The National Register. — London, England, 1818-01-04 00:00:00

, „. 1 i, ‘,.....- z - . ~. ,; ,--,,/,,/, ....:„ . ...,4, /. ....,,,,... . - 7 ... z__ , _ .., , ~....,., ...,,,.,!.. / 7 , / , , ,, ~ ... . . ~-..-- • • ..A. • . t. • , N., ~,,:,./.... .., , , / .,.. a /• - t."" -- . . • , ) ebt ft. attan(k 11 - . ' 11 l k. tLt i L i - tr.+. Our iltimi, Confititution attli itaivii. ANUAR -...... SUNDAY, J. No. 517.—V0L. XL Y 4, 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 maanerin which this boun ty has been bestowed, that our censure must fall. Mr. I-lone. has been ruadeby a party, the stalling horse to hide thele'real designs; Their cry i.. the Elio. of the press, while every day proves that by entionraging its licenti ousness they arc accelerating ita 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 scat of Justice, and by an uaequitocal demonstra tion of their temper, endeavour to awe both judge and jury into a compliance with their wish. PRICE 9id FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. ON THE PROGRESS OF INFIDELITY. FRANCE. By a projet dt toi, adopted on the ts2d, by the Chamber. the Finance Minister has obtained a pro Itiional credit t. tt00,000,000 fraucs, ( 8 ,300,)001.), granted in until ipation of et-12ths of the taxes OEIBIB, x+biell are to be assessed °attic scale of the present year. This scheme is both a constquenve and proof of the immediate pi oNsiire on the French treaNury. and lutist gis e rise to umbel tr.& brirxisittpe ; which, nuked the Minister has fraultly admitted, but without proposing ally measure of alleviation. The report upon the law respecting the journals was not brought into discussion in the Chamber of Pei is, oh the 2tith ult. On the clay the Bureaux et' the Deputies wet to examine the project of Finance, and the Committee amens_ bled on the law for the recruiting of the army. SPAIN. " ;MADRID, Dec. 16.—The project of recruiting the army , by a conscription is on the eve of being carried into execu tion by a Royal Ordinance, which prescribes the Ilt•Mf mode of supplying our military ranks. Every year 17,00 n awn, taken from those betweea IR and SO years of age, to affect all classes withatit exception, ;are to be called into the troops of the dif ferent yeals. From thin conscription exemption may be ob. mined by p•yio : : for once a soon of 5,000 francs. The im. piovement mon.doreot by the Minister of Finance into the ssst,oil of contributions having produced the most salutary effects, it appears that M. Equia has recommended to his Majesty this basis for the recruitment of the army. IT has been well observed, that during the reign of Charles the Second, the follies, the vices and impiety of the continent had so iuuno-aated this country, that pie ty and morality began to pass fbr 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 infe.oel countrymeas us slaves of a tyrannical go veramoot. According to theta, 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 redicu lous, in the estimation of the unthinking. If this ir religious spirit were unconnected with politics, we should he little alarmed about the consequences, for there is such a commanding sanctity in true religion, that men only of the must callous natures, can long 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 thenglalcssness, 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 %hat flesh is heir to" press uptm them, reason comes towtheir aid, •and with a power which the cailliot resist, points to that source from whence only rruts.tinnfort and conso lation can flow. But when to scepticism in religion, are joined principles in Aics, hostile to every set tled system, when nothing elislied 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, Vt - hy is this? Does a want of religion neces sarily make men enemies to the tranquillity of their country, or does their political hostility lead them to reject the most solemn religious truths? We confess our belief that in modern times irreligious opinions have engendered politital hostility. • The writings of those whom we class in the school of Voltaire, by sapping the foundations of their countrymen's religious faith, brought on them all the horrors cf sauguinary revolu tion, :old, what generally succeeds to such an event, o,fintling and pitiless tyranny. Acqusinted, as we all arc, 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 free ilouglits, as they did, into the most unlikely materials; a chemical or geological essay furnishes a ground of doubt as to the existence of afros.: cause; a biographical sketch gives full cpportunity of praising the most wicked of mankind, if they have had but political or scientific worth. It is only the bold and impudent pau per in the field of literature that advances his pextilent 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 nigh drive a man to the commission of a greater crime than that Mr. Hone was guilty of, and his subsequent conduct slims that he is not insensible to the nature of his °Team. But no apology of this sort can welt be offercl for the conduct of those who have come forward with such alacrity in his beholi. To r_liewe the neccoities of the man was an act beconii:;g a Brilish public, and the appeal Ivhieh lie made to the fungi of the jury oa the third day of his They deny that to ridicule the eeriptatres by parodying them is criminal, because great end goad men, in all ages, have parodied them, fbrgetting, that it was don e not to destroy, but to support religion. When eaey can shot that Mr. Hone's pamdtes had the furtherance of either religion or morality in vivo, we shall give credit to him for his intentions, and to them fur their sanctity. Some of the designations, however, which accompany small sums in the,list of subscrip tions, speak volumes fbr the creed of these benevolent patriots. We there find Derry: Tote, as one of them which, to us, conveys a. alesiimg which makes us blush, as we write it for titeTtentless impudence of the wretch who could subeettibe.hictiame thus, and for the men who admitted such Aciakinttion to stand amongst their names Do then abettors of