The National Register. — London, England, 1818-11-22 00:00:00

$7O The habits of her Majesty were regular. methodical, and economical ; but it was an economy which enabled her more liberally to dispense her bounty to deserving objects. It is an undoubted fact, that her Majesty d:stribnted large sums of money in the exercise of pri vate charity ; but her charity was really private, not o3tentutioutdy performed, that the world plight applaud the giver. It was an express injunction, which sworn= Trinket every act of benevolence on her part, that it should be kept secret. To each nurse of her children she gave a penlon 01'2001. a year, as well as to several of their sons. Among the many instances of her chari y, we msy select the fidlowing :—Her Majesty took charge of, and educated, the orphan child of au officer who tied in the West Indies. The child was brought to England by a Scrjeant of the Regiment. The Queen's notice was 'twat ted by au advertisement in the public pipers, from the St:di:ant. Her Majesty not only edu cated this chid, but caused him to be amply provided for. It is a Let, equally known, that the Queen took under her protection the widow of an officer killed at Bunker's 11111, and educated the son. These two facts arc mentioned, not as solitary instances of her Majesty's humane, charitable, and honourable feelings and dispo sition, but to show the nature of the application of the large st a tus of Homey supposed to have been in her pos session. Many u retired and solitary sufkrer has been cheered by her royal benilieence, without knowing the hand from which the succour proceeded. _ _ But the crown and consummation of all her other excellencies was, that entire unity of affection which. ibr above halt' a century, knit together her heart and thut dour beloved Monarch ; nor can we even 'effect but with a feeling of national gratitude on the constant personal attention to the good old King, which Her Majesty continued, in so exemplary a manner, to pay, for years after he had become unconscious of her kind ness. According to another account, the circumstance which first excited a predilection for her, on the part of his Majesty, was the pathetic and spirited appeal, which she made to Frederick the Great, in 1757, who had amused his troops to levy contributions in the Duchy of Mecklenburgh. The following is n copy of the letter which she addressed to the Invader : ••••• MAY IT PLEASE Youa MAJESTY. I am at a loss whether I should congratulate, or condole, with you on your late victory; since the same success which has covered you with laurels. has overspread the country of Meeklenburgli with desolation. •1 know. Sire, that it seems unbecoming my sex, in this age of vicious refinement, to feel for one's country, to lament the horrors of war, or wish for the return of peace. I know you may think it more properly my province to study the arts of pleasing, or to inspect subjects of a more domestic nature ; but, however (tube coming it may be in me, I cannot resist the desire of interceeding kw this unhapppy people. “ It was but a very few years ago, that this territory wore the most pleasing appearance. The country was cultivated„.the peasant looked cheerful, and the towns abounded with riches and festivity ! What an alteration at present from such a charming scene !.- I am not expert at description—nor can my fancy add any horrors to the• victors.; but sure even Conquerors themselves would weep. at the 'hideous prospects now before me. The whole country, toy dear country, lie one frightful waste,. prestutdag only 'objects to excite terror, pity. and despair ! The busininad the husbandman and the shepherd are quite discontinued ; the hnsbandnum and the sbep.. herd are beenitai soldiers theuisehies, and help to ravage the soil they f ormer ly c u l t ivat e d. The towns arc inhabited only by old men, Wo men and children ; perhaps hem and thereu warrior. by walnuts, or ii' rendered unfit for service, Alt at his door; his little c:lihiren hang r o und him, ask an history of every wound. and grow thviiisclvex soldiers before they find strength for the field. But this was nothing, did we not fed the alternate insuknec of either army, as it happens tb advance or retreat, in ptirsuing the operations of the cainpativi : It is impossible to express the confusions, even those, who eat/ themselves our fri , •ails, create. Even those front whom we expect redress, oppress us with new calamities. From your ,lustier, theretbre, it is that we hope relief; to you, even children and may complain, whose humanity stoops to the meanest petition. ni..l whose power is capable of redressing the greatest injustice. 