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

. THE NATIONAL REGISTER. tirement, there are others; who, by their native ease, have insinuated themselves into domestic espionage, hut of them more anon ! Besides these, *e haVe German Legions; we have trench, Dutch, and German prisoners enlisted, French Officers on parole; in the very heart of the land, and French prisoners in confinement; in the Very heart of our Naval Dock-yards! all these amount to upsvardt of one hundred thousand, ail men .who have seen service, st hp now Only want arms to be ready for action, rind who, if the had them, *Mild form a French army actually landed in the eountryi As to the Hanoverian and Brunswick corps, the y prior tellows have given too convincing proofs of their honest loyalty to excite a fear; on them, most certain!), might we rest our confidence, even in the hour of peril; but, the consequences tb be dreaded from the others, should even a small force make „good a landing; are too palpable to require further animadversion. We believe there is no nation on the globe where charity and benevolence act more strongly than in this ; the spirit of benevolence will at all times afford protection to the distressed, but the spi rit of patriotism enquires whether natives are net capable of filling all the places in which foreigners are to be found at present, and !whether they are not also More deserving of confidence. The employMent of foreigners in public situations ought at all times to excite a jealousy, and we must confess, that it is not without astonishment We look at the Court Calendar, and see the immense number of fo reign names, attached to the Public Cfices, nay, even to some of our literary Societies and Establishments, whose ob jects are professedly British, independent of those on the lists of Royal Households. British Princes ought to have British attendants, and they ought to feel, that although a true English heart will not stoop to cringe, yet that British bluntness is more to be trusted than Foreign Politesse. This foreign system, indeed, extends to our domestic army, and Foreign Officers have even had commands in English districts ! Luckily, however, it has not as yet insulted our navy, except in the instance alluded to. There is another department of the State not less deserving of attention, we mean that of the Government Messengers ; that the pre sent men in that employ have proved themselves worthy of generous confidence, no body will deny ; but that is no se curity for the future; we may be told that foreigners are necessary, from their knowledge of the Continental Lan guages, but even that excuse would be unnecessary, if the vacancies were bestowed on qualified Englishmen, and not considered as the otium cum dignitate for the worn oet valet of some retiring Minister. The subject is, indeed, too co pious for us now to notice more than the freedom and faci lity with which foreigners, in their various disguises of Language-masters, Fencing-masters, Hommes d'affaires, Secretaires, Dentists, Frizeurs, Femmes de joie, Madames, and Gouvernantes, insinuate themselves into domestic con fidence, and even into domestic retirement. An instance of this kind, of a very recent date, will illustrate the point. At the private party of a Countess, where an illustrious youth had condescended to appear, the husband, (or some thing of a foreign songstress, for even nominal husband, we cannot call him, as their names differ), had the easy im pertinence to say, " upon my vord, you are very fine fa mais j'oublie, I no remember how many children your fader have got !!" Foreigners in menial capacities will crouch and bend, but they repay themselves amply for this, by listening to the conversation, in order to retail it to the collectors of intelligence ; nay, when employed as domestic servants in the houses of Ministers, who can tell but they may be embrio ambassadors in disguise. We know the extraordinary influence of France, in_itussia, but why ?—because all the servants, all the tutors are French ! Even in eur own country, we know the deep and infamous plan, by the introduction of French Tutoresses, to debauch the female mind, to destroy the first germs of connubial love, and of connubial confidence; that is, indeed, a sub ject well worthy of notice, and which we s hall resume at an early opportunity 11 1 MODERN PATRIOTS. DEC• 31. There is an Obliquity in Modern Patriotism, Which ap pears, both incongruous and incredible, to a superficial observer, but whiCh. nevertheless, if analysed by the axioms of polit cal geometry may be easily demonstrated as re ceiving its bias in a direction the most opposite from the same pre disposing Of the Professors of this new School, it has generally been supposed that COEHETT war the most glaring instance of tergiversation and inconsistency, Enid there is, indeed, no doubt that his former right line of principle is now be come merely a tangent to his present eccentric hebdoma dal revolutions ; he is, however, no longer a solitary in stance of a change of opinion, whilst the,innate and origi• . nal principle still remains the same: It remained, indeed, for the present day to produce two tharacters like Coa -1 ETT and the subject of the present Inquiry, and thus focus a kind of anomaly both in politics and patriotism, such as no former pages of English History can produce. In former times, our passive obedience men, and our noisy demagogues were at least consistent I if disposed to bow their necks as the Crouching slaves of tyranny( or to incur the pains and penalties of the pillory and of public expo sure, as noisy and unprincipled leaders of faction, they had the went, each in their turn of adopting and ad hering to sr tents as diametrically opposite as their mu• tual practice. Not so, however, with our Modern Re formers; one of whom has shewn th2t he who in public vociferates loudly for public liberty, can yet act in private is an unfeeling despot. and regardless of common huma nity, can even insult the laws of his Country by making them, for a time, subservient to his tyrannic sway; whilst a-other, after ringing all the changes of public reform, atter bellowing forth the cause of liberty and equality, and even suffering judicial coercion for promulgating the -t 6 rights of man," cm now unblushingly step forward as the sycophantic admirer of a bloodthirsty and treacherous usurper; of a Tyrant who in the wantonness of his fancy, sports with Crowns and Sceptres like a too much indulged and wayward child, and who daring to claim the protec• tion and providence of his benevolent Creator, can arro gate to himself the Throne of a long line of legitimate monarchs, and whilst calling their people his, amuse their frivolous minds with the pageantry of Bartholomew Fair, in order to rivet their chains the closer ! • Coulti it, indeed, be believed that a " monthly" publica tion, noted for its professions in favour of public liberty, and under the controul and guidance of a " friend to equa lity" would insult the public with a pompous representa tion of the so called Coronation of the bitterest foe of this patriot's native country, and when that very Coronation was performed in direct opposition to every principle for which an infatuated and misguided people had been lavish ing their blood and treasure, and in support of which they had carried death and desolation through all the surrounds ing countries. . But this subject deserves a closer and more familiar illustration ; it may be said that an exhibition of this kind, is merely for the purpose of gratifying general cu riosity;—if indeed the work in question was one in the habit of entertaining its readers with hot pressed plates of dresses and undresses, of Coronations, and of City feasts, this might be a plausible reason for inserting a plate of in trinsic Merit, though even its subject was displeasing ; but that cannot be said in the present case, for this " Naga taint," with the exception of one solitary map, has never, we believe, produced any other specimen of this kind ; the plate itself possesses no claims to excellence, nor as we are credibly informed, has it the merit even of exhibiting likenesses of the persons represented ; and it is, moreover, but a copy of a larger one which has been some time in this Country. To what then can we attribute this extra ordinary addition to the regular bill of. fare? Are we to suppose that the welt itself is declining, or that its V..---7., 4 ,