The National Register.
London, England, 1809-09-10 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

the real causes of their misfortune. If Ministers have pur-
sued an impracticable object, or even a practicable one by
inadequate means, we shall know how to apply a remedy ;
but a knowledge of the real disorder, and the seat. of it.
must necessarily precede a cure. if Ministers have, ou
tin: other hand, pursued wise ends, by wise means, if they
base ',either been deficient in prudence or skill, in wisdom
or in vigour, although success has not hitherto correspond-
ed with their prudence, yet the result of such an enquiry
will rather increase than lessen the confidence of the na-
tion ; aud their readiness to encou:age will form the
strongest ground for a belief that they have done nothing
which should make them afraid to meet it. If then we arc
to rresume the conduct of Ministers to have been such 3.4,
it ought to have been, and vet the plan has failed, and
tiothiug was left but to abandon all the elterior objects of
the Expedition, at a moment w hen the Navy were only
waiting for the signal from the Commander in Chief, to
burn, sink, and destroy ; of how much importance to the
reputation and character of his Lordship does a full and
dispassionate Enquiry become. We cannot indeed antici-
pate an objection from this quarter : aud if the same dig-
of mind, the same Conscious feelings, actuate the
Noble Lord, which filled the bosom of his still nobler bro-
ther, %se are persuaded he will rather court than discourage
This .
k.Enquiry is above all necessary for the People,
because the war in which we are engaged is not au ordi-
aary war, the evils of which are likely to be of an ordi-
nary nature. It is one of a very different description. In
'ordienry wars, as soon as the parties approach to a slate
of lassitude, they think of peace, and retire from the con-
Mete at present we are engaged with an eatnny to whom
rate -would be a senteucce of obscurity. To bear
wadi patience, much inure with chearfulness, the herders
*of such a war, the people of this country must feel that
-they arc tittliting for their lives, for their liberties, for
e‘ cry thing that is ;;ear to the heart of man ; that the)
Katie no choke but succieis or slavery, and that their exist-
eece :is an independent Nation is at stake. Persuade them
to entertain these sentiment:', and the Peoille as one man
'will rise. Under the influence of this conviction we shall
-emphatically become an Armed Nation, and enni!ate those
liero:c act toes of our ancestors in the times °four Errs-Ai/Ws
anti -our tlexavis, which heretofore astonished Europe,
and are but lately paralleled in the history of Nations. But
in order to excite this disposition among the goveued,
those who hold the reins should possess the confident: 0;
the People, by deserving it. If the treasures and the blood
of the Nation are wasted in fruitless and =maim; pro-
jects, or wise and important plans arc spoiled in the exe-
cution, do not deny to the Peeple a knowledge of the
causes. At a moment when a few misguided enthusiasts
sore emleavouring to persuade the People to entertain an
•opiniom that the I!ouse of Commons arc not the Here.
.seetatives of the People, and, in tact, that the People are
-act vietually represented, do not at the same moment
.afterd Own a pretext for believing, that the Government
wili employ the House of Commons as a screen for delin-
qeeocv, if it exists; or that the natural accuser of wrong
or iMprovideet conduct should be converted into the un.
nut nra ,defender of it. •
At a Moment like the present, would it be prudent.
• stould it even •be Safe, to encourage a sii.nicion that the Mi-
nisters do not feel for the calamities anti 'iiisforturies which

press upon us 1 Would it be prudent for them to put the
Iloasc of Commons into a situation- that should again snake
its conduct he repugnant to the feelings of ifs Congtituents ?
Is nothing of policy
.connected with The•circumltance of
• its convincing the people that it fakes that lively ZtollCCl'll
and interest in affairi of this nature, that its relative sitna-
tiOn s‘ith its constituents calls ulnas it to take ? What
will the people of England think, if, ;it a. moment of 1164
kind, and ilium a ques:iou of this nature, enquiry is refus-
ed, or evaded ?

Will they believe that the Constitution of Great Britain