1 duct, of MR. TOPPING, whose words will this day be in every mouth, and whose conduct will not fail to receive universal applause. This is the first gleam of spirit that I have seen at the Ear since LORD ERSKINE left it. Let us hope, that it is not a mere gleam; but, when I look at the Bar, when I see what it is composed of, and what are the political baits which are held forth to it, I must confess, that I have but very little expectation of ever seeing it, under the present system, any thing better than what it now is --To MR. TOPPING, however, the thanks of every man, who has any wish that there should be any freedom, or any thing like freedom, left, are due. He spoke out; and he spoke out in the proper place too.--The answer of the ATTORNEY GENERAL, as reported in the Times, puzzles one as to the mode of expressing one's feelings at it. It is, however, impossible to help laughing, first at seeing this man now the defender of the most famous libeller that ever wrote or published. Not only was the thing he was now defending a fulshood; not only was it a most foul and malignant slander; not only was it published from the most malignant motives; but, the man who published this libel was, and is, a notorious libeller; a notorious publisher of malig nant falshoods; nay, it was that same man, who, in his paper of the 6th of October last, asserted, that "the Corsican Tyrant" [meaning the Emperor of France]" and his ministers, boasted of the "monstrous vice," for which the unnatural wretches of Vere Street had just been pilloried; and who had the infamy to assert in his same paper, that " I abused the British "Papers for speaking ill of such monsters, and that I told the people, that it was of no consequence whether they were governed by "the Vere Street gang, or by a virtuous sovereign and ministers."--This is the man, or these are the men, for I believe there are two, who conduct this venal print; this is the man, whom the Attorney General now stood forth to defend, against the complaint of an honest gentleman who had been foully libelled by him.The reader will not fail to look well at the report of his speech; and to note down the doctrines there set forth; and especially the manner, in which he answered Mr. TOPPING. It is this an swer that is the good thing. As to his being so well known from his boyhood up to this day; there may, perhaps, be, and, I dare say, there are, some prople who have Most of us known him all that while. have been known all our lives by some body or other; so that there was nothing very rare in his case. Like the rest of us, his beginning is known, but there is nothing to boast of in that being known. If he could have foretold his dad, indeed, there might have been something worth hearing. " This same news-paper proprietor, defended upon this occasion by the Attor ney General, published, in the same print of the 16th of November last, that all those members of the House of Commons, who had, on the 15th VOTED AGAINST THE MINISTER, were persons," whose nature is debased by the vile vicus of faction, and "whose unmanly feelings and ungenerous hearts forbid their sympathy," in the case of the King--Now, you know, reader, that MR. GALE JONES was sent to Newgate for several months, because he made it a question, whether Mr. YORKE had acted right, in clearing the Gallery of the House of Commons. No one has yet noticed this article of the Morning Post, which paper, be it observed, highly applauded the sending of Mr. Jones to prison. But, what I wish to nail the reader's attention to, is this fact, that it is the Attor ney General, who is, in the case of the libel on Mr. Bell, the defender of the Morning Post. We shall return to this subject again; for, it is of too much importance to be let off with little said about it, and, besides it must become a matter of future discussions, or, if it does not, it is perfectly useless for us to discuss any thing at all. -Let the whole transaction, therefore, be regarded as a thing put upon record for future use; a thing to be returned to; a thing that waits for the best and most convenient time of using it. But, I must beg the reader to go through it all; and, to be sure not to omit reading the Judge's speech at the end. That speech, abore all things, should be borne in mind. It should be read over and over; every word should be well weighed; for, here after, it will be found to be a thing for the people at large to understand well.-There are some men, who would fain have us think of nothing but of the dangers to be apprehended from the schemes of Napoleon; but, such men are either fools or knaves. They are either duped themselves, or they wish to dupe others. We are much more interested in what is going on in England than in what is going on in France or Holland or Italy or in the Confederated States of the Rhine.--Never 1 i of the Jew, DE YONGF, a thing to be forgotten. The reader will recollect, that, at page 162, I published an account of the trial of this man, who, in the manner recorded at page 166, was found guilty.-Upon the occasion referred to, I argued the case for the Jew; and to that argu tell me of Napoleon's fleets while I have objects like this trial before my eyes. What are his fleets and his armies and his schemes to us; what are they, or of what consequence can they be, while we have these libel trials, while we have such proceedings as these now referred to, before us. The man is an ideot, if he disinterest-inent I beg leave to refer the reader.edly feel any concern about Napoleon's Well, what was done, to the Jew,who had thus preparations; if all such concern do not been convicted? Nothing at all in the way shrink quite into nothing, while he has of executing the law upon him. His under his eye transactions at home, like Counsel, Mr. MARRYATT, obtained a rethose of which we are now speaking.-- servation of the point of law, and De I cannot help writing a word or two here YONGE was held to bail, in the meanupon the manner of Mr. Bell's proceed- while.