be examined, in all manner of ways, the interests of the inhabitants will be calculated, their inclinations sounded, and the means of their respective state governments will be ascertained. When all the preparations are made, the French will strike the first blow, not against America, but against England, and a mortal blow it will be. The exact time and shape of the first measure of hostility it is impossible to ascertain. The pretexts are so numerous, that it is next to impossible to know which France may choose. That, however, which I think she will choose is this. Our treaty with America expires on the 1st of October next. That no other will be formed is pretty clear; and, of course, the government of the United States will be under no obligation to permit the importation of British goods upon the present terms, that is upon paying the same duty as is paid by the same sort of goods from France and other countries. Suppose France, when she has made all her preparations at the mouth of the Mississippi, should propose to the United States to lay a higher duty upon British than upon French manufactures, and should make the free navigation of the Mississippi depend upon a compliance with this proposition? Such a step might be called overbearing, insolent, and unjust; but, it would be useless to load it with these epithets, perfectly useless, for we have seen that such qualities are by no means an obstacle to success. The demand of a surrender of Napper Tandy, the conduct of Lauriston and Lundberg, were overbearing, insolent, and unjust, but we have not found them, for that reason, to fail of answering their purpose. Besides, the proposition I am speaking of contains a fair quid pro quo: give us a preference in serving you with manufactures, grant us this favour, and, in return, we will grant you the favour of a free navigation of the Mississippi. If you accept of the terms, it is well; if not, you cannot blame us for proposing them, nor for appropriating to ourselves the exclusive use and advantage of our territories. Be this as it may, however, be the proposition reasonable or unreasonable, fair or foul, just or unjust, that is not the question; the question, and the only question, will be, has France the power to enforce her demands. The people of the Atlantic States will be told, that, in case of a compliance with a proposition like the one here spoken of, they would have to purchase their woollens, their linens, their cottons, and their hardware, much dearer than they now do, purely for the sake of gratifying the interest and the malice of France; but, to tell them

this will be of little avail, unless you can tell them, my lord, how to resist this Gallican tyranny; unless you can point out to them, at the same time, some outlet, other than that of the Mississippi, by which they may convey one sixth part of their exportable produce to the sea; unless your Lordship can, from those inexhaustible resources which you possess, draw forth some such discovery as this, all railing against Buonaparté will be as the whistling of the wind.If the United States government yield to the first demand, that will pave the way for another and another and another, till British commerce is completely banished from the American ports, or till, at least, it is reduced to a mere smuggling trade as it already is in the countries bordering on the Scheldt and the Rhine; and, if the govern ment of the United States should refuse, then the Western States, comprizing all the country lying between the Alleghany and Apalachian mountains, and the river Mississippi, together with all their fertility and population, will instantly fall into the hands, and under the absolute dominion of France. Your Lordship is, I know, of a different opinion; you think, that, because the Ame ricans, when they were colonists of England, were not subdued by the French, but carried on a successful war against them, they will be able still more effectually to resist them now, when the population of America has trebled: because the Americans, when aided by the fleet and army of England, were able to do this, you think they will be able to do it of themselves; because the French were not able to injure them on the banks of the Mississippi when they did not inhabit those banks, the French cannot injure them there now when they do inhabit those banks; because the Americans were invulnerable at the mouth of the Mississippi when they had nothing to send to the sea through that channel, they are invulnerable there now when that is the only outlet to the produce of three whole states; because we, by possessing Canada, through the rivers of which the Americans never pass, have no influence over the United States, the French are to have no influence over them by means of the possession of Louisiana, through which the Americans must pass to the sea, unless they abandon their most fruitful lands and most flourishing settlements. But, my Lord, I delight in sim plifying every subject on which I write to your lordship. "To teach the young idea how to shoot," is always a pleasing task. It was with this sort of paternal feeling towards your lordship, that I caused to be engraved the little map of the mouth of the Missis

sippi, which was inserted in page 445, of the first volume of the Register, and which, if you had paid attention to it, would have spared the House of Commons the mortification of listening to those infantine observations, to which I have here found it necessary to allude. In pursuance of the same propensity it is, my lord, that I am now about to avail myself of the mechanical aid of the printer, in order to present you with a view of this subject, reduced to the level of the meanest capacity. I shall quote the memorable opinions advanced by your right sapient colleague, by the gallant hero of St. Domingo, by the Master of the Rolls, and by yourself, opposite to which I shall place the opinions now declared by the Americans themselves.

