LETTER III. MY LORD, Pall-Mall, 16th Oct. 1801. THAT " self-praise is no commendation" is a maxim, the truth of which is universally acknowdeed of great ledged. He who has atchieved any national glory or utility, has no occasion to call upon the world to join him in rejoicing at it. Conscious of the brilliancy of his actions, he scorns to have recourse to those paltry artifices, by which men of different conduct and inferior minds bespeak the suffrages of the ignorant and noisy crowd, and drown, for a time at least, the voice of reason and of justice; and, my Lord, though no one, ac、 quainted with the dignified character of your Lordship, and that of your colleagues, can possibly believe, that the illuminations of Saturday, the 10th instant, were set on foot from motives such as are here described, yet, give me leave to say, that, all the circumstances considered, I think we may be allowed to question both the modesty and the wisdom of beginning those illuminations. For For the Government to illuminate, is, in fact, to force every private person to follow its example, or, to expose him to the insults and violences of the mob. Do I say, then, that Government is never to exhibit this mark of joy and applause? No. There are certain events, at which every good and loyal subject must necessarily rejoice; such, for instance, as the return of the Birth Day of the King, a signal victory over the enemy, or the like, in the celebrating of which the Ministry may, with great propriety, take the lead. But, I do conceive, my Lord, that it is not very proper, nor very seemly, for Ministers to force (either directly or indirectly), or even to invite, the public to applaud, and exult at, any measure of the Cabinet, more especially a measure, the only apology that can be offered for. which, is, dire necessity.*-There are many considerations, * There were six thousand lamps exhibited at the PostOffice on Saturday night. Each lamp is charged to private individuals, sixpence; and, of course, not less to the Government. The whole cost of this exhibition, then would be one hundred and fifty pounds, a sum that might have been saved, at a time when the distresses of the nation are urged as a reason for sacrificing its honour. Nor derations, which may induce a man to submit quietly, and in silence, to national calamity and dis grace: but nothing short of the most odious and detestable tyranny can make him join in rejoicing at either. This species of tyranny, my Lord, I have had to resist. From the scenes of violence and outrage, which had taken place on the preceding Wednesday night, in some parts of the town, not far from Pall Nor is this prodigality seen in its true light, till compared with the parsimony which the Ministers displayed, in this respect, when they were, at last, compelled (however reluctantly) to announce to the public the reduction of Alexandria, and the final re-conquest of Egypt. This was one of those events, at which, as I observed, "every good and loyal man must necessa rily rejoice ;” yet the Ministry exhibited no signs of joy. They did, indeed, cause the Park and Tower guns to be fired; but that they were obliged to do, wishing, I dare say, at the same time, that all London had been deaf. It must be oil and wine to the wounds of our gallant army in Egypt, to learn, that their glorious atchievements were celebrated by the illumination of the Por cupine Printing-Office alone, while the treaty, which provides for the evacuation of a country, out of which this army had driven the last of the enemy, set the Capital in a blaze of exultation, encouraged and begun by the Ministers themselves!!! Pall-Mall, I had reason to expect, that, on the arrival of the Ratification of the Preliminaries, my dwelling-house here, as well as my Printing-Office in Southampton-street, would be attacked; because my sentiments respecting those Preliminaries were publicly known, and because it could not be imagined that I should belie by any manifestation of joy at night, the principles and sentiments, which I had promulgated in the morning. Impressed, my Lord, with this belief, and still more deeply impressed with the ideas, which I had imbibed in my childhood, that an Englishman's house was his castle, and that every subject of His MAJESTY possessed the right of exercising his unbiassed judgment, so long as he paid implicit obedience to the laws of the realm, I made application to the Bow-street Magistrates for legal protection. At their desire I went to their office, and was very politely received by the Magistrates then sitting, Mr. BOND and Sir WILLIAM PARSONS, to whom I related the grounds of my apprehensions, and from whom I received a promise of all practicable protection. It happened, my Lord, precisely as I had expected: about eight o'clock in the evening, my dwelling-house was attacked, by an innumerable mob, all my windows were broken, and when this was done, which occupied about an hour, the villains were preparing to break into my shop, and had actually made one of the shutters give way. Fearing that the cannibals might murder myself and my children, I now ordered my windows to be lighted; but even this, my Lord, did not satisfy this unlawful and ferocious rabble, who, ever and anon howled out that I was the publisher of the PORCUPINE. The attack continued at intervals, till past one o'clock on the Sunday morning, During the whole of this time, not a constable, nor peace ficer of any description, made his appearance; nor was the smallest interruption given to the proceedings of this ignorant and brutal mob, who were thus celebrating the Peace. of The PORCUPINE OFFICE, in Southamptonstreet, experienced a similar fate. The Clerk, the only person in the house, narrowly escaped with his life. Before the attack began, and as soon as he perceived a disposition to begin it, he went, in obedience to an order he had received, to the Public Office in Bow-street, and related the danger. But the persons he found there, so far from being disposed to render him any protection, literally pushed 8 |