1 em, Sire," &e.. The will of the late Col. John Dmly, of Cowes Castle, in the I,le of Wight, lately prorixl in Doctors' Commons, gives the follow ng charitable legates To the Secretary at %Val. and Paymaster-General 10,0601. 3 per Vent. Reduced Bank Annuities, in trust, to apply the dividends for the bendit of the widows of Officers in the anny who shall be killed, or die ut the service, and whose income, exclusive of their pensions. shall not amount to 301. per annum, viz. :—To the Widows of five Captains. 'rsL per annum ; to the widows of five Lieutenants, 201. per annum ; and to the widows of live ens'gns, IS!. per annum each, subject to his Majesty's approbation; to Cheisea,. Green wich. Bridewell. and Iledilem Hospitals, 1,rs:01. each. To the Middlesex, British Lying-in. the Foundling, Clirrt's, the City of London l.ying M. Guy 's, the Sinail-pox, St. Luke's, the Alag dalen. St. Thomas s, St. Bartholomew 5 and London Hospitals: the St. George's Asylum for Female Orphans, the Westminster Intirmars, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the philanthropic and Royal Humane Societies, the Westminster General Dispensary, the Society for the Relief of the Widows and Children ut Poor Clergymen. the Soei-ty for the Relief-of Per sons iinwi , outal for Small Debt 4, the Lying-in Charity fur M.sr ried Wom..n, and the Charity School of St. Marylebone, 5001. cech. To the Marine Society and the Institution for the Sunset the Clergy,l,oool. each. To the Asylums for the Blind and far the Deaf nd I hiinb, 2501. To the Hospital at Winchester, the Female Cnerity School, I I:mm4o:id-road, and the Burlington School for females. 2301 each. To the Caledonian Society,- as soon as it shall esta wi s i ie d, soot. And the residue of the testator's property, which is very considerable, is given c.mally between the Roval Military lio.ipital et Chelsea, and the Royal Military Hospital at Greenwich. A codicil to the will tlit,:ets that those 01114. T h. widows who shall be hiltal ten service, and have most children. Are to I,e preferred in the disposal nf the fin.t legacy. Th..: su rv iving execu tion are ikleitander F•aser, Esq. ; Geerge Ridge the elder, Esq. ; and George Cooper Ridge the younger, Esq. ; and the personal pro perty within the province of Catitcrbury is sworn wider to,trnol. Canwt it or Ti..% In FRAgez.-771 , , st,,,,;trqr has the fol lowing r•—•• This precious shrub, thst introduced into Prince by a Russian in Du t. promises to heetane naturalised amongst us. Th ere are already 31111 storks, whiei it iv easy to multiply. This ha has received the approbation of the King's physicians, and the grit %mutating of F:aner. pku.ts art to he told by stibaip. %ions" 'rim NATIONAL REGISTER MEETING AT THE CROWN AND ANCHOR TAVERN. On Tuesday •n extremely crowded meeting was litid for the purpose of considering who is a lit person to he put .:1 nomination to supply the vae,u►sy which ;►as oreitrreJ in the represeitatims of Westutirtiter. Sir F.Arirtlett having taken the chair, immediately opened the bireirsesa which conatitistrel the object of the meeting. Thr public ad vertiatersent which had brought them together 41111 this occasion Inci, he °lnter ved, Cle3ltly ealil.sineii that it wee In consequence of the recent lose ts liseli they had sio taiseel, and the necessity of supplying it. He had been re• 'ested to take the (emir, and terse felt no small degree of satisfaction in contemplating the no ous and respreLsble andience %shirk hail met to assist in the consideration uf this subject. 'Die occasion was undoubtedly most important, at the same time that the circumstances ss Inch led to it. said which coedit not he eacheled flour their minds. wwete awful and distressing. • Iletoi.., however, lie proceeded to com mence the lii mess of the day, he thought it right to disclose the contents of is letter which he had leerier-it fi um a 2e :ilk man who load considereble claims to ills it favour; and who wont,' probably have been, in 'lie event of his coming personally Corea. d, the object of their choice. The gentle_ man to WllOlll he n 114111141, was air. D. leinsiAiril, elm had withdrawn himself entirely t'imis their coessideratien as a candidate, by a statement spiels he (the Chairman) wits i . e. quested to cousins iii ttttt to them; and in is hieb Alf. Kin naird regretted that stigagententy, %hick he - felt to be binding on him, would prevent Ids •ttenslauce at this meeting. and dpi is e him of the opportsmity of paying his tribute of In spect to the inentory of their late rem essentatis e, a nd of mixing his own with the general grief. As, therefore, re.