The National Register. — London, England, 1817-07-28 00:00:00

- '~"!~'~" u . ,4 -% -R- rbt 4.1) (nista nal tA. No. 494.—V0t. X. POLITICAL 1)ISQU1S1 [ION. ON THE POLICY OF COMMERCIAL TREATIES. AMONGST the various charges which have been urged against the present Ministry, and more particu larly. against Lord Castlereagh, there is none which their opponents have dwelt on with such apparent sa tisfaction, as that of their having neglected to form Commercial regulations with the several powers whose cause this country had upheld. That this tonischm leis been highly injurious to us is attempted to be proved by various instances of oppression on the part of our allies, towards British subjects resident within their dominions. To the w.'nt of attention on this head, too, are assigned the stagnation of our manufactories. the non-employment of our ships, and, in fact, almost all the evils which we are at this time enduring. Unfa tunatcly, however, for these advocates for Commercial Treaties, the Foreign Journalists, who, on other occa sions, command their warmest praise, deny the truth of all this. They, on the contrary, arc continually la menting the preponderance of England, and accusing her of destroying their manufactures by her extensive ex ports, and by her commanding stations on every coast, cramping all naval energy but her own. Without attempting to reconcile these differences we will endeavour to view the subject on a broader scale, and see how far Commercial Treaties are really useful to Commerce, for of their utility at all we have very considerable doubts. It must be acknowledged that if a Commercial Treaty is valuable to a country, that value must arise from some advantage gained by the one nation over the other. tn•o men ride on a home one must ride behind. A treaty formed upon a strict principle of reciprocal right can never he worth the trouble of making it, for Commerce, like water, if unetonstrained, will find its own level, therefore such a treaty would only do what would be done quite as well without it. On the other hand, we have examples enough to show that every attempt of one nation to over-reach another is injurious to the offend ing party. A treaty of Peace is a contract, tl•c conditions of which an to be instantly fulfilled, and, when once ful filled, there exists a strong motive why each country should be faithful to its engagements ; but a Treaty of Commerce is a compact prospective in its objects, and if by cunning, by superior foresight, or by acquired power, the one nation obtain a decided advantage over the other, by what power can the injured party be compelled to ful fil engagements resulting from fraud or force ? It does not rest with the Sovereign, as in a treaty of peace, to adhere to the bond which he has en tered into ; it is the merchant, the manufacturer, the agriculturist, in short every individual in the state, that is interested in refusing to comply with conditions im posed upon him lw the imbecility of his own govern ment, or the iniquity of a:either. Against a force like this what weepon can be used Let us for a moment suppose that a treaty of com merce had existed between this country and his Sar dinian Majesty, when that outrage took place agsinst a British subject, of which Mr. Brougham lately made such heavy complaint,—could more have been done than has been done ? The law of nations distinctly enough defines what is the courqe to be pursued, and that course has been adhered to ; could more have teen done under a treaty ? Mr. Brougham will hardly venture to tell us that we should resort to force to compel his Sardinian Majesty to tax this merchant aid let that go free ; and yet if he did tell us so, it would only be in unison with the sentiments of several of his friends, who hold the opinion that because we have by oar arms restored many of the sovereigns of Europe to their thrones, we ought to keep our swords at their throats to compel them to wrong their own subjects in favour of us. But this is a doctrine which we hope and trust will never gain ground amongst us, and we must say, that it comes r had grace from turn who are, upon all other occasions, such zealous advueates for the indefeasible rights of man. Our iling, tondtituticin anb itaimS. MONDAY, JULY :18, 1817. REI7E4 OF LITERATURE, FRANCE. BY LADY MORGAN. In our last Number we noticed this wor' in general terms ; in the present, we shall make a few remarks on two petsiges in it ; the lirst en •twins a charge against Eugland, and bar army, the other we give from its utter absurdity:— After a detail of the numerous advantages which have resulted to •Frame from the revolution, Lady Morgan c‘meladek by a fervent wish that no srourge oJ' ,flre may destroy *hat has been so