THE CONSTITUTIONALIST.

We have been called upon for a more explicit declaration of our political opinions. As it appears necessary, such a declaration shall be given. For in one of the letters which have reached us upon this subject, insinuations have been made, that we are capable of wavering, and trimming, and hanging back from interested motives; and suspicions have been hinted, that we are fearful of putting into print any determinate tests by which our present doctrines may be accurately known, and our future consistency may be fairly tried.

If we have any acquaintance with ourselves, with our own hearts, with our own views, with our own decisions, we are well entitled to laugh at insinuations and suspicions such as these. If there be one thing which we despise more deeply and more cordially than another, it is that cautious policy which trembles at committing itself by the precipitate expression of sentiments, which may afterwards prove injurious in a worldly and pecuniary sense, and prevent any advance to the pinnacle of honours and preferment. We are sure that such timidity is as deficient in real prudence, as in open sincerity. For us, who have resolved to stand in an imposing attitude, or to fallfor us, who have taken high ground, and who are determined to maintain it, political intrepidity is no less

indispensable than political integrity. A manly and straight-forward course is most compatible with our own sense of equity and discretion, as it is altogether due to that public, whose encouragement we hope to merit, and whose opinions we aspire to direct.

What, indeed, have we to fear? Are we frightened at the thoughts of cutting off our retreat into the pale of any party? Far from us must be such time-serving apprehensions! We must lead, rather than follow; we must dictate, rather than serve; we must FORM OUR OWN PARTY, instead of attaching ourselves to any party which is already formed. That Power, which implants the disposition in the human heart, has, we believe, forbidden us to conform with implicit and unreflecting acquiescence to the notions of our predecessors or our neighbours, or to quadrate with any set of opinions laid down and adjusted by the rule and compass of well-meaning theorists and politicians upon paper.

We shall now proceed, after these premises, to an avowal of the fundamental maxims, to which we, the Decemvirs of Great Britain, in council assembled, here solemnly pledge ourselves, as the guides by which our political conduct shall be uniformly regulated, and the standards to which our political opinions on every particular juncture may be uniformly referred. That they will be acceptable, in all their bearings and details, to the whole circle of our readers, it might be gratifying to know, but it would be presumptuous to expect; since even in our own body there exist many points of disagreement on questions of secondary importance. But we trust, that they who concur with us in the great and leading tenets, which touch, as it were, upon the vital parts of our constitution, will not be estranged from our side by those minor shades of difference, which, since no care or circumspection could avoid them, it would be unwise, as it is unnecessary, very deeply to regret; and that they who are at variance with us upon our general sentiments, will yet give us credit for the impartiality of examination, and the integrity of purpose, which has led to their adoption.

These maxims and sentiments we shall deliver with the

more cheerfulness, the more zeal, and the more alacrity, because, in the first place, from a confidence, whether just or unreasonable, in the truth of our opinions, we are naturally anxious to disseminate and enforce them among our fellow-citizens and fellow-men; because, in the second place, they who do us the favour of reading our lucubrations, ought to be liable to neither mistake nor uncertainty as to the doctrines which we shall inculcate, and the principles which we shall espouse; and because, in the third place, as we shall soon descend into the political arena, and take a more immediate share in the passing conflicts which agitate the state; and as we shall deal our blows, with unflinching resolution, in every quarter where we think them calculated to have a good effect, without much regard for persons or for parties;-we would yet no farther imitate the piratical mode of warfare, but fight under our own colours, and display openly to our friends and to our enemies, in what cause and under what banners we have enlisted our hopes, our capacities, our resources, and our fortunes.

We know well, that what we now write it will be impossible hereafter to deny or to recall. But we believe, too, that the time will never come, when we shall have cause to lament that the present declaration of our sentiments is undeniable and irrevocable. For, on the one hand, the very structure of our minds must be altered, before we can be induced to a sweeping renunciation of doctrines, which are no less agreeable to our feelings, than consonant with our reason; and, on the other, we shall look down with absolute disdain upon any foolish charge of inconsistency which a political adversary may attempt to fix upon us, in consequence of some slight change or modification of opinion, such as those to which a sincere and honest conviction has often conducted, and will often again conduct, the best and wisest of mankind. That discrepancy of sentiment at different periods of life, which proceeds either from more matured and extensive views of a difficult subject, or from some alteration either in the thing itself, or in some other points which have a natural and necessary connexion with it, is easily distin

guished from that tergiversation and desertion of former principles, which result either from the pliant baseness of political cupidity, or from the equal profligacy of disappointed ambition. To the former, every thinking man is liable; from the latter every honest man is exempt.

Our readers will bear in mind, that the present article is, and pretends to be, nothing more than a simple avowal and exposition of our creed. We have no room for argument: and perhaps a plain and elementary view would be rather encumbered than assisted by a mass of historical and philosophical deductions. To develop our principles in their full extent; to stamp them upon the public mind by the whole weight of reason and exhortation; in short, to propagate and diffuse them by whatever measure of intellectual ability we may happen to enjoy, aided by the vast mechanical powers of the press, must be the labour of many future hours, and the business of many future discussions in this and other publications.

But to the point. We have already said, that we are neither Whigs nor Tories, but that we are Constitutionalists. What is a Constitutionalist?

A Constitutionalist is a man, who examines all the great and momentous questions which regard religion, morals, politics, the public welfare of the state, and the private happiness of individuals, upon comprehensive, and immutable, and philosophical principles; but, at the same time, views them with reference to the particular institutions of his country; who will neither suffer his national partialities, or the prepossessions which he derives from his ancestors, to thwart or interfere with his fixed notions of eternal equity and fitness; nor attempt to adapt his general and speculative maxims to cases where they cannot but be mischievous, inasmuch as they are unnecessary and inapplicable.

A Constitutionalist is a man, who will preserve inviolate at all hazards, at the risk of worldly prosperity, of property, of life, the British Constitution of three estates; who will support the laws of the State, the doctrines of the Church, and the union between them; who will maintain the just prerogatives of the Crown, the legal privi