The National Register.
London, England, 1816-10-28 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

LONDON :
MONDAY', OCTOBER 28.

THE elections in France, which are conducted in a
more summary though more intricate way than ours
in England, are now completed, and the results of
them known. It appears, that with all their schem-
ings and machinations, and stretches of the consti-
tution, the Ministers have not been able to succeed
in the formation of a new Chamber to the full extent
of their wishes. The sense of the great body of the
people in the provinces was decidedly against them ;
and they have in many instances persisted in returning
Members of the late Chamber, in whose love of order
and attachment to' the Constitutional Monarchy they
could confid,. In the Department of the Seine, and at
Paris, a tendency to revolutionary principles is more
prevalent, the elections being chiefly in the hands of
the monied interest, who are notoriously attached to
Buonaparte, and who only desire the confiscation of the
remaining Church Property to repay them the sums
they advanced to Buonaparte to enable him to escape
from Elba, and squander the blood of France at Wa-
terloo. We are sincerely glad to see that the people of
France seem a little more alive to the true security of
the Throne than the King himself. They have, as
much as they could, counteracted the pernicious effects
of the Ordonnance of Dissolution. We still, how-
ever, look with apprehension to the state of the Mo.
narchy, when we see the King, like his unfortunate
predecessor, in the hands of the men, who, till now,
have been his avowed enemies ; and his staunch friends,
the adherents of his adversity, disgraced and driven
from his couneils—" it is not and it cannot come to
good." They only wait for a fit season to throw off
the mask, and tura round upon their Sovereign in their
true colours. The meeting of the new Chamber, in
which the Ministers have of course contrived to secure
a majority, will be an anxious period. The parties are
now exerting themselves to procure the election, each
of their own partizan, to the Presidency. The Royalists
support M. Bellart and M. Villek ; the Ministerialists,
alias the Revolutionists, M. Royer Collard.
We are pleased to observe, in the accounts from
Germany, that the Duke of Hesse Darmstadt has been
suppressing Lotteries in his territory, and that the Duke
of Mecklenburgh has called together the States of his
Duchy.

We regret that this week's Paper should contain
fresh accounts of popular tumult and discontent in se-
veral parts of the kingdom. The most considerable of
these disorders took place at Merthyr Tydvil, in Gla-
morganshire. An account of it will be found in ano-
ther part of our Paper. We arc happy to see that
tranquillity is now restored. We wish we could also
add, that the poor labourers had returned to their work.
These unfortunate men are entitled to more than an
ordinary share of pity. Their conduct is the result of
sheer unmitigated distress. They arc out of the reach
of seditious principles, and untainted by the influence
of profligate habits—they were disposed to work, and
to be contented and orderly; but their wages were re-
duced (and we believe necessarily) below the barest
means of subsistence—hunger and wretchedness goaded
them on to imprudent and misguided efforts fur ob-
taining relief. We speak thus of these culpable pro-
ceedings only with a view of placing in the strongest
light the evidence they aflind of the real distress of
parts of the population. This is the most cogent argu-
ment for economy and retrenchment of every practicable
description. This must be practised, or there is no
answering for the consequences. Other modes of re-
lief arc not to be neglected. We have given some ac-
count of a Committee formed at the Mansion House
for providing employ for the unoccupied poor. We are
convinces' this may be accomplished in a variety of
ways, some of which were suggested to the Committee,
and appear rather more rational and feasible than the
pastry s.yslem of the Morning Chronicle. We sincerely
hope they may be carried into effect with success. No
suggestions, by which a single mail can be put into the

•OCTOBER 28.

way of earning his bread, are too trivial for adoption in
the present season of emergency.
The accounts from Monmouthshire and its neigh-
bourhood, yesterday, w:re as favourable as can be de-
sired. The men belonging to the iron-works, who re-
fused to work on account of wages, endeavoured to se-
duce the workmen at the Collieries, and other great
places of employment. The Colliers hesitated ; but we
are happy to find they have returned to their duty,
and that the Collieries are again at work.

