wer, without the assistance of the company's troops;"* and without that assistance, he further observes, not only "his dominions," but "his authority would be insecure." And the nabob, in his answer, admits tacitly this picture of his fallen state. This " friendly letter," in his answer, he says, "from so great a chief, possessed of divine wisdom and understanding, breathes in every word the strength of friendship, and his lordship's kindness and magnanimity has occasioned him an excess of pleasure and happiness," &c.‡ We see here, on the authority of lord Cornwallis, that Asoph ul Dowlah could not support his authority by his own proper strength; but by collecting even the slight notices we have of what it was, how far that of successor fell below it, how much more he rested on our protecting support, to uphold him in the situation in which our act has placed him, will be evident. The proper power of Asoph ul Dowlah was founded on the affection of those he ruled over, his military force, and his revenue. He is described to us, as having been "as profuse and improvident a prince as ever reigned," whose "extravagance placed him at the mercy of a vast variety of extortioners."§ 66 (To be Continued.) STATE PAPERS. Supplement to the London Gazette of Saturday, Nov. 14, (concluded from p.400.) countries of which such articles are the growth and manufacture, without an order in council, specially authorizing the same: his majesty, taking into consideration the order of this day's date, respecting the trade to be carried on to and from the ports of the enemy, and deeming it expedient that any vessel belonging to any country in alliance, or at amity with his majesty, may be permitted to import into this country articles of the produce or manufacture of countries at war with his majesty his majesty, by and with the advice of his privy council, is therefore pleased to order, and it is hereby ordered, that all goods, wares, or merchandizes, specified and included in the schedule of an act, passed in the forty-third year of his present majesty's reign, intituled an act to repeal the duties of customs, payable in Great Britain, and to grant other duties in lieu thereof," may be imported from any port or place belonging to any state not at amity with his majesty, in ships belonging to any state at amity with his majesty, subject to the payment of such duties, and liable to such drawbacks as are now established by law upon the importation of the said goods, wares, or merchandize, in ships navigated according to law; and with respect to such of the said goods, wares, or merchandize, as are authorized to be warehoused under the provisions of an act, passed in the forty-third year of his present majesty's reign, intituled " an act for permitting certain goods, imported into Great Britain, to be secured in warehouses without payment of duty," subject to all the regulations of the said last-mentioned act; and with respect to all articles which are prohibited by law from being imported into this country, it is ordered, that the same shall be reported for exportation to any country in amity or alliance with his majesty. And his majesty is further pleased, by and with the advice of his privy council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, that all vessels which shall arrive at any port of the United kingdom, or at the port of Gibraltar or Malta, in consequence of having been warned, pursuant to the aforesaid order, or in consequence of receiving information, in any other manner, of the said order, subsequent to their having taken on board any part of their cargoes, whether previous or subsequent to their sailing, shall be permitted to report their cargoes for exportation, and shall be allowed to proceed upon their voyage to their original ports of destination, (if not unlawful before the issuing of the said order) or to any port at amity with his majesty, upon receiving a certificate from the collector or comptroller of the customs at the port at which they shall so enter, (which certificate the said collectors and comptrollers of the customs are hereby authorized and required to give) setting forth that such wessels came into such port in consequence of being so warned, or of receiving such information as aforesaid; and that they were permitted to sail from such port under the regulations which his majesty has been pleased to Ibid, p. 3, 4. *East India Papers, No. 6, p. 1. + Ibid, p. 4. establish in respect to such vessels. But in case any vessel, so arriving, shall prefer to import her cargo, then such vessel shall be allowed to enter and import the same, upon such terms and conditions as the said cargo aight have been imported upon, according to law, in case the said vessel had sailed after having received notice of the said order, and in conformity thereto. And it is further ordered, that all vessels which shall arrive at any port of the United Kingdom, or at Gibraltar or Malta, in conformity and obedience to the said order, shall be allowed, in respect to all articles which may be on board the same, except sugar, coffee, wine, brandy, snuff, and tobacco, to clear out to any port whatever, to be specified in such clearance; and, with respect to the last-mentioned articles, to export the same to such ports, and under such conditions and regulations only, as his majesty, by any licence to be granted for that purpose, may direct. And the right hon. the lords commissioners of his majesty's treasury, his majesty's principal secretaries of state, the lords commissioners of the admiralty, and the judges of the high court