The National Register. — London, England, 1816-09-02 00:00:00

I e - fTitt No. 447.—V0L. IX. P0L1776'.11. DIMIL'IsITIO OR4ERVATIONS OF AN ENGLISHM ON ME TIONALCIUXHACTER—FoLITicALcoNsTrru --LlTEfutity, PHILDsOPHICA 1., AND MORAL CUL TIVATION OF HIS COUNTRYMEN. THE mind of an Englishman is sedate, and content plative;—it examines objects with calmness, yet with vigour:—it investi e vates,—it ascertains,—it appreciates their positive, and comparative excellence;—and, when it has arranged the station which they hold, and the portion of attention which they merit,—it entbraets them with warmth, and pursues theta with undeviating resolution, and zeal. This calm, this vigorous, and persevering character istic of Britons, is displayed in the varied walks of literary, political, commercial, and military life:—uud, on this basis, is founded the high fame, which they sup part among the Nations of the earth. To the eye of the philosopher, similar phenomena arc ever obvious in national, as in individual character.— An individual, distingnishel by the qualities, thus slightly stated, soon becomes familiar with the nature and properties of the objects which elicit his. regards,— I whether those objects lie in the scenes of active, or con templative life. When circumstances fix him in the hustle of the world, and present no insuperable barrier to his peculiar designation, he becomes, in one direction of events, the heroic Captain,—the pride,—the stay,— the glory of his country !—Or, in a more limited field of exertion, the skilful artizan,—the 'patient agricul turist,—the enterprizing mariner,—the intelligent mer- • chant,—the learned divine,—the acute lawyer,—the physician,—and the enlightened magistrate, legislator, and politician. The combination, and general prevalence, of such in dividuals in a state, tima the natiunal character of that state:—they constitute its airength,—its . fiemr,—its nail of defiatce against aNsailieg jimr,—and its shield of /ma /whoa to the potrerlers and the uppressed. They etimpel even rival states to a half-smothered admiration, and acknowledgment of pre-eminence,—and spread be:ltre the historian and the poet, the favoured topics, on which their genius and their talents delight to dwell. The man, whom nature has blessed with a strong and vigorous pereeption,—whom she lets endowed with the I:Lenity of receiving the fullest impressions front all external objects,—together with a judgment, capable of assigning to those objects their due arrangement and imitortance,—who, by educatit et,—by habits of science,— and by long reflection,—has matured these rich gifts, will secure a pleasure which never cloys, in tracing the moral causes, which produce the difference between CHIC Mall and another in private lif.,—and which, on a more extended theatre of developement and exhibition, re gulate the comparative grandeur and insignificance of states. With an interest unfelt by less cultivated minds, his discerning eye traverses the page which records the history of in at, bath in his individual, and collective character;—whieh either unitizes hi:: wants in domestic pile, iris social pleasures,—his rational tiwulties,—his moral qualities,—his powers of utility, and consequent estimation: —or, in that more extended sphere, which fixes on him the gaze of nations, and unites with his decisions, the political destinies of mankind. In his favourite lueubrutious, he goes hack to the remotest ages of antiquity, and from traditionary actsmnts, or written records, traces the operati,cl of the human intellect in the varied institutes, customs, and improvements, which separate one people from another; awl he which, some nations are not only raise:l to the highest point of power and flaw, individually considered, but acquire an aseendanev in the councils and measures of neighbouring., and even distant states, and communities. In the lapse of multiplied generations, in the extended cyrcle of Caw thousand years, the field of gratification to such a mind, is boundless in its objects. It spreads I.ditre him the early stores of Egyptian cultivation; the chaste nvalels and specimens of the Grecian arts and sciences, the animating documents of Homan re finement, independent of the scattered r.tys of genii's. and civilization, which hove, occasionally, illuminated tic hiriAtin of less-tiwourea communities. In the flowing course it' human atnirs. he passes on, from the records or antiquity, to the transactions of nnalern days. Ills comprehensive mind grasps the dis tinctive ;narks which separate these important pen eels of history. lie notes the secret, yet powerful iutlueuees, alio nail t fan** Otir tting, tronOtitution attb UatuO. