county, and professes a determination to serve us honestly and zealously, should we prefer him to represent us in the Legislature. Such pretensions he does not prop by testimonials of character from his own tenantry, or by circulating any slanderous invectives against his opponents published in the name of a disappointed tenant. His merits, though not made a subject of declamation at the markets of Wilton or Devizes, or at the tavern at Marlborough, are respectfully submitted to our calm judgment. It is not likely that we shall err respecting I remain, Gentlemen, your constant reader, Swindon, May 15, 1818. THE OLD MOON-RAKER.

them.

To the Printers of the Salisbury and Winchester Journal.

GENTLEMEN,

WITHOUT insinuating from what knowledge or communi. cation Mr. Wellesley may derive his idea of a magistrate, there appears proof enough, among his unknown supporters, of ignorance upon the subject (and, if not ignorance, a ruse de guerre playing upon ignorance), to justify the following plain

statement:

The lord-lieutenant of the county, acting for the King, nominates, at his will and pleasure, the justices of the peace: these magistrates, without fee or reward, or any emolument, administer the laws, and, except the satisfaction of doing good (a feeling, it is conceived, not obsolete), the honour of the office is the only inducement to accept it. The magistrates must be chosen from the landholders, and any number of them acting together for the service of the neighbourhood, is commonly called a quorum. These gentlemen, generally speaking, are the chief men in the county, in land, in commerce, and in the professions; as such, they must, of course, not as magistrates, but as resident owners of property, be the leading meu in all county business.

Now, it is asserted, without fear of contradiction, that there is no county in the kingdom, where they are more impartially appointed, and where they act more independently, than in this county; so that, as magistrates, there is no combination among them for any personal gratification, or against any part of the community; and that they do not form a body confined by favouritism, or interest, or party, there is the testimony of one of the most virulent of its calumniators elegantly describing them as so numerous, that "you can't spit out of your window without trespassing on their hats."

What, then, is meant by "that notorious quorum, who do

not abandon either magisterial pomp or authority during their canvass," and "a magistrate presenting and circulating a document illustrated with notes," &c. &c. &c. the anonymons friends of Mr. Wellesley playing the changes upon the sarcasm given out to them? For, what quorum has influenced its clerk or constable, or any one of or belonging to it, to vote against Mr. W.-or threatened or promised a publican about his licence, or issued forth to canvass with magisteria! pomp or authority? What magistrate officially has used threats or temptations for or against a single vote? If nothing of the kind can be proved, will party spleen account for the defamation; or to the temptations of party must personal envy, malice, and revenge be added?

There can be no doubt but that some gentlemen, who are magistrates, have talked and acted most openly against Mr. W. (as others have against Mr. M. and Mr. B.); and considering the unfavourable light in which Mr. W.'s character had bern. viewed, all through prejudice and ignorance his anonymous writers inform us, from his addresses to Miss L. to this our first real knowledge of him, (if it may be said only knowledge, for virtues and vices are all anonymous, except Thomson and Hobhouse concerning one public transaction, and his present tenants praising their landlord), it is the more easily to be accounted for on Mr. W.'s part: but is the magistracy to be arraigned for such errors and ignorance? It would have been unjust to have vilified a body for the act of one of its own members, but it is worse to vilify that body for acts done by an individual in another capacity.

This letter is written in the right of a freeholder; yet, perhaps, some liberal declaimer is already prepared to stigmatise one of the parsons for having written it; indeed we have seen such allusions by Mr. Titus and others.

Who is the Native, or the True Friend of Independence, or Candidus, or Peter Pangloss, or My Old Heart, or the AntiQuorum, or the New Moon-Raker, or the Lunatic, or Mr. Titus himself, perhaps Mr. Timothy should be added, if these par nobile fratrum are not one and the same, according to the conjecture of the Bath gentry, who, as spectators, often see the most of the game, and thus think that the elder Trueman gave his brother a bit of ground to fight upon? But, speaking of these partisans by their feigned names, are their supposed trades or professions to be traduced, to be confounded with the efforts of a party, and made answerable, because these individuals choose to take one side of the question? What means this satire? It is (notorious enough) that revolutionizing slang which aims to degrade whatever is respectable, upon the true levelling system, because that respectability is at

least wanting to the defamer. The obnoxious person, to be prince, noble, magistrate, parson, lawyer, doctor, or tradesman, finds his cast is to suffer for an alleged offence, which, if it were true, would entitle that cast, from every liberal mind, to the greater commiseration for having so unworthy a member. We have been told, that with some-Satan is an Angel of Light; there are others who would rather impeach the angels for his apostacy; now, so far from considering it a reflection on Mr. W. that he is of an honourable Irish family, and has very noble Irish prospects in rank and fortune, it appears a Jaudable pride to acknowledge and not contemn these distinctions; though it may not be an argument in favour of his representing this county.

Let Mr. W. enjoy his princely income-let him choose to represent Wiltshire instead of Hampshire, or Dorsetshire, or Essex, (though among the hundreds of friendly voices vouching for his good name, there appears, as yet, not one from Essex, his residence, the place where every man is best known); but let not his partisans deprecate the humblest fortunes of a Wiltshire magistrate, perhaps after all more free and independent than his own; for they should remember that all Mr. W.'s wealth is but an income, a life-interest, not an acre can be sell, not a tree can he cut down but according to his marriage bond.

