THE PAST CENTURY.

Waikato Argus, Volume X, Issue 891, 28 February 1901, Page 2

THE PAST CENTURY.

[Extracts from London Times]. 1816. Dboembkr 3.—Thk Si»a Fiklds Riots. VVjs have ibis day to discharge the painful duty of recording outrages which, in their commencement, threaten to equal those of 1780 : hut which > ere fortunately stopped m their progicss by greater care on the part of the Government, and greater spirit and activity on the part of ill;; Magistracy, than existed at that unhappy period.

The offence evidently assumed the character of insurrection ngain.it the laws and Government of the eountiy. Wild and desperate as such a scheme must have been, yet a scheme the rioters, certainly had ; they marched under thsir own hauliers; (hey aimed themselves, and paraded through the streets, ostentatiously displaying such skill as they had in Lite use of their arms. 'Their forces were divided into separate bauds, setting the Chief Magistrate of the city, with all his officers, at defiance, and attempting their lives. Finally, they committed robbery, and, we fear, what may prove to be murder. That this scheme was premeditated, the single eircumstance of the fl\gs would strongly indicite ; ami when to (his is added the fact of the ringleaders having directly proceeded to the gunsmiths' shops, little doubt can rest on any mind that the whole proceeding was arranged long beforehand. Every part of these occurrences forcibly calls to our mind the events of 1700.

Three or four of the wretched, deluded men, who were stimulated to outrage by the diabolical language of Hunt, have been tffieu in the commission of capita' crimes, and will probably pay with their lives the penally of having listened to his suggestions. It U possible that in some judgments these men are more criminal than their tempter. We own, ihe contrary appears to us the more reasonable opinion. But the questiou is not about relative degrees of inotal turpitude. The great and interesting question to the inh ibi touts of the metropolis is, whether this individual is jnstiticll by law in inciting, _ encouraging, and promoting such an insurrection as ivas yesterday attempted, when, and so often :n he pleases? And if he lie not so justified ; but if, on the contrary, this he a great and heinous crime in the eye of the law, then are there nit manifest and notorious grounds for putting him on ids trial before God and his country ? If what this man did yesterday was lawful, why he may do the same tomo row and everyday. He may disturb the peace of the city, put a stop to all trade and business, alarm every family for the lives of all that are dear to them, and keep the metropolis in a state of terror, to which the days of Robespierre aloue are comparable. D 1817. NovKMi:&3 B.—Death ok Pkixck&s Cjiaelottis. Everything relating to the nieiauoholy, and in respect to others the unhappy demise, of the Piincc Charlotte of Wales, should be collected, that post' rity may judge of the estimation in which she was held by living men of her day. Even though feu- of our remarks were to reach, or 10 be perused by, the succeeding generation, yet does the expression of feeling afford a present relief to it. To assert that we, or that the whole British nation, is at this moment dissolved in tens like a husband or a parent, by reason of the 10-sol the Princess, would be ab.mrd, though many a tear will he shed for her la'e by these who have never seen her ; luit if we say that deep regret, that calm sorrow, produced by pity for her sufferings, and a rational calculation of the loss we have sustained ill her death, ar° uuiversally prevalent, we say no more than every tongue confirms, than every countenance displays; and this is the rr.'jer grief of men and of Christians; she is lamented by the understanding as well as by the heart. In casting our eyes back to antecedent periods of English history, we find no calamity exactly similar 'to the present. We live! under au hereditary limited Monarchy ; uot for the pie-eminence of ihose who govern; but jointly, with their security, for that of ourselves and our childieu, who are governed ; an • in the distribution ot happiness, so far as the constitution imparts ir, probably the reigning famiiy has 00 undue share ; but, whatever occurrence alfects its interests, its continuity, its dignity, or even its comforts, affects in a deep degree all the fo.mil es of the nation. To what extent, therefore, has the realm heretofore sustained disasters at all resembling that which now diffuses so general a gloom ? Henry I. lost an only son of gr at promine, by shipwreck, between Barlleur and England, and the father was never seen to smile afterwards; but that son was known to be averse to (he English nation, so that his deatli need not have plunged the inhabitants in any very acute giief. The hopes of a brave nation were cruelly disappointed by (be death of the Black Prince, the son of Edward 111. ; but he .eft a sun who might inspire hopes at least in the midst of the national sorrow, if he f tiletl ultimately of realizing them ; for it was not till many years after the death of his grandfather, Kichard ll.'a incapacity to govern wa* ascertained. The melancholy fate of thai two Princes in the Tower"was rather calculated to draw tears from their contemporaries, than to blast the prospect of public tranquillity. The times a'so were turbulent, and men's minds were famili irizsd to conflicting claims and disputed successions. Prince Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VII., was esteemed a youth of merits ; but he left behind him a brother of equal talents, had be not been corrupted by power ; for it is a most undeniable fact, that all the vices and all the villainies of Henry VIII., numerous as they ware, sprung, from a servile Parliament, and the indnl gence of an unrestrained will. The death of Edward VI. was, indeed, a severe and lamentable public calamity ; it wanted only one bitterness ; it came not unforeseen or unexpected ; the line of succession was clear; and out of tin gloom which followed his death, ir pleased Providence at no remote period to draw the brightest and most glorious light. James I. lost ins eldest son Henry, a Prince who had endeared himself to the nation, but whose military character, as Hume justly observes, apparent from his earliest youth, was more calculated to enhance the glory than to secure the liberties of the people whom be was to govern. In all these cases the less was single, or at least equivalent to single. The defalcation which is occasioned in the sucecssioti by the death of the parent and her child takes a much more alee)) and extensive range into futurity. In the common course of nature, it may affect the apiiet and orderly administration of affairs more than three score years to come ; during which period the Prince Regent might have retired to a Letter world, ripe in years and in honours, and left the stage clear for the display ot public virtue in his child and grandchild. How must he grieve that it now is his lot to follow those to the grave, to whom, in the more usual ordinance of Providence, it belonged to follow and weep over him !