The National Register. — London, England, 1812-08-02 00:00:00

466 taking away those of their own brethren ; we having, whilst proposing peace, secretly prepared the dissolution of the American Union ; we have called the savage tribes to arms, to spare neither age nor sex; we have made war upon our friends to trade alone with our enemies, besides many other national enormities, of which the good President declares us guilty. After this fearful list of our crimes, he politically introduces a single short paragraph respecting the neglect of France, in not granting indemnities to the American citizens, who had suffered under the operation of her Decrees, before their. repeal ; but immediately adds, that he abstains from recommending any definitive measures with respect to that Power, as he trusts the discussions carried on with Mr. BAR- Low, at Paris, will enable Congress to ascertain " the course due to the rights, the interests, the honour i of their country." Such is American impartiality ! It may be easily perceived, from the view we have taken, and we think justly, of the conduct of the American Ex ecutive, that we do not expect they will retrace their steps on receiving the full revocation of our Orders. We hope we may be mistaken, though we look at a war with the United States without dismay. The annihilation of their valuable trade to India and China will be its immediate con sequence ; and their threatened conquests in Canada and Nova Scotia, will not be so rapid as they imagine. With out any great addition to our regular force in those pro vinces, they may be effectually defended. The Americans have taught us thernselve:•,, at the revolution, how to repel invaders among the marshes and forests of their land , and we trust we shall be found equally expert in disappointing them of their prey. STATE OF THE COUSTRI".• TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER. ft,—Through the medium of your very excellent publication, wish, should you think it worthy of insertion, to luy before the public, to use the Baronet's own phrase, my humble opinion of Sir FRANCIS BURDETT'S last parliamentary speech on the State of the Nation. I trust, that when 1 made use of the word humble, I did so with more veracity than I am willing to allow him. For bow can a man talk of his 'inutility, who has for years endeavoured to thrust down the throats of our Senators, opinions in which he stands almost alone in or out of the House, or which, to say the least, are certainly against the general sense of the nation, unless by that word you mean King Slob. So much for the worthy Pa triot's humility. He begins this curious oration by stating, that public grievances demwided public remedies ; and so far I am ready to concede, provided first, however, that such remedies be applied temperately, and be calculated only to meet the evil they are in tended to counteract; for if they go beyond the case, they may Induce still greater ills than those complained of. And, secondly, we must maturely examine, whether the grievances be real, or merely the conjectures of an ill-disposed, a designing, an ambi tious, or a distempered brain: and that, surely, the majority of the members of the legislature are better able to judge of than any one invididual, however great his talents, or however disinte rested and patriotic his motives may be. At all events, we should deprecate, as highly mischievous in its effects, the constant cry of such grievances as have often been brought to the notice of the Senate, and declared by them to be imaginary or trifling. It is true, that such empty declamations make but little or no im pression, exciting a sentiment of scorn, on the minds of the well educated and rational members of society. But the evil-inten tioned, the restless and disaffected, seize hold of them as a rally ing point : and the poor and ignorant, and those who through want or misfortune see every object in a gloomy point of view; and, in a large and populous nation, there are many such, are easily deloded, and brought to fancy that any change, what ever be its nature or effects, must be beueficill. May Providence protect us from any reform brought on by the clamours of the ill-disposed or of the ignorant : it must be tantamount to a revo lution ; and, by its violence, inundate our fertile plains with tor rents of our countrymeu's blood. In fact, it tine:yrs to me t that Pikkoratc AUG. 2. overtur mog our a innahle coustantton because some edifice trifling abuses have crept therein , is idse p ullin g down a goodly because one of its chimnies smokes. Now let us turn to the examination of the grievances corn. plained of. The first of these he calls an inroad on the consti tution, and it entirely relates to the Ex-officio