---Since that, on the 9th of Noing against this calumniator. He did not vember Mr. MARRYATT moved, (as, will pursue him by way of information or in- be seen by the report inserted in anodictment; he did not prosecute him for ther part of this sheet) for a rule to shew publishing falsehoods, and at the same cause why the verdict against De Yonge should time leave him no chance of proving his not be set aside; and, he grounded his moinnocence; he took no unfair advantage tion principally upon the arguments made of any sort of the foul and malignant as- use of before by me, at the place above perser of his character; he appealed to referred to.—The JUDGE (Lord Ellenthe old common law of the land; he borough, the same that tried DE YONGE) brought his action against him, for damages; appears, from the Report, to have told Ma he left him at full liberty to justify his MARRYATT, that time pressed upon the court conduct, by proving that what he had then; but that he might take a rule ; done was no wrong to Mr. Bell; in short, that is to say, might argue the matter for Mr. Bell put it upon this issue; if what his client.--But (now mark, reader!) you have said be true you are innocent; if then rises the Attorney General, and, acwhat you have said be false you are guilty. cording to the report, observes, that a Mr. Bell did not shut up the lips of the question, "turning upon the same point, accused, at the moment that he preferred had occurred before the Chief Justice an accusation against him. He did not" of the Common Pleas on the last Circuit, te his hands, while he set others on to" who had directed it to be put into a case, beat him. He acknowledged, in his mode" and submitted to the Terive Judges. of prosecution, that truth is not a libel. -The Morning Post of the 20th has the impudence to insinuate, that the Jury acted contrary to their consciences, in giving a verdict of £. 500 damages. Have the men, who write in this paper, or who publish their lucubrations through it, forgotten, that they thought, or at least, took occasion to say, that the sentence upon me was too light. The public are obliged to Mr. Beil, for pulling out this BYRNE by the ears, and holding him up like a pole-cat dragged from his hole. There is an associate of this reptile, of whom we shall catch hold, before it be long, though he thinks himself at this time, very safe.I strongly recommend to the reader, to peruse, with great attention, the whole of the proceedings in this case; for, I repeat it, they are of ten thousand times more interest to Englishmen than are all the preparations of Napoleon. JACOBIN GUINEAS,Nor is the case It appears that he then agreed to day the committal of De Yoxan, itil the decision of the Judges had taken place.This is what the news-paper Report of this trial says.--Upon all these proceedings we ought to keep our eye; for, 23 will be soon felt, they are connected with, they are interwoven with, the very vitals of THE SYSTEM. Great cvents generally begin by trifling things. How many instances have we of this in our history. Jew DE YONGE, unless I am very much deceived, is destined to have his name handed down to posterity.From the very first appearance of this case, I was convinced of the importance of it. If pushed on, I was sure that it would end in producing or leading to most important consequences.Let it be remembered; never let it be forgotten, that a trup was laid for DE YONGE by persons employed for the purpose; and, yet, you see, it is not yet finally decided, that the man has committed any crime at all. -This is the thing for the reader to bear in mind, and that will, I trust, be borne in mind by some member of parliament, capable of bringing the matter forward in a proper and eflectual way. PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT. KING'S ILLNESS. (Continued from page 1234.) -We saw, at the place here referred to, that the House of Lords adjourned, on the 17th, to Wednesday, the 19th, and that the House of Commons, after having ordered the printing of the Evidence of the Physicians, adjourned to Thursday, the 20th ins ant.In the mean time the REPORT of the Cominittees, containing the evidence of the Physicians, was published; and, though that report will, in a few days, appear at full length, in the 1st Part of the Parliamentary Debates of the present Session, it will be necessary to state here some of the principal facts now brought to light.* It appears, then, from this Report, that none of the King's family have set eyes on him since about the 29th of October, but that the Lord Chancellor (Eldon) and the Minister (Perceval) have been admitted to him more than once. It appears, that the King's eye-sight is nearly, if not wholly, gone. It appears, that he is in ill-health bodily, exclusive of the disorder of his mind. It appears that this disorder has been upon him in some degree from the third of October last. And, in deed, there appears to me, after the reading of the whole of this Report, to be but very little ground to hope for a recovery. The Physicians say, indeed, that they have strong hopes of final recovery; but, it is not their expressions of hope that we ought to attend to so much as to the reasons which they give for that hope; and, I think the reader will agree with me, that there is but too much ground for fearing, that their hope has been built upon their loyal wishes rather than upon the facts, which they detailed to the Committee. Dr. WILLIS makes a distinction between insanity and mental derange ment; and Dr. BAILLIE talks of the King's being hurried. These are quite new ideas; or, at least, they are new words. And, what is the use of them? When pressed hard to say WHY the usual causes * Seeing, however, that the Register has a wider and more immediate circulation, I shall, at the end of this Summary, insert the Examination of Dr. WILLIS, whose evidence is the most interesting. should not, in this case, produce their usual effects, the