The Sun.
London, England, 1809-07-19 00:00:00

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E DNESDA Y,-JULY 19, 180 Q.

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7WE BRIT :1-13H REVIEW .

THE
.Q.UARTERLY EbVlEtv, NUMBER 2.

• We have often had occasion to regret tha: a ce:' rei'n
Northern V.trorlc, which has made a • di,anik..ishe
figure in literary annals, should have been stiff erd
tO rise to an unusual' height of critical •ceite)iity,
while it contained principles of the Most dan?erois
tendeniy,'_ and was not 40 'Much reCOlittitp;ded to,
public notice by the profundity of its remarks, and
-the extent of its knowledge',
.as by a daring ass ,mp-
tion of learning. and acumen;" which in i•.ality
-savOurted rather of:pert self-conceit, illiberal sarcasm,
and an afited contempt of-all -prodm‘tion. tle,t
came within the sphere. of its observation.---We
(hardly need say that the EDINth.MGH riEvlt3w, is the
work to-Which we'allude, and though we d,, hot
deny that it is charaderizod by:Spirit and ability., yet
it seems in general to be the offpring of jnee•Ho
vanity, pedantic arrogance, and splenetic malignity.
One ot.its most meritorious labours was an exposure
of the base apositiCy and shanielesshicrinsisteney UJI
a periodicfal writer, whose characier iS-sunk into the
um] S cent MLA .-with all men whe-se sect events
Are entitled to respect; but its own principles
were •full as pernicious as these .of the'-writer,whose profligate versatility it deteeted
tized, and its views not less hostile to our revered
forrn_of Government. -The -work 'before. us is ad-
mirably calcula;od to operate as an antidote-to the
poison' of the Review to.whiCh we have alluded and
we are much concerned that we have so long been
prevented from recommending it ip the warn-I Pa-
tronage of the public. Its-first Neraber was written
with such vigour, spirit; infirnarion, and attach-
- anent to the British Constitidon?and art tent loyalty,
that we augured most favourably as to its progress ;
and we are glad 'to feud that the second Nuwber
frilly equals our warmest exne6lations. Weext rat
the following passage from -a. review of sortie pain
phlets relative to a late Parliamentary Inquiry; and -
on The subject of a Parliatnentary Retortn, as a fair
specimen of the general merit' of -the- work, whch,
.in original criticism, •nsive knowledge, unatfeCted
humour, genuine patriotiini, and intelledual vigour,
far excels al: similar productions of the present tirre.

" We are, however, told, by numbers of pt rsons
\ , professing to be well-itifbrnie!d, that the disi.sitOae-
non occasiont-d by 'the 'ale 'proceedings is violent
and OniVersal. This assertion is mystcrio,sly
pered in cotfee-hOuses, proclaimed-from high au.
thdrity, in taverns, circulated, under the Lon,
denied form of resolutions, in the Papers, and di.-
lated into numerous pamphlets, some-of whiCh
now on our table. Mr. Clarke communic.-3tes it
his letter to Whitbread.; Mr.,C4twt-ight
it amongst his reasons for reformation ; told the wri.
ter, whom we have already quoted as a fricildto
the Constitiation and to the immortality of the Coin-,
mon Council, draws the same inference. fie tellS
us, that the cry of corruption in the State tomes
from every 'mouth; and the ,cry of RefOi'm ! Re-
forth !,proceeds from every toogde, and .reverbe-
rates on every ear.' Now, we shou!d suspcA that
such a description of the cues of London wiould not.
not be very gratifying to the Common Council. plix-
perience must have taught them that when, through
the beneficial influence of. a 'free press, or of noo-,
commissioned orators-in tli.e.cause of liberty, 111-ga
bodies of men are assembled as Paris and parcels of
-the. nation, 'for the purpose Of 'proclaiming:the na-
tional will, and of redressing all national Wrongs, '
the progress of patriotism and, reform through the
streets of London has occasionally spread' terror and
dismay amongst its worshipful citizens. Windows
and hi ads may be broken. to a considerable tmOunt,
without exciting' much alarm to the police, or at all •
ailed ing the general government or the conitiry-;
and it is by no means improbable that dangers or
this niagnitode may at this moment he impending-
over 1.13. But of very extensive evils we'are -Gat ex-
lreinely apprehensive. We, could: not.easillfoint
out, in the whole course of °Ur recolletion, .inglc
year during ,which the co%rardly merit of beinc,
tistied and contented with their Condition coed be:,
fairly imputed to our Countrymeo. - AVe have ‘vit-
nessed many and'heavy, discontents amongst the peo-
ple ; we liave.seen fregnent- riots, some Of which
had a promising 'appearance, and affinded hopes of a
tolerable inteG,iverevolt ;- ctinnoteven
discern a tend:met', to that universal insutre—tion •
from' which alone, as it seems to us, can be experaed
the hifterio untried blessing of Radical Reim in. We
hate, perhaps, amongst us. a grearer number of pu-
ritans in religion, and in moi-als, and in
at any former period, and their zeal.
drtiiy acc'esSionof proselytes ; 1, tit,
as' ')eina's of mankind are to -subin
in this bfitl world, howevei lively may be
or a better-, so the masS, of the natiou wi., s
time Inner pctsi,t in tiv7tir preferenc•2 u;'
fashioned government of loci, lardt, aod ,:o.roi
to that: perfect state- of regeneriition in '•
whiCh the f all abuses 1110,1 put an end' ta
- their comfortable enjoyment 'of hourly • compi;aint
andremoustrance. •

