The National Register.
London, England, 1811-01-13 00:00:00

there the interests of the Empire commands- the union tp
victorious nation of those portions of its conquests; to !1
. .

their inevitable dissolution.

Anclinjhe deliberation in which,.. youoare occupied; the
quistion_sfiould be put thus: Holland and:the Hans Towns
being hir„ipa.ble of existing by themselves, Mightthey to :belong-.
to .England or to France ?—We shall search in vain a third •
alternative. That inheritance of rivalry, alwiys increasing by
the importance as well as by that of the trusses, our generation,
Senators, has succeeded to, without I).4ll:gable to reject a single
port;on of it. It is no longer two mimics. who , combat on the
plains of Fontenoy ; it is the erapife of the seas which still re-
nds that of the Continent : a memo' able, a terrible struggle,
and of which the catastrophe, perhaps not far distant, will long
occupy the attention of future generations.
66 Let us listen to the political writers of England ; their
alarms confirm this truth, still less, however, than the desperate
measures of its Government : if it were not led on by the im-
minency of its danger, would it have dared, in the presence of
civilised Europe, to tear the compact of honour and of eternal
justice, which connected the neutral powers with the Bellige-
rents ? One would believe, in reading the acts of the English
Ministry, thit the law of nations exists no longer • and who,
then, has substituted for its immutable principles die excesses
and the violence of barbarism ?. Fngland. -
" So early as 1756, her first attempts uponsthe imprescriptible
rights of nations compelled Sweden - and Penntark to defend
tlitai by the dcveloptment of an armed neutra..lity. . Some years
later, the tAtith of February 1780, England pushing her .endea-
yours still farther, Russia saw -no safety for the bonour.of na-
tions, and that of Sovereigns, but in a- public exposition of the
maxims acknowledged by all civilised
,people; she proclaimed
the conditions on which her neutrality was to depend :
" That neutral ships should navigate freely, from port to
port, and on the coasts of nations at *war.

" That property belonging io the subjects of powers at war,
should be free on ,board neutral ships, with the exception .01
contraband." , . .
44 That to determine what characterises a blockaded port,
that designation should only he given to such into whith there
was an evident danger of entering, in consequence of the ships
of the attacking power being stationary and sufficiently near.
" Such were literally the declarations in which the Cabinet of
St. Petersburgh laid down the rights of all Sovereigns. England
replied by throwing off the mask; and signified to the States. of
Holland, that the flag does not cover the property. Ftom that
period she thought herself able, without danger as without-Ob-
stacle, to give Lull swing to her usurpations..

" It was necessary to wait for a period when powerful re-
prisals would compel her to return to justice. That day is ar-
rived ; the decrees of Berlin and Milan are the reply to her
Orders in Council. The British Cabinet has, so to speak, dic-
tato(' them to France. Europe receives them for her Code; and
that Code shall be the palladium of the seas.
44 Let England abjure her madness ; let her reinstate neutrals
in their rights ; justice has never ceased to demand this of her.
If she had not rejected the counsels and the offers of moderation,
what dreadful consequences might she not have avoided ! And
to confine ourselves to the subject of our present deliberation,
she would not have forced France to enrich herself by the ports,
and the arsenals of Holland ; the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe,
would not have flowed tinder our dominion : and we should
not have seen the first country of the Gaols washed by rivers,
united by an internal navigation, to seas which were unknown
to them. Where still are the boundaries of possibility ? Let
England answer it. Let her meditate on the past, let her learn
the future. France and Napoleon will never change. Your
Committee unanimously propose that the &flatus Consullupt be
adopted."

The French Papers contain an article, dated " Copenhagen,"
though evidently written in Paris, which strongly accuses the
Swedish Government of not taking the necessary steps for de-
stroying English goods. It is not difficult to foresee, without
much poliical sagacity, that the reign of the present King of
Sweden is drawing to a close, and that P.ernadotte will soon be
called upon as King, to enforce the Continental System, as it is
cared, with the utmost rigour. But unless Buonaparte can
co,itrive to tr.i.nsport a very considerable body of troops into
Sweden, he will not be able to carry his burning decrees into
effect. The Swedes are not-yet suffincntly humbled to submit,
without resistance, to such outrageous oppression. The situa-
tion in which Bernadotte is is not very pleasant, nor, unless sup-
ported by a French artify,.will he find it avery safe *une.

Butinaparte has settled upon Louis, the Ex-King of Holland,
two aliliions of francs, as a Prince of the French empire; one
half lauded property, the other half secured by pension. Tito
landed property WAS to go to his issue.