lence the Whigs and we might reign in comfort and tranquillity. As it however happens that the Reformers are averse to being decapitated, and as we have not the immediate power of passing an Act of Parliament for that purpose, we put forth this our Proclamation to wit," that it is the intention of Derry Down Triangle to enforce with the assistance of Lord Shand the Yeomanry Legion of mercy, the punishment of the Pitch Cap* (which is worthy of its inventor) against all and every one, who shall hereafter discuss the affairs of State with which the people can have no concern, farther than paying the taxes which may by us be thought necessary to defray the incidental expenses."

Given at our Palace of Corruption, this 7th Day of September, in the Year of our Lord, 1819.

و

LETTER TO LORD C

MY LORD,

Signed R. P. G.

The greatest scoundrels in the long run always outwit themselves; and thus will it be with your Lordship, and your Lordship's coadjutors in ministerial iniquity: you have jointly plundered the nation so long that you now begin to imagine that it was only made to be plundered, and heedless of the groans of the famishing people, put your hands into their pockets and pluck from thence their last hard earned shilling with all the lordly consequence such

*The Pitch Cap was invented during the Rebellion in Ireland of 1798, by Derry Down Triangle for the purpose of extorting confessions from the miserable prisoners respecting the future designs of the Rebel Army. If the unhappy wretch remained faithful to his comrades, notwithstanding threats and promises, his hands were then tied behind him and the Cap of Pitch was placed upon his head.

Once more a confession was demanded, and if still too noble to betray his plighted honour, the Cap was set on fire, and he was flogged through the Camp while the boiling Pitch streaming down his scorching flesh, exhibited a picture which only such Demons as Derry Down could take delight in. The dreadful element increasing in violence with the speed he vainly exerted to escape from its torturing pangs, at length burned its way to the brain, when the miserable, the pitiable victim sunk under insupportable agony. We should almost doubt the possibility of human beings possessing feelings so callous to every principle of humanity but that we are well aware that torture forms part of the Catholic Religion in Italy and Spain, and doubtless Derry Down Triangle wished to revolutionize the rebellious morals of the people of these kingdoms by a trial of its efficacy for that purpose; but low indeed must lie the liberties of England ere she submits to that, which Ireland has been compelled to suffer from the barbarity of this monster in human shape..

harpies can assume, with the devil at their elbow urging them to deeds at which humanity must shudder.

You, my Lord, have made an immense fortune by the **** of Ireland in the year 1800, and by your consequent accession to power in this country, which was truly unfortunate in its experience of your Lordship's talent for government, which may be comprised in crushing the people to the dust from which your Lordship's dignity arose, and with military force quashing their every effort to rid themselves of your Lordship's tyranny and rapacity. Beware, my Lord, how you persist in this line of conduct; military force in every instance has failed when opposed to the unanimous voice of the people. You had, therefore, better have the glory of voluntarily commencing the great work of Reform, or else retire from the political world, execrated and despised, and, while yet you may, fly to some foreign climate where you may enjoy the property of Great Britain and Ireland unmolested by ought save the stings of an accusing conscience, if that be not entirely seared up by the career of infamy through which you have passed. The people are resolute in their demand for Reform, which if your Lordship as resolutely resists, the consequences must be Revolution, in which case your Right Honourable Lordship, (if not afforded safety by flight) will be led from power amid the triumphs of the country which you have so long held in servile bondage, and your estates will of course be confiscated for the service of the public.

Great rogues must be men of talent, for it requires talent to be great in any thing; I have often wondered how your Lordship, who must consequently possess a great share of talent, does not seem as if gifted with the foresight of a child, or surely you would take some steps to allay the ferment in the minds of the people, by removing or at least lightening its first cause. The reason, however, is apparent; you are naturally too avaricious to give up your emoluments to the last moment, and would contentedly resign your breath if you could carry them with you unmolested to the grave.

I will conclude, my Lord, with this observation-that you of all others can, in the event of reformation, expect no mercy. You who have sent into the heart of the kingdom such blood-hounds as Oliver for the purpose of fomenting treason, and afterwards p osecuted the deluded victims of his villainy to an ignominious death; this, my Lord, was murder, cruel murder, and is registered as such i heart of every honest individual in the nation. Treason, my Lord, was the milk you sucked in your first career

he

of infamy in Ireland; treason it was upon which you have battened; and treason it is which now supports you as the pander of corruption and the avowed enemy to the welfare of the country and the people.

I am,

My Lord, &c.

J. G.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE LETTER IN THE

COURIER SIGNED "A LOYAL FARMER." "I think the regular and prompt execution of the orders given by the Magistrates to the Yeomanry Cavalry to secure those persons who were by their seditious speeches seducing from their allegiance the deluded populace, deserve the highest praise; and from the accounts you have received, from persons who were eye witnesses of the circumstances, of the great forbearance of the military after being frequently and grossly assailed by the populace, too much commendation cannot be bestowed; and surely it would not appear strange to any reasonable person that men so unprovokedly insulted and illtreated, as the soldiers appear to have been, should from mere motives of self-defence have resisted such an unparalleled outrage.'