Doctors seem not to have been very ready to answer. Indeed, how should they? For, what is the King, in this respect, more than a man? Nature has made no exceptions in favour of kings. They are flesh and blood and bones as well as the meanest of their subjects. All attempts, therefore, to make the King's a peculiar case must fail with every man who has sense enough to comprehend common facts, and independence enough to draw his conclusions from the evidence that is satisfactory to his own mindThe COURIER news-paper says, that Dr. WILLIS's able and scientific reply to the question: "What is the distinction be "tween mental derangement and insanity p'' will afford a clear view of the nature and state of his Majesty's disorder.The truth is, that the Doctor's definitions, as given in the Report, are any thing but clear. They may puzzle some people; but, as to giving any body clear information, I think that is impossible.This distinction is, too, a discovery; it is quite new; it never was heard of before; and, one cannot help being struck with the singularity of the discovery having been reserved for this particular and important occasion. The Doctor talks about delirium, that is what is vulgarly called being light-headed, or, as he explained it, that sort of state which people are in when they talk in their sleep! And is this all? No, this is not all; but, the disorder is, it seems, of this cast. Why, reader, there is hardly any human being of the age of 20 years, who has not, at some time or other, had this species of deliriam.-What is insa nity? What is the meaning of that word? What is its plain, its received, meaning? It means a want of the use of a person's senses. And when we say, that a man is insane, we mean that he is out of his senses; that his mind is deprived of its reason. “ Is not this the deplorable and lamented state of his Majesty? And, if it be so, of what use are scientific distinctions? And why are we to be flattered with the belief, that his disorder, which has now lasted more than two months, and during which Sweden has been added to France, is something of the cast of a delirium, the symptom of which is the patient's talking in his sleep!-Sir II. HALFORD is questioned thus, relating to the date of the commencement of the King's disorder, in this instance.- "Had you opportuni"ties of seeing the King, before the 25th 66 " " "of October?-Yes; I saw his Majesty every day, three times, from the 3rd of Oc"tober.Did you, in the interval be"tween the 3rd and the 25th of October, perceive any symptom of indisposition "about the King?-I sometimes thought "his Majesty's manner agitated; but there always seemed an occasion of this, in "the report which was made respecting "the Princess Amelia. Was that agi"tation of a nature to excite any particu "lar apprehensions in your mind, with regard to his Majesty's mental health "No, not at that time.Not at any "time between the 3rd and the 25th of "October?-No.--You have said, that "on the 25th of October, the King was "not so much mentally indisposed as to "incapacitate him from business, or amount to mental derangement, and you have said, the King is so indisposed now; when did the symptoms "become so urgent as to amount to incapacity for business, and to establish "a character of mental derangement? "-His Majesty's symptoms increased rapidly on the 28th of October."What other things, may have been done, in the King's name, since the 3rd of October, I know not; but, as the public well know, the Order of the Bath, has been conferred upon Marshal Beresford since the "Victory of Busaço," the news of which was published by our Government on the 14th of October. So that this must necessarily have been done after the time that SIR HENRY HALFORD " sometimes thought his Majesty's manner agitated."-Dates are often troublesome things; and this date of the King's agitated manner blows up, at once, the whole of the story about the Ring and Posy, which, from the very outset, I looked upon as a fabrication of the venal prints, but, for what purpose, I could not tell.--In the COURIER of the 25th of October we were told: "Our "beloved Sovereign completes the 50th year of his reign to-day, and it will give the highest satisfaction to every class "of society to hear, that his Majesty's "general health (alluding to an exception "with regard to his sight) is as well as it "has been at any former period of his life." -This was published in the COURIER in the Evening of the 25th, you will observe. --Not a word was said about any illness of the King, till the 30th, when the venal Morning Post told us, that it was “ rejoiced "to state, that his Majesty's indisposition "was only a slight cold, and that the Lord " "Chancellor and Mr. Perceval bad trans"acted official business with him the day "before."——It now appears in evidence before the Committee, that Sir H. Halford had seen him three times a day between the 3rd and the 25th of October; and, that he became so ill, that none of his family could see him, at the very time when these venal writers were "rejoiced "to state, that his indisposition was only a slight cold," and that on the 25th of Oct. on the very day when the COURIER told us, that his health was as well as at any former period of his life, he was, as is now given in evidence, become wholly incapable of attending to any business whatever, and was in what Doctor Willis calls a state of mental derangement--I do not point out these facts by way of exposing the mere falshoods of these venal men. That has been amply done before. Tue exposure here is of another order; and calls for the pare ticular, attention. of this abused public. It was on the very same day, the memorable 25th of October, that the venal prints first put forth the story about the Ring, of which, when it afterwards appeared that the King was afflicted with his former unhappy malady, they con verted to the use of having produced that malady, of being the sole cause of it, which, of course, if believed, would be ac companied with the persuasion, that the malady was of a temporary nature. Accordingly when the fact of the King's illness was forced out by the want of a previous step for the prorogation of the parliament, the Morning Post told us, that it had been occasioned by the presenting of the Ring to him, the affecting inscription upon which caused him to burst into tears, with the most heart-touching lamentations.But, we now find, from the evidence published, that Sir H. Halford had seen the King three times a day from the 3rd of October, and had, between that and the 25th, observed that his manner was agitated.