, at least, from the interest now paid upon the national debt; this opinion, though firmly rooted in my mind, may possibly be erroneous; but, if it should not; is, as many, very many, persons begin to think, my opinion be wellfounded; if it should become a question, whether such a deduction be not absolutely necessary to the preservation of the throne and of our liberties; if this should, at no very distant day, become a question in parliament, what will then be our situation, the soldiers and sailors beng duly apprised of the circumstance, that the source of their rewards and that the payment of the aumerous pensions already granted them, depend entirely upon the undiminished existence of the Funds; upon the continuation of the prosperity and the predominance of the Fund-Dealers? With this question I take leave of the subject, for the present, beseeching the reader, particularly if he be a member of parliament, to honour it with his serious consideration. "The disasters in Moravia, by producing a change in the sentiments and system "of Prussia have, it is true, left our ;roops exposed to an attack from an army supe"rior in numbers. But that is an event, "for which, however we may deplore it, no man cani justly blame his Majesty's "Ministers-they could not possibly have "forescen it."—Was decmed! But, supposing the motive to have been good, which I do for argument's sake, what has that to do with the blame? The blame then is only transferred from the heart to the head. And, as to presages, what assurance must this man have to assert, at this day, that the Opposition writers never foretold that Austria would be defeated, and that Prussia would not join us in the war! The readers of the Register must have been wearied with my endeavours to warn them against the belief of Prussia's taking part in the war. Not only might the ministers have foreseen what has happened; but it was foreseen to their hands; and, instead of profiting from the advice, they obstinately persevered in their schemes, while their underlings invented and published falsehoods to keep them in countenance.-The main point now to be niced is, however, the saying and unsay CONTINENTAL WAR.-Upon this subject little remains to be said, at present, but to express, what the reader will not fail to remember I expressed long ago, a regret, that any of the few regular soldiers we had should, under such inauspicious circumstances, have been sent to the continent. But, it should not be forgotten, that the sending of our troops to the North of Europe, instead of sending them to Italy, where, if any where, they might have been of some service to the common cause, was, by the ministerial writers, upon the assertion, a hundred times made, that Prussia was with us in the war. It will be recollected, tow often this assertion was repeated by them, and in how many ways they propped up the falsehood; how many times they said and swore, that Prussia was decidedly hostile to France; and, indeed, that her armies had actually marched to the attack; now, however, it would seem, that Prussia has deceived us; and, this is stated pretty broadly upon the anticipation of the capture of our troops in Hanover, whither they were sent for purposes that Mr. Pitt and the Colonels of the Horse Guards can best tell. 65 Supposing," says the COURIER of the 14th instant," that the French doing of these writers with respect to Prussia; "make an attack upon our troops in Hanover, why are ministers to blame?" Why, for sending them there, and keep-tract from the same publication of the oth ing them there, doing nothing at all, Napoleon had dispatched the allied armies, and had troops to spare to send against them. But, to proceed with the extract: "Our 66 and I beg the reader to compare what I have just extracted with what I am about to ex instant. "There is another very material 66 66 point too to be considered with respect to "Prussia; she has never deceived us; she "has never promised support and then with held it; she has never held out hopes and expectations which she has afterwards refused to fulfil she has always acted in an open, candid, and manly manner towards US': she has never deceived us. We trust "therefore, we shall hear no more irritating "and goading language applied to her; our policy should be to conciliate her by all possible means; to be upon the most "friendly and cordial footing with her, and to do every thing in our power to create "and cement the most intimate alliance be"tween her, Russia, and this country." Well, then, what fools, or, rather, what barefaced liars (for nothing else can they be called), must those writers and their employ ers have been! Never even held out hopes! Good God! And yet, they have the effrontery to defend the sending of our troops to Hanover upon the ground of hopes and expectations of the hearty co-operation of Prussia! But, of the language and conduct