in India. The language used by France, on this subject, you put into her mouth; upon your authority she is now accusing this country of acts more tyrannical and of views more ambitious than she herself can be accused of: and, because you would not appear to support this her language, you decline bringing on the subject; you leave the British nation loaded with the foulest of suspicions, and you forfeit a pledge, solemnly given to the Parliament and the people! At the time when you first broached this matter, you had in view only the reputation it would acquire you: you thought to make a good thing of it: you did not foresee those potent reasons for forbearance, which have since occurred to you, and of which I shall speak more explicitly when I come to consider your conduct relative to the Council of War. When, therefore, the papers, which, on the 10th of August last, forced from you the miserable excuse, on which I have been remarking, were brought up, you knew not what to say, nor which way to look. Here was before the House a complete specimen of the sort of service, which the country derives from your "true English feeling.' In the case of the mutiny in the fleet, the cause and effect, the first and second acts, of your conduct, were at a greater distance, or, at least, they were not connected by a link so visible. Men of sense and reflection did, indeed, perceive, that, in condemning the conduct of the mutineers, you were only making a very trifling and inadequate atonement for the mischief theretofore done by your anarchical speeches, in as well as out of Parliament; they perceived, that " you were "only bringing your bucket, or rather thim"ble full to extinguish the mighty confla

gration, which you had so sedulously as"sisted in producing;"* but, to the Public in general, and, indeed, to the House itself, the connexion was not nearly so evident as in the case now under consideration, where cause and effect met, as it were by appointment, and, side by side, presented themselves to the notice of the spectators. It was during the debate on the famous Vote of Thanks to the Volunteer Corps. I shall not forget the scene the longest day have to live. You were standing by the side of the table, giving vent to the full tide of your true English feeling;" exhorting the members, to leave behind them all their political animosities, all party-spirit; to do and to say nothing that might tend to embarrass the government, or feed the enemy

• Mr. Windham's Speech, 4th Aug. 1803.

with hopes or with arguments against us, but firmly to unite, and to act as one man, in defence of their Sovereign and their country. Just at this moment it was, that the Clerk of the House came up, and clapped down, close beside you, the enormous packet of papers, which you yourself had called for, with a view of making good your charge of "flagrant and atrocious" conduct against the very government, towards whom you were now calling for unlimited forbearance! "Nothing," as Fielding says, in speaking of his puppet-men, who, just at the close of a long harangue on the excellent moral effects of his scenes, was interrupted by the noise of the landlady dragging in her maid, whom she had detected in an intrigue with the Merry Andrew, and who, in her justification, pleaded the example of the fine lady in the puppetshow, "nothing could have happened so "very inopportune as this accident; the "most wanton malice of fortune could not "have contrived such another stratagem to "confound the poor fellow, while he was "so triumphantly descanting on the excel"lence of his principles. His mouth was

now as effectually stopped, as that of a "quack must be, if in the midst of a de"clamation on the great virtues of his pills " and powders, the corpse of one of his "martyrs should be brought forth, and de

posited upon the table before bim, as a testi

mony of his skill."--Leaving you, Sir, to make the application, and to reflect how far you were prudent in defying the world "to point out a single pledge that you had ever forfeited," I should now proceed to the remaining points of this part of the subject, which want of room, compels me to defer till my next. In the mean time, I am, Sir, yours, &c. &c.

WM. COBBETT.

Duke Street, 20th Sep. 1803.

SIR,

TO THE EDITOR.

September 18th, 1803.

-The vile COMMERCIAL GREATNESS, on which to place all our reliance, has so long been a favourite delusion, you have begun to pourtray in its true colours; you have pierced the deceitful visor; you have touched the shield with your spear, and proved how hollow it sounds! Go on, Sir, to warn the nation, that this commerce, valuable and praise-worthy as it is before it exceeds its limits; before it destroys ancient families, overshadows liberal professions, discourages intellectual eminence, and places all distinction in wealth, must not grow to

