The National Register. — London, England, 1809-03-05 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. lain some express definition of w hat men are to understand by libelling ? Let it he enacted, what we may say, or what we may not say ; and let us be kindly instructed as to what we may write, and as to what we may not write. Ought the situation of authors iu Paris, Sir, to be less hazardous than that of authors in London ? Better, however, is the discipline of incessant re striction, than the privilege of being at liberty merely to *endanger ourselves. Scut - leafing must be done respecting the British Press; of which, for the alternate purposes of power or faction, the liberty is artfully blended with its licentiousness. Suffer not, Sir, another alarmist-system to .depreciate, and almost annihilate, the franchises of mankind. Let not the licentiousness of the _Press succeed to the Jacobinism of France. You, and such as `•ou, ought not to be apprehensive of the progress of human reedom. It is the parer of the purse, you are well aware, and the power of the people, that now threatens the vitality of our political existence. Alas, for Junius—had his publisher lived when simply to di hold a man up to ridicule and contempt" might constitute " a libel!" Consider, Sir, let me beseech of you, the few thoughts which, through the channel of newspaper intercourse, I have now ventured to submit to you. Turn over some back pages of the chronicles of our countrymen, and mark the time when, even during one of the most degenerate and disgust ing periods of our history, ballad-siugersand street-cryers were, neverthdess, still allowed openly to ridicule and rebuke the mistres,e , and ministers, and measures of their prince. Yes, Sir, this trine fact occurs under the arbitrary government .of the Second Charles l—How, indeed,are the mighty fallen ! Does it not recur to your mind, Sir, that we are driving the doctrine of libels to an extreme that will effectually bar all salutary inquiry ? Perhaps there i 8 not, after all, any open libel without some covert justice ; as, we know, there are many lies with much truth in them. Competent to every legal purpose, you have therefore acted right, meritoriously right, in attempt ing to bring the deci.ions of our Courts of Law immediately under the cognizance of the H igh • Court of Parliament. Judge's, though independent as to influence, are not infallible as to in ference. Congratulate yourself, Sir, as to the political eminence on which you stand. took backwards, and justly pride yourself on your past conduct; look forwards, and prepare for the glorious career that is opening itself . to your view. Whigs or furies. of the old-school or of the new-chool, catholics or anti-catholics, men are heartily sick Of all the usual parties. A really new party, a strictly honest and truly able party, is the party now wanting. txpect this new party, co-operate in the formation of it ; and doubt not to tind your toils compensated. by the secret :approbation of your own consciern'e, and the grateful acclama tions of your independent compatriots. Aittrch 1, 1809. Homo. DEBTORS AND CREDITORS fl TO TUE EDITOR OF TUE NATWANL RECISTER. SlR—Every honourable and enlightened man, throughout these United Kingdoms, must feel grateful to Sir Samuel no roilly for his intended Bill, to be introduced into our Imperial Parliament, on the subject of the Bankrupt Laws. The most callous of human beings will not be able Wholly to resist the representation he has given as to the relative situations of debtor and creditor in this country. \W hat, indeed, is sr monstrous, as first compelling debtors to practice dishonesty, and then pun ishing then' for the etrect of their fraudulency What, too, can be imagined more impolitic, especially at the present mo -went, than the system of increasing the sum of general misery, mot only by keeping thou - sands of useful and industrious indivi duals locked up • within the walls of our prisons, lint, at the same time, burdening the already distressed, though unimpri sorted, portion of the community ith the task of supporting those to whom we deny the means of stipportit:, , : themselves? Let any reasonable man put these simple questi o n s t o himself. There is one particular consideration, which, though `should to have escaped the immedtaten teree p t i on o f Sir _;e*:lnuel Rnmilly, ought to he brought forward. Of what are our jail. likely to he inevitably composed, if the rigour of justice, as it is called, is much longer admitted to supersede the mandatcs of mercy ? Alas, are we not obstinately employed in thus formiPg tostriorents for our op n eventual destruction ? Our prisons, Si . r, ire already filling with disalintiou to the existing