The National Register. — London, England, 1811-08-04 00:00:00

NATIONAL REGISTER. CURIOUS FRENCH STATE PAPER. . By the command of his Majesty the Emperor and King, my most gracious Sovereign, I transmit to your Excellency the fol lowing confidential communication. it displays an impartial view of the great question of peace and war; tt shows clearly the ;source from which the past and present misery of mankind ori ginate and flow. Had, some centuries ago, the British islands been swallowed up in the seas that encompass them, the European Continent would have contained only a grand arid united family. Witnessing its ;superior civilization and prosperity, the other parts of the world would then have strived to obtain with it social compact, or a po litical adrptiun. The slaughter of generations, and the devasta tion of nations, would then have been unknown. A slight cliastisement would then have been sufficient to intimidate the refractory, and to correct the disobedient. The true God would then have been worshipped by all nations. Dutiful subjects would then have hailed their Prince as another Providence. But when men begin to cenvass the adoration of their heavenly Crea tor, they will not long hesitate to assail the prerogatives of their earthly Sovereigns. Rebellion is the twin-brother of impiety, anarchy and atheism are their common offspring. Ihe English had the sacrilegious audacity !o propose innovations in religion, long bef .re the Bohemian Huss and the Saxon Luther proclaimed themselves heretics. The latter would nut have dated to stir, had not England already distributed its poison a nogg the. Germans ; they merely took advantage of a contagion, suffered to become popular by the ignorance and vices of the clergy, and by the apathy and impolicy of governments. since this time, in particular, England has never been quiet within herself, and has never ceased to disturb the tranquillity of all other States. As might have been foreseen, the succee of the religious innovators encouraged the attempt of politic-A incen diaries. The Continent was inundated with the blaspi n and perverse reveries of English an i-christians and English anti nimiarchists. They sapped the very foundation of social order. To prove their thorough contempt for all institutions, divine as well as sacred, they opened their tempi s to the most ig norant aad vicious of faezeics delivered the most virtuous o their Kings into the hands of the most ferot ions of regicides. How many millions of Continental Europeans hart not bled, because these Islanders had with impunity braved their God and butcher td their Monarch! (Alas ! said, feelingly, his Imperial and Royal Majesty,* with :Art their enormous perpetrations, Louis XVI. irk ht have reigned, and a happy obscurity been my lot. Su preme authority is but an inadequate indemnity for my anxiety god labour to be the worthy Sovereign of the greatest of nations.) In fact, if the infernal assassins of Lo u i s XVI. were d e b ase d Ur:nehmen, they had been tutored by English sophistry ; they bad been misled by the examples, or seduced by the gold of the EnAsli factious. Is it not England alone, which at this moment distracts Europe, and, causes the blood of its children to he la vished in Turkey, Germany, gain, Sicily, and Portugal? Has tint his Imperial and R oval Majesty almost yearly, and in the m'dst of his most splendid achievements, presented the olive branch, always interwoven with laurels, to ungratefid England ? .w often has he not, from the hottim of his patriotic soul, in vain exclaimed, . 4 Englisnmen,.l love you as men, and I esteem yru as warriors! Let all human carnage be at an end. Let out kaged humanity recover its too long lost righv:! Let us he friends upon terms reciprocally honourable! I .et our future rivalry be to enlighten instead of destroying our fellow beings!" But his Impe-ial and Royal Majesty has addressed himself to a Govern- Ment too weak to dare to be just, and too powerful nut to he able to do mischief, and to a nation too selfish to feel for the sufferings ix' others, and too licentious to attend to its real interests. It cannot longer he doubted that mankind must continue to be dis tort ,ed until the Constitution of the British empire is reformed, i a manner more congenial with the spirit of the constitutional titterers, which at present secure the dignity and the power of vereigns,and the obedience and safety of the subjects of the C ntinent. To effect such a salutary reform in the British Wands, the principal European Cabinets must be unanimous in Their resolves, and firm and vigorous in their proceedings. ETCLAND MUST rALi. PROSTRATE 11 THE CONTINENT RE- MAIN UPRIGHT.—The division and weakness of other States compose her whole strength. Another Constitution must be •offered her. If she prudently adopts it, her independence and ilinns will be guaranteed ; but if she is blind and obstinate enough to refuse—a solemn decree of all civilized governments vi 111 repudiate her for ever from the great family of the European C )mmonwealth; b and she shall be ranked for the future among tle piratical States of Africa. No more neutrals shall be endured. Pfpftal pnnlslunents shall be i n flicted on the master and crew of . tkc ships of any joreign country trading, with her; and the law of high treason shall be executed on smugglers, purchasers, and Alen of her pr9ductions and commodities ! These tans and re- • Buonaparte. gulations may, at an imperfect view, appear rather severe; but without them, a truce alone can be signed, but a peace Can never be concluded between her and the Continent. This severity to wards