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"There cannot be a shadow of excuse for such assemblies: What have the lower orders to do with a Reform in the House of Commons? Can they be benefitted by any different mode of representation?"

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"Surely they must see what confusion arises by election every seven years.

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Junius, in his letter to Mr. Edward Weston, says (in allusion to that gentleman's style of writing), "Every common dauber writes rascal and villain under his pictures because the pictures themselves have neither character nor resemblance." Now we really confess ourselves at a loss in what manner to escape Junius's character of a dauber, and yet to convey in language sufficiently strong an indignation at the villain who could calmly sit down to libel 15,000 individuals by a gross perversion of facts, which he himself in his heart gave credit to. He, forsooth, would have us thank a set of murderers, whose blades are still weeping with the innocent blood of women and of children. he would have us thank the magistrates who bade them sheathe their weapons in those bosoms which pillowed the miseries of their starving countrymen-but no, forbid it

Heaven!-a sanguinary ministry with the Royal Puppet may thank the perpetrators of the merciless assassinationbut Englishmen and freemen will éxecrate them and their abettors, and if justice be withheld by those in authority, we fear the people will enforce its execution vi et armis.There is no part of our constitution which declares that the king and his ministers may suspend the laws when it suits their convenience; nor does it allow them or their agents to slay the people at their pleasure.

We are not now to learn, that in every country of the transactions of which history has given us a record, force has been deemed not only justifiable but praiseworthy when their rights and privileges were invaded by open foes or by such traitors as are at present endeavouring to screen the Magistrates and Yeomanry of Manchester from the consequences of a prosecution for WILFUL MURDER.-If the. writer of the extracts above quoted, were put to his oath, he would swear that every syllable he wrote in that letter was a malicious and intentional falsehood, although we are apt to imagine that he who could deliberately send forth to the world a lie (though under a feigned name or no name) would not hesitate to perjure himself in the service or extenuation of those who are but one degree beyond him in the scale of criminality, Our language is strong, but can such fellows expect the treatment of gentlemen at our hands? If they do, we tell them they are miserably deceived.

Again, he says there cannot be a shadow of excuse for such assemblies." In this point we are agreed; the word "excuse" signifies an apology for an acknowledged error, and we therefore do not offer one; but we say that there is reason to support the necessity, and law to sanction the justice of such meetings. But what is law in the sight of blood-thirsty desperadoes? or what is reason to those who are wilfully blind to every thing but the purse which is held out as a reward to their savage ferocity?

His next question places him we had almost said within the pale of idiotism; but no, the fool is in the estimation both of God and man, a better and a nobler character than the fawning sycophantic slave, who to-morrow would desert those from whose feet he this day licked the dust in abject servility, if the sun in rising was less propitious 'to their stability than when its splendour sunk beneath the western wave. "What (he says) have the lower orders to do with a Reform in the House of Commons?" We will endeavour to bridle the impetuosity of our feelings, and give an unanswerable reply to his insulting interrogatory.

If the House of Commons were reformed according to the repeated Petitions of the People, which have been so insultingly rejected, the Duke of York would not have got £10,000 a-year, for doing that which was his duty as a son, from the pockets of the famishing population of these impoverished kingdoms; the sinecures would be abolished; the military would be disbanded, and such scenes as the massacre at Manchester would never stain the annals of British history. These would be the partial benefits of Reform; but the Men who are blind to every thing but the opportunity of filling their coffers by the oppression of the People, will not surrender one iota of their usurped authority, until the Country becomes deluged in blood, in the torrents of which it will be well if the glittering gems of the diadem are not tarnished.

This "Loyal Farmer" gives a hint to the Ministry that a Reform is necessary in one particular-that of the duration of Parliaments; but his ideas on the subject are rather of a different complexion from those of the People, for he would prefer fourteen or twenty-one years, or perhaps during life: Surely they (the People) must see what confusion arise even by election every seven years. Is this then to be the answer to the demands of the People? If you murmur at the present system, we will take leases of our seats during our lives, and entail them to the male heirs begotten of our bodies. Why truly we would even in that case have as eligible a set of domineering hectors as we have at present; but for once (in time) be advised: curb your overbearing and avaricious dispositions, lest you be brought to the bar of your Country as public and lest the sword which you have raised against defenceless innocence fall with unpitying vengeance on your heads. The altar of Freedom is raised, and a whole nation rallying round to protect it from insult and from destruction-her tree is planted -and an exulting people are ready to water it with their blood, till its branches wave in triumph over the remotest confines of the kingdom; attempt not to blight it in the bud, or stint it in its growth, for an epoch of blood and terror will be the immediate consequence, in which you will all be inevitably and ruinously involved.