Exchanges came lower from all part* of the conti-
nent on Saturday.• At Paris, on Wednesday last, the
' exchange on London was :25. 30.
An account, dated six o'clock, Tuesday evening, was
received on Thurday night from Dublin, stating that
the symptoms of the Lord Lieutenant's disorder, which
threatened immediate danger, had ceased ; and that tba
only apprehension that then remained arose from the
extreme weakness to which his Excellency has been re-
duced. The greatest solicitude fbr Lord Whitworth's
recovery has been strongly manifested in Dublin and
its neighbourhood.
The following unflwourable accounts of Lord Whit-
worth, are extracted from the Evening Correspondent
published at Dublin on Wednesday afternoon
We fell extreme regret in laying the following
report before our readers :

" BELLE:FIN OF HIS EXCELLENCY TIIE LORD LIEUTENANT'S

11F:41.111.

" Plieenix-park, Wednesday, 9 o'clock, a. m.
" The Lord Lieutenant had a restless night, and is out so
well this morning.
(Signed) " WM. HARVEY, "P. CRAMPTON,
" G. RENNY, " R. PERCEVAL."
".When our paper was put to press no bulletin later
than the above had been received at the Castle. It is
with the deepest sorrow, however, we have to state,
that all the private accounts received down to three
o'clock were extremely unfavourable, and have left us
to dread that the next intelligence May be fatal to the
hopes and wishes of our readers."
Paris Journals to the 24th arrived yesterday. The
Monitcur gives a table of the late' elections, of which
the following is the result, viz. :—New Depnties, (i 0 ;
Members of the late Chamber, 174; Deputies returned
for two different places, 2. The names of the two De-
puties from Corsica are still unknown. The number
of the Deputies to the last Chamber not returned to
the present, is 21.5; of whom 44 are under the required
age of forty. Forty-six of the Presidents of the Elec-
toral Colleges have been returned Deputies.
COAST OF AFRICA.—His Majesty's ship /aeons/ant
brings advice& from Cape Coast Castle of so recent a
date as the 14th August, from which it appears that
the Ashantee army had taken its departure in June
from the Fantee country, and proceeded to the back of
Acra, where they remained encamped. Cudjo Coomab,
one of the three fugitives of whom they had come in
pursuit, put an end to his existence, to avoid falling
into their hands. A second, named Quou Saffaroutchie,
was treacherously slain by his own people, and his re-
mains delivered over to the Ashantee Commander.—
These two were accused by the Ashantees of having
occasioned a war of ninny years' duration. Having
ascertained their fate, they did not persist in their de-
mand of having the third, who was named on the
Coast Coffee Ashantee, delivered up to them. They
alleged that he only participated in a slight degree in the
injurious counsels of his colleagues; but the real cause of
theirforbearance with respectto him isunderstood to have
been, that he was a favourite with some of the King's
family. The blacks around Cape Coast Castle had been
reduced almost to a state of starvation, but their distresses
had been relieved by the humanity of the British officers
and others, who raised a subscription to purchase them
the means of existence. By order of the Governor and
Counsel at the Cape, 200 chests of corn had been pur-
chased to supply the soldiers and blacks in the service
of the Company. General Daendels, the Governor of
the Dutch fort of St. George del Mina, paid his promised
visit to Cape Coast on the 25th of June, and expressed
himself highly gratified with his reception. The dispute,
or, as it is there termed, the palaver, between the Fantees
land the Inhabitants of Oddenna, a dependency of El
Mina, had not led to any acts of hostility at the departure
of the Incousaant. A curious fact is mentioned with
regard to Mr. Sewett, late purser of his Majesty's ship
Ulysses. He left the vessel at Prince's Island, and pur-
chased a schooner, with the intention of trading along
the coast. Upon his going ashore at Why dah he was
detained by the people, and compelled to assume the
command of the fort there, which the British abandoned
some years ago, on the death of Mr. Lionel Abson.—
Whydah is situated in a territory of the same name,
which has for nearly a century been a dependency of the
kingdom of Dahomey.
The Shrewsbury• paper states, that the bank of Messrs.
Trevor, Richards, and Co. of Whitchurch, stopped pay-
ment on Monday hist.
A project has been submitted to the Committee for
the Poor at Staffi)rd, to employ a number of men to re-
duce the heavy hill on the Shrewsbury-road at Tettat-
hall, near Wolverhampton, which will, in all proluilii.
lity, be speedily adored.

OCTOBER !8.

THE DRAMA.

