The National Register. — London, England, 1816-03-04 00:00:00

01J Ipt lrlationall rt Our tituti, Coniffitutton anb Lath. No. 426.—V0L. VIII. ItIONDAT, M. 4, 181 6. itr. WATERLOO SERMONS. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. ON THE PROPOSED PEACE ESTABLISHMENT. WE have hitherto examined the various bearings of the Property Tax, an impost contemplated by the coun try with more terror than would be the revival of byre rial despotism in France, but which perhaps only requires to be properly modified, to become at once a productive and equal mode of taxation. We shall now consider that ruiee Establishment, as it is wrongly called, which is represented as the basis of the Tax, and is viewed on that account with less calmness and impartiality than generally attend national investigations. What should we think of a painter, who to sketch a beautiful landscape, should take his stand in the depth O f s ravine, with nothing but threatening rocks around him, or stunted woods that impeded, without ;;ratifying his sight? Should we nut say that the man was mad, or that he chose the very worst fimture of the land, in or der to contnulict and destroy the renown of its beauties ? Should we net tell him to ascend the heights, and then take an expanded view of the scenes around him, smiling or sublime, though they might contain spots of rugged ness and sterility ?—What we should say to the painter, we may, with equal justice, address to the Opposition.. In the midst of a'-eattritry abounding with greatness, power and glory, they fix their stand in the sink of tem porary distress, then look around and conceive, or at least proclaim, that all is ruin and desolation. They will not mount the steep, for then the prospect would be too brilliant, and their picture, however disfigured and darkened, would betray some reflection of its glorie s , We shall not follow their example : we shall not disdain to contemplate our country in all its ime and gnmdeur, and if the view of its real state, with which we shall preface our observations on the establishment proposed, be not as glmmy, it will be more faithful than that, which some pretended patriots of the day have drawn. What have ken the objects of our exertions during twenty-five years of war and of perils ?—The support of our independence, and the restoration of order in Europe. The latter, not merely because it was connected with our safety, but because, free and happy ourselves, we could not behold the fairest portion of the world devoted to servitude and misery, without lolling tbrth a hand to assist and to save. How have those objects been pur sued ?--Through difficulties and dangers ; through gloom and tempest ; through good fialune and ill fortune, with the spirit of freemen and the constancy of patriots—now embattled under the eyes of our wives and our children to guard our shores from invasion, and now chasing upon sll the seas the flying navies of our fives—now alone against a world in arms, and now raising nations front the dust, lighting the flame of independence, and in volving the whole Continent in its blaze.—How have those objects been attained ?—Let Europe through all her states proclaim it. Ask her where is that Gigantic Despotism that weighed upon all her realms, that chained all her monarchs on their thrones, compressed all nations into one, and attempted to impose upon mankind one law, one will, one lan;.7l.tage ?—She will tell you, that it is vsnished ; that its very ruins have disappeared. She will point to England, as the Power that opened the abyss where the monstrous rubric was engulphed, the Power that alone can close it fin. ever.—Ask her how kingdoms have recovered their limits, the Continent its balance, and Peace its empire?—She will reply, because England was mighty to conquer, and disinterested in tri nmph : because the effusion of 4 benevolent spirit went forth with her counsels anti her armies, and the field of her battles became the seat of her charities.—Assure her that she is mistaken : that England could, do, and has clone nothing: that her victories were tantamount to de feats ; that her ends were selfish, bar means insignificant, her exertions destructive to herself, and that the result of the invatident and unjust contest she has waged, is the rain of her prosperity, her credit, and her strength — Europe will look upon you with pity or with contempt. She will tell you that your country occupies the loftiest t.nd the safest eminence on earth, one founded on the gratitude. the veneration, and the terror of nations. The gratitude, fl,r her assistance; the veneration, for her vir- Cues ; .and the terror, for her power.. In there a man who can wish his country, to descend fiflm such an elevation —To abdicate the rank to which her unequalled exer tions, the magnanimity of hor spirit, and the consent of mankind have raised her?