DOMESTIC EVENTS. The leading feature under this head, and which still continues to оссиру the public mind, and with undiminished force to interest the public feeling, is the fate and fortune of Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales.-That such a subject should engross the public mind, that her wrongs should occupy the sole attention of the People of England, seven to the exclusion of the consideration of their own wrongs, is strictly characteristic of the national sympathy and spirit, It is not merely rank or station that bears an influence in British bosoms; when the appeal is made to the heart, all distinctions vanish; but when rank and virtue are combined, to make the sum of injuries the greater, the impulse is irresistible, In the wrongs of the Princess of Wales, the national character is implicated; they attach equally to every individual in the Empire; for, had she been guilty, all would have been involved in her disgrace. She bore with her not only the guardianship of her own honour and that of her Royal Consort, but also that of the Country at large; and, according to the faithful discharge of her trust should be the general acknowledgement and regard. With the declaration of her innocence, it was trusted, would end her persecution, and the public anxiety; no farther recompence was sought than the simple triumph of virtue, and the bare course of justice, the common recompence of all, the common operation of the law which governs and protects us;-and yet even this appears too much: she may be justified, but not avenged. If the atonement was due alone to the Princess, the innate magnanimity of Her Royal Highness would be a safeguard to her slanderous traducers: but can the Country entertain the same feelings?-Certainly not. So far from practising the same forbearance, we should rather wish for the oppor tunity to say, with Portia, "We have a law, which decrees, that they who seek another's life shall pay the forfeit of their own!"-No senti ment of pity is due to individuals, who thus could act, as on a system, to destroy not only the reputation but the life of one, whose sphere, so far above their envy or approach, could scarcely have excited their malice or revenge. Hence arises the natural inquiry as to the induce ment to this work of mischief:-what profit or reward could follow this attempt; the danger of which could only be equalled by the infamy attending it?-It is not common to court a needless danger, where the result may prove a self-destruction.-No, the Princess has solved the mystery, she has said they were suborned! And thereby is the public anxiety doubly increased; the mystery thickens, and the greater becomes the necessity to have it fairly and fully explored.-It may be asked, and most justly, why the Prince has not instituted the Inquiry, anxious as His Royal Highness must be to place his conduct and his feelings on a footing with those of his people, and prove them in unison in a cause so general and so just? Either His Royal Highness is satisfied, or he is not: either he joins the Country in the expression of mingled indignation and regret at the treatment of Her Royal Highness, or he still fears some foundation for the slander.→ It has been hinted by several public men that there is still a course of inquiry going forward, that something still remains behind, and that the tide of persecution has not ceased. The Princess has appealed to the Country; she is also said to have circulated her wrongs in other channels, which might have the tendency to affect the minds of certain classes, and draw them to her side:-but what is this more than a just retaliation for her injuries? Has she not borne her wrongs publicly, and shall not her justification be universally proclaimed ?-There has been neither delicacy nor reserve shewn in her persecution, we know not who shall expect forbearance from her in return. The greatest ia❤ dignities have been and still continue to be heaped upon her by certain personages, whose dignified conditions should teach them better; while in others a stoical indifference is preserved, as though their ho nour and character were not identified in the disgrace, whether merited or otherwise, which may attach to Her Royal Highness. In the meantime, the opinion of the Country is unequivocally evinced by the daily Addresses, which throng together from all parts, to congratulate Her Royal Highness; and nothing is wanting to complete the testimony of public spirit but a united Petition from the Empire at large to the Prince Regent; praying him to order such proceedings as may tend to bring to light the foul abettors in the late conspiracy, and involve them and their agents in one common punishment.-A general appeal from the collected body of the People would at least have the effect to ascertain, by the royal answer, what opinion the Prince himself may entertain of the innocence of his Wife, or whether there is still something behind for suspicion to feed upon, and be an obstacle in the way of mutual reconciliation.-At present every thing contributes to increase the mystery; if we look towards the Country we see all confi. dence, all sympathy, and satisfaction; mingled with wonderment at the least indifference, in any quarter, at the triumph of Her Royal Highness:-if we look towards the Throne, we discover a cloud of gloomy doubts and disbelief; with certain acts of its official servants, betray ing symptoms of distrust and hostility.