PETER PLYMLEY AND SYDNEY SMITH.

THE subject of Peter Plymley's Letters is the disabilities under which the Catholics laboured at the commencement of the cen- tury; for attempting to remove the smallest of which, the Whig Ministry of 1807 was dismissed. Since the Letters first appeared some thirty years have passed, and many of the absurdities and grievances it was their object to expose by reason and stigmatize by ridicule, have yielded to the force of justice and been removed: the prophecies of the writer respecting the final triumph of NAPOLEON were falsified by the event ; and the ardour of the combat induced him to attack occasionally with undue acrimony, and, in the instance of CANNING, to depreciate unduly : yet, not- withstanding the lapse of time and the change of circumstances, they are still as entertaining as if written on a topic of the passing day. The reader is carried along by a pleasant excile- ment, frequently raised to boisterous mirth, by their perfect trans- parency of meaning—their spirited buoyancy of style—the cliuch- Mg character of their logic, which convinces by illustration rather than proves by reasoning—their inimitable facetiousness, which treats the most unpromising subjects jocosely—and above all, their unrivalled irony, so simple but so sharp.

Even these qualities, however, exercised upon a subject purely temperary, could not have given vitality to a book, though they might have preserved it, as curiosities are preserved in spirits. But

there is much that is universal in the matter of Peter Plymiey's Letters. Seizing the pith of the sophistries as well as the spirit

of the mode by which insolent power justifies profitable abuses,

much of the satire is applicable in all times. Some public charac- ters are embalmed, not with the flattery of a court or the exactness of a history-painter—for only defects are limned—but they are true as life, and more striking ; and these persons give an historieal interest to the discussions. Last, but not least, the whole pr'nciples contended for by PETER PLYIN LEY are not yet esta- blished. One of the most popular grievances of Ireland, which he alludes to, is at this very time the topic of legislative discussion. We need not add, that Irish affairs, in this volume, were handled by a different mind and after a different fashion from what they are now-a-days. The majority, who bestow their tediousness on this worn theme, are mere dullards, or Irish rhetoricians. The imitators of SYDNEY want his easy mastery, his nerve, and his knowledge of when to stop ; for he never overlays a subject, even when matter is plentiful, much less does he task his ingenuity after verbal jingles, and he is too skilful to risk a doubtful joke. We have spoken of the universal character of some of the ar- guments: here is one upon the subject of the ingratitude of the Catholics for not resting satisfied with the concessions already made to them, which applies as strongly to those Whigs who now say, "Have you not got them the Reform Bill—let the people be quiet ; what can they sant?" as ever it did to PERCEVAL aiad his persecuting followers.

What amuses me the most, is to hear of the indulgences which the Catho- lics have received, and their exorbitance in not being satisfied with those indul. gences: now, if you complain to me that a man is obtrusive and shameless in his requests, and that it is impossible to bring him to reason, I must first of all hear the whole of your conduct towards him ; for you may have taken front him so much in the first instance, that, in spite of a Nog series of restitution, a vast latitude for petition may still remain behind. There is a village (no matter where) in which the inhabitants, on one day in the year, sit down to a dinner prepared at the common expense : by an extra- ordinary piece of tyranny, (which Lord Ilawkesbury would call the wisdom of the village ancestors, ) the inhabitants of three of the streets, about an hundred years ago, seized upon the inhabitants of the fourth street, bound them hand and foot, laid them upon their backs, and compelled them to look on while the rest were stuffing themselves with beef and beer : the next year, the inbuiritauts of the persecuted street (though they conhibuted an Noel pairta of the expense) were treated precisely in the same manner. The tyranny grew into a custom ; and Os the manner of our nature is) it was cousidered as time most sacred of all duties to keep these poor fellows without their annual dinner : time village was so tenacious of this practice, that nothing could induee them to resign it; every enemy to it was looked upon as a disbeliever in Divine Pi °el- deuce, and any nefarious churchwarden who wished to succeed in his election, had nothing to do but to represent his antagonist as an Abolitionist, in order to frustrate his ambition, endanger his life, and throw the village. into a state of the most dreadful commotiun. By degrees, however, the obnoxious street grew to be so well peopled, and its inhabitants so firmly united, that their op- pressors, mote afraid of injustice, were more disposed to he just. At the next dinner they are unbound, the year after allowed to eight upright, then a hit of bread and a glass of seater; tall at last, after a long series of concessions, they are embeldened to ask, in pretty plain terms, that they may be allowed to sit down at the bottom of the table, and to fill their bellies as well as the rest. Forthwith a general cry of shame and scandal : " Ten news ago were you not hid upon your backs ? Don't you remember what a great thing you thought it to get a piece of bleed? How thankful you wee for cheese-parings? Have you forgotten that memorable sera, when the lord of the manor interfered to obtain tor you a slice of the public pudding ? And now, with an audacity only equalled by your ingratitude, you leave the inikudence to ask for knives and links, and to request, in terms too plain to be mistaken, that you may sit down to table with the rest, and be indulged even with beef and beer : there are tort more than halha-dozen dishes which we have reserved fur ourselves; the rest has been thrown open to you in the utmost profusion ; you have potatoes and carrots, suet dumplings sops in the pall, and delicious toast and water, in in- credible iplantities. Beef, mutton, lamb, pork, and veal, are ours; ad if you Were not the most restless and dissatisfied of human beiogs, you would never think of aspiring to enjoy them."

