phrase of “heavy responsibility” by afterwards saying, that he hoped Mr. Wardle had, at least, “probable grounds” for what he had done. This was right; and, giving to Mr. Canning’s words the application above pointed out, I agree with them; but, if “infamy” were to attach to a member, who failed to prove a case put into his hands, the House of Commons would be in a pretty situation. “The freedom of debate” would soon be reduced to a level with another sort of freedom, of which we shall speak by-and-by. Suppose a case of a different nature. Suppose a good, honest, well-meaning member of parliament to be informed, that there is, even at this late day, a plot against the life of the King, and for the purpose of overturning “the monarchy,” upsetting “regular government,” overthrowing “social order,” and blowing up “our holy religion,” and that the conspirators (names this and that) with all their books and papers, all their bloody and anti-christian implements, were at that moment hard at work in some garret in St. Giles’s. Suppose this; suppose the good man to inform the House of it; suppose the King’s messengers, the police magistrates, the horse-guards, dispatched to the scene of brooding destruction, with an order to bring to the bar every creature there found; and, suppose the conspirators to consist of a poor old woman and her cat. Would it be fair, would it be just, to say that infamy attached to the good hoaxed gentleman? No. He might be reasonably enough laughed at for his credulity; but, even the parties accused could not justly charge him with infamy. In this case of Mr. Wardle, as in all other cases of a similar nature, the blame, if any, must be in proportion to the want of grounds, not for the charges themselves, but for his belief of them; and, therefore, however the proof may turn out, if it appear, that Mr. Wardle did receive information of the facts, which he has stated; that the informants are persons whose oath would be taken in a court of justice, and be sufficient for the hanging of any one of their neighbours in common life; and especially if it should be proved, that, amongst these informants, there be one, or more, of character so respectable as to have lived in habits of intimacy with the person accused; if this should be made appear, the public will, I am of opinion, agree with me, that, so far from any blame attaching to Mr. Wardle, he would have been guilty of a scandalous neglect of his duty, if he had refused, or delayed, to do what he has done.
I now come to a part of the debate, to which I must beg leave earnestly to crave the reader’s most serious attention; after which allusion, he will readily conclude that I mean that part which relates to an existing CONSPIRACY in this country. Not an imaginary thing like the one above supposed; but a real conspiracy, for the purpose, as Mr. Yorke described it, of talking and writing down the Duke of York, and, through him, and the Generals of the army, the army itself; of talking and writing down all the establishments of the country; which description, with somewhat of limitation, appears to have been repeated by Mr. Canning and Lord Castlereagh.
Coming from such high and grave authority, the statement demands our attention. We have, indeed, seen publications in some of the newspapers, stating something about an existing design, in certain persons, to overthrow “social order;” to undermine, at the instigation of the devil, our happy constitution in church and state; and, we have lately seen, a stupid author, in a dirty pamphlet about Jacobinism, addressed to the Earl of Lonsdale, hammering his brains, to show, that the Edinburgh Reviewers have formed a plan, a regular system, for effecting this wicked purpose, by the means of their Review, which, to the regret of all those who admire excellent and most powerful writing, is published only four times a year, and which work, in only one single article upon the subject of the Methodistical doctrines, has done more good to the country, than all the writings of all the trading Anti-Jacobins, than all the hundreds and thousands of volumes, all the wagon-loads and ship-loads of printed trash, that have issued upon, and disgusted the world, from this, at once, vapid and polluted source. From this abundant, this overflowing tide, this Nile of venality, corruption, filth, falsehood, venom, and all uncharitableness, we have heard it asserted, that a Jacobinical conspiracy is in existence, and accordingly, to the assertion we have turned a deaf ear. But, now, when it is made in parliament; when it comes from such high authority, we must not only give it belief, but must accompany that belief with our regret, that the important, the awful, truth, was not sooner officially proclaimed, and that it should have been kept back until the moment, when distinct charges of corruption and profligacy, of the very worst sort, were, however unjust they may finally appear, made, by a member of parliament, against the person, at whose reputation the “CONSPIRATORS” are said to be levelling their most deadly shafts.
That the conspiracy does exist, and has for some months (I think, that’s it) existed, there can, however, be now no doubt; that it has an existence, not like the real presence in the wafer; not a legerdemain or metaphorical existence; nothing of priestcraft or law-fiction about it; but, that there is, in England (oh! poor England), amongst the dwellings of John Bull, at this very time, without any mental reservation, a Jacobinical Conspiracy; a conspiracy of corporeal beings, for the purpose, as Lord Castlereagh expressed it, “of overthrowing the monarchical branch of the Constitution.”
Mr. Yorke must understand these things better than we, in the country, do; but, to us, a talking conspiracy is something new, and calls to my mind Dennis’s admirable criticism upon the tragedy of Cato. “What, the Devil!” says he, “are your conspirators come here again, to hold, aloud, treasonable dialogues in Cato’s own hall?” The man, who, in one of Beaumont and Fletcher’s plays, is apprehended as a conspirator, when his real sin is mere gluttony, is accused upon the ground of his half-uttered sentences, while in eager search for a cod’s head instead of that of his sovereign. And, indeed, the great characteristic of conspirators heretofore has been that of cautiousness, and silence; but, as we are now assured, from such high authority, that there is actually a talking conspiracy on foot, it becomes us all to put a bridle in our mouths, that “we offend not with our tongue.”
As to the writing part of the conspiracy, I have, I must confess, observed things that appeared to me to lean this way; and upon reading the debate, above inserted, I looked over the Courier newspaper, from the eleventh to the twenty-sixth of this month, comprising a space of fifteen days, or half a month. The following are amongst the Jacobinical productions that I found, and I lay them before a public, that, I am sure, will participate in the abhorrence which I entertain of the mean and villanous miscreants, from whose pens they proceeded:—
“One Hundred Pounds in a Banker’s hands ready to be advanced to any Lady or Gentleman who will procure the Advertiser a permanent situation in the Stamp-Office or Customs adequate. The greatest SECRECY may be relied upon. A line addressed, post-paid, to J. Smith, the Rose and Crown, Wimbledon, will meet due attention.”
“From Five Hundred to One Thousand Pounds, will be presented to any Gentleman or Lady, who can obtain or procure for the Advertiser, an adequate and permanent Situation or Place under Government, in Town, or a few Miles from it.—For Integrity and Trust, Testimonials of Character and Respectability can be had, &c. &c. Letters addressed to J. P. L., Peele’s Coffee-house, will meet due and secret attention.”
“One Thousand Pounds will be given by a Gentleman to any Person having interest to procure him a respectable Situation under Government.—Direct to A. B., at Mr. West’s, Bookseller, No. 81, Great Portland-street, Mary-le-bone.”
“Country Patronage. Any Gentleman enabled by Resignation or otherwise, to present the Advertiser with a permanent Situation, in the Country only, may be treated with, by addressing a Letter, post-paid, to L. P. C., Mr. Lauman, Tailor, St. James’s-street, London.”
Now, the manifest object of the persons making these publications, must be to cause it to be believed, that the places under government are to be bought and sold, pretty much in the same way as beef or mutton. There are about twelve daily papers in London; and if we reckon on the above standard, at eight, a month, for each paper, it will make 1,152 of these publications in a year; publications, each of which amounts to an assertion, that, at least, in the opinion of the writer, the offices under the government, the salaries of which ought to go to pay for services to the public, are sold, and the price put into the pockets of such women or men as can procure the bestowing of the places.
