This last-mentioned "IMPROVEMENT" was the invention of the above-mentioned Sir ROBERT PEEL, who eulogized this "beneficent" reign. 509. By degrees, the ancient and excellent, and mild and happy, government of England, had been giving place for a long while to a species of government which every principle of English law held in abhorrence. 510. This police establishment seemed to 'have consummated the work, and to have laid the foundation of Austrian slavery, or of a dreadful convulsion. A great deal had been done to change the character of the government, during the reign of George the Third. Perhaps a diligent searcher would find out, between the years 1760 and 1830, five hundred acts of par'liament, inflicting pecuniary, or corporeal, punishment, without trial by jury. The great principle of our constitution; the very basis of it, is, that no person shall be punished, either in purse or person, without a verdict of twelve men assenting thereunto. At the close of the reign of the Big Sovereign there might be, perhaps, five thousand criminals in jail, undergoing punishment; and of the five thousand the probabilities are that not one thousand had been tried by a jury. 511. Such was the "beneficent" regency and reign of the Big Sovereign. To draw a contrast between England as he found it at his birth, and as he left it at his death, could not be done without rending the heart of the man who drew it, if that man were an Englishman. But, in the excess of evil there is frequently good. Whether this nation be destined to experience that good within a few years, or to drag along toiling under the evil for many years, is more than any man can foretell. At present, it is wise in us to endeavour to understand the true causes of the deplorable state of the country, and to prepare our minds for those consequences which common sense hids us expect to arrive. END OF THE HISTORY. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. Year. 1762. GEORGE IV. born..... 1787. Prince's enormous debts, first time, paid. 1793. War against the French Republic began. 1795. Prince's marriage .... 1795. Prince's enormous debts paid a second time .... 1796. Princess Charlotte born Par. 30 37 33 34 41 57 1810. Report of the bullion committee 117 1810. Cobbett's punishment for writing against the flogging of English local militia men at Ely, under a guard of Hano- 133 1811. Regency established 96 1811. First provocation given to the Americans by the frigate Guerriere, Capt. Samuel Year. Par. 1812. Threatening letters against the regent.. 130 1812. Clergy call for a vigorous prosecution of the war, and for prompt measures against domestic traitors .... 1812. Hanging of a woman at Manchester for snatching some potatoes out of a mar ket-cart 1812. Immense sums granted to Perceval's wife and son 1812. American War.-The perfidious doings of .... 1812. Pressed American seamen imprisoned at Dartmoor 1812. English frigate Guerriere commanded by the Honourable Captain DACRES, sunk by an American frigate, 30. August 135 150 151 155 ib. ib. 294 298 345 1812. English frigate Macedonian, Captain Carden, captured by the American frigate United States, Captain Decatur 354 1812. English frigate Java, Captain Lambert, knocked to pieces by the American frigate Constitution, Captain Bainbridge... 1812. American frigate Chesapeak, Captain 355 |