UNALTERABLE LAWS, AND A SKETCH OF LORD LIVERPOOL.

I heat from some persons in Parliament, and from others in the sixpenny societies for debate, a great deal about unalterable laws passed at the Revolu- tiou. NS Lea I hear any man talk of an unalterable 14W, the wily effect it pro- duces upon me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool. A law paseed when there was Germany, Spain, Russia, Sweden, Holland, Portugal, and Turkey ; when there was a disputed succession; when four or five hundred acres were won and lost after ten years' hard fighting ; when armies were com- manded by the sons of kings, and campaigns passed in the interchange of civil letters and ripe fruit ; anal for these laws,_ when the whole state of the world is completely changed, we are now, acemiling to my Lord Ilawkesbury, (after- s; ards Lord Lives pool,) to hold ourselves ready to perish. It is no mean miss is- fortune, mat tunes like these' to be forced to eay any thing about such men as o L rd Ilawkesbury, and to be reminded that we are governed by them ; but as I am driven to it, I must take the liberty of observing, that the wisdom and

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;day of my Lord Hawkembury are of that complexion which alwayseltrioks trona the prevent exercise of these virtues, by praising the splendid examples of

SILENCE UNDER LULLS.

With even y disposition to please (where to please within fair and rational limits is a Irish dot)), it is imposeible for public men to be long silent about the Catholics: pressing evils Ire' wit got air of, because they are not talked of. A man may command his family to say nothing more ahout the stone, and sur- gical operations ; but the ponderous malice still lies upon the nerve, and gets so big, that the patient bleak, his own law of silence, clamours for the kilite, and expires undee its It operation. ltelieve me, you talk folly, when you sneak of suppressing the Catholic question. I wish to (kid the Cast! dt11111TLA of such a remedy: bad as it is, it does nut admit of it. It' the white of the Citholice ale limit heard in the 111•Inly Noes of laird Glenville, or the servile drawl of Lord Castlereagh, they will be heard ere long in the madness of mobs, and the con- flicts of armed men.

See how he gives vitality to the penny-a-lining of the day, and how unlucky one of them was for its object— In the fleet plare, my street Abraham, the Pope is not landed—nor are there any curates sent out after him—nor IN he laCe I I bid at Saint Albite.; by the Dowager Lady Spencer—tier dined privately at Breland llotise—not been seen near DI-immure. If these fens exist (w hich I do not believe, they exist only in the mind of the Chancellor of the Exch. spier ; they emanate 11,1111 his zeal for the Protestant htterest ; anal thotr:11 they reflect the highest h llllll lir upon the delicate irn itahility of his faith, intot certainly be considered as more AM. bigtioul proofs of the sanity and o ig.ur id hie understandilig By this time, however, the beet inforinial clergy i at the neighbout howl of the mettopolis are convinced that the rumour is without firinelation ; awl tholigh the Pope is probalrl) hovering about our coast in a fishing -bullock, it is most likely he will fall a prey to the vigilance uf our cruisers; and it ie cci Lain he Iiiks taut yet pole lune! the Protestantism of our sod.

Exactly in the seine manner, the story of the wooden gods Neve] at Charing Cross by all onto from the Foreign Office, turn:tout to be without the shadow of a fuundation instead of the angels awl arellangels mentimwd by the Iinneer, nothing WAS 'rho:oven...I but the wooden image of Lord NIulgrave going down to CII1O11.1111 as it head-Mete for the Spanker gun-vessel : it was en react resemblance of his Lordship in his military uni hit nmm ; erei ther4fur, as little like a god as can well be imagined.

