The National Register.
London, England, 1813-11-21 00:00:00

, .
•
._- • .
.
~. • .
. .
. . .
,NAT 0 ./t.. ... GIS,
i
•...
.
Our It
tug, Constinstion, an talas. . •
.
•=2.1. - .

No. SOS.

PUBLISHED ♦T NO. 11, NEWCASTLE-STABS?, STILAND.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21,

POLITICAL DIS2UISITION.

PHENOMENA OF THE TIMES.

nowever glorious the prospects which the Continent pre-
vents, yet there is one feature in oar home affairs which is
not less gratifying to our eyes or less promising to our
topes ; we mean the unanimity which now prevails in every
department of our Legislature. At no period of English
history did men of different views and interests so cordially
agree. Never was party spirit more completely disarmed of
its influence, and all private considerations sunk in a firm
and united endeavour to secure the public good. It will
tierhaps be said, that it is in the nature of success to remove
every discrepancy of opinion, and that the blaze of good
for tune is too brilliant not to dazzle every beholder and lead
his blinded judgment captive. This may be a common

PRIrE 9i•

truth, but it is mow totally inapplicable, for nothing in the pre-
sent days is •of a common and ordinary kind. The times
themselves are not : the contest which we wage, and its mo-
mentous results. are not: the union of all the European
Powers, the concord which rules them, the magnitude of
their exertions, are not : neither is the spirit with which we
fan, share, and support the efforts of the world, nor the cause
• that has produced that spirit. It must be sought for, not in
the triumphs to which it has giv4in birth,
.pot.ih the oulta-
tion and intoxication of victory, but in the justice of the
motives which called us originally to arms, 'and through us,
mankind ;—but in the courage and perseverance with which
we carried on a lengthened contest of years, against
hopeb until our • example made us followers, and Eu-
rope re-lighted her extinguisbsd liberties at the torch
of Freedom tbat had never ceased to burn in our island.
It must be sought for, in the propriety of the measures
adopted during this desperate struggle, which, like the
hidden machinery of nature, appears and is only
acksoMedged in its effects. It will be found also, in a
manly and candid disposition on the part of those men,
formerly distinguished by the name of Opposition, to admit
the existence of wisdom, of virtue, and of ability in their
opponents. That such conduct cannot he occasioned by
the intoxication of success, which sometimes irresistibly
.leads men to approve actions which have no other merit
than their brilliant and fortunate results, is evident from
the ground on which the former Opposition found their
present and hearty concurrence in all the demands and
measures of Ministers. This ground is the very absence of
that intoxication, the child of success, often it; perverter,
and sometimes its destroyer. It is the moderation dis-
played by Government, at the hour of victory ; it is the
legitimate object which they openly set to the encreased ex-
ertions which they require from the country, it i; the olive
To/. 1.7. No. Ceeri

branch extended amidst redoubled preparations for war,
that have obtained for them that unanimity of opinion and
support which must secure and augbient their success.. • At
the head of those who have distinguished themselves by
sacrificing all former differences of opinion, to fortify both
Government and the country at this decisive crisis, justice
demands that Mr. WHITBREAD should be placed. We
are not of those who are so incorrigibly attached to party
prejudices, as never to forgive a man for having long
maintained the opposite side of the question, but who en-
deavour to misrepresent his motives .and depreciate his va-
lue, when he adopts a different line of policy. We do not
consider Mr. WHITBREAD'S appi*Obatioll of the conduct
and me.:sures of Ministers less to be prized because he had
hitherto withholdcn it. Tgeither do we think it is either fair
or just, in a print generally considered as the organ of Go.
vernment, but which, in this instance we knoW, only ex-
presses its own sentiments, to attribute the support with
which he has now strengthened the Executive,• to lest
worthy motives_than those which he- has mentioned, or de-
tract from the value of that support, and endeavour to
load his public spirit With ridicule. Every sacs ice of
long entertained opinions must be naturally painful. It
is like the abandoning of old friends, from whom, though
we may have proved them worthless, it always costs us some
pangs to separate. Such a sacrifice neel not be ren-
dered more difficult, by the manner in which it is re,
ceived by the agents of those for whom it is wade. And if
after a man has long been abused for maintaining notions
supposed to be wrong, he-is laughed at and treated with
contempt for adopting those which have been represented
as sight, the very inducements to act properly are deAtoyed,
and virtue is robbed of her meed. Neither are we disposed
to consider the accession of the Opposition Members to the
side of Ministers and to the cause of Europe, as one of those
exertions made when the necessity of exertion is past, when
the toil of the day is over,—as the officious tug at the oar
when the vessel enters the port. We think, as Lord CAS-
TLEREAGH and Mr. WHITBREAD rightly stated, that al-
though all our measures and efforts tend towards a safe and
•honourable peace, that peace is still far distant. We are
convinced, by the demonstrations of the enemy, that a tre-
mendous' struggle must be renewed, and perhaps several
campaigns be fought, before he can be reduced to think of
any other honour or grandeur hut his own. The strength of
the positions to which he has fallen back is such, that he
way remain on the defensive until he has created fresh
armies for aggression. Holland, to which our main eftints
and those of the (7ROWN PritticE arc likely to be directed, is
a nest of fortresses, every town being walled, and the
country itsegio intersected by canals, as to pros"""
Incessant obstacles to au invading