Mr. ADDINGTON (5) said that his right hon. friend could not say, that, if the French had not this extent of territory [Louisiana] there, they could not, if St. Domingo were tranquil,

and affairs were at rest with them in that quarter, become, by means of a large military force, formidable to either North or South America!!!!!

GENERAL MAITLAND (6) said, of Louisiana he had heard, that it would enable France to attack the United States; but, when Louisiana was formerly in possession of France, it was totally imbécile, and it had not increased in population since it came into the hands of Spain. But it was contended, that the possession of Louisiana would give the French eventually great influence over the councils and measures of the United States: here there was one observation, that naturally occurred to the mind of every man, which was this: we possess Camada, yet that possession does not enable us to influence the United States; and, if this be the case, with how much more force does the argument

MR. JEFFERSON'S MESSAGE. (9) The cession of Louisiana to France, which took place in the course of the last war, will, if carried into effect, make a change in the aspect of our foreign relations, which will, doubtless, have just weight in any deliberations of the Legislature connected with that subject.

THE

MEMORIAL OF LEGISLATURE OF KENTUCKY. (10) Having, on a former occasion, when we represented the obstruc.ion to the navigation of the Mississippi, experienced the attention and justice of the general government, in providing, by a treaty with the court of Spain, not only for the free navigation of that river, but for what, in our remote situation from the ocean, was absolutely necessary to the enjoyment of it, a place of deposit for our produce, we deem it necessary barely to state to you, &c. &c. &c. &c.

LETTER OF GOVERNOR CLIABORNE. (11) The late act of the Spanish government at New Orleans has excited considerable agitation at Nat. chez and its vicinity: it has inflicted a severe

importance of that cession had been only discovered within a few formerly in possession of nights preceding. It was France, but she had not been able to draw from it those advantages, which, it was contended, she would derive from it now. With respect to danger arising from it, the only danger likely to result from it that he could discover, arose from bringing France in contact with the United States of America. It might happen, that, in the course of AGES, some danger would result from this connexion, but it could not be soon!!!!!

LORD HAWKESBURY (8) said, as to the political advantages which France will derive from the possession of Louisiana, I doubt whether they can be of much importance. Gentlemen have said a great deal about the influence, which this possession threatens to give France over the United States of America; but the possibility is, that the possession, by placing the French upon the back of America, every maxim of sound policy will incline the latter to cultivate a more intimate connexion with this country. The right hon. gentleman [Mr. Windham Junder-rated the population and power of the United States, and forgot the successful exertions, which they, when colonies of this country, made against the French, in 1756, though the latter were then in possession of both Louisiana and Canada ! ! ! ! ! !

NOR GARRARD. (12) The citizens of this state are very much alarmed and sure of the Spanish goagitated; as this meavernment will (if not altered) at one blow cut up the present and future prosperity of their best interests by the roots.

now

AMERICAN GAZETTE. (13). That France, instigating the imbecile and pusillanimous cabinet of Madrid, is, in reality the secret mover of the recent infringement of our rights there are irresistible reasons for believing. The inference from this act of French diplomacy is clear and unequivocal. Buonaparté may make a new bargain and dictate his terms of a fresh grant of the same privileges of which he has recently deprived us by his coercion of Spain. If we believe in the cession of Louisiana to France, we can find no difficulty in viewing the late measure of the Spanish Intendant as a prelude to our being interdicted the free navigation of the Mississippi. France thus holding at her disposal the important rights of deposit and of free ingress and egress by sea, can then, and most assuredly will, tamper and negotiate with the western country, and hav ing an inestimable boon to offer, and, probably, the additional privilege of trad ing to her West-India and European ports, on the favourite fosting of colonists, will thereby easily secure their good will, AND DETACH THEM FROM THE ATLANTIC STATES. The dismemberment of our empire, and the dissolu tion of our union being thereby effected, the close of this tragical drania may be as easily imagined as described.

