The National Register. — London, England, 1809-11-26 00:00:00

746 TIM NATIONAL our investiatiens, have no other object but the public good : and, cou,cyuei►tly, to detect error ; warn against official incapacity ; decry abuses ; revive the spirit and policy of better days, and try to substitute a fixed, vigo rous and enlightened plan of operation, for the vacillating, inadepiate, u►►ti►uely, and unsystematic measures, which have lately disgraced our foreign interference, rendered it useless, or detrimental to our allies, a subject of regret,,, disappointment, and pity, to the friends of freedom, and an inexhaustible theme of sarcasm to the enemy ; when it might have regulated the destinies of Europe. It cannot be denied that our internal prosperity has at tained an acin( unrivalled in any ►►ge, or country. The bold and persevering industry of our merchants, and, per haps, the policy of the Orders in Conned, keep up the pro fits and extent of our commerce in spite of the coercive decrees of the enemy. When one market is closed, the enterprising spirit of British traders soon explores another. The clogs imposed by tyranny on the trade of the conti nent, favours the introduction of our productions ; and the general misery which unjust restrictions create, encourages the needy and the adventurous to incur the risk of an illicit commerce, for the great profits it presents. Along the coasts of the .Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Channel; and the Baltic, notwithstanding the vigilance and the hatred of the enemy, British manufactures, and Colonial produce. find a certain and constant market. Excessive severity, or an incessant change of customhouse officers, may impede this intercourse, in some points ; but, in proportion to the vigour employed in one place, it is carried on with greater activity in another. There is not a town in the interior of the Continent, even in France herself, where the produce of English industry is not openly sold. The officers of the teens crarraerie. the commissaries of the police, the agents of the do:tones, are all interested and cariched by this clan destine trade. We know this circumstance from oral and occulat testimony ; and have seen, three years ago, on the Banks of the Rhine, privileged shops in Cologne, Mentz, and Coblentz, where articles of British and East-India ma- nufactory, were exposed to public view, and public sale. Companies were established, at the same time, along the opposite banks of the same river, which undertook, for a -premium of twelve per cent, to introduce beyond the treple barrier of.custom- houie officers, any quantity , of prohi bited merchandize, the speculator agreed upon. These companies were not partial establishments : they extended from Neufchatel to Embden. What rendered the prohi bition still more ridiculona, immense hales wile frequently deposited in the .'rench custom-honses along the Rhine, where orders had been previously 'transmitted from Pari, not to examine the contents. The general opinion enter tained-in those places was, that they consisted of proili- ; bited ankles for the use of some privilego'd persons, or traders, is Paris.- When a relaxation to such an enormous extent prevailed even in the capital, the difficulty of main taining a system olco-ereion, along the shores of the Baltic And Adriatic, is obvious. The necessities of the several governments, not immediately dependrnt upon the usurper, compel them to relax ibilituaulim of this inter -.-- course, hough equally solid _Oct, factures The pe upon this sub maim- hog: markets. ngduity of thfs pci them to relaxViatite - fay 3 our se. The 1" 1 " z/ 4 ` ll with,fflio 4- - re up t , ,nt res n • %ut $' t per.4s w 4. • t : r ink 414krelutr EG' !, . 26 remark. derive their knowledge of the Commercial spirit of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Russia, from sources we are unacquainted with,: and have only this dis advantage, that their information is nol founded upon FACT. As long as the present order, or rathe► disorder, of Okla lasts, there are tcw in any of those countries, who will b . 4ye the hardihood to speculate largely in any tradinc , concern, which requires much time and money, - Those who,, even four years ago, wheii affairs wore a better, aspect, were en gaged in similar concerns, instead of enlarging them, thought only of means of withdrawing their. capitals frank the precarious and unprofitable speculation. The accounts published id .the French! Journals, relative to the Leipsick and Frankfort fairs, are -gross and palpable falsehoods, which could not deceive any one, who had even a super ficial knowledge of the existing state of Germany. Such is the favorabk view, which the internal state of the empire presents in thisimportant branch of our in. ilustry. .But it cannot be t!euiod, that a burdensome system of taxation outweighs, in SOMS measure, the splendid ef fects of the national industry. and euterpvise. It presses hard upon the middling and lower classes of the people; and cannot be rendered much more productive, without exciting a general discontent amongst, the .great of the Public. The pain, wising from this. tinavoidable burden, becomes more acute, and occasions, louder niur mers, in consequence of the exorbi'.ant price of the first and most necessary articles of consumption. The indivi duals, who suffer, have neither patience nor capacity, nor perhaps candour, to investigate the real cause of these hardships; and impute them to the mismanagement of the government. This misapprehension generates a lamentable distrust oh the part of a numerous class of the community, in the justice and probity of the governmg, and a spirit of impatience under legitimate rule. Hence these cries ant associations about reform. Hence this rooted jealousy of public :nee ; and pleasure expressed at the exposure of public delinquency. But there is another question, connected with internal policy, upon which the future peace, perhaps the existence of the community, hang. The Reader will easily divine, we allude to the great question sof CATR*LIC EmAncipit 'riot/. That respectable and numerous body of our fellow citizens are excluded from a perticipationtin the common benefits, because they say their prayers in Latin ; abstain from flush on Fridays and Saturdays, and observe some ex , tem.' ceremonies of worship different from their brethren. Upon this frivolous, narrow-sighted, impolitic, and anti. christian plot, four millions of subjects professing the same principles of practical religion, recognizing the same pre cepts; adopting the same guide, adoring the same CO:11.. mors FATHER ; professing and exercising the same prin ciples of philanthropy with their Protestant brethren, arc trev.ted with partial and step-motherly severity. The con tinuance of these restrictions is a disgrace to our Statute Book ; an outrage upon the meek and brotherly religion of JESUS ; an insiilt to common sense ; a violation of the most obvious pokey; ;mil degrades us in the opinion of the rest of mankind. if their religious dogmas, or their private opinions, breathe a spirit hostile to the safety and freedom- of the state; it was irrational and imprudent to remove a single restriction under w hid) they laboured. Bul,• if the reverse can be proved ; if they are equally in , te rested in the freedom and honour of their country ; if ~0~