The National Register.
London, England, 1814-09-11 00:00:00

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1814.

N r'l"

POLITICA L DIS 21.1 ISI LION.

FRENCH I \ GRATITUDE.

Rich in glory, and fair in hope, has been the result of
that tremendous contest, which, for twenty-four years, !I
shook and devastated; the world. The downfall of
the Chieftain who had so long borne the continental sceptre
;
and broken the Arength of natlens, was hailed as the sure
pledge of returning peace. The restlessness of his spirit
and the unbounded extent of his ambition, *had been
deemed the only causes of wars and revolutions. The II
hearty concurrence with which his people obeyed him,
and kings themselves pressed into his service, was for- 4.
gotten. Itehitn, as in a noiseme root, were centered the
woes of mankind, and be steed aloof a mark for universal '
hostility tied revenge. His star is set, aud the power of
injuring the world 112 S departed from butt : but has the
grated object for which. Europe rose in sums been attained.? r
has it been found that restft.ssness and ambition haul sunk
with Napoleon, or does his. spirit still walk the earth.
agitating men's minds and preparing fresh convulsions ?
We fear that what has hitherto been called his spirit was
still more properly that of the French nation, and there-
fore 1,
survives his downfall. Any one who has lately
visited France and converged with the native's on political
subjects, must own that he has always found a deep re-
gret
for lost dominion, a rankling and almost raving ran-
cour against those by whom those Oe: the fruits
of aggression, have been curtail«l, aed tt tirm resolve to
wipe oh ie blood and comeeet their present humiliation.
This feeling is not that of • the seldicry alc.ne. It extends
through all classes, and we are sorry to perceive, by
the language lately adope:d in the French Papers, it
seems to have also reached the Government. Since the
law for reeressine the I.4ibertv of the Press has placed the
newspapers under the censorship and (outland of the ad-
ministration, tied none bet previowly inspected articles
are allowed to apnear, it is evident that the French
Govt tmeet must lee e. ptrty in those speculations and de-
clamations with which its jeerrals aboend„ fled which
are'calculatcd to break the matnimity of kines and nations,
and, by creatine jeale.‘e.les and discontents, to replunge.
Europe into all the horrors from which she has so:ltir`ftleY
Vol. VI!. No, CGC L. i
•

~ ~.
~,~,,,`

PRICE 9d.

emerged. Even against us, to whom France owes her co-
lonies aid •Louis XVIII. his throne, the floodgates of po-
pular and ministerial abuse are opened. The re•tricticns
imposed by our humanity on their trade in human slaves,
are made the present grounds of their complaints and in-
vectives. Accustomed wantonly to sacrifice the lives
of men, they cannot conceive that we should be sin-
cerely interested in vindicating so trifling a thing as their
rights. They fancy, or at least they wish to persuade
the world, that we only exclude them from the slave
trade, in order to acquire that-very sovereignty, which we
have just now voluntarily resigned in restoring them those
colonies which otherwise it would never have been hi
their power to regain! But we suspect that their Und-
1105S on that subject is affected, and the virulence of the
language •Which they employ even in official documents
against us, confirms that surmise. It would not in fact
have disgraced the vengeful hatred of Napoleon himself
in:the days -of his posteiy Of this aurfeatiers will be able
to judge by the following extracts from " the Poservations
of the Chamber of Commerce, at Nantes, on the Slave
Trade," the appearance of which was lately allowed by
the Government Censors in the Paris Papers.
" England in imposing on us this rigorous law. has dock-
ed itself in the specious guise if philanthropy, and even vet
'wc see in the English Parliament that some of its Memhe,g,
setting foal' these respectable principles, bring a charge
against the English Ministry on account of the delay of five
years which has been stipulated in favour for the trade in
blacks.

These lying declamations cover perfidious project.—
Ein;land has acquired in India, by the monopoly and machh-
yelisin of its Company, four and twenty millions of subjects ;
of ‘vhoin the greatest part, without bearing the name of slavt",
are in such a state of dependence and degrad.ltion that the
price of :heir labour, limited to what is most absolutiqy ne-
cessary, is below the amount of !he interest of the puichase-
money of blacks and the expence of their food andlnproi t.
This immense region affolding all articles of colonial pro-
duce, it is evident that the English world sactif;(e Janwica
and '°n:e of the Windward Isles to hinder Gtiler nalions from
impoiting hlackF into their color ies, and ;hat they
achievo the conotter.t of the exclusive blipply of -7,loitial pro-
duce for the whole world. The execution ~f this project
would put all Europe at their discretion, from t!.e immense
superiority in money which the preponderance of their mlti-
*l3l, trade over that cf all other nations would giyc them