fortunately obtain ed, &c. &c. TM* *mild have been rather an unin telligible sentence of itself; but here is the explana tion ; a correspondentof Lady Morgan's had written to her from Paris the following important piece of in tiomaiion " Voile Owning aspresscd erinions here, which were not cak Witted to recol,fi.e the two countries, and which net c very inconsiderate in a statesman he .aid a Omit time since, in a large company where there were several officers of the ' new army, hat the govendnent of the Eonrhotis was too mild for so turbulent add hcethrtes s people a; the French : out that ELIA Wad ha J undertaken to Me them with a red qf ion! The officers said nothing ; and Madame de Marl alone thought proper to reply to stieh insolence. When Mr. Canning nas ipealiag of the victories the English had gained, that Lady oboe; red to Min, that if these gentry wr uhf lOr once unit th. Russians, the Prussians, the Germans, ace. and homier toe rrettelk wit h a tar a -fete, she would promise him they should have a meeting." Now we really are at a loss whkh to pity most, the writer of such staff as this, or the person who gives it publicity. We qf 11l not stop to remark upon the blunder in the French letter of verge de .1 eu, for/i.r, and Lady Morgan's felicitious translation of this blunder into scourge of ; but we will soberly ask the Lady if she really believes the assertion of her corrospontient? Not to go further back than the last years of the war, where, we ash Lady Morgan, was England indebted either to Russians, Prussians, or Gernmns, for any of those victories which her armies achieved, from the dawn of her success at Vintiera, till the meridian blaze of her triumphon the field° Waterloo? where, weasi her, has England ever f to meet France ; and where did she ever meet her with numbers any way approach• ing to equality end not discomfit her, that the impu dent insinuation in the above extract is so boldly ha glinted? To speak plainly, however, we disbelieve the whole sutry, and fur these simple reasons ; whatever Ms. Canning's sentiments may be with regard to the French, and the present reigning family, he is of all men the least likely to have made them the theme of conversation in a public company ; and far less was he likely to assert what was con wary tothet, for F ngl and does nut, nor ever pretended to rule France with a s rod of iron or a scourge of fire (whichever Lady Morgan pleases.) As to Madame de 3ta...l—but this distinguished cha racter is, unhappily, no more, and we will not remark upon expressions which she never could have ut tered. In the picture which Lady Morgan draws of num.'s partc's mart, she observes, at one of its features, that unlike that of the old monarchy, it contained none of these switullers and infhruous characters which dis graced the latter; no Grammonts, no Pomemers, &c. &c. True ; but in thsir place were to be found men stained by every crime ; a military banditti which had grown up to ailluence by robbery and spoliation of every kind; of men whose rapacity nothing escaped, and who would steal What a private soldier in any other army would have been shot Mr. It is wsll ken' a that the first generals of the revolutionary armies , those men who had served under the old monarchy, never degrad ed themselves with the robbery of individuals in the commies tll.l over-ran.. When Pichegsis returned to Paris after the eenqueit of Holland, he was literally in rags, and bad scarcely wherewith to live ; it was reserved for Lady Martian's idol to begin and to en mange a system of plunder, which knew no bounds; and he who displayed the greatest rapacity and mean ness was the most deserving of esteem and favour in his eves. And yet these men, who thrilled a large portion of Buonaparte's court, are to be held up, and contrast ed with, the old nobility of France ! But after all, what was this boasted Court in reality ?—a mixture of os tentation and rnetumess an alfs'etation, without, of severity and decortna, n+ sue ..vithin was profligacy and wickedrk:ss. . ~ ,Lt., str. PRICE 941 Outlines of lieulogy.