sparing of words. You have never until now been backward in offering your opinions, and that, too, in no very

4

with a distant prospect of seeing pose upon yourself during these you brought to reason. The ob- discussions. You were not wont ject now approaches us. If we to be thus do not actually see the port, or the land, the colour of the water changes, the ripples begin tó appear, and every thing indicates timid manner. What, then, can be that land is a head. The bound-the cause of your present silence? Hess ocean of extravagance, waste, That philosophy is not sound, official profligacy, and insolence; is which tells us that political coubehind us, and we are fast get-rage fails where personal prowess ting the system amongst the shal- begins; for, I am sure your exlows of " Retrenchment and Eco-perience has convinced you, thatnomy;" words more dreadful a man may be lamentably defito it than was the hand writing cient in both at one and the same on the wall to the Babylonish time. Therefore, it cannot be tyrant.. that your display of energy in The discussions in the "Grand the pursuit of "Glory" has en"Council of the Nation," relative feebled your political heroism; to retrenchment, or in more com- and yet, there must be a cause, mon phrase, “bilking the Crib ;"seeing that no effect is without the altered tone of the ministers; one.

66

the cause of this altered tone; Shall I guess at this cause, their school-boy like promises of coming as I did, not long ago, amendment; the evident conse-from a country of great guessers? quences of a fulfilment of those With your leave I will. Pitt promises if they be fulfilled; the was told (Pilot Pitt), in his not less evident consequences of younger spouting days, and before a non-fulfilment these, Sir, are to form the subject of this letter; a subject in which we are all interested, but, amongst us all, no two men more deeply than you and I

you and I came upon the stormy · stage, that he was like the young man mentioned by LOCKE, in illustration of the latter's doctrine of the association of ideas. This young man had learnt to dance admirably; but, he had been

Bu, first, let me remark on that rare and wonderful silence taught in a room where there that you have been able to im- was a trunk constantly standing,

and, as LOCKE relates, the trunk I guess, then, that, when you being removed, the young man were making your Six - Acts could not dance at all! So it speeches; when you were, subwas, in the instance I allude to, sequently, putting forth your Lisaid of Pitt, that some topic (Iverpool-Pamphlet; when, at a have forgotten what) on which later period, you were cheering he had been accustomed to harp Mr. Brougham for his defence of and to ring his noisy changes, the employment of spies; and was absolutely necessary to be when, at a period still later, you brought in, in order to give his resigned your place in the cabitongue its due portion of oil. net: I guess, that, at all thèse Now, I guess, that you have periods, you had not the smallest always, until now, had asso-idea that there was danger of any

ciated in your mind defiance of but Radical revolution, and that

what you call clamour, and a full treasury, or "Crib;" and that, finding the Crib growing empty, your tongue, without your being able to say precisely why, is losing its wonted powers; for, as all philosophers agree, there is a strict sympathy between the tongue and the teeth!

you never so much as thought, or dreamed of a revolution in the Crib!, I guess, that your talk, in 1816, of the sun of your prosperity being hidden, for á moment, behind a cloud, only to re-appear with more splendour than ever; and that your calling on the "Great Council," the

Collective Wisdom," to pass Peel's Bill by an unanimous vote, that the subject might never be agitated again: I guess that these may fairly be taken as undoubted

Now, pray, Sir, do not imagine, that I here make any allusion to personal character;" for, upon my word and honour and faith and soul I do not! And, therefore, "I cannot he-proofs of your total blindness as sitate to disclaim having had to those causes which were then such an intention." Hoping at work to produce, first a bilkthat this my frankness and ing and last an emptiness of the “promptitude in disclaiming any "intention of personal offence," will save me from all terrrific epistles from Gloucester Lodge, I shall, if you please, proceed a little further with my guessing.

Crib.

But, I guess, that, now, you begin to open your eyes, and that you see, that there are others besides Reformers (whom you, in

943

Your return to place has been represented as near at hand. To be sure, we have no better authority for this than that " "sailable and incorruptible being," "Mr. JAMES PERRY, in

unas

1809, called a low, degraded crew) to cry out against taxes, salaries, pensions, sinecures, and grants; and that you perceive, that those others are not to be put to silence even by Six-Acts! I" guess, moreover, that you under-favour of whom or for whose ex

1

Lastly, I guess, that, seeing this new sort of complainants against the system arise! seeing those, whom you

press sake, Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH wanted an exception made in the banishment law, and whom "had reason to know was you

