The National Register.
London, England, 1811-09-29 00:00:00

• SUNPAY, SEPTEMBER 29; 181 L

•
POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

No. 18g.
,

4

It really seems is though a dec'ree of fate had
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gone forth against the unfortunate House of Bourt-
Box, and every 'other Royal Family connected with
it, which mutt end in their, total overthrow from
the elevated station they once occupied. 'A 'spirit
of blindness seems to have fallen upon them, which,
without the aid of external enemies, works their

• sure destruction. Had we no other instance of this
• fatality than the sudden fall of the King of TuANcr,

in the midst of revolutionary horrors, it would be
sufficient to warrant a belief that the ruin of the
high and mighty of the earth, 'proceeded from
that Highest ,Power, who strikes . the haughty
in the.midst of their pride, and makes their place
- know them Do more. tut confirmation of a still
plainer ard:More decisive nature, has continued to
crowd upon is in s 9 uninterrupted a succession, as
to leave no room for doubt in every mind that ac.

,y ne reigning
MonayCh, through imbecillity, resigned his Crown
to the bitterest enemy of his House, and his Son,
although proclaimed icing in his stead, by a people
attached to his person, and willing to bleed in his
defence,. obstinately rejected the love and offers of
his subjects, and forsook his country, to throw
himself defenceless into the arms of the Destroyer
of European liberties, an upstart and a tyrant.
The consequences of the downfal of these two
branches of the BOURBON Family have been nearly

as severely felt by the two nations over whom they
ruled. Self-torn France found, in her bosom, the
punishers of her guilt, whilst Spain, innocent of
the folly of her Kings, is still ravaged by a foreign
foe, and bleeding at every pore. Notwithstanding
these terrible examples, the only Member of the
House of BOURBON still wearing the Crown, un-
taught even by the loss of his continental doini.
nions,• is now pursuing a line of policy, which, un-
less altered, must unavoidably lead to his ruin.
.—Maintained on the Throne of Sicily, only.',by
the generous assistance, both in troops
Vol. IV. CXCVL t

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money, which this country affords him, he bas,
almost ever since the marriage of NAPOLEON: With
MARIA LoursA, displayed an unfounded jealousy
of the very exertions made by us to p'reserve the
independence of his kingdom, attended with mea-
sures nearly of an hostile nature towards British
subjects an British interests, which, whilst they
prove a.total want rff gratitude on his part, tend to
deprive him of that protection, without which he
must become one of BUONAPARTE'S vassals, or
shortly resign his Crown. Vexatious regulations
were imposed on our trade ; every kind ofTacility
was denied to ottr army and navy ; errors, 'if com-
mitted, were magnified ; services, although ren-
dered at the expense of our blood, underrated.
Our remonstrances were disregarded ; and the Sici-
lian Noblemen, who 'seemed to espouse our interests,
treated with coldness at Court, and lately banished.
It was natural that such a state of things, so unlike
what we had a right to expect, should have created
in this country not alarm, for the presence of a
*British force in that Island secured, under any cir-
cumstances, its territorial inviolability from French
invasion, but displeasure. It was also necessary
that that displeasure should be strongly marked,
in order that those who were not more degcient in
gratitude,. than blind to their own interests, should
be recalled to a sense of justice and reason, and, in-
duced to alter their policy. For that purpose Lord
BENTINCK was sent as our Ambassador Ex-
traordinary to Palermo, and instructed to express,
in decisive terms, the disapprobation felt by our
Government, and to represent the danger attending
the course pursued by the Sicilian Administration,
as well as the folly of impairing the unanimity
which ought to direct every feeling of the heart,
and every exertion of coalesced power, against the
common enemy. After pointing out the greatnesS
and disinterestedness of our assistance, he was to
ask for a real and hearty co-operation in a work, at
which, in that part of the world, Sicily was to
derive the chief benefit. Private letters stated
sometime ago, that-the Court of Palermo having
had private infOrmation of the nature of his
Lordship's mission, ' had carried its liindness,
not to say, hostility, so far as to order that he

should not be -allowed to land. The Queer,
it-was stated, in the same letters, had publicly de-
- tttat faze would break off the connection

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inowledges an overruling Providence. Scarce had the
-*MAT Wit cii.43g;he_a4.41.4,/toustsoris been occo-
pied by an usurper, when the Spanish branch of Oita-
family blindly fell into his snares. The reigning