Oh! had thy course with honour run, Behold, how starch the lord of Law, And hickups, prays, and whines. But why that floating wig and box, Long-side yon freight of sin? ANALYSIS OF THE THREE ORDERS OF COUNCH ast. Order. For imposing the Restrictions of Blockade, and regulating the Naviga. tion of the Sea, in consequence of it. 2nd Order. For permitting Importation and Exportation, in consequence of the Restrictions of Blockade. 3rd Order, Respecting Enemy's Ships sold to Neutrals. With the Explanations and Additions to the 1st Order by the Four Supplementary Or ders of Council, dated 25th Nov. 1807, viz. 1st Order. For fixing certain Periods when Notice and Information of the 1st Order of 11th Nov. 1807, shall be held and taken to have been received. For prescribing certain Regulations, with respect to the Trade of this Kingdom, that were Notified in the 1st Order of 11th Nov. 1807, as intended to be made. 2nd Order. 3rd Order. For prescribing certain Regulations with respect to the Trade of Gibraltar and Malta, that were Notified in the 1st Order of 11th Nov. 1807, as intended to be made. I 4th Order. For amending the 1st Order of 11th Nov. 1807, in regard to Foreign Produce and Manufactures when on Board British Ships. Also Instructions, dated 18th Nov. 1807, to Commanders of Ships of War and Prin vateers, and to the Court of Admiralty, for carrying into Execution the 1st Order of Council of 11th Nov. 1807. 1st Additional Instruction, dated 25th Nov. 1807. 2nd Additional Instruction, dated 25th Nov, 1807. Instruction, dated 25th Nov. 1807, respecting the Trade of Lubec, Prussia, and Portugal. FIRST ORDER OF COUNCIL, NOV. 11, 1807. For imposing the Restrictions of Blockade, and regulating the Navigation of the Sea in consequence of it. Vessels and Cargoes. Ports and Places. Ports and Places subjected by this Order to War. .in Europe from which the British flag is excluded. in Colonies belonging to the Enemy. .Countries, in Europe or America, not subjected to the Restrictions of Blockade, (to which such Vessels belong,) and the or cleared out direct, conformably with Enemy's Colonies, the Free-Port Act, between... Except Vessels and Cargoes belonging to Countries not at War, and cleared out direct under the Regulations herein-after prescribed from... The British Free-Ports, and the Enemy's ...This Kingdom, Gibraltar or Malta. or from.... The Port of an Ally, to A Port specified in the Clearance. * By the Supplementary Order, 25th Nov. 1807. :: under the assumed name of Wilson, though he was a British subject born in London. Upon the strength of this evidence, admitted to be correct by the prisoner himself, he was found guilty, and adjudged to suffer death, which sentence was executed five days after his trial.* It is against this punishment that the president exclaims with asperity, and even goes so far as to call the just exercise of our jurisdiction, an aggravation of an aggression previously begun. This is a most barefaced and insulting interference in the domestic concerns of another people. Nor can the indecency of this conduct be explained away, by alleging that Mr. Jefferson had heard that the seaman so executed was an American citizen. Such an apology might be offered at the bar of the Old Bailey, by a petty-fogging attorney accused of perjury, but it is unbecoming the dignity of the first magistrate of a nation, whose public declarations ought never to rest on hearsay evidence. Of the five deserters who were tried and found guilty upon this occasion, William Hill was the only native American. He had entered into our service voluntarily at Antigua, and had received the usual bounty; so that he was hable to suffer death, as a deserter, according to the established usages sanctioned by the laws of nations. Notwithstanding, he did not suffer, for we hanged our fellowsubject, and spared the swindling American. In whatever light, therefore, we consider this imputation of the president, it will appear as a weighty aggravation of the crimes of America, unless it be admitted, that a deserter from our service, whether British or American, having once taken shelter on board of an American ship of war, is entitled thereby to the benefit of sanctuary during the rest of his life. The motives of these unwarrantable insinuations against our country, are too palpable to be misunderstood. Under the guise of an affected moderation, the president has pronounced an angry philippic against Great Britain, calculated to inflame, instead of allaying those heats which broke out at the commencement of our misunderstandings; for, upon what other principle can we explain his motives, when we find him deducing inferences from false premises, and justifying their unfairness, by the vapid testimony of the passions and violence of a fermented population. "On this outrage," says he, "no commentaries are necessary. Its character has been pronounced by the indignant voice of our citizens with an emphasis, an unanimity, never exceeded." Thus, while he affects to chaunt a doleful lamentation over the love of peace, so much cherished in their bosoms, he irritates their feelings, and provokes them to war. He marshals against Great Britain, the whole artillery of special pleading; he deals also in inuendoes unsupported by any collateral proofs; but when he speaks