Now, my Lord, do you and your col

THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS (7) said, that with respect to the cession of Louisiana to France, the value and

and commercial interests of this territory, and will prove no less injurious to all the western country.

LETTER OF GOVER

(5) See Debates, Register, Vol. II. p. 1211. (6) Vol. 11. p. 1377. (7) Vol. II. p. 1344. (9) Register, Vol. III. p. 137. (10) Ibid. p. 241. (11) Ibid p. 243.

never reflect on what you have said and done? Do you never blush at your shame. ful ignorance, your egregious folly? Do you never tremble at the tremendous mischiefs which you have brought upon your country? Or, do you really think, that it is all a

(8) Ibid. Vol. II. p. 1307. (12) Ibid. Vol. III p. 244. (13) Ibid. p. 230.

hobgobbling story, and that the clerkship of the Pells will live as long as the clerk? Do you really and sincerely believe, that the seat in Richmond Park will remain in the hands of the Addingtons for ten years to come?

The effect, which the measures of France will produce on the Americans is clearly enough pointed out by the writer whom I have last quoted. The inestimable boon," or rather the necessary of life, the free navigation of the Mississippi with leave of deposit at its mouth, will at any time, and under any circumstances, purchase the allegiance of the Western people; but, as the Atlantic States, which form a sort of mother country, will, for pride's sake, and, indeed, for the sake of peace and safety, of which all shop-keeping nations are very fond, endeavour to preserve that allegiance as long as possible, it is reasonable to suppose, that the French, whose first object will be to injure Great Britain, will, for some years, at least, exchange her rights of navigation and deposit for restrictions imposed, by the Atlantic States, on the British commerce and manufactures. At first, these restrictions, or whatever other measure France nay demand, will, probably, be but slightly and partially felt; but her hand will weigh heavier and heavier in proportion as her establishments are completed in Louisiana; and, unless she should, all at once, drop down in a fit, as England did in 1801, there will not be, this day four years, a single bale of British goods shipped to the United States, and Britain will not hold a single inch of land in the Western Archipelago. And this, my Lord, is the way, in which, by placing the French at the back of "the Americans," your Lordship will have "attached the latter more closely to this coun"try" As if the people, who have lands on the Mississippi, and who have nothing in the world but those lands, would abandon them and become beggars, merely for the sake of those honest and generous gentlemen, the manufactures of Yorkshire and Birmingham; and that too after your sagacious Lordship has boasted of the clever trick of placing the French upon their back! Your country, my Lord, will pay dearly for this expression. The shop-keeping nation will, and ought to be punished, for the follies of such a statesman, because it is their fault that he has the power to injure them. Yes, my lord, the base rabble of cotton-spinners and stock-jobbers joined you most heartily in the project of placing the French upon the back of the Americans: they thought with you, my lord, that wars would succeed between those two nations, and that we might lie snugly by and profit from their losses.

Brilliant idea! noble-minded conception! No, no; both of them are well acquainted with our views and our means; and, be you well assured, my good lord, that instead of a war against one another, which shall leave us in the enjoyment of a monopolizing neu trality, they will, if it be necessary, unite in a war against us. This appears to me to be the inevitable result of the cession of Louisiana, and of such a war the consequences are not less evident than they will be terri ble to this country. It is from this quarter that I expect the blow, which is destined to shake the British empire to its base. So long ago as the year 1800, I besought the then ministry to turn their attention towards the other hemisphere, which they appeared to me totally to negleet; and, I remember, that, finding them to despise my exhortations, I predicted, that the fate of this country would be like that of the one-eyed doe. Two frigates and four thousand men, properly employed, at any time between 1796 and 1801; nay, one thousand pounds (only a third part of a year's salary of the Clerk of the Pells) expended in powder and lead, sent to General Bowles the Indian Chief, would have effec tually preserved this country from the dan gers, of which I am now speaking, and which, in spite of your lordship's sneers, will, in a very little time, reach the hearts of the holders of the three per cents. rish the man who pities them! They have, for the sake of their own private interests, basely applauded the men who have ruined and dishonoured their country. Their just reward is at no great distance. A misunderstanding with the United States of America, which France will very soon bring about for us, would give the Temple of Mammon a ruder shock than it ever yet received. In the mean time, my lord, you and your colleagues will take care to keep your places, the nation will continue sinking from one degree of baseness to another, so that, when the hour of annihilation arrives, all mankind will agree, that annihila tion is a mercy.I have the honour to be, &c. &c. WM. COBBETT.

