The National Register.
London, England, 1812-06-14 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL. REGISTER.-

31ISCELLANIES.

Government, it is said, have, with the apptobation of the Regency of
Spain, determined to add 100 Spaniards to every British regiment now
serving in the Peninsula.

Mrs. Perceval has broken up her establishment in Downing-street,
and, it is said, has settled at a house at Cheltenham, whither she will
bhortly retire with her family.
The Paris Papers join with the English Editors in vehement language
of indignation against the assassin of Mr. Perceval, and exceed them
even in expressions of regret and condolance upon the luelancholy occa-
sion. _ _

Monday, at two o'clock, his Royal Highness the Prince Regent held a
Privy Council at. Carlton House, when the Recorder of London made
his Report to his Royal Highness, of the several convicts under senttnce
of death in Newgate, when Neil Daly, for forging a seaman's will, George
Smith and Thomas Flannagan, for uttering forged notes, were orsieted
for execution to-morrow.
- - •

The General Assembly for the Province of New Brunswick have
granted to the Crown the sum of 10,0001. in aid of the defence of the
province, in the event of hostilities with the United States. The ordina-
ry revenues of the colony do not exceed 63001. a year.
Mr. Montague Burgoyne renews his solicitation to the Gentlemen,
Clergy, and Freeholders of the county of Essex, to become their Repre-
sentative on a dissolution of Parliament.

-----
Sir Vicary Gibbs does not vacate the Recordership of Bristol, in con-
sequence of his recent appointment as Judge.
Sir T. Tyrwhitt has been appoineedsty the Lord-Chamberlain (the
Marquis of Hertford to the Office of Gentleman Usher of the Black
Rod to the House of Lords, vacant by the death of Sir Francis Moli-
neux.
The Hon. Captain Bligh was brought up in the Court of King's Bench
on Thursday, on a recognizance entered into seven years ago, to keep
the peace towards Lord Darnley, and committed to the King's Beech
Prison, for violating this reccenizance, by his late conduct in threaten-
ing Lord Darnley, and going about with loaded pistols. He will be
brought up to-morrow.
By the Report of the Committee of Agriculture, it appears, that the
total amount of Waste Lands in the United Kingdom is ag follow :
England about six millions of acres, 'Wales two, and Scotland illeeit
fourteen. If ministers would use their efforts to appropriate ane million
of money to the cultivation of waste lands, it would prove a great sav-
ing to the Public, especially the poor ! The above quantity of land di-
vided into farms of fifty acres each, would make 435,525. No doubt,
a Bill to enfor, e the general Enclosure of Commons, (Ste. would be the
most advisable step to be taken.
Thursday a boxing-match took place on Willsden-green between
Maltby and Harmer, the latter a relation of Belcher. The oattle lasted
37 minutes, in which 15 rounds were fought, always to the advantage of
Harmer, who was the victor. Harmer displayed eminent science, and
is a strange punishing hitter.
Daniel Redish sold his wife in Sheffield market-place, on Monday
se'nnight, for six-pence, and actually delivered her to the purchaser in a
halter, which cost nine-pence.
Monday, a well dressed woman was sold with a halter round her neck,
in Smithfield-market, to a decent looking man, who gave eight shillieg,s
for the lady, and paid the salesman seven shillings. An immense crowd
witnessed the scene. The woman declared it was the happiest moment
of her life, and the purchaser declared that he would not take ten pounds
for 1114 bargain

1

RINE 14.

