The National Register. — London, England, 1812-05-10 00:00:00

.. ...rr. THE NATIONAL REGISTER. Ottv /Mug, ConOtitution, anti 3Lat.355. PRINTk D AND PUBLISHED AT O. 5, PICK ETT-STREET, STRAND, NEAR TEMPLE BAR. N°. 228. POLITICAL DISQ CISIIION. No. '2ll. STATE OF THE NATION. It is no less true in the political than in the moral world, that as there is no good without its concomitant alloy, there is scarcely an instance of the occurrence of any evil which does not bring with it, either directly or by neces sary derivation, the means of its own counteraction. — This aphorism so just and general, but at the same time so consolatory, will find a ready confirmation, as well in the course of individual observation, as in the tide of universal experience. In the multitude of illustra tions that could be drawn from the annals of private life, cr the records of public affairs, there cannot be found a single instance of a crisis, individual or national, better calculated to establish the truth of this moral axiom, than the present situation of the concerns external and do mestic of the British empire. Whilst its fleets and its ar mies have been extending its dominion and its glories, by Cie reduction of the territories and the destruction of the military predominance of the eneri:y, the expenditure re qaired for the great and gigantic efforts that have been made, has, by a kind of re-action upon the means and moral feelings and energies of the people, contributed not a little to that state of internal disquietude and distrac tion, which has for so many months been the object of surprise and sorrow to every true and tried friend to his Country. However we may lament this perhaps inevitable conse quence of the unparalleled efforts of the State, in the pro secution of this just andi necessary war, we cannot shut our eyes to the effect which the temporary interruption of the accustomed employment of some branches of our ma nufacturers, must have upon the means of continuing the contest. If the war be to be continued, (and unless it eau be honourably and safely terminated, we are con vinced that there is no true Englishman who does not wish it to be prosecuted with vigour,) it is indispensably necessary to keep up the effective strength of the British army to its full establishment. At a time when scarcity is staring the Country in the face, it must be obviously the interest of the whole community, that the recruiting of the army should not withdraw the numbers of men re glired from the class of agricultural labourer ; and if it be indispensable that the ranks of the army should be effi ciently recruited, to what part of the community can we look with more propriety or confidence for the necessary supply, than to those, whose ordinary employment has been cut off by th e un f ortunate b ut unavo id a bl e e ff ec t s o f the war ;--who are unfitted by the habits and propensities VO7. V. No. ccxxvw. PatrE f)(?; of their past lives for the pursuit of other branches of in dustry, and who, whilst they remain unemployed in their own particular line, instead of being a source of wealth or of strength to the state, as they would in their ordinary occupations, or in the army, must become an exhautless mine of domestic distraction and external debility ? It is this facility of procuring men at a time when the crisis calls for unremitted and augmented exertions, that constitutes the consolation, (melancholy no doubt it is) under the pressure of the times, and the privations to which the working manufacturers are thereby exposed. This sentiment, we know, is not likely to be well re lished either by the manufacturers who have prospered by the labours of their workmen, or by the men who are now unhappily paying the penalty of the overstrained spe culations of their employers. But both the employc:-s and the working manufacturers form but a part, and a small part of the whole community. We feel most sensibly and deeply for the distresses of either and the difficulties of both ; but we can never divest ourselves of a paramount attachment and regard to the interests of the country at large. As men mu.: be had, it is not a mockery of their distress or a proof of apathy in their sufferings, to consi• der it some consolation, that, if the manufacturers cannot be usefully employed at home, they may actively and es sentially serve their Country abroad ; and, as there is no other prospect of bringing the war to a happy conclusion, which alone can revive the flourishing condition of the manufacturers now under a temporary discouragement, than by vigorously following up the glorious opening of the present campaign, we are persuaded we perform an unaffected and important duty to our Country, in wishing that the great mass of discharged workmen should go rather to fill the ranks of the gallant army un der Lord WELLINGTON, than remain at home to swell the lists of the riotous and refractory disturbers of the public peace. When we look to what has been done in the Penin sula—to our endless acquisitions in the East and West—to the growing progress of independent spirit and sound na tional feeling amongst some of the governments and states of the Continent—when we contemplate Sweden emancipated from the :hackles of foreign influence, and from a base subserviency to the interests and controul of an ambitious and usurping all y— when we see Russia bursting her chai ns, and nobly recovering her lofty bearing, after a prostration of four years—when we perceive the arm that was ever ready to beat down its devoted victim now for many months paralised by the surprise of such unexpected oppo sition, and wavering as to the point where the blow should be struck ) lest some vital vulnerable part should be left cx- SUNDAY, M A Y 10, 1812.