Thus the truth of many of the sneers and remarks about the magistracy of the county is impossible, of others improbable, of the whole denied, and of not one substantiated.

May 11, 1818.

C. L.

To the Freeholders of the County of Wilts.
GENTLEMEN,

I AM a plain man, and seldom meddle with politics, except when called upon to give my vote for a member for the county, which I always endeavour to do honestly, according to my notion of the merits of the candidates, from the best information I can get. On this account, I read, and bear, and look about me, that I may be able to judge and determineand if I cannot get exactly such a Parliament-man as I wish for, I am content to have one as near the mark as I can.

On the present occasion it is rather amusing to observe the measures adopted by one of the parties to gull that class of freeholders who may be properly termed independent-that is, those who, like myself, give their votes as they please.

Brother freeholders-Here's a select company of gentlemen, armed with the powers of magistracy, whose wish is too "no

torious" to be either denied or concealed. They want to reduce the county of Wilts to the state of a Cornish borough, while they would act the part of the self-elected corporation; manage all the business of elections among themselves, and free us from all trouble and care about parliamentary affairs-thus thrusting the whole county into the shade, that they, and their sons, and their cousins, may snugly and securely bask in the sun-shine of ministerial patronage and court favour.

Gentlemen, these are the men who are clamorous for independence! Our ears are stunned with their shouts of, "Independence! Independence for ever!" I have heard my eldest boy read somewhere of factions, who

To call it freedom, when themselves are free.”

This "notorious Quorum," being fond of monopolies, would have us believe, that the whole stock of independence is in their hands! But how did they come by it? Does it all grow in their paddocks? Have they bought it all up? Certainly it never was sold in our markets, though a small portion of it may be some how disposed of at a "Licensing-day;" and I rather suspect this little modicum is nearly all the stock they possess.

Of Mr. Long Wellesley I know little-and, in all likelihood, some of his political notions would by no means square with my wishes: but this is a trifle when placed against the perilous situation to which the manoeuvres of the "Quorum" are carrying us.

"

Gentlemen,-whatever be the politics of Mr. Long Wellesley, it is on our behalf he enters the lists with these doughty combatants. He has, at least, virtue and courage, and independence enough to be our deliverer from the chains now forging for us; and, if true to ourselves on this occasion, we may hope to live to vote again, or, at least, to hand down our birth-right to our children. But if we be diverted, or allured, or frightened, or gulled out of our votes this time, it may be as well that they be locked up in the strong box of the "Quorum, for any use we can ever make of them hereafter. The question in effect is not which of the Candidates shall we elect? But, as things now stand, it is come to this point, shall we vote this once, and no more for ever,-or, shall we vote for a man whose success will ensure our voting again? Should the "Quorum" succeed this time, our names may appear on the freeholders' list as heretofore, but, instead of the cry of independence, we shall hear only of the rattling of our chains (no very pleasant music to a Wiltshire freeholder) at every future election.

·As the new County Jail will soon be finished, a memento of

the demise of Wiltshire liberty may be inscribed on the front of the portico, in a style similar to that on a building in one of our venal boroughs, and posterity will read with astonishment, "Erected in the year 1818, by the Quorum Patrons of this County."

Gentlemen,-such being the state of things, excuse a plain man's language. If you love liberty, and wish your children to have an independent vote, speak now in favour of Mr. Long Wellesley, the conservator of your rights, or for ever after hold your peace, and bite your chains in silence.

Trowbridge, May 10, 1818.

To the Old Moon-Raker.

A CLOTHIER.

WELL! how is your old heart now? You seem to have recovered a little-have grown facetious-poetical tooby-and-bye we shall see you in love. You probably took my advice, and wrapt yourself in flannel! But how comes it, Old Square Toes, that you, after your four-score years' expe rience, after all that stock of knowledge which you have acquired, and the caution it ought to have communicated, that you, of all men, should have been caught napping ?Did the report of a good dinner operate so powerfully upon your nerves;-was your imagination wrought up to such a pitch of frenzy by the sound? or was you horror struck at 'the idea of people paying five shillings for what you in general contrive to sneak into for nothing, that your senses for a moment forsook you, and, like Noah, when overcharged, have left exposed what was for ever intended to be kept secret? Every man has been wondering who the Old MoonRaker could be: Do you know, says one? I can guess, says another; it is Mr. Goddard of Swindon. No, says a third, 'tis an old gentleman who lives near him. Impossible, cries his friend, they are sensible men-besides, they are gentle men: Some have said that it's Rose of Salisbury, that everlasting scribbler; some that it's Mr. Tinney; others, that it's Mr. Tinney's man. Others, again, have been led to believe, that it is foolish Harry; while one chucklehead more brainless than the rest, declares, that he knows for a down-right .certainty that the Old Moon-Raker is the senior Mr. Salmon of Devizes! As if that gentleman could be the author of such trash; or would be base enough to practise an imposition on the freeholders of the county, whatever might be the object. For Mr. Moon-Raker, you certainly have been guilty of a very gross imposition upon the unsuspecting, open-hearted freeholders of Wilts. Aware that their partialities might still lean to where their old member resided, and where his