The National Register.
London, England, 1812-08-02 00:00:00

466

taking away those of their own brethren ; we having, whilst
proposing peace, secretly prepared the dissolution of the
American Union ; we have called the savage tribes to arms,
to spare neither age nor sex; we have made war upon our
friends to trade alone with our enemies, besides many other
national enormities, of which the good President declares us
guilty. After this fearful list of our crimes, he politically
introduces a single short paragraph respecting the neglect of
France, in not granting indemnities to the American citizens,
who had suffered under the operation of her Decrees, before
their. repeal ; but immediately adds, that he abstains from
recommending any definitive measures with respect to that
Power, as he trusts the discussions carried on with Mr. BAR-
Low, at Paris, will enable Congress to ascertain " the course
due to the rights, the interests, the honour iof their country."
Such is American impartiality !
It may be easily perceived, from the view we have taken,
and we think justly, of the conduct of the American Ex-
ecutive, that we do not expect they will retrace their steps
on receiving the full revocation of our Orders. We hope
we may be mistaken, though we look at a war with the
United States without dismay. The annihilation of their
valuable trade to India and China will be its immediate con-
sequence ; and their threatened conquests in Canada and
Nova Scotia, will not be so rapid as they imagine. With-
out any great addition to our regular force in those pro-
vinces, they may be effectually defended. The Americans
have taught us thernselve:•,, at the revolution, how to repel
invaders among the marshes and forests of their land, and
we trust we shall be found equally expert in disappointing
them of their prey.

STATE OF THE COUSTRI".•

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

ft,—Through the medium of your very excellent publication,
wish, should you think it worthy of insertion, to luy before the
public, to use the Baronet's own phrase, my humble opinion of Sir
FRANCIS BURDETT'S last parliamentary speech on the State of
the Nation. I trust, that when 1 made use of the word humble,
I did so with more veracity than I am willing to allow him. For
bow can a man talk of his 'inutility, who has for years endeavoured
to thrust down the throats of our Senators, opinions in which he
stands almost alone in or out of the House, or which, to say the
least, are certainly against the general sense of the nation, unless
by that word you mean King Slob. So much for the worthy Pa-
triot's humility. He begins this curious oration by stating, that
public grievances demwided public remedies ; and so far I am ready
to concede, provided first, however, that such remedies be applied
temperately, and be calculated only to meet the evil they are in-
tended to counteract; for if they go beyond the case, they may
Induce still greater ills than those complained of. And, secondly,
we must maturely examine, whether the grievances be real, or
merely the conjectures of an ill-disposed, a designing, an ambi-
tious, or a distempered brain: and that, surely, the majority of
the members of the legislature are better able to judge of than
any one invididual, however great his talents, or however disinte-
rested and patriotic his motives may be. At all events, we
should deprecate, as highly mischievous in its effects, the constant
cry of such grievances as have often been brought to the notice
of the Senate, and declared by them to be imaginary or trifling.
It is true, that such empty declamations make but little or no im-
pression, exciting a sentiment of scorn, on the minds of the well
educated and rational members of society. But the evil-inten-
tioned, the restless and disaffected, seize hold of them as a rally-
ing point : and the poor and ignorant, and those who through
want or misfortune see every object in a gloomy point of view;
and, in a large and populous nation, there are many such,
are easily deloded, and brought to fancy that any change, what-
ever be its nature or effects, must be beueficill. May Providence
protect us from any reform brought on by the clamours of the
ill-disposed or of the ignorant : it must be tantamount to a revo-
lution ; and, by its violence, inundate our fertile plains with tor-
rents of our countrymeu's blood. In fact, it tine:yrs to met that
Pikkoratc

AUG. 2.

overtur mog our a innahle coustantton because someedifice trifling
abuses have crept therein, is idse pulling down a goodly
because one of its chimnies smokes.
Now let us turn to the examination of the grievances corn.
plained of. The first of these he calls an inroad on the consti-
tution, and it entirely relates to the Ex-officio informations for
libels. At the same tittle that he calls them an inroad on the
constitution, such is his consistency, that he allows they have, in
forisier times as well as the present, been made use of; and, in a
country where pre( dsot almost invariably forms the law, this is
nearly granting every thing. Hut then, be says, they were made
use of on small occasions, where the law maxim, de minimis non curet
lex applied. E;it. I contend, that if such informations were wrohg
in
themselves, they ought not to hate been made use of at an; but, if
not wrong, if the pressure of the times demand it, they may, and
ought to be, made use of on urgent occasions a, well as on small.
That they were made use of formerly, and h..ve continued to this
d:iv, proves that this is Ito inroad to the constitution, unless
' Sir William Blackstone's opinion, against that of every other
Judge, is to stand as law. The next geievvnee appe,ars to be
the Sinecure arid Pension List. Friendly as I profess myself to
the constitution, and averse as I am to any measure which may
overturn the precious equilibr'um by which it is suprorted,
I cannot, without dread, behold the endeavour to weaken the
strength of one of three columns that uphold its structure. Di-
minish the influence by tak:ng away any of the prerogatives of
the Crown, and the regal pillar totters : and, as long as man is
mortal and subject to imperfection, the measures of crowned
heads csu only be supported, by having it in their power to speak
to the interests of those who surround them; for without that,
there would be too much to glin on the popular site of the
question ; the designing would be enabled to throw too much
gold dust in the eves sf the world, to allow the hope that. the
Royal power would list dwindle into a mere name, and the con-
s itution of the country be turned front a mixt state, either into
an at istocracy, if the Peers gained the ascendancy, or, what is
still more probable, into an awirchical democracy, if it fell
into the hands of the Commons. For these reasons, I should be
much grieved to see the Sinecure or Pension List tot .11y abolish-
ed At the same time 1 confess that it might he better regulated,
even for the interest of the Crown; and, by becoming less par.
tially disseminated, though not extruded but rather lessened
in pecuniary amount, it would encrease the regal power in-
stead of serving to diminish it. Should these remarks on the
first topics of sir to %NCI S'S Spec eh be deemed worthy of your
notice, I will resume the exgmination of the other* in your next
paper. I remain, Sir, your constant reader, N MA.