insolent, and put too much confidence in its own strength. There must always come a time, and that time is actually come to this country, when it must sink back to its proper level, or be destroyed. In the hour of bloated prosperity, it has forgot the heroic spirits and hardy tempers by whom it was nurs'd, and under whom it grew up; but the moment is arrived when weakened with splendor and enfeebled by luxury, it must forego its pride and look to the same protectors for the preservation of its age! How absurd the idea, that this commerce can defend itself by its own powers! A system so artificial can no longer support itself, when a great nation, actuated by ambition, or wickedness, or necessity, chooses to abandon the advantages and the evils of a luxurious and refined state, and to have recourse again to natural strength. The age of chivalry must return; the statesman, the soldier, and the sailor, must again find their due places in society, and the sensual and narrow minded citizen, puffed up with wealth, and inebriated with purchased titles, must no longer trample on those, from the toils and perils, and perhaps the blood, of whose ancestors his opulence has sprung, and by whom and whose posterity that opulence can alone be secured. It was not prejudice, or an illiberal principle, which dictated the inferiority of estimation, in which traders were formerly held: it was wisdom, it was necessity which taught it; and of all odious aristocracies, the aristocraey of wealth, to which a commercial country has so strong a tendency, is the most odious the most dangerous, and the least permanent. It is now universally agreed that we must become an armed people; our riches can no longer protect us; our paper currency and our flourishes on the Stock-Exchange, can only exist while surrounded by the guard of our swords. But it is not by the volunteer companies of towns, it is not by effeminate shopkeepers commanded by effeminate captains from the desk and countinghouse, men whose souls are engrossed by calculations of credit and capital, and who are watching all day the fluctuations of the funds, that we must be guarded. It is on the hardy and unsophisticated peasantry, commanded by the antient gentry, of more enlarged minds, of more unshackled pursuits, and of manlier and bolder habits, that we must rely. Leave the tradesman and manufacturer to their shops; but let every country gentleman and young ploughman be a soldier. To mix all the classes, in the manner which the volunteering system necessarily pursues, is to destroy at once the efficiency of arm

If I could but see an end to this degrading system of FUNDING, and the consequent check which would be given to the ruinous and revolutionary tricks of the money-market, I should yet hope that our military and substantial power, instead of thus trembling on the edge of annihilation, might be greater than it ever yet has been. But the spirit, which prevailed in the days of the PLANTAGENETS and TUDORS, must revive: distinctions must fall into other channels; and legislation be delegated to other tongues. The days of the Veres, and Percies, and Cliffords, and Nevilles must return; and the glory of leading vassals into the field, instead of bringing the greatest array of bank-notes towards the completion of a loan, must obtain the smiles of a Monarch and conciliate the regard and admiration of a people.In the conduct of government, with regard to elections, I am sorry to say, there is an error, which has long been acted upon, and which has produced, and is producing, mischief of fearful magnitude: I allude to the rank and quality of the candidates, to whom they give their support. Were they to throw their influence into the scale of the country gentlemen of liberal and cultivated minds, competent landed estate, honourable cone nexions, sound political principles, and attached to the ancient establishments of Europe, their support would not only be free from blame, but would deserve commendation. But look at those who have been the ministerial candidates; Are they men of independent property? Are they the ancient

* See the whole of Akenside's Ode, 1758.

gentry of the kingdom? Are they neighbours to the boroughs for which they offered? Are they men of any natural interest there? Have many of them even the legal qualification in land? Placemen, adventurers, bankers, stock-brokers, shop keepers, lawyers, East and West Indians, and mushroom gentry, came down to almost every town and city, and some of them even to counties. It is remarkable, that in the rich and well inhabited county of Kent, which has many ancient families of good estate still resident in it, that, out of 10 members returned to the present Parliament, for the cities and boroughs, there is but one country gentleman of landed estate, and he is of a new family. Of the others, there are at least eleven, who have not, as I believe, a single foot of Kentish land. Indeed, out of the $13 members returned by England and Wales, there are not more than 141, who come under the character of country gentlemen! All this arises from the ruinous system of FUNDING, which has gone farther towards the destruction of the power and fortune of the ancient gentry, the extinction of the old families, and the ruin of the aristocracy, than the waste of successive civil wars, and the revolutions of many centuries. As long ago as 1757, Postlethwayt in his "Great Britain's True System," makes the following assertion: " when "the art of funding was first introduced, "the common talk of mankind was, that "the people of England must be undone. "Some tell us that the event has proved "the vanity of that apprehension. But the "prediction has been verified, perhaps, in "the strict sense. All that was then meant "by the assertion, we may suppose, was "that the then land possessors, and their

posterity, must be undone, and their in"heritance given away from them, and "become the property of the chiefs of the

money-mongers. It could never be their "meaning, that the land would run away, "or cease to be occupied by somebody. "Since our debts have taken place, not

