The National Register.
London, England, 1816-03-03 00:00:00

'Or 41

No. V6.—VoL. VIII.

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

ON THE PROPOSED PFACE I:STAIILISHMENT.

WE have hitherto examined the various bearings of
the Property Tax, an impost contemplated by the coun-
try with more terror than would be the revival of Impe-
rial despoti.on in France, but which perhaps only requires
to be properly modified, to become at •once a productive
and cqud mode of taxation. We shall now consider that
Peace Establishment, as it is wrongly called, which is
represented as the basis of the Tax, and is viewed on
that account with lea; calmness and impartiality than
generally attend national investigationi.
What should we think of a painter, who to sketch a
beautiful landscape, should take his stand in the depth of
a ravine, with nothing but threatening rocks around him,
or stunted woods that impeded, without gratifying his
sight? Should we not say that the man was mad, or
that he chose the very worst feature of the land, in or-
der to contradict and destroy the renown of its beauties ?
Should we not tell him to ascend the heights, and then
take an expanded view of the scenes around him, smiling
or sublime, though they might contain spots of ragged-
ness and sterility?—What we should say to the painter,
we may, with, equal justice, address to the Opposition.
In the midst "of a country abounding with greatness,
power and glory, they fix their stand in the sink of tem-
porary distress, then look around and conceive, or at
least prodaim, that all is ruin and desolation. They
will not mount the steep, for then the prospect would b 3
too brilliant, and their picture, however disfigured and
flarketed, would betray sonic reflection of its glories,
We shall not follaw their example: we shall not disdain
to contemplate our country in all its magnificence and
grandeur, and if the view of its real state, with which

that, which some pretentied patriots of the day have
drawn.

What have been the objects of our exertions during
twenty-five years of war and of perils ?—The support of
our independence, and the restoration of order in Europe.
The latter, not merely because it was connected with
our safety, hut because, free and happy ourselves, we
could not behold the fitiresrportion of the world devoted
to servitude and misery, without holding forth a hand to
:mist and to rave. How have those objects been pur-
sued ?—Through difficulties and dangers ; through gloom
and tempest ; through good fortune and ill fortune, with
the spirit of freemen and the constancy of patriots—now
embattled under the eyes of our wives and our children
to guard our shores from invasion, and now educing upon
all the seas the flying navies of our foes—now alone.
14,eainst a world in aims, and now raising nations from
the dust, lighting the flame of independence, and in-
volving the whole Continent in its blaze.—How have
those objects been attained?—Let Europe through ell
her states proclaim it. Ask her where i:; that Gigantic
Despotism that weighed upon all her realms, that chained
all her monarchs on their thrones, compressed all nations
into one, and attempted to impose uptai mankind one
law, one will, one language ?—She will tell you, that it
is vanished; that its very ruins have disappeared. She
will point to England, as the POwer that opened the
aiiyss where the monstrous fabric was engulphed, the
Power that alone can close it for ever.—Ask her how
kingdoms have recovered their limits, the Continent its
balance, and Peace its empire ?—She will reply, because
England was mighty to conquer, and disinterested in tri-
mnph : because the effusion of a benevolent spirit went
forth with her counsels and her armies, and the field of
her battles he‘..ame the scat of her charities.—Assure her
that she is mistaken : that England could do, and has
alone nothing: that her victories were tantamount to de-
feats ; that her ends acre selfish, her means insignificant,
her exertions destructive to herself, and that the result
of the improvident and unjust contest she has waged, is
the ruin of her prosperity, he: credit, and her strength—
Europe will look upon you with pity or with contempt.
She will tell you that your country oect:pies the loftiest
an 1 the sorest eminence on earth, one founded on the
gratitude, the veneration, and the terror of nations. The
gratitude, Cur her assistawe; the venczatim, her vir-