informations f or libels. At the same tittle that he calls them an inroad on the constitution, such is his consistency, that he allows they have, i n forisier times as well as the present, been made use of; and, in a country where pre( dsot almost invariably forms the law, this is nearly granting every thing. Hut then, be says, they were made use of on small occasions, where the law maxim, de minimis non curet lex applied. E;it. I contend, that if such informations were wrohg in themselves, they ought not to hate been made use of at a n ; but, if not wrong, if the pressure of the times demand it, they may, and ought to be, made use of on urgent occasions a, well as on small. That they were made use of formerly, and h..ve continued to this d:iv, proves that this is Ito inroad to the constitution, unless ' Sir William Blackstone's opinion, against that of every other Judge, is to stand as law. The next geievvnee appe,ars to be the Sinecure arid Pension List. Friendly as I profess myself t o the constitution, and averse as I am to any measure which may overturn the precious equilibr'um by which it is suprorted, I cannot, without dread, behold the endeavour to weaken the strength of one of three columns that uphold its structure. Di minish the influence by tak:ng away any of the prerogatives of the Crown, and the regal pillar totters : and, as long as man is mortal and subject to imperfection, the measures of crowned heads csu only be s upported, by having it in their power to speak to the interests of those who surround them; for without that, there would be too much to glin on the popular site of the question ; the designing would be enabled to throw too much gold dust in the eves sf the world, to allow the hope that. the Royal power would list dwindle into a mere name, and the con s itution of the country be turned front a mixt state, either into an at istocracy, if the Peers gained the ascendancy, or, what is still more probable, into an awirchical democracy, if it fell into the hands of the Commons. For these reasons, I should be much grieved to see the Sinecure or Pension List tot .11y abolish ed At the same time 1 confess that it might he better regulated, even for the interest of the Crown; and, by becoming less par. tially disseminated, though not extruded but rather lessened in pecuniary amount, it would encrease the regal power in stead of serving to diminish it. Should these remarks on the first topics of sir to %NCI S'S Spec eh be deemed worthy of your notice, I will resume the exgmination of the other* in your next paper. I remain, Sir, your constant reader, N MA. THE NATIONAL REGISTFRi ATTACK UPON THE 13ELVIDER-1. The details of this affair have been communicated in the following letter from Halifax, dated June 28 : The tilackarel schooner, which sailed yr, sterday with my hasty letter, returned last night, having been ordered back by Capt. Byion, oldie Bel videra, I %yid relate the cause. On the v3d instant he led itt with an American squadron of three large frigates, and two sloops at war. After satisfying himself what they were, and having l ear ned from a pilot-boat off Sandy Hook, that a declaration of war h ad p ased the Lower House, he made sail from them ; two of them, both heari n g broad pendants, had the speed of him, pal Ocularly the President , a lto brought up a breeze with her, and was about three cables length dis tant from the Belvidere, Captain Byron standing on the hammocks ready to h when she fired three shuts, one of which went through the rudder coat, and another killed a man quartered in the cabin. To prevent the Fssibility of an accident, Captain Byron had or dered the guns 11 , 74 to be primed. This was now immediately done, and the fire returned from two large 18-pounders on the gun-deck, and two 32• pound carronades on time quarter-deck, sternehasers ; and these were the only guns tired for three hours, during which he maintained a running fight, going right before the wind : the Pi esident never dared to run hinu alongside, but as be came up yared the ship, givino Itin' fist one broadside and then the other. The Belvidere kept a stetted). cootie to escape from such a superior force, which she effected. Her damage is nut very great : two ugly shots have struck her in the counter ; one went throu g h her main-top-mast, another through a beam in the cabin, and the cross-jack-yard was shot away : two men were killed, and seven wounded. Captain Byron received a violent contusion in his left thigh, by the swivel of one of the c irronades. Upon a presumption that a de claration of war had passed the Senate, Captain Byron has taken three Americans, which are cumin.) in. The , Macharci i. gettitn? under weigh. The above account i 0 front Captain Byrotis own mouth."