"In the mean time•we are by no means di-Thst.d
to wage war with-, thOse who frankly aVo'Cv theft
love ot revolutio., as a step -towards political perfec,
tion. We consider thi's as.a mere matter of taste;
and completely lyhiniess under a,free goVernment,.
becau,e such a government, being armed .with the
whole power' of the nation, ;can never iutfer twin
'the shock of 'disCntant 'oPinions. when we
find a ;et of per,ons‘ professing - 'promote intiova,.
tion%troin an attachment to the exiting order of
things, and to ,wish for reform for the sake of ti;y
Conqitution; ~when' we hear them assert that the
abuses of ,delegated power origioate, not e;:-
tent of that power, or in the temptation width it
creates, hat,,rnerely, in the mode' by which it is de-
legated, and' fdlat-a different form of. ideal= woun
:Lit(a-the tiewo and i..assigns of the eletted, titii^

_..,

not Leif) suspediug them of some little insincerity;
and should think it our duty to attempt an exposure
of their fallacies, if this had not been•already done, in
one of the ablest essays of a most popular and very
modern publication. We allude to the ninth article
in the-twentieth number of the Edinburgh ;
a work, from many parts of which no feelings of
competition could justify us in withholding cur un-
qualified applause.
" But as it may be of use to shew that the argu-
ments of our present reformers do not possess, ire
any great degree, the merit of novelty, we will ven-
ture to recall to the recollection of our readers a few
short passages from a tra& on this subject, written
many ;ears ago by the late Soame Jenyns. He ob-
serves that the kind of parliament wished for by our
political donors is one in which the members shall
be always ready to support the measures of mini-
sters when right, anu to resit them when wrong,
unawzd, and uninfluenced, and guided only by the
dictates of their own judgment and conscience.
This indeed is what every wise man would. desire,
but no wise man will expect to see; as uo such as-
sern'oly, if numerous, ever existed in this or in any
ci u.,try, from the beginning of the world to the
• preaent hour; and never can, unless mankind were
melted down, and run into a new mould. As they
are new formed, there moat be iu every numerous
assembly; some who have no judgment, and others
who have no conscience, and some who have neither :
take away sellititerest, and all these will have no star
to steer by, but must sail without a compass, just as
the gales of favour or resentment of popular absur-
dity or of their own,' shall direct them. A minister
therefore must be possessed of some attraetive influ-
ence, to enable him to draw together these discord-
ant particles, • and unite shem in a firm and solid
majority, without which he can pursue no measures
of public utility with steadiness or success: An in-
dapeodent House of Commons is no part of the En-
glish Constitution, the excellence of which consists in
being composed of three powers mutually dependent
oft each other. Qf these, if any one was to become
independent of the other two, it muse engross the
whole power to itself, and the form of our govern-
ment would be immediately changed. Thisean in-
dependent House of Commons adually performed in
the last century ; they murdered the king, annihilated
the peers, and established the worst kind of demo-
cracy that ever existed ; and the same contusiod
would infallibly be repeated, should we ever be so
unforiunate as to see another.—Parliaments are sel-
dom, very seldom bribed to injure their country, be-
cause it is seldom the interest of ministers to injure
it ; but the great source of corruption is, that they
will not serve it for nothing. Men get into parlia-
ment in - pursuit of power, honours, and prefer-
mer ts ; and, until they obtain them, determine to
obit uct all business, and to distress government
hut, happily for their country, they are no sooner
gratified, than they are equally zealous to prorriote
the one and support the other. Upon (he whole,
we have too much orators, too such liberty, too
much debt, and too many taxer; but then we have
plenty, we have security to our persons and proper-
