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POLITICS.

THE suspense in which the public mind has been kept for some weeks, in regard to the designs of Austria, and the consequent stake of the European continent, is, at length, changed into certainty. Austria is now, by her own confession, placed in that situation of imminent danger which we, long since, assured her must infallibly result from her impolitic concessions for the attainment of a prema→ ture peace; and from her incautious confidence in the professions of a power, which speaks but to deceive, and moves but to destroy. And she has, at last, had recourse to those measures, and to that line of policy, which, at the same time, we insisted could alone suffice to rescue her from impending destruction. Nothing was ever more clear to us, than the tendency of that system which has, without intermission as without variation, been pursued by the rulers of France, from Brissot to Buonaparte. The manifest and the avowed object of all these revolutionary chiefs has been the destruction of all established governments, the subversion of all existing thrones, and the extirpation of all ancient dynasties. And by none has that object been pursued with more unremitting eagerness, and, lamentable to state! with more extensive success, than by the present usurper of the crown of the Bourbons. In addition to the grand revolutionary principle of surrounding France with dependent and tributary states, not merely unable to resist her power, but immediately subject to her will, Buonaparte is stimulated by another motive equally potent, and still more effective in its operation;→→ the desire of connecting the spurious scions of his own barbarous stock into goodly trees of royalty, whose wide-spreading branches do not extend protection and shelter to subject millions; but diffuse a deadly poison, like the fabled Upas, fatal to peace, happiness, and independence. It was always the resolution of this miserable upstart to leave no legitimate sovereign, as a standing reproach, on his throne. He meant to destroy them one by one; and, after the total subjection of Spain, Austria stood the next on the fatal list of proscription, and would infallibly be attacked with the whole force of the Gallic empire. Turkey would next

fall a prey to the insatiate ambition of the Corsican; and lastly, Russia, having weakened herself by these impolitic and unjust wars, in which his intrigues have already involved, and will still justly involve her, for the promotion of his own interest, would be the last, and easiest prey, of the universal despoiler. Resistance, firm, decided, and general, is the only possible means of preventing this meditated destruction. Austria has become sensible of this truth, and appears to have adopted corresponding measures of energy and vigour. The proclamation of the gallant ARCHDUKE CHARLES breathes the pure spirit of patriotism. It is a manly appeal to the hearts of every faithful subject; it comes home to every bosom that feels for the honour of his native land; for the interest of his fellow-citizens, for the welfare and prosperity of the realm, for the advantages of society, or for the comforts of domestic life; for all these, and more than these, would be annihilated if the fell tyrant should accomplish his murderous designs. We like the tone and temper of this proclamation; it breathes a détermined spirit; the Archduke has not disgraced himself by the affectation of a ruinous liberality, equally unworthy himself and his In stating what he will not do, he shows what the USURPER has done; he reproaches him with his crimes; he unfolds his base and sordid motives;, he explains his real object; and, by thus offending this irritable son of Satan, beyond the hope of forgiveness, he has not only drawn the sword, but, virtually, thrown away the scabbard. "You shall not," says this gallant prince to his troops, share the disgrace of becoming the tools of oppression. You shall not carry on the endless wars of ambition in distant climes. Your blood shall never flow for foreign interests, and foreign avarice. Not on you shall alight the curse which awaits those who are compelled to annihilate innocent nations, and, over the bodies of the slaughtered defenders of their country, to open the way for a foreigner to an usurped throne." You shall not, in short, be the followers of Buonaparte, the executors of his commands, the perpetrators of his crimes, for such are the sum and substance of this spirited address; and such language will strike to the very heart of the relentless usurper-to that relentless heart which never knew mercy, which is a stranger to every humane and generous feeling, and to which forgiveness is an alien. The die, then, is indeed cast! The existence of Austria, as a nation, is staked

cause.

apon the throw. The issue of this important, this aweful conflict, will decide whether the Corsican's dream of universal empire will be realised, or whether he will be stopped short in his career of infamy and crime. Never was a greater stake played for by con tending nations. We dare not yet hazard even a conjecture on the result. We have no data on which to found even a rational opinion. But we are encouraged to hope for the best, from a knowledge of the extreme caution which has marked the conduct of the Austrian cabinet since the last peace; and from the bold language of confidence, now used by the Archduke Charles, who is no vain boaster, who never was lavish of professions, nor accustomed to hold language which circumstances did not authorise him to use. We hail this, then, as a propitious event; but, like all other political events, to be rendered either beneficial or calamitous, according to the wisdom of those measures which are employed to turn it to advantage. That the most efficacious means have been adopted by Austria for recruiting her force, and for rendering it adequate to the tremendous struggle which she will have to sustain, we are not permitted to doubt. But, although we think very highly of the courage and resources of that brave nation, we are not of opinion that it is able to cope, single handed, with the present power of the French empire, concentrated as it is. in the hands of an individual, who has never been deterred from the pursuit of any object, by a consideration of the sacrifices which its accomplishment would require.