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1816. which ascertain the point of resemblance between an cient, and modern man; and those, also, which render him almost u Being of a different class, actuated by a different destiny, and exhibiting, in many prominent features, u different object of investigation to the eye of contemplation and philosophy. In traversing the fie hl of modern communities, he analises their varied systems of Legislation, their intel lectual and mural heats, their increasing knowledge of the haws of nature, their extended manufactures. their enterprise in commerce; and the rapid developement, and enlightened occupation of those regions of science, which were utterly unknown to the most penetrating genius of ancient times, and which constitute a new tem in the annals of the human intellect. And he dc rives a pleasure, to which a etnninon mind has no access, from a scientific view of the comparative merit, exhibited in the varied lines of mental exertion. In surveying the enranatnities of modem times, this comprehensive investigator of human intellect, and hu man actions, is specially attracted to that magazine of political, moral. literary. and commercial wonder. which his native land presents, not only to his own contempla tion, but to the itenetrating eye of every philosophical spectator, however separated by diErenee of climate, or the interfering interests otifivid nations. And, when he has minutely examined its principles of legislation,—its socis,:t-ituititutions,—its moral eharacter,—its ingoinity and tadustry,—its native energy, equally forming the basis of its commercial enterprize, as of its military and naval supremacy : when, with a rapid, but, critic eye, he stretches the institutions of contemperary States. and compares them with the far-famed system of liritish laws, and the multiplied benefits derived from their ope ration, he will not marvel at the tli; n riified and awful attitude, which Britain lwlds amidst surrounding na tions, or the confident ilnneamour other highly Etvonred sons. As an individur • member of so atq,rust u tinnily, he indulges the pride and importance of his envied lot ; an& being imbued with right principles, and directed by right feelings, will constitute no mean support of the general fabric. Ile will become an enlightened patriot,— a strenuous assertor of his country's rights,—a the to his country's foes, whether foreign or domestic,—and equally so, whether the latter be found in the higher, or lower orders of society. By patient an.l invarti!d investigation-1u a recurrence to the acknowledge:l principles of the British Constitu tion, he is aware, that the duo tempt:rament of the mo nurehical, Aristueriiiiild, and popular britches of le gislation, is not a ukre figment of the imagination—a pleasing, but impraeticsible reverie of speculative minds— bat reducible to practice—constituting the happy result of successful experiustnt, and carrying with it all those prominent advaut ige3, which firm the basis of his coun try's greatness. Yet, equally aware, that. as the work, and necessarily on I .or the dirortion of erring mall, it is exposed to the inivapprebensions of the weak, and the misrepresont:t. ions of the itelip ing ; it becomes his especial ears—by the constant exercise of his cultivated talents— by his patriotic energy—and by his example, to support that jiml &dance of its parts, which constitutes its sod— its !Eddied umniptence f—{To 6e eusitimwed.] NIANLICS. The Austrian Caisinet has lie - en for some time occupied with delib..ratrins respecting the Order of Malta, and much curiosity hats prevaikl ok:tow the result. We at length learn, that the Order is to remain in its present state until its eutia , extinction ; that is to say, that all the Dignitaties will continue to enjoy the revenues :nal benefices of the Order during their lives : the vacant cont.. manieries will b.! given to the professed Knignts. The simple Knights alreidy received may fallow their career, but no inure will b 2 atltnitted ; and at the death of the Titulars, the mess of the property will be disposed of.— It is generally supposed that it will be employod in firm ing n new dotatioa tin• the Military Order of Muria The resa, to which more eonsisteney and a more extensive or ganisation will Ito 'even. Thus ftill to the ground :ill the reports which have been in circulation respecting the Isle of Eysts;‘, and other parts et the Adriatic. This mea sure of tit.... Emperor cannot thil to create a great s''nattion, and must have infiteux in the decision to be adopted by the other Stweeeigais. R•e are ansured that Count Niarv, who Int: been thr some time at Vienna, is using endeavours to get the Archduke Maximilian appinntod Grand Master of the Order. Pnwp: 94d. . • FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. TO the eye of a.discerning politician, the afTtirs of a neighbouring (wintry have been, f'or some time past, as suming an appearance, awfully plrtenttnis•; and our ap prehensions fin. the re oilt lime been painfully acute.