The National Register. — London, England, 1808-02-15 00:00:00

f MI ■ THE NATIONAL REGISTER. 100 possible that were he now to go to America, he would greatly alter his opinion of the Americans ? lie has laboured with great assiduity during the considerable period in which oUr relations with the United States have been matter of public attention and anxiety to render the Americans rit once contemptible. and odious to the people of this country. He has ascribed to them every vice and every meanness; while he has studied to persuade us that they hated this country, and what was still a greater crime, that they loved Fiance. About proof Mr. Cobbett seldom troubles himself. We had all this in good round assertion. And unfortunately asscrt:ntis with a great portion of mankind are fully as cogent as proofs. After abundant endeaSours to make ns believe that the Ame ricans are a most odious race, and that they hunget and thirst for mischief to this country, his next object is to peptiade us, that they arc very defenceless, and may be easily trodden down in the dart, in short, that we may insult and abuse them, as we please, for they cannot injure us an return. There is something Uncommonly illiberal in the strain of Mr. Cobbet's attacks upon the Americans ; and there is scarcely one of his assertions that is mot unfounded. In the first plate, the Americans have virtues and vices very much like onrselves. They are a shoot from our nwn stock, and they exhibit very distinct marks of their affinity with the parent tree. They are a people of strong and manly passions, as we ourselves are; and we are very apt to blame in them what we applaud in ourselves. They are a most industrious and enterprising people ; and the peculiar aspect which their virtues and viers assume, is the effect entirely of the peculia rity of their situation. We are apt to designate them as a rapacious people; but in every country, where industry is in its infancy, where capital is extremely scarce and extremely saleable, this appearance will invariably be exhibited. As the scope for capital is more unbounded iu America than an) where else ; this cause operates there with a force peculiarly great. But effects, exactly similar, are experienced even in our West India Islands, though these are both of limited extent, and are fed with all the opulent capitals of oar West India mer merchants. As they are a people too, mostly agricultural, and thinly spread over this immense surface, with few otcasions of social intercourse, they exhibit but little of the polished man ners of European cities t and a republican familiarity is fre quently affected, which is found highly offensive to such Eu ropeans as are enamoured with aristocratical distinctions and ceremonies. In the next place it is perfectly untrue that the Americans are distinguished by an aversion to this country. The contrary is incontrovertibly the fact. One of the chief sources of their pride is their descent from this country. It is commonly spoken of among them by the name of The Old Country, a term, ex pressing at once the memory of their connexion, and their vene ration for the country of their fathers. Their laws, and even their forms of legislation, as well as their fashions, customs, and manners, are all borrowed from us. It is undoubtedly true, that the restrictions which we ha'e imposed upon neutral trade dur ing our present contest with Fiance, have inflicted upon them the greatest hardships; and it was not unnatural for them to com plain. They are, like ourselves, a blustering people; and wheo they have to complain of another nation, they do it in a patty noisy stile. They are at presort, no doubt, very much provoked against this country ; but even at present there is among them a large fund of esteem and good will toward this country, which only wants a favourable season to produce the happiest etiects. There is among them, as there is among us, two parties, one of which is more republican than the other ; and these two parties brand one another ; the one with the epithet of the French party, and the othet with that of the British. But the epithet of French is just as improperly applied among them, as it was some years ago among us, to Mr. Fox and his party. In the last place, the Americans ate, by no means. Ifs Mr. Cobbett would have us believe, enemies entirely to be despised. They cannot conquer our fleets, or invade Ireland; but, as we do not agree with Mr. Cobbett, that our commerce is our curse, we cannot, in the present situation of the world contemplate, without lively emotion, the loss of our intercourse with a na tion, that has for a number of 'ears taken off more goods of British produce and manufacture, than the whole continent of Europe. As this, however, is a subject of vast importance, we will not trespass any further beyond our limits: We have, at present, merely entered upon the subjecte It will again come under our attentive climatic's:woo. lEg. ii FOREIGN IYFELLIGENCE. FRANCE. PA his ; J tx. 16.