-The refusal to insert in the Official Gazette, the Address of the Corporation of London to Her Royal Highness, on the part of the Regent's Ministers, was an indi cation of distrust, or of direct hostility. It is the common channel for the Public Addresses to Royalty, and which has not failed to be used, while coalescing with the Royal feelings; Addresses to the Prince have been seen crowding the columns of this Official Journal, and why should they be closed on this occasion?-Lord Sidmouth has given the Country to understand that it is a Ministerial measure; but though a Ministerial measure, it must have met the sanction of the Prince; and thus is He made to stand, as it were, in the foreground, in opposition to the just recompence of his Royal Consort and the declared wishes of his People. Yet have these Ministers consented to declare the Princess free from every imputation; and, if free from imputation, why is she denied the common privilege of her rank in the declaration of her innocence ?—No:-what is placed in the Official Gazette is an act of the Government, sanctioned by authority, and is a public confirmation or admission of what is therein contained. The innocence of the Princess must therefore be considered as neither confirmed nor admit ted, at least by authority; and thus is the feeling and judgement of the Country outraged and contemned, and its sympathy made a butt for mockery and insult;-while in the person of the Princess morality and virtue are scoffed at and despised. There are those who pretend to be in the secret, and with ambiguous hints appear to glance at fresh discoveries; while others, still more wise, foretel internal troubles, the seeds of revolution and rebellion, all nourished and fomented by this disguised pretence to succour injured virtue; nay, even in the man ner of testifying the public feeling, ingenuity can find food for appre hension, or certain proofs of premeditated insult the determination of the Citizens of Loudon to pass Carlton-House has been construed into a direct intention to insult the Regent; as if the honours paid to his Wife, on the declaration of her innocence, could ever be esteemed a voluntary insult to his person or his understanding.-Till now, all per sonality towards the Prince, in the business of Her Royal Highness, has been, and with undoubted propriety, most studiously avoided; it is his Ministers, who, in refusing the sanction of her innocence, have contributed to identify His Royal Highness in their perversity.—It was prophecied, that the folly of some and the curiosity of others would only tend to hurry forward the Country into a commotion that would not easily be allayed; yet no such consequences are to be traced or apprehended, unless in the protracted hostility of the Regent's Ministers to the cause of justice and the desires of the People.-By the spirited and truly becoming conduct of Her Royal Highness, the Country has been roused into a declaration of their sentiments, and the secret Judges of Her Royal Highness forced into a public avowal of her innocence; and this is the extent of the mighty evil so poma pously and prophetically denounced. This is all that is done orlikely to be done on our parts, unless it be a petition for justice on her infamous accusers; but who shall prophecy the extent of mischief arising from a refusal on the part of her Husband's servants to register such innocence; a denial to make the testimony of her virtue as public as her accusation?-If there be a lurking danger in this matter, let them trace it here, here where the odium must for ever rest, and not in the honest ebullitions of a well-judging, loyal, and considerate People! The departure of the Duke of Cumberland for the Continent has furnished much cause for speculation as to the tendency of his journey, or its utility in a political point of view; not that any one can dispute the talents of His Royal Highness at intrigue, but whether such talents are altogether calculated to benefit his country. By be nefitting his country is not merely meant the advancement of the views of Ministers, the aggrandizement of the power of the Crown, or the empty boast of vain unprofitable honours; these are things that seldom benefit a country, for they are wholly unconnected with the comforts and necessities of a people.-We have had a convincing proof of the abilities and the disposition of His Royal Highness; the injured rights of Englishmen bear testimony to the liberal sentiments and exalted patriotism of the Noble Duke, they are engraven on the insulted bosoms of the Electors of Weymouth, and prove his respect and veneration for the sacred laws of his Country. His noble efforts will not be suffered to sink into oblivion, they are recorded in the Statute-Books of England—and, when he turns his back, he leaves remembrances behind him that shall perpetuate his name in the bitter annals of our grievances. TO CORRESPONDENTS. We regret the necessity of postponing the Letter of Lucian to the Princess of Wales:-It shall have place in our next. The Dialogue of Nations shall be farther continued in the next Number. Various Favours are under consideration. MONTHLY MIRROR OF THE TIMES, FOR APRIL, 1813. THE DIALOGUE OF NATIONS. 9 ITALY.-Among the living instances of French aggression, tyranny and wrong, where is the nation more warranted to complain than poor disgraced, divided, plundered Italy? Distinguished by unbounded blessings, the richest gifts of Nature and of Art, under a governmentprinciple adapted to the general disposition of the people, a power sanctified by religion, mild, gentle, and benignant; rejoicing, not like others, in their strength, but in their habits of, tranquillity and ease; friendly to all, envious of none; imparting and receiving mutual benefit;-how great, how awful is the change!-No longer can she boast superior happiness in ease, in order, or condition;-our blessings have proved our bane, since they have excited the avarice or ambition of our enemies.