The National Register. — London, England, 1813-11-21 00:00:00

, . • ._- • . . ~. • . . . . . . ,NAT 0 ./t.. ... GIS, i •... . Our It tug, Constinstion, an talas. . • . •=2.1. - . No. SOS. PUBLISHED ♦T NO. 11, NEWCASTLE-STABS?, STILAND. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21, POLITICAL DIS2UISITION. PHENOMENA OF THE TIMES. nowever glorious the prospects which the Continent pre vents, yet there is one feature in oar home affairs which is not less gratifying to our eyes or less promising to our topes ; we mean the unanimity which now prevails in every department of our Legislature. At no period of English history did men of different views and interests so cordially agree. Never was party spirit more completely disarmed of its influence, and all private considerations sunk in a firm and united endeavour to secure the public good. It will tierhaps be said, that it is in the nature of success to remove every discrepancy of opinion, and that the blaze of good for tune is too brilliant not to dazzle every beholder and lead his blinded judgment captive. This may be a common PRIrE 9i• truth, but it is mow totally inapplicable, for nothing in the pre sent days is •of a common and ordinary kind. The times themselves are not : the contest which we wage, and its mo mentous results. are not: the union of all the European Powers, the concord which rules them, the magnitude of their exertions, are not : neither is the spirit with which we fan, share, and support the efforts of the world, nor the cause • that has produced that spirit. It must be sought for, not in the triumphs to which it has giv4in birth, .pot.ih the oulta tion and intoxication of victory, but in the justice of the motives which called us originally to arms, 'and through us, mankind ;—but in the courage and perseverance with which we carried on a lengthened contest of years, against hope b until our • example made us followers, and Eu rope re-lighted her extinguisbsd liberties at the torch of Freedom tbat had never ceased to burn in our island. It must be sought for, in the propriety of the measures adopted during this desperate struggle, which, like the hidden machinery of nature, appears and is only acksoMedged in its effects. It will be found also, in a manly and candid disposition on the part of those men, formerly distinguished by the name of Opposition, to admit the existence of wisdom, of virtue, and of ability in their opponents. That such conduct cannot he occasioned by the intoxication of success, which sometimes irresistibly .leads men to approve actions which have no other merit than their brilliant and fortunate results, is evident from the ground on which the former Opposition found their present and hearty concurrence in all the demands and measures of Ministers. This ground is the very absence of that intoxication, the child of success, often it; perverter, and sometimes its destroyer. It is the moderation dis played by Government, at the hour of victory ; it is the legitimate object which they openly set to the encreased ex ertions which they require from the country, it i; the olive To/. 1.7. No. Ceeri branch extended amidst redoubled preparations for war, that have obtained for them that unanimity of opinion and support which must secure and augbient their success.. • At the head of those who have distinguished themselves by sacrificing all former differences of opinion, to fortify both Government and the country at this decisive crisis, justice demands that Mr. WHITBREAD should be placed. We are not of those who are so incorrigibly attached to party prejudices, as never to forgive a man for having long maintained the opposite side of the question, but who en deavour to misrepresent his motives . and depreciate his va lue, when he adopts a different line of policy. We do not consider Mr. WHITBREAD'S appi*Obatioll of the conduct and me.:sures of Ministers less to be prized because he had hitherto withholdcn it. Tgeither do we think it is either fair or just, in a print generally considered as the organ of Go. vernment, but which, in this instance we knoW, only ex presses its own sentiments, to attribute the support with which he has now strengthened the Executive,• to lest worthy motives_than those which he- has mentioned, or de tract from the value of that support, and endeavour to load his public spirit With ridicule. Every sacs ice of long entertained opinions must be naturally painful. It is like the abandoning of old friends, from whom, though we may have proved them worthless, it always costs us some pangs to separate. Such a sacrifice neel not be ren dered more difficult, by the manner in which it is re, ceived by the agents of those for whom it is wade. And if after a man has long been abused for maintaining notions supposed to be wrong, he-is laughed at and treated with contempt for adopting those which have been represented as sight, the very inducements to act properly are deAtoyed, and virtue is robbed of her meed. Neither are we disposed to consider the accession of the Opposition Members to the side of Ministers and to the cause of Europe, as one of those exertions made when the necessity of exertion is past, when the toil of the day is over,—as the officious tug at the oar when the vessel enters the port. We think, as Lord CAS TLEREAGH and Mr. WHITBREAD rightly stated, that al though all our measures and efforts tend towards a safe and •honourable peace, that peace is still far distant. We are convinced, by the demonstrations of the enemy, that a tre mendous' struggle must be renewed, and perhaps several campaigns be fought, before he can be reduced to think of any other honour or grandeur hut his own. The strength of the positions to which he has fallen back is such, that he way remain on the defensive until he has created fresh armies for aggression. Holland, to which our main eftints and those of the (7ROWN PritticE arc likely to be directed, is a nest of fortresses, every town being walled, and the country itsegio intersected by canals, as to pros""" Incessant obstacles to au invading