CHARLES THE SECOND, the gallant and learned SIDNEY was tried, condemned, and executed for having maintained in writings, found in his bureau, this right to resist oppression. But, the Judge (the bloody Jefferies) who tried him, was, in the next reign knocked in the head by the populace, having disguised himself in a sailor's dress; the Royal Family who sanctioned and who prompted the base murder, where driven from the throne for ever; and the Parliament afterwards passed a law declaring the judgment against SIDNEY to be contrary to the law of the land, declaring it to be unjust, declaring the Judge to be corrupt and the jury perjured, and annulling the whole of the proceedings.

mies have asserted about ulterior de-
signs is as false as the hearts in which
the assertion originated. We defy
them to the proof, without which, as-
sertion is worth nothing. I have cor-
responded in the most confidential
manner, with thousands of men in
England upon public matters. I have
conversed confidentially with thou-
sands. I hereby give leave to every
one, to whom I ever wrote, to lay
before the Ministers or to publish to
the world any letter of mine, how-
ever private its subject. I hereby give
leave to every one to whom I ever
spoke to repeat what he has ever heard
me say; and, if credible testimony
can be produced, that I ever enter-
tained a design to overturn the govern-
ment in its present form, I am willing
to acknowledge myself a traitor, and
'to pass for such to the end of my life.
But, RESISTANCE OF OPPRES-
SION is another matter. The doc.
trine upon that subject I hold agree-
ably to the laws of England; agree-
ably to the decision of her courts of
justice; agreeably to the impeachments
on the part of the House of Com-
mons; agreeably to the decisions of
the House of Lords in its solemn judi-
cial capacity; and, as to this impor-
tant matter, that doctrine, so ground-"même"!
ed, shall be my constant guide, which
guide I will follow, to the utmost of
my power, in whatever way circum-
stances may enable me to act my-
self, or to engage or induce others to,"

act.

Thus, then, it cannot be denied, that, agreeably to the laws of England, the right of resisting oppression does exist. Indeed, such a right must exist in every people, or that people must be completely enslaved. They must acknowledge the right of a despot, or despots, to treat them like cattle; or, they must contend that they have a right to resist at some point or other. The Bourbon Royalists say, it is the duty of a Frenchman to cry: "vive le Roi, quand

You see these words sometimes in the TIMES news-paper, the proprietor of which has a monthly stipend from the Bourbons. The meaning of them is this: "God suve the king, though even"; that is to say, "God save the king, though Resistance of oppression is a right" even he should order me to be skininherent in every people; it is a right "ned alive." But, baseness so brutal acknowledged by the laws of Eng- as this is not acknowledged by any land; it is a right upon which the peo- other men, that I ever heard of, ple of England have acted in many though the sons and daughters of corinstances, especially in the reign of ruption in England would fain incul king JoHN, that of RICHARD THE SE- cate the doctrine. COND, and that of JAMES THE SECOND; it is a right for the publicly denying of which, in a sermon, a Doctor of the Church of England was impeached by the House of Commons, tried, found guilty, and punished by the House of Lords; it is a right for the calling of which in question many persons were punished as seditious libellers during the reigns of WILLIAM THE THIRD, of QUEEN ANNE, and of GEORGE THE FIRST. In the reign of

Seeing, therefore, that men must necessarily be slaves, brute slaves, or possess the right to resist oppression, the next thing to be considered is, in what cases that right ought to be acted upon. It is very certain, that every individual man ought not, upon his own bare opinion, to set himself up in resistance of the persons in authority; but, it is equally certain, that there is a point, beyond which the endurance of a people ought not to go. Sup

which the oppressors may stand in
need of for the effecting of their pur-
poses. If, for instance, the Congress,
in the case above supposed, were to
murder scores of men in the same way
that SIDNEY was murdered in the reign
of Charles the Second, would not the
people of these States have a right to
kill the tyrants by any means within
their power?
In what other way,

could they resist the oppressors? The
people of England invited over α
Dutch Army, and employed it against
James the Second. They were ready
to beseige towns, and to burn them
down if necessary, in order to make
their resistance of the tyrant success.
ful. And, in short, it is clear, that
when the point is once settled, that
oppression does really exist, there are
no means within the reach of the peo-
ple that they have not, both legally.
and morally, a right to employ against
the oppressors, as far as is necessary
to put an end to the oppression, and
as far as is necessary to the ends of jus-
tice unmixed with vindictiveness,