of admiralty, and courts of vice-admiralty, are to take the necessary measures herein, as to them shall respectively appertain. W. FAWKENER. At the Court at the Queen's Palace, the 11th of November, 1807, present, Whereas the sale of ships by a belligerent to a neutral is considered by France to be illegal: and whereas a great part of the shipping of France and her allies has been protected from capture, during the present hostilities, by transfers, or pretended transfers, by neutrals and whereas it is fully justifiable to adopt the same rule, in this respect, towards the enemy, which is applied by the enemy to this country: his majesty is pleased, by and with the advice of his privy council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, that, in future, the sale, to a neutral, of any vessel belonging to his majesty's enemies, shall not be deemed to be legal, nor in any manner to transfer the property, nor to alter the character of such vessel: and all vessels now belonging, or which shall hereafter belong to any enemy of his majesty, notwithstanding any sale, or pretended sale, to a neutral, after a reasonable time shall have elapsed for receiving information of this, his majesty's order, at the place where such sale, or pretended sale was effected, shall be captured and brought in, and shall be adjudged as lawful prize to the captors. And the right hon. the lords commissioners of his majesty's treasury, his majesty's principal secretaries of state, the lords commissioners of the admiralty, and the judges of the high court of admiralty, and courts of vice-admiralty, are to take the necessary measures herein, as to them shall respectively appertain, W. FAWKENER. PORTUGUESE PROCLAMATION FOR EXCLUDING BRITISH COMMERCE. "It having always been my greatest desire to preserve within my dominions the most perfect neutrality during the present war, on account of the good effects that would result therefrom to the subjects of this crown; but it being impossible to preserve it any longer, and reflecting, at the same time, how beneficial a general peacewould be to humanity, I have thought proper to accede to the cause of the Conti nent, by uniting myself to his majesty the emperor of the French and king of Italy, and to Iris Catholic majesty, in order to contribute, as far as may be in my power, to the acceleration of the maritime peace; wherefore it is my pleasure to order that the ports of this kingdom be henceforth shut against the entry of all ships of war and merchant vessels belonging to Great Britain; and hereof all concerned are to take due notice. "Given at the Palace of Mafra, the 20th of October, 1807. By order of the prince Regent, our sovereign. That all persons may have due notice, it is directed that the edict be publicly affixed. "Lisbon, Oct. 22, 1807. "I. F. LUDOVICE." Printed and published by G. SIDNEY, No. 1, Northumberland-Street, Strand; Sold by H. T. HODGSON, Wimpole-street; J. BELL, Sweeting's-alley, Cornhill; and by all the News-venders in Town and Country. Vol. III. No. 23. Saturday, December 5, 1807. 417 HISTORICAL DIGEST. Price 10d. We are rapidly advancing to that epoch in human affairs, when the metamorphosis of Europe will be completed, and when governments, as well as subjects, will be obliged to assume new modes of thinking, and new rules of conduct. This great change in the moral condition of the civilized world, does not, fortunately, overtake us on a sudden, nor introduce so great a scene of terror and amazement as to bewilder the intellect, and leave it wholly incapable of exerting its proper energies. Reflecting minds have long been in expectation of the events which now scourge mankind; consequently, instead of betraying any symptoms of dismay, they are prepared to meet, with fortitude, that state of things which they foresaw would be the inevitable result of the cowardice, follies, and impolicy of the confederate powers of Europe. And, though they despair of seeing the proper means employed to resist the storm that periodically sweeps some community from the society of nations; yet they feel the most perfect confidence in the resources of Great Britain, and the most thorough persuasion that, when these resources shall have been fully exerted, the people of this country may bid defiance to those ravages of violence and corrup tion which have levelled with the dust the proudest monuments of European glory. It is, therefore, the duty of every public writer to diffuse among his countrymen, a strong sense of the causes of that ruin which has befallen so many other states, to guard them against the influence of the same malignant principles here, and to shew in what manner our native country may be rendered invulnerable. The experience from which we are to regulate our future conduct is indeed a painful one, but it is necessary to revert to it incessantly, in order to explore and strengthen the means of our national security. Every day furnishes us with some new topic for thought; it ushers into the world some dreadful dislocation of political society, and bids us to take warning from the foibles and crimes of other nations: in such a strange chaotic revolution, to expect that any people should be altogether free from a share in the general suffering, would betray a total ignorance of the nature of man. It is contrary to the constitution of human societies, that one state alone should be exempted from the endurance of some evil, when every other community groans under the pressure of accumulated calamities; and the people who possess the vanity and the uncharitableness to suppose