The National Register.
London, England, 1816-07-15 00:00:00

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No. 440.—V0L. IX.

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THE NORTHERN. AFRICAN INSTITUTION

• Lori Exmouth will sail in a few days with the aqua•
drou destined to ruscu.: the high character which Great
Britain deservedlsr holds in the opinion of all Europe,
frnwthe ,cliou4 charge of conniving at. the outrages
long coniutitted With impunity by the pirates of North-
ern Africa. Never did an expi,dition depart from our
shores with more general or unqualified wishes tir its
complete success. It is entbarled not only in the cause
of all the civilized nations. of Europe, but in that of
human nature ; •for what is the slavery of the natives of
Africa, in our trans-atlantic Colonies, about which so
much argumentative sympathy is perpetually and honour-
ably displayed, when compared with that of the Chris-
tians who annually fall into the power of those infamous
banditti of Algiers,. Tripoli, and Tunis? It is really
astonishing and incomprehensible, by what stupid and in-
fatuated poli.v those receptacles of naval piracy can have
been prmittcd so long to exist, when there is not a
single European Power that has not suffered from them
Site grossest outrages ; while no benefit is derived from
an intercourse with them, by any nation in the world.
Surely ,they cannot be thought ton contemptible fin. ven-
geance, when the lamentable fact is on undisputed record,
that there are never fewer than from 4000 to 5000
Christian slaves enduring the most horrible of human
sufferings in the territories of those despicable third-rate
tyrants. But whatever the policy may have 'been that
has hitherto caused our forbearance, we hope and believe
that it is at an end. The circumstance of the gallant
AdmiraLbeing accompanied by bomb-vessels and rocket-
ships, proves that it is at last intended to strike a blow ;
and thus while we feel convinced that temporLing is past,
we have only to look timwaid to the complete anni-
hilation of the whole of the piratical fleets, and de-
molition of the fortresses that protect them ; regretting
however, that such an operation has been thus lung de-
keyed.

When we reflect, that these very piratical States once
formed, under the dominion of the Carthaginians, the
greatest naval Power in the world, and had a more ex-
tensive commerce titan all the other people on the face of
the earth united, we have still greater grounds far asto-
:rishment and indignation at the apathy of the whole of
-modern Europe towards the ex::esses of the wretches who
have succeeded those distinguished heroes of antiquity ;
and who, for more than a century, have been sutihred to
lay all the commercial nations of the world under annual
tribute, as the price of their temporary abstinence from
•plunder. We have often heard the argument, that the
different States of Europe were jealous of each other in
regard to the influence which any one might hereafter
obtain in this part of Africa, it„ by a consentaneous en- ,
aerprize, they were to destroy the vessels of the banditti.
'That such a jealousy may have -always existed towards
Great Britain, as the greatest naval power in the world, •
we can readily inttrg:ne; yet nothing can be more ahntra •
and futile than the principles on which it is grounded.
lt' it had not been for such a pitiful taal miserable jea- •
lousy, there is no doubt that any one of those Powers .
would have long since, of its own accord, performed the
task which we have at last taken upon ourselves. But
we wish those envious scribblers-tin the German Papers,
woo so l..tely threw out the calumny, that it was a duty'
incumbent upon as to avenge the cause of the rest of Eu-
rope, would point out how we could in future be Irene-
fitted by our forbearance. We have no commerce with
the North of Africa ; and in tityt those piratical States
lave no trade worth mention* with any part of 'the
world ; but ever since the time 'when their :die Chief,
Muhl Molise, defeated and killed Don Sebastian, King
•of Portugal, they have lived in an almost continua/ state
ef warfare with every nation in Christendom. We may
look, therefore, in vain, for any plitical motive as the
causer of our preseirt lenity. That which existed in 17113,
when (as on several occasions since) we did not disdain
to pureha.se their friendshipty eoneiderable presents, cer-
tainly exists no longer. To have attacked the Barbary
Pirates at those periods, would have inevitably involved
us in a war with the Ottoman Porte ; to whom, it ought
to he kept iu mini, the States cf Northern Africa have
.ever leen and arc to this hour tributary. A war, then,
with the Porte at any firmer period, would have put a
pop to the immense Turkey trade, which we have car-
ried on exclusively tin. more than a century, particularly
or warier cloths ; hut a more important point would haat
I,een the loss of an ally, which, by good diplomatic ma-
.ragement, we have always succeeded in keeping !ion& the
ill-devouring grasp of revolutionary France. This is the
only cause which we tan suggest for our repugnant fur-