The National Register. — London, England, 1809-06-04 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL IMGISTER. upon, or menaced into the uneonstitutionll conduct of the kgisiatiuc that it wants lo be reformed, and if ti.e passions and prejudices of the people Can be hrott..oit to act ..•pon their representatives, you and such men its you w:11 soon have frill employment, " To tide t!!.e wl±irivried and direct the ttortn." Blackstone observes, B. 1. Ch. 2. That the whole of the Law aud Cnsfooi of Parliament, has its original from .this one maxim, he quotes from 4 15. 66 That 4vhltever matter arises concerning either house of Parlia ment, ottA•lit to be examined, discussed, and adjudged in that !tense to which it relates, and not elsewhere." Wherever the Constitution, or rather the Law, expresses IE4 distrust of abuse of Power, it always vests a superior coercive authority in some other hand to correct it. Now, has the King (let me ask) any power to correct the Corrup tion of the Representatives of the People ? For you mud Incan this by affording his rayal countenance to the Refor inat:on of the flange of Commons, or the object of your Vetitiolt is arrint nonsense.. • As Blackstone well observes—" the very notion of this power of Corruption, destroys the idea of Sovereignty in that branch of the Supreme Power which tau be corrected, and would render the exercise of it precarious and imprac ticable." And with a kind of prophetic spirit he goes on ihus—" If, therefore, (for example,) the two Houses of Parliament, or either of them had avowedly a right to animadvert on the King, or each other, or if the King had a right to animadvert or either of She Houses, that branch of the Legislature so subject to animadversion, would ia Stonily cease to be part of the Supreme Power—the balance of - the Constitution would be overturned- , --and that branch or branc:les in which this jurisdiction resided would be :eomplc:ely sovereign." nit with all your anxiety for the liberties of the people, has it never once occuered to you that a precedent which established, or ever recognised a right in the Crown, to in terfere in the Refarmation of the house of Commons, Might tar employed to justify such a reform, as would render the Representatives of the people entirely dependent upon the Crown ? It is not sufficient answer to this, merely to say, such a thing is unlikely or improbable. If interference on the part of the Crown be at all admissible, who is to deter mine the degree or extent of corruption that will render it justifiable 3 The very proposition you set out with, there fore, involves not only an absurdity, but is coupled with a risk that no prudent man would run, and none but the most impudentandlignoratit political empiric would advise. Remember, Sir, it is the point of prudence to guard against what may, and not trust to what will be done. With such an egregious error in the very face and front of your let ter, what encouraxement is there to proceed with you up on the journey of Reform ? What ground is there for con fidence, and what security even for your acting with cotn •mon prudence. A MODERATE REFORMER. (To be continued.) There is no truth in the report of Sir Francis Burdett ,and Mr. Tierney having fought a duel, as was reported iu 'Ow course of tho week. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. FROM THE DITTCH PAPERS. PARIS, Y 23.—A new Bulletin was published here to day, of which the following isa copy : EIGHT!' RVLLETIN OP TIIS FRENCH ARYL. The people of Vienna praise the Archduke Reinier, He was Governor of Vienna, but when the revolutionary measures of& dered by the Emperor Fracir 11. came to his knowledge, he re fused to retain the Government. The Archduke Maximilian was therefore appointed in his stead. This young Prince, who displayed all the thoughtlessness that could be supposed to bee long to his ttge, declared that hew ould bury himself under the ruins of the town. He collected together all the restless, the indolent, and the worthless, of whom there is always a multi. tude in a great city, furnished them with pikes, and distributed all the arms which are in the arsenal. In vain did the inhalsi tants represent to him that a great city raised by infinite labour and expence to so high a pitch of grandeur, ought not to beer , pled to the horrors and devastation with which war is ace companied. These representations, however, only excited his passion, and his fury rose to such a height that he gave no other answer but the order to fire bombs and howitzers on the suburb!; which could kill the inhabitants only, as the French were rm. , tected by their fortifications, and could derive a farther security from the practice of Ivor, The people of Vienna experienced the most painful anxiety, and thetown was believed to be de voted to destruction, when the Emperor Napoleon, to save the capital from the evils of a protracted defence, by rendering all defence evidently useless, ordered the troops to cross the arm of the Danube, and to take possession of the Prater. At eight o'clock an officer informed the Archduke that a bridge was esta blished at that quarter, that a great number of the French had crossed by swimming, soul were already on that side of the river s —At this news the hot-headed Prince grew pale, and was filled with terror. Ile passed the Prater iu all haste; sent every bat talion he met back by the bridge, and made his escape without having formed any arrangement for the defence of the town, and even without transferring to any person the command Which b* was abandoning: This, however, was the very same man who hut an hour before had boldly pretended that he would bury , himself under the ruins of the capital. The fate of the House of Loraine was foreseen by all intelligent persons, though he other respects of the most oppositeopinions.—Manfredini obtsithed as audience of the Emperor 4 in which he represented to him that this war would long t~ eigh heavy on his conscience s that it would bring about the downfall of his House, and that the French would soon be at Vienna.- 11 Poh ! Pah 1" replied the Empee ror, " they are all in Spain." Thongeti in pursuance of the confidence Which the Emperor for. merly placed in him, took the liberty of making repeated ree piaiseetatitias. The Prince De Ligne said aloud, '• I thought I was old enough not to have outlives! the Austrian monarchy."— And when the old Cenet Wallis so* the Emperor set out to join the army, he said, " There is Darius running to meet as Alexander : he will experience the same fate." Count Lewis Von Cobentzel, the chief promoter of the war of ISOS, was at this time lying on his death bed ; but twenty-four hours befoul he expired, be addressed a vigorous and animated letter to the Emperor. "Your Majesty," he wrote, "ought to consider yourself as fortunate, with respect to the situation in which tbst peace of Presburg has placed you. You are in the second rank among the powers of Europe, which is the same that your ancesa tors occupied. Avoid a war for whichao provocation is given, and which will produce the ruin of your house. Napoleon will conquer, and will then 'have the right to be inexorable 4 '' &c. This last act of Count Cobentzel rendered his departing moment. truly interesting. The Prince of Zizendorf, Minister for ForeignAffairsseveral statesmen, who, like him, remained free from the contagion tied fatal blindness of the moment—several other persons of distinction, and all that were respectable among the Burghers, entertained the same sentiments, and spoke in the same immerge But the svounded pride of the Emperor Francis I ha+ tred of the. Archduke Charles against Russia, and the displea+ sore with which he viewed the close union between that Euspirst and Francethe gold of England,, vhich had purchased Chia Minister Stadion—the levity and inconsiderateness of some do-s zens of women, or ellen:lin:4o 111- 7 fhe 'deceptions and false reports of Count Meternichtheintrigues of. the Razumowskisa, the Dalpozzos, the Schlegel', the Geotzes,•aud other Wm. • • JiTNE 4. 0r ,........