government—, IWARCII 5. because it is under this very government that their miserable in habitants are suffered to pine in wretchedness of all descriptions Let us then, however deaf we may be to the cries of humanity, listen to the pleas of policy. Emptied our jails must one day be; and the longer we defer the release of their tenants, the more inflexibly we persevere in this species of hostility to our ulti mate interests, the more are we aggravating the spirits of men already discontented with the present order of things, and, of course, augmenting the dangers to which we shall become, al lust, seriously obnoxious. Some amelioration of the existing rela tionship between debtors and creditors will be found to be as much a measure of sound polity as it is of true philanthropy. Let us claim the credit of performing, from motives of lima nity, what we shall be otherwise compelled to perform from motives of necessity. We cannot much longer defer the libera tion of the many thousands now laying in our jails for debt. When this liberation, however, shall have been legally effected, still it will he the duty of our Legislature to consider, in com mon with Sir Samuel Romilly, those causes which, originating in the coottruction of our Bankrupt Laws and hi the present practice of Arrests fur Debt, engender the calamities consequent on imprisoning the person of the debtor. Our's are ,times (as long they have been !) when it is impossible for any man, unless of established opulence, to avoid pecuniary embarrassments. Covernment is itself the greatest debtor among us. Is it not ab surd then, as well as cruel, to persecute individuals for those defalcations which may arise from the circumstances of the com munity at large ? I hope, Sir, to live long enough to see this disgrace, the sys tem of confining debtors, effaced from our national character. It has always lowered us in the estimation of foreigners, and it has inflicted incalculable calamities on the persons and families of our suffering countrymen. Nor does the evil terminate in en gendering individual privatious and domestic destruction. Pri sons, let it be remembered, are not penitentiaries! He who has been long in the Fleet as a debtor, often comes out, both as to morality and property, with the consoling prospect of getting into Newgate as a felon. It is thus, indeed, that individuals become criminal, families degenerated and dissolved ; and society generally, from these and other concurring causes, is filled th delinquents vutt .ne-naced with desolation. Let us, in this hour of tremendcas tribulation, sedulously endeavour to conciliate all description, of men in favour of our political constitution ; by allowing tr.:e agency to its benign influence among them, and extending to them, whether civilly or religiously, the privileges which it is so nobly calculated to impart. If we would make our country loved, let us, as one of our greatest statesmen ad vised, hasten to make it lovely ! March 2, 1809. BlIRONS• FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. THIRTY-SECOND BULLETIN OF THE FRENCH ARMY IN SPAIN. " The Doke of Dalmatia, being arrived before Ferrol, caused the place to be invested. Negatiations were begun. The Civil Authorities, and the Military and Naval Officers, manifested a disposition to surrender; but the people, fomented by the spies whom the English had left, resisted. On the 24th the Duke of Dalmatia reer , ived two messengers, one sent by Admiral Mel garejn, Commander of the Spanish squadron, and the other,who came across the mountains, sent by the Military Commanders. These couriers were both sent without the knowledge of the people. They stated that the authorities were under the yoke of a furious populace, excited and paid by the agents of *Eng land, and that 5000 men belonging to the city and its environs were in arms. The Doke of Dalmatia had to resolve upon open ing the trenches; but from the 21th to the 25th, various move ments were manifest in the town. The 17th regiment of light infantry had repaired to Alt , ardos ; the 31st regiment of light infantry were at the forts of 11 Palma and Saint Martin, and at Lagrana; and as they blockaded the fort Saint Philip, the peo ple began to tear the consequences of an assault, and to listen to men of sense. On the. '.26th, three 110 of Inter, fu rubbed with authority, and the annexed letter, arrived at the head quarters, and s,igned the surrender of the place. On the lath,. at seven o'clock in the morning the town was occu pied by the di vison Mermot, and by a brigade of dragoons. On the same day the garria was disarmed ; the disarming also produced 3000 muskets. The people who do not belong to Ferro', have been remanded to their villages. The • men whe 148 ~k