—The Putriote, of it guns, which left the Chesapeake on the 16th of December, arrived at the hie of Aix on the •Ith lir4.--Ity it we learn that Mr. Moore, the 11t13 bassarlor froll Digland, had returned on the I.lth of December. The public papers announced that the Senate and house of Re presentatives had assembled without any exterior cortimunlca. Hon. It n i ts said that the proposals made by England to re. dress the grievances of the !Inked States, were of a nature to be ill reeeiVetl, and that every thing was for war With th:tt Country, PORTUGAL. otcretr Oon coyttsc.iti‘u Ar.z. lIRITISiI tfiortinnr IN ?OR.. TrG.4L. All goods, jewels, awl silver. as ncll as moveable and landed property of any nature whatsoever, belonging to any individual subject of Great found in any territory of the Portu guese dominiors, confiscaied. All goods of manufacture ) of any kind whatsoever { shall be al-) confiscated. _ . It is cxpres:.yr ordained, that nny prrou, of whatever class, who shall iinve in his possession any sum or gomls belonging to subjects of Great Britain, shall appear and declare the same, in the coarse of three days, at the Secretary's Office, Zl. Legoy, appointed Commissary ad i;atcrinti is hose residence is at No. 10, opposite the Fountain of the !Arent): and in the interior parts of Porto r ;al these declarations are to be made before the Magit4 train of the place. Any person who shall not Make a true and exact declaration, shall forfeit ten times the suns of the object so declared, and shall receive besides corporal punishment, if the object should deser% e such. Any goods or property *Ma may have been arty way con cealed by either Portugncse or rtench merchants, or those of any other Natian, shall Be declared 1n the saute manner under the like penalties, The Administrator-General of the Finanteg, and the Regency Council, are charged with the execution of this Decree. Dated in the Palace of the General Quarters, Lisbon, the of December. (Signed) Jusor. LISBO*, JAN. Y7.—The new Decrees and Orders of the French General .lunot, have been rr; n larly transmitted to the Regency, and by them put Into execution. The furniture of the British Assembly Room has been sold by Juno for MO/. mei , . ling; the lower apartments were immediately afterwards dim rected to be converted into stables; and the upper rooms, vi bleb are very elegantly construned and furnished, were presented to Beauharnois, who has taken up his residence Caere. The Wm of British property, w hick, by virtue of the De cree of the sth of Decemlwr, had been entered with Mons. Le goy, did not amount to 1.10,000/. sterling, and no efforts on the part of the people were attemptl4l to be made to increase the amount. The seals had not been rated from the doors of the Office-: Of Cu-toul, ; but this is daily eN peeled, wider the super intendance of officers, who had been thatged to inquire into the nature and value of the property. Such as Arnold be found to be in any manner connected w ith British subiects is to be confis cated as British propert , and such as shall clearly appear to be long to tqe nthjects of Portugal, is to be restored, and allowed to be sold for their benefit." AM LIM' 110(1SB OP REPREs'ENTJTY PS4 4ftiVnTrtti, fhlr. 29 --Mr. Newton (Va.) from file Com mittee of Commerce and Nl;:nuf.‘ettires, reported a Bill Supple , mentary to the Act laying an Embargo, w hich wa* tw ice read, —The follow lug is the Bill : A 1311.1,, Supplementary to the Act, cntiti,el •' an Act !aging eta EmbarJ gu on all Ships and Teasels is the poets and harbours of the United •Slates," Sec. T. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represents• tie of the I: cited States of America, in Congress assembled, that during the continuance of the art to which this act is sup plementary, no vesq.l licensed for the coasting trade and fish eries, (ships engaged in the whole or ether fisheries were ex. esspted iu toe Cuattnittte on the Bill), having on board' good ,;1 . ... 1 r