8

stand well the influence and power of the Crib; that you take it for granted, that all depends on its fulness; and that, no one need to tell you, that modern "loyalty"" worthy" of Sir James's praises; and social order" must be in for which Mr. PERRY paid you imminent danger, if, from what-back in a fulsome address drawn ever cause, the Crib be bilked in up and seconded by him at the India House; and thus for an act any considerable degree. on your part which words cannot adequately describe, you got your reward in being covered once characterized over with as foul slime as ever under the appellation of" Landed was hawked up from the putrid "Grandees," no longer in a hu- lungs of the body politic. This mour to allow of a quiet alienation is our authority; and bad it is. of their estates; seeing that I wish it were better, with all against these neither Acts nor my heart; for I am extremely in the see you Troops can be brought to bear; anxious to I would if seeing that the Crib must be thick of the mess. wholly emptied, or that a shock 1 could, terrific as the idea is, must be given, if not a death-raise up PITT and DUNDAS, PERblow, to the paper-tribe; seeing CEVAL and ROSE to be partakers. that out of this deadly conflict a in the winding up of the drama. Reform of some sort or other must inevitably arise; I guess, that, beholding all this, you have not known what to say, and have, therefore, at last, been brought to hold your tongue.

2

But, you; you above all men now living, ought now to be a member of the Ministry. You have defended the Ministry through thick and through thin; you have been the very foremost in hosti

lity to those by whom the system | tained in consequence of the has been opposed. You have conduct of the latter towards constantly eulogised it; constant- the former. This is bilking, ly decried its adversaries; constantly called for punishment on the heads of those adversaries; and, therefore, to stand with this system or to fall with this system ought to be your lot.

to

which, as you will clearly perceive, differs widely from fining or mulcting; which mean to take away something that a man already has.

Thus, then, if we regard the

I suspect, however, that you Treasury as the Crib, to take off will have no relish for the adve-taxes is to stop money from going ture. There are now no Jaco- into it; and this is, to all intents bins or Radicals to hunt down; and purposes, a bilking of the and the crib is attacked in its very Crib. That this work is already vitals. To the attacks now making begun, you are but too well on it I mean first to call your at- informed. The discussion and tention and that of the public. the vote on the 27th of last The crib; that is to say, the mo-month must have convinced every ney expended upon offices and one that a further and a further so forth, now appears to be bilking of the Crib is now about upon the eve of being bilked to take place. As observed in an extraordinary degree. Dr. my last Register, the Ministers JOHNSON is wrong in his de-had not the courage to oppose the finition of the meaning of the motion of Mr. Hume directly; word to bilk. He says it means nor to meet it by a motion on the to cheat or to defraud. DRYDEN previous question. They reso uses it; but the word is a law sorted to the miserable shift of an word, and it means, to withhold amendment, moved by one of money. For instance a servant their own constant friends and is guilty of misconduct and of la-supporters. ziness or negligence. The master And, now, Sir, let us see to takes him before a Justice. The what that amendment amounts. Justice can cancel the agreement It calls upon the king, in terms between master and man, and as distinct as the nature of the authorise the master to withhold case permits, to reduce the numpart of the wages due to the man, ber of persons employed in the in compensation for the loss sus- civil government; to diminish

the amount of the salaries, which is, therefore, certain that the Crib have been increased since 1797; must be bilked; or, that these Ministers must be removed from their places.

and, finally more especially to reduce the army and all other departments connected with the supplies!

This is a home thrust at the very pivot on which the system turns. And now let us see what are the grounds upon which this reduction is called for. It is called for by the Landlords; because those Landlords find themselves upon the eve of being without income from the rent of their lands! On this ground the Ministers own staunch friends; who expressly stated that the Ministers ought to have commenced the work of reduction sooner; and they added this observation well worthy of being implanted in your memory, that they regarded the motion of Mr. HUME as a censure upon the Ministers, and voted against it, and for the amendment, " hoping (mark, the words); hoping that the Government would go heart "and hand to promote the "great objects of economy and relief."

The motion calls for a reduction of the number of persons employed in the civil departments. Here is a monstrous blow at patronage. Every discharged person from a friend becomes an enemy of the system; and, as it is not very likely that that which is called interest will he asleep upon this occasion, a suitable quantity of envy and of heart burning will scarcely fail to arise from this operation on the crib. When a scanty portion of provender is put into, or remains in a crib surrounded by hungry cattle, we know what a strife they immediately set up; but fill the crib, and they are friendly as can be-just so will it happen here. The diminution of the provender will set all into commotion; especially as some are to be marked out for receiving no provender at all.

But, there is also to be a reduction of the salaries which have been augmented since ninety-seven, and which augmentation This was plainly telling the Mi- took place in consequence of the misters that their friends wou'd a 'ditional labour imposed on the have voted against them if their offices by the war, or in conseown motion had not been tanta-quence of the diminished value of mount to that of Mr. HUME. It money. I suppose that an expe