The National Register. — London, England, 1811-03-10 00:00:00

Ir • - 1447 ,onle their creed. Feeling, or at least the outward appearance of it, has long since been lashed out of their hearts : memory and. judgment must now be erased from their minds.. Compelled to believe that it was expedient they should spill their blood and waste their treasure to conquer on the Continent, the necessary appendages to a great Empire, Colonies : they now must as faithfully and submissively consider possessions separated " by a thousand leagues" from the mo ther state, as not only totally useless, but even in j :u. rious to its interests. They will of course assume the placid smile of acquiescence. They will per haps publicly extol that wisdom which proves that every loss they sustaiu is evident gain, and that every acquisition we make only tends to hasten our ruin. Some of your Senators will no doubt approach your throne with an address of congratulation and thanks for having discovered, or redeemed from oblivion, this great political truth. But however loquacious or_silent the lips of men may be on this subject, thought unexprcsled still is free. You may have degraded, terrified the human mind, but madness alone, not tyranny, annihilates consciousness and reflection. Derived from the everlasting source of life, on them death itself has no power, and can you boast more terrors, or more authority than the grave ? reo.ection remains, your conduct will be canvassed at the bar of every man's con science and your deceptions known. Whilst con sciousness exists, your injustice and oppression will be felt. This investigation will be secret these feelings will be concealed. But secrecy and con cealment encrease danger. You have chained the storm that would have openly assaulted your throne, and rashly dug a mine which will burst unexpett edly and will shiver into atoms the ill•connected limbs of your gigantic Empire. • save appearances and confirm the belief, artfully but wrongly spread among your people, that fortune has never abandoned you, and only snatches Nvhat you do not think worth retaining ; you 110 W tell theM that 44 the occupation of your colonies by us is an advantage instead of a misfor tune !" But let us examine by what arguments you attempt to establish the truth of this assertion. -You first say it is advantageous for France that we should be in possession of her colonies, heca - ase •66 they snffered much from the strict blockade in which they were held." If this argument be well founded, it must apply equally to whatever place iS strictly blockaded and suffers frrn blockade. Why then not surrender at once all your ports and the Conti nent to our arms ? Aro-not the former incessantly - watched by ,our cruiscr4, and the wide•extended THE NATIONAL RE6ISTEII. country could make no effectual tes;stam the successive attacks of 12,000 !—Were you igno rant of these p.miculars, when, at the opening of the present year, you published the former state ment ? Did you fancy that our squadrons had lost " the command of the ocean," or our soldiers their zeal and courage ? Had you given orders for erect ing battelics and strengthening garrisons, which you have since found had never been transmitted ? If you can plead neither ignorance nor disobedience against of orders, how can you justify in the eyes of your people, and of the world, the glaring inconsistency of your declarations and your conduct ? Have you newly per,cived teat, ever since your accession to power you had entertained, and caused to entertain, wrong notions of the value of colonies ? Have you at last,dispovered that instead of yielding to France the inzpo;t advantages which you so often pour- traced in the brightest colours, they drained her of her wealth ? If you have, what must the Contiuent C.ink ( - )f your s tgacity, whenever the remembratice (t your hitherto incessa:=.t declamations respecting the policy and ne.'essity of acquiring colonial depen cies, revives ? You tell us that in time of war they exhausted France ; yet one of your chief and ac - ledged objects in carr7in; on hostilities was to re them ! You would not lay down your arms, until you had obtained " Ships, Colonies, and Commerce 1" What ! did ycu then `Nish to waste and eNduttist uselessly the revenue of your empire, since colonies produce no other effect during the absence of peace ? Alas ! to what an humiliating situation will not the spirit of vain glory reduce a man ; Nay I even an Emperor, notwithstand:ng the numerous Crowns which ambition may have heaped, on his head ! Whence. does the inconsistency cif your late and p:esent opinions and conduct spring:? Not from a newly formed conviction that hitherto your policy had been erroneous ; not from a sudden illumination of your mind, but from a vain hope of sheltering what you deem your glory ruder a veil of accumulated misrepresentations.— _ Those colonies, the use, importance, and strength of which so lately formed your theme of public gratu lation have now surrendered to our arms, Torn; from your empire, you endeavour to counteract the effect NVliiCh their loss will produce on the minds o f your puple, by resorting to mean and shame less self-contradictions, secure that no press within the sphere of your power, in other words, within the limits of the European Continent, will dare to expose the fallacy and inconsistency of your decla mations. Because you hav' robbed ) our subjects and vassals of the common rights of men, you tteat them as though they no- longer - possessed corn. mon sense. Your word has been long their law, it Ili