The National Register.
London, England, 1812-04-26 00:00:00

32

while religion continues to influence the conduct of man-
kind,—such a jurisdiction cannot fail, as the state of Ire-
land fully proves, to be productive of the most extensive
temporal and civil effects. It, is the more formidable, be-
cause it is undefined ; for it may, therefore, extend itself,
as opportunity offors, without seeming to exceed its
bounds. Indeed, as no precise limits are, or can be, as-
sinned it, the mind will be apt to consider it as unlimited.
Nay, though its jurisdiction were purely of a spiritual na-
ture, without the intervention of any ecclesiastical machi-
nery ;—though it consisted merely of a direct authority
over the souls of men, without the aid of an intermediate
hierarchy ;—it would give the holy father, as the acknow-
ledged universal Vicar of Christ, a kind of spiritual do-
minion, very inconsistent with the allegiance of subjects
to their temporal sovereign, and with their duties to civil
society. But it is not merely a spiritual authority, it is
also an ecclesiastical jurisdiction and supremacy, which
the Members of the Church of Rome recognize in
the foreign head of that Church. Such a supremacy
is at direct variance with the British Constitution,
which vests ecclesiastical, as well as civil supremacy, in
the KING. It is an invasion of that sovereignty, thatple-
dominizoif, which neecssarily belongs to the supreme
power, including the government of the church, as well
as that of the state. Whoever acknowledges such a su-
premacy, divides his allegiance between two Sovereigns;
he acknowledges two masters ;—and as religious concerns
justly claim a higher importance than those of a temporal
nature, whenever the interests of tsematters happen tO
clash, the influence of the ecclesiastical m
bead must be iex-
pected to predominate. Any individual within the realm,
claiming supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction, would so&
himself up as a rival to the Prince on the throne.
But such a claim, on the part of a foreign potentate, is
inexpressibly more formidable, as that potentate is beyond
the reach of controul. To entrust power in the hands of
th,se who acknowledge such a supremacy, is, in effect, to
entrust it to the person possessing that supremacy ; and that
person, it is well known, considers the religion of a Pro-
testant state as heretical, and the ecclesiastical authority
of the Sovereign of such a state, as an usurpation".

Between twelve and one o'clock on Sunday, a Flag oil
Truce arrived in Dover Roads, with a French Officer of ;
distinction, who was the bearer of dispatches directed in
the first instance to the Naval Commander on the Dover
station. The Fiench Officer was not permitted to land,
but the dispatches were immediately taken to the Admi-
ral, at Deal, by whom they were sent post to town, and
were addressd, we understand, from the French Foreign
Minister to his Majesty's Secretary of State fur Fo:eign
Affairs. It is supposed that the dispatches contain a pa-
cific overture from BUONAPARIVE, previous to his com-
mencing war against Russia ; but we fear that it is not
of that conciliatory nature that will le.ld to peace, or even
to a negocizion for that desirable purpose. The dis-
patches, which are. however important, were laid before
the PRINCE REGENT on Monday, and a Cabinet Council
was summoned to cons:der of their conteiits. The French
Officer who came with the Flag of Truce returned, im•
mediately after delivering the'dispatches, to Calais.

THE NATIONAL nlicisTot.

ORDERS IN COUNCIL.

