The National Register.
London, England, 1809-04-02 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

• • • ?0. • •4••••41,11

getic policy. Half measures, and tardiness oC execution,.
have occasioned our late disasters on the continent. It
their recurrence is to be avoided, we must abandon the
errors which produced them. We. must not appear in the
character. of auxilia.ries ; we should come as principals.
We are not contending exclusively for Spaniards Portu-
guese, or Austrians; we are fighting our own battles, and
clime the Peninsula, or 6ermany, as the scene of action.
Our resouiTc:s give us a right to appear in the light
of principak ;• to- do so, we must have an army sill-
ciently4 formidable to maintain that claim. A British
Minister, who is able to appreciate the character of
his countrymen,. would feel uo apprehension in adopting,
this measure. A series of victorious operations abroad
will facilitate the Administration at home; and a reverse,
instead of damping, call forth the full extent of their moral
resources. Itostilites, on our part, are not the consequence
of a restless ambition ; they arc rendered unavoidable by
the insatiable rapacity of the enemy. We are fight-
ing for our altars and lire-sides;
passions, we are
or contendspeakinto
g
for every thing that can warm the
the interests of men and citizens. Our fields are threatened
with devastation; our Government with subversion ; our
property with plunder; our • families with diipersion and
misery ; our country with . carnage and slavery. These
are motives to make old age vigorous, and women, heroines.

REVOLUTION IN SWEDEN.
The last twenty years have been peculiarly marked by
physical and moral convulsions. Whilst earthquakes,
inundations, and volcanic eruptions betrayed an alarmibg
fermentation in the interior of our globe, all the hinges
of society have been viwently burst by conspiracies, re-
bellions, and the worst crimes which have disgraced the
worst ages of our world. Where, and how, they will end,
it is now beyond the reach of 'human prudence, or fore-
sight, to determine. It requires, however, only a super-
ficial spirit of observation to be convinced,i that the cala-
mities with which we have been already visited, tremend-
ous as they have been, arc only a prelude to others, at which
thought itself recoils. Our nature abhors a constant antici-
pation of gloomy events; but the symptoms we have noticed '
and which assume every day a more malignant aspect, prove
there is a mass. of feverish matter in society, which must
occasion a dreadful and unheard of crisis. The rev elution,
which has taken place in Sweden, is, in whatever light we
regard it, one of the most dangerous, criminal, and impo-
litic occurrences, we have ever read or heard of. It is as
silly and unretlecting an action, as to put a sword into the
hands of a Madman. The minds of the lower classes, in
every part of Europeare already too much dissatisfied with
their governments and institutions t. betray too impatient
a sense of every kind of restraint, manifest too
thatmark
-
ed a jealousy of the higher and privileged orders;
one or two more examples of this kind are only necessary
to make them feel, that the supposed hardships of their
condition originate in the injustice of their governments.
Whenever that dreadfal moment arrives—whenever so
fatal a sentiment begins to take rooted possession of their
minds, a, scene cif anarchy and complicated atrocities will
ensue, which will convert society itself, into a great slaugh-
ter-house.
This is the fatal presentiment, which. rushes on our
minds, in coutemplatin:, the rash and iithiuitous act which
has taken place in Swellen. The weak and unprincipled
instigators will bemoan, we clearly foresee, their injustice
and violence, with tears of blood. They have
given a
dreadful precedent in the deposit-;on anti arres:ation of
their Sovereign—hat force conqtituica riOt! and the Po-
place, they arc obliged to flatter in order to support their
aggression, impressed with the uli!ity of this maxim, will
seize the first opportunity to turn it t”,:alust themselves.
Exclusive or the atrocity and iinpolicy of the act, every
individual, who is averse to the horrid system of gratin?.
which is now established in the greater part of Eurevs.,
must warmly spupthise in the sufferings of a- voting

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Monarch, whom neither threats nor promises could induce
to swerve from the general cause of freedoM. Ile had his
faults; blithe amply made up for them by a numbeiof
splendid virtues; he was chaste, temperate, laborious,
loving the good though lie might have erred in the means
of attaining it.. We appeal to every man of honour and,
honesty, had he been placed in the situation of GUSTAVUS,
if he would not have pursued the same line of po-
licy, which that Monarch did. In condemning him,
every Englishman Must condemn his own govern-
ment, and ivakes the base acknowledgment, that
.
interest, and not justice, is the basis of his morality. .
The KING of SWEDEN detested BONAPARTE; and where is
the honest man, who does not detest a murderer and a
robber. He had the magnanimity to spurn his insidious
oilers of friendship ; and every man, who has the slightest
respect for himself, or feeling for others, would act with
the same spirit and magnanimity. He tried to maintain
the independence of his country against an unprovoked
attack; he appealed to the loyalty and courage of his sub-
jects to assist him in so sacred and lionouraLle a cause ; .
and if he has fallen in it, he carries with him the consolation,
that the honest and impartial of every country admire
his principles, and take a warm interest in his fate.
It may be asked how far a government has a right to in.
terfere in the conduct of another country.. But if an inter-
ference of that kind be justifiable, ours has a strong interest
to employ every means in its power, to re-establish the
deposed Sovereign. Conciliatory measures may have a
good effect on some occasions; but we believe, that only
vigorous and decisive policy can bring back the Swedish
nation to a sense of the atrocity committed against their
SOVEREIGN. For Heaven's sake ! let us at least avoid
giving a sanction to usurpation, by allowing a British
Minister to remain at a court, where the Sovereign lan.:
guishes in chains, in consequence If his friendship to this
country. Positive instructions, we trust, will be immediT
ately transmitted to Mr. Mcnav to make a peremptory
declaration, that unless GUSTAVUS be immediately re-esta-
blished, the British Government is determined to take the
most effectual.and vigorous means to effect it.
The revolution has been effected without the least blood-
shed, and without theislightest resistance, on the part of the
people of Stockholm. The inhabitants of the capital in al-
most every country, are morally and politically more de-
praved than such as inhabit the provinces. Bodily vigour,
love of country, and simplicity of mind, are frequently
found at the greatest distance from the seat of power.
Whether this be the fault of courts or ministers; or if
it be a consequence of the dissipation and egotism which
predominate in large towns,—we will not take upon us to
decide. But that the fact is se, has been proved by recent
occurrences in several countries ; and Sweden has furnished
us with a new example in support of this opinion.----Whilst
the people of Stockholm tamely and basely beheld the de_
rsition of their Sovereign, the hardy inhabitants of Dale.
carlia have formally protested against the infamous act.
The energy and patriotism of this province are known 1,1
every man who is versed in Swedish history. Its bra-.
mountaineers, under GUSTA Ves VASA% reionquered the le_
dependence of Sweden ; and, about two centuries a; ter-
wards, they offered their services to the Senate, to liberate
CR.% aLes XII. from Bender. This offer was a bad proof
of their geographical and peliiical `knowledge; but fur-
nished a most honourable one of their. lON alty and courage.
The Dalecarlians hive not degenerated.--The' poverty
and the extreme rigour of their climate, brace their 'lleitis
as much as their bodies. Their voice and their arm may
still save GysTAVIIS ; and thwart the criminal projects ol
an intriguing nobility, who, regardless of the honour and
interests of their country, have no other wish than to re-
cover the exclusive advalitag;es they enjoyed during the
interval of anarchy which intervened between the death of
CHARLES the Xllth, and the revolution of 1712. Tlnrng
that period, the most contemptible r the Se (*dish aniro:.,
they were invariably the pensumerseither of France (~.. ..f