London, March 1, 1803.

FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

Pe

Rome, Jan. 24.-The Dutch Admiral De Winter having arrived with his squadron in the Port of Cagliari demanded of the Governor permission to laud his troops on account of the sickness which prevailed among them, and their want of refreshment; but the Governor after having conferred with the English Commandant, refused to accede to the demand.

Vienna, Feb. 13.-The report of the approaching cession of Sardinia to England is contradicted by several persons in spite of the affectation and the tone of assurance with which it has been spread

Doubtless France and Russia would oppose a sale, which would augment almost without measure, the maritime preponderance of Great Britain, besides adding to its territorial power. It is easy to conceive that the Court of London may have employed every means to engage the King of Sardinia to give up his island. Twenty millions are very httle for a state, which no longer calculates, because the deficit in its finances will no longer admit of calculation.

Paris, Feb. 26.-Last Saturday, Citizens d'Affry, Glutz, Jauch, Monnet, Reinhart, Sprecher, Stapfer, Ustery, Watteville, and Von Flue, composing the two committees of five members, formed by the fifty-six Swiss deputies, in order to take cognizance of the Act of Mediation made by the First Consul between the parties which divide Switzerland, were admitted to an audience of the First Consul.-The Consuls, the Senators, the Ministers, the Counsellors of State, and the Inspectors general of the army were present, and also Citizens Barthelemy, Ræderer, Fouche, and Demeunier, senators, members of the committee charged to confer with the Swiss deputies assembled at Paris.-Citizen Barthelemy, president of the commission, having received from the hands of the First Consul the Act of Mediation, signed, countersigned, and sealed with the great seal of state, delivered the Act to Citizen Louis d'Affry, appointed Landamman of Switzerland.-The First Consul conversed some time with each of the members of the two committees of Swiss deputies, when the audience terminated.-On Monday the same persons assisted at the audience. Citizen Barthelemy, President of the Committee of Senators, presented to the First Consul the fortyseven Swiss deputies. The remainder of the fifty-six, who formed the whole deputation had previously set off for Paris-Citizen Louis d'Affry, Landamman of Switzerland, delive ed the following address :-"Citizen First Consul, "Called by the meditation which you have

pronounced, to the important, but difficult si"tuation of Landamman of Switzerland, it is "flattering to me, in becoming the organ of the "Deputation which my country has sent to you, "to have for my first function the duty of testi"fying to you the gratitude with which it is pe"netrated for the benevolent attention which

you have designed to give to that work which "confirms the independence of Switzerland."Your first benefit is to have restored to the "different people of Switzerland thefederative go"vernment which was alone congenial to them.-"The result of your mediation will recreate those "ties of policy which have united two nations "accustomed to confer reciprocal advantages, and "formed for mutual esteem. The troubles which "have agitated my country will cease-the pow"ers which are friendly to Switzerland will ap"plaud the means employed by the First Consul "to arrest the sad effects of a party spirit. I owe it to my country to second your benevolent "views, and I owe it to myself to be perfectly im"partial in the exercise of the functions which

are conferred upon me.-I pray the First Consul "to receive and to accept with goodness the homage of our profoundrespect."-The First Consul having answered Citizen Louis d'Affry, and conversed with the different Swiss deputies, the audience terminated.-Citizen Louis d'Affry, Landamman of Switzerland, set out the same day for Berne. •

A full account of these proceedings will be given hereafter.