— They are, in no 41,gree, diminished by al,• studied dis piny, in the last offieial papers, ofpublie unanimity, and affectionate loyalty. When States have no settled' political Qmstittition guide the arm of power, or fix tire wavering opinions of the governed, or, which is worse, when an acknatvhsigeti system of legislation becomes a dead letter in the hands of a faction, surrounding the throne, to such a crisis as this will their public afl'airs frequentlytend ! The house of Bourbon, on the downfall ofthc most hideous military tyranny that ever threatened the Frmanaut subjugation of mankind, returned to the land of tluir falters, wit 4 our best and most cordial wishes for their honourable establishment. We conceived, that the Constitatioe, which was tendered as the rondilion of their return, and provisionally nekmnled'ed by Monsiuer, in the name of his Itrother, would have been accepted with enthusiasm, and acted upon with vigour, on the arrival of the latter. NVe conceived, that every feeling of his heart, and every power of his intellect, would have been absorbed in the single objet of healing the wounds of the nation—of re conciling every hostile passion—of vigorously exceutiii : ; the laws, without regard to individual affection, or indi vidual resentment : that the future throne would have been built on a manly and, liberal acknowledgment of' the rights of the peop!e, and the renunciation ofevery despotic and superstitious dogma. We conceived all this would have been done, because we were inclined to attribute patriotic views to the head of the Exiled House, generated by right conceptions of the wishes of his petiple, anti matured in the whoop of naisfiutinte. Our expectations were soon withcred—a flnv days ex hibited a manifest and chilling reluctance, an the side of the Hourlams, to meet what we conceive to In the wish of the largest and best part of the French population-- a system of legislation similar to our own—leaving to the Prince all power in doing good, and no power to do, harm ! That reluctance Ins been fidlowed up by acts which have thrown into the shade all present hope of an ameliorated condition of that distracted people: and appearances warrant the most paiotill solicitude in every breast, friendly to the general interests of mankind, and the tranquillity acme of the finest regions on the ince of the globe. But our limits forbid present enlargement. We, there re, refer to the attention of our intelligent readers the weekly documents we publish respecting that unfortunate nation. FRF.NCII P %PERS. PAnts Avo. 23.—Yesterday, the capital presented th. aspect of the tir•cst Kstival : it was that of our august Monarch; and Paris has had thc happines.s of hem,' ing the interpreter of the wishes and expressions of gratitude and atketion, which have at the smue nanacnt escapist fron t all French hearts, and burst thrth on all points of the kingdma.—Magistrates, warriors, poets, artists, citizens of ullranks and ages, were anxious to discharge a debt so precious, and present to their King the homage of feelings which his virtues huve excited, and which he daily renders At one o'clock, after mass, hi, Niajesty, surrounded by the Primes of his tinnily and the Great Officers of his Household, received in the Hall of the Throne tha homage mid mpectful felicitations of the 6erieral Staff, tool the corps of Officers of the Natiotml Gutinl of Paris, who were presented to him by the Marshal I of Reggio, their commander in chief. This eorps consieed of nearly 2000 officers, in the finest and most exact unifimin, who risstunbled in the great gallery of the Muscuin : they dcliled betVre his Majesty in two lines by order of legions, battalions, and companies. lit Majesty honoured them with the most touching and paternal reception, and was pleased repeatedly to express the •otistiiction with which he saw the chiefs of a corps, whose acid, services, and honourable devotedness he appreciates. The generld staff sod the eorps of officers of the different regimente.of the Royal Gum's, who were ;11,49 assemOlcd in the gallery . of the Museum. were in like manlier presenteit to his Majesty, and admitted to the honour of defiling beilers him. At two o'clock all the Theatres were openetlAeatis, and were tilled by crawls--Every where such picots, ,