The National Register. — London, England, 1820-05-01 00:00:00

;price Bauk Stock j per Ceti!. Red. 6SI per Cent. Cues. 69i 3i per Ceot. 4 per Cent. 87/ 5 per Cent. Navy 1054 Long Auu. THE NATIONAL REGISTER. IL 011bOlt. 310NDAY, MAY 1. ......... We some time since alluded with pleasure to the assurance given by Sir F. Burdett of his support to the new Whig Candidate for Middlesex, because we hoped it was a proof of a wish for a r%; union between the party known as WHIGS and the Ultra- Reformers. This hope is strengthened by daily occurrences, and we have confident reliance on our seeing► the two parties unite for the one great end of REFORM. There arc points, undoubtedly, in the conduit of Mr. Cobbett respecting Thomas Paine, and an external countenance, (though, probably, merely intended with reference to politics) given to the defence adopted by Mr. Curlile, too pain ful to our feelings to dwell upon. But, as political writers and speakers, we have merely to do with their arguments; and these arguments, if pressed, as they arc, with resolution and ability, we would either refute, or reduce to the standard of reason and propriety, rather than attempt to run them down by abuse, or silence them by force : and we are more apprehensive lest from prejudice to per sons and inferences, that which is reasonable in their argument, should be rejected altogether, than that the objectionable parts of those writings, or speeches, or particular points of their conduct should have many admirers. Of Mr. Cobbett we have nothing further to say, than that whatever we may think of him, it is nei ther safe, nor can be just or prudent, to neglect those topics of public grievance alleged by him, or to spurn at those convictions on those topics, which, to a con siderable extent (and modified more or less according to the conditions, acquirements, and understanding of those who think generally that some efficient improvements in the representation of the people are necessary and proper), pervade a very large, and, in point of number and talent, a very formidable part of the British community; and if it be objected that the multitude cannot reason, yet it cannot be denied that they may feel the evil effects of any thing se riously unsound in the provisions for the happiness and freedom of all. With regard to Mr.llunt, we should withhold the tribute due to him, and fairly to be inferred from the acknowledgment us to his behaviour upon his trial at York, if we did not acknowledge, that the tem perate, manly, and respectful behaviour which he evinced during the continuance of it, is a proof that rethrmers who arc violent, if treated with the urbanity and propriety due to them as assertors of a public question open to discussion, may, in return, treat, with respect and graniude, institutions and authorities, attended with moderation and jus tice. We leave Mr. Hunt anti Mr.Cobbett now to repose, and to Lord Castlereagh, anti to that which :dime important, the opinion of mankind: but wc must re mark,with reference to rethrmers generaLthat hlf the calamiti, , s in which mankind have been involved, the death and dethronement of kings, and the ruin of thousands who have been high and mighty ones, has been owing to vain and silly notion of firm 11CFS, as it' firmness consisted in rejecting change or alteration, hee,,nse something suspicious or offensive existed in th.. ;•:;aracters of those by whom that change or ;:it , 7ration may have been recommended At ail event', when resistance to changes and mo difications, the necessity of which is insisted upon by a great part of a community, has so often proved the cause of that very wreck of revolution, with the f *tacks. Otnuium 0. Imp. 3 per Cent. India Bonds 225. die. ludia Stuck Exchequer Sill: Si. dis. COIN. for Ac. 091, Lottery Tickets .£2l 18s. THE NATIONAL REGISTER. intention of which those who advised concessions to time and circumstance were always accusei,it is surely worth while, for once, to try what a manly and honourable line of conciliation, and an open admission of the principle of Parliamentary Reform ut present, with respect to the United Kingdom, may effixt. It was not, we do decidedly give it as our opinion, the concession of the King of France, Louis XVI., in calling together the States General, or any other act of concession, that ruined that King. It was the fault of not having adopted con ciliating measures with a good grace, and in suffi cient time. It was a want of sincerity manifested in his advisers and adherents; and may we not say, a want of steadiness to his people in himself; which most materially contributed to the fall of his throne and the excesses of the revolution. It was the want of manly and just concession which lost America, and they who treat these great subjects as matters of party struggle in England, and who accuse the genuine Whigs, who espouse the cause of the people in a constitutional manner, of nothing but a wish to get into power, do, we trust, a great injustice to the Whigs in general, and (certainly) assist fatally, by withholding from them their support towards the acceleration of a crisis when the struggle is no longer between parties, but between the governors and the governed, the rich and the poor; between power clinging to its scat on one hand, and on the other the convulsive struggles of a population writhing and wrenching themselves from the gripe of power. It is commonly asked, by witty ministerialists, whether reform will make bread cheap? We may say, Yes! it will because a rectified system of admiaistration of public affairs would, sooner or later, bring about that natural state of things when labour would find a good market and liar wages ; and whether this would happen as soon as could be wished, or not, another event most certainly seems near, and that is, a serious crisis in the finances of the country, and against the arrival of such a crisis, we are anxious to conciliate that vast body of refor mers who have so long foretold and remonstrated against the consequences of the present system of conducting public.affairs, and not, under such cir cumstances, to meet them in a state of mind exas perated by insult and injury. And such men, in any part of the kingdom,it is uuwisc,iu any Government not to conciliate ; but to reckon them enemies, be cause they wish to be in politics what, in the pulpit, men are told every Sunday they ought to be in mo rals, " radically reformed from all vicious tenden cies." Is it not almost impiety ?