DRURIT-LP.NE THEATRE.—The metaphysical, me-
lancholy Prince of Denmark was played on Thursday
night, by Mr. Kean, in an impressive and affecting
manner. It must have been not a little mortifying to
many who endured the representation of the second
piece, to have the feelings and qymputhies which had
been previously excited, broken in upon and disturbed
by the performance of ,tach a farce as Each fur Himself,
which was produced fur the first, time. It consists of
two acts of as common-place stuff as we ever recollect
to have witnessed. It -has•nothjug that can be called a
plot, and its jokes and contrivances, Without being
ridiculous enough to excite laughter, arc too monstrous
to he endured. The scene is the City, and the objects
at which the Author has been levelling his wit, are a
Grocer of an Alderman, who would be Lord Mayor ;
an antiquated Sister, who would be Lady Mayoress ;
and a Shupkeeping Perfumer, who would be Deputy of
the Ward—all very fair game, perhaps, but it has been
shot at by a Cockney sportsman, who has missed it.
Some of the best of its jokes arc, the calling young
Canister 7'. (tea) Canister ; and the man servant of
the Alderman being turned into a Count to rehearse
before the Lady Mayoress, in Pure, a presentation to
her Ladyship of a woman of flishion, in the person of
her brother's ward. All the interest, little as it is,
hinges upon the rival pursuit of the latter Lady by
two different lovers, a Baronet, and a Doctor, who
assumes the character of a Civil Engineer, and offers
di* Alderman one hundred shares in a newly projected
navigation, as an equivalent for his consent to marry
his ward. The Baronet, however, triumphs, and the
Doctor is left to drown himself in his own canal.
Harley, us the Doctor, sings a pretty good comic song,
which was encored, as was one by Mrs. Horn, as the
ward; but though the piece was heard almost through,
without much opposition, there was a strong expression
of sentiment against it when the curtain fell, and we
are convinced it has net stamina to support existence
long.

COVENT-GARDEN —Friday night Mr. Kemble made
his first appearance for the season in the part of Cato.
We do not feel with those who deny to this noble com-
position the power of moving our sympathies. When
Swift thinks proper to attack it with that sort of sly
ridicule, which is his natural—almost his involuntary
weapon—we must recollect that the Dean is a Cynic in
matters of sentiment, and in politics a tremendous Tory.
Dr. Johnson likewise takes for granted, that the tragedy
of Cato excites no emotions ; and that, if we coldly
approve the language and princ'ples of Addison, he in
no one instance affects the heart : but the Doctor, we
are apprehensive, was not much alive to such feelings
as governed the virtuous land indignant Roman. Dr.
Johnson might behold, without being roused by it, the
noble spirit which dismissed the ambassador of the tri-
umphantCtesar, and which offered to supplicate, for the
conqueror whom it scorned to acknowledge, a pardon
from the offended majesty of Rome. This the Doctor
could not much enjoy; for it would appear as if his
love of liberty was not that of an ancient Roman. The
same great moralist might have stood unmoved at that
most overpowering scene where Cato apostrophises the
wounds and virtues of his valiant son, because he knew
not those emotions of solemn tenderness which swell
the bosom of a hero and a flither. Pity and admiration
are the genuine offspring of the tragic muse. If the
feelings be not excited in the highest degree by the
spectacle of an unspotted patriot, who, though he will
not out outlive his country's ruin, breathes his last sigh
in a prayer to her enslaver to grant the lives of his
children and his friends, we must imagine a spectator
completely destitute of all grandeur of soul and sensi-
bility to virtue. Of Mr. Kemble we need scarcely say,
that he looked, and spoke, and acted to perfection, the
lofty and illustrious Roman. His dialogue with Decias
was the most animated ; but his reception of the intel-
ligence of his son's death, and his whole demeanour in
presence of the body of Marcus, constituted the most
affecting exhibition we have for a long time witnessed
on the stage. If there be le►s force in the representation
of Cabo than of Coriolanus, there is more of dignity in
the former. We have on this occasion probably bid a
long adieu to a character which no living tragedian but
Mr. Kemble can attempt with any prospect of success ;
and many years are likely to elapse before the impres-
sion fixed by his performance of it can be effaced from
our memory, or superseded by a better.

At Washington, between 9 and 10 o'clock in the
morning of the Bth September, an extraordinary pheno-
menon was noticed. The sun was surrounded with a
circle, or halo, of the usual diameter, but uncommonly
bright and well defined, being tinged, especially in its
upper or western part, with prismatic colours. Another
circle, apparently of twice the diameter of the primitive
halo, extended westwardly, and passed through the sun.
The secondary halo was white through its whole circum-
ference; at the same time a portion of a rainbow, of
perhaps 20 degrees, appeared in the north-east, at about
40 degrees above the horizon.