The National Register. — London, England, 1815-05-28 00:00:00

MOM THE NATIONAL POLITICAL DISQUISITION. POLICY OF OF THE PRESEN't WAIL The great question is at last decided. War has been embraced by all the Powers of Europe, as the only m eans of securing their thrones and enabling them to eittblish the system of equilibrium which they fancy will give lasting tranquillity to the world. All the otertures made by Napoleon have been rejected ks hollow s and, tic - 7 by us, deemed unworthy of any answer. Eng land, the wonted leader of the continent, the framer of coalitions, has this time acted a more moderate and pru dent part. If we are to grant implicit credit to the decla rations of her ministers, she has " done nothing to excite, to persuade or to pro►oke the Allies to eagage in the contest. Least menaced by the danger, and pos sessed of the most efficient resources to meet it, she did not think it her duty to incite them to action. —Her language has been, do that which you think best for your own interests : if you determine on war, I am ready to embark with you and will never leave you ; but, above all, do not divide your strength, nor look on the contest as the struggle of a clay, hut as likely to be attended with great difficulties." Had she found any division in the councils of the conti- Dental Powers, any doubt of its being their interest at once to have recourse to arms, we are told she would have preferred incurring the dangers of a transitory peace with Buonaparte, to those of an hopeless war. But she met on every side with ardour equalling her own, and unanimity sever surpassed. She saw numerous armies ready to march, and breathing revenge. She counted embattled millions, and instead of weeping like Xerxes, at the bre vity of human existence, and the transitoriness of earthly power, she reflected on the use which might be made of so many lives, and the blessings which they might purchase. Full of confidence and hope, she discarded all thought of peace, signed the bond of union with confederated Sove reigns, and drew from her treasures the means of setting in motion the complicated and gigantic mass of European hostility. Such has been the course of our country, and its policy is undoubted. However opinion may Tay with I'd. PA, ife. OCCLATICRIPT • No. 38't. LEGISTEIt. • PRICE 9 It tut Sing, Conictitistioni anis tits. PUBLISHED AT NO. 11, NEWCASTI.E4TREET, STRAND. SUNDAY ; MAY 28, Nit,. the justice of the war which is now declared : however humanity may lament that peaceful professions could not be believed and put to the test, the heavy responsibility of all the blood that will flow, is thus discharged from our shoulders. Whatever be the events of the contest, our Allies cannot reproach us with having seduced them into it to support our own interests. We have left them the dangerous honour of originating it, and if any one is ac countable for its issue, it must be those by whose mature and unanimous resolution it was undertaken. The si tuation in which they stand, is a bond of fidelity which former coalitions did not possess. It is the same w ith monarchs as with men : when pressed into the service s they think it no breach of duty to desert whenever an op portunity occurs. How many instances of such breaches of faith and honour have not those Powers given us, who are now in arms for the express purpose of punishing a violator of treaties ? How often did they not pledge them selves to redeem the independence of Europe, and marching in our pay, struggle long enough to re ceive our subsidies,. then make peace with the enemy, ' sanction his aggrandisement and become our foes ? Did not Russia in 1805 bind herself to carry into execu tion by the power of her arms the very same system of European arrangement now adopted, and then laid down by Mr. Pitt? How did she redeem that pledge ! Sup ported successively by Austria and Prussia, and con. stantly by all our means, she no sooner saw these to o Powers worsted and the road to her dominions open, than before her territory bore the print of an hostile foot, she welcomed the conqueror as a friend, dashed the equilibrum of Europe to the ground, adopted all his views of continental policy, assisted all his plans of con tinental oppression, shared in the spoils of the Prussian and Austrian monarchies, signed the downfall of the Bourbons in Spain, of the House of Braganza in Portugal, and declared war against us and our despotism of the seas. It is a melancholy consideration that this instance is not a solitary one, and that if all Europe is now fight ing with us against France, it has repeatedly left us to fight with France against us. Such a recurrence of trea cherris however less probable at this period. Being the authors of the war, the Allies can have no plea for seccd. 11 1 / 4 4rOM a coalition which they have freely formed ) au%l