-14 W. T. I rani*, • This work is the result of Lectures err.e. by the Author in the Theatre of the Royal fustitutinu. As Se. cretaryof the Royal Society, much was expected &tan, an& much was fulfilled, by the Learned Lecturt,. Yitr t;le tention of a mixed auditory. The science isofitscif pece hely rinteresting, and it has been trca'ed m such a man. net, as to excite the ardour of further research with the certainty of reaping expected satisfaction, which we conceive to be the first object of every Lecturer, for the minuter details of any science cannot be expected in Lectures. His examination of the the/ries t.f net, Leibnitz, and others, will awaken an int 4 r.. study and compare them, and to seek the enlightened advantes which modern days have added to their suggestions. The strata in various parts of the globe's encrusting its opacity, and that of our own ishml, compared and examined ; the various 1. ittls with the consequent aspects and associations, allotiul formations, and fossil remains, decomposit ions and decoys, vokanoes, &c. arc but the mere outlines of the deeper delineations which the Learned Secretary embraced in these popular Lectures. A plate is prefixed giving a g o . tient' view of the succession of the strata in Engliutd, commencing with the blue clay of London, and passing westward to the Land's-End chalk, sand st.nie, &c. Another section-, commencing with the foal strata and limestone, resting upon slate awl granite in C umberland, and proceeding downward to Herts, and the secondary hills of the southern counties ; also the lias, oulite sand-stone and chalk upon which the blue clay of Middlesex is deposited, and of which the valley of the Themes principally consist; erc. &c. ••licolocy, oar Auu , or as a hranclrof inductive science, is of modern date j for thmigh the attention of men has Imre been turned to a theory of the earth, the forma lion of ,ach a theory is incionostiole with any bat an ad vanced state of physical knowledge. There appear indeed few studies of more dulicutty, twee in which the siihject is snore complex, eppesrancea sn di%eritied and sea ttPri'd ; and where the caoses that have opei ated are so remote from the spite. e of Oletillilry ObM•rfatiOn." We cannot avoid adding, that the author Las dune his pact towards clearing these difficulties and point ing the track most probable to bring the student through his course— •• Io the south of Fssekand the chalk is covered with gravel anti clay, the history of which is extremely cork" on ac. count of the fossils which they contain, anti the evidence they gibed of repeated inundatiotwor salt anti treble water upon tl:e sante spot. There are two celebrated concavities tilled with such materials, u Melt have been called the London and the i- , e of Wight Basins. The ton ace is bounded by the chalk hills pi (weeding front Wilts to the south of the Kentish coast in one direction, and to the northern point of the Norfolk coast in another t and it is open to the ocean upon the Essex, Suflulk, and Norfolk coasts, which thaw sections of its contests." p. 144. i n the mouth of November, 1016,a cavern was discover ed in the Limestone Rocks near Plymouth, by Mr. Whitby, in which' were found the bones of the Rhinoceros imbedded in clay, in a very high state of perfection ; they were sent to Sir Joseph Ranks, is whose possession I saw them. If this ca vernhas noontlel, and if the bones, assuppesed by Mr. Whit by, were really contained in at law 'iodide of clay, buried in the solid rock, many of our geological titer riVS must he sub verted ; this however is extremely unlikely and the cavern title,' will clay, will probably be fotandet much more recent date than the mate in which it occurs." p. 115. " In June 1811 a volcano was discovered in the sea off St. Nlichael, and it formed one blend, about a mile in circuits. ference." p. 110. in the concluding lecture, he pays a just tribute to the skill of Sir I lutaphry Davy. " If there be any part of natural knowledge calculated, (says our author in conclusion,) to awaken in us the most protound sense of the excellence and perfection of Nattire's works, it is surely iu the subjects that 1 eve now been befit'. us. That person is little to he tuned w ho, beholding the ins. tnensity of the universe, and marking the majestic simplicity In %%latch its oprial ions arc conducted, loes not feel awast u eil to a higher species of &tin:, and admitted to a nearerra teiroorse with the author of nature. In short, it is inipossibie to put•no kilns% tedse without mingling with it the best scot !mlts oh devotion, or to perceive the laws of nature a iihout at the &mit: time dist ussine the hand of the Lawgiver. 'f hes in every are and country the evidences of religion louse ad vanced with the progress of tree philosophy ; and Science kilo she falser a mot:oment to herself, at the time erects au altar to the Deity." i: Louis XVIII. when he was infi..rined that the Du chess of Berri had been delivered of a female child, is said to have exclaimed, with a sigh—" This is what I ought to have expected !"—lna similar mood, James V. of Scotland, when informed of the birth of his ugly . child, the unthrtunate Queen Mary, remarked to the bv-standors, that the Crown had come into the fa no' s .• with *female; and pathetically-R.41,11A "It will go f with a woman also." The King, who wus then on death-bed, espited shortly aftt.r. N 4 - • ‘ 4 AI