- anuod Sir F. Burdett, this gentleman had placed himself out of the question, it was incumbent on them to mender what other person it might be most advisable for them to nomi nate,-iu order to till up the vacancy left by the death of their late lamented representative. .It would be imps raper for him, in the situation which lie now held, to 'offer any opinions of his own, with regard to the personal quAlifications or merit of individuals. It was his duty to attend to all that might be offered by others, and to collect impartially the sense of• the room upon every proposition that ghould be submitted wills reference to the object of their meeting. It was not to be concealed that they were in a state of some danger ; and of danger arising from a cirenmatance cornea hat singular. the first diltieulty which they had to surmount was not a w ant, but a variety of choice. Five or six names had already . hi en mentioned to him, each of which he bad reason to be lieve belouged to a man of independent aril intexceptionAble character. %Vida regard to their late representative, he should be sorry to break in upon the bisainrsa of the day by any attempt to excite or coinut tttt icate those feelings of sor row which were already universal, and could neither lie heightened nor alleviated by his remarks. He had died full of honours fur lanisell, leaving his countrymen filled with ad miration and regret, and a name behind hint which never could be mentioned without a sigh. Iu diehurdening them selves, however, of their sense of this calamity, so far as to undertake the discharge of the duty which had devolved on them, it shoeld still induce theirs to regard, with a snore acre_ tiniziug eye, the claims of every one who might be proposed to till 'lpso great a chasm. The public duty which had de. volved upon them all was of a serious nature, sod their ho nest endeavours to discharge it would afford them the best consolation sir the struggle which they must expect to eft_ 'counter. Above all things, lie was.deairous of impressing on their' minds what he had touched-upon at the outset of his address—that their chillcully consisted not braise eaueity of those who wend...perfectly qualified to renresent them, and Might prbbabhy ire submitted to their chagee:: but is selecting one irons many, all of whom were possessed of claims equally satisfactory and iirdtopetable. In the conduct of this selec tion it was that, Halm they should act with unanimity, and rally around one individual, they *mild Incur the hazard, it' not the. certainty, of.' defeat bj •the influence of govern ment.. Such was hie respect fur the several. individuals • se hose . estates bad been tramanitted to him, that he could sin cerely declare his Opinion to ..be, that it' those names were put in a balloting box, the first that might be drawn would be i very proper person to serve as their representative. 'Rail as some choice must be exercised, their tint care should be to preserve Unanimity amongst I liernselv es.W hen one name was adopted, he hoped they would all steadily adhere to it ; and that the trieuds of liberty would not again stiffer them selves to be divided. Let them not enter into invidious com parisons of personal merit, or dispute about one man's sup. posed superiority over another, when all were equally good, eligible, fit for their purpose, and attached to those principles which it was the glory of Westminster to mainline. Their grand and paramount interest on this occasion was to exhi bit to she world a spirit of unanimity, both with a view to the presets/snot' of their own character, and in order to prevent that dreadful evil to which disunion would iseceavarily lead— the.debasemeneof their city, and the triumph of a venal and corrupt adininiatratiou. Appealing, therefore, now to their indelgetice, for having so long trespassed on their atten tion, hi utoved that they should proceed to the order of the day. Mr. Brace and Mr. Thelwall presented themselves at the same time on the table, when the Chairman declared that the former had first called his attention. Mr. Bruce began by assuring thegentleman who had en deavoured to precede 11i111, that be should exercise his pa tience but for a very short time. His health was too weak to sutler Inns to make any exertion, and he had just come trout a bed of