—.lt is a common cant, in answer to a cry fbr reform, that " people should reform themselves;" but these good people, with all their pretence of personal goodness, seem to forget that one of the finest parts of that perfect prayer, which our Redeemer has taught us, is, " Lead us not into temptation," and to keep men at all secure frotn vice and error, it is necessary to remove temptation as fir from them as possible; .tad why this necessity should not apply to political fo r:Angela:Nits, where our vountry, as well as to social arrangements, where individuals are concerned, we arc at a loss to guess. It is a stale trick invented by knaves in time of danger to ill-gotten power, or gains, and made cur rent by Mols, to cry out that Government and Re ligion are in danger, because same who cry out rethrm may Drove worthless and dangerous men. Was there never a Tory hung ? There must be good and ha,l of all parties. Our frame of Government is not so weak as to In! incapable of bearing medi 'sines highly corroaive ; and because, among the espousers of reihrm, there are some who treat reli gion with contetapt, does this affect the justice of the general question of rethrm ? By no means. We might with much stronger colour of reason charge all Tories with hypocrisy, because it is notorious that the greaten champions and n ritets of' Atheism and enemies of Christianity have beca Tories; and seriously to affirm, that the cause of christian truth is essentially km danger because of the assaults of impiety, although we would certainly warn and protect all our fellow-countrymeu from the effects thereof; as fa as possible by those aids, which are 141 most likely ti be effectual, of encreased seal and sound reason ,—to affirm, we repeat, that christia nity, against which " the gates of hell," we are assured, " shall never prevail," is in danger, can be nothing cl a but impudence and impiety. We have received the Paris Papers up to Saturday last. The Censeur Europeca states, that the Cabinet of St. James's has replied to the official notification of the changes recently produced in the Government of Spain, that it sees with pleasure the adoption of a system which England had long considered useful, and even necessary, fur the welfare of the Spanish nation. The intelligence from Paris is uninterest ing. The Journal de Paris says, "We can inform certain propagators of disastrous reports, that their efforts are useless; no one believes either their affected good intentions or their bad news. What ever they may do or think, France enjoys in every quarter the most perfect tranquillity." We arc unacquainted with the circumstances to which this mysterious paragraph alludes, except they are the rumours of discontents and troubles in Britanny. The accounts from Corfu in the Paris papers are of the Bth instant. The Lord Commissioner, Sir THOMAS MAITLAND, has opened the third Session of the legislature of the lonian isles, in whick he congratulates them on their perfect tranquillity, which had been momentarily interrupted by the tumult at Santa Maura, the instigators of which had been detected and brought to justice. Allud ing to the cession of Parga, he observed, that it took place by virtue of treaties to which England had ever been fitithful. She had indemnified the Per guinots and granted them the rights of Citizenship in the lonian isles. This subject, however, we believe, will again come under the consideration of the Par liament of the United Kingdom. The Madrid Gazette has published an order from the Minister at War, by command of his Majesty, calling on all military men, especially those nearest the Kings person, to abstain from disturbing the public tranquillity; and to pay a due regard to the solemn compact entered into between the King and his People, by his spontaneous adopron of the poli cal Constitution. This order arose from a tu mult which took place at the political club Lerencino, where one of the King's body guard, inadvertently protested agains, iris sovereign's ad hesion to the charter. It is said that the prime movers of the Revolution correspond together from Pampeluna to Castile, but that they are nut altoge ther in accord with the Central Junta. MELtNCHNLY Quaker sailed from Boston on the 9.Bth of February, with cables and cordage for the Columbus, 74., fitting for sea in the Chesapeake waters ; she had on board 39 men, which had been recruited fin. the Co'umbus, three naval officers and six marines, inclnding Captain Juarnagati-48 persons in all. On the morning of the 6th of March the schooner was struck by a squall, and in spite ut•every exertion capsized, and the p issengers and crew were washed overboard by the surge. Willia:a Miller, the mate, succeeded in hauling hints.lf into the main cross-trees, where' he found tour others. Captain Joroagan, when last seen was hulling to the main chains ; the mate and his four companions remained in this situation until the 7th lost , when three of them perished front cold and fatigue, and were washed away by the surge, which was continually heating over the mate and his surviving tomoanions. They remained without a prospect of escape from death, until the forenoon of Wt daesdav, Mare() 8, when they dis. covered a vessel standing tawarris them; they con trived to hoist a signal of distress, and the vessel approached, sent a boat, and took from the wreck the two sufferers, who, after a lapse of 56 hours, were nearly exhausted ; the preceding particulars. of this melancholy shipwre.•k, by which 46 human beings unfintunately perished, are derived from a. very minute statement drawn up by the mate.ll Monday se'nnight a lad named Bigmore, for a wager, engag►d to run i 6 miles in two hours, is Mr. Finch's Garden, in Norwich, which he accom. plished within a minute and a half of the time. Oa Monday last he undertook• to go, at the saute place, 24 miles in three successive hours, but the time ex- Aired witcu he haLl r crib:a:ea :::32:614.:5.