The National Register.
London, England, 1812-10-25 00:00:00

6g

must their hearts, as well as their windows be, while they
reflect that in consequence of the Peace they have made,
they are admitted to the high honour of being slaughtered in
the ranks of Napoleon the Great ?
Assuming, however, that peace with BCONAPARTE is
very desirable, let us now enquire by what means it can be
soonest attained. Is it likely that public addresses, setting
forth the calamities of war, with all the pageantry of woe
and the ostentation of distress, and declaring ourselves to be
wholly incapable of longer bearing the burdens which are
imposed on us, will shorten the duration of the evil ?
As well might it he expected, that indications of fear, at the
commencement of a battle, would insure success. It should
almost seem that those who make these deplorable represen-
tations, are shallow enough to suppose that they will only be
read by the Minister, or l the Assembly whose eye they
are intended to meet. It does not appear to occur to them,
that they will be seen by the enemy, and that in
proportion to our despondency his confidence must in-
erease. They feel not this. They are not aware that the
anxiety they evince to desist, gives him courage to persevere.
That the clamours of the manufacturers in a populous dis-
trict, when thrown out of employ, will be loud, we must
expect. They are entitled to our commiseration, and to
any assistance we can afford ; and though their voices are
raised indiscreetly high, indignation should be checked by
pity. It is different when men., who from the rank they
hold in life, and from the information they are supposed
to possess, ought to stem the torrent of popular clamour,
act the s one part, and make themselves the organs of
the uninformed multitude. It should be the olliect of
such to study the welfare of those they affect to pity, and
not to court their applause. Men of sense and of virtue
would endeavour to deserve rather than to obtain the praise
of these unfortunate people, and disdain to seek popularity by
sacrificing the interests of their admirers to their frenzy. Had
such been the conduct of some of the members of the late
Parliament, we should riot at this day have been at war with
America. The Government of that country, however weak
and wicked, would not have had the folly to precipitate those
whose welfare they had in charge, into a war with England,
had they not been made confident, not in their own strength,
but in our distress, by the gloomy representations to which
we have alluded. That we are at war with America is partly
the fruits of the zealous exertions of our Wu EADs and
BROUGH A NV. To the ability they displayed irr magnifying
the distress of the country, the manufacturers who haw no
work to sk, may attribute that war which destroy their node,
and which, but for the weight given to their clamours by
tlibse who are so popular with them, .could have been
threatened, but never carried into effect. To those patriotic
senators we owe the glories of Canada. Let them be
crowned with laurel, and while the budding wreath adorns
their honoured brows, for once they may enjoy the pleasing
reflection ef having been the cause of a triumph to old
England. General Pura. has reason to weep whenever
their names are mentioned. But for them he would
never have made himself the laughing stock of the world by
his absurd proclamation, but for them be might have
sunk to his tomb without disgrace, and but for them he
would never hare invaded Canada, to surrender himself
and his army without firing a shot!
*Whether America or England will ulthrsately have most
reason to deplore the effects of those exertions which we de-
l); ,f human foresight.
T, ridate concessions
to overnment, can-
es on 1)141 1:C Alit.

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