The National Register.
London, England, 1808-01-04 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

borrowing remains as great, as when the first instalments of our
funded debt was advanced; and will, in all probability, continue
so until the last farthing be mortgaged, not only of our present
war taxes, but of every tax that can be raised. We enter into
the gratification which these circumstances must afford to the
Ministers of the present age : but we must be allowed to trem-
ble for posterity.
From this short view of our internal situation, by which our
prosperity is chiefly to he estimated, we turn to the considera-
tion of our external relatiiins. Great Britain is now placed in
a condition in which she may distinctly ascertain whether her
oat) internal resources are perfectly adequate to her defence,
or whether she cannot, without external aid, resist a combina-
tion of external enemies. The most powerful Prince that has
es-er reigned in Europe, a man raised from obscurity by his
own tranacendant talents, has succeeded in reducing every sur-
rounding nation to a complete subserviency, and has converted
them all into instruments of vengeance against this hated nation.
The plans of vengeance which he has devised, if not wise, are
at least vast and magnificent. Comparing our wonderful
resources with those of the countries under his own dominion,
and impressed with our striking superiority, he has con-
ceived that our external commerce, the only advantage
which we seem exclusively to possess, is the source of all
our riches and aggrandisement ; and that, if deprived of this
fountain of wealth, we should soon sink into miserable decay,
and become humble suppliants for his forbearance and favour.
In conformity with these views, he has undertaken to cut off
cur intercourse with foreign nations ; and as he has not the
power of blockading our island by sea, he has resolved to compel
every nation of the Continent to exclude our merchandize from
its shores. In this vast enterprize he has already succeeded
beyond all previous calculation ; and, with the exception of
Sweden, which cannot long resist his influence, there is not a
single harbour in the Continent of Europe, into which an Eng-
lish vessel can obtain a friendly admittance.
The folly of these enterprizes, and the very false judgment
which Bonaparte has formed of the real sources of British great-
ness, will speedily be evinced. lie will find that the interrup-
tion of our continental commerce may distress a few manufactur-
ers and merchants, but will neither diminish the sum of our na-
tional industry, nor even the receipts of our Exchequer. In
time he would discover that his estimate of our finances is not
less absurd than the calculations of some of our own wise poli-
ticians, who, twelve years ago, affirmed that France could not
possibly support the expences of another campaign.
It must be truly consolatory to our countrymen, to he assured
that no nation in Europe can exclude our commerce, w ithout
bringing upon themselves tenfold greater distresses than they can
possibly make u. sustain. The commencement of war with Bri-
tain entirely deprived France of all direct commerce in her own
vessels with other nations, and the late severe edicts which
Bonaparte has issued, with a view to prevent the importation of
our productions by means of neutrals, has cut off from his subjects
e..ery source of comfort and opulence which they derives from
an intercourse with foreign nations. All the states which he has
.t.duced to subjection are equal or greater sufferers. The Dutch,
who not only prospered but subsisted by external commerce,
and who had hitherto been saved from the deepest distress by the
connivance of their rulers at a secret traffic with Britain, are
now, by the strict iuforcement of the prohibitory laws, reduced
to such a calamitous condition, that they have even ventured to
murmur their miseries in the face of their oppressors. Russia
loses herexternal commerce,ansl the means of internal cultivation;
Prussia is placed in the same unhappy predicament ; Swain finds

JAN. 4.

left on her hands those raw materials which she has not the ca-
pital or the industry to manufacture ; and Portugal must desist
from the cultivation of her vineyards, the former sources of her
wealth, when she can no longer find a market fur their produce.
From these considerations, it appears, that Bonaparte cannot
prosecute his schemes of vengeance against the external commerce
of Britain, without bringing far deeper distress on France, her
allies, and dependents : that, in short, the more fiercely he deals
his blows, he will the more rapidly shatter the weapon which
he aims against the impenetrable helmet of our prosperity.
Nor has the discontents which his impotent enmity excites to be
overlooked. There is not a maritim2 province w ithin his do-
minions, or the reach of his influence, w hich dues not smart un-
der the rigour of his prohibitory edicts, and send forth its mur-
murs against them : and the Russians already begin to give evi-
dent indications, that the timidity of their Court will not lung
be able to overcome a general sense of national interest.
When we turn our eyes fro:n the Continent of Europe, we see
vast entrances open to our commerce, which cannot be shut
against us, either by the arts or the arms of our enemies, and
which can only be lost by our own misconduct. The Americans,
indeed, have begun to assume that tone of presumption and in-
solence, which is natural even to infant Republics, from a con-
sciousness of their own vigour and energy : but by a mixture of
moderation and firmness, the angry demagogues of that country
may speedily be silenced. There, as in Europe. Britain would
be a loser ; but America would be tenfold a swtrerer. In the
pursuit of maritime rights which she has not the power to as-
sert, she would only incur the cerlain 4 struction of her com-
merce, and the deprivation of the mos
ispensable comforts
of life.

