The National Register. — London, England, 1808-03-27 00:00:00

, _ . _ ~ • TitE NATIOtst, IST • 0, ••• Perhaps to you, who - Slave been bred iu retirement, and are blest with a father; the ornament of the Peerage, it may seem strange that a moth who holds a high hereditary distinction among a people that value themselves upon their national honour ; can ever condescend to make himself the tool of a party, or the slave of a Cohn. You would be apt to thick that his pride would utempt him from the wish of private intrigue, and that his rank and property would place him above the tempta, titre of ftirtune or of favour, No such thipg, Desire increaseS with acquisition t and those who have tewest real wants have always the greatest number of wants in imagination. He who has already competence is eager to gain wealth ; he who pos sesses wealth sighs for honours; he who enjoys both affluence and dignities, having no more real objects to purtue, creates to himself ideul pleasures in a ribhand, a garter, or it star ; an t sells his country, if not for a fortune Whith he does not wunr, yet perhaps for the coloneiry of a regiment which he cannot command ► or a bow from the Ministers who despise hint w hile they smile. To win such baubles, Often has a Penr to private intitvnced his powerful friends against the honest well-wishers of the King and Country ! then, ‘s hen the prize is once possesf.ed, the devilish compact s reli t ;iotuly o.)served, and he who has privately Itt!•ayed his country fur his prop, nalit publicly deceives her for his fame. " The applicntiou of this statement, c!..!ar R--, is endnehtedly by no means universal; but • the arts that I L•tve d?scribed have been practised by thousands, Some here practised them with a thorough and shameless Conscionsues.s tCeir own villainy: and others have deceived their 'totl.; with thfe shadows of better motives. But whether the guilt proceed fro it bold or weak error, the country equally sitifer; and v ou, a hO will be one of the country's legislators, ought to be informed of the worst. ‘• So touch for political declaimers among the Peers, Your's truly, OBSETWATiONS ON THE CONDUCT OP GENERAL WHITELOC KE, So voluminous is the evidence on this trial, th4t; aftet the perusal, the mind has considerable difficulty in distinguishing the leading causes of our miscarriage at Buenos Ayres. The lateness of the season, awd the consequent bad weather, engages our attention, as one of the principal obstacles to success—the hostility of the natives is another, And, it is not till after con• sidernble reflexion that we arrive at the true conclosion, name ly, that although both of these were serious difficulties, our pedition was strong enough to overcoule them, and that dill grand chuse of our failure was bad generalship, Successful objects have been a prominent feature in the cha racter of the grcates; commander•, as Hannibal, Conde, Mari borough, Suwarrow, and Bonaparte, But in attempting !sold enterprizes, those men never forgot to adopt any precaution which could ensure their success. Bonaparte determined to fight the Russians at Austerlitz, but he passed the whole of the foregoing night in anxious preparation, Hannibal ventured to encounter an army twice as numerous as his own at Camas, but he had contrived a plan of battle in which the numbers of his enemy were to be of no avail. Nelson attacked the French on the memorable Ist of August, as soon as he could approach them, but he had occupied a great part of nis previous crnize in describing to his captaias the various ways in which he would fight them, according to the particular situation in which they might be fauna. Marlborough marched into th•! !wart of Germany to fight a pitched battle at Blenheim) against superior numbers, but he revolved in his mind, during a lung march, the measures which were likely to ensure success. Now, the dif ference between these commanders and General Nilittelf , cke consists in this—ethat be attempted a difficult enterpri.:e• w ichout taking alMost any precaution whatever. it was natural to yen- Jade that the treops would find ao ptorislos dressed uu :bet: • ,by !ati• mit ich, arr. Itet owe hest la 9 rf a MARCH 27, " DEA it Your last letter to me contains so much important intelli gence with regard to your views in life, and so many interroga tories upon a thousand great Matters, that I really aid lwd to answer it satisfactorily, either to'you or to myself. Twenty epistles would hardly suffice to give you the information you ask fur, and how can I do it in One? Bat if you will he comented to take a letter from me once in a few days, as I can snatch time to write, I will try to answer your demands. " Newspapers, as you very justly observe, give no idea at all, or at• least a very erroneous one, concerning the nature and habits of our constitution, of its members, and of its jobbers: and as you are likely to pass many years in the country, you desire me to tell you something about the state of affairs in the Huuses of Parliament, In ordet that *hen you shad succeed to your father's peerage yott may have some notions of the t harac ters and customs of your colieagttes and associates. " People who, like you, have spent all their lives in the simplicity of the country, are apes when they first come to town, and pay a visit to the !louses of rarliament, to expect a great deal that shall strike them with reverence and awe. " Your plain Mau, jitst imported from the fields, walks Into the House of Lords, as he would into St. Paills ; and instead of the grave instruction that he hopes to hear in the Cathedral or the Senate, he finds in both alike a few boys trying to out-squall each other, and a few old women sitting patiently to listen to them. lie expected in the highest public council of the nation, to have beheld senators decked in all the majesty of hereditary honour--and he secs a few careless loungers, with boots and horsewhips, scattered among cheerless bencliesl Ile fancied himself about to catch the gathered wisdom of centuries, dif fusing Itself in unaffected eloquence front the mouths of sages— he hears a few angry partisan? broaching new notions on the immulable principles of nature, exposing some their ig norance, sometimes their incapacity, and sometimes only their spite ; and If at last by any accident, amid the quarrels of place hunters, and the mutual recritninations of past and present ministers, he hears one or two noble lords connecting candour and moderation with natural good sense, he wanders how they chanced to resist the established mischief, and rather regrets th e rule than hails the exception ! -" Here, as in the House ot Commons, the art of making speeches constitutes a great part of the art of politics ; but as this particular branch of the art of politicS, is. not carried to such perfection in the House of Lords as in thd House of Com mons, l shall not let you into its arcana, till I give you an accottet of the Declahe.ers among those who represent the people. Perhaps you will wonder ss by it happens that the Com mons have more good sreakers, even iu proportion to their num bers, than the Right Ilonourables or the upper llouse. The rea son, my dear It—, seems to me to be .his Men are often put into the House of Commons for their talents, and the thing is a mat ter of selectitin ; but in the I !ppr !louse there is no choice as to talent, for the whole is a matter of birth. if a nobleman hap pens to be horn clever, Very well—if not, he still has his seat. Now as the Frees do not amount, in number, to above three or four hundred, all of whom have seats, while the Commons can select their six or seven hawked members front among millions, It is ant likely that there should be so great a proportion of tnen .)f genius among the unsolected th tee or four hundred Lords, as among the slk or seven hundred selected Commons. In short a seat in the House of Commons is the consequence of talent : bat talent is not the consequence of a scat in the House of Lords. Their cleverest men are called up from the Lotter How, I and even these, after their political transplantation, fur the mwt part Follow the order that nature has established In the ph”ieal world, and cease to fluurlsh when they leave their parent still. " But though the Peers in general Carnet declaim .o es the Representatives of t the People, :et lbany Of th,.ai do de claim, (mil that behind the scenes, as wall us before the Curtain. ef. Ca i en. cUr 1 Sons d L. ta4e 'ln. than rin• the C". ifts, iiial e of rant en IN; ha dia• het and out 'll is ry die f to IMO ft! rer, ,t• hp