FOREIGN OFFICIAL PAPERS.

View of the State of the Republic; presented to the Legislative Body by order of the Government. Paris, February 22, 1803.

Events have neither frustrated the wishes nor disappointed the expectations of government. The Legislative Body, on resuming its labours, has the satisfaction of finding the Republic strengthened by the union of its citizens, more active in its pursuits of industry, and more confident in its prospects of prosperity.-The execution of the concordat, from which the enemies of public order still ventured to conceive criminal hopes, has almost every where produced the most beneficial effects. The principles of an enlightened religion, the voice of the sovereign Pontiff, the firmness and perseverance of government have triumphed over every obstacle. Mutual sacrifices have re united the ministers of religion; enlightened reason, and cordial unanimity have revived the Gallican church; and the happiest change has already manifested itself in the public morals. Every day produces a more perfect coincidence of opinion and of sentiment. Childhood is more docile to the instructions of parents, and youth more submissive to the authority of magistrates. The conscription goes on smoothly in those very places, where the mere name of conscription was sufficient to stimulate insurrection, and to serve the country is now become a duty of religion.-In those departments, which the First Consul visited, he every where received pledges, and observed proofs of a return to those principles which constitute the strength and the happiness of society. In the departments of the Eure, the Lower Seine, the Oise, the inhabitants proudly exult ia the national glory. They are sensible to their full extent of the advantages of equality. They hail with blessings the restoration of peace; they receive with blessings the re-establishment of public worship. These are the ties that bind down every heart to the state and the constitution.-It is the duty of government to cherish and direct these auspicious dispositions.-Other forms of worship have been regularly organized. Consistories are formed of enlightened citizens, tried and acknowledged defenders of public order, of civil and religious liberty.-Public instruction, that indispensible support of society, is every where sought after with eagerness and alacrity. Several Lyceums have already been opened; already, as government had well foreseen, a number of private schools aspire to the rank of the secondary schools. The whole body of citizens shew their conviction that their can be no happiness without the light of education; that, without talents and information, there can be no equality but that of misery and servitude.-A military school is opened to receive the young defenders of the country. Soldiers, they will learn to support the life of camps, and endure the fatigues of war. By long habits of obedience they will be trained up to the art of commanding, and they will bring to the armies courage and discipline, united with talents and with knowledge-In the Lyceums, as well as in the military school, the youth of the departments, newly incorporated with the republic, will live mingled without any distinction with the youth of old France. From this confusion of minds and manners, from this communication of habits and of dispositions, from this commixture of interests, of projects, and of hopes, will spring up that fraternity, which of several nations will make but one people; destined by their position, by their