VIEWS AND CONDUCT OF THE OPPOSITION._

THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

SlR,—The issue of Mr. WORTLEY'S motion hasssatis-
fied the Country. The good sense of the public, the dis-
tinguishing feature of the national character, has, upon
every great emergency, triumphed over the caprice of
feeling. Their patriotism too, to whatever eccentricities
sometimes it may be insidiously and forcibly impelled, in.
variably rallies at last round the Government. Parties, their
pretensions and their- creeds vary and disappear : their
change, or disappearance, produces no matetial effect
caber by way of benefit or injury ; and if memory pre-
serve any trace of their existence, they are recorded only as
monuments of popular folly aid delusion. But it is not
so with the Government—an ifivasion of its rights, .or a
successful attempt to undermine its authority, or to injure
its reputation, is a general calamity ; which affects the
poor man, and levels the noble ; which makes the villain
great, flings the man of virtue into a dungeon, and
transfers tile property of the ;ndustrious into the hands of
the daring adventurer. • Therefore, Sir, the vote of the
House of Commons,
.in shielding the Crown against the
assumptions and encroachments of a supercilious faction,
not only squares with the spirit of the Constitution, but
with the reason, interests, and best affections of the
country.
A delusion too long prevailed, and excited alarm
enough in its time, relative to the increasing influence
of the Crown. The Commission entrusted to Lords
WELLESLEY and MoIRA, and the reception their over-
tures met from the Leaders of the Opposition, will re-
verse, I presume, the cause of apprehension ; and trans-
fer to the Aristocracy the odium they have attempted for
fifty years to attach to the Sovereign.—Who are those
Lords GREY and GRENVILLE, and their adherents, that
they should assume such-a dictatorial tone, that they
should prescribe such insulting conditions ? Where are
those instances of commanding abilities, of immaculate
disinterestedness, or of overawing patriotism, to be found
in their public life, which should induce them to assume
the pretensions of Spartan Ephori— to controul the RE-
GENT, and arrogantly affect the exclusive guardianship of
the people ? Of all yokes, that of an over-rich and over-
proud Aristocracy is the most unsupportable and degrad-
ing. This is the yoke, however, which the Opposition
have the insolence to pretend to impose upon the most in-
telligent and independent people upon earth. Under
what circumstances; and in what a crisis, have they the
presumption too to set up their acres, in lieu of virtue and
genius, as qualifications for office ! Their ponderous rent-
rolls, their all-grasping avidity, their alarming accumula-
tion of property, gave them already a dangerous weight
in the State ; place, Sir, the patronage of the Government
at their disposal, and they may .at discretion domineer
over King and People.
I think, Sir, I speak in the best spirit of the Constitu-
tion, when 1 assure you that I rejoice that the, imperious
demands of she OppositiOn have been rejected. I am
confident, Sir, that I speak in conformity to the tr.ue po-
licy of the Country, when I declare, that the readmis-
sion of men into the Cabinet, who sacrificed Prussia,
alienated Russia ; who advise the abandonment of Spain
and Portugal, and despair of any• fortunate change in
our foreign relations, would be a serious and Yetythteat-
ening evil in this moment. With what confidence could
the Russian Cabinet make overtures to persons, whose poli-
CY five years agoi was markcciwith obliquity, narrowuessa

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365

and imbecility ; nho wantonly insulted the sufferings of
the Allies, and refused them relief, though contending is
the same vital cause, and against the same tremendous
power, as we are doing, under the offensive preteit that
they had neither the courage nor the virtue to resist the
common enemy. Modern Opposition has contaminated
all the relations of public life, and vulgarised the forms
and language of diplomatic intercourse. Our new pa-
triots have used towards powerful and friendly Monarchs
a bluntness of style, which they could not with decency
have employed towards one of their own stewards.
But a more serious charge may be brought home to
those Gentlemen. They do not confine their asperity and
contempt to Foreign Sovereigns ; they make the Head
of our own Government an object of the most venemous
invective. skulking behind the forms of the Constitu-
tion, and propped upon the impunity which these forms
afford them. they let fly at that Illustrious Person slin-
derous reports, which, were they to circulate against a
private gentleman, would procure them the honour of a
horse-whipping. is this base, outrageous, and levelling
treatment of the Chief Magistrate, an expos& of their
political principles ; or does it contain practical proofs
of their respect for the Constitution ? In proportion to
the freedom of a people, they have been always found
to treat the head of their Government with veneration ;
in fact, by respecting him they dignify themselves. By
an opposite-conduct they prove themselves as devoid of
the manners of gentlemen, as they are of enlightened at-
tachment
to their country. I consider, Sic', the attacks •
which have recently appeared in the Opposition prints,
on the PRINCE REGENT and his Illustrious Family, as a
disgrace to the age and country we live in. The minds
and hearts of the writers must be familiarized with
images and feelings of the basest tendency ; apd it is a
frightful proof of the confusion of moral perceptions,
that no other motive of action than the most profligate
or the most selfish, is now supposed to regulate the con-
duct of public men. Those libellers would strike an-
other in the face, and justly too, who should accuse_ them
of half the profligacy, with which they wantonly charge
the most distinguished persons in the country. The
writers of the Opposition, and those who patronise their
invectives, are 'therefore of opinion, that generous feelings
have no.influence upon politicians, or---they are, by trade,
assassins of character. It is dreadful to reflect on the
levity, er design, with which the feelings of public men,
of their family and friends, are excoriated by these fleaers
of reputation. When will the B► itish press, which should
be 'ennobled by a serve of freedom, and the dignified •
rank of the country, free itself from this stigma ? Its
centioasness has rendered it an object of disgust and ab-
horrence to the decent and moderate.
There are many other serious charges which I might
adduce, Sir, against the Opposition, to spew how much
the c .a.intry has a right to rejoice at their not being re-ad-
mitted to office. There is one which I think inexcusable,-
and that is the insolent irritation of tone, and the vi..lent
hints they invariably employ, when their ambition is dis-
appointed. Even the leaders can with difficulty restrain
the effusions of their spleen ; but the understrappers, who
are not so circumspect, give full vent to the venom of
their feelings and principles. They hint very plainly, that
if they cannot enter the Cabinet in a constitutional way,
they would have no objection to occupy it in a forcible
manner. They mention very frequently, and very signi-
ficantly, the fate of Charles the First, and of James the
. Second and the doctrine of resistance forms a prominent