—lf there be such a man, let hint join the phalanx of the Opposititm, and set up his voice against that establishment, which, we trust can main tain the country. in her strength and her dignity. Let hint-cry that her conatkution is in danger, if her great ness, her glory, and hee - putver are not sacrificed. Let him regret " the good old thite when 4 or 5000 men formed her national army," and when the banners of every invader floated on the towers of her capital. Let hint reproach her with her acquisitions, because, though they add to the g,enend wealth of the nation, they must be protected and governed at an d'alk.%T. trifling when compared with their importance. call fur the surrender of all that welasie gni*, that we may fol low Mr. Brougham's advice, " and in tease of war, trust to our navy, and our army to do what they have already done." But if, instead of such Zetlaimers, we meet with a real patriot, what will be Ida sentiments? He will say : that he rejoices in the exaltation of his country with the more sincerity and fervour, as it was not in a course of ambitious enterprizes, but in a continual and deadly contest with oppression, that she grew rich and powerffil, and became, through her victories and her wisdom, the arbiter of European nations. He will say: that although the rage of the conflict is over, yet its con sequences must for some time be felt. Even the con queror is overthken witlt the toils of battle, but the lassitude' is transitory im .'easily repaired. To call it a mortal disease in a man would be ridiculous : to say that a nation is ruined because it has not yet completely emerged front the difficulties which attend the close of a long and arduous war, is equally I,troundless and unrea sonable. He will own, that once the principle of a stand ing, army under the controul of Parliament admitted, he sees no danger to the Constitution from the amount of that army, when it is only proportioned to the increase in rank, influence, and possessions of the empire. lie will say, that to refuse to support the necessary force on account of its expense, would be to subject the country to a much greater expenditure. The cameos of strength once united by a series of events, circumstance!! and feel intis which may never occur again, cannot be dissolved and thrown away impunely. The moment may, and must come, for peace cannot be union must be attempted ; but ceed ? If it did nut, would not, . the very existence of the Constitm threatened, if not destroyed ? the advice of those who recommend army to a state of weakness, w' once of all the consideration enjoy in Europe : were we to however valuable, as mere burthens replat2 them in the hands of our navy and army to do, in case already done,".—is it really fancied better consulted? How has which the country is loaded the adoption of that very plan at the conclusion of every war but the last. No sooner did we go to war with France, than expeditions were fitted OW at great expense against her colonies. Their capture cost us our noblest • blood; peace came, and those colonies were inamediatsipro. stored in a more flourishing state to our inveterate dinefty, to whom they brought encrease of power M renew the contest at a more favourable opportunity. Then fresh expeditions must be sent, more treasure expended, and fresh blood shed to regain objects that we land foolishly thrown away. Even at the ,peace4af Atiliens, Buono parte was presented by us with th4Frencb colonies, and had he condescended to sign the treaty of Chatillon, in 181 t, they would be now in his priwer. Because that impolitic and ruinous system has no been in part aban doned, and the wiser course has been adopted, of perma nently encreasing our power at the txpense of a restless and couqucred enemy, thus diminishinir his ability to dis turb our rest, and avoiding a fitture uriste of money, and of blood, the opposition cry shame upon Government, and charge it with extravagance. An army establishment which in a year will not amount to six millions, and which, as peace consolidates itself, may be still tbrther induced, appears to these patriot enormous and unjusti fiable. But let their economy i adopted, and should a new war occur, we may bop o see the national debt doubled througli their passi:m tie retrichment, and have to provide 84 instead of 4F2 miqP4us a year to liquidate its interest, before a single shilling can'be plied to the purpose of either a war or a peace rishlima TIIF transcendant victory that terminated the last war, did not add more to the glory of our arms, than the collections and contributions thr the relief of those who suffered in the bank that led to it, added to the fame of our charity. The sympathy of the country was semulta neous with its exultation ; the charitable donation was offered with the laurel of triumph ; and our purses were opened to promote the recovery, to reward the services, or to assist the families of our