of the aggressions of Spain, he employs the language of affectionate moderation, and when he mentions France, it is only in the style of fulsome compliment. I call this message a brief of American special pleading, because it is full of quirks, sophistry, unautho rized distinctions, and even misrepresentations. With equal justice, I affirm that it contains inuendos not sustained by facts, because it insinuates without the least shadow of evidence, that the Indians in the north-western quarters, were excited to commotion by the intrigues of England: and I call it a breach of the rule of national equity, because, while it is lavish in its censures of our conduct, it treats the violent depredations of France upon the commerce of America, with the silent deference of timidity to unreproved despotism. "With the other nations of Europe," quoth the president, our harmony has been uninterrupted, and commerce and friendly intercourse have been maintained on their usual footing."+ These reflections must suggest themselves to the mind of every one who reads with attention the message of the American president. He calls for a revision of our navigation laws, and makes our compliance with his desire, the condition of the future pacific conduct of the United States. I have shewn, that hitherto, this pacific conduct is no other than WAR IN DISGUISE. Whatever may be the principles which may be adopted henceforth, one point is indispensible to our existence as a nation, namely, that America must be stripped of this disguise. Let not England be in For further particulars relative to these proceedings, see No. 18 of this volume. It is not improbable that the term "usual footing," is here employed as a stroke of special pleading; the usual footing of intercourse between France and America, consisting in theft, depredation, and swindling. timidated at the number or power of her foes. If her people be but united at home, and confident in their government; and if that government will persevere in the courage, fortitude, and ability, which it has hitherto nobly displayed, we shall then realize the spirited prediction of our national poet, who thoroughly understood the genius and resources of his country: Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock' them: Nought shall make us rue, CONDUCT OF RUSSIA. I now resume the consideration of the Russian manifesto, upon which, on account of the lateness of the hour at which I received it, I was able to offer only a few hasty comments in our last number. Upon a more rigorous scrutiny of its contents, I have discovered fresh absurdities, which, however glaring, had escaped my observation on the first cursory perusal of it. In the first place, it is a most singular circumstance, that a declaration which the subjects of Russia, are doomed to consider as the justifying motives for the termination of all intercourse between the two nations, should be ushered into the world, with a rank, and self-eviden: UNTRUTH! The first paragraph of the declaration states, that his Britannic majesty," had altogether separated himself from him," the emperor, whereas, the fact is directly the contrary, every effort having been exhausted, consis tently. with the maintenance of our public security, to conciliate his mind, and to draw closer the bonds of harmony which once united the two nations together. It is also evident, that our seizure of the Danish fleet is but a subordinate ground of the emperor's present hostility; for, if that politic measure had never taken place, it is equally certain that the emperor would have been inimical to this country, from the other pretexts for offence, which he has adduced in his declaration. Whether these pretexts be well-founded or not, is of little consequence to the general argument: they are the best which were in his power to allege; and if a pretext had been wanting, the professors of law at Fontainbleau would have easily supplied him with one, together with a glossary and notis variorum. The capture of the Danish fleet must, therefore, be considered as an accident, to use a metaphysical phrase, of which the emperor's advisers knew well how to avail themselves; and accordingly they have given to that transaction, a gloss, which rivals the ingenuity of the Morning Chronicle itself. Had the Danish fleet been left undisturbed until taken quiet possession of by the French and Russians, the emperor's declaration would have been defective in one essential particular, as it would not have been furnished with an opportunity of casting a reflection upon the sudden abandonment of that apparent lethargy which we quitted when "the peace between Russia and France was to prepare a general peace." In that case, his imperial majesty would have been reduced to the puny grounds of complaint recorded in other parts of his declaration, and confined his displeasure of our military conduct solely to our neglect of co-operation. But our prompt, vigorous, and decisive anticipation of the designs of the two imperial autocrats, so completely blasted the scheme projected in the secret articles of the treaty of Tilsit, that, incensed at our foresight, he now imputes our neglect of causing a diversion in his favour to a premeditated plan for the attack upon the Danish navy; an event which would never have