pose, for instance, the Congress of these United States were to pass what they might call a law for taking one half of every man's property from him, and for giving that property to their own families, mistresses, bastards and supporters; suppose they were to pass another thing that they might call a law for punishing with worse than instant death every man who should complain of these measures; suppose they were then to pass another thing that they might call a law for taking away the people's voice at elections and for enabling the Congress to elect and re-elect themselves. If such measures were to be adopted by the Congress, would it not be time to think about putting the right of resistance in force throughout these States? I guess it would; and so, I am sure, the people of these States would guess, long before things arrived at this pitch. Then, as to the sort and mode of resistance, the people would, doubtless, be guided by circumstances, and would employ every species of means, which fell Such is the doctrine relative to the within their power, open or secret, right of resisting oppression, which just as an individual is justified, in the doctrine, I repeat, is recognised by eye of the law as well as in that of the laws and usages of England: has honour, in using any sort of decep- been acted upon in various instances; tion or weapon against another who and stands sanctioned and recorded in unlawfully attempts to deprive him by the proceedings of the Courts of Jusforce of his money or his life; and, it tice and in those of the two Houses of was upon this principle, that a gentle- Parliament. Upon this doctrine I man in Ireland was knighted by the shall act, whenever I think the time Prince Regent, in 1811 or 1812, for for acting is arrived. But, I do net having stabbed several house-breakers pretend, at present, to offer any with a carving knife. It is very well opinion as to the fact, whether opknown, that GEORGES went from Eng-pression does really exist or not. land to France for the express purpose of killing Buonaparté, which he actually attempted to do; it is well known that he was executed for that attempt; and, it is well known, that the Bourbons have enobled his family on account of the loyal attempt of GEORGES. Buonaparté was represented as an Usurper and an Oppressor. This representation was not true; but, that is of no consequence to our argument, which is built upon the ground of the existence of oppression, which, we contend, justifies the use of any means in the resistance of it; and, for this reason, that Oppression necessarily implies the use of any means

I

would fain hope, that the measures,
which have taken away the personal
safety of every man in the kingdom;
which have placed every man at the
absolute mercy of any one of the
Secretaries of State; which have made
of no effect the most precious of all
the fundamental laws of the land; I
would fain hope, that these measures
will be of short duration, and that
reason and justice will resume their
sway in my native country; and if
this hope should prove fallacious, I,
for my part, will not be amongst the
first to adopt, or recommend, acts of
resistance, either open or secret.
and those of my sons, who are capa-

WM. COBBETT.

He

ble of action, will again respectfully | agents, proceed to confiscate, under and humbly petition the Prince Regent whatever pretences, my engagements for a redress of those grievances, to individuals must, of course, go unwhich we feel in common with the fulfilled. It is a calamity which I rest of our countrymen, and for a cannot avoid; but, I will endeavour restoration to those rights, which we still to make good all those engagehave proved to be our due. If that ments, in which I have no fear of Petition be rejected, it will then re- success. But, as to money, all the main for us to consider what path our money in the world shall never induce Just rights and our duty to our king me to remain silent until the Boroughand country call upon us to pursue. mongers do their nation justice, and that too, upon the principles of the Hampshire Petition. That was the only Petition that I ever signed in all my life; and by that Petition I mean to abide. The Borough-mongers are, I perceive, still increasing in uneasiness about the press. They must come to the open undisguised Censorship at last, or they will not hold it out another year. The Censorship of the Magistrates and of the Stamp-Office, and the Libel Laws, together with the new Treason Law; these are very ingenious and searching; but they will not do. There must be a downright undisguised Censorship of the Press, as there is of the Playhouses. There must be an office for examining beforehand, and for suppressing, or permitting, publications of all sorts. This is all that is now wanted to render the thing quite perfect. And, yet, even this would not keep up the system for three years.-The act giving to the Ministers the absolute power of imprisonment EXPIRES on the first of July. It will be renewed, be you well assured, and under a promise to repeal it as soon as Parliament shall meet again; that is to say, "if the country be tranquil;" but, as that tranquillity will never come, until a Reform of the Parliament shall take place, so the act will be in force as long as the Borough-mongering System shall remain. Indeed, the personal safety of the people is now wholly in. compatible with the existence of that system. The system is now at open war with the personal safety of the people; and, one or the other must be put out of existence. There is nothing, therefore, so contemptible as the conduct of those, who have affected to oppose the Absolute-power-of-imprisonment Act, while they also oppose Parliamentary Reform. This is

