The National Register. — London, England, 1811-03-10 00:00:00

, 1 , .. . 7411.,••• _ :: ~..,~ THE NATIONAL IZEMSTER. , , "• bind, eatitilittytt, anD 11 , , .. , .~ V. 167. ' ; - S N_D AY, MARCH 10 , iBrt PRICE gd 1• , f POLIIIC AL DM Q LYS/T/ON, No. 1 56. 'TO NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, FA?F.R:Dit OF THE FRENCH, KIN OF ITALY, NtOTFC'FCR OF rHE CONFFDERAIION OF IHE KOINE, AND ,k:Di ot"IHE 711Jti1 1 EUR, &C. ••••1•0111•41•1=1 MIGHTY Silty. Unawed by your threats, unensnated by your rts, unsubdued by your arms, I remain in that sl4te of content and prosperity, which induced you eight years ago to break through the sacredness of treaties and to declare war against me. Freed from nil anxiety by the enthusiastic valour of my seamen and the - skill of my Wellington, I view your vessels mouldering away in your ports, and your veteran legions wasted by want, disease - and the sword, in the Peninsula, and frequently amuse myself in read ing the political strictures with which your Imce rial pen - fills.the columns of the Moniteur. Like those of our weekly patriolic writers, they are al ways fraught with spirit, but seiolom with truth.— You see I express my opinion thinly ; but plainness has always been one of my characteristics, and as I i)elong neither to your senate nor to your legion of honour, you will naturally expect to hear from me something else than flattery. I find by your paper of the 2c3th of February last, that your Imperial Majesty has condescended to review the Speech of our Prince Regent, read by commission in the House of Lords, and to contro vert some of its statements by remarks of the Most plausible, but unfounded nature. ' In kindness to yourself, that you may not•a second time e.%ptlie your ignorance, or your . wilful perversion of the powers of reasoning to the eyes of Europe, and in justice to the unimpaired resources which I possess, the ability of my Statesmen and the talents and Neal of my Generals, I cannot allow those obser vations to pass unanswered. The etTors which you have committed and the misrepresentations of which you have been guilty, will therefore be calmly, and hope clearly unfolded in this epistle. I shall follow in my reply thesame order in which you have laid out the various subjects of which your article is composed. • . Colonies still form, I perceive,. the- chief object for which your ambition pants. Your attempt at disguising your feelings is unsuccessful. You open Vul. /V. CLXVIL i a your notes with a dissertation on the inutility of Ilistant possessions to France, but almost every ar gUrrent which you employ, besides warring iNeith . your former declarations, betrays the secret longings of your soul, andthe bitterness of disappointed hope. After telling your people and the whole 'world for years, that you did not wish for any increase - of continental territory, that ships, colonies, and com merce were the sole objects of *which France stood in need, and for. the aeque:nont of which t)le calami ties of war were protracted after boasting that you conquered them en the-Continent, and from your car of triumph, whilst captive legions defiled before you, exclaimiag, ships, colonies, and commerce" form all my wants : after thus proclaiming to man kind the importance of your intended acquisitions, how do you now, unblushingly atkmpt to prove that colonies were not only useless, but a burden t• France? What could produce s') sudden, and so ra . dical a change in your opinion ? Sudden I because in your last Expose, after drawing a ed picture of the — prosperity of your Continental empire, you directed the attention of your subjects to the excellent state of defence, in which your re. ,maining and most ttscfid, colonies were placed.. You then dwelt with complacency, if not with rap ture, on the aciewit ages which they yielded to their mother state. The Isle of France alone-was a mine • of wealth ! k was stored with the. plunder of our Indian trade ! It was crowded tvi,h frigates, which ~after acting - %ome -time in an offensive capacity, re- - turned to Europe, disarmed of their guns and richly laden with colonial produce or eastern treasure, in bold and successful defiance to our numerous cruizers ! It was the seat of a rising navy, where the best sailors in your service were formed, and which' would one day assist in the overthrow of my Indian Empire Conscious of its importance, you had lined its natural and almost inaccessible rarripartS with batteries : you had filled it with troops corn- . mantled by able officers, and in .the *rain exultation of your heart you declared 'that •it Would • baffle the attacks of thirty thousand of m,y Warriors'!—What is cow ycur language ? You• say that our naval superiority neceszarity ,pirted all your colonies at our dispryini 1 that they must of coarse Meng to the squadrons that command the oceans that their Oairrisons did not amount to mon, than %,000 men ! • who at thy digauce. of a thousand lea rtes from their' , t .... . d TR. .4111.... 4." riv• ~•~ .._.~._ ,~ r► 7-1