sickness. He was incapable of saying anj thing in uddition to what had been already said, of the character of that individual whose loss they all in consmon deplored, ex cept that he was in life adorned with every virtue ; and that his death at this momentous period, was perhaps the greatest public calamity that could have happened. his ob ject in now rising was I 4) state, that he knew no usan mol e ca pable of supplying the loss, and of nsamtaining with energy the same principles, than the gentleman when' be was about to numinete. titter the first resolution therefore, which lie held in li:shoed, and which expressed in general terms the purpose for which they w ere then sissembleil, it was his inten tion to submit a second, proposing John Hohlionse, Esq. as a fit and proper person to represent the City of Westminster in Parliament. Mr. The Wall begged it to be known that lie was not actu ated by any feeitlig of hostility to Sir Francis Burdett. When, after A lima absence, au old acquaintance appears once more among bis former frieuJs, lie may be excused tor ad verting to the circumstances sehieli have kept him so long out of view. Twciit)-saile years bad now elapsed since he Withdrew from public notice, after having fought his way Ossotigh Wads of ruffians lobo wished to :murder him. lie NOV (.2,1 then made a resolution not to interfere with political ' , pinions in pnblie , miless lie should find 111'11,101f independent fie f , ' ',"„ psofessional exertions, or some public! ernes Kelley should re. quire that life itself was lint too dear to be laiil down in the public service. The titst of these oilnliN gess ei es bad been prevented, lie believed, by the political feelings which lie was known to chef - is!' in private ; and as to the stiemid part of the dile it, he believed that there was at present on emit: grimy -which affected every inslivieloal in the nation. If we look abroad, what do we see but an illegitimate bond id* legitimacy, which links allied Sox eerie',.: against the freed of their people. But while we look abrnad, let us not 1011(iVI to look at home. ‘l'llat do we see but an attempt to esta blish military poster ? I believe I must not call it military despotism ; that •pet haps would be trestimmellili I do not wish to commit that crime again. The situation of the country at this moment is of extreme imps's-I:suer. II is it I passe' why a man who has been *deist 101-.21 years Amnia open his th. (Signs of impieties) se, and cries of " piles. thin.") If he deviated from the question, the Chair wonld cab 161111 to order. It was necessary to attend to the state of parties, pas - Oculist ly in Westminster. They conk not have forgotten the proceedings at the late elertimi. The division of the friends of libel ty,on that 1/11.4,inn. bad trisimaivil hint 1110Ic than the loss of huts own liberty had done (cries of " (,uestion.'') These divisions had theettietted even the re_ Ime of their old mud faithful representative, the honourable awl the may independent member if, the House, They obtained, indeed a great sic tot y ithitacitly, by rt nutting hies; but the t tfurt was too late, because it did nit put him in his proper place at the head of the poll. Let them new take ease that the organized and arid hatith of eortalptiou did not rout the light infantry of ere' in, while divided and seistterett. it appeared to liiin that the moat certain mode lit securing emcees* wtinlil be, unanimity in favour of el prison who would pledge himself ti; vote against the Millis/cr. His ow wprilleililirW at, that ll ' weianiiut hav e a quartet-li, we should take a twopenny loaf rather than stai - ve. NI/tiling is politically desirable but what is morally possible. Therefore kt us take what we Cali gel, tVe are the rallying point of reform, to which all the reformeis through the kingdom look for art example. Who coo co operate with II!, All who hate military power; ieven the Whigs themselves who are trite to their principles. If w e find a unto who will act up to his principles, whatever degree of reform lie pledges himself fur, let tis support I • . But if we have divisions, the Minister will triumph ; and, oh ! what a triumph will that be l The biscuit baker of the Minister' will reproach us for rewriting a tool of Government. He wield conclude with one word of advice. if there is a mats who will attach himself to a leader of whont he knew' no thine, but front whom he expects to receive. his hire, let him excite divisions. If there is a man who kits the love of his country in his heart, and who is anxious for reform, let him endeavour to preserve unanimity. Mr. Hoblionse presented himself to the meeting. The oc casion on which lie last appeared before them was very diffetent from the present; and, as far as he was concernett, it was not to embarieseing. Then, lie and they were on the eve of a triumph ; now, they were following a fence al. Then lie had to speak for them ; DOA, he hail to speak for himself-- that subject on which he was the least quidified to speak.