The National Register.
London, England, 1819-11-28 00:00:00

bit gai

No. 231.—V0L. XII.]

political itttrosinct.

THAT no Parliament, ever convened in this
country, has been called to consult upon more mu-
uamtous subjects, on topics more intimately con.
meted with inherent serenity and with our future
welfare, is a fact which no man of whatever party
can hesitate to allow. We arc now in the fifth year
of peace. When the evil and imbecile policy of our
Rulers was urged some years ago, when the misera-
ble and distressed state o 1 the Coinary was then
pointed out, and prevsed upon the attention of the
riblic, the universal answer both of Ministers and
their supporteas was " These things arc, and must
Om inevitable consequences of a long protracted
war ; the same has been the situation at the close
of others, and why should you not allow it to be so
nand!', Nay it was stated as an undeniable defence
()lour public Councils, that distress preaailed not
only iu Great Britain, but in at least en equal
degree, over the whole Continent of Europe, and that
such was, and must be, the natutal etlia.ts ul a tran-
sition from War to .Peace. .Patience and humble
acquiescence in trodidas which would soon have an
cud, were the remedies forcibly inculcated us be-
toraiug good subjects and reasonable men. We
hope the most infatuated and preju !iced wind can-
not now hesitate to admit that the trial of this
argument has been fairly made. In fact, for a
laason, truth seemed to be clearly on its side. The
native energies of British industry and entcrprize,
unshackled by the trammels of those chains which
wear always imposes, burst forth at once into
uscfal action. Capital found for itself new channels,
and the vessel of the State seemed to outward ap-
pearance to be sailing with all her canvass full set,
before the most fivourable breeze that her pilots
could hope or wish fw. The public funds, which
tl.e Chancellor of the Exchequer himself insisted
-urn as the surest criterion of public prosperity,
rose to 61 in the 3 per cent Consols, and a very
consitlerahle impulse was given in every part of the
liegdow to our trade and manufactures The song
of triumph was shouted by the advocates of the l'itt
e,ystem, and the " war-party," as it was culled in
Athens, maintained thet their policy had first saved
the Cettntry,-and now wised it to the highest pitch
of wealth and glory. Those, however, whose re.
flectiuns went somewhat deeper, whose views were
not confined to one fleeting hour, for which they
knew that a lamp almost burnieg down to the very
inOit yet be coaxed to flare and blaze
before it ultimately expired, ntiil continued to judge
more soberly, and as it untbrtunately turns out,
much more wiser. They knew that natural causes
must be at last fiAlcaved by natural etlixts; that it
was quite impossible that a lavish and wide wasting
national expenditure should not be followed by a
corn:spieling degree of national cmharrayeanent and
distress. The great and leading principles of public
policy are more plain and simple than many would
persuade us. Nations are only to be governed
by the same rules that prevail in private
families.—Profligacy can never lead to prosperity
liar extravagance to wealth and afflaenee in either.
We would wish to put it to the honest and unpre-
judiced decision of any man, whether the state of the
nation is now what it ought to he, what our pre-
sent rulers pledged and proni:sed that it would be,
and whether any causes except their own abominable
code of political maxims can be possibly assignd for
it. The temporary prosperity above suiludcd to has