The National Register.
London, England, 1820-11-06 00:00:00

administering the national affairs, that they ma, is
irritated, and again soothed at the wiU of tht.r
rulers. Oa the contrary they feel sore, almost
desperate, in consequence of the general and rapid
decay of trade, as well as from a strong and growing
Conviction that the loss they have sustained in their
private affairs, proceeds entirely from the mismanage.
meat of the public affairs. Would it be wise or sore
to play with such feelings ? And would it not be an
unexampled instance of political levity, er ratlcze
brutality to invade the most sacred rights of the
people,after having incredibly straitened t;:eir means
of subsistence and pinioned their industry ? The 4c.
ge adation of the Queen, upon such proofs, or rather
want of all proof, as have marked her trial, would Le
as daring an assumption of illegal power as was ever
attempted in this country, and would leave the
people only the alternative of submitting to an un.
qualified tyranny, or following the example of their
brave ancestors.

We implore the authors of the Bill not to try the
hazardous experiment of compelling so high spirited
a people to chum between the duty they owe to
themselves, as freemen, and their habitual respect
for their governors. If they carry it in the teeth of
public opinion, they will fix a deep stain upon the
national character; unnerve what was before vi.
gams, and make those cowardly and crouching,
who new display thequalities of a noble indepen.
deuce. Only a fiend would derive gratification
from such n change, and the poverty that would
follow in the train of despotism would be the
penalty imposed upon the oppressors and the
oppressed. But to this state of degradation the
country can never be made to submit; and the at.
tempt would call forth the national energies,so pow.
erful and irresistible, that the lightning of heaven
would not be more quick in its action, nor the fall of
a great aralariche more destructive in its progress.
Those two extremes may be avoided by throwing
out the Bill; and will the aristocracy of the coun-
try, whose proudest distinction it once was to be
considered the guardians of the Constitution, and
the conservators of public liberty, lend themselves to
the horrible design of oppressing innocence, levelling
the highest rank, and consigning themselves and
their fellow-subjects to a ruthless and debilitating
tyranny ; or, will they provoke the other extreme-.a
civil war.

Tnc Accoansv GiNERAL.-Sir Robert Gifford,
is a native of Exeter,where he was born in 1779. His
father kept a grocer's shop for many years in that
city, and died almost in a state of insolvency. His
elder sons, Wearman and Charles, succeeded to the
business, and carried it on with considerable suc-
cess • and, by their gencrons assistance, enabled
Robert to pursue his studies in the profession which
be bad entered. Sir Roberts' mother was a woman
in a. low station of life. Several of her family
were, not many years ego, in menial situations in
the neighbourhood of Exeter. The writer of this
remembers well Sir Robert when he was in the
daily habit of frequenting a certain house of enter-
tainment in an obscure alley not far from Temple.
bar, where persons whose finances admit of no
better fare, are regaled with a plate of wholesome
food for the moderate sum of Bd.. *hick with a
penny for bread, three halfpence foe porter, and a
penny for the waiter, comprised the hole expense
of Sir Robert's dinner at that hunibid and incur.
paious.• period of life. Sir Robert's education was
,of the most confined description ; the whole of it
was neared under the well-known 'Dr. Halloran,
who kept an academy about a mile from Exeter.
His intellectual acquirements are but few, and he
owes his present elevation, not so much►. to, any par-
ticular merit in his profession as to the friendly
recommendation of the late Sir Vickery Gibbs, a
native likewise of Exeter, and between whose family
and that of Mr. Gifford there existed a distant
connexion.

The Minister of Finance at Brussels has presented
to the States-General the budget for the ensuing year.
It includes three prvjeis de loi--one for the expen-
diture, one for the ways so 4 omens, and the thud
for a loan of eight pillions, to meet tox4illgeut
expenses.

---- -
The Rev. Samuel Colby Smith, M.A. Fellow of
Gonville and Cahn college, Cambridge, was on Wed-
nesday last presented, by the Master and Fellows of
that Society, to the Ructory of Denver, in Nor-
oil, vacant by the death of the Rev. C. R. Dade,

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