The National Register. — London, England, 1809-10-22 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. ~~ 4 ~~ 1 4Dur bin% conotution, anti ILats. -No. 95. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1809. . PRICT, 91. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. NVMBER NINIETY-TIIREE. THE JUBILEE. Seventeen millions of free people, uniting on the same day, to commemorate the same event,—pouring •ut their thanks to the great Disposer of Events, fur the long reign of a Pa triot a grand and solemn association ! How trifling and diminutive does the image of a Roman. triumph appear in comparison: If it celebrated and kept alive the heroic virtues of that warlike community, it served, at the same time, as a memorial of their rapacity and restlessness. Contrast their paeans wiih the execrations of the rest of mankind; their intoxicated joy with the profound mourn ing and lamentations of their fettered captives; their tro phies with devastated provinces and levelled cities; their slaughtered hecatombs with the murdered victims of their ambition; and the sum of ill which the image presents, will far outweigh the advantages and splendour of the institution! How different the object, and how much more legitimate the joy, which the Jubilee of Wednesday next conveys and inspires! This spontaneous act of a happy, loyal, and independent people, is countenanced by religion, recommended by humanity, and i n spired by pa triotism. It implies no impious thanksgivings to the common Father, for the massacre of myriads of his com mon children. No mourning widow, no weeping orphan, ne plundered family, are associated with the idea. It is intended, on the contrary, to dry the tears of the widowed matron and the unprotected child, to release the captive, cheer the victim of penury ; and, whilst it gratifies the characteristic loyalty of the country, it' gives to British benificence an ample scope, and sure direction. The homage of a free community, and the shouting adulation of a slavish rabble, - are as different as the action of a rational being, and the forced movement of an auto maton. The one is ♦oluntary, dictated by feeling, or guided by reason ; the other, proportioned to the violence or laugour of external impulse. The former is an offering made to virtue; the latter a tribute paid to vice, and en forced by iolence. How often did Trajan and the Anto nines regret that they were condemned to govern a people, who were incapable of, and had lost all sense of freedom! They could not estimate highly the approbation of a wretched immoral multitude, which applauded Nero and Domitian with louder demonstrations of joy than they did these great and virtuous Emperors. Their applause was ex tracted by terror; their affections won by games and largesses. But the people of this country, free as the air they breathe, and endowed with as large a portion of just. feeling and reason, as any that ever existed, proclaim to the universe, in commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the present reign, their sense of its blessings, and their unaffected veneration for the Sovereign. How honourable for both is this day of festivity and gratitude! Whilst the neighbouring states present an affecting picture ire/. .XCV. of private and public' misery, of iiiiworth! .or unhappy princes, and a distracted people ; we shall offer the interest ing appearance of a numerous, happy, an:! united family, preparing to celebrate the birth-day of a beloved father! What a proud and' glorious distinction does the title of British King confer! It implies truer and more substantial dignity than that of Emperor, or Compuror of' the World. We have, there:ore, felt no small - surprise at the levity of our exclusive patriotic journalists, in Tecom- mending to our Sovereiga to renounce the constitutional title of King for that. of Emperor,—a title founded upon -i military • usurpation, and coeval with the extinction of Boman freedom. Instead of assimilating him to the ty.. rant, who desolates the Continent, as I.as been so incon- 4 siderately proposed, we should draw between both an iusu. 4 perable line of distinction. 'When we cease to be freemen, 1 we shall likewise have a tyrant and a monster under the 4 name of Emperor; but until then, our Sovereign . cannot and shall not assume the obnoxious title. qt The approaching Jubilee fixes upon us the attention of l u mankind; it furnishes, in, the present crisis, a most accept- 1 ' able opportunity of displayiqg our loyalty and union. This ''' is a most important consideration, and deserves to be ma- " ..6 turcly weighed. No notions of false economy should dew . - I tract from its pomp and solemnity. Surely it shall not be' said that a people vaunted for their opulence, and justly proud of their liberality, have displayed a sordid thrift upon so memorable an occasion. National honour, if we felt no respect for the Venerable Character whose long reign we intend to commemorate, and national safety, would object to such untimely avarice. An inconlestible Mark of the decline of freedom, and the depravity of a people, is meanness and apathy in the celebration of their • national festivals. The Greeks and Romans, in their better 1 days, were as remarkable for public magnificence, as • for private frugality. But when they ceased to identify - .1 their honour, with that of their country, when their mo rals were vitiated, and the constitution undermined, their splendour was exhibited principally in objects of private or ruinous luxury. Sumptuary laws afforded a very ineffec tual remedy, for they only served to expose, and not to ' check the alarming evil. ':.lJ* We should offer to Heaven the warmest effusions of our-''' gratitude, that we have a Kin' of our 'choice ; that he is free, and that he governs a nntioa of freemen. Our neigh bours are deprived of this glorious distinction. We shall know to value this inestimable privilege, should the vicis situdes of our time reduce 'us to a level of misery and de gradation with the surrounding states. Were their sud denly placed in possession of "n advantage similar to our's. there would be no necessity to stimulate their loyal, it expressing their sense of the auspicious change. We al read with horror and indignation, at the time, the purls} ment inflicted upon some loyal individuals, who assemble . at Berlin, to celebrate the anniversary of their absent Mu naich. They were arrested and thrown into prison by th orders of DAvoysT, for daring to express their affection fo • their Sovereign, without the ptrtnission of the french Au- . 1