The establishment of the Portuguese Government in South
America, promises to open to our most productive manufactures
an extensive market, which must for a long series of years con-
tinue progressively to increase its demands. We have here an
Ally bound to us by the strongest tics, who can have no inter-
course with any other nation but by our permission, and who
can have no reason to desire any commerce but our own. If we
can only inspire the Government with a liberal policy, the Bra-
zils must long prove an invaluable treasure to this country.
Our colonial possessions in the East and West Indies, present
a less flattering appearance. We, indeed, see no reason to en-
tertain any apprehension from those imaginary expeditions of
the French and Russians, with which some ingenious specula.
tors have imagined that Ilindostan would he overwhelmed ; but
insults have lately been offered to the most sacred mjudices of
the natives; the foundation has thus been laid for infinite
dis-
contents and insurrections ; while a great portion of the com-
merce of India is thrown into the hands of other nations by the
baneful operation of a chartered monopoly. In our West In-
dia islands, great discontents prevail : our planters, from an
imprudent avidity to accumulate rapid fortunes, have culti-
vated sugar to an extent far beyond what any market in the
world can receive ; and the sufferings, to which they are neces-
sarily sultjected by this imprudence, are aggravated by the per-
severance of the mother country, in cutting oft' their intercourse
with other nations.

We refrain from expatiating on our national armaments, as
the strength of these must depend on our resources. We have a
navy more than sufficient to crud► all the maritime forces of the
world ; and an army perfectly adequate, from its numbers, to
our internal defence. Rut it is in these armaments that we
perceive a total want of that economy and order which are ab-
solutely two!ssark• to pre v.lit the ruin even of our immense
rcieurtys.

JAN. 4.

igr '
l

; •

REVIEW OF POLITICAL DECLAIMERS.

No. I.
COBBETT'S POLITICAL REGISTER.

We have ever looked upon it as a crime, ignominious in itself,
and very henious from its erects on society, to sit down and de-
liberately misrepresent the nature of political events. In a
country where so much depends upon public opinion, where
popular delusions may either disconcert and ruin the best laid
measures of government, or, on the other hand, enable design-
ing and unprincipled ministers to barter the prosperity and-liber-
ties of their nation for the attainment of their own selfish ends,—
such misrepresentations appear to us tenfold pernicious, and ten-
fold criminal.

Yet—(we make the remark with a deep feeling of national
degradation)—it m ill be difficult to point out a single political
publication, printed in a periodical form, which is not tainted
with this very base and mischievous crime ; i hich actually
practises that impartial, candid, and manly mode of discussion,
allowed by our boasted privilege, the freedom of the press ;
which does not systematically wrest every occurrence to its
own particular purposes, and wilfully pervert the clearest
truths by its malignant glosses. Those who are aware of this
universal corruption of the periodical press, read the political
essays of newspapers, not so much with a view to gain true in-
formation, as to hear what is said Iry 4 n:*rficular party. They
know, for example, that The Mor • I ,%.111 always be on
one side, The Morning Chronicle rpposite; and
it may be amusing to observe the str; of appearance
which the same fact presents, after havin, .ed through their
rival manufactories. But few have the opportunity, and still
fewer the sagacity, to develupe the impostures of these corrup-
tors of public opinion : most men take their political creeds,
without farther inquiry, from the newspaper which they usually
read; and as the newspapers of ditrerent factions always give
a different representation of the same transaction, there is
not a single political event with regard to which a large por-
tion of the people are not misled, abused, and deceived into
dangerous errors. No wonder that the honest and unsuspi-
cious become ready dupes to these deliberate propagators of
political fraud; to men who promulgate their unprincipled
ialsehoods, with the same devotion and enthusiasm as if they
had actually felt the inspiration of patriotism, and the impulse
of conscience.

