The National Register.
London, England, 1817-12-15 00:00:00

ON THE FIRMNESS OF CHMACTER NECESSARY

IN POLITICAL MEN.

" Sir John Grey Egerton, of Oniton Park. after ascertain-
ing that the vote which he had given for the anspension of
that bulwark of British freedom, the Habeas Corpus Act, had
deeply affected his interest with the Electors of Chester, has
thought it pin& lit to declioe presenting himself again to
theit choice, anal hat, in consequence, addressed his eonsti
bleats to that effect, stating that he withdraws his pretensions
as scandidate for their 4fitlr.kees at the approaching general
election. Sir John had before acknowledged, in a letter to
Colonel Branston, of Chester, hotel the tith of October, that
it had been suggested to him, that the vote which he had given
far the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act had injured his
interest, and might have the effect of withdrawing from him
the support of some of his most zealot's friends and that
after the e‘ertions and sacrifices which he bad made in their
cause, it would he improper to involve himself in a contest
which their power might render unnecessary. Respectin4
the motive, therefore, of Sir John's retirement, and the effect
of his utihappy vote on the Habeas Corpus basincss, titer.
can be no doubt. His address to his constituents refers to
this letter to Colon, l Branston, and says that circumstances
have occurred which induce him to deellue again ofterini
himself- as a candidate for the representation of Chester. Sir
John Egerton has tilled the seat, of which he is thus reluct-
antly obliged to resign the hope, for ten years."--(Globe.)

THE friends of reform and purifiers of our Con-
atitution, are hailing this event with rapture ; they
contend that it furnishes a complete answer to all these
statements which have been made, that a majority of '
the respectable part of the population, was with the
Minister in the late measures adopted for tranquiliz-
ing the country. A lvocates of a cause rendered more
hopeless by every effya in le in its favour, they exult
la a triumph gained, not by their own skill, but by the
pusillanimity of an dvcrsary, eta they take it as a good
omen th it a geatlentaa of Sir John Egerton's weight
in the county of Chester is unable to maintain his
grouncl age oat the expression of p disapproba-
tion. With every disposition to think well of Sir John
Grey Egerton, we cannot but censure in the strongest
manner, the step which he has taken on this occasion.
It was by conduct like this, that all the horrors of the
French Revolution were produced. The nobles, the
men a virtue and integrity, abandoned their posts on
the first assault of the enemy, and left the field to
briefl.;sa.l waves, hardened iu heart by worldly dis-
appointment, as mach as by their coarse of study, to
tyrannize over, and destroy their fello..v creatures. If
men of talent and influence in a State have not courage
and virtu:: enough, in dangerous times, not only to act
with vigour, but to avow nail baldly defend their
acts, we may consider the canditias of the country
as desperate ; and most sincerely do we hope that amoug
those who voted tin the suspension of the Habeas Cor-
pus act, few will be found so susceptible of fear as Sir
John Grey Egerton. We need not go out of our own
history, nor indeed, out of the history of our own age
for proofs of the benefits, which have resulted from a
firm and decisive mode of action on the part of public
men. But for this determined spirit, (the consequence
of right principles) we should not at this day have
witnessed the happy change which has taken place in
Europe. It is not, however, enough, that public men
have the spirit to act from the impulse of right prin-
ciples, they must have the spirit to avow those acts
under all circumstances : they must never shrink from
Cie discharge of a great public duty, because there may
be clamourers against it, for what measure was ever
yet proposed that was ,not met by clamourers ? and in
the particular case of Sir John Egerton we will ask.
was there ever a measure more necessary, as proved by
subse.eient events, than that to which he gave his
Lane' ?

Iced, must that man be by prejudice, who
will tkov ch.t at the commencement of the present
year the te.:, ii!lity of the country was deeply en-
dangered. ti.r, in the as!:,,:nbiies of ignorant and
beak enthasiastA, alone, was the doctrine of re-
bellion opaliy pr,:avhc:l, but Ia the liJust; of Commons

