The National Register. — London, England, 1815-10-01 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. ' the flame that lately beamed so brightly was only smo thered, not quenched. It will bunt from its embers and enlighten all Spain. And who will dare to check its blaze ? Who that enjoys freedom mill tell the Spanish Patriots, "Be slaves ?" Who that lives under the .bafeguard of a constitution, will bid them submit in peace to the distruction of their own? Who that 'feels all the blessings of religious toleration, will become the Ally of the Inquisition, and assist in keeping entire those piles destined to burn his protestant brethren ? Let Princes and Ministers ponder cre they embark in so odious a cause, nor let a premature and injudicious exchange of honourable baubles, serve as a pretence for the sacrifice of every principle of policy, interest, and justice. REV OLUNON IN FRANCE. 1. -" The gross infamy which attended lettres de cachet and the Bastile, doting the whole reign of Louis 'XV. made them esteemed in England, by people not well informed, as the most I rot - einem features of the despotism of France. They were certainly carri-d to an excess hardly credible; to the length of being sold, with blanks, to be filled up with names at the pleasure of the purchaser ; who was thus able, in the gratification of private revenge, to tear a man from the bosom of his family, and bury hint in a dunget n, where he would exist forgotten, and (lie unknown ! • But such excesses could not he common in any country ; and they were reduced almost to nothing. from the accession of the present King. The great mass of the people, by which I mean the lower and middle ranks, could sutler very little from such engines, and, as few of them are objects of jea lousy, had there been nothing else to complain of, it is not probable they would ever have been brought to take aims. The abuses attending the levy of taxes were heavy and universal. The kingdom was parcelled into generalities, with an intendant at the.head of each, into whose hinds the whole power of the crown was delegated for every thing except the military authority, but particularly for all affairs of finance. The generalities were subdivided into eleetions,at the head of which was a sub-deluga, appointed by the intendant. The rolls of the faille, capitation, ring. times, and other taxes, were distributed among districts, parishes, and individuals, at the pleasure of the intendant, who could exempt, change, add, or diminish, at pleasure. Such an enormous power, constantly acting. and from which no man was free, must, in the nature of things, &generate in many cases into absolute tyranny. It must be obvious, that the friends, acquaintances, and depen dants of the intendant, and of all his sub-dektyris, and the ft iends of these friends, to a long chain o f depen e- datice, might be favoured in taxation at the expense of their misetable neighbours; and that noblemen, ill favour at court, to whose protection the intendant himself would naturally look up, could find little difficulty in throwing much of the weight of their taxes on others, without a similar support. Instances, and even gross ones, base been reported to me in malty parts of the kingdom, that made me shudder at the oppt cssion R An anecdote which I have from an authority to be depended on will explain the proflig acy of Government, in respect to these a rbi trary imprisonments. Lord Albemarle, when ambassador in France, about the year 17,7)3, negociating the fixing of the limits of tl e American colonies, which, three years afier, produced the war, calling one day on tl.e minister for foreign affairs, was introduced, for a few minutes, into his cabinet, while he finished a short col - versation in the apartnwnt in which lie usually received giose who conferred with him. As his lordship walked backwards and for• wards, in a very small room (a French cabinet is never a large one?, he could not help seeing a paper lying on the tables w.rltten in a large legible hand, and containing a li , t of the prisoners in the Bastile, in whic:t tiie first ;taws was Gordon. the minister entered, Lord Albemarle apologized for his involuntarily remarking the paler; the other replied, that it was not of the lea st COW.. queuce, for they made no secret of the names. Lord A. then said, that he had seen the name of Gordon first m the list; and be begged to know, as in all probability the person r f this ;same was a subject, on what account he bad been put into the Bastile. The minister told him that he knew nothing of the matter, but lek oal d make the provr inquiries, The next t Incn he saw Lord . Albeniale. he informed him, that, on in q uiring into the case of Gordon, he could find no person who could give hint site least intormation; on which he had had Golden, himself interrogated, who seleatuly aft r-, thed, that he had not the smallest knowledge or e v e n suspicion, of the cause of his imprisonment, but that be had been confined tbii.ty years; however, added the minister , I malt:red him to he home , diately released, and lie is now at largr., Such azase wants sus comment, THE STATES OP TVIRTEMBERG. A German Paper has published the copy of an Address . from the States of the Kingdom of NV irtembc rg to the Minis lets of GI eat Britain, Ilanover, Prussia, and Denmark, calling upon these powers as guarantees of the Constitution of Wir temberg, for their support in restoring that Constitution to he situation in which it stood before the changes introduced into it by Bonapatte's system.--The Address, which is of west length, refers for the foundation of the claim of the • States to Conventions existing for three centuries between the l'.overeigns and the people of Wittenberg. It states that the present King, upon his accession, recognised the whole of these Conventions. Having afterwards ceded Montbeillard to France, be receives important indemnifications,an increase of territory and the Royal dignity. To this dignity he united a total abolition of the Cnnstitution; the dissolution of all re reesentation, and an absolute Government. The people, however, continued to hope that the circumstances . which . ..deprived them of their rights would be but temporary, and at last had the prospect of seeing their hopes realised by the • successes of the Allies. Even the King encouraged this ex pectation in his Maniftsto of the 17th of January last ; but on calling the States together on the 15th of March, his Ma jesty expessed himself very differently. The old Constitution was then passed over in silence, and a new one, in the for mation of which the States had no shave, laid before them as • the Organic Law of the State sanctioned ty his Majesty. To have accepted this Constitution, would have been in she opinion of the States, an act of treason to their Constituents, and they declared loudly for the restoration of the ancient Constitution, with sonic important modifications consistent :with the spirit of the times. The States warmly praise the Pt ince Royal for the part he is understood to have talon in the negociations between tl►em and his father. The King, l►oweves, persisted in refusing that they should leave four • Deputies to• carry on the s►cgociatiions. This the states de-• • dined to do. After this history of the disp u te between the states and the Kitq;, the former declare that they have no power to defend the interests of their constituents, and no prospect left, except that of the interference of the High POwers who have guaranteed the Constiwtiuu. We understand that it is intended by Government to riro pcsv cally in thentxt Session a tax of 171 per pent. on pro perty, as a substitute fos the asst:Acd taxes of even) , kind.— idtorrttisg