The National Register. — London, England, 1814-09-11 00:00:00

-,W y i -~.; THE .NATIONAL Innr Unm, Conaitution, anD tabby. YOBLISIIED AT NO.II, NEWCASTLE-STREET ) STRAND. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1814. N r'l" POLITICA L DIS 21.1 ISI LION. FRENCH I \ GRATITUDE. Rich in glory, and fair in hope, has been the result of that tremendous contest, which, for twenty-four years, ! I shook and devastated; the world. The downfall of the Chieftain who had so long borne the continental sceptre ; and broken the Arength of natlens, was hailed as the sure pledge of returning peace. The restlessness of his spirit and the unbounded extent of his ambition, *had been deemed the only causes of wars and revolutions. The I I hearty concurrence with which his people obeyed him, and kings themselves pressed into his service, was for- 4 . gotten. Itehitn, as in a noiseme root, were centered the woes of mankind, and be steed aloof a mark for universal ' hostility tied revenge. His star is set, aud the power of injuring the world 112 S departed from butt : but has the grated object for which. Europe rose in sums been attained.? r has it been found that restft.ssness and ambition haul sunk with Napoleon, or does his. spirit still walk the earth. agitating men's minds and preparing fresh convulsions ? We fear that what has hitherto been called his spirit was still more properly that of the French nation, and there fore 1, survives his downfall. Any one who has lately visited France and converged with the native's on political subjects, must own that he has always found a deep re gret for lost dominion, a rankling and almost raving ran cour against those by whom those Oe: the fruits of aggression, have been curtail«l, aed tt tirm resolve to wipe oh ie blood and comeeet their present humiliation. This feeling is not that of • the seldicry alc.ne. It extends through all classes, and we are sorry to perceive, by the language lately adope:d in the French Papers, it seems to have also reached the Government. Since the law for reeressine the I.4ibertv of the Press has placed the newspapers under the censorship and (outland of the ad ministration, tied none bet previowly inspected articles are allowed to apnear, it is evident that the French Govt tmeet must lee e. ptrty in those speculations and de clamations with which its jeerrals aboend„ fled which are'calculatcd to break the matnimity of kines and nations, and, by creatine jeale.‘e.les and discontents, to replunge. Europe into all the horrors from which she has so:ltir`ftleY Vol. VI!. N o , CGC L. i • ~ ~. ~,~,,,` PRICE 9d. emerged. Even against us, to whom France owes her co lonies aid •Louis XVIII. his throne, the floodgates of po pular and ministerial abuse are opened. The re•tricticns imposed by our humanity on their trade in human slaves, are made the present grounds of their complaints and in vectives. Accustomed wantonly to sacrifice the lives of men, they cannot conceive that we should be sin cerely interested in vindicating so trifling a thing as their rights. They fancy, or at least they wish to persuade the world, that we only exclude them from the slave trade, in order to acquire that-very sovereignty, which we have just now voluntarily resigned in restoring them those colonies which otherwise it would never have been hi their power to regain! But we suspect that their Und 1105S on that subject is affected, and the virulence of the language •Which they employ even in official documents against us, confirms that surmise. It would not in fact have disgraced the vengeful hatred of Napoleon himself in:the days -of his posteiy Of this aurfeatiers will be able to judge by the following extracts from " the Poservations of the Chamber of Commerce, at Nantes, on the Slave Trade," the appearance of which was lately allowed by the Government Censors in the Paris Papers. " England in imposing on us this rigorous law. has dock ed itself in the specious guise if philanthropy, and even vet 'wc see in the English Parliament that some of its Memhe,g, setting foal' these respectable principles, bring a charge against the English Ministry on account of the delay of five years which has been stipulated in favour for the trade in blacks. These lying declamations cover perfidious project.— Ein;land has acquired in India, by the monopoly and machh yelisin of its Company, four and twenty millions of subjects ; of ‘vhoin the greatest part, without bearing the name of slavt", are in such a state of dependence and degrad.ltion that the price of :heir labour, limited to what is most absolutiqy ne cessary, is below the amount of !he interest of the puichase money of blacks and the expence of their food andlnproi t. This immense region affolding all articles of colonial pro duce, it is evident that the English world sactif;(e Janwica a nd '°n:e of the Windward Isles to hinder Gtiler nalions from impoiting hlackF into their color ies, and ;hat they achievo the conotter.t of the exclusive blipply of -7,loitial pro duce for the whole world. The execution ~f this project would put all Europe at their discretion, from t!.e immense superiority in money which the preponderance of their mlti *l3l, trade over that cf all other nations would giyc them REGISTER. ..