itself, we were told by a Noble Lord " that the
people had no means of redressing their wrongs, bet
by withholding the amount of their taxes." To the
crime of treason, we saw in out public streets, and in
our most sequestered vales these of theft and murder
added, and yet we were told. that in attempting to
stay these evils, the legislatute was oppressing the
people !
The existence of crimes agaitist.the State, could not
,denied, but those who eithe abetted those crimes,
ear were perpetrators of them, aexterously shifted the
burthen from their own shoulders, and placed it on that
of the Government : upon spies and informers they
charged the whole of the evils which the country en-
dured, not altogether denying that the seeds of dis-
affection were sown, but boldly accusing a single indi-
vidual with having ripened them into such fetal fruit.
Wonderful, indeed, must have been the powers of that
individual had he accomplished all that they charged
upon him. He is accused of having revolutionized
almost every manufacturing district to the northward
of the capital, and yet he was absent from London
only fifteen days. But many of those who arc loud '
in their accusation, know that their statements are
false. The Reformers of Birmingham, more parti-
cularly, well know that in their committee he was only
an auditor ; and that the plans which they had formed
were of so dangerous a character , that even the chair-
man of the Hampden Club was kept ignorant of many
important facts, and, when he wished to be introduced
to Oliver, one of the committee significantly replied,
" No, Sir, keep you quiet, whoa we want you, we
will call for you
It is not our wish to dwelt upon the events of that
gloomy period ; our aim is to impress upon public men
the necessity of doing their duty boldly, and not to
fear " what man can do unto them." To what a
lamentable situation woald the country* be reduced
were the example of Sir John Egerton to be often
followed ! Then, indeed, we might be compelled to
adopt the system recommended by Mitchell the Man-
chester delegate to the Crown and Anchor meeting in
January last. " Property (sa4l he) 'ought to fbrra no
part of a Member of Parliament's qualifications;
virtue and talents are sufficient." And a resolution to
that effect was actually tarried by a large majority at
that meeting of pennyless legislators.
Farnestly, thercfOre, do we call upon those men who
took a decided part against the disturbers of the public
peace not to shrink with any rain fears, before their con-
stituents. Such conduct is unhappily calculated to bar
the sound hearted part of the community from a public
expression of its opinion ;—to revive and lift up that
gaunt and ruthless demon• of rebellion whom we have
sabdueil and trodden down ; and to put, as it were, "a
soul under the ribs of dente."
The monuracut of General Moreau, erected by the
Emperor Alexander on the heights of Racknitz, near
Dresden, is in the form of a small pedestal, eight feet
high, on which is laid a swoel entwined with laurel, and
surmounted with a helmet It is surrounded with three
oak trees emblematical of the three Monarchs present,
The following is the inscription ;—" Moreau fell at the
side of Alexander."
Lavulctte now resides six miles from Munich, under
a different name; Foushe is at Prague ; Beauharnois
resides at Munich; and the Ex-Qtteen of tlolland at ,
Augsiterg.
Drouet the Postmaster, were stopped the unfortu-
nate Louis at Varettaes, emigrated SOME time since to
America.
The Bermuda paper of the 6th September says—" It
has been camfidentially stated to us, that the young man
who arrived here in the American ship Severn, on the
c'7th March last, and who appeared with the name and
character of Lieut. Wilson, of the American Navy, was
in fact no other than Young Watson, then on his way
to the United States, His appearance, it is said, en-
rwered the description of Young Watson eery as

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FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.
FRANCE.
The Bureatix of the Chamber of Deputies, en the 31th,
were principally occnpied with the choice of a commission to
examine the law en the recruitment of the army. In the Mt'
ting of the 6th, the Cliamher received a petition from certain
intlividnals condemned to banishment, who had been elm.
fined, and Mill were prisoners, in the fort of Pierre Chattel,
(department of the Aire), and who prayed that they might
he released from prison, by having their tentence'uf calls
from France carried into strict execution:. The circus,-
stances staled by the Minister of the Interiertiu elltplanalitivi, •
throw a curious lieht upon the subject. It appearrelhet a
neighbouring power the Netherlands we presunie;.hod rew
[ fiord setinhision to "Enhishrdoirenchmen, scat oat of the
country by that frontier. The experiment was tried in other
directions ; but intiiilar difficulties every where occur' eel.--
These French convict, belonged to a class whose principles
have been held dangerous to all tiosernments and notions.; '
and for the same causes for which Rance expelled them, litsh
prods.nt neighbours cast them back again. a cordon
wag attempted to bedrawnrou d this mortal pestilence ; and
FI :MCC was ()bilged, however Urdity, to este hush her MIS.
recto upon her own soil. With regard to the cacao rases of
imprisonment, the Minister of the Interior was to atheist
about the means of executing the sentenver according tit

