The National Register.
London, England, 1808-04-18 00:00:00

'lt

Till] NATIONAL 'REGISTER

t borough ignorance of the topic from which he draw • his attempt
at illustration. The answer (ss hich as orittinally delivered was
•ambignons, but which as quoted here, is absolute nonsense), was
given $4l no Roman General, but to Pyrrhus, King of Epirus,
Who wished to assist the Tarentines against the Romans. But
he Romans and thei;*enemies are all alike to The ladrpendenl
: the Editor, like Scrub in the Bronx Stratagem, holm s
it wa; one or the other, hut whether it were Sullen or Dorinda
h does not care. However, we are unwilling that his readers
should give him credit for quite so much classical information as
he assumes, when, from both the illustrations he has attempted,
he real fact appears most clearly to he, that he has been told
a'iout ithou I ha ving read Shakespea re , and heard of the
Romans and the Oracle, without having looked into the Latin
and Greek historians. But if he does not understand Latin or
(reek. we should advise him to get a translation next time he
attempt. any allusion to a passage in a dead language. For the
wen's of the Oracle, " Credo le, ./Earida, dumanos
" ;ppm.," though they leave an ambiguity, yet do not directly
assert a self-evident proposition, such as, " You will run-
e quer them, or they you :" for Pyrrhus would have laughed
at that : but by a transpnsition of words the sense is thus guard-
ed : " I think that you the Romans may overcome :" and thus
it is left to Pyrrhus to understand the words either as " You
" may overcome the Roinatis," or as " The Romans may over-
" come you." But how does this sentence, correctly or incor-
rectly given, apply to the Nlinisters ? The Ministers simply SOS,
" We know nothing certain, and therefore nothing certain can
" we tell you."

What follows is still more worthy of observation :
" If the Ministers were informed of the relative positions'
" of our squadrons, and those of our enemies, one would suppose
" that they could, is ith equal facility, tell us precisely is here
" they were, and what they were ; of how many they consi-ted
" and what dispatches had been transmitted by our own tom-
" manders upon the subject. Now, if the relative situation'
`• of the hostile fleets were such as to render an engagement
" probable, there is great reason to believe that before
" this time an engagement must have taken place : and, if sue-
" cessfid, Ministers must know it : and if no action have been
" fought, they must know the reason why, unless we suppose
" what is not very probable, or. at least not very creditable to
" their abilities—that they are perfectly informed of their re-
" lati ye positions, but wholly unacquainted with their subse-
" (pent operations. The truth is, in our opinion, that Minis-
" tens have either received 'some unpleasant intelligence which
"•thoy are atm Ming to disclose to the public, or that they are
" shamefully
.gnarant alma the subject.''
Is the Editor of this Newspaper foolish enough to suppose,
that because Ministers knew such and such fleets to be sailing
toward such and suchpoints, and could form by that means some
idea of the relative position of those fleets, therefore they must
kg iw precisely where the naval forces were ? Does he think
that a vo4sel is to arrive every day from each fleet, giving an
account of the Number of leagues that beet may have sailed, and
o;'the enact latitude in which that fleet still is ? Does he he-
lie. e, that against adverse winds the news of an engagement
must come home at the rate of twenty knots an hour ? Does
hr Caney, that if the engagemeitt have been successful, Ministers
most know of it by intuition ? or that, if it have been disastrous,
they are in a moment to be acquainted with the reason? If he does
not really think all this, he is critninitl in attempting to raise the
discontents of the people by publishing it : and if he does, he
must he the silliest man that ever talked politics in an ale-
house. We remember to have read in a fairy tale, that a
Prince, called the Royal Ram, " was fond of news, and always
" had the best ;" hut we believe that this happy prerogative
is confined to the princes in fairy tales, and that the govern-
Dellas of real society Call command neither the certain arrival
nor the nattire of their news. The concluding assertion, then,
that in their opinion Ministers knew something unpleasant, or
shamefully- knew nothing, is too ridiculous to require any fur-
ther cononect. That they knew nothing on this subject could
have been twater of no shame: and that they knew soinethiw;
ussoleasunt been disproved by the last accounts, which
i:iffirtu us that au battle has been fought.

thas•exitoferl the folly and vulgArity of this Paper
reittari:: Ott forektt zttnirs, 11r raiher rvizmrki
gja altair:-, !,I,:111 perhap, in some future im;;•ber, any c011le-
thillg•of the pyrs t.tuoze ul ttich to-
1-:e to d•lqi...sti, •

APRIL lg.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

-

PROM THE FRENCH, DUTCH, GIR3f.INI AND 11.1MRCIMfi
PAPERS.