The project of Peacasesr. to attack the power of NAPOLEON by forbidding the exportation of drugs, is familiar to the public, through the pamphleteering controversy which grew up from sonic remarks on the subject in Colonel N APIER'S This is the way Mr. PLY:■I LEY smashed it at the time— What is it possible to say to :midi a man as the gentleman of Hampstead, (Percevah) who really believes it feasible to conveit the four million Irish Catholics to the Protestant religi lllll and considers this as the best remedy for the disturbed state of Ireland ? It is not possible to answer such a man with them in ages past. If he had lived at such periods, he would have opposed the Revolution by praising the Reformation, and the Reformation by speaking handsomely of the Crusades. Ile gratifies his natural antipathy to peat and cmirageous measures, by playing off the wistIona and courage which have ceased to influence human Awe against that wisdom and courage which living men would employ for present happiness. Besides, it happens unfortunately for the Wardens of the Cinque Potts, that to the principal incapacitiee under which the Irish suffer, they were subjected after that great and glorious Revolution, to which we are indebted for so many blessings, amid his Lordship fur the termina- tion of so many pet nets.

All things considered, Catholic Emancipation was one of the boldest and completest legislative measures of the century. But its authors only looked to its political effects upon the higher or at most the middle classes, without regardiug the manner in which the Established aehigon, clashing with the religion of the mass, and seetnitig to injure thi.ir temporal interests, would be a sure cause of future dissatisfaction. The inseparableness of Tithe and Catholic! grievances, which was unthought of by the conqueror of Europe and Sir ROBERT PEE!., aid by Tory and Whiz legislators of all kinds, was foreseifil tii enty years bcfore by the *clerical wit. The Billies in this ialssage are not ours.

The late question concernieg milit.ey rank did not irollvidually affect the lowest perste:s of the Cain lie preen:Ishii; ; hut do you imagine that they do not sympathise with the honour and diser:we ,rf their superiors ? Ito s ou think that satisfaction and di...6.ction do not travel down from Lord Fingal to the most potatoless Cathulic in Ireland, alai Celt the glory or shines of the sect is not felt by many ttttt re t Imo these conduimei pet...many and emporeally affect ? Ito you suppose that the detect in of Sir Ilenry Mildmay, and the disappotntment of Mr. Perceval hi th.,lOiili r 44 the Dutolly of Lancaster, did not affect every dabbler in public mope ty Depend upon it these things were felt through all the gradations of small plunderers, down to hint who Wees a puha if tobacco flour the King's warehouses; while, on the contrary, the aequittal 1 any nohie and official thief would not fail to diffuse the most heartfelt saisfaction over the larcenous and hurglatious world. °bee ve, I do not fay because the lower Catholics are atieteei by what concern. their superiors, that they are not aliened by O hat concerns themselves. There is 111/ disguising the holt id Huth ; Mere must be $10.1. rlia.nd ion with revret ha lithe: this is the el uel and heart-reniling price which must he paid tor national preset our on. I feel how little existence will Ise worth having, if any alteration, hone:vet .light, is made in the property it II ish rectors ; I am come:tins Lox much such changes utmost effect t he daily and hourly comforts of every English iwan ; I shall feel teo happy if they leave Europe untouched, and ale not nhimately f ital to the destildes tit' America ; but I am madly bent upon keeping fereign enemies ont of the British eninire, awl my limited uuderstauding pretwuts me with uo other means of effecting my object.

Some readers of the Spectator, dissatisfied with the Ministry, dissatisfied with the prospects uf Liberalism, and ill at ease with every thing and everybody in the political world, have been known to take offence at cur habit of speaking the truth, because it is "tinpleasant,"—as if the effects of bad conduct could be pre- vented by not pointing theta out. Iiere is another of PETER'S general truths, open

pestle is still, the catiorous mortis mute, and the bowels of mankind locked up for fourteen degrees of lati.ude! When, I should be curious to know, were all the powers of crudity and flatulence fully explained to his Majesty's Ministers ? At what period was this great plan of conquest and constipation fully deve- loped ? In whose mind was the idea of destroying the pride and the plaisters of France first engendered? Without castor.uil they might, fur some months, to be sure, have carried on a lingering war ; but can they do without bark? Will the people live under a government o here antimonial powders cannot be procured? Will they bear the loss of mercui y ? "There's the rub." Depend upon it, the absence of the materia medico will men bring them to their senses, and the cry of Bourbon and bolus burst forth from the Baltic to the Medi- terranean.

We close the Letters of Peter Plymley, with a general recom- mendation to read the whole, as one of the most spirited, amus- ing, and logical political pamphlets ever written. If its perusal causes, as is not unlikely, a feeling of melancholy at seeing what little immediate effect wit and reason produced Upon power and self-interest, there is cheerfulness in the reflection, that within some twenty years many of the abuses so forcibly denounced by the author were swept away.