The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-10-13 00:00:00

THE COIITINENT.

Divided between a lorced peace and a necessary
war, the Continent patticipates the t ,gers of both,

without enjoying the usual advantages of the for-

titer, or the chances which might result from the
latter. What kind of peace is that which excludes
the principle on which our independence and tran-
quillity are founded ? After the thirty years con-
vulsion in the seventeenth century, which was le:-
valuated by the peace of Westphalia, the public
rights of Europe were at least settled by stipulations,
in consequence of a long arbitration of powers,

more Of lesrproportionate to each other, and gua-
named by the balance which that solemn transac-
tion preserved among them. At present all balance
is overthrown ; and every treaty made with Bona-
parte Confirms that overthrow ; for the consequences

of them are new usurpations, new spoils, either by

arms, or by revolutionary influence; yet, the cry
for peace is every where heard. Such is the force
a wards and of habits, that many princes, many

ministers, and many individuals, still imagine, that
they are where they were in 1638, or 1713 ; expea
from edpalations with Bonaparte, the result of those
of Munster or of Utrecht ; and conceive that all
disputes between France and them will vanish the
lament honest Talieyrand shall sign the asFurance
- of it. The distress into which most Nations and
Governments are plunged by the uncertainty of their
situation, is as object worthy of attentton. Never
did the miseries of war appear with so hideous an
aspic ; never were the dangers of peace more mani-
fest. No State, in negotiating or purchasing its
reconciliation with Revolutionary France, can de.
arraine whether it be aging foolishly or prudently,
whether there be less risk in braving the hatred or
kiting the friendship of the Revolutionary
ror. The effeas of the latter are ntl longer
teal. Every one now knows what it costs
to enter into terms with an Usurper, who oppresses
full as mach by his treaties as by his arms, and
who never grants place, but with a view of falling
spun his enemies the moment he has disarmed and
• disorganised them.

What have the pacific Powers, or those that have
been made pacific, Brined by their desertion of the
general cause If there be one that merited any
consideration, it was the King of Sardinia. By de-
hvering up-his fortresses, his country, his security,
he delivered up Italy. He surrendered at diszrelEal,

one himself. his throne, and his family, under the
proteCtion of the honour of the conqueror, and trust-
ed in the faith of a treaty, signed upon the ruin of
ramparts, by which his sovereignty was strirped
of all means of def..nce. In return he is a wander-
er, without a home, and without a subje3 upon the
!y had the Pope bought peac,7
at the pricJ of his treasures, his chqrs d'art'," of the
art., anJ the third of his territory, when a con-
cordat was pat into requisition to execute the same
revolutionary innovations in the Church as had al-
wady taken place in • he 3 ate; anJ, to give the death-
blow to the Re-man religion, its visible chief i.
forced to add blasp' emy to degradation, in perform-
ing the vilest and most impolitic of all ads, the
• 41111ftediaill qf ae .attain and *sorer ea an Eneperor
of roe eithe seed peplos, natio:" in Err," ! ! !
The Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Duke of
Parma, the republics of Venice, Helvetia, Genoa,
sod Lucca, not.vitlistaang the successive contri•
Unions, to which they so repeatedly submitted, and
their numberless humiliations, by which they par
chased the suspension of their ruin, exist no more,
• or only as departments of France. Has the King
• of Naples gained more tranquillity or safety by 3
peace, than he would have preserved by continuin
is war ? S.1:1 is that enemy in his kingdom, whom
be believed he should have removed from it. Na

longer is there any connexion between his States and

the rest of Italy, democratised, enslaved, and under
the subjedliun of some insatiable French bandktis,
while the sums which peace has cost him wou'J
hare maintained numerous armies. Madrid and
Lisbon present the same melanclicly pitture :
Thrones siispenled between a revolution daily pre-
paring, and the btudens of the most nhniriefol tri-
butes. It is in this deceitful position, it is in the
arms of the assassin of his family, that the King
of Bpeia drags on his eltisteacc, a prey to the per-
turbation of his mini, the dissentious of his ministry,
the complaints and suffering; °Ellis subje:ls, to antic-
• ty for the present, and to terror for the future.
Slumbering beneath suspended poniards, this Mr.
march, bound by the ties of an unnatural alliance, can
neither break them, nor suffer them to remain un-
broken without d.toger ; c.sn neither continue in
peace, nor support war. Revulutionary France is
126 scourge, and Engl..ni his pi oteanT he would
. craw to be a Kind, were the FailiSh to cease to
concricr.

If from the Soto!i we turn our eyes to the North,
we sec a disgraceful multitude of German Princes
and S:atn cxhalav:ing the question on the means
netessAry to ahri.lzo their existence. It is difficult