On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
3 $ . Birmingham Riots and Dr . Priestlei / . ( Jan . , 1792 . ) It must have been owing to the unwillingness of ministers to damp the pleasure arising from so many topics of satisfaction as the speech from the throne contained , that with the
mention of the inestimable blessings of liberty and order , they had introduced no expressions of regret and concern at the violent interruption of order that had occurred in the course of the summer . Nothing , surely , but extreme reluctance to cast the least
shade over so many subjects of rejoicing could account for such an omission . To read his Majesty ' s speech one would imagine , that nothing had happened to disturb the long experience of liberty and order so earnestly recommended as the foundation of all our other blessings . But the cautious omission could not conceal the
evil 5 it was impossible not to know and not to lament , that , towards the close of the eighteenth century , men , instead of following the progress of knowledge and liberality , had revived the spirit and the practice of the darkest and most barbarous ages ; and that
outrages , the most unparalleled and disgraceful , had been cotnnaitteddisgraceful , he meant , to the country , not to the ministers . They , it was to be presumed , had done every thing in their power to prevent and to check such detestable proceedings .
But whether or not they , and those who acted under them , had exerted themselves as they ought in repressing the devastations of a mob , at all times mischievous , but doubly so when it assumed the pretext of supporting government or religion , was it not melancholy to see that mol ? reigning
triumphant for near a week in a rich and populous part of the country , and those , whose duty it was to have denounced the rigour of the law , addressing therii rather in terms of approbation than rebuke ? Was not this calculated to cherish an idea which but too fatally appeared to have been entertained , that the principle
cause in question , however they might bave been brought beforehand to come prejudiced against it . The Committee divided on Mr . Wilberforce * * motion : Yeas 163 : Noes 88 . Majority against the abolition of the Slov « Trade 75 !
Untitled Article
on which they pretended to act was not disagreeable to government , however necessary it might be to punish a faw for the irregularity of their proceedings ? He accused ministers neither of holding nor favouring such opinions . But when it could not be
dissembled that such opinions had been held , if not inculcated , it would have been well if his majesty had spoken of such riots , and their pretext with horror , and of the -exertions made to suppress them , and punish both the authors and the actors , with approbation . These were not riots
for want of bread—such every feeling heart must pity while it condemned ; neither were they riots in the cause of liberty , which , though highly blamable , and , highly to be reprobated by every good man and every true friend to liberty , had yet some excuse in their principle . No , they were the riots of men neither
aggrieved nor complaining ' , but who , pretending to be the executors of government , did not select individual objects of party animosity or private hatred , but by personal insult , violence and fire , set on foot an
indiscriminate persecution of an entire description of their fellow-citizens , that had furnished persons , as eminent , as good subjects , and as zeaJous supporters of the family on the throne , as any other in the kingdom could
boast . Instead of passing over such acts in silence , ought not his majesty ' s sentiments to have gone forth as a manifesto , applying to them every epithet expressive of abomination which the language could furnish ? When men were found so deluded as
to suppose that their general object was not disagreeable to government , a belief certainly unfounded , it might do much more mischief than ministers were aware of . He had supposed that all practicable measures were taken to put a stop to these riots , and to punish
those concerned in them as an example to others ; but after they had threatened the person , and destroyed the house of a man , distinguished by a life attached to literature and useful science , of Dr . Priestley , whom he
named but to honour , when they had destroyed all the accumulated labour * of his youth , when they had demolished , what neither money nor industry could replace , that which ought to have been the solace and the or-
Untitled Article
67 $ Charles James Fox ,
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1815, page 678, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1766/page/14/
-