The National Register.
London, England, 1809-12-31 00:00:00

. THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

tirement, there are others; who, by their native ease, have
insinuated themselves into domestic espionage, hut of them
more anon ! Besides these, *e haVe German Legions; we
have trench, Dutch, and German prisoners enlisted, French
Officers on parole; in the very heart of the land, and
French prisoners in confinement; in the Very heart of our
Naval Dock-yards! all these amount to upsvardt of one
hundred thousand, ail men .who have seen service, st hp now
Only want arms to be ready for action, rind who, if the
had them, *Mild form a French army actually landed in the
eountryi As to the Hanoverian and Brunswick corps, they
prior tellows have given too convincing proofs of their
honest loyalty to excite a fear; on them, most certain!),
might we rest our confidence, even in the hour of peril;
but, the consequences tb be dreaded from the others, should
even a small force make „good a landing; are too palpable
to require further animadversion. We believe there is no
nation on the globe where charity and benevolence act
more strongly than in this ; the spirit of benevolence will
at all times afford protection to the distressed, but the spi-
rit of patriotism enquires whether natives are net capable
of filling all the places in which foreigners are to be found
at present, and !whether they are not also More deserving
of confidence. The employMent of foreigners in public
situations ought at all times to excite a jealousy, and we
must confess, that it is not without astonishment We look
at the Court Calendar, and see the immense number of fo-
reign names, attached to the Public Cfices, nay, even to
some of our literary Societies and Establishments, whose ob-
jects are professedly British, independent of those on the
lists of Royal Households. British Princes ought to have
British attendants, and they ought to feel, that although a
true English heart will not stoop to cringe, yet that British
bluntness is more to be trusted than Foreign Politesse.
This foreign system, indeed, extends to our domestic army,
and Foreign Officers have even had commands in English
districts ! Luckily, however, it has not as yet insulted our
navy, except in the instance alluded to. There is another
department of the State not less deserving of attention, we
mean that of the Government Messengers ; that the pre-
sent men in that employ have proved themselves worthy of
generous confidence, no body will deny ; but that is no se-
curity for the future; we may be told that foreigners are
necessary, from their knowledge of the Continental Lan-
guages, but even that excuse would be unnecessary, if the
vacancies were bestowed on qualified Englishmen, and not
considered as the otium cum dignitate for the worn oet valet
of some retiring Minister. The subject is, indeed, too co-
pious for us now to notice more than the freedom and faci-
lity with which foreigners, in their various disguises of
Language-masters, Fencing-masters, Hommes d'affaires,
Secretaires, Dentists, Frizeurs, Femmes de joie, Madames,
and Gouvernantes, insinuate themselves into domestic con-
fidence, and even into domestic retirement. An instance
of this kind, of a very recent date, will illustrate the point.
At the private party of a Countess, where an illustrious
youth had condescended to appear, the husband, (or some-
thing of a foreign songstress, for even nominal husband, we
cannot call him, as their names differ), had the easy im-
pertinence to say, " upon my vord, you are very fine fa-
mais j'oublie, I no remember how many children
your fader have got !!" Foreigners in menial capacities
will crouch and bend, but they repay themselves amply for
this, by listening to the conversation, in order to retail it
to the collectors of intelligence ; nay, when employed as
domestic servants in the houses of Ministers, who can tell
but they may be embrio ambassadors in disguise. We
know the extraordinary influence of France, in_itussia, but
why ?—because all the servants, all the tutors are French !
Even in eur own country, we know the deep and infamous
plan, by the introduction of French Tutoresses, to debauch
the female mind, to destroy the first germs of connubial
love, and of connubial confidence; that is, indeed, a sub-
ject well worthy of notice, and which we shall resume at an
early opportunity 11 1

MODERN PATRIOTS.

DEC• 31.

There is an Obliquity in Modern Patriotism, Which ap-
pears, both incongruous and incredible, to a superficial
observer, but whiCh. nevertheless, if analysed by the axioms
of polit cal geometry may be easily demonstrated as re-
ceiving its bias in a direction the most opposite from the
same pre disposing
Of the Professors of this new School, it has generally
been supposed that COEHETT war the most glaring instance
of tergiversation and inconsistency, Enid there is, indeed,
no doubt that his former right line of principle is now be-
come merely a tangent to his present eccentric hebdoma-
dal revolutions ; he is, however, no longer a solitary in-
stance of a change of opinion, whilst the,innate and origi•
. nal principle still remains the same: It remained, indeed,
for the present day to produce two tharacters like Coa-
-1 ETT and the subject of the present Inquiry, and thus focus
a kind of anomaly both in politics and patriotism, such as
no former pages of English History can produce. In
former times, our passive obedience men, and our noisy
demagogues were at least consistent I if disposed to bow
their necks as the Crouching slaves of tyranny( or to incur
the pains and penalties of the pillory and of public expo-
sure, as noisy and unprincipled leaders of faction, they
had the went, each in their turn of adopting and ad-
hering to sr tents as diametrically opposite as their mu•
tual practice. Not so, however, with our Modern Re-
formers; one of whom has shewn th2t he who in public
vociferates loudly for public liberty, can yet act in private
is an unfeeling despot. and regardless of common huma-
nity, can even insult the laws of his Country by making
them, for a time, subservient to his tyrannic sway; whilst
a-other, after ringing all the changes of public reform,
atter bellowing forth the cause of liberty and equality, and
even suffering judicial coercion for promulgating the
-t6 rights of man," cm now unblushingly step forward as
the sycophantic admirer of a bloodthirsty and treacherous
usurper; of a Tyrant who in the wantonness of his fancy,
sports with Crowns and Sceptres like a too much indulged
and wayward child, and who daring to claim the protec•
tion and providence of his benevolent Creator, can arro-
gate to himself the Throne of a long line of legitimate
monarchs, and whilst calling their people his, amuse their
frivolous minds with the pageantry of Bartholomew Fair,
in order to rivet their chains the closer ! •
Coulti it, indeed, be believed that a " monthly" publica-
tion, noted for its professions in favour of public liberty,
and under the controul and guidance of a " friend to equa-
lity" would insult the public with a pompous representa-
tion of the so called Coronation of the bitterest foe of this
patriot's native country, and when that very Coronation
was performed in direct opposition to every principle for
which an infatuated and misguided people had been lavish-
ing their blood and treasure, and in support of which they
had carried death and desolation through all the surrounds
ing countries. .
But this subject deserves a closer and more familiar
illustration ; it may be said that an exhibition of this
kind, is merely for the purpose of gratifying general cu-
riosity;—if indeed the work in question was one in the
habit of entertaining its readers with hot pressed plates of
dresses and undresses, of Coronations, and of City feasts,
this might be a plausible reason for inserting a plate of in-
trinsic Merit, though even its subject was displeasing ; but
that cannot be said in the present case, for this " Naga-
taint," with the exception of one solitary map, has never,
we believe, produced any other specimen of this kind ; the
plate itself possesses no claims to excellence, nor as we
are credibly informed, has it the merit even of exhibiting
likenesses of the persons represented ; and it is, moreover,
but a copy of a larger one which has been some time in
this Country. To what then can we attribute this extra-
ordinary addition to the regular bill of. fare? Are we
to suppose that the welt itself is declining, or that its