The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-01-28 00:00:00

• WiR.II.INIC INTERESTS.

othing can be more for, the interest of the Court
of V ian.a than to have proposed to that of Berlin a
purcly deferieve all against the ambition of
Prance and Russia. The late invective against the
Kisg of Prussia, in which the liberty of the !match
press has somewhat blamably indulged itself, seems
to indicate that all is not quite well between that
Prince and the Sovereign in the Thuilkries, and
that his Prussian Majesty had deserved a little gentle
admonition. May this prejected alliance be possibly
the cause of it, and may the rumoured visit to the
banks of the Rhine haee the same origin. Upon
these points we shall only indicate possibilities. -As
to the overture itself, it appears very probable, as
the House of Austria cannot fail, in every event, to
derive honour and advantage, even from its rejec-
tion, which would demonstrate the total alienation
of the would-be Emperor of Germany fie:ill the
cause, interests, and character of the Germans.
Since the peace of AVestphalia, the rivalry and r
rancorous hatred of the Houses of Austria and
lirandenburgh have been the cause of whetever di-
rainution the Empire may have endured in the rela-
tive scale of Europe. In the late war the evil had
attained its crisis and the treaty of Petsle, at which
Prussia consented (for value since received) to be a
contemptuous spectator of the ruin and dismember-
ment of the natioa; (accustomed as our eyes are be.
come to political wiceedness and apostacy), forms a
epocha in the decline and fall of the German Em-
pire; it seems henceforth etectually divided, the com-
mon bend of coentry cancelled and destroyed, and
the pody polite dissolved ieto two utterly distinct
aid unconnected monarchies and peoples. If any
thing can prevent this otherwise inevitable consum-
rnatien !for the dream of the Roman Crown upon
the head of an Elector of Brandenburgh is as yet,
et least, no more than the fume of intoxicated am-
bition and political indigestion), it must be the de-
fensive allience of the two Powers, the only substitute
which call be des ised for the national identity and fe-
derative Constitution. We have purposely avoided
any allusion to the internal state of Germany, poli-
tical or religious, and advert only to the necessity of
sepplying the lAs and deterioration which that nati-
on has sustained in its external relations. Now, al-
thn' unhappily nothing appears more problematical
and difficult to be attained than the union of these
Houses, it will scarcely be alleged that there are any
real unsnrmnuntable obstacles, or any other impedi-
ments than what arise in the lowest passions and
the most contemptible prejudices and personalities. I
Is it ton much then to hope—after the cruel experi-
ence of so many disastrous and disgraceful years, in
which one half of Germany has deserted and be-
trayed the other—after the whole has been disho-
noured or weakened, pillaged, or torn to pieces by
foreign hands, its territory, its constitution usurped
and overthrown by foreigners, and its states, princes,
and ecclesiastics robbed or indemnified, plundered or
rewarded, in miler to create a dependence of weak
inequity, and a faction of lawless possession in
the pay or terror of foreigners ?—is it too much to
hope, at this pericsd of time, that its misfortunes
have arrived at their climax, and that it may now
realm towards that prosperity, by unity and con-
cord, which it has thrown away by its civil dis-
seniions, and the division of the country?—This
hope is entertained by Professor Gentz, and al-
thoulzh we cannot indulge it with a very sanguine
confidence, we see as little reason to reject it alto-
gether. Perhaps the Professor may have exerted
aria itulaence with the Austrian cabinet in favour of
this most prudent and honourable attempt. It can-
ant be without extreme unpopularity that Prussia
can refuse to entertain the proposal. Should the
information from Harnburgh prove true, we have
only to hope that the intrigues of the French cebi-
net may not be able to induce the counsellors of
Vnederick William to protract or elude the settle-
tr..ent of the sole basis upon which it appears possible
henceforward to protect the greatness, the prospe-
rity, or the independence, of Germans.

The humane solicitude of a Society recently es-
tablished to diminish the cruel sufferings to which
chimney sweepers' apprentices are condemned,
will, it is hoped, have the effeEt which is proposed.
There seems, however, great reason to be appre-
hensive, that an attempt, which has so often been
made, will not be attended with more success now,
than it has been on former occasions. This obser-
vation is not made with a view to prevent exertions
of so meritorious a nature as those which the So-
ciety pmposes to themselves; but arises merely
from a melancholy view of the small progress
that has been made in the amelioration of the fate
of children apprenticed to this trade, since the
period when they first became the subject of public
an x iety.
The benevolent JON AS HANWA V, Who first avow-
ed himself their protector, gives the following ac-
count of them ; These distressed boys," he says,
" are often bought of worthless parents, or picked
tip, as a forlorn hope, and sold by one chimney
sweeper to another, for ten or twenty shillings.
Some masters take a dozen, some twenty appren-
tices. One of them had the modesty to take as fir
a; thirty ; many of whose faces he really did not
know. In those cakes it is common to let them out
at 6d. a-day, the boy to get fowl where he can/nd ;
the chatity which they get in the streets, it it ex-
ceeds a penny, they are again plundered 'ef by the

masters."
The Solicitor of the Society for the Suppression
of Vice, on Tuesday exhibited informations against
twenty-eight publicans, who live in the neighbour-
hood of Shoreditch, for suffering persons to tipple
in their houses during divine service, on Sunday
se'nnight. They were severally convicted in the
penalty of ten shillings, and dismissed with a suit-
abk admonition from the Magistrate, except one,
who was acquitted, because he had a board on his
door to intimate -that no liquor would be served
daring divine service, and the complaint against him
originated from a case of necessity, to which the
act does not extend. One of the delinquents, who
was charged with serving spirits through a small
wicket in hack-dens, to nearly thirty women at
once, said, they complained of a pain in their bowels.
A shoemaker was also fined for exercising his
trade on a Sunday. He said the person who.gave
the information came whilst he and his family were
at church, under pretence of buying a pair of shoes ;
but, after he had lo!‘ed at come, and found the
ruler's name, he said, " that Was all he wanted,"
end went away. Crispin thought the Society should
not employ persons of such a description, who came
with t lie in their mouths, for it wiA inipossible they
•
ceulo. lipttru tic kinzdoNs V licaves.