The National Register. — London, England, 1809-06-11 00:00:00

311) more probable, and coheres better with the parts (ii the dispatches. The French narrative appears to us, in this part, to carry truth on its fare. The statement is at. once simple, circumstantial, and probable. On the other band, it is not very conceivable, how • a bridge, like the one described in the bulletin, a bridge of boats and barges, (unlit be so rapidly fired, or bow the Austrians could be sufficiently in possession of the channel of the river to have the necessary force in ships or boats. As to the term, 66 fire-ships," it is almost as absurd as fallacious. A fire ship could not be brought to act upon a boat or barge, three parts sunk in the water, and without masts or rig ging.. We are almost compelled, therefore, to say, that we do net believe a word of this part of the Austrian state , Meat. The tivb aecounh being thus reconciled, be Aus trians claiming the advantage, :IA the French implicitly, at least acknowledging it, there remain two important questions—the degree of this Austrian victory, and the consequences which are to be expected from it. With rc epect to the degree of the victory, we shall discuss this point in another part of our Paper, and therefore shall here only briefly observe, that the Anstrians dispatches Lave nearly as much exaggerated on the one side, as the French have disguised and falsified on the other. if the saperio fay of the French loss is evident from the mere circum stance of their comparative defenceless state, the Frencii being exposed to a most destructive fire, to w hicii they would not reply, it is equally evident on the nth!: side, from the mere circumstance of the French having retained their position, and re-established their bridges, that the Austrians have not been able etVectively to follow up their advantage. If the Austtiutt accounts were true, not a Frenchman could h:Lve recrossed the Danube. With respect to the consequences which are to be ex pected from this check to the French in their full career, xve have repeated!y bad occasion to say, that in the state of affairs, as respected Austria, even one, instance of suc cess would be invaluable. 'NINA PARTS is in the condition in which PHILIP of 'Mac e don is represented by DEHOS •fiIENES. 44 This man," said the orator, "is only kept lip by his success: his good fortune is the cement, by -which his allies arc held together. It is with the fortune of PHILIP as with the human body in a state of external health." There may be innumerable bad humours beneath the surface, and they may remain hidden, secret, and .inac tive, as long as the health continues. But no sooner does any disease break out, than there is then an cud of the constitution, and the man dies not by the. immediate dis order, but by the complication which ensues on it. In the same manner, if any very serious reverse of fortune was to occur to BONAPARVL, it would not fail to operate on the confederates. Their jealousies, their secret indignation, their disguised hatred, would then begin to shcw them selves, and he would no sooner cease to be the child of fortune, than he would Jose her appropriate train and ap pendages. Thr blii ist , t expect too much. BONA.. the consequences of a re- every nerve, every pos- Austrians and himself are same situation. Both are If the Austrians lose the 'Austria lis an independent The public, however, must not PARTS is A ; ; z ;.,At to know • 4 - 4 0 . 1t, i; exert 7 The in ' 1 ' 1 ; r s • .s.p s; U 3 / 4 .4 1 11r f! lot' ,• , \ •,..k ai ir ; • 7s- • J • j! , ali; fr y= 7 — ).61 - tlxV. atiiE N-IAtIONAL.REGISTER. !'.iNooni. if the French Chief loses this battle, there is end of his glory and of his empire. France will no lo:ger cherish him than whilst his personal glory ad►uini stcrs to their national greatness and vanity : he has no other hold on the French allegiance. BONAPARTE, as a Conqueror, is dear to them : BONAPARTE, conquered and subdued, will be regarded only as an usurper. Such, therefore, would be the necessary result of any very serious defeat of the French Chief: if he be compelled to re treat, there is an end of him for ever ; his allies will fall off; and his army, in losing their res•creuce, wilt lose their discipline and their attach►uent. The power of fortune is never so strongly visible as under a reverse. Strt TO MR. 11'ILLIAM COBBETT. LETTER 11. In iny last Letter s I objected to the prayer of your pro posed petition to the King, as illegal and unconstitutional ; and 1 contended that any interference or animadversion by the Crown upon the Legislature, was a violation of the principle of the constitution. You, Sir, cannot be norant, that principles are never more fatatiy violated than when the pretext for it is plausible. To a little and a little, it is ver v easy to add a little more ; and a rollateral object is easily carried on under cover of a pr:ncipal one. It is ur necessary to inform you, that political violence is never so likely to be carried to excess, as when perpetraled under the mask of reformation ; because the merit of the motive forms an excuse for the villainy of the means. You want no interpreter for this observation. You desire. this discussion may be carried on without with minds unheated by any thing that has recently transpired; and in the plenitude of your new humanity, recommend us particularly to subdue any thing like a spirit if revenge. is it possible whilst you were writing these paragraphs, that you, William Cob bett, could preserve the gravky of your countenance ? The very reading of them would take away all power over our muscles, if we could for a moment subdue the sentiment of indignation and contempt, which your un blushing hypocrisy excites. Do these expressions come from the most notorious pander to the passions and pre judices of the people ? Are they writlea by the same pen, and almost in the same moment, that O'Mara, John Bowles, and Beazley, are by name held up as the authors of infamous calumnies, as the alarmists, and from the man ner in which the passage is written, we are to understand. the only alarmists? Are these paragraphs written by William Cobbett, the man who left his lodgings on the 21st of March 1792, and absconded to France two days only after giving in the names of the witnesses he pretended to be necessary, in order to substantiate the false and malicious charges which he had malignantly and revengefully preferred against 124 officers, Powell, Seton, and Hall. Gracious Heaven ! is it possible they can be wril ten by the same being who only ten days previous to that fixed for the trial of these officers, wrote to the Judge-Ad. vocate, that "if his accusation was without foundation. the author of cruelty had not deviscd the tortures which ks JUNE 11.