The National Register.
London, England, 1814-07-31 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. -

JIILY SI.

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The [bin. J. W. Ward, a Privy Councillor, and a Mem-
ber of the Board of Controul.

This accesion of Mr. Canning's friends to the support, as

it is called,•Of.Adr»inistration, is one of those events which
it is didicult to reconcile to any known policy on the .pait of
Government, and can only be speculated upon as connected
with Lord (2astlereagli's elevation to the Peerage, and the
necessity of finding a leader capable of directing the debate
in the Lower House. Situated as that house now is, such a

leader may be competent to the aggregate of public business,
and may suit the triumphant Stone of present successes,
but we by no means deem him capable of a great crisis, and
.bis present acceptance of power reduceS his character to
. a level with his talents. 4ma►►tiani ire, ST. may be a good
poetical sentiment, but a bad maxim for political union.

The Moniteur to the 27th inst. tai
,given a long extract
from a work on the liberty of the press, from which we
present our readers with the following paragraph; the wishes
and dispositions of the Government who allows such libels
without contradiction or comment cannot but be higtily fa-
vourable to the liberty of the subject.
" Few spars pass by without the newspapers and Nth ex-
citing in England seditious movements, whic,i, no: dangerous
to the state, arc
.fa:al to those engaged ia the insurrections.'
When, we would ask the editor of the Moniieur, has this
been the case in Eng!and ? And what ate we to think of
these falsehoods, published under the eyes and with the
sanction of the Government? The King has been long
enough in Eng!and to know the character ef our law .upon
this head, though it way not suit the nature of the Policy
which signalises his return, to acknowledge its wisdom and
superiority. To our minds there is little or no dial ence
between a Government that brutalizes and one who de-
ceives a great peOple, so long as the powers of the mind arc
made subservient to cajole and corrupt, 'to destroy or over-
turn the freedom which ennobles it.

We are such lovers of rational freedom, that every cir-
cumstance, however trifling, that may appear to affect its
security, excites our alarm. This observation we mean to
apply lather to Spain than any other country. since -the at-
tempts to reform the new institutions are passiedy e.rtul/ed
those. who accept their orders, and admit their congratula-
tfons, and besides people seldom applaud a system without a
lurking wish to see it successful, or to follow its example.
At present (the time is certainly shot t) nothing Las been tit
on foot that can give the true friend of mankind the least
lore of any extewive- amelioration in the condition of the
governments on the continent, and we filar, from what we
know of their internal organization, that the same narrow
policy continues to prevail notwithstanding the experience
of tl:e past.

In the mean while the fervor of the people has been al-
lowed to subside into the same state of hopeless indifference
as first induce:them to submit their necks to the iron yoke
of Buonaparte, and they are either insensible to, or incapable
of, that sv,teni which can alone elevate and su•'ain the une
qual conflict, between the desiieolpersonal ei►francbitement'
aud t ie designs of bereditary despotism.

489

Our opinion of the state of the Funds has beenjustified by
the results. °opium has been done at par, and Consols at
661, and it is impossible to contemplate the expenses we now
incur, without apprehensions of the most serious .na-
ture ; since, exclusive of the floating debt, which must
be% disposed of in some way or other, the demand for our
manufactures is very trifling in comparison with the hopes
which have been excited, and the want understood io be felt
all over the Continent. In the mean while, as if change of
'men would produce change of measures, Mr. Huskisson is
about to succeed Mr. Vansittart, a n►an understood to be
fruitful of resource, daring in experiment, and suited to the
declining and dangerous situation of our finances. How far
Mr. Iluskissou is calculated to repair the waste, when exhaus-
tion exists amongst all ranks of people, remains to be proved
by those whom the philosophy of numbers have seduced. to
quit the plainness of Cocker, and who expect to find in the
plausible theorists of modern .times the wholesoine limit,
security and circulation of the precious metals. There can
be but one result, which we think peace will rather acce.
!crate than retard, and prove that nations are like individuals.
who, if they spend more than their estates, must at least reap
difficu!ties, the effects of their extravagance and imprudence.

We should forbear to notice any further those delicate
topics which hare excited so much public discussion, if we
could close our observations with satisfaction. But all that
we apprehendended has come to pass, and the voluntail re-
tirement of the Princess of Wales has left her friends nothing
to deplore but the triumph of her enemies—Lone to censure
but the Councils she has followed.

It is, however, creditable to the country, that the first
grounds of their interference continue the same—and that
the Princess, not the public, has abandoned her own cause,
to what unhappy fatality this is owing need not be asked in
these degenerate days, when even the Duke of Sussex shrunk
ftom the duty he bad imposed upon himself, and allowed
the venial audacity (the term libellously applied by The Cou•
riir to his Royal highness) of a Ministerial Paper to impugn
the sacred motives of his inquiry. We shall not nosy ask
what may be the situation of the Princess Charlotte, but If
' his Royal highness was to solicit another interview, would it
he granted to him ? Is he allowed to correspond with his
niece? We can only s3y there is a falling off.in the public
spirit of individuals which threatens ultimate evil to the
I:berty of the country.

I

We are again compelled t ' the attention of Minister&
to the state of Ireland, and feel certain, from Which letters we
have received from the irbost tesnec.able quarters, that con- '
ciliation is more wanted than .fotce, •nd that the deprivation
of the law is more likely t•, produce the violation, than the
full benefit of the- Constitution. I.t•t its not deform the
peace by domestic inquietilde, but communicate to Ireland
what ;t is no longer our interest or duty to w ihhold. If we
are to believe the foreign journals, the affairs of Norway
draw tow.'rds a crisis—for our parr we do not believe !hetn—
but as the struggle, we fear, %mold be nnavaiktig, we
this gallant people will be alowed to retain Ilieit..indrpel
—and Sweden indenoii,ii, (I in s, the other nuarte'r—we
indcmiu/y iuMe uloderu uu4eistanding of the let m.

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