We trust, however, that our ministers will take special care to exert every effort to second the views and operations of Austria, by making the most powerful diversions in her favour. Not only should an adequate force be employed to drive the French invaders out of Portugal and Spain, but in concert with the Spaniards we should settle a plan of, active operations, which would carry the war into the French territory, or into some of its numerous continental de pendencies. Italy is particularly open to our attacks. An army, which might be easily formed by reinforcing our troops at present in the Mediterranean, landed on the Calabrian coast, would be most favourably received, and most powerfully seconded, by the hardy natives, who abhor the French, and pant for an opportunity to shake off their odious shackles. If such a diversion, were made, while every nerve was exerted in Spain, and the French coast was

kept in constant alarm by a flying squadron of our ships with troops on board, we might reasonably hope to see the overgrown power of France curtailed, the wings of her tyranny clipped, and an opening made for the total emancipation of Europe from that state of slavery, into which the perfidious and sanguinary policy of the Corsican has plunged her subjugated peoplę.

While this chearing prospect thus opens upon us from one part of Europe, we are dispirited and disgusted by the intelligence received from another. The gallant monarch of Sweden has been deposed by his rebellious subjects; aud, to render his fate more severe, this regicidal blow has becu struck by a near relative, from whom he had every right to expect protection and support. It is the uncle of Gustavus who has basely hurled him from his throne; it is that unnatural wretch who, when the late king, pierced by the dagger of an assassin, and stretched upon the bed of death, recommended his infant son to his care, and besought him to become a parent to his child, vowed to fulfill his trust with religious scrupulosity. Thus has he kept his vow! thus has discharged his duty to his brother, to his nephew, and to his sovereign! Base and perfidious rebel! Wretched hypocrite! who, not content with betraying a trust se sacred, with breaking a vow so solemn, with deposing his lawful monarch, presumes to justify the regicidal act, dares to allege, as a motive for his treason, that his king, forsooth! did not pursue that line of policy which to him seemed most eligible; that he did not sacrifice the honour, the interest, and the independence of his people to the attainment of an inglorious and insecure peace; that he did not deign, in short, to become a wretched vassal to the Corsican tyrant; that he did not want to be chained to his car, and to swell the train of the great destroyer! This is the crime which Gustavus has committed; this is the offence for which a subject, and that subject his guardian, his uncle, dares to arraign his sovereign at the bar of the public; to rob him of his crown, and to consign him to a prison! The very spirit of regicide France marks the whole of this disgraceful; this odious, transaction. The wretched Duke of Sudermania, who has usurped the supreme authority of the state, marked his usurpation of power, by a dastardly application for peace to the Emperor of Russia, and to Napoleone Buonaparte; thus disgracing his ancestors, his sovereign, and his countrymen! He must know, too, the determination of the dictator of Europe to make

no peace with Sweden, but upon conditions which would inevitably tend to a war with England! We trust, that the British cabinet will cause strong remonstrances to be made in behalf of the injured monarch; and, if they be not attended with the desired success, that they will recall the English ambassador from Stockholm, and indignantly refuse to receive any minister or envoy, whom this rebel Duke of Sudermania may send. The interposition which we recommend is perfectly conformable with the acknowledged law of nations; which authorise a state, where two parties exist in a foreign country, one favourable and another hostile to that state, to interfere in behalf of that party which is well disposed to her. Besides, the cause of the King of Sweeden is the common cause of all legitimate sovereigns; and his magnanimous and consistent conduct, during the whole progress of the revolutionary war, gives him an irresistible claim to the support of every power which is inimical to the system of subversion adopted and pursued by the government of France.

In our domestic politics, the prominent object is the public meetings, which have been called in consequence of the decision of the House of Commons on the inquiry into the conduct of the commander-in-chief. In an early stage of this unfortunate business, we deprecated every attempt to make it a party question; and we foresaw, that, if such an attempt were successfully made, the inevitable consequence would be-popular assemblies, strong resolutions, and great discontent. Our sentiments upon the whole of that inquiry have been fully explained to our readers, without partiality and without reserve; and nothing has occurred to produce the smallest alteration in them. We shall not, therefore, be suspected of such a prejudice, when we reprobate the language which has been held at some of the public meetings which have been recently called; especially at those of Middlesex, and the city of London. That the freeholders, or corporate bodies, have a right to assemble for the purpose of declaring their opinion on such a question, and to vote their thanks to any members who may have taken that part in the discussion of it which, to them, appeared most conducive to the ends of justice, it would betray woeful ignorance of the principles of our free constitution, and a shameless contempt of the rights of the people, to deny.. Had the meetings in question, then, gone no further than this, we should certainly have been much more disposed to commend than to censurs them. But we condemn them; first,

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