The National Register.
London, England, 1809-02-19 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

114

the charges against him are well-founded. tint the exan,s
ple of so illustrious a personage, and so nearly allied to tilt•
throne, arraigned at the bar-of his country, will el:wince
the nations of-the world of the impartiality of our laws, of
the practical excellency of our institutions. With what
admiration will Europe read the proceedings of the present
House of Commons ! There is not an honest man, from
the banks of the Wolga to the Streights of Gibraltar, who
will not say, ".such an assembly is worthy of a free peo-
ple, and if other nations possessed similar tribunals to re•
strain the vices of their Generals and Ministers, they would
not now writhe under the odious despotism of Bonaparte
and the galling exactions of his agents."
. These are our motives fur glorying in the investigation.
It is so cheering a reflection to think one's country stands
• high in the estimation of other states; and the idea is still
. more exhileratinvs. to know that it deserves it.. The charges
against his Royal Highness accuse him of having made the
most unjustifiable use of his influence as Commander in
Chief; and they are supported by the corroborating evi-
dence of several witnesses. And for what purpose, and
for 'whom, is he said to have violated the duties of his of-
fice ? Good God ! we would blush to mention it. A Prince
et the blood, the Commander in Chief of the Army, in
rank the third person in the British empire, basking
iii the favour, and living on the smiles of a *****. For
shame ! for shame! we can never believe it. The idea is
too extravagant. The letters arc unquestionably fictitious.
Absent on the exercise of his professional duties, his mind
impressed with the important services the troops he was
reviewing., might be, from day to day, called to perform
in defence of their very homes—he could find leisure, or
have the inanity of fteling, to write these nauseous ex-
pressions of love, admiration, and eternal constancy !
'There is no (haste zephyr would waft such sighs; there
is no soldier would breathe them for such an object.—
Dear! dear ! Dear what dear ! what can the,mat-
ter be ? True, something must be the matter with the
head and heart of the prince, or the man, who could
write in that nauseous strain, and on such an occasion, to
the intimate friend of Mr. I)owler, and the associate of
Donovan. In point of composition, pathos, and delicacy
gdfeelilg, these letters are near akin to the Corporal's
love epistle which Lefevre brought Sterne when in Paris,
as the model of an elegant note to Madame B . . . and for
pomposity and ardour, would cut no indifferent figure in
the grand burlesque of nn Thumb.
The Courier says the Duke of York must be brought to
trial. Unquestionably he must. The charges are too grave,
too positive, to admit of an alternative. No power upon
earth can now acquit him in any other mode, though we
wish the laws of his country and his conscience may. It
would be the most cruel injustice, and an act of the most
barbarous outnige against the accusf'd, were thevoceed-
ins to terminate without the forina:i' v of a trial. Shall
the Duke of York be deprived of the b,:nefit of those laws
Ivhich is granted to the most fla!;itiowz culprit? Shall an
impression go abroad that favour or power screened him
horn censure, for the gross offences which arc imputed to
him? Shall his character he left naked and defenceless to
• the poisoned shafts -of malignity, to the random shot of
,indiscretion ! The men who would advise it are no friends

to his Royal nor to their country, and are un-
aitiestionably none to the Douse of Brunswick. • A trial
must, therefor-e, be instituted, to rescue the accused •from
groundless suspicion, and to avoid the painful consequences
4ofpelilibn on the part of the country ! Shall calumny rear
lier.crested head, and boldly and openly stalk from county
to county, casting about torches of discord, spreading
disaffection, and underminino.. the attachment of the public
•to the present establishment. The men who would advise
any other mode of proceeding are the real Jacobins, arc
-conspirators against the throne and the people.
An intimation, it is said, has. been given from a ccrlain
quarter, to certain persons high in office, to interfere more
pointedly and decidedly in the pending investigation. A
•stiore pernicious ciercise of authority, or 11101 V fatal to

FEB. 10.

the tranquillity of the country, or more detrimental to
the interests of the Commander in Chic), could not have

been -suggested. We, therefore, reject this rumour, as
conveying an unjustifiable opinion of a personage we are
in the habit of revering, and implying an uaconstitutioual
influence where it should not, and o .ght not, to be exerted.
His Royal Highness must be brought to trial ; anu any
man, who opposes it in this awful crisis of our affairs, is a
dangerous egotist, indifferent to the houodr or existence of
the empire. This impartiality will silence secret murmurs,
and stifle discontent, which would brood in private over
the supposed injustice. This is no fit season for trying the
dangerous experiment of relaxing public morals, and tam-
pering with the laws. The laws, said the heythian ANA-
CHARMS, are cobwebs, which catch flies, but are broken by
wasps. For God's sake, let not this imputation be attach-
ed to ours,'which have excited, till now, the admiration of
the philosopher, and the wonder of oilier nations. We ex-
ult, we repeat it once more, in the present investigation, it
is the first step towards a radical reform, and the axe is al-
ready laid at the root of abuses. Enough has come out to
spew that they exist to an alarming degree ; and hie pub-
lic begin to lay that servile and dangerous complaisance
aside, which arose out of the excesses of the French Revo-
lution. The applause bestowed on Mr. WARDLE for his
manly and patriotic conduct, will create emulation ; and
all the recesses of venality will be explored with a prying
inquisitorial eye. Jobbers, contractors, minions, an,i mis-
tresses may have cause to complain of the projected refisrm,
and cry down the supporters of it as jacobins and conspi-
rators ; but the slang of these associates is now intelligible
to the public; and Jacobin, in their cant phraseology, sig-
nifies a well- intentioned, zealous, and disinterested ft:cud
of the constitution. Anether reason why we feel an incli-
nation to rejoice at the proceedings of the Committee, is,
that they will enable the present and future administra-
tions to act with more freedom and energy. There existed
a fatal clog on the exertions of the Ministry of the eity,
and to that cause we may, perhaps, attribute the disasters
of the Spaniards; and our own late reverses ;led disgrace.
What they projected, and wished to be carried into execu-
tion, was marred by the jealousy and disaprointed ambi-
tion of a single individual. Fired with an inordinate desire
to conduct a numerous army into Spain, and suffering the
mortification of having his wishes frustrated by the decided
opposition of the public, and the independent part of the
Ministry, (their names are sufficiently known), he felt, we
are afraid, too strong an inclination to prefer his resent-
ments to the interests as well as honour of the Common-
wealth.

The courier of Friday last contains a report that the
office of Commander iu Chief will be immediately put in
commission, in the same manner as the Office of Lord High
Admiral has been since the reign of Queen ANNE. We
sincerely and ardently wish this report were trek ; for then,
and only then, can we look to the same brilliant services
from the army, as from the navy. Whatever the talents
of the present Commander in Chief arc, however great his
activity and assiduity may be, nobody will deny but his
talents and exertions are inadequate to the complete per-
formance of the great duties which the vast increase of our
military force imposes on film. Ile may possess all the
genius and discernment of a TiLtaLtionorGa, with the ad-
ministrative. talents of a CARNOT, and he still singly
incapable of the discharge of all the duties annexed to this
important: office. It. is too much, and too complicated,
for the exertions.of one person, and requires a mass and
variety of talents and knowledge, to give it th4t vigour,
life, and perfection, which our Navy go incomparably pos-
sesses. The British Navy !—There is not an Englishman,
Whose heart does not exult at the very name I It conveys
the image of victory and safety, unblemished by a single
reverse. But our army, though compostd of the same
mettle, and equally-brave, from Some mismanagement, or
latent defect in its erganisation, or incapacity of the Com-
mander in Chief, has frequently disapp 'ted the lw- of
the country.

I

ppoitited the hopes of Pi