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Dear one-tenth of the land of England is "possessed by the posterity or heirs of "those who possessed it at the revolution. "And if the extermination, (as it may be justly enough termed) is not universal, "it is only because there were a few overgrown estates, such as the Devonshire, "Bedford, Curzon, &c. which have been proof against the waste of luxury and taxes."I have taken the pains to analyze the lists, and have felt a painful conviction of the truth of these assertions, by seeing them exemplified in the regular

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and rapid operation of the system on the return of every successive Parliament for 70 years. At each election more and more country gentlemen withdraw; more names familiar in our history retreat to private life, and then expire; the respect for birth decays; and the public become habituated to see obscure men in honourable stations. But, never were the strides so rapid as in the formation of the present ministry. Never before was a man, without a pre. tension to family, or even fortune, placed in a high political situation, much less in the rank of Premier; and above all, when there is a deficiency of abilities, for which even the noblest descent and largest fortune would not make amends, it must excite inexpressible astonishment and regret !! But even this is not all. Look at his coadjutors! Yet I must forbear to enter into their history, lest I should appear too personal. may hereafter have an opportunity to arrange what I have to say on this subject in a manner which requires time and caution, for I would not offend the rules of delicacy and perhaps the indignation of my spirit might at this moment utter more than is necessary, and more than your paper could at once find room for. ANJOU.

Ι

TO THE EDITOR.

Oxford, Sept. 19, 1803. SIR, We have read here with pleasure your strictures on the senseless bombast of Pizarro. The Public should often be reminded of the objects to which the moral and political influence of the stage is now directed. In the School for Scandal our youth were taught that decency of conduct and morality of sentiment are never failing symptoms of hypocricy and vice: that genuine virtue is found only among the debauched and the profligate and that true generosity consists in squandering away the property of others, and lavishing on idleness and vice the hard-earned substance of an industrious and indigent creditor. In the Stranger we were presented with a studied apology for adultery, heightened by treachery, and aggravated by the blackest ingratitude. But Pizarre has soared still higher. If motives may justly be inferred from words and actions, the original from which this English play is servilely copied was written with a deliberate intention of vilifying the Christian religion, and by an injurious and false comparison, degrading it even below the bloody institutions of Peruvian or Mexican idolatry.--When Louis the Sixteenth, who perished only because

he was afraid to spill the blood of his people in a just cause, was to be rendered odious to that very people; their minds were prepared for regicide by representation, in which one of his predecessors was introduced as a sharer in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. In close imitation of this happy model, Kotzebue presents to us the ferocious adventurers who deluged America with blood, as the true representatives of the Christian character; while he ascribes to the savage and superstitious worshippers of the Sun, all the mild and benevolent principles, promulgated only by the true religion. If truth had been considered, or history consulted, he would have learnt by whom the Spanish cruelties in America were first condemned; and would have found that the venerable Las Casas was neither an idolator nor a deist, but a Christian bishop.

Yet this is the play which is selected for the instruction of the British people, in the present awful moment: these are the scenes which challenge the patriotic acclamations of British audiences: and though they fail of these, obtain at least the venal applauses of the British press! Of that loyalty which would insinuate that the British crown is elective, you have already spoken. On that philosophy which asserts with Robespierre, that the sleep of death is eternal, others have often animadverted. But the general tendency of this play obvious as it is, has been suffered to pass uncensured. There was reason to hope, that, when the gilt leather was tarnished, and the white robes of the actresses were blackened with dirt, this wretched copy of a wretched original would have been allowed to rest in that obscurity to which taste and classic judgment condemn it.