infidelity, these bosom friends of men who have openly denied their belief in the revealed relitron of God, imagine that the thin tlisguise of poltieal sotl will hide the real workings of their heats? In attempting to de ceive the public, they do but de'ieve theiuselVes, and s° inadicioas is their zeal, that every eCurt 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 hate this effect ; fur if we are to choose bctwcea nor me ent state and an irre4iotts democracy, u-a desiainly prefer L . the former. . A Meting was held in the City on . Friday, to con sider of some means by which the ninnetrous distreised &camen now wandering alartt the streeta of the Metro polis, might receive relief. To excite thebeneroknee of charitable persons in behalf of such oltects•as these, is truly laudable ; and we doubt not the' humanity so truly natural to Englishlueb, trill pnimpt them to come i,rwurd to succour those who have fought our battles, and shed such enduring glort• upoa the naval annals of their country. We need not all, that our warmest wishes attend the Immure object in qUestion. A letter from Smyrna, of the 15th of Oct. states, that Ali-Pacha ; the Governor of Itipirus and Thesialy, some anonths since, ordered a beautiful (4reek lady named Euphrosine, of whom lib eldest son, Mouctar Paella, was enamoured, to be downed in the sea of Jannina, with fifteen of her female friends ; bat, as none of his subjects would execute his commands, he had the barbarity to carry them personally into effect. GeNVIZAL 1 ) .% Lz.—lt having hem declared in the Phi ladelphia Democratic Press„ thatothe patriot General Pacz is a black man, a writer in the New l'orh Colum bian 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 Morillo's fbrces, in the march from Santa Fe to the province of Venezuela. He now comniands the pro vinces that had beau freed by the velour of his arms, viz, farinas, Merida, Truxillo, and Cueutta." Tile American Government, it is *Lid, has resolved to maintain in the poor house, et . the see afthe Captain in whore sh;p they have ,sailed, all nach Euro- Nan emigrants as shall not be able t.) find eutpliyu3eat, on their arrival 'in tke . United State** , ^ • - • SOUTH AMERICA. The French brig Andromache, w hid, had sailed from Mal donado on the 2d of October, and arrived at Bourdeaux, of course brings the latest accounts, especially fro ii the eastern; bank of the river, to the following elect : The Pori tigueso troops remained at Monte Video, where they were however as much disliked as Artigas ; the inhabitants bail no other wish but to be united under the Goveroment of Iliienos Ayres, which was every day more consolidated. A rligas had been deserted by the greats her of his troops, and the Government of Buenos Ayres eon depend ini g,terd of theta to serve tinder her bounce , . In Chili, General San Martin had raised his forces to nearly the number which lie proposes/ and the preparations for all expedition against Lima were carried on with great activity.' SWEDEN. A Ilmiburgli mail contains a document, signed by the King of Swede*, o* thrs'eStaili whieti bits c taken 'dace since Oa last Diet, and on the general state and prospects of the kingdom. Ity this it appears, that a treaty of coin itierce has been concluded between Sweden and Ihr United States, and a treaty with Russia respecting the commercial relations between Sweden and Finland, her toresivr pruvi s ees Prill4nt has made considerable pi ogress in milag up IliC sums agreed upon as an indemnity to Sweden for thr loss of Pomerania. The Swedish revenue of customs has :in. ; proved, ;mil her foreign debt has every where beet discharger( •. or diminished. UNITED'STATES OF AMF.RIC.t. A variety lllAntenicant papers have reached town. A pro. . minent article in the Caltiinote Gazette holds fends to the people of the United States, the necessity of sciaiag on Amelia Island, which is represented In has e !levitate the c‘anition i yecistatic of pirates and ere. bowers, who prey upon the emumeree of alt trading natiiiii!„. and which it theri•fnre behoves the Government of the United States to occupy ;it least provishinally, in their own deft-tic::. T:hs writer concludes with confidently asierting, that '• the tithe is tivar at hand %shun both Amelia and Galvestovvn will be taften possession of by his Government, and held Cor fitture posal." Col. Ilatikhind, the account goes on tosay, was lal leave Charleston about the 2.ith Mt. for Savatinali. derable reliance is nlaced on the, opituan, that immediately on the sheeting of Congress, East Pioritia was to he ce,le.t to the Ilui:ed States by Spain; and Amelia is regard..d as fain. ing an understood member of the terri:ory so to he given up, The New American Navigation Act continues to ue enforecd with exemplary rigour. A private letter from Paris, dated Dee, Q 9, says " The Duke of Wellington has arritvd a: Paris. 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 Paris, will, however, it is hoped, accelerate a little the nego ciations about the foreign claints, and the stay of the Allied Armies in Prance, which fir some tune have threatened to be intLidnitely prolonged. The Duke,' after reutabin;,• some time at Paris, will p.saeei to England. Up to this tLte„ there is no appectritace of a mange of Ministry, though the present Administra. lion have lost much in publk opiaiint since the opening of the Chambers. The King has warned, tvitaiu P.lcsu few lays, persons of the Court, and principally those who sit in the Chamber of Peers, to take care now they vote against projects ()flaws or measures of ills Ministers, on lima of being disgraced." A winw i te of crowns or live.shilling-pieces will cont. menee in. the course of a few days at the Mint. thi • one side will be a head of [fin Majesty, and on the re. verse the figures of St. George Lind the Dr+l,oll. The number to be struck in the first inst.ince will bte ti%e hundred thousand ; when that menlkx is co iip: e t they . are to be kilted to the think ; which, it is said,. • rill be in uleoth t±l4 ) f • r t% • 17 - iiN . Abadit4.;<, "151 iIPO W Wit . s" oe. Lt;-:-..?- +l.