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But at the same time there is an evident spirit amongst them of kindness and good humour, of hospitality and benevolence, of religious gladness and sincerity, which reconciles us to many of their abuses. The Yule-clog beaming forth its light of cheerfulness over faces determined to be merry; the evergreen peeping out from every corner, to do homage to the great Being who has given life and freshness to each season, and in token of the eternal hopes of Christianity; the wassailbowl inviting to pledges of love and friendship; the simple carol, sung with an enthusiasm which even religion could not reprove for its accompaniments; the gambols which summoned the young to their own cheerful enjoyments; all these have passed away, or have left but feeble and heartless relics. Let them not be despised, for they have done much to form our national character; they have cultivated those kindly affections which have so long preserved us a warm-hearted and generous people. May their almost complete extinction be supplied with a cordiality as sincere, if not as prompt and liberal; may the spirit if not the ancient forms, of hospitality still exist among us.

EDITOR-K.

Monthly Retrospect of Public Affairs.

EVERY well-wisher to his country must rejoice that there has been some counteraction to the acrimony and violence with which the Government has been lately assailed. From all parts of the kingdom Addresses to the King, declaratory of the attachment and fidelity of large portions of his subjects, have been prepared; and the endeavour to confound these demonstrations with the language of interest and servility, has been defeated by their number and their respectability. On every side those who constitute a large portion of the true power of the State, the nobility, the country gentlemen, the merchants, the professional men, the substantial traders, are rising up to express, not the assurances of a party, not the language of adulation or of servility, but the manly, honest, natural sentiments of Englishmen, grateful for the blessings which they enjoy under the Constitntion, and determined in endeavouring to preserve them by upholding the Sovereign against every insult and every menace. There are thousands amongst us who cling to the notions of loyalty which their forefathers were not ashamed to avow ;-who hold it the first duty of good citizens to tender to their Chief Magistrate their love and their fidelity, as long as he rules by the law ;-who will suffer no occasion of popular clamour to instruct them that their allegiance may be put on or off with the temper of the moment ;-who, born

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under a regulated Monarchy, and sensible of its blessings, will neither experimentalize upon the theories of democracy which are proposed to them, nor remain inert while such theories are floating about the surface of society. It is with feelings such as these that, in every quarter of the kingdom, men of the highest character and integrity, men of all parties, are associating together to proclaim that they will not suffer any difference of opinion upon any great public question to be seized upon as an occasion for shaking their fidelity to the Statee; and that any attempts to destroy the Constitution, whatever shapes they may assume of hostility to the Throue or to the Altar, shall be resisted by every power by which the upright can put down the machinations of the wicked.

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We are entering upon a New Year! May it bring with it a suspension of those animosities which have threatened to destroy the great principles of our national character, and of our public happiness. May all men agree in seeing the danger of party dissensions, when they hurry us on beyond the duties of good subjects, and the charities of sincere Christians.

EDITOR-K.

END OF VOL. I.

TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS AND THE PUBLIC.

AT the close of our labours for the present year, we desire to express our sincerest acknowledgments for the very liberal encouragement we have received from the Public. It has been found necessary to reprint the First Volume of our Miscellany, before it was yet completed. The SECOND EDITION will be ready in a few weeks.

Many of our Subscribers having urged the expediency of printing our future Numbers in a larger Type, we have readily yielded to their wishes ; but, in making this arrangement, we have judged it equitable to add Four Pages of Letter-press to the succeeding portions of "THE PLAIN

ENGLISHMAN."

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

THE suggestion of T. R. in some degree accords with our own views, and shall receive an attentive consideration, previously to the appearance of the first Number of Vol. II. We fear the extract which he encloses is founded upon an incorrect estimate of the attractions of measured prose.

C. KNIGHT, PRINTER, WINDSOR.

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