The National Register.
London, England, 1809-03-12 00:00:00

itl2

confidence, or lay claims to friendship. They, conse-
quently, exercised no other influence, and obtained no fur-
ther information, than what they were able to do in their
officio/ capacity. Favour more than merit regulated the
nominatio3 even to this chart;e, in which versatility of
tilent and suavity of manners arc pre-eminently requi-
s.e.

It can he no gratifying task to recur to a period, which
has not left a single monument of our wisdom, a trace of
well directed energy, a proof of progressive improvement,
or increased security. The occurrences were trans-
cendently favorable to, and powerfully urged, the deve-
lo;iement of great virtues and great talents; but our ex-
ertions never rose beyond the level of vulgar acquire-
ments, and our civic duties were confined within the nar-
row circle of ordinary sacrifices. Our thoughts and our
actions bore the stamp of mediocrity ; whilst every passing
eveut was calculated to communicate unusual impressions,
to suggesi, the necessity of extraordinary efforts. Govern-
ment during that interval seemed rather impressed with the
utility of imposing political restrictions, than of multiply-
ing the moral resqurces of the state, by enlarging the pri-
vileges of the subject.; though the accumulating dangers
of the community required the full exercise, and the
widest stretch of the virtue and vigour of its respective
mem:iers. The old routine which regulated and disgraced
the nomiyuition to offices in the most sluggish and uniform
years, was adhered to ; and intrigue thrust in mere mini-
ons of favour, vulgar instruments of corruption, to the
exclusion of merit, experience, and patriotism. Our dis-
cipline and vigilance relaxed in proportion as our dangers
and diflicidties encreased ; and the grossest violations of
public duty, the most flagrant delinquency, were tole-
rated, or srreened from punishment, at a juncture, when
Roman severity and civism were urgently requisite. In a
word, our expedients, our regulations were ordinary ;
thong!' our embarrassments NVere unprecedented, and our
danei• accumulating.
The decrease of our foreign influence kept pace with
the increasing w'e:ll.iiess and inexpediency of our measures
at home. Our local peculiaritA-, and the spirit of our insti-
tutions. gave us the stronge,; ci.aims to the confidence and
w;sbei of the greater part of our neighbours ; but,
from fiorne fatalitv in our mai:ner, our ;:vices were re-
quited wit!! coldness, our pciaered friendship excited sus-
picion. WC have had the mortification to see, that states,
-which were peculiarly invited to connect themselves with
us, a; well from incidental circumstances and the force
of habitual, long esiablished alliance, as from the power-
ful sense of nlutual danger and reciprocal interest, declined
even in the last struggle for existence, in the very ag,:av of
their inclenemience, our direct interference and active sup-
port. 'Whitt renders this suspicMll the iitere painful is the
certainty. thai neifher the moral reputation of the com-
munity. nor the idea of imaginar prepondi:i-ance justify
its existeace. Some might, perhaps, console themselves
at this less of fortner reputatien, by that inisQrable plea
of levity and indiscretion,—Mat ire .4;auld attach no impor-
tance 16, and ereu despise, the judgtmen:s of mankind, if.
theNeo :201 coincit'c vith our 0z,:.7 good opinion qf oursetres.
This resolution is the last resort of the sublimest
phitos-
phy and the most conscious virtue, struggling against a
pi, geese generation ; but among the rest of men it is a.
r-, symptom of extreme rashness and indiscretion, or of
a ',la) extinction of moral fe..ling. Nations, in many in-
stances, but supremely so in this, deserve to be considered
and estimated according to the same principles as indivi-
thials. Tl)eir greatest and most useftti qualities arc ren-
dered hiefrectnal to themselves, as well as to others, if' the
reit of the -world, arc unwilling to acknowledge their va-
b:ify- and splendour. They are, in fact, like lamps burn-
in a tomb, consuming and casting to no purpose.
political theories it would he hazardous to calculate on
;,,:acrosily of govcrualcuLs ; but, as a great inauulac-