The National Register. — London, England, 1813-10-24 00:00:00

NATIONAL REGISTER. • rt I Cur Sing, Constitution, aim Laths. PLJRLISHF.D AT NO. 11, NEWCASTLE-STUrET, STRAND. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9.4, 813. PRIeR Pd• POLITICAL 1)1C2UISITION. COMPARATIVE SfATE AN!) FORCE OF_THE BELLI- GERENTS. We should search in vain the history of human events since population overspread the earth, and the varieties of language and of nations existed, to find a period fraught with more awlul importance than the present. Though wars have in all ages desolated the world, and revolutions have fre- quently demonstrated the instability of terrestrial greatness, yet they have never produced scenes of deeper interest than those, which a few days will tell us whether it be our fortune or our course to behold. Let those who complain of the de generacy of mankind look round them and stand reproved. Let Antiquity bring, forth her hosts of fabled and real heroes, she will find their equals marshalled on the field where the fate of nations is now deciding. She will see the same pas sions exerting their influence with the same energy. Nay, she will perceive the great qualities, the splendid vices and virtues scattered amongst her most celebrated children in a lung series of ages, united in the present, and actively en gaged in one grand and momentous action. The prodigious ambition, the military talents, the genius and successes of ALEXANDER, will swig revived in the same person, with the cruelty, the apostacy, and the disasters of a Jut.' AN. Ent to opposu this modern ALEXANDER, she will mat k other troops than luxurious Pe•Aians and the other enervated sons of Asia. She wilt bail in the hosts embattled against him, the spirit of Citecian heroism, heightened by the wild en thusiasm of Scythian pat! iotism. In the Chiefs ranged on either side, she will acknowledge the abilities, experience, and enterprise of her most distinguished Commanders, and all that the world has ever produced of great in witkeduess, in power, in talents, and in virtue, will appear collecte4 on the Continent, whilst on the surrounding seas the British navy rides with more than Tyrian or Carthagenian sway. With such Agents it would be I:ripen:Able that common events should wear a common face. - But when the object which engrosses their exertions is no less than the conquest or the liberation of a world, it is evident that the: whole must assume an appearance of gratecur which may, in future times, be equalled, but tan never be surlkabsed. Such is the judgment which posterity will pass on the occurrences of this period, after all the passions which they have bi ought into play shall be allayed, after hope and fear shall have ceased to ele vate and to depress, and fresh revolutions shall have left no trace of these mighty changes, save on the page of history. What, therefore, should be our feelings, we whose intere , ts arc so intimately connected with the course of events ? We are not cold, disinterested sileetatoes, who, at the distance of tAtO thousand years, east a LJance of mere cut iosity at the vol. 11. No. CC CI TRE No. SO4. POL IT COMPARATIVE S I We shnuld search • 'since population ove language and of nail( more awlul importan in all ages desolated quently demortoratei yet they have never those, which a few d or our course to bch generacy of 'nankin , Let Antiquity being, the will find their eq fate of nations is no , 'ions exerting their she will perceive the virtues scattered ame scat of perished empires, z'nd perhaps think it much to heave a sigh at the vanity of human grandeur. We stand in the vicinity of the storm, and though hitherto respected by is fury, may see our security destroyed by the unexpected di• pect;on it may take. We hear the thunder that shakes the fields of the Continent, as it bursts. We supply the chain! ions of ft eedorn with 6 - esh bolts of vengeance, forged with our wealth and our Wood, and on the issue of the con• test our very national existence may depend. 'l', usting to the protection of that hand, which has so long averted the raging tempest, and guarded our liberties and our power, let us view the mining crisis, not with se:f important pride„ but with bond le hope and confidence. And until the hour of certainty has struck, let us avail out selves (1 the momen tary calm, to weigh the human probandhies which promise success to our cause. Let us, therefore, consider the rt spective force and nature of the armies entrusted with the fate of the world, at the moment when their close approach renders it impossible that the deciding blow should he any longer suspepo:led. When at the renewal of hostilities, in May last, NA PO LF 044 succeeded in repelling the Allies at Lutzen, 11.)titzen, and Wurtcheo, with the troops which he had hastily collected after his return from Moscow, all the disasters of his retreat were forgot!en. The loss of his veterans seemed supplied by the courage of their successors ; he regained all his confi dence, and the war which be had rzTotnmenced under the plea of securing the integrity of his tertitories, immediately changed its nature, and once more became a war of aggression. By di icing the Ilu-sian and ussian armies out of Saxon., of Ilainhurgh, and of Lubeck, he had reinstated his allics and himself into all their possessions, and therefore, had pretence for prolonging the contest been sincere, as his avowed object was accomplished, he would have 'seriously laboured to restore tranquillity to the Continent. Tl)is he no longer thought it his inlet est to effect. Ile had expii:s , ed his pacific dispositions, however, too openly, when lie dreaded the renewal of hostilities, to be able to prosecute the war at the hour of his successes, without at !east tria%- ing sonic attempt at realizing his promise, if he wish«i to secure the co-operation of his Allies, and the g,(?od-will of hi; suhiects. hence came the Armistice, a•A the .Congress at Prague. which, had he ohhined them byfine his t r i u mphs at I,ntzen and W urtclien, might have indeed led to peace, but which he now turned into mere engines to reconcile his people and toreign supporters to the prolongation o f tire %var. From the publication of the. Documents relative to the riejciciatiow, as welt as the Declaration of Atim la, it ap pears certain that be - mil:tary power, to sac still aimed :it, to the peace. He thought immommi....4 l relied too confidently on his -recovered et ifice the empire of the ism Id which be conclu , ion of a safe and s rrisfactory himself oilce mole invincible, a nd eo -