The National Register. — London, England, 1814-06-26 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. lir D . in e onctinttion, atiD wog. runLisitcn AT NO. 11, NEWCASTLE-STREET, STRAND. No. 351. The argument um ad Imminent is the favourite weapon of our modern logicians, and - thev endeavour to supply. by a'l their det.eiencies in the tof rwioeina tion. They seldom meet a question as men desirous of t:uth, and e inure intent upon disguisin , 22 opinions than in forwarding-the great cause of intellectual requiry. Indeed if we look into these men, we shall find !hat this constant disposition to conceal the facts enters s sensibly into dick I:!thits, and becomes so much a part of their system, that in cases that require only plainness and the same unaccountable mssterionsness prevails, to the ex elusi.in of ti at social frankness, and those prom - but sis of sentiment that qualify the common and accidental differ ences of rank and situation, and which can alone sustain the elevation of mind so necessary to all. In no particular that we recollect has this been more ed. dent than i►► the business of the Princess of Wiiles. It was easy to pereeive . that they had a task rather than a duty to perform, and that the head and the heart were mutually teluctant to the undertaking. It remained for Lord Castle reagh to poitit out a passage for their escape, and to save them from the effects of their own prevarication and subser viency. The respect we entertain for Ministers, and the approbeiou with which we view their conduct in general, cannot, however, prevent us from finding fault with their interpretation of the rowels of the House of Commons as applied to this insulated case ; and we cannot help thinking that the line pursued has left the situation of the Princess more exposed than ever. (In this point Mr. Whitbread was energetically right—Mr. Tierney honestly consistent. Money is no recompense for the loss of character ; and Mr. Methuen has obtained nothing more by his motion than an equivocal inference that will not strike nine people out of ten. Is there no compromise in this motion—no truckling to the " Powers that se?" The rays of Royal favour are topical of a w.atner sun; they'seem to affect the head, and r aralize the afiections. bud Castle ' cagh has had much experience in this kind of complaints, and, like a skilful physician, rather deals in alteratives than specirics—rather soothes than cures, and leaves his patients to the periodical return of bile and fever. But money is not whit the Princess of 'Wales sues for-- neither does she deny the deed of separation, or wish to see it cancelled ; it is, howevel l a were separation of bed and board; i. contains nothing constructive of moral or political deprivation. She cannot abdicate any of her mole sacred rights without.the consent of the Constitution, and what the Constitution condescends to preset-ye, it surely is adequate to discuss. There is, in our opinion, an evident roL VA Nu. CGCXXXIII. I r r SUNDAY. JUNE ?6. 1814 PRINCESS OF WALES'. Pn rrF 9d. on chi, pat t of the t;uestion, that affects the character of both Wes of (Iv, [louse. and that must, in the end, have a bad, elicit upon public opinion. Even Mr. Ponsonbv, the organ of the Greys and the Grenvilies, is satisfied ! :;.:isfied with what ?. Lord Castle reagh cautiousl .) abstained from committing himself. lie deplored his interference : he deplored the situation in which the Pt lute Regent was placed ; he glowed with affected indig nation, but all his compassion was .-rn the side of the Prince. Having once presumed the Princess innocent, be left his hearers still to presume the .same thing; but not a word more in her favour- - --no new topic of exoneration ur excuse. W hat then becomes of the Princess of Wales ? Enough was dropved to enlarge the circle of suspicion—to impugn her po licy--to degrade the character of her friends, but every thing cat efuliy avoided that could atone to her injured feelings, or qualify the indignation of the peop!e. The debate must have taken a different turn but for the equivocal motion furnished by Ur. Methuen ; a motion, indeed, that perpe tuates the worse characteristic of the coontry, and that leaves our moral system exposed to the basest of all imputa tions. " Coll you this Lucking your friends r" Happily, however, I,r the Princess of Wales, her situation is known to the whole *country. Every min and every woman in it are quhlified to take a share in the discussion : all political asperities are mere ttifies, compared with the enthusiasm that all ranks of people feel in the cause of the Princess; and • Ministers must not esxpect that they will have eithe: patience or temper to separate the cause of the innocent from the guilty. Nor is time luke-warm ardour of those who generally -advocate be cause calculated to allay - the ferment. how ever much we may be accused as fond of money in this country, there is a sentiment, we should hope, much beyond it: and if we could believe for a moment the Princess bad this in the slightest degree in view, we should abandon her ' defence or ever. The communication of the letter which the Speaker deli. vered to the 'Howe, and the inference attached to it, seem to have created much surprise in the course of the debate to those whom, for their own discredit, it unhappily exposed. For if, as they assert, they meant nothing futther than mere exclusion frotn the Drawing-room, the cariying of their point at any moment would, we should have thought, have been a matter of indifference. But the rime.ehosen was onepregnant with oew insult., and new charges agairot the character of the individual concerned. It deprived her of all the attentions she had a right to expect, and it marked her out as an object too odi ous fur association. The usual habits of mankind arc first to degrane those they would injure, and the Princess had a right to put an exti eine construction upon an act that was more 4suaLly wanton. It should appear to us that, exccpt..4, ' : _.:✓