gallant soldiers ; while our tongues resounded their praises, and our hearts rejoiced at the success. For some time, the sentiments of inilivi duals, unprompted by any appeals to their sympathy, or Christian principles, swelled the ofierings of benevolence; and the humane spirit of our religion produced the grand est effect ; like the silent influence of nature, while its • name was not openly employed, nor its aid' invoked. It s•xm allied itself, however, in a more ostensible manner with this labour of love ; and, as it has been the origin of those numerous institutions, unknown to ancient times, for alleviating the distresses, and improving the ; condition of men in civil life, so it now stepped forward, to heal the wounds received in the field of battle, or to supply, in some manner, the losses incurred by victory. By the au thority of the Royal Letter, and the active zeal of the clergy, the inhabitants of this country were universally invited to bring the offering of patilotism and charity to the altar of religion; to gratify the generous feelings of their nature, under the impression, that they ware per forming an act of piety; and to anticipate the relief of distress, not snore us the effectof praise-worthy liberality, than of consecrated beneficence. The nation thus exhi bited the sublime spectacle of a great people, where mili tary mnown could receive no addition, meeting, with one accord, in the temples of their God for the purposes of patriotic charity, forgetting all differences of reli,iotts creed, in a unanimity of benevolence; supprexsing all the feelings of pride over a fallen foe, which unparalelled success might have excused; and, anxious only to add to • fitted, far the relief of thaw, throne) whose sacrifice, and exertions we had our present points of elevation. . The ministers of religion, in this interesting scene, be of snfferin,g humanity, and, without - of peae-risikers, called - repaving the which they were composed ; ao that we have not only Waterloo subscriptions, poems, pictures, and statements, but Waterloo sermons. In so far as these compositions aided the cause which they rocommended,orNvere articulated more extensively to forward, the interests of charity, we concur in their ob. jects, and apphomi their execution. Our religion is truly the religion of banevolenm ; ' and while it proscribes the causes of human suffering, when they originate in vicious propensities, vul irregular posaiocus, it calls upon its ad herents by the example of its great Author, and bf t:mir own hopes of future hr.ppine&s, to succour and relieve the wretched and the destitute. It came to procure the ces. sation of war, but it commands us to bind rp the wounds which war has inflicted. But we are afraid, tions the specimen; that we have seen of these Wa ., •rloo se.tnuns, that many of them disnlaved as muds set ular polities as Christian charity ; curd that they eontaisr:d ions and reasonings on the de 1i of l'r widen-e, in the late e vanta, fully more than persuasions to liberality, or ex planations of moral duty. We are even afraid that many of our lute successes were transferred from the Casette to the pulpit ; that " the pony) and circumstance of war," were detailed more than the wounds of ,our soldiers, or the distresses of their des.itute families; and that the mi.. nisters of the religion of peace may have given a ssn-tion to that military spirit, which is not less at variance with the civil trantptillity of the world, than inc , intent with the tenor Of the gospel. The present generation of men in this country has been so much accustomed to hear of He moment may, ana came the advocates of sit tiering humanity, and, without c eternal, when theta' re- forgetting their character of peace-iiiikers, called upon would the enterrise sue- the rieople for the mains of repairing the ravages of war. t, more than the integrity, .Their appeal was not _heard in vain. That charity which Litution and the nation, be In . late events has given us more thin victory, which, And were we to follow lae a goad angel, has followed the track of the destroyer, mend the reduction of our building up the cottages, and alleviating the distresses of which would deprive us at the Portuguese peasants, between the 1)ouro and the and influence which we Tom; ai4 . cenveynig . corafort, even into the ruined v 1- resign all our acquisitions, andatm of RUSSIA, was not reluctant to display it- uthens to the State, and 111 the cause of our own oettetrymea. who added to our enemy, "gusting to sae of war. aa. they have the plea of gaff suffering, the climb which great merit and important aervi c t. impose upon our gratitude.. S evera l o f ithed that economy would be the addresses made to the people on that occasion are the enormous debt with published, and thrown, as it were, into the fund for been accumulated, but by eonmased ao that we have not univ PRICE g et/