her, is, therefore, a real humanity with regard to all na tions upon the globe, not excluding Great Britain herself. This fact may be proved without any difficulty, or the possibility of a contradiction. If Engl i shmen were made of those materials that compose all other people, it would require little knowledge of the human mind to foretell the most flittering issue, without re sorting to extremities; but they differ totally horn the rest of the human species. Who can deny, that a British King, according to the organized constitutional anarchy of his kingdom, is now the most humble of slaves ? When the monarch is not free, how dare his subjects talk of liberty ? The truth is, that the bondage of Englishmen be comellteavier as it ascends; it emanates from the lowest of the aablite, a set of petty tyrants, ignorant and brutal, corrupt and oppressive. Is that Monarch not a slave who is deprived of selecting Ws own counsellors and servants ? Who, during 'a reign of half a cen tury, has, among scores of ministers, not been surrounded by ten he could like or trust ; by six he could love or esteem ? Are the fetters of that royal parent light, who, during months, is forced to see and hear a beloved son the butt of the most malignant passions, of the most malignant and debased of men ? Do these ministers deserve the name of freemen, who ale obliged to be undutiful and ungrateful to the Prince who has; elevated them, to flatter a licentious mob, that despise and insult them ? What must we think of the heads or hearts of sworn royal counsellors, who dare not save the bosom of their Prince from torture, and the character of his child from unjust isn,:miny, though they must know that the tormentors are the most unprincipled ef conspirators?—What must be the standard of the honour of a nobility, that not only TIO: interferes between the infamous assail ants of a Prince of the blood, butsuffers some of its own memberi to act as accomplices in the assault ? Can those representativ, s of the people make any pretence to liberty, loyalty, or patriotism, who do not expel or punish the factiois among them, that try to stab monarchy by bespattering the son of theirMunareli ? What freedom or what loyalty must these prilended friends of the throne possess, who, to shox,' their attachment to the Royal Fa mily, purchase openly their future silence about one of the sons of their King, whom it was hArdl/ paso-itile any new slander could degrade, more than unnaturally to involve another son of their King in the disgrace of his brother ? Can any decency or any loyaity be supposed to exist among the citizens of the first city of the British empire, who not only join the wild fiends of their Sovereign every where, but encourage the senseless pratingS of insolent amid ignorant shopkeepers, never opening their mouths but to babble impertinence—But to bawl out treason ? Did a sin gle comity interpose in the shamefully and cruelly audacious hunt of the Royal victim ? Did not, on the contrary, every county emulate in this race of infamy, which should be foremoq tb wound the feelings of a venerable King, and to recompense the outrageous perpetrations of the bitter enemies of his domestic peace as much as his Royal supren n ? Is it not evident, even to the most superficial observer, that eilher sound morality or rational liberty must be wanting in the I.l . itish nation I If it would be uncharitable to suppo, , c the former. it would also be ridicul,ms nut to see the total ab.,ence of the latter. In Great Britain faction Jut chiles with every thing and every body ; even the King is factious in !3.1f-defence, far self-preserva tien. Have not, however, both in ancient and modern times; both in Greece and France ; both in Rome and in England, have not factions always been the most oppressive ef despots? Have not factions always and every where, been the companions of licentiousness and the assassins of freedom ? Have not factions at all times been intolerant, daring, unjust, and incorrigible ? To judee by the scandalous scenes in the British islands, which at indignant Continent have lamented of late, little hope remains that the factions there would desist from their nefarious deeds, were even France (as she might do) to produce damning evi• deuce, fur centuries past up to this very time, of every chief of faction ; of C Vere su7cr of the name e f potti, t ; and nj every candidate for popularity in Great Britain, having either fixed his price to, or int veiled with, the enemies of his country ; either accepted bribes or received instructions from rival or inimical Cabinets. 'lough the majority might be convinced, a desperate minority would command. hi England, as has been the case in France, factions can never he mended ; they must be extirpated. Some few persons, ambitious, or bank, opt in characters and for tunes, will always, under the ex i stence o f t h e actual constitut i on of a oyal democracy, find opportenities to mislead the ignorant, and to head the needy and the disaffected in committing excesses dangerous to the peace of Europe by conetgious examples. It belongs to history ti recapitulate the many recent acts of th e daring spirit of British factious, and of their influence on the internal and external politics of (neat Eritain—of their crimes towards humanity, of their connuon ferocity end barbarity. But had they nut bower, after tramplin under their feet a Prince of , • . 4 44.• ,% • - ~ - .• :,... . - t• • - - • ..4. , . ~•••••,, /,.. , • , 4011 k ~,,,, )•/, 1.... 'l4 . i f ' • , t... '.6 ' • ' alb 1' I ' .. .A\* ' , • , • 4 1tr . i .. ..„. ..:.r . •,'.. - - - • -;•.- ...., \-_-/