ties, and ,excellent laws, justly, though not very
cheaply administered : we have a parliament not
worse, and a king a great deal better than we de-
serve; and iheraure I shall conclude," &c.—(Works,
vol. 2, p. 235.)
We cannot, however, conclude without noticing,
a noverand ingeni.ous project of reform, which has,
Most unexprctedly, originated in Parliament itself,
at the suggestion of a Member who is also, we be-
lieve, a Member of the Board of Agriculture, and
author of many valuable improvements in the art of
steaming potatoes. The advantages of this project,
in an agricultural point of view, will, we belieae, be
very great ; because it will efieCtually exclude from.
Pat liament, and consequently from any concern in
political affairs, all classes of men excepting the truly
useful class of landholders. If such men as Pitt, Fox,
and Burke, who, havii,g no triants to represent,-
could have no real business in the House of Com-
mons, had been employed, as they certainly might
have been, and as the honourable author of this ,pro-
jeca ha, been, in devising articles of salutary food
for cattle, or in composing Chemico-Georgical Es-
sAyi, Great Britain' ;night probably have derived
many solid cad permanent benefits from their abi-
Irte.s. It seem that talents and genius ought, in
coention censistere y, to be confined to the learned
professions, or to mathematical or physical science;
that the impoi tint business of legislation should be
left to those who being qualified, as Justices of the.
Peace, to execute laws, will best understandhow to
make them ; and that the public purse cannot be
more propel ly entrusted than to persons of whom, as
Mr. Spence has proved, in his pamphlet, it is the
peculiar privilege, and even the paramount duty, to
circulate money through its proper channels. It is
also clear that, from such an arrangement, we may
••• anticipate the removal of all those evils which we
have already enumerated. We have, at present too
much ora,ory ; hut we may expect that, in our fu-
ture senates, the temperate rhetoric of a few
spcakets will only be employed to explain those
motives of assent or dissent, w hick might be lett in
obscurity by the ,dignified tacitnrnity of the' greater
slumber. We have too 'meets liberty; but we may
hope to see more serious obstacles to poaching, and
a more .igorous execution of the game laws, from
those who best know the value of such enactments.
We have too much debt, and too many taxes ; but
remedy will doubtless be found by a set of legi-
slam, s who will .divest themselves of that extreme
lenity towards the public creditors, and of that par-
tial attachment to the monied interest which have
nosircilitetr predecessor.;.
It would perhapg be an imprwement to the
plan, if the election of members in the towns which,
as we snepe6t, would generally, on the new system,
devolve on the wealthiest inhabitants, • viz. the attor-
ney or apothecary were by law insured to the nearest
!and-holder. With ths precatition, the most delight
esseiuny might be expected to -subsist between
tilt.- Pet liament and the ctown ; because the influ-
ence m the Peers and of the great Commoners and
eose.o.o s close boroughs, s hen aided by that ot
Government, and no longer thwarted by the baneful
eempeth ton of private at eleaions, weeld, to a great
aaaree, I,revem the intrusion of refractory members.
We will no attempt to explain, any further, the
varions merits of a plan, of which tlw. characteristic
distinetion i§ that it lends to prove, to the con% ica
tiou et all inatikind, the omnipotence of the 3ritish
leaealatere, by decreeing, under the pains and pe-
rii;•%t eerjlt r that money shall henceforth lose (

its efficacy; that corruption and all the vices conse-
quent on the gradual increase of natural opulence
shall cease and determine; and that patriotism and
wisdom, together with all the advantages of office or
emolument to which such qualities are entitled, shall
be exclusively possessed by the principal land-pro-
prietors of the united kingdom.

MAILS.—
ARRIVED-2 Waterford. DoF.—aGottenburgh, I Malta,

Lisbon, 2 Waterford.

