The National Register.
London, England, 1815-11-26 00:00:00

SUNDAY, N ONEMBER 1815.

TO LITIGA L DISQUISITION.

TRIAL OF MARSHAL NEY.

Whoever has attentively considered the events of the

last thirty years, will be convinced that they are of a de-

scrip ion altogether unparalleled and extraordinary. Like
an impetuous current, that has broken down its native
barriers, the tide of political revolution has burst into chan-
nels hitherto unknown, and in its vortex confounded all
the laws of moral gravity, and nearly swept away the
ancient boundaries of distinctive rank. Hence many of
the meatiest origin, and of the most careless or even op-
probrious character, have been buoyed up on the wreck-
less torrent, whilst others, with bolder energies and more

intrinsic worth, have bravely struggled through'existence,
or been doomed eventually to sink under its oppressive
:force. Amnngst the second of these classes we discern the
long afflicted, virtuous, and patient family of the Bour-
bons ; in the former, the heads of that military aristo-
cracy, which has at once constituted itself the poison of
France, and the murderous bane of an incarnaged world.

The mind that has for a time been devoted to the contem-
,plation of military prowess or defeat, must now be con-

tent, with a more sober sympathy, to see arranged, at the

tribunal of retribution, those who have been the guilty
author; of all the evils and all the horrors of which

Europe has been at once the witness and the sufferer.

First and foremost in the ranks of these stands Marshal
,Ney. To say that he is a traitor, might be anticipating
the decrees of justice ; hut, to say that he is not, uould
be a violation of the dictates of truth and common sense.
Who de,•erted his beneficent master at his utmost need ?
Ma .4hal Nev! Who added, by the blackest irony, insult
to dereliction of his duty ?—Marshal Ney ! Yes, he him-
self is aware of this ; his conscience tells him So. Else
why this shuffling policy—this grasping at every flimsy

pretext and subterfuge—this " saving and reserving to the
Mat‘hal the right of applying for further delay," this ap—
peal to all the Allied Sovereigns,—t:3 anxiety fOr that

. _
procra'tinatini► which answPrq from Petersburgh, Vienna,

Berlin, and London mug occasion!-LOr does he6•think
the tearq of the widnvrs and orphans of titoie
whose.parents and husbands ha've been at

I'ol. Pll. Aro. cccula

shrine of that ambitious policy, whose foremost servant,
or rather slave, he was, will plead, like pitying angels, in
his behalf! But Louis is the imbecile; he may, there.
fore, be induced to take the Marshal again under his pro-
tection : his courtiers are the canaille; their poor illiterate
faculties may, therefore, be astoundJd by the brilliancy
of the Marshal's genius, or) at least, of his uniform. But
no—the eagle's wing is clipped, and the noxious bird of
prey stands trembling before the pacific, the unobtruding,
bird of wisdom.

Happily for the lovers of honesty and good order, the
objection of the delinquent to the competency of the other
tribunals, can change nothing but the mode of his execu-
tion. As one benighted in a morass becomes more en-
cumbered, and loses the power ,of extrication by every
fresh exertion, so the culprit who- would defend himself in
a bad cause gives, in every plea, a more circumstantial
proof of guilt. It Is curious, though not remarkable, how
exactly this has been the este with Ney. He appealed.
against the competency of a Codrt Martial ; who, bad
they adjudgedhim to be shot, would at least have per.
witted him to have died a soldier's death. If he be con-
detimed by his Peers, he suffers upon the scaffold, or un-
der the jaws of the guillotine, the punishment awarded to
the lowest and most despicable malefactor. Such, indeed,
to all appearance, will be his fate, and such, if the project
of the Law of Amnesty, proposed on the 11th inst. in the
Chamber of Deputies, be carried into execution, will, pro-
bably, be the fate of others, only less notorious for their
treason, because less eminent in point of situation.

This law bears indisputable marks of the prudence, jus-
tice, and fortitude, with which it was indited, and. Whilst it
confers forgiveness, end disposes to loyalty and unanimity
it does so by erecting beacons on those very vessels that
have been lost; teaching at once, as by a double lesson,
precaution against evil courses; and the destruction that
has awaited them.. It gives; in short, a general amnesty
to all excepting•those described in the following necessary
' exceptions :—Those who held important civil atid military
posts under the Usurper; generals, commandants of corps
or places ; prefects who passed over to the usurper ; regi-
cides who renounced their amnesty, by accepting places
from the Usurper, or by sitting in the two Chambers, or by
signing the additional Act to the Constitutions of the
ph*. All these persons are to be taken up and tried by the
•coin4etent tribunals; some to be puuished with dead) f
atiiity—the ethers with trtwisportation.

MEIM

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