The National Register. — London, England, 1812-04-26 00:00:00

32 while religion continues to influence the conduct of man kind,—such a jurisdiction cannot fail, as the state of Ire land fully proves , to be productive of the most extensive temporal and civil effects. It, is the more formidable, be cause it is undefined ; for it may, therefore, extend itself, as opportunity offors, without seeming to exceed its bounds. Indeed, as no precise limits are, or can be, as sinned it, the mind will be apt to consider it as unlimited. Nay, though its jurisdiction were purely of a spiritual na ture, without the intervention of any ecclesiastical machi nery ;—though it consisted merely of a direct authority over the souls of men, without the aid of an intermediate hierarchy ;—it would give the holy father, as the acknow ledged universal Vicar of Christ, a kind of spiritual do minion, very inconsistent with the allegiance of subjects to their temporal sovereign, and with their duties to civil society. But it is not merely a spiritual authority, it is also an ecclesiastical jurisdiction and supremacy, which the Members of the Church of Rome recognize in the foreign head of that Church. Such a supremacy is at direct variance with the British Constitution, which vests ecclesiastical, as well as civil supremacy, in the KING. It is an invasion of that sovereignty, thatple dominizoif, w hich neecssarily belongs to the supreme power, including the government of the church, as well as that of the state. Whoever acknowledges such a su premacy, divides his allegiance between two Sovereigns; he acknowledges two masters ;—and as religious concerns justly claim a higher importance than those of a temporal nature, whenever the interests of tsematters happen tO clash, the influence of the ecclesiastical m bead must be iex pected to predominate. Any individual within the realm, claiming supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction, would so& himself up as a rival to the Prince on the throne. But such a claim, on the part of a foreign potentate, is inexpressibly more formidable, as that potentate is beyond the reach of controul. To entrust power in the hands of th , se who acknowledge such a supremacy, is, in effect, to entrust it to the person possessing that supremacy ; and that person, it is well known, considers the religion of a Pro testant state as heretical, and the ecclesiastical authority of the Sovereign of such a state, as an usurpation". Between twelve and one o'clock on Sunday, a Flag oil Truce arrived in Dover Roads, with a French Officer of ; distinction, who was the bearer of dispatches directed in the first instance to the Naval Commander on the Dover station. The Fiench Officer was not permitted to land, but the dispatches were immediately taken to the Admi ral, at Deal, by whom they were sent post to town, and were addressd, we understand, from the French Foreign Minister to his Majesty's Secretary of State fur Fo:eign Affairs. It is supposed that the dispatches contain a pa cific overture from BUONAPARIVE, previous to his com mencing war against Russia ; but we fear that it is not of that conciliatory nature that will le.ld to peace, or even to a negocizion for that desirable purpose. The dis patches, which are. however important, were laid before the PRINCE REGENT on Monday, and a Cabinet Council was summoned to cons:der of their conteiits. The French Officer who came with the Flag of Truce returned, im• mediately after delivering the'dispatches, to Calais. THE NATIONAL nlicisTot. ORDERS IN COUNCIL. APRIL 26 DECLARATION. The Government of France, having by an Official Report, communi cated by its Minister for Foreign Aireirs to the Conservative Senate on the 10th day of March last, removed all doubts as to the perseverance of that Government in the assertion of principles, and in the maintenance of a system, not more hostile to the maritime rights and commercial interests of the British Empire, than inconsistent . with the rights and in. dependence of Neutral Nations ; and having thereby plainly developed the imedinate pretensions which that system, as promulgated in the De. trees of Berlin and Milan, was from the first designed to enforce ; his Royal Highness the P R INCE R en en T, acting in the name, and on the be. half of his :Vie' es re, deems it p ro p er, upon this formal and authentic re-publication of the principles of those Peceees, thus publicly to declare his ROYAL /11011 N ILls'S citte; minatton still firmly to resist the introduc tion and establishment of this arbitrary Code, which the Government of France openly a vows its purpose to impose by force u p on the world, as the Law of Nations. From the time that the progressive injustice and violence of the French Government made it impossible for his