of such men it is waste of time any more to talk. It is for the members of parliament; for those to whom the people now look for wisdom, firmness, and decision; it is for them now to inquire, and to obtain a specific answer, whether Prussia has or has not deceived us; whether she did, or did not hold out hopes and expectations. To them, as to our last remaining hope, we now look for satisfaction as to the cause of all our calamities and our dangers, and that satisfaction we have a right to expect. We have long enough been the sport of the Wards and the Cannings; we have been, or, at least, the great mass of the people have, long enough been, deluded by them and their newspapers; and we have now a right to know the truth and the whole trita. CHANGE OF MINISTRY.By way of introduction to the little that I shall think it necessary to say upon this subject, I cannot refrain from noticing an article in one of the ministerial papers relative to the illness, or reputed illness, of Mr. Pitt, the great cause of all our calamities. "It would have been strange indeed if his Majesty's weakness of sight, and Mr. Pitt's illness, had not "afforded the Opposition cause for triumph "and exultation. The intelligence from "the Continent is with them a subject of "less importance than the intelligence from Putney. Piccadilly swarms with anxious Opposition enquirers, anxious, not for "Mr. Pitt's recovery, but for his getting " worse." He can't attend Parliament, and we shall have it all our own way," is the gratulatory greeting of the different mem"bers and partisans of the Opposition as they meet each other. Mr. Pitt's health "is certainly not worse than when he left "Bath; but it has been declared by his phy"sicians that it is indispensibly necessary "for him not yet to expose himself to the "severe fatigues of business; to remain "quiet, and reside in a clear and healthy air. 66 in the personal confidence of the heir appa- us. Triumph, truly! Why should I, for instance, triumph in the only event that could give his fatal system a chance of being prolonged? In the only event whereby he could be enabled to preserve a remnant of its deletrious reputation? In the only event, that could tend to the prevention of the clean sweeping-away of that innumerable swarm of underlings, with whom he has crowded; even to mutual annoyance, every department of the state? In the only event that could have the effect of sealing men's hips, and of depriving the nation of the inestimable benefits to be derived from a full exposure of all the proces dings, domestic as well as fo No apprehensions, we are glad to state, are entertained for his life; his complaint " is a debilitated stomach, produced by excessive application to business, or, we "have no objection to borrow the descrip"tion given by the Opposition of his indisposition, "the mania of doing every "thing himself,"-that is, of superintending himself every branch and departinent "of adininistration. The perils of our si"tuation are said also to be aggravated by "his Majesty's weakness of sight. "Atreign, by which we have been reduced to "this moment also his Majesty's sight is so "imperfect, that Parliament must be open"ed by Commission."Now, I appeal to the reader, whether he ever before heard of any thing so base as this! To accuse the Opposition, many of them well-known to be our present situation? I have not spoken upon this subject before; but, being put upon it, I cannot refrain from saying, that it will be a shameful dereliction of duty in any man to abstain from speaking of Mr. Pitt and his meatures, in the inainer in -Let us hope, which they ought to be spoken of, merely or all of them put together.- we must live, or bear no life; where our "current runs, or else dries up for ever;" here it is that something must be done; that some effectual change must take place, or we sink under the arms of our enemy; and, to suppose that any such change can take place under a ministry made up of compromises and concessions; to act upon such a supposition would argue a degree of infatua tion such as never before possessed the raind of man. Much better would it be for the Fitts, or their underlings, to hang on; because of their career events would soon bring us to the end, when we should always have a grand reserve of talent and character to look to; but, if once they were to worm themselves in amongst those, who now compose this reserve, the country would have nothing to rest upon; no ground of hope, no reliance upon any public man whatever; in difference and disgust would ensue, and of these, in times like those that are fast approaching, who does not perceive the natu ral, not to say the inevitable, consequences? Printed by Cox and Baylis, No. 75, Great Queen Street, and published by R. Bagshaw, Bow Street, Covent Garden, where former Numbers may be had; sold also by J. Budd, Crown and Mitre, Pall-Mally |