The National Register. — London, England, 1818-01-05 00:00:00

; Z /11 ". 7 *, v br 0, No. 517.—V0L. XI. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. ON THE PROGRESS OF INFIDELITY. IT has been well observed, that during the reign of Charles the Second, the follies, the vices and impiety of the continent had so inundated this country, that pie ty and morality began to pass for marks of disaffection towards the government. Now, however, the very reverse of this is the case, the impiety of republican France has tainted us deeply, and those who have in any degree escaped the contagion, are stigmatized by their infected countrymen, as slaves of a tyrannical go vernment. According to them, there is no political virtue, but in those who have learnt to rise superior to the slavish notions of religion :—there is no spirit but in those who have courage to render religion r idicu kus in the estimation of the unthinking. If this ir religious spirit were unconnected with politics, we should be little alarmed about the consequences, for there is such a commanding sanctity in true religion, that men only of the most callous natures, can lung with stand the daily and hourly appeals which it makes to their reason. In the moment of earthly triumph, in the hour of exuberant health, in the hey-day of youth and thoughtlessness, they may treat the sacred truths of religion with levity, and even with scorn, but when dis ease, or want, or any of the many calamities "that flesh is heir to" press upon them, reason comes to their aid, and with a power which they cannot resist, points to that sour:e front whence only true comfbrt and conso lation can flow. But when to scepticism in religion, are joined principles in politics, hostile to every set tled system, when nothing is relished but what is new, when the same foot that, in scorn, treads down the word of God, would also tread down the political con stitution of the country, we may well be alarmed, and inquire. Why is this ? DoCs a want of religion neces sarily mal:e anon encodes to the tranquillity of their countm or logs their political hostility lead them to reject the most selcum religious truths? 'We confess our belief that in modern times irreligious opinions have engendered politital hostility. The writings of those whom we class in time school of Voltaire, by sapping the foundations of their countrymen's religious faith, brought an them all the horrors of a sanguinary revolu tion, and, what generally succeeds to such an event, a grinding and pitiless tyranny. Acquainted, as we all are, with the calamities which these unholy scoffers produced, is it not surprising that we who have always been accounted a sober, thinking .people, should give in to all the foppery of their infi delity. . .We have not even the merit of originality in our mode of sinning, for we copy the example of our neighbours to the very letter. We insinuate our frcc thoughts, as they did, into the most unlikely materials ; a chemical or geological essay furnishes a ground of doubt as to the existence of afird.cause; a biographical sketch gives full opportunity of praising the moat wicked of mankind, if' they have had but political or *cies* 'nor:h. It is only the bold and impudent pau per in the field of literature that advances his pestilent doctrines without disguise ; and what his success is, we can judge by recent events. We have no wish to say one severe word against the poor man who has lately been the subject of prosecution for blasphemy. He fell into the taste of the party to which he had long had a leaning, and what he wrote he wrote for bread ; a wife and seven starving children migh drive a man to the commission of a greater crime than that M r. Hone was guilty of, and his subsequent conduct thews that ha is not insensible to the nature of his A:nice. But no apology of this sort can web be oifered for the conduct of those who have come forward with such alacrity in his behalf. To relieve the ncees.dties of the man was an act becoming a British public, and the appeal which b,p t,7ta4 to the feelings of the jury on the third day of his ationali : 1 2‘ taitittr+ Our Wm Coniftitution attb MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1818. trial exhibited so strong a picture of domestic wretched ness that we need not wonder at the extent of that bounty which we hope will for the future place a very unhappy man in comparative happiness. But, as we have already observed, it is on the manner in which this boun ty has been bestowed, that our censure must fall. Mr. Hone has been made bya party, the stalking horse to hide their real designs. Their cry is tiro liberty of the press, ' while every day proves that by encouraging its licenti ousncss they are accelerating its ruin. The constitu tional right of a trial by jury is reiterated amongst them with loud applause, while by their indecent and brutal conduct, they reduce the Judges in our Courts .to a worse condition than their criers, for they call for silence in vain ; they tear down and trample on the solemnity, which has hitherto guarded the seat of Justice, and by an unequivocal demonstra tion of their temper, endeavour to awe both judge and jury into a compliance with their wish. They deny that to ridicule the scriptures by parodying them is criminal, because great and good men, in all ages, have parixlied theta. forgetting that it was don e not to destroy, but to support religion. When they can show that Mr. Hone's parodies had tEe furtherance .of either religion or morality in view, we shall give credit to him for his intentions, and to them for their sanctity. Some of the detig,nations, however, which accompany small sums in the list of subscrip tions, speak volumes for the creed of these benevolent patriots. We there find Derry Triangle, as one of them which, to us, conveys a meaning which makes us blush, as we write it for the frontless impudence of the wretch who could subscribe his name thus, and tin the men who admitted such a designation to stand amongst their names Do these abettors of infidelity, • these bosom friends of men who have openly denied their belief in the revealed religion of God, imagine that the thin disguise of political zeal will hide the real workings of their hearts? In attempting to de ceive the public, they do but decieve themselves, and s° injudicious is their zeal, that every eflint which they make to further the end they have in view, serves but to give strength to those, whom they con sider their enemies. May it long have this effect; for if we are to choose between our present state and an irreligious democracy, we should certainly prefer the former. A Meeting was held in the City on Friday, to con sider of some means by which the numerous distressed Seamen now wandering about the streets of the Metro polis, might receive relief. To excite the benevolence of charitable persons in behalf of such objects as these, is trul, laudable ; and we doubt not the humanity so truly natural to Englishmen, will prompt them to come tbrward to succour those who have fought our battles, and shed such enduring ;gory upon the naval annals of their country. We need not add, that our warmest wishes attend the humane object in question. A letter from Smyrna, of the 15th of Oct. states, that Ali , Pacha ; the Governor of Epirus and Thcssa!v, some months since, ordered a beantifill (;reek lady named Euphrosine, of whom his eldest son, Mouctar was enamoured, to be drowned iu the sea of Jannina ' with fifteen of her female friends ; but, as none of his subjects would execute his commands, he had the barbarity to carry them personally into effect. GENERAL Peet.