The National Register. — London, England, 1809-12-31 00:00:00

TO OVii SUBSCRIBERS AND THE PUBLIC. The Proprietors recommend, that as the dose of the year is fast uppromchinr, thwze Subscribers who ltrene not completed 'T El it sErr will immediately transmit their orders to their Newsmen, or Bookseller, their Town Correspondent, or to the Proprietors, 11, Catherine-street, Strand ; in order that they iinmediately aet them, as the former Numbers are getting extrerne; . , - f - .7.l*Ce. A COMPLETE INDEX FOR TIDE LAST YEAR is in preparation, and a TITLE PAGE, both of WhiCil will be presented GRATUITOUSLY to their SUBSCRIBERS. Communications, scientific, classical, or miscellaneous infor mation, will he thankfully received. THE NATIONAL REGISTER. Lon Don, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1809. POLITICAL EVENTS OF THE WEEK. The annual Expose of the state of France, which the reader will see in another part of the paper, is so volumi nous, and comprises such a variety of topics, that we have not space, nor patience, nor time to detail it. It is such as a despetic and arrogant government lays before a people, who dare not question the veracity of the orator, and have not the tuems of ascertaining the truth of his statement. In a country where the press has no liberty, an Expo-se of this kind is a mere state farce, to gratify the vanity of the ruler ; and not to account to the public for the employ anent of the public resources. This is visible in every arti .ele of the present document. The organ of the government has no other object than ra extol and flatter his master, to graiify his insolence and resentments; as to the rest, the French people seem to be a very secondary object with him ; and when he directs his attention to them, he does i: for the purpose of reminding them how nue h they are in debted to the hero, who is the source of the detailed ad vanta;es. It differs very little from the former Expese , R, except that new pretens;ons are set forth, new prieciples of rale advanced, which show that FieosraealiTE means to re duce the Senate and Legislative Body to the insigaiticance and pageantry of the ancient /its ciejaXce and the French people to the submission of the time of Lewis XI V. When ever the orator speaks of internal amelioration, it is, in general' prospective; or the work to that peepose is al most finished; or e‘periments are aboet to be made ; or h elv e been already tried. But no diNtitiet al: uuut is given of the state of the Manufactures, of Agriculture, of Trade. Not one stout fact is given; all is pronese ; cry thing is to be seen at gliUeringe &stauce 4 and, except in the ac count given of the coostrection of renal;, high roads and barbonrs, and the embellishments of Paris, this report leaves us as ignorant of the internal sett() of France, as if sve had read a chapter of MeNrr e .,, e sn e o f , thi s sii!iiticf. the orator is likew iso very concise. hut, au return, the more particular and copious he is in describing the external rela • Lions of the Ein;;ire. This is ttio nw L iiiterestiug,, and in fact, to us the only interesting part .of tb i;xpose. DEC. 31. all the insolence and pretensions of the tyrant are displayed. Here he insinuates the approaching doom of Holland. Here he insults Austria; cajoles Russia, triumphs over our blunders, and promises tranquility to Spain, and indepen.- dence to her colonies ! Or, rather tells the latter that they may take what he has not the means to give, nor the power to prevent. Holland has been at last formally annexed to France. The pretext for this violent aggression on the rights of a people, whose independence has been recognized by the present ruler of France, is as flimsy, as the act itself is atrocious. " Holland," it is said in the last French Expose, " is, in fact, only a part of France. " A definition of that country may be given, by saying, that it is a continuation of the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt, that is to say of the great arteries of the French Empire." In the records of spoliation, we believe, no such definition of property has been given, no such right of seizure thrust forward. According to this principle, the territory near the mouth of every river belongs to the power in whose dominions it rises. A sophistry is always ready at hand to justify an enormity ; and we shall not be surprised to see BuoNA PARTE one day lay claim to that part of the Ottoman Empire which lies at the mouth of the Danube, because that river takes its rise in the territory of one of the mem bers of the Rhenish' Confederacy, of which he has con stituted himself protector. But the real cause is to be attributed to the reluctance, which the ill-fated inhabitants evinced to annihilate the slight remains of their ancient commercial prosperity, by adopting the restrictive measures of the robber relative to an intercourse with this country. A cause equally valid will be traced to his insatiable rapacity, which stimulates him to plunder, as long ~,as there is any thing to seize. lie bears, besides, 'an'' antipathy of long standing to the ;—they continued to speak the language of free dom, after he had given significant hints and flagrant proofs, that liberty was treason in every country to which coatroul extended. lie was in like iniunier dissatisfied s ith the parsimony of the .i.titch. This liberal minded man was not satisfied with uhat his own rapacity, or that of the Directory had squeezed, and re-squeezed from them ; but he wishes to have more. He is a detestable, ;:n unfeeling robber. No laws, divine or human, no treaties, or considerations, oppose a bar to the execution of his desires. Millions of his fellow-creatures, their feelintzs, their rights, their privileges, are incomparably more insignificant in his estimation, than the rights of the hoist quadreped—are in that of ordinary men. He tramples with as much indifference on the neck of a na tioa, as he would on that of a worm. Their convu!siont would equally, affect him. He knows how repulsive this act is to the What terror it will create, hat despair produce ! Before this measure was enforLed, thr‘y were, virtually, as much his sub jects; t heir property and persons as much at his C 011• troul,. as this act can possibly make them. But tbitt conl,l not satisfy his savage heart ; he must insult and out ragt; lase peoplo tit injures. " Every year," says the THE NATIONAL REGISTER.