But if instead of this it is once more to be held forth as a standard for British feeling, we trust it will be your task to write in opposition to it being the standard of that religion which it insults, and of that monarchy which it degrades and we are persuaded that by so doing, you will render a more essential service to the cause of our common defence, than will result from all the declarations against the perfidy, ambition, and tyranny of Buonaparté, that can be uttered by all the admirers of his former justice, moderation, and love of liberty.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

* See the Song of Cara,

ACADEMICUS.

PUBLIC PAPER.

DECREE of the government of MARTINIQUE and ST. LUCIA, concerning the DUTIES of IMPORT and ExPORT of those Colonies, Dated June 20th, 1803. In the name of the French Republic. Lewis Thomas Villaret Joyeuse, Captain-General of Martinique and St. Lucie; and Charles Henry Bertin, Counsellor of State and Colonial Prefect of said Islands. In consideration of the acts of hostility committed some days past by the English, on French and foreign vessels in sight of this colony:

sity

-Considering the urgency of providing supPlies of provisions and objects of the first necesfor the Islands of Martinique and St. Lucie: -And cons dering, moreover, the great importance of securing for the inhabitants a vent for the colonial productions, and of discharging the expenses incurred by providing for the defence of the said colonies,-Decree as follows:-Art. I. From this day, the entrance of all the ports of the Islands of Martinique and St. Lucie shall be open to foreigners, for the introduction of all kinds of provisions, and articles of the first necessity, and for the exportation of colonial produce, on the following conditions:-Art. 11. The arrêté of the 11th Nivôse, year 11, relative to the duties of export and import in the islands of Martinique and St. Lucie, is renewed, as far as concerns the introduction of provisions and articles of the first necessity; and the 3d article of the arrêté of the Consuls of the 4th Messidor, year 10, establishing the duty of entry at six francs on every five myriagrammes of foreign cod-fish, and the 5th article of the arreêté of the ci-devant council of state of the 30th of August, 1784, which establishes a duty of entry of three francs per quintal on foreign salted beef and fish, and provisionally repealed:-Art. III. All provisions and articles of consumption arriving from a foreign country, shall be subject to a local duty of one per cent. and to an additional duty of two per cent.-Art. IV. Colonial productions exported to foreign countries shall be subject to the duty called Domains d'Occident, viz. three and a half per cent. on their value, and ten sols per livie, and sugars to the duty besides of forty sols per quintal; and also to the duty of ten sols per livre. The said productions shall likewise be subject to a local duty of one per cent. and to an additional duty of one per cent.-Art. V. The colonial productions exported to France by French subjects, shall remain subject to the duty of two per cent. on their value, which duty shall be charged to the seller or shipper, and shall be paid to the Customs, by the master of the vessel.

-Art. VI. The Director General of the Customs is charged with the execution of the present arrêté, which shall be printed, read, published, and affixed in all the customary places: a copy of which shall be sent to the Chief Judge with a request to have the same recorded in the registry of the tribunals.Decreed at Fort de France, in the island of Martinique, the fi st Messidor, year II of the French Republic.

(Signed)

VILLARET, BERTIN.

DECREE of the Government of ST. DOMINGO, for ADMITTING PROVISIONS into the island FREE OF DO TY. Dated July 5, 1803.

In the name of the French governm nt:The General in Chief, Captain-General of the colony of ft. Doingo decrees:--Art. 1 The duties establishe. by the tarif of the 10th Nivose last ($1st

December,) on the commodities hereinafter enumerated, are suppressed, to wit: on grain, biscuit, rice, and all kinds of salt provisions whatever.II. These articles will be admitted to entry free of duty. The importer will be subjected only to the fees of the Custom-House, and other duties established by regulations.III. This exemption from duty shall continue during the war, to commence from the date of this arrêté in all the ports of the colony, which are henceforward open to foreign commerce.--IV. The Colonial Prefect is charged with the execution of this decree, which will be inserted in the Official Gazette.--At the quarters of the General of the Cape, the 16th Messidor, 11th year. DT. ROCHAMBEAU.

DECREE of the Government of ST. DOMINGO, declaring the ISLAND in a STATE of SIEGE. Dated July 6th 1803.

