The National Register. — London, England, 1809-10-01 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. left free and unfettered by the knots or cabals of public men, and that in the exercise of that discretion, he should be able to do his duty to himself and his people, without be ing reduced in his choice, merely to determine between one party or another, which would in effect he depriving him of all choice of selection whatever. it is ridiculous to say that men getting into power by such means may be punish ed for incapacity or misconduct. The Constitution has given to the King the exercise of a thscretionary power, which may prevent the occurrence of what it may be diffi cult to punish. This power in the King has a natural ter,- deney (from the interest he basin the prosperity of the peo ple) to exclude bad men from a share in the Government. and not to trust for the safety of the State to sohsequent punishment alone, and which, when power is lodged in had hands may fall upon the injured instead of the and which, at any rate, must come too late. Besides, if the high and responsible offices of the State are to he Olen to one or two great men of a party, merely because they have concentrated the means of political attack or de fence, and when called upon to fill these situations, they arc allowed to dictate to their sovereign, who shall fill all' the secondary and efficient (act's, and shall have a power of distributing through the hous::hold of the Royal Fa mily their myrmidous and dependants, what will this be, .but to enable them on the one hand to occupy all the avenues to the Throne, and on the other to carry any point they may wish to effect, according to their own in terests, without any controul on the part of the other branch of the Constitution which would cease to be inde pendent. Does not this sort of conduct plainly tell us that these gentlemen think no administration can b? per fect over which they do not preside, and does it not avow the necessity of the party of which they are the heads, being a fourth part of the Constitution, if not, more properly speak ing a third, since it reduces to a mere form, one of the other constituent parts. Who are the persons which this proscriptive party spirit (dignified by the titles of unshaken adherence to principle and attachment to connection) are desirous of excluding. Are they not men of the first fa milies, and among those who -posses the largest properties in the kingdom. Are they not distinguished for private worth and public abilities, are they not more distinguished by a sober and steady attachment to the Constitution o f their country, than they can be by their birth or stations ? We know it will be objected, that schemes of admini stration without sotnc bond of union, some principle of confidence are delusive and visionary ; and however con tradictory the reasoning may appear, we arc told that an administration composed of one party does not necessa rily imply •a proscription of any other party. Credal Judteus I—lt will be contended that the great offices of state require to be in the hands of men united by some tie in or• der to secure the predominence of right and uniform princi pies, that they may deliberate with confidence, and execute with fidelity, and that if this plan cannot be adhered to, in practice to its fullest extent, we ought to pursue it as far as we can, and approach as nearly to perfection ns possible. That the mind of the Sovereign will never know repose, or the business of Coverament be carried on with energy and effect, ;inked it be entrusted to men who can trust one another, Such have. been time arguments that, at one pe riod or another, have been urged upon this delicate sub ject ; but, for our parts, we haveno hesitation in declaring our mamas, that to drew aline fur the F.overeign to walk OCT. 1. by, is to destroy his independence. That to restrict him in the choice of ser• ants, by declaring that if he takes this man he shall take another,, is unconstitutional and improper; and that a party who thus force men upon their Sovereign, who have no respect for his opinions, of which they are independent, and who have no gratitude for favours which they are underTno obliv,ation to him for dispensing; such a party, we say, may deceive the ignorant by appearing to , erve, but they cannot conceal from the intelligent and discerning, that, iu fact and in reality, their object is Co overn him. TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER. Sm.-Two alarming phenomena fix the attention of the observer, in contemplating the occurrences of the time, and the present state of society. He perceives, on the part 4if the people, rapidly spreading through the different el:loses, a jealous spirit of investigation into public mea sures, and an unqualified distrust of public men. On that of Government, an obstinate, wayward', adherence to pre tensions, extremely repulsive to the existing temper of the former ; incompatible with their intellectual improvement ; implying a diueet contradiction to the genuine spirt of the constitution ; repelled by meson as well as true expediency, and maintaiued only from the silly motive, that concession in one case, however urgent,mighl establish a precedent for innovation in matters of acknowledged utility. sow, Sir, in considerin, the accumulating: dangers of our situation, the failure of all our enterprizeo, full the incompetency of the measures ee hitherto adopted, either to restrain the one, or prevent the recurrence of the other, I cannot con ceive any thing more alarming than this discordance of views and sentiments I have just alluded to. In ordinary times it would give a grating, joggling motion, to the whole machine of government ; but in a moment so perilous and gloomy as the present is, it exposes it to overturn at every step. lam fully aware of the danger of an indiscreet ex posure of certain facts ; but when the evil becomes se rious, and the danger imminent, it is the duty of every man to point it out, and try to counteract it. Occasioes may occur when silence is criminal and dangerous; and a nation should not be treated like a stubborn patient, who rejects the physician anti his prescription., because he is honest enough to resist his wayward fancy, and not to conceal from him the true state of his distemper. Our situation is critical in the extreme; but can only he rendered desperate by-persevering in a regimen, which the experience of six teen years has proved to he prejudicial. It is time to awake from the ill-fated delusion. We have been slumber ing all this time in a vessel balletic' by. the rudest storm, and when the men at the helm were neither unanimous, nor skilful enough to direct her even in propitious wea ther. Providence has preserved us till now. We have seen the ships, in which our friends were embarked, shat tered to pieces by the ivy of the tempest ; and their pilots were equally ignorant and disunited. Our's is still staunch, and she only wants a master-haed to steer her in safety. The crew are excellent; full of mirage ; superior to panic; 103 al, persevering, and contaut. They will laugh at the storm, should its violence, even increase, as soon es they are s.msible that their exertions are not marred by the un skillfulness of the steersmen. I should be sorry, Sir, were yon or your readers to mistake my sentiments. I never enlisted under the ban ners of any political party; and disavow preposesiion in favour of any. Perfect neutrality in a free stite is, how ever, impossible, and perl..ps detrimental; for the talents and zeal of the individual, however ardent and compre hensive, are unequal to operate with great advantage to the community.. but I am not so bigotted as to excom municate even Lord CASTLER LAGFI from the pale of ,ad ministration, or to think that integrity and genius are ttio excl*sive.patrioaony of the Grarrillitti Rod Yozitos. bucik , I