courage, and by their virtues, to form the centre of union, and the example of Europe.-The National Institute, which has its ascendancy over public instruction, has received a more useful direction, and henceforward will exert a more active influence over the national character, over the language of the country, and over the arts, sciences, and literature. In order to ensure the stability of our infant institutions, in order to remove from the eyes of the public the spectre of discord which appeared to them in the periodical return of elections to the supreme magistracy, the friends of the country called for the Consulate for life to be granted to the First Magistrate. The people upon being consulted answered to their call, and the Sonate proclaimed the will of the people. The system of lists of eligibility could not resist the test of experience, and the force of public opinion.The organization of the senate was incomplete.The national justice was left to be administered by tribunals without harmony, and without dependance on each other. There was no authority to protect or to reform them; no tie of restraint to subject them to one common discipline.-In fine, there was wanting to France a power to reclaim justice itself, the power of granting pardon. -How often these twelve years past has that power been implored! How many unfortunates have fallen the victims of an inflexible sternness, with which wise men reproached our laws! How many criminals have been acquitted through a false indulgence, because our punishments were too severe! A senatus consultum has restored to the people the exercise of those rights which the constituent assembly had acknowledged; but it has restored them surrounded with precautions, which preserve the people from errors or precipitation in their choice; with precautions which guard the influence of property, and the preponderance of enlightened talents-Should the first magistracy become vacant, the duties and the proceedings of the Senate are traced out for such an emergencyforms of certain operation guide the wisdom and liberty of their choice; and the quick decision of that choice deprives ambition of the means of conspiring, and anarchy of the means of destroying. The cement of time will every day consolidate, more and more, this tutelary institution. It will be not only the term of all disquietudes, and the object of all hopes, but likewise the fairest recompences that can be held out to public services, and public virtues.-Justice embraces all the tribunals with one common bond. They have each their subordinate station, and their censor-they are always free in the exercise of their functions. Always independent of power, but never independent of the laws.-The privilege of granting pardon, when the interest of the republic requires it, or when circumstances prescribe indulgence, is entrusted to the hands of the First Magistrate; but it is only confided to him under the guard of justice itself; he is to exercise it only under the eyes of a council, and after having consulted the severest oracles of the law.-If institutions may be appreciated by their effects, never was any institution more important in its result than the organic senatus consultum. From that moment the French people began to confide in their destiny; property began to resume its former value, and speculations of distant views to be multiplied until that moment every thing seemed to float in uncertainty. The present moment was cherished; the next was a subject of alarm, and the enemies of the country continued to cherish hopes. Since that moment they are reduced to impotence and

to detestation.-The island of Elba has been ceded to France; that acquisition gives her a mild and industrious people; two fine ports, a productive and precious mine: but being separated from France, it could not be intimately united with any of her departments, or subjected to the regulations of a common administration. Principles have been made to bend to the necessity of cir cumstances; exceptions have been established for the island of Elba which its position, and the public interest prescribed. The abdication of the Sovereign, the will of the people, and the necessity of existing circumstances, had placed Piedmont under the power of France. Amidst the nations that surrounded it, with the elements that composed its population, Piedmont was unable to support either the weight of its own independence, or the expenses of a monarchy. United to France, it will reap the benefits of its security, and its greatness; its laborious and enlightened citizens will exert their industry and their talents in the bosom of the arts, and under the shade of peace. -Security and tranquillity prevail in the interior of France. The vigilance of the magistracy, the severity of justice, and a gendarmerie vigorously appointed, and directed by a commander, grown grey in the career of honour, has every where impressed terror on the minds and the attempts of the brigands-Private interest has raised itself to a sentiment of public interest. Citizens have not shrunk from attacking those whom they formerly dreaded, even when they were chained down at the foot of the tribunals of justice. Whole communes have taken up arms and destroyed the brigands. Foreigners envy the security of our pub lic roads, and that public force, which though often invisible, is always present, attend on their footsteps, and watch for their protection, without any necessity of imploring its aid.-During the course of a difficult year, amidst the exigencies of a general scarcity, the poor looked with confidence to the care of government. They supported with courage the privations which necessity imposed; and they received with gratitude the succours which they were taught to expect. The crime of forgery is no longer encouraged by the hope of impunity. The zeal of the tribunals appointed to prosecute and punish it, and the just severity of the laws, have at length checked the progress of an evil which threatened both the public treasure, and the fortunes of individuals.-Our cultivation daily improves, and defies the most boasted agricultural systems of Europe. In every department are to be found enlightened farmers, who afford both instruction and example.-Premiums have been held out for improving the breed of horses; and similar encouragements are proposed for the improvement of wool by the introduction of a foreign breed of sheep. Zealous administrators are every where occupied in tracing out and revealing the richness of our soil, and in disseminating the useful plans and the happy results which experience daily discovers.-Our manufactures multiply and receive new spirit and improvement. While they emulate each, they will soon, no doubt, become the rivals of the most renowned manufac tures of foreign countries. Henceforth there will be nothing wanting to their prosperity but capitals less dearly purchased. But capitalists begin already to give up the hazardous speculations of stock-jobbing; and devote their attention to the improvement of land and the pursuit of useful enterprizes. More than 20,000 workmen, who were dispersed throughout Europe, have been recalled by the attention and by the favours of govern