if there were any thing promising to England in their efforts, we should have seen this Country arrayed in opposite Parties resembling each other in quality and composition.  Little of that appears.  The promoters of the struggle did not hope for such a result; and many of them would not have wished for it, could they have expected to be carried through by that ruinous division of the upper from the lower ranks of society, on which they mainly relied.

But, Freeholders, wicked devices have not done the service that was expected from them.  You are upon your guard; the result of this canvass has already shewn that a vast majority of you are proof against assault, and remain of sound mind.  Such example of Men abiding by the rules of their Forefathers cannot but encourage others, who yet hesitate, to determine in favour of the good cause.  The more signal the victory the greater will be the honour paid to fixed and true principles, and the firmer our security against the recurrence of like innovations.  At all events, enough, I trust, has been effected by the friends of our present Representatives to protect those who have been deceived, and may not in time awaken from their delusion.  May their eyes be opened, and at no distant day; so that, perceiving the benefits which the laws, as now enacted and administered, ensure to their native Land, they may feel towards you who make the wiser choice the gratitude which you will have deserved.—­The beginnings of great troubles are mostly of comparative insignificance;—­a little spark can kindle a mighty conflagration, and a small leak will suffice to sink a stately vessel.  To that loyal decision of the event now pending, which may be confidently expected, Britain may owe the continuance of her tranquillity and freedom; the maintenance of the justice and equity for which she is pre-eminent among nations; and the preservation of her social comforts, her charitable propensities, her morals and her religion.  Of this, as belonging to the future, we cannot speak with certainty; but not a doubt can exist that the practices which led to the destruction of all that was venerable in a neighbouring Country, have upon this occasion been industriously, unscrupulously, eagerly resorted to.—­But my last words shall be words of congratulation and thanksgiving—­upon a bright prospect that the wishes will be crossed, and the endeavours frustrated, of those amongst us who, without their own knowledge, were ready to relinquish every good which they and we possess, by uniting with overweening Reformers—­to compose the VANGUARD OF A FEROCIOUS REVOLUTION!

A FREEHOLDER.

Westmoreland, February 24, 1818.

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NOTE.

I have not scrupled to express myself strongly on this subject, perceiving what use is made by the Opposite Party of those resolutions of the House of Commons.  In support of my opinion I quote the following from the ‘CARLISLE PATRIOT’ of the 14th of February, premising, with the Author of the Letter from which it is extracted, that by far the greatest number of opulent Landholders are Members of the upper House, and that the richest subjects are some of its Peers:—­