--The exact state of the King, at the time when the Order of the Bath was conferred upon Marshal Beresford, would be worth knowing, and will, probably, be known: but, I must confess, that should think it much more valuable to get at the bottom of the story about the Ring, which, from the first time I saw it in the venal prints, appeared to me to be not only a falshood, but a fabrication of the most consummate kind; a stroke of political fraud proceeding from the brain of no bungling bypocrite. Though they are to do this now, because it was intended to be done in 1788, what reason is there that they should not, upon the same ground, make a Regency with the limitations that were then intended to be made? At page 1036, I entered pretty fully into the reasons against those intended limitations; and, though I have very narrowly watched the veñal prints from that day to this, I have not seen one single argument, nor any thing in the shape of an argument, urged against what I there advanced.— -That the limitations, which the minister intends to propose are the same, or nearly the same, as those sub well calculated to deceive people in general, this story appeared to me to carry falshood and deceit upon the face of it; for, was it to be believed, that her Majesty and that the other branches of the Roval family would be so little mindful of the King as to suiler his feelings to be exposed to such a trial? And then, the Posy, or Mette, upon the Ring, was spoken ef as if it had been instantly read by his Majesty, which, as the reader will perceive, was impossible; and, is it to be believed, that the Queen, and the Physicians, in attendance, would suffer, under such circumstances, that Motto to be read to him, and especially at a time when Sirmitted to his Royal Highness, and obHenry Haliord who saw him three times a jected to by him in 1788, we cannot day, could observe in him an agitated man- doubt, after the speech of Mr. Perceval, ner? No: this is not to be believed; in the House of Commons, on the 20th and, therefore, while we leave their objects instant, as that speech is reported in the to be guessed at, we must pronounce the Morning Chronicle, and from which substance of this story to be a sheer fabrica- specch I here insert an extract: "Betion on the part of the writers in the Morn-fore I proceed to weigh the grounds of ing Post and Courier.The falshoods, preference upon these two courses, I published by these prints, relating to the "feel the propriety, as I previously stated, King's indisposition; the detected and "to lay before the House a general view now proven falshoods, must necessarily "of what I intend further to propose in produce a very injurious effect, upon the "execution of this measure. It is in my public mind, as to the future stages of his "view that his Royal Highness the Prince Majesty's disorder, if that disorder should "of Wales should be appointed to exertake a favourable turn. For, who would "cise the office of Regent, in the name believe what was published in future, until "and on the behalf of his Majesty, during proof of it appeared as perfect as if given the continuance of the King's indispoin a court of justice? In short, in these "sition. That, generally, all the powers attempts made by the venal prints, there" of the Government should be committed Las been more done to injure the King, if" to his hands. That to her Majesty the injury to him from public opinion relating "Queen should be entrusted the care to the state of his mind be possible, than "and guardianship of the King's person. I has been done, or attempted to be done by "think it also necessary that due proviall those who, at any time, have entertained "sions should be made to notify the King's the greatest dislike to kingly government recovery, and chalk out the course of in this country.We will now take a proceeding by which his Majesty may short view of what has, since the publica- "be enabled to re-assume his functions. tion of my last Number, been done in the "These three provisions should have no House of Commons, which, indeed, is no «limit in point of time, except what should other, than a resolution, passed, on the "arise from the duration of the King's in20th instant, after a debate of many hours, disposition. But with respect to all the by a majority of 112 (there being 269 for powers of Majesty, I do feel that, tak is and 157 against it) to proceed by the "ing all the circumstances connected way of Bill to the appointment of a Regent." with the King's indisposition into conIt is useless to make any further remarks "sideration, a limit should be placed on the upon this; for, I am not aware of any "prerogatives of the crown, when in the hands thing that can be said in addition to what "of the Regent. It was evident, from the was said thereon in my last, at page 1231. "evidence produced before the House, But, what is of still greater import-" and the state of his Majesty's health in ance than the mode of proceeding is, the "his former disorders, that we are to look substance of what is to be proposed to the "at no distant period for his recovery, Prince as to the limitations talked of;" although no specific time was mentioned and, if the Houses are to proceed by way "by his physicians. The House will f Bill upon the ground of precedent; if" also perceive that they have proceeded 1 1 |