The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-02-16 00:00:00

FRANCE AND ENGLIAT COMPARED.

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We have often wished to make some animadver
sicns upon the superiority which France areas over
every other nation in Europe. We do not remem-
ber that the French, before the Revolution, were pry-
sumptuous enough to assert that they had made
greater progress in the arts and sciences, than the
English • or that their country had produced great-
erb men than NEKTON or Bacon—than Mli., oti cr
Locee. They were then content to divide the priee
with us. The superiority, therefore, which they
now affeß, must have been obtained during the
Revolution—During the Revolution I If we were
called upon to select a period in which the human
mind in France had not only made nu progress, but
had taken a retrugade step, we should certainly
seled the period of the French Revolution. The
press, indeed, has groaned with the number of pule-
lications, 15ut are they not all gone long since "to the
family vault of all the Capulets ?" In twenty years,
who will remember the names and authors of one of
them? Has any great work been produced upon the
Law of Nations ? Has tine philosophy made a single
step in the last twelve years ? Has one historical
work, worthy of notice, been published ? What
progress has been made in classical literature? Has
one poet of any eminence darted a ray through the
gloom of this long night ? DILILI.E belongs to the
old Court. In chemistry, in astronomy, the French
have made a rapid progress ; bat it would be unjust
to consider that progress as the consequence of the
Revolution. FOURCROY and LALANDL were known
and patronised, and honoured long before that pe-
riod.
if we were to present a catalogue of the works
that have been generated by the Revolution, what a
long train of black and venomous produllions would
disgust us ! Fortunate indeed is it, that the igno-
raticeof the authors was an antidote to the poison
of their doilrines ; that learning and genius did net
make the potion palatable • that the mischief' was
evanescent, and that all these produ'lions will be
concealed for ever, under the thickest veil .of ob-
livion!
If France found her claim to superiority upon the
military fame she has acquired, we must acknow-
ledge, that of that species of fame the Revolution
has brought her large accessions. Driven from the
shrine of Liberty, she found a refitge in the temple of
military glory ; but will her military fame justify
this claim to superiority ? Will History ratify that
claim ? Has she placed the Huns, and the Goths,
and the Vandals above the Roman name, because
their military force triumphed at last over the =-
tient seat of liberty and of learning ? Do we admire
the military atchievernents of an ALEXANDER, so
much as we condemn the murder of a Cevrcs, the
General that had fought under him ? Who dwells
now, but with horror, upon the exploits of a 'I'A
SILIII.ANE, a CHARLES the Xllth, or a Ziercis
Kea v ? The impartial pen of history has long since
torn the laurels from their brows, and stamped them
as the scourges of the human race. Their ambition
was all personal ; because in the pursuit of military
glory they considered nothing sacred ; neither the
faith of treaties nor the independence of nations,
nor the rights of people. The world was their
viEtim, and man was their slave.
But if France have acquired great military fame,
have we no naval glory to counterbalance it ? Are
the vi&ories of the Ist of June off Cape St. Vin-
cent—of Camperdc'wn, and of' the Nile, less bril-
liant than those of the French in Italy and in Ger-
many ? Has France one naval atchievement to set
off against them ? And have we acquired no
military mown ? Was not the CoxseL himself
checked and defeated at Acre by our British O:CUR
DE LEON, Sir SIDNEY SMITH, and a handful of
men ? Was not his army—were not 'his veteran
troops, that had beaten Austrians and 'lurks, and
Russians and Italians—were not they afterwards
conquered and driven from Egypt by British sol-
diers ? On what other ground then does this boast-
ed superiority rest ?
Have any useful discoveries, any inventions for
the benefit of the human race, during the Revolu-
tion, palliated or diminished the enormous guilt of
that event ? We "recolleet two—the Telegraph, cer-
tainly an ingenious invention, useful in times of
war, but which can never eminently contribute to
the benefit or happiness of mankind ; the other
invention is that of the Guillotine. Of both these
discoveries it may be said, that they tend to ac-
• celerate the work of human destrution. They be-
long certainly to the Revolution. We might add
• two other discoveries, the undoubted legitimate
offsprings of the Revolution—the Noyade: and the
Fusillades—the Loire drownings and the Lyons
shootings. It is not a little to the honour of our
own nation that we are able to meet these inventions
with two of a very different description—with two
that will cast a bright lustre on the British name to
the latest ages—with two that will make the British
nation blessed in whatever quarter of the globe, and
under whatever form prayer and praise are address-
ed to die Divine Being—with two that are, and are
alone, for the preservation of mankind.—Need we
name them ? need we mention the discovery of the
Vaccine and of the Life-boat !
We might pursue die subjcti further ; but we
purposely conclude our observations here.

In addition to the gentlemen who have lately ex-
hibited their claims to the title and estates of the
sate Marquis of ANNANDALE, in Scotland, we have
to mention another, viz. Lieutenant DAVID JOHN-
szoN, of the Royal Artillery, brother to the late
General WM. JoaNsroN, of Woolwich.
In the Court of Common Pleas, on Friday, a
cause came on, entitled 110 L DEN SP. SA Nl:m—A
rule having been obtained, on a former day, to shew
cause why the defendant, CHARLOTTE FRANCES
SANDON, formerly the Hon. Mrs. TWISLE rON•
should not be discharged from the custody of the.
Warden of the Fleet -Prison, on an affidavit of her
being a married woman, Mr. Serjeant QNsLow
read an affidavit on the part of the plaintiff,
stating, that the defendant bad been in the habit
of coming in a dashing carriage, under the name
of the Honouralle Mrs. SANDON, stating she was
a Peer's daughter, and a person of high rank and
fashion, by which artifice she obtained wearing-
apparel, and other articles, to the amount of 771.
which it appeared she pledged, for the purpose of
supporting her husband, Mr. SANDON, who is con-
fined for debt in the Fleet prison, under the name
of Mr. Fr zz-Hoorr. The learned Serjeant com-
mented ou the conduEl of the defendant, and hinted,
that this transaEtion might have formed grounds for
a criminal prosecution. Rule made absolute.