Surely, if there ever was a duty Incumbent on a political
writer, it is to open the eyes of his countrymen to those delu-
sions so artfully thrown before them ; to extricate them from
errors which may be fatal to their own peace, fatal to the pros-
perity of their country ; and to expose, by reason or by ridi-
cule, those ignominious speculators in falsehood, who deli-
berately resolve to lie themselves into notoriety and affluence.
We undertake the task with pleasure, and shall execute it with
fidelity ; conscious that, ill doing so, we discharge a real duty
to our country. We know well the fate that awaits us : Those
ricers who smart under our indignant strict►:res, will, at first,
pretend to treat our remarks with contemptuous silence: when
they find that the public cannot be brought into the same
humour, they will commence their disguised attacks on a certain
cenlarious Sunday Paper, but carefully avoid to name The
Natianal Register, lest they should, forsooth, promote our
notoriety : but when, at length, these subterfuges can no longer
avail them, and when the public voice loudly calls upon them
to stand forth in their own vindication, then are we prepared
to meet every species of reviling, w hid' detected impostors can

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

,

•

_r T

•

•

pour on The National Register. Yet, however loud these rail•
ings, we do not despair that the contest will ultimately termi-
nate in real public good. The propagators of falsehood, whets,
fairly detected in their practices, lose their influence over even
the most credulous. Calumny, when fairly refuted, recoils
with double force on the inventor; and virulent invectives,
when uttered by impotent resentment, serve only to convert in-
dignation into unmingled contempt.
The declai►ncrs, whose corrupting labours we shall endeavour
to expose, are not confined to the mere interested supporters of
the two great contending factions, to the retained abettor, of
the outs aad the ins, to the men n i►h as little soul as con-
science, nho dare neither praise nor blame, nor refuse to
praise nor to blame, unless a• they are licenced by the sove-
reign nod of their masters. There have lately appeared cer-
tain political writers who vehemently 'street the praise of
impartiality, who actually lash both the outs and the ins vk ben
it suits their occasions, and who certainly shew abundance of
intrepidity in their• political declamations. But when we open
their pages to look after these political novelties, truth and
candour, we find ourselves as far removed from them as eve, t
we find misrepresentations as gross, invectives a virulent, de-
signs as pernicious as those I'ro►n which we turned away in
disgust. We discover that pride, malignity, or the mere love
of notoriety, may lead men to act as villainous a part in poli-
tics, as if they had sold themselves to he the devoted tools of a
party : while their iniquitous glosses :'re far more dangerous
from their lofty pretensions of imp t.id their evident
intrepidity in alternately traducing at political fac-
tions.
At the head of this class of pi uto tialists, stands
the author of The Political Regi3tei. is possessed of
very uncommon merit of a peculiar kin... SS ',bout any educa-
tion beyond the elements of reading and writing, and without a
systematic knowledge of any subject, he wa► led by the ardour
and energy of his mind to adventure into the world as a political
author. The fury of his declamations forced attention : and
though his ignorance and outrageous violence have frequently
brought him into contempt and disgrace, he has at length succeed•
ed, by invincible perseverance, in raising himself, solely by his
political writings, from poverty and obscurity, to very consi,
derable affluence, and very great notoriety. With solid infor-
mation, with a sound judgment, with confirmed principles of
truth and honesty, such a character would have been invalua.

ble : he might have proved the terror of political profligacy,
and have improved the age by his vigorous chastisements. Lot
destitute, as we shall heretifter stew him to he, of all these re-
quisites; his ardour, his intrepidity, his perseverance, serve only
to diffuse more widely, and to impress more deeply the dictates
of his ignorance, his prejces, his perverted passions. The
middling and lower classes-the community, who read to be-
lieve, and w ho have neither leisure nor inclination to sift falla-
cies to the bottom, have The Political RcAisler constantly in
their hands, and swallow down its weekly banquet with amaz-
ing eagerness : It is, therefore, of importance, that we should
bring to sonic test the infallibility of this gospel, to which :mg

men implicitly pin their faii b.
Mr. Cobbett knows, that to speak with perfect ac ui-mice i- a
certain way to impose upon a great part of mankind; and that,
whatever is asserted with dauntless confidence, whether ritlit
or wrong, sill meet with main belleyeri. lle, therefore, pul
this art in practice on all occasions : and makes no scruple to
challenge implicit belief to his own present as,ertion,thnugh three
is scarcely a political opinion, w biA he has not staressively
maintniued and reprobated, srari:cly an cniineut statemaa