The National Register.
London, England, 1817-09-08 00:00:00

Ttl'F', NATIONAL IttGISTEII.

-
The Paris Papers to Friday, and Mails do m Ham-
burg and Flanders are artiv ed. The only article in the
French Journals of any iniportance is a Royal Ordi-
nance which connects with the creation of a peerage an
appropriate state, called a Majorat, deseendible with
the dignity. A Majorat is a hereditary fief. No person
is in future to L.. called to the House of Peers, ecclesi-
astics excepted, who has not previously obtained the
King's authority to form a Majorat. There are to be
three classes of Majorats, viz. those attached to the title
of Duke, consisting of property producing not less than
30,000 francs annually ; those to the title of Marquis
and Count, producing not less than 20,000 francs ; and
those attachato the title of Viscounts and Barons, pro- •
ducing not less than 10,000 francs. The suppression. of
the disturbances at Breslau, is clearly explained in the
fbllowing article brought by the Hamburg
•` A false report was spread, probably with design, that the
wives of too of the persons who refused to take the Latittlwehr
oath had drowned themselves and their children in the river.
This caused the di:sati•faction to break out into arts of t io
battle. 5 or Mtn of the mob assenthlNl in two parties. One
broke the windows of the Pofice Office. The other attacked
the Town Hall. The former then proceeded to the Hotel of
the Hovernment, broke mum the doors, and destroyed the win-
dows and forniture in the rooms of the High President, lit r-
kel. The military now appeared, and soon dispersed 4he mob,
though cannon we re Mad ; but the brave Commandant, con-
tented himself with dispersing entirely the broken Olying mow('
by some strong patroles, on which occasion some per-
sons, Were wounded or killed. One of the wounthal a journey-
man tailor, is dead. A battalion arrived from Schwardnitz,
which bivotteked in the !:treets with the military of Breslau.
The ringleaders were taken, and the chief President Markel,
as well as all the Authorities, have conducted themselves in
the most exemplary manner on this occasion."
An article from the Lower Eibe, dated hlth ult. in-
forms us, that several vessels have been seised and car-
ried into Swedish ports fbr having infringed the regu-
lations of that Government with respect to she prohi-
bition of fineigm goods, but at the same time says, that
these prohibited comnuslities arc still sold, and at 50 per
cent. dearer than before. This is another added to the
innumerable instances which shew the justice of the re-
mark of a distinguished writer, that ." The Legislature
which loads trade with impositions too heavy, or fetters
it with restrictions too severe, defeats its own intention,
and is only multiplying the inducements to violate its •
statutes, and proposing a high premium to encourage
illicit traffic." The saute article also mentions the comi-
cal manner in which the law against drinking coffee in
Sweden it evaded ; " in all the inns and taverns, brown
soup is now given instead of coffee, and it is eaten with
spoons, it being only the drinking of coffee that is pro-
hibited." Au old writerein Greece asserted that the cele-
brated " Mack broth" of Lacedwmon, was nothing
other than coffee. For Lacedwmon, we may now read
Sweden. .

It is curious to observe how completely prejudice and
hatred will destroy the reasoning faculties of man.
The Editors of certain Journals in the• Netherlands and
Germany have for some time edified their readers by
long abusive articles against this country. If the writers
were natives, we should say heaven knows for what !
but as we know them to be for the most part, Buona-
poetized Frenchmen who fled from home when it became
too hot to hold them, we can assign a motive for their
conduct, and smile at the impotence of their malice. We
have bethre adverted to some curious articles which have
appeared from time to time, accusing us of having de-
stroyed the manufactories of the Continent ; but we lit-
tle expected to be told that, we were the abettors of the
A lgerines against the trade of Germany! and yet this
• has been done in sober sadness, in the following curious
article from the Lower Elbe, dated August 12
" The fact that there were found on board an Algerine
Corsair English, French, Spanish, and Netherlands Passports
with orders to the vessels of these nations to let the Pirate
and his prizes every where pass unmolested, may teach us
Germans what protection we may hope for our trade from
the Euroreari maritime powers. How just was the opinion
of Baden in the votes in the Diet concerning the piracies of
Barbary States, and how worthy of a great nation of thirty
millions of men.
It is not from Enetand that we ought to beg protection forma
flag : we should protect ourselves by our own exertions—we
should sink to the bottom the ships of those miserable pirates,
without first asking at London whether we are allowed to do
so, anti we shall then see whether England ventures, without
blushing, in the filet; of Europe to protect against Germans,
its dear Mlle: And in.troropois of its power in the Mediter-
ranean, those robbers of Algiers."
What will the Algeriucs who suffered, or th e Dutch
who aided in punishing them, or Lord Exmouth think
of this We believe the Dey will nut be eager for
a renewal of that " protection," which we are supposed
to afford him, or wish for fresh proofs of our affection
as his " dear allies," delivered as the last were from the
muzzles of our guns.
Every man in South America, who has a correspond-
ent in England or the United States, is expected to give
information as to current events ; and as this informa-
tion is often, conveyed to him through partial media, and
has again to take the colour of his own hopes and fears,
opinions and interests, we have a tolerable view of the
difficulty of coining at the truth of the case, and of ha-
zarding, as to the whole or any province of the Spanish
Trans-Atlantic dominions, a confident opinion. The
Papers of the United States are in the same situation
with ourselvas, though in more direct correspondence
with the scat of action ; and this should make us cau-
tious in admitting either the favourable or unfavourable
intelligence contain.