— He find that moment received a communication from a great body of the Electors of Westminster, requesting him to present himself' as a Candidate; and, but fur that request, he should not have appeared before them. —He was not an Elector, but be was an Englishman —a name still glotiotu, notwithstanding the attempts of a base administration, who 'had endeavoured to spread the present disgrace of their country almost as wide as its former glory. He was proud of the approbetion which he had re ceived for ins exertions at the late eleefion. It was not, however, in the anticipation of this great reward, that he had performed those trifling duties. His object was the appro bation of his - fellow-eitixesitt. Ever since his mind could ex pand itself in the warmth of any object, he had not looked for any thing but honest fame. Some might think this an infirmity but he thought it a glory to obtain honest fame from honest men. He had nothing but Isis principles to recommend him, He was not connected with any great family. A person, - he believed a friend, had said to hint, " Who is liobhotese ?" He. would answer that question negatively, and tell them who he is net. He was not a person attached to any party. lie was not a person brought before them by any stick, to give hint a chance of Stehle returned. If another comes forward better recommended, elect hint iii God's -name. He only wished, if they thought him fit, to lie the person who should make their struggle for independuee effectual. It was as a reformer that he offered himself the question of reform lie did not mean to mince ; he was for that reform which would striltoat the root of the evil which threatened the destruction of the country. It had been said, that it was improper to demand a pledge. Did not every borough patron ask a pledge, and should not the people ask a pledge ? They should demand a pdedge; and though he might be silent, his silence should be fatal to his cause. Any pledge.in the case of Sir Francis Burdett was unnecessary, because he was well home's to them. He had not the inordinate vanity to suppose, Ilia when his name was chalked on the wall, every mien wool) know his character. He proposed that every man should ask him, " What is your opiniou ? what do you propose to do for its?" For this purpose he should attend oil the linstiags if they should no 11l i l sate him, having no right to act upon telex adopted by characters too well known to require their per sonal presence on such occasious. He knew, .are felt, whom he was ambitions to succeed. He hall beeu brought up to regard those great names which hind bseti in their representa tion with the-utmost reverence. The relight:Nies, lessons of their eloquence remained still impressed on his mind ; but rf he should become their representative, lie should have for a coadjutor a tried patriot, who would relies e and tint incline• her his exertions ; a men, who by a struight foroard conduct, deviating neither to the right hand nor to the left, lead es tablished a character never before known. He spoke from his heart. Sir Francis Burdett realised the dreams of patriots respecting the greatest characters in their visionary republics. This was not flattery ; it were he would not hove spoke it ; they weld not have heard it. The object of the ad ministration was to degrade than to a eimpse .port. lie easy that Sir Murray Maxwell ventured again to produce himself, or rather to produce his pretensions and net him -self: for he was not to come forward with the boldness of a seaman. - Sailors were all bold, but this cauuidalr seemed to surpass them all in audacity. His object was out it ss than to subject Westminster to the discipline of the quiet ter deck. Who was not surprised that oily seaman, for all of them are bold, honest, mid free, should lend himself to be the tool of the basest and most clue! administration; and to aid them in assimilating our country to the bat rract - bound countries of the Conliucnr . It .11Ipt .11 that bolt his p erson and Ins pulse *tie He was .uiuy lot Lni