—lt having been declared in the Phi laddphia Democratic Press, that the patriot General Nes is a black man, a writer in the New Yoeh Co' lam bkin contradicts the assertion, and says, " He is a white, born in Merida, the capital of the province to which it give its name. It was he that destroyed the greatest part of Nlorillo's forces, in the march from Santa Fe to the province of Venezuela. He now commands the pro vinces that had b n freed by the valour of his arms, viz, Barinas, Merida, Truxillo, and Cueutta." The American Government, it is said, has resolved to maintain in the poor house, at the expewe of lle Captain in whose ship th 9 have sailed, all such Euro pean emigrants as shall nit be able to find employment, on their arrival in the United Status. PRICE 94d• FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. FR iNCE. By a prnjet de ►ni, adopted ou the 22d, by the Chamber, the Finance Minister has obtained a pro isional credit for 100,000,000 francs, ($,300,0001.), granted in antic ipation of 6-12ths of the taxes of ISM which are to be assessed ou scale of the present year. This scheme is both a consequence and invoice* the immediate pressure on the French treasury. and most give rise to nitinherless hardships; which, indeed the Minister has frankly admitted, but without proposing any measure of alleviation, The report npon the law respecting the journals was not brought into diNcnssion in the Chamber of Peers, on the 2,6 th ult. On the name day the Bureaux et' the Deputies met to es;dnine the prnject of Finance, and the Committee autos. bled on the law tur the recruiting of the alloy. SPAIN. " MADRID, I)vc. I6.—The project of recruiting the army by a conscription is on the eve of being carried into execu tion icy a Royal Ordinance, which prescribes the new mods of supplying our military ranks. Every year 11,000 men, taken from those between 1$ and 30 years of age, to affect all classes without exception, are to be called into the troops of the dif- Cerent years. Front this conscription esemptimi may be ob tained by paying for once a sum of 5,000 fran4N. The im provement introduced by the Minister of Finance 11110 the s%stern of contributions having produced the most salntary effects, it appears that Al. Equia has rucommeoded to his Majesty this basis for the rerruitment of the army. SOUTH AMERICA. The French brig Andromache, Which had sailed from Mal donado on the 2.1 of October, and arrived at Bourdeiatlx, of cour.e brings the latest accounts, especially fay ii the eastern bank of the river, to the following effect : —"Pite Portuguese troops remained at Monte Video, where the.; were However as much disliked as A rtigas ; the inhabitants had no other wish but to be united ruder the Govermuent of Hoene* Ayres, which was every day more consolidated. Ail igas Mitt been deserted by the greatest number of his t recital, and the Government of Buenos Ayres can depend on 2,000 of them to serve tinder her banner• , . In OA, Gen-rat San Martin had raised his forces to nearly the number which lie proposed and the preparations for an expedition against Liana were cart ied on with great activity.' SWEDEN. A Hambnrgli mail contains a document, signed by Bee King of Sweden, on the events which have taken place since the last Diet, and on the general state and prospects of the kingdom. By this it appears, that a treaty of com merce has been concluded between Sweden and the United States, and a treaty with Russia respecting the commercial relations between Sweden and Finland, her furrier province. Prussia has made considerable progress in paying op the sums agreed upon as an indemnity to Sweden for th•• Iwo of Pomerania. The Swedish rovenne of customs has proved, and her foreign debt has every o here been discharged ur diminished. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A variety of American papers have reached town. A pro minent article in the Baltimore Gazette holds tOitli to the people of tie United States, the necessity of .eiaing ou Amelia Island, which is represented to base become the common receptacle of pirates and freebooters, who prey upon the commerce of all trading nations; and which it therefore behoves the Government of the United States to occupy at least provisionally, in their own defence. The writer conclndes with confidently asserting, that " the time is near at hand when both Amelia and Galvestown will he takes possession of by his Government, and heid far future dia. posal." Col. Bankhind, the account goes on to say, was to leave Charleston about the 25th ult. for Sasannah. dcrnble reliance is placed on the opinion, that immediately on the meeting of Congress, Fast Florida was to be ceded to the United States by Siiaiu ; and Amelia is regarded as Com ing an understood memberof the territory so to be. given up. The New American Navigation Act continues to be euloreed wilt exemplary rigour. A private letter from Paris, dated Der, ep, says " The Duke of Wellington has arrived Pafis. Ilia Grace, it is said, has no other object in this visit to the capital but to pay his respects to the King •at the new year. The presence of the noble Duke, at Pari.l, will, however, it is hoped, accelerate a little the nego. ciations about the foreign claims, and the stay of the Allied Armies in France, which f►r some time have threatened to be intLiinitely prolonged. *rite Duke, after remaining some time at Paris, will proceed . to England. Up to this time, there is no appearance of a change of Ministry, though the resent Administru. tion have lost much in pablic opinion since the opening of the Chambers. The King has warned, within these few Says, persons of the Court, and principally iliose who sit in the Chamber of Peers, to take care how they vote against projects of'laws or measures of his Ministers, on peril of being disgraced." A coinage of crowns or five-shilling-pieces will corn menee in the course of a new days at the Mi.►t. Oa one side will be a head of His Majesty, and on the re verse the figures of St. George and the Dragon. The number to be struck in the first instance will be five hundred thousand ; when that number is completed, they are to be issued to the Bank, wldeh, it is said, will he in about a muntli or live a..ck.:;