In the name of the French Government.--The General in Chief, Captain-General of the Colony of St. Domingo, considering that the hostilities committed on the coasts of St. Domingo by English ships do not leave the least doubts of a rupture between France and England. Considering that it is absolutely necessary to cut off all communication between the interior and exterior enemy. Considering also that the Colony, situated as it is, can and ought to be governed by a single administration, and under the immediate orders to the military authority decrees:--Art. I. St. Domingo is declared in a state of siege.--II. All civil and judiciary authorities are suspended.III. The present shall be executed under the care of General Thouvenot, Chief of the Staff of the Army in the Cape, on the day of this publication, in the chief places, besides it shall be printed, published, posted up, and inserted in the Official Gazette. At the head-quarters of the Cape, 17th Messidor, year 11. DT. ROCHAMBEAU.

FOREIGN OFFICIAL PAPER. NOTICE respecting the BILLS drawn on the FRENCH GOVERNMENT, by the GOVERNMENT of ST. DoMINGO. Dated July 3, 1803.

Army of St. Domingo.- At the Head-Quarters of the Cape, the 9th Messidor, 11th year of the French Republic.

The General in Chief orders Citizen Roux, printer of the government, instantaneously to print in the Official Gazette, and therein to insert, the following article:-The General in Chief gives in the most formal manner, the lie to the letter of the Minister of Marine, addressed to the First Consul, under date of the 5th of Floréal, inserted in the Moniteur of the 10th of the same month. This letter falsely censures the government bills drawn on France, and particularly those of Alexander Lindo. I am compelled to remove this notorious calumny, and I owe it to General Le Clerc, who alone with me has issued them, to unmask the absurdity of such an assertion.

DT. ROCHAMBEAU.

INTELLIGENCE.

FOREIGN. Some time ago; the Marquis of Wellesley repaired to the capital of the Nabob of Oude, for the purpose of making some political arrangements. The propositions which

he off red were readily agreed to by his Highness, wh has lately expressed his satisfaction at the result of the measures then concerted, by which considerable additions have been made to his revenue. Mirsa Ahmed Ali Khaun, the Nabob vizier's second son, is to command a strong detachment, with which he is to join the coalition against Juswunt Rao Hoikar -Col. Wellesley has taken the field against the Western Mahrattas, and captured Poonah. The object of these movements is to support the Peishwa against Holkar and Scindea. An insurrection has broken out in Candahar, and Ahured, a celebrated chief, has assembled a large number of military followers, and avowed his intention of disputing the sovereignty of the Kingdom.The Hamburgh Correspondenten of the 30th ult. contains an article, dated on the 20th, on the frontiers of Russia, stting that the remonstrance which had been made at Paris, against the occupation of the Hanoverian territories had been unsuccessful, and "that a written answer had been made, declar"ing that the measures which had been adopted "with regard to the electorate could not be "changed." -It is said at Berlin, that negotiations are going on for the removal of all French troops from the Elbe and the Weser, and for withdrawing the British ships from the blokade of those rivers. The great inconve

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nience which has arisen in all the countries which were formerly supplied, through those rivers, renders the raising of the blockade a measure of the first importance.On the 2d instant the states of the territory of Hanover, both ecclesiastical and civil, and the deputies of the towns were convened in the Knights' Hall, in the palace of Hanover, by gen. Mortier, to deliberate on the means of sup plying the arrears of pay, which the electorate had been directed to provide for the French troops. The states declared their inability to furnish the requisite sum, without the aid of new loans, or ordering military execution upon the inhabitants.The great army which the Prince of Denmark has been for some time past assembling on the frontiers of Holstein, for maintaining the neutrality of the Danish territories, is to be dispersed at the end of September; and the detachments which composed it are to return to their different garrisons. Don Jose d'Almeida, the Portuguese minister, who has always opposed the influence of France at the court of Lisbon, has been removed from his offices, and is to be dispatched on a mission to Germany. The foreign and war departments will, for the present, be filled by M. Pinto, who formerly held them, but who, on the appointment of Don Almeida, was removed to the home department.- Gen. Lasnes, who was recalled at the instance of the Portuguese government, has been again sent to that court by the First Consul, and has succeeded in obtaining the acquiescence of the government to certain demands favourable to the views of France and injurious to the interests of Great Britain. Accounts from Madrid state that the Spaniardsoffered a large sum of money to France as the