-France has destroyed those blessings;-she has broken in upon our tranquillity, and, like a devouring deluge, has swept away our comforts and our wealth.--She has robbed us of our national pride, our honour, and our station, and degraded us from our rank among the Nations. She has done an outrage, a wanton outrage to our feelings, our prejudices, and established faith, and insulted our religion in the double degradation of our Monarch and our Father.She has despoiled us of our trophies, our grandeur, and our treasures, and placed a public robber at the head of our councils, to ha rass and distress us:and thus, in violation of every principle morat and divine, she keeps us in subjection. FRANCE. If it be an axion, that the political like the natural body, is best dealt with by correctives, Italy shall have least to say in the great matter of complaint.-It it true she was at ease, that species of treacherous tranquillity, which beguiles a people into slavery, and renders them at once despicable and dangerous.-Emerged in superstition, ignorance, and sloth, the once proud name of Roman was forgotten, or only remembered to cover their posterity with shame.-To France was reserved the business of her regeneration, by uniting her in one common interest again to awe and regulate a world.-And does she talk of sacrifices in such a cause? the sacrifice of paltry relics, for the greater part the emblems of her shame and her dishonour!Can she mourn the absence of those heroes, whose lifeless countenances seemed to frown contempt upon their base degenerate posterity.France took your Cæsars, and your trophies, and transplanted them to a soil more congenial, where heroism and liberty went hand in hand ; and where the arts were destined to revive in all their pristine vigour.But is it not most preposterous to lay that as a crime on France, which Italy claims as the basis of her glory?-Whence came those trophies, those memorials of former greatness and renown?-Were they not the spoi's of half the world, gained by a system of conquest and coercion ? VOL. III. -Had not Rome her day of triumph, her hour for plunder, robbery, and violation ?-Were not even the progenitors of Imperial Rome, a band of base adventurers, with no fortune but their swords, with no pretensions but the right of conquest?-And shall she talk of the sanctity of right, whose history presents a universal system of tyranny and wrong?-Nor did her system of oppression cease, till she lacked power to support it; till glutted with conquest, enervated with spoil, she in her turn fell a prey to the spirit of enterprize, which bitterly retaliated all her mischiefs, and brought her to endure the yoke herself. From the despotism of arms she fell to that of superstition; and, where before she governed by the sword, she now attempted to enslave the mind; set up her Popes to terrify mankind, and even trample on the necks of Kings.-Armed with the deadly weapons of bigo try, fanaticism, and mystic zeal, she still assumed dominion over a spiritless and misguided world; but France has broke her chains! It is she that has dissolved the charm, and shamed mankind into a love of reason.-No longer shall Religion be profaned to be the very torch to spread the flame of war: your Popes shall live in peace, or cease to live as Popes.-They have mistaken their high office, the path designed them by their faith and their profession, and travelled in the devious tract of worldly interests and desires: but France has set them right. -Mankind must have their priests, their godly pastors, their moral guides, and nations shall respect them, while they preserve a respect for their professions: let them preach peace, but leave the business of the world to those who can conduct it.-Will Italy talk of French aggression, while she can boast her Cæsars' triumphs over unoffending Gaul?-Did she not lay our provinces and cities waste, drag forth at her chariot-wheels the brave defenders of their country and rights, and with inhuman joy count up the millions she had given to the merciless sword ?—Now Gaul shall triumph and Rome shall grace her victory. - AUSTRIA. The fatality which governs States and Empires has given to France at this time a preponderance, which a like fatality may destroy-this is her hour of triumph, but nothing can obliterate the pride and arrogance with which she uses her advantage. The time will yet arrive, and Austria shall live upon the hope, when the mighty stream, which now has overflowed its bounds, shall once again be made to roll within its proper channel, and Germany again be free, My plundered Provinces shall revert to their rightful Lord, and the diadem of Austria regain its pristine lustre.-By the present system, not only have my possessions been despoiled, my authority curtailed, and my inheritance abridged, but even that which is left is much deteriorated by the compulsive measure of French policy. The time has been, when the purchase of peace has been a guarantee for independence of principle, and Nations were left to pursue their systems of policy unmolested: but France has shewn, that no sacrifice is sufficient to purchase independence; in Peace or War France must be dictatorial, su pereminent, and compulsive; with her there is no liberty of principle; her will must govern all.-To be at Peace with France is to be ber slave, to renounce command, all freedom of decision, all shew or substance of authority; and even the very interests of the State or the comforts of the People are made subservient to French control, to French policy, ambition, or revenge. The wrongs of Germany al -- |