legal lurm.
In the same sitting M. Faget de Baure reported on the pro.
jet de lei &livening the liberty of the press. The amendments
proposed by the Committee are not numerous, our, with one
exception, are they of high importance. Among those which
may he quoted on the side apublic tioeriy, we observe that
the power of seizing a work before distribution. provided a
coutams " a direct provocation to crimes," though sr. oiled to
the original pe °jet de lei, is withdrawn from the puller by the
committee. Indeed, it must be obvious, that the question
whether a literary production does or does not provoke to
the commission of crimes, is WC susceptible of a very arbi-
trary judgment, and that it is therefore wholly auth to be
resolved by any agents of the Crown. Another mitigation of
the original projed relates to the rights of die journals. It was
at first intended to continue their ?resent state of sic,jectiesta
until the ist of Jannary, period has been teach
abridged; the right of publication sad of uncontrolled discos,
stun being suspeuded only for * simile year. The annual sea-
Sion of the Chambers will of comae esiatil • them to rm. 4•445:
if they deem it desirably, the primilittory poornew CUP-
eised by the Executive Otieeruntent. The grand question ap
to what tributials shall try the offences of literature, is coldly
and briefly treated by M. Faget de Baure. The press is
in many instauccs to be deprived of the protection of a jury.
SPAIN.
Accounts of the 23d nit. front Madrid, mention, that an
ther Council of State had been held on the project of Ways
and Means, in which a plan to pay olf a considerable portion
of the public debt had been discussed. The Spanish (lovers.
went has long found that the decline of public credit nao
uwiug as much to the flaming demands fur arrears of national
debt, as the deficiency iu the revenue, and determined to re-
move the first great obstacle to the wheels of Uovernment..—
For this 'purpose a project was formed for the sale lit a quasi.
tiny of Crown and Church laud.; but an ECCieliidi.iliC4l ,mien.
ber of the Council asserted, that a plait %bleb was intended
to lay bold on the patrimony of St. Peter could only originate
with atheists and heretics. The Russian Apithassador had
met with a most brilliant recep • at Cadir. Several trans-
ports which were previously embargoed, hid been taken up„
but for what pnrpose was not well ascertsitted.
'lite hostile preparationa against Portugal, with which tae
Peninsula letters were lately filled, hati•entirely suosided.
The Court of Spain went into moaruing ou the 34th of Nov.
uu account of the death of our ever to be lamented Primes.
r It was to matinee fur 14 days. he young Queen of Spain la
said to be again in the taluity way.

NETHERLANDS.
GHENT, Dec. s.—The Vera Liberal puhlishes the following
note, written by Las Caw., the Soil, from the dictation of his
father, who lies indisposed M 'firleinuot :—" Count Lases'sa
whom all the pipers have made Private Secretary to Napo ,
Ilion, but who never had any other tithi shoot his person
than that of his Chamberlain and Coutiellor of State, while
on the throne, and slum! his inisfortinies, that of his devoted,
tender, and pious servant, was ...ivied away from Long-
wood more than a year ago, and detained av captive in secret
coutinement for about five weeks inu the Maud of St. Helena.
Transported thence to the Cape ut Good Hope, 510 leagues
tin tiler limn Europe, he remained there a captive fir nearly
eight mouths more, in violation of the must sacred laws of
English legislatiou.
"Thrown, when labonring under severe indisposition, on
ou board xsurail vessel of v.iti tuns burden, with a mew of Ii
' hands, and still treated as it captive, lie espy. tenced tat:sutler%
' jogs of a passaneof nearly a hundred days.
" At his COlf4HCe into tite 'lliaines, a subaltern agent of
the English Police seized all li:s papets, without cven con-
tenting to allow an inventory to he made of Mein, and sect
him a captive to the ('ontirrut. lie was forced to traverse
the kingdom of the Netherlands as a malefactor in a dzias
condition. At his departure hence was are still ignorant whe.
ther he will see his chains broken of remain still in captivity.
Certainly, if lie has any c.nnes to eapiote, the bandying of
him about in this meatier is toot a anaemia punishment ; bit
if he has committed twilling for winch he can reproach him-
self, such a peIseCIHIOR incomes malicious."
Madame Las Cmav, who had remained at Paris till she
the debin kotion of her husb ud 01. the
went to Ostend to Meet I Her inisna...l had heft that
place two days before tit r ail ival, awl she theist-ere toltowed
;um. We Mire seen this hid) uu ucr phs.v..ge through Ghent.
She wise keenly afts.cted with those Hattlel.& peiseentioas,
-which ought to hove beets auyciamletl by a simple lare4ll-

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