The National Register.
London, England, 1813-04-04 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

APRIL 4.

potism were more fully known, than allies sprung at every
step around them. Neutrality and passiveness disappeared.
lkarts, long swelling with secret grief at the degradation and
partition of their country, now at last dared to vent forth
their patriotism. Hands, long compelled to wield the sword
in the cause of their oppressor, now aimed it at his breast.
Fear vanished, and insurrection anticipated the presence of
+he deliverers. The capital of Prussia hai4ed the Russian
Eagles : flamburgh abolished the nv.rks of its late degra-
ding union with France, and the spirit of Hanoverian loyalty
rose in vengeance against the flying agents of Gallic des
potism. Throughout the North the love of independence
revived, and the enemy, shrinking before the appalling
blaze, shut himself up in fortresses, or fell back to gain a
spot where the contagious enthusiasm of freedom had not
yet penetrated, and where he might collect and marshal his
host to encounter the coming storm, without dreading Si.

milar si,ings in his rear.
Such ssns the situation of affairs when the last accounts
from the Continent reached our shores. Yet, at a moment
when the fortunes of NAPOLEON shrunk before his foes;
when the nations he had dismembered spurned their
bonds, and rushed to revenge their wrongs ; when the Mo-
narchs he had crowned tottered on their thrones, or, for-
saking, their capitals, desperately clung to his departing
power—at a time, when almost the whole Continent
seemed labouring to overthrow the despotism by which it
had been so long oppressed, did the call for peace issue
from the British nation, hitherto the champion of universal
independence, as though to damp the spirit and repress the
exertions of those who struggled to be free, and to effect a
saving diversion in behalf of hard-pressed tyranny Nay,
the misfortunes of France, and the distress of NAPOLEON,
seem to have endeared both to some v,f our Senators. Never,
at the hour of his prosperity, did BUONAPARTE meet with
such flattery, and his subjects receive such exhortations to
serve him faithfully', from his own, as lately from the British
Senate. Whilst the triumphant Russians proclaim him a
despot, and call on all nations to rise and to subvert his op-
presive power, England's Statesmen deny the assertion,
honour him as a " Great Prince," whose conquests ought
to be respected, as they are the fruits of " twenty years' ex-
ertion ;" and notonly invite " every Frenchman to shed the
last drop of his blood" to resist any pretensions averse to
the integrity of his empire, but maintain that " no
Englishman ought to shed his blood" to support such pre
tensions I Such language from a Peer of the Realm,
and in the highest assembly of the State, cannot fail
to produce a strong sensation both at home and abroad.
'What then must have been our injustice, 'if NAPOLEON
be a " Great Prince" whose conquests should he re-
spected, we who for so many years have been con-
tending, occasionally against all the Continent, to
curtail his power? Nay, how ctitninal arc the Rus-
sians, who have sacrilegiously dared to dcfcat his armies,
and begun the dismemberment of his empire ? How ani-
mating will such expressions appear to the Prussians
now arming against him? How likely to encourage !the
Dutch in their reported inclination to rise, or to detach
the Emperor FRANCIS from the cause of his son-in-law ? It
is true, that through the Austrian Ambassador, NAPOLEON
is supposed to have proposed a general peace; but is that
great, and if securely attained, that desirable object, likely
to be effected by language and petitions sueh as these ?
Will they not raise the drooping courage of our enemy,
and with it his terms ? Does not common policy tell us,
that eagerness defeats its -own ends ? If the disasters
NAPOLECiN has experienced, the conspiracy of

21

some of his own Generals against his authority, and the
danger his Wife and son have run Iguring his absence, with
the threatening aspect of rising nations, have so far humbled
his spit it, that he will concede by negociation what is now
attempted to be torn from him by the sword, peace may be
made, so as to rest on a solid basis—the diminution of his
power, and the restoration of tlat of his neighbours to nearly
its pristine state. if the mediation of Austria tends only to
this, it will be acceptel But if Britain appear still more eager
for peace than France herself, who has not made an open and
direct applicltion for it, then will the tone both of NA-
POL EON and of his mediator change, their ipretensions will
! encrease, and what otherwise might have been practicable,
may then become impolitic and impossible.i

FRFSII TAXES. •
The War Taxes proposed by the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
CHEQUER this week, it wilt Le seen, are flamed with the
wish of making them press as lightly as possible on the lower
classes. An increase cf the Customs is the grand feature in
the present scheme of taxation. This increase is certainly
very considerable, amounting as it does to 25 per cent. It
is, however, to be remembered, as was observed by the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHELZUER, that no addition of im-
portance has been made to the Customs since the year 1804.
This he reckons •ill produce eight hundred and fifty thousand
pounds. From an additional tax on Tobacco he expects to
raise 100,000/. French wine, goods of the manufacture of
France, and the countries dependent on her, foreign hides
exported, and American cotton wool, were -among the other
objects proposed, as those on which new duties would be laid.
The duty on the last-mentioned article was very strongly op-
posed, and •be opposition was so effective, that the CHAN
C EL L Olt of the EXCH Equ ER declined pressing the Resolution
at that period, and Mr. POMONBY predicted the Right nom
Gentleman would not move that it should he read a second
time. We lament that the pressure -of the times should
make it necessary to impose taxes, at all detracting from the
comforts of the people, but' it cannot be denied, that the
Minister is entitled to much praise for the anxiety he has
evinced to make our burdens fall on our enemies as much as
• possible. We cannot hut warmly approve of tl►e proposesl
duties on French wines and manufactures. It will be well
if they become productive, in as much as they will make the
wealthy contribute their fair proportion to the exigencies of
the State ; and, if they prove otherwise, by prohibiting the
importation of the articles in question, they will tend stilt
more to weaken and distress the enemy.

A mail from Heligoland arrived on Toesday, the contents
of which are interesting and important. The whole of the
North of Germany may now be considered as in a state of
active insurrection against the French; and the inhabitants
of Bremen, and the ne'ghbouring districts, have applied to
the Governor of Heligoland for arms, the better to enable
theni to act against the enemy. Through the intervention
ctf Russia with Denmark, orders have been issued by the latter
Government that no molestation shall be given to the free
navigation of the Elbe by British vessels; and, by a Procla-
mation issued by the Russian Commandant at Hamburgh,
the ancient relations of commerce between England and
Hamburgh have-been completels, restored. A Proclamation
issued by the Emputor Alexander, dated Posen the 20th ult.
offers a free pardon to all such of his Polish subjects who
may have joined the arms of France, provided t hat with
the space of two months they return to their allegiance. •
full amnesty and oblivion as to the rast is promised to
others. The Poles taken prisoners in the course of the
•1