PRICE OF STOCKS
THIS DAY AT THriLVS. O'CLOCX.
Consols - - ,691 I (Minium - pr.

THE SUN.

110Lakt QUI& DICIP.RIFSLaUM AUDZATI

L 0 ND 0 N,
WEDNESD&Y, JULY 19, Isog.

WE have received Paris Papers to the 13th inst.

They contain the 24th Bulletin of the French Army.

Tlaisßulletin is dated Vienna, July 3, and coin-

rnences by reciting some trifling advantages gained

by the French General BROUS.SIER; in the neigh-

bourhood of Gratz. The Duke D'A•UERSTADT took

possession, on the 30th of June, of a small island

near to Pcesburgh. All the bridges over the Da-
nube, near to Presburgh, are stated to beguile per-
fe.a. The Austrian Army is said to be at Ezendorf

and at Gros Aspern, and is covered by redoubts.

The Bulletin observes, that the French may now

pass the Danube, and that the fate of the Austrian
Army will be decided in one battle.

PrinceGAGARIN, Aid-de-Camp General to the Elm-

peror of :Russia, arrived on the ad at BUONAFARTE'S
head-quarters, and brought intelligence of the march

of the Russian Army into Gallicia. BUONAPARTE

has quitted Schoenbruun, and has encamped for the

last few days."
These Papers contain no intelligence from 'the

Danube of a later date than the Bulletin, but there

is a vague report' that the French have passed the

Danube.

We have this day given Extracts from Spanish
Papers to the 20th ult. They :confirm the account
of the retreat of VICTOR towards the interior of
Spain. It appears by
.a Letter-from Gen. CUESTA
to the Supreme Junta, da►ted the 18t,,, th.a the
French evacuated Truxill9 on the -16 J, Ult. with
such precipitation, that they left behind them a con-
siderable part of their magazines. The advance of
the British troops under Sir ARTIVJE \VELLEsLEy is
also mentioned in these Papers. There can be no
doubt that JOSEPH BUONAPARTE has once more left
Madrid, though the accounts vary as to the route
he lias taken. According to the French► state-
ment, when he left Madrid, he weal to Toledo, to
put himself at the head of his troops, for the purpose
of chastising the rebels. Another account,states that
he had retired to St. Ildefenso, after taking care to
secure the valuables belonging to the Royal Palaces
at the capi:al. The latter account we have no
doubt is correct. The French armies are evidently
retreating, and poor JOSEPH'S military skill, would.
not enable them to make a stand against the united
British' and Spanish army ! We have little .doubt
that we shall soon hear of his arrival at Burgos. It
appears that the gallant General BLAKE ;sustained
-some reverses-on the 17th and 18th ult. in two en-
gagements with the French troops uudet SUCHET;
but hi all probability the French General has very
timch over-rated his success.
. ,

We have some reason to think that the Expedi-
tion will not sail before Friday or Saturday. ,We
hal.o ;;, yen, in anoth6r part of the Paper, som.‘2. inte-
resting Information upon the subject of the Expe-
dition.

It was yesterday reported that there had been a
tiring on the French Coast, from which it was in-'
ferred that the French had obtained a vi'dory; but
we are h3ppy to find that our Dover .Letter is silent
upon the subject.

A letter received in Glasgow from Jamaica, dated
ad June, says " An expedition. of 1400 men mils to-
morrow inoniing, under the command of our Lieut.
Governor, for the reduction of' St. Domingo : it is
thought it will not hold out long."
Upwards of tip-tnen of the corps of gunner-drivers,
and too horses, tell FJti l last week to Woolwich.
We understand they are to form a part of one of the
expeditions now fitting out.
One of the private letters from LiSb6tl contains
the folio tug advice rela!ive to South America
" I.4sßoty, JUNE 29.—With great pleasure I in-
form you that your Uncle and the rest of the CAA-
do of Bueasos Ayres, who were sent banished by I.A-
NIELIS to l'atagonicas, have been released by the
Governor of Monte' Video, Senor Et.to, who dis-
patched the sloop of-'war the Diomante upon that
service, which succeed.:.ri in
,c,ipturing the vessel
they ‘A ere going in, and cat ried her iinoMonte. Video,
to the great joy of the itti,abitati.ts, where they were
received in the most friendly manner, and a general
xejoicing took place in thy 87r1:i