happened, had he not separated himself from the common league against France, and abandoned the independence of continental Europe to the mercy of that usurped power. Is it not also extremely curious, that this Russian declaration should appear on the the very same day, Oct. 31, as the infamous article in the Moniteur directed against this country? This shews, that the one publication was not the echo of the other, but that there was a previous communication between the parties respecting the reproaches which they should mutually cast upon our government. The coincidence is so striking, that it is worthy of the attention of the public; I shall therefore collate the passages contained in the Russian declaration and the French article. "He did not demand that her troops should be united with his; he desired only that they should effect a diversion. He was astonished that in her cause she did not act in union with him; but coolly contemplating a bloody spectacle, in a war which had been kindled at her will, she sent troops to attack Buenos Ayres.”—Russian Declaration. "Had England been desirous of proving her zeal in behalf of her allies, those 26,000 men, whom the British ministry sent to Copenhagen, should have been landed at Dantzic, at Stralsund, at the mouth of the Weser, and have endeavoured to make a diversion. It was expected, for it was impossible to expect so much bad faith."— French Article. But what sensibly touched the heart of his imperial majesty was, to perceive that England, contrary to her good faith, and the express and precise terms of treaties, troubled at sea the commerce of his subjects."-Russian. "They every day insult the emperor Alexander; they pretend to impose upon Russia a treaty of commerce, similar to that which they wring from the cabinet of Versailles; they disallow the maritime rights of Europe, to substitute, in their stead, their own violence and caprice: they violate the sea, which is under the guaranty of the emperor of Russia."-French. "Her fleets, her troops appeared upon the coast of Denmark, to execute there an act of violence of which history, so fertile in examples, does not furnish a single paral lel."-Russian. "Human language has no expression to describe such an enterprize."-French. "The emperor still less foresaw that it would be proposed to him that he should guarantee this submission."— Russian. "And the cabinet of St. James's still dares to talk of guarantee."-French. "The emperor, touched with the confidence which the prince-royal placed in him, and having considered his own peculiar complaints against England; having maturely examined too the engagements which he had entered into, with the powers of the north,-engagements formed by the empress Catharine, and by his late majesty, the emperor, both of glorious memory,-has resolved to fulfil them."---Russian. It is impossible, without a smile of pity, to observe the English ministers expecting results from an operation which obliges Russia no longer to keep any measures; which draws that power from the state in which she was placed, by a simple treaty of - peace, to engage her to make a common cause with France."-French. "He proclaims anew the principles of the armed neutrality, that monument of the wisdom of the empress Catharine; and engages never to recede from the system.Russian. "The English must, for the future, shew in their conduct, moderation, justice, and respect for neutrals, if they wish that there should be, in Europe, neutrals for them. All nations have a right to have their flags respected. They ought, every where, to cover the goods; and those powers are wanting to their neutral neighbours, who suffer their flags to be violated."-French. "The emperor expects that his Britannic majesty, instead of suffering his ministers, as he does, to scatter the seeds of fresh war, listening only to his own feelings, will be disposed to conclude such treaty with his majesty, the emperor of France, as shail prolong, interminably, the invaluable blessings of peace."-Russian. "Is it not well known, that the English ministry have established as a principle, the fitness and the necessity of a perpetual war? "All that has passed in England, proves the advantages of a moderate monarchical government, and the dangers of an oligarchical government. If a monarch is actuated by proper feelings, the ministers, under such a guide, are just and enlightened, but an oligarchy considers neither the interests of the country, the rights of humanity, not the rules of justice. Happy will England be when she becomes a monarchy! express ourselves thus, because this country, with a monarch who has so long been subject to infirmity, fails in her first magistrate. History informs us, that when the government of a state has taken its last step towards oligarchy, that it is nearest it ruin. What means of safety remain to England? Are they to be found in parliament, which is purchased and prorogued, and dissolved at will? Are they to be found in that club of ministers presided over by lord Melville, whose malversations were denounced to his country and to Europe? When this oligarchical club shail perceive that it has fatigued the destiny, and tired the patience, of the people, it will look only to its own dangers, and abandon the safety of the state to other hands. A |