The National Register.
London, England, 1808-10-09 00:00:00

-44%. 41


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Our fling, et onotitution• ano 41-atEO.

No. 41.

4 SUNDAY, OCTOBER, 9, 1805.

POLITICAL ll ISQC ISITION.

XUmßEit FORTY-ONF:. •

TOREIGN POLITICS.-THE ARMY.

We will not be accused of laying claims to an extraor-
dinary share of political foresight, in asserting that the
short space of twelse months will decide, whether this
country shall maintain that preponderance among nations,
which its extraordinary opulence, its local advantages, but,
above all, its institutions entitle it to claim ; or descend
rap diy from that height it now pre-eminently stands on.
There are, we believe, few in the habit df reflecting on
such subjects, who will pretend to deny this assertion. If
this be taken as an incontrovertible fact, how much
cause for awful reflection does it afford on one side, and
how many motives for exultation on the other. If the
short period, which is to lix the destinies of England, per-
haps, for ever, occasion some degree of perturbation, when
we take our incalculable resources into contemplation, all
the occurrences of our time, unauspicious and unprece-
dented as they may seem, ought to have no other result
than to coAtribute to national security and aggrandise-
ment. This is no over-saeguine or extravagant specula-
tioa ; for it requires only a few preliminary observations to
he cons Meed that these events, If prudently managedv.will
produce this decisive effect. We are placed unalterilbly in
this portentous situation and much are we indebted to
that superintending Power, who regulates the destinies of
Nations, that such is our state. Communities, like indi-
viduals, are subject to plethoric diseases; and she extraor-
dinary exertions, we arc reduced to the necessity of mak-
lug, will dissipate the enervating humours of overgrown
luxury and riches. Our unlimited commerce, with its
concomitant vices, would have rendered the country a
huge, bloated, and unwieldy mass ; and every principle of
life and action become morbid and stagnant. The electric
shock of the li • volution has effectually roused us out of
this lethargic indulgence, and caused a more rapid and
sounder circulation through the arteries of the State.
If our danger be great, our means of resisting and over-
coming it are still more considerable. If the enemy we
have to contend with be active, persevering, bold, perfi-
ditius, comprehensive in crime and intellect, we have re-
sources of a physical and moral nature, if we have judg-
ment to employ them, which place us beyond the influence
of contingencies. It is laid down as an axiom by Philoso-
phers and Statesmen, that the energies of a people are pro-
portionate to the freedom they enjoy : Let us take the
structive hint ; atut by strictly adhering to the political
precepts of a free Government, we will he able to display
the same miraculous elforts, which liberal institutions have
generated in every age and country. We do not mean to
insinuate on this occasion the necessity of introducing a- v
innovation in the laws we already possess; but let holm.-
tiaty in the choice
of Officers
and Magistrates ; veneration
for merit and virtue, and a
generous disregard to the ex-
N0..11.1.-144.

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

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Price

elusive pretensions of birth and fortune, be compienons
our subsequent conduct and arrangements. 'Phis i. the
secret of greatness and independence; and it was the ob-
servance of the foregoing precepts, which raised the Ro-
mans, from their original state of shepherds and outlay',
to that pre-eminence they had so deservedly acquired.
Our armies have now reached the place of their destina-
tion. They have already given unequivocal proofs of their
distinguished bravery and discipline ; and their success at
Itolei* and Vimiera is a sufficient security tlh:t their future
exploits mill he equal to their reputation and the Ines et'
thFir country. (treat arc our expectations from the eflUcts
of their intrepidity and patriotism ; and, with triumphant
pride, we anticipate the moment, when, at the foot of the
Pyrenees, they will add to the laurels they have already
acquired. The ground is propitious and ominous of v,e-
tory. What glorious recollections will it excite ! What
splendid memorials of British heroism did, it formerly dis-
play.—Peterborough!—The very name of.that illustrious
citizen and soldier is sufficient to ward otr a calamity which
the country scents to apprehend : And it' the present :Mi-
nisters, from some of whom we are justified to expect
much, have the courage to insist that the fate of our Army
shall not depend on the temerity or folly of nn incompetent
individual, whose name recalls only defeat and disgrace,
they will render their Administration as sacred to English-
men, as that which placed a Churchill and a Peterborough
at the head of our Forces Let *ln make only, a similar
choice, the country has not certainly degenerated in genies
and virtue ; and our intrepid warriors mill tear from 0,0
claws of the Corsican Eagle the prey it has so perfidiously
acquired. Sincerely do we hope, they will nut try, from
co,uplaceney or weakness, a dangerous experiment. The
responsibility, in case of disaster, will fall Ilea: it) on thew
heads. The execrations of their country, cries of vengi:-
ance on the part of the relatives of our sacrificed soldiers,
the lamentations of eleven millions of Spaniards, the 01er-
throw of the Austrian dynasty, the total subjugation of
Europe, are not to be hazarded inadvertently and with
impuuity. These arc motives sufficiently powerful to in-
spire with a sense of duty the most worthless and basest of
men, how much more so the friends and disciples of the
greatest of our Statesmen ! But let us drop this subject for
.a moment, and resume one more congenial to our feelings
and wishes.
It is a matter of serious and pressing consideration to
determine, if our army should form one great body, or he
divided into several corps, and act on several points.
is a momentous question, and deserves the closest investi-
gation. The sentiment seeing to be universally prevalent,
that tire latter mode of opera; ion would he more ad%isablc.
The principal argument. in support of this opinion appears
to be, that by detaching a considerable part of our yore,!
to the coast of Calabria, or to the Adriatic, we shoal-I
divide the attention of the French, and perhaps plate
!egitinette Sovereign on the throne of Noptei. he lath-t
cirennistance would undoubtedly be a n Ist dosicable oh.
ject ; but considerable doubts may be ea; trt‘ined m hethet