The National Register.
London, England, 1808-05-22 00:00:00

312 . - •

co. XXI.

s

'ATIO:

Porte, if it will not save us from the necessity, will at least
afford us the time, of putting ourselves in a state of de-
fence : and the system of defence that ought to be adopted,
in India is the same system that we have before stated as
necessary for the cement of Bonaparte's Empire of the
West, the same system that we shall
.hereafter take an op-
portunity of inculcating as indispensable for the preserva-
tion of Ireland. It is a system of gentleness substituted for
a system of oppression. The colours of the human body,
and the cultivation of the human mind, may vary in a
thousand shades from India to the Pole t but from India
to the I'olc the human heart is the same : the clams of
liberty, the rights of independence, the prerogafves of
man, alike exist for every individual, and are able re-
quired by every nation. Those who protect a people in
the enjoyment of these blessings, that people for their own
sake will in turn protect: but they who govern by ty-
ranny, and coerce free beings with the chastisement of
slaves, must expect, on the first opportunity of change,
that those beings, having been reduced to slavery, and
knowing that they have already endured the word, will
incur every danger for the chance of a better cordition,
and join the enemies whom the Government has rut made
it their interest to repel. What is now our foding in
India r Do we not stand there by the terror of our 'words?
Have we not, from time to time, guaranteed to every
Prince, and to every realm along its vast peninsula, their
dignity, their power, and their independence ? Aid have
ive not, in spite of all our guarantees, from time :o time,
degraded, deprived, and disgraced them ? What have the
people to fight for ? A continuance of their batdage ?
What have the Princes to fight for ? A perpetudion of
their ignominy ? No—it is in civilized nations oily that
»tan disposes of his freedom, and nobility sues or ser-
vitude
Let the rights of the native Princes be restored, and the
East India Company no longer throw the sword of conquest
into the balance of commerce ! Let British faith be re-
established and preserved : then we may hope for the re-
establishment and preservation of British security. But at
present the natives have every thing to gain, and nothing
to lose : the, wait with impatience for an Invasion : they
will hail it, not as a defeat, but as a deliverance. Our
enemies will march undisturbed up the country : and
India and England will bow before the Conqueror of the
European Continent.

REVIEW OF POLITICAL DECLAIMERS.

THE INDEPENDENT WHIG.
In The Independent Whig of last Sunday there is a long and
flaming attack upon Lord Ellenborough for having refused a
rule to Sir Francis Burdett. Mr. Clitlbrd, as Counsel for Sir
Francis, moved to sct aside a verdict given against him (in an
action brought by Mr. Morris, the high-bailiff of Westminster
for certain expellees of erecting the hustings at the last election)
find to obtain a new trial. The ground of the learned Counsel's
application was, that the decision of the jury was illegal, being
contrary to the statutes 8 William and 18 George It. which re-
strict the sum to which the candidates are liable in such cases.

Lord Ellenborougb, in answer to this motion, observed, that the
Inistingl were erected not only fur the use of the poll-clerks, hut
also for the convenience of the check:clerks, and of the friends

of the candidates, who were not within the contemplation of the
statutes referred to. And in consequence of these observations,
the rule was refused.

Sir Francis Burdett then complained to the House of th;s
of air as a breach of privilege. He said that at the last election
be had been nominated a candidate for Westminster, by >oine of
the electors, without his knowledge, and that he had heard of
it only when the business had been almost concluded. No law
custom had been shown to prove that in such a case the candidate
-was liable for the expeoces of the !timings, and tet the judge
bad directed the jury to find a verdict against him on no better
ground, than that he had taken his scat In thr.t lime. Nowt

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