N. B. Since writing the above, I have got the MORNING CHRONICLE of the 31st of March. MR. PERRY, who was always famed for foul play, could hardly be expected to do less than back-bite me, whom he dared never face. This mean, mafignant, and mercenary man affects to believe, that the Stamp-Office charge against my son had something of justice in it; and, thereupon, in his old, hacknied style, he blames the Ministers for neglecting to demand the money sooner! What baseness is this! knows, that we owe not a farthing. He knows perfectly well that the whole story is a deception, and he knows the motive of the deception too. And yet he has the baseness to treat it as a reality! He imputes to me mercenary motives. Very mercenary to flee from the receipt of ten thousand guineas a year! Mr. PERRY and I wished for the putting in of the Fox Ministry, in 1806. The first thing that I did, as soon as my friends were in power, was to apprize them of my resolution to have no place or profit under the government; and the first thing that Mr. PERRY did was to secure himself a place of 1,200 guineas a year! Let the people of England judge between us.-A gentleman of fortune in England, has authorized a friend of mine to write to me, that, if money will facilitate my return, it shall not be wanting. I beg this gentleman to accept of my best thanks. But, I am here in order to help to make England a place fit for us all to live in; and, as to money, I have left behind me three times as much as will pay all I have ever owed. If the Borough-mongers, or their

sheer hypocrisy; or, it is folly in the
extreme. In some instances it is the
latter; but, in most instances, it is
decidedly the former. The people
want the rights of choosing their re-
presentatives; and, if this be refused
them, they do not, if I know any
thing of their disposition, care one
straw, whether there be, or be not,
any personal safety for any body.
In my total ignorance of what the Bo-prietors of steam-boats?
rough-mongers may be doing with re-
gard to my property of any sort, or
with regard to my eldest son's pro-
perty of books and copy-rights, I
cannot say any thing positive as to
what will, or can, be done by me re-
lative to individuals, with whom I, or
my son, may have any unsettled mo-
ney affairs. But, this I can say, and
by this I will abide; that, as all the
world knows, the Borough-mongers
have taken a great fortune from me and
my family, and, that I am no more
answerable for the consequences, with
regard to pecuniary engagements to
individuals, than a man would be who
should engage to run a race on a certain
day, and whose legs should be cut off
before the arrival of that day. Sup-
pose, for instance, that the government
of this country, were to pass a law
to put an instant stop to the use of the
steam-boats, and another law to give

itself the power of imprisoning the
proprietors of steam-boats at it's plea-
sure, would any just man say that
those proprietors were morally bound,
if they had the good fortune to escape
into some country of justice, to toil
there all their lives, in order to make
good any engagements that they might
have contracted with individuals du
ring the time of their being pro-
No just

mau will answer in the affirmative. Still, I will do my best to make up for the confiscations of the Borough-mongers; but, I hereby publicly give notice to every person with whom I may have any pecuniary engagements, that, if they proceed to any acts of legal malice; that if they give any obstruction to the performance of any thing that may be to my advantage, and that may tend to alleviate in some small degree, the blow which the Boroughmongers have given me in a pecuniary way; I hereby solemnly give notice to all such persons, be they who they may, that I will not only never pay them one single farthing if I should have heaps of money, but that, on the contrary, I shall consider them, as aiders and abettors of the Boroughmongers, and that, whenever the day of justice shall arrive, I will act tos wards them accordingly.

Entered at Stationets' hall. Printed and Published by WM. JACKSON, No. 11, Newcastle Street, Strand, London.

"found to be insufficient to repress "these enormities."-In answer to this just and reasonable observation,

LORD VISCOUNT SIDMOUTH what did your Lordship say? Why

this that you had regularly laid all the mischievous publications before the Law-Officers of the Crown, and, that you were “ sorry to say, that, "hitherto, they had been unable to "find out any thing which they could prosecute with any chance of suc

66

cess!"-that is to say, they could find out no offence against the laws; and (oh, shame!) for this you were sorry! A sentiment, however, which agrees perfectly with the well-known fact, a fact proved before the Lord

a publication, the advertising of which the Lord Mayor regarded as intended to produce a riot at Spa-fields, and for which attempt to create a riot he bound the publisher over to answer for the offence.

MY LORD-When you told the House of Lords, in your speech, which introduced the Bill for giving to you and your colleagues the abso-Mayor, of your having approved of lute power of disposing, at your sole pleasure, of the persons, the very carcasses, of all those who had the misfortune to live under your sway, you stated, as your chief reason, the immense sale and circulation and perusal of certain cheap publications. Your Bill was received, It became what is called a law. One would have thought, that this would have satisfied you. One would have thought, that this would have allayed the fears of your masters, the Boroughmon-thies, which every man in England gers. In answer to LORD GROSVENOR, who had, on a former night, said, that, "before any new laws were resorted to, it ought to be "clearly proved, not only that great "and enormous offences were com

But, not to suffer myself to be led astray from the Circular, let us first take a look at this curious document, which will cut a figure hereafter as well as at present, and will add three names at least to that List of Wor

ought to have always at hand, ready to bring forth at a moment's notice. The expressions used in this Circular are very vague, and every word is worthy of the greatest attention. I am quite sure, that it is impossible mitted, but, also, that the present for you and your colleagues and the "laws had beeu tried, and had been Boroughmongers to succeed in your

Printed by W. Jackson, 11, Newcastle-street, Strand.

Q