SEPT. 8.

HOAX ON THE LOIII) MAYOR.

Some mischievous wag played a bitter hoax uprnt
the Lord Mayor on Saturday, which, from his Lord-
ship's fitcility in believing nil the nonsense that is told
him, was productive of no slight inconvenience to
many indi..-iduals. In the course of the day, hii lord-
ship received intin.mation that an attempt at insurrec-
tion would be made ar the close of Bartholomew Fair,
on Saturday night, and a card was put into his hand
stating, that, " The friends of Reform."' would meet
at the Pied Horse, Chiswell-street, Finsbury-square,
on Saturday ercning,—supper precisely at nine o'dock.
This house, it• was .stated, was to b 3 the rendezvous,
and that the conspirators were to assemble at the Fair,
armed with pikes, and. other weapons, and in the
dead of night,- proceed to attack the Bank and
other public buildings, andjlually execute a genend
insurrection i _ _ . _

The Lord Mayor, gm! / took all this for gos:
pal, and, without giving himself time to ascertain-
whether any such meeting was to take place at the
Pied Horse or not, he dispatches a messenger to the
Home Department, with the alarming intelligence.
The home Department believing his Lordship'
statment, ordered out the military; ami placed them in
the most convenient stations for immediate action. In
the mean 'time the Lord Mayor addressed circulars to
the Bank, to the East India House, and other public
places, apprizing them of their danger ; he summoned -
the attendance of all the City Police ; he fixed his
freed-quarters at the. Compter in (.iiltspur-street, and
fmquently during the evening, perambulated the Faii
issuing orders and dispatching officers in every direction
where danger was to be apprehended. Fortunately,
however, for the community at large, and his -Lord-
ship in partiCular; the visitors to the Fair, were in-
nocent of any evil intentions. " Pikes and other
weapons," they had none ; they had armed themselves
with nothing but good humour and strong drink,
and when the Sunday morning approached,
they repaired to their repeetive htnaes,
thinking how much alarm they had created in the
breast of their parental chief Magistrate.
We have ever been ready to give his Lordship every
praise for his indefatigable industry in his high office ;
though we were never among those who honoured hint
as a Solomon. 'We have always observed an indiscrete
precipitancy in his conduct, which has more than once
exposed him to the ridicule of the public•; and we think
a certain eicionniess has marked his whole career, not
very consistent with those principles of " independence,'i
which he was used to boast, 'and which his friends yet
hope he has not abandoned. In the present instanc., it
would certainly have been prudent, as it respected the
Home Department, even, to haveenquired intothe truth
of the story about a meeting at the Pied Horse. It' he
had made such an enquiry, he would have found that no
such meeting did:l,4e place there, that none such was over
mentioned to the very respectable man who keeps that
house, and if he had condescended to make enquiry he
would have found that the general conduct of that man,
is such, as to place hint above suspicion of keeping a
house of resort for such felens, as his Lordship was active
in apprehending on a former occasion, but who, front
causes, which every good man must lament, escaped
that gallows which was so justly their due.
We hope this affair will teach his Lordship prudence
in future, and, we hope, moreover, that he will devise
some means of doing justice to the character of Mr.
Willis, the landlord of the Pied Horse, lest his repute.
tion should suffer, through the mischievous roguery of the
hoaxer, or the credulous officiousness of the Magistrate.

The French Ministry appears to be so anxious to
conciliate the good will of parties, that we very
much fear they will miss their object, and disgust all.
We were among the first to applaud the decree, by
which a considerable number of disbanded officers were
called to the king's ranks ; it was an act Of humanity
as well as prudence, and from which no evil could re-
sult, because the characters of the individuals were
strictly scrutinized ; but not content with this, the
Ministry are determined to convince the King, that no
crime is so black, but it may be fiwgiven ; thus they
bring forth Davoust, whose name is connected with
every thing that is infamous, and make him an object
of royal bounty. Surely the blood of Ncy, all trea-
cherous and guilty as he was, will cry from the grave
against this monstrous act of partial clemency. What
must have been the feelings of Louis, when this man
knelt before him ! Did not the groans of the wretched
victims—old men, women, and children, who perished
beneath the walls of their rovn flee city, howl in his
ears? Could he behold Davoust, defiling by his
touch, that baton, which, in his weakness he was be-
stowing, without remembering the plunder of the free
city of Ilamburgh, and the murder of its innocent po-
pulation ? After this, let not even Fondle despair let
those, whose hands are yet spotted with the blood of
their king, live in the hope that although the gates of
heaven may be shut against them, those of the Tuile-
ries arc ever open ; let them bear in mind, that mur.
ders of the blackest die, committed under the usurpation
of 13uonapate, do not unfit them for the highest honours
under the Ministry of M. de Care.

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