that such a case is possible, must be made up of those who are either more or less than men. There exists as great a sympathy in the feelings of nations as in the feelings of individuals; and they who pretend that they can live and prosper, amid the miseries of their fellow creatures, are too selfish, and too base, tơ deserve the respect of the powerful, or the compassion of the weak. This reasoning will serve to fortify us in the resolution to perish to the last man,' rather than, by a compromise with tyranny, to sanction a series of crimes, which we have publicly declared to be irreconcileable with the happiness of mankind, and against the stability of which we have offered up, at the shrine of public safety, the treasures and the blood of our country. It is true, that there are weak minds which are given to despondency, from the belief that our successful enemy was made for conquest. This is the belief of irresolution and cowardice. If our inveterate foe has been triumphant, let it be remembered, that he did not become an adept in the arts of conquest, until those opposed to him had shewn themselves to be proficients in the arts of submission. In truth, Great Britain is the only nation upon the face. of the globe, which has duly understood the principles and extent of French ambition. Individuals, in other countries, have formed a proper estimate of these principles, but the mass of their fellow-citizens have not been equally affected by them. The people of Great Britain are not yet become so infatuated with the prosperity of a successful murderer, nor so disheartened by an uninterrupted course of defeats, as to believe that Buonaparte is predestinated to be the master of a race of men who have VOL. III. —NO, 23. never yet bowed their necks under the yoke of a foreign tyrant. Their notions of this man are not drawn from the cowardly superstitions of a degenerate people, but they daily announce to him, through the medium of their free press, that he is indebted for his successes less to his own qualities than to the imbecility of those who have been opposed to him; and, without denying to him the possession of extraordinary talents, they tell him, as the Magi of India told Alexander, on his pretensions to divinity, that in every thing he is like other men, except that he takes less rest, and does more mischief. If all the other powers of Europe had formed the same opinion of Buonaparte, and if they had discarded those selfish and sordid principles which have uniformly sent their armies to the field of battle with one arm of every, soldier tied behind his back, they would have understood and put in force the means of repelling their invader. And, after all the bloody conflicts, what have they gained by supplicating the conqueror's mercy-nothing but humiliation, diminished power, poverty, and scorn. What have the people gained by what are called the blessings of peace-Present insecurity of life, liberty, and property; a total privation of their domestic comforts, and a gloomy prospect of an uncertain futurity. We cannot have a more afflicting testimony of the nature of that state of peace which is established by French interposition, than in the accounts from the part of Poland which now constitutes the duchy of Warsaw and Eastern Prussia, together with those countries that still remain under Prussia. They contain a most melancholy picture of the condition of the inhabitants. It is stated in an article fron Posen, dated October 21, that in certain districts, misery is arrived at his height; neither saddle nor draught horses are to be found; neither is there any seed corn, so that the country is threatened with a famine, which will be the more terrible, as the excessive heat of the last summer was the cause of very indifferent harvests in Courland and Livonia. But even this is not the worst of their threatened sufferings; the neighbouring powers seem to consider these transferred districts as out of the pale of human charity, since they have prohibited their subjects from exporting grain into those parts. Thus has the cruel ambition of Buonaparte, while decreeing the exclusion of our intercourse from the continent, inflicted upon some portions of Europe, the very calamity upon the extension of which throughout the British isles, he hoped to break the stubborn hearts of their people, and to carry by storm that constitution which proudly frowns upon, and bids defiance to his power, tyranny, and injustice. Why should the Prussian government interdict the passage of grain into countries but recently torn from its dominion, if it were not from the apprehension that pinching want would invade the residue of its territories? Fears are generally entertained over the northern and eastern parts of Germany, that they will be visited by famine; nor can we wonder at these fears, when we reflect that the plough has been abandoned, and the fields laid waste by the marches of hostile armies. Even the king of Saxony, according to the last accounts from Warsaw, is gone to take possession of his newly-acquired duchy, more in the style of a mourner at a funeral procession, than, of a sovereign ambitious to conciliate the affections of his new subjects. The expression of any public demonstrations of joy, in consequence of his arrival, was strictly forbidden by him; and, in its stead, a proclamation was issued by the president, count Malkowitz, enjoining a contribution for the benefit of the unfortunate inhabitants of Praga, who had been compelled to abandon their dwellings, when the ground was made use of to erect new fortifications. This