MAJESTY any longer to restrain the exercise of the rights of war within their ordinary limits, without submitting to consequences not less ruinous to the commerce of his do ieion, than derogatory to the rights of his Crown, h hosedAJESTY has endeavoured, by a res. ricted and moderate use of rights of re taliation, which the Berlin and Milan Decrees necessarily called into action, to reconcile Neutral Stites to those measures, which the conduct of the enemy had rendered unavoidable : and which, his MAJESTY has at all timee professed his readiness to revoke, so soon as the Decrees of the enemy, which gave occasion to them, should he formally and un• conditionally repealed,and the Commerce of Neutral Nations be restored to its accustomed course. At a subeeettent period of the war,his Mei errv, availing himself of the then situation of Europe, without abandoning the principle aid ob ject of the Orders in Cour.cil of November. 1807, was induced se to limit their operation, as materially to alleviate the restrictions thereby imposed upon neutral commerce. The Order in Council of April, MS, was substituted in the room of those of November, 1807, and the retalia. tory system of Great Britain acted no longer on every country in 'which( the aggressive - measures of the enemy were in force, but wa4 confined in its operation to France; and to the countries vim which Cue French yoke was mot strictly imposed; and which had become virtueily a part of the dominions of France. The United States of America remained nevertheless dissatisfied; and their dissatisfaction has been greatly increased by an artifice too tutee--- fully employed on the part of the enemy, who has pretended, that the Decrees of Berlin and Milan were repealed, although the Decree effect ing ouch repeal has never been promulgated ; although the notification of such pretended repeal distinctly described it to be dependent on con ditions, in wheelie enemy knew Groat Britain could never subsequent acquiesce; : mid although abffndant evidence has &ince appeared of their execution. But the enemy has at length laid aside all dissimulation ; he now pub licly and solemnly declares, not only that those Decrees still continue in force, but that they shall lee r i g idly executed until Great Brit ain shall comply with additional conditions, equally extravagant; and he further announces the pen:l:tie - , of :hose Decrees to be in full force against all nations which shall stiffer their flag to be, as it is termed in this new Code, " denationalized." In addition to the di-avowal of the blockade of May, 1806, and of the principles on which tba , blockade was established, and in addition to the repeal of the British Orders in Council—he demands an admission of the principles, that the goods of an enemy, carried under a neutral flag, shall be treated as neutral;—that neutral property under the flag of an enemy shall be treated as hostile ;--that arms and warlike stores alone (to tte exclusion of ship timber and other articles of naval equipment) shall be regarded as contraband of war ;—and that no ports niall be coosidered as lawfully blockaded, except such as are invested and besieged, in the Fe sumptien of their being taken ten prevention d'art prisj, and Into which a merchant ship cannot enter without danger. By these and other demands, the enemy in facet requires, that Great Britain, and all civilized n ations, shall renounce, et his arbitrary plesetre, the ordinary and indisputable r i g hts of maritime war ; that Great Blitaia, in particular, shall foreg o the advanta g es of her naval superiority, and anew the commercial property, as well as the produce and manufac- tures of France and her Confederates, to pass the ocean in security, whilst the subjects of Great Britain are to be in effect proscribed fro ii tilt commercial intercourse with other nations • and the produce a tol nia nufactures of these re ;leis are to be excluded from every country in the world, to which t he arms. or the influence of the enemy cat) eve d• Such are the demands to which tke British Government is stinorf an d to submit — to the abandome nt of its must ancient, essential, and u doubted maritimeeights. Such is the Code by which France hopes, yr. der the cover of a neutral flitg,•.o render her comm. rce unasiailablc by sea; whilst she proceeds to invade, or to incorporate with her own i dominions, all States that hes:tate to s,crifice their national interest s at • her command, and , in ab dicatien of their just rights, to adept a ede : o i by which they d are required _clue, under the mask of manic ea regulation, whatever is British, to ex from their dominions. 1 Al r pri;; as it on /0 1:1 huh It sncl I:en of t! r p .. , :."1 Frai ( t n tin tout t v actu REG MA Pell 11.1 1 and oul). roa , lthe cou: et 4