APRIL 26

DECLARATION.
The Government of France, having by an Official Report, communi-
cated by its Minister for Foreign Aireirs to the Conservative Senate on
the 10th day of March last, removed all doubts as to the perseverance
of that Government in the assertion of principles, and in the maintenance
of a system, not more hostile to the maritime rights and commercial
interests of the British Empire, than inconsistent. with the rights and in.
dependence of Neutral Nations ; and having thereby plainly developed
the imedinate pretensions which that system, as promulgated in the De.
trees of Berlin and Milan, was from the first designed to enforce ; his
Royal Highness the PRINCE R en en T, acting in the name, and on the be.
half of his :Vie' es re, deems it proper, upon this formal and authentic
re-publication of the principles of those Peceees, thus publicly to declare
his ROYAL /11011 N ILls'S citte; minatton still firmly to resist the introduc-
tion and establishment of this arbitrary Code, which the Government of
France openly avows its purpose to impose by force upon the world, as
the Law of Nations.
From the time that the progressive injustice and violence of the French
Government made it impossible for his MAJESTY any longer to restrain
the exercise of the rights of war within their ordinary limits, without
submitting to consequences not less ruinous to the commerce of his do-
ieion, than derogatory to the rights of his Crown, h
hosedAJESTY has
endeavoured, by a res. ricted and moderate use of rights of re-
taliation, which the Berlin and Milan Decrees necessarily called into
action, to reconcile Neutral Stites to those measures, which the conduct
of the enemy had rendered unavoidable : and which, his MAJESTY has
at all timee professed his readiness to revoke, so soon as the Decrees of
the enemy, which gave occasion to them, should he formally and un•
conditionally repealed,and the Commerce of Neutral Nations be restored
to its accustomed course.
At a subeeettent period of the war,his Mei errv, availing himself of
the then situation of Europe, without abandoning the principle aid ob-
ject of the Orders in Cour.cil of November. 1807, was induced se to
limit their operation, as materially to alleviate the restrictions thereby
imposed upon neutral commerce. The Order in Council of April, MS,
was substituted in the room of those of November, 1807, and the retalia.
tory system of Great Britain acted no longer on every country in 'which(
the aggressive- measures of the enemy were in force, but wa4 confined
in its operation to France; and to the countries vim which Cue French
yoke was mot strictly imposed; and which had become virtueily a part
of the dominions of France.
The United States of America remained nevertheless dissatisfied; and
their dissatisfaction has been greatly increased by an artifice too tutee---
fully employed on the part of the enemy, who has pretended, that the
Decrees of Berlin and Milan were repealed, although the Decree effect-
ing ouch repeal has never been promulgated ; although the notification
of such pretended repeal distinctly described it to be dependent on con-
ditions, in wheelie enemy knew Groat Britain could never
subsequent
acquiesce;
: mid although abffndant evidence has &ince appeared of their
execution.
But the enemy has at length laid aside all dissimulation ; he now pub-
licly and solemnly declares, not only that those Decrees still continue in
force, but that they shall lee rigidly executed until Great Britain shall
comply with additional conditions, equally extravagant; and he further
announces the pen:l:tie-, of :hose Decrees to be in full force against all
nations which shall stiffer their flag to be, as it is termed in this new
Code, " denationalized."
In addition to the di-avowal of the blockade of May, 1806, and of the
principles on which tba, blockade was established, and in addition to the
repeal of the British Orders in Council—he demands an admission of the
principles, that the goods of an enemy, carried under a neutral flag, shall
be treated as neutral;—that neutral property under the flag of an enemy
shall be treated as hostile ;--that arms and warlike stores alone (to tte
exclusion of ship timber and other articles of naval equipment) shall be
regarded as contraband of war ;—and that no ports niall be coosidered as
lawfully blockaded, except such as are invested and besieged, in the Fe-
sumptien of their being taken ten prevention d'art prisj, and Into which
a merchant ship cannot enter without danger.
By these and other demands, the enemy in facet requires, that Great
Britain, and all civilized nations, shall renounce, et his arbitrary plesetre,
the ordinary and indisputable rights of maritime war ; that Great Blitaia,
in particular, shall forego the advantages of her naval superiority, and
anew the commercial property, as well as the produce and manufac-
tures of France and her Confederates, to pass the ocean in security,
whilst the subjects of Great Britain are to be in effect proscribed fro ii tilt
commercial intercourse with other nations • and the produce atol nia-
nufactures of these re ;leis are to be excluded from every country in
the world, to which the arms.or the influence of the enemy cat) eve d•
Such are the demands to which tke British Government is stinorf and
to submit—to the abandoment of its must ancient, essential, and u
doubted maritimeeights. Such is the Code by which France hopes, yr.
der the cover of a neutral flitg,•.o render her comm. rce unasiailablc by
sea; whilst she proceeds to invade, or to incorporate with her own
i dominions, all States that hes:tate to s,crifice their national interest s at
• her command, and, in abdicatien of their just rights, to adept a ede:
oi by which they d
are required _clue, under the mask of manic ea
regulation, whatever is British, to ex
from their dominions.