joyous entry of the king of Saxony into Warsaw, is the severest satire hitherto expressed upon the continent concerning the policy of the French ruler; and when we combine this circumstance with the present calamitous condition of the famished Poles, who were promised emancipation and independence by Buonaparte, while their personal services were useful to him; but whom he has since disposed of to different masters, like herds of cattle, and, in defiance too of their being true Catholics, it is impossible not to feel exasperated at certain politicians of our country, who pretend, because the Moniteur proclaims the hatred which all Catholics must bear towards England, that Buonaparte is, therefore, the avowed advocate of toleration, and the protector of the Roman Catholics in every part of the world. The passage in the Moniteur was intended exclusively to excite the Roman Catholics of Ireland, to renew those terrible scenes of bloodshed, which made them the victims of rebel lion, and the continued sport of France. When will our inconsiderate babblers for French toleration learn wisdom from experience! PRUSSIA. Notwithstanding the past errors of the sovereign of Prussia, the mind delights to dwell upon the example he holds out of manly resignation under the heaviest misfortunes. There is such a contrast between the dignified conduct of Frederick William, and the vapouring ostentation of his remorseless persecutor, that we are moved by admiration, rather than pity, when we contemplate the proceedings of the former. For I flatter myself that no candid man will feel an hostile mind against the king of Prussia, on account of the proclamations prohibiting the intercourse of his people with us, which are well known to have been extorted from him by the conqueror, and which are extremely detrimental to the prosperity of Prussia. On the 1st of October, his Prussian majesty issued a proclamation from Memel, against English commerce and navigation; but it is expressly stated in the proclamation, that the prohibition is to be enforced in pursuance of the treaty of Tilsit. Not one word is mentioned beyond this reason; so that we are excluded from all intercourse with Prussia, not for the sake of subverting our maritime rights, as is pretended by the usurped government of Holland, and the other vassal feudatories of France, but in conformity with an obligation imposed by a stronger over a weaker power. ** While the war was raging on the banks of the Oder, I had occasion to notice a proclamation of the king of Prussia, relative to the organization of his army. Sensible of the absurdity of giving military preferment to none but noblemen, or the sons of noblemen, and perceiving with what rapidity his fortresses were surrendered, one after another, by noble traitors, and cowardly nobles, his Prussian majesty introduced a very important and useful alteration in the mode of conferring military rank upon his officers. In the first place, the military profession was laid open to all his subjects, without any distinction of rank or quality; and in the next, his majesty declared, that the subalterns, as well as the privates, if they distinguish themselves for courage and presence of mind, shall be equally entitled to promotion, as any prince or nobleman in the Prussian dominions; and that he alone who has committed crime, shall be excluded from being an officer. This, together with many other judicious regulations, or rather, with the abolition of abuses, (for so his Prussian majesty calls them, in his proclamation from Ortelsburg, Dec. 1, 1806) infused a new vigour into the remnant of the Prussian army. Unfortunately, the abolition of these execrable abuses which had corrupted and debased the military profession, after the motives of their institution had ceased with the decline of the feodal armies, prevailed, more or less, in every European kingdom; so that the military genius of a country was circumscribed within the narrow limits of an hereditary nobility, who were judged to be, in virtue of their armorial bearings, and without the least regard to their natural or acquired qualifications, exclusively capable of leading the armed population of the state against an enemy. Although the victories of France had exposed the folly of this opinion, no government dreamt of exploding the abuse, until its army was in full flight before the triumphant brigades of its enemy. Then, when kingdoms were lost, these governments, in the vain hope of defending the last ditch of their respective countries, began to think, that however wise, politic, and necessary, distinctions of rank, resulting from birth or property, might be in the civil order of a state; in the military profession, merit alone ought to be the rule of promotion; and for this plain reason, because the bearing of a commission, and the wearing of a uniform, do not qualify a man by inspiration, to understand the military science any more than a piece of signed parchment, giving a man the rank of lieutenant-general, thereby qualifies him to storm a town defended by stone walls, and a numerous train of artillery, with a gallant army, unloaded and forbidden to load. It requires practice, skill, and science too, to make a good whipper-in even at a fox-chase; and why the same attention is not paid to the qualifications of hunters of men, since the functions of the two are much alike, both materially depending upon an exquisite coup d'oeil, and a knowledge of country, I leave to be explained by the advocates for whiskers, jack-boots, long tails, * See p. 91, of Vol. 1. of this Review. |