Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

much value to the restoration, and to the continuance of cordiality, and per"fect good understanding with America, "6 as any man can do ; they are ready to "purchase that advantage by every justifiable conciliation; they have proved "that readmess by the act of the pre"sent session, in which the trade of "America has been placed on the most fa"vourable footing; but, Sir, they are not

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

ready to purchase that advantage, great as they acknowledge it, at the price of the "surrender of those rights, en which the "naval power and preponderance of Great "Britain is immutably fixed."--The first thing to be noticed here is, the mild and friendly manner, in which the honourable gentlemen address one another. The trial is over; the cause is decided for this time; the wargling for place is, for a while suspended; and, ti erefore, like two " earned

nieucs." at the bar, the cities shake

[ocr errors]

hands, while the poor people stand astounded at the sight. The outs have, too, found, that violence is quite unavailing; they have in vain endeavoured to convince the nation, that their being restored to place is necessary to its safety; the nation finds the Duke of Portland to be-full as able a prime minister as Lord Grenville was; they see exactly the same transactions a-foot; they see no difference in any respect whatever; whether they turn their eyes towards elections, towards the courts of justice, towards the army affairs, towards the treasury, towards the taxing system, towards the RedBook, towards the divers committees of inquiry and the divers boards of commissioners; whichever way they look, not the least difference do they see; all goes on full as well, and quite as much to the advantage and credit of the kingdom, under the Duke of Portland as under my Lord Grenville, nay, as under "the great man, now no more," or either of the great men, now no more. The nation, therefore, has been insensible to all the earnest and pathetic appeals, made to it by the outs, who, luckily for us, have, and recently too, had au opportunity of shewing what they do when in. Discovering this has made the outs more mild. It has taken the edge off their attacks; and, as a last shift, they appear to have formed a plan for dividing their opponents. They lose no opportunity of paying their court to Mr. Canning, whom they evidently suspect to be hated by no small number of those, whom he sometimes calls his honourable friends; and, Mr. Canning, on his part, appears to be rather more than usually civil to the opposition. There can be no doubt, I think, that the making of the Duke of Portland premier must have been chiefly his work. His associates cannot do without him. He is most luckily situated; and, as things stand, may, and, I dare say, will, carve for himself. I should not be at all surprized, if a new session of parliament should discover to us that party intriguing has not been neglected during the recess. Let those, therefore, who are in possession of the good things, down to the very doorkeepers, make hay while the sun shines. One little twist may jerk them out, and lay them sprawling, like worms ejected by an emetic. Let them make haste to be rich; for, if the Whigs should once more get into the carcase, not all the drugs in the world will again oust them. There is no potion yet discovered by man, that will be found strong enough to stir them. They will live and die with the body. Let no-popery look to it; for, if

all

[ocr errors]

the Whigs once more worn themselves into power, they will beat the grand apostate, old father Brute, in crying out danger to the Church. Mr. Canning holds the key, by the aid of which they hope to re-enter the paradise of place. His colleagues obviously are afraid of him, and yet they dare not openly avow their fears. It is a strange thing, that the opposition, consisting of men of great family and fortune, or, at least, many of them, should condescend to wheedle Mr. Canning; but, courtiers, like common soldiers, measure every man's worth by the standard of power. Begging the reader's pardon for having led him through this digression, I return to my subject. Mr. Whitbread says, that we have held I out, and the Americans have held out." Which is as much as to say, that it is yet a matter of doubt, which country will hold out longest. But, the American news-papers, of which I have some now before me, clearly convince me, that, if they attempt to hold out for the whole year, their Federal government will be overturned. Discontents have prevailed from the day the embargo was imposed; and now, as the reader will see, they have proceeded so far, in one place, as to call for a proclamation from the President. Upon the Mississippi, that is to say, in the Western States, the authority of the Federal Government has been completely set at defiance. In the New England States, the news-papers very cooily propose a separation of those States from the Southern States; and, unless Jefferson and his party be ousted at the next election, this separation, which has been talked of for years, will most assuredly take place. I will now insert the proclamation above-mentioned, adding what may be necessary to give to my readers in general a correct notion of the present state of the country. "Whereas "information has been received that sun

44

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

dry persons are combined or combining "and confederating together on Lake Champlain and the country thereto adjacent "for the purposes of forming insurections against the authority of the laws of the United States, for opposing the same and "obstructing their execution; and that "such combinations are too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers "vested in the marshals by the laws of the "United States.Now, therefore, to the "end, that the authority of the laws may "be maintained, and that those concerned "directly or indirectly in any insurrection "or combination against the same, may be "duly warned, I have issued this my pro

[ocr errors]

"clamation, hereby commanding such insurgents, and all concerned in such com"binations, instantly and without delay to "disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes. And I do hereby fur"ther require and command all officers having authority, civil or military, who "shall be found within the vicinage of such "insurrections or combinations, to be aid"ing and a-sisting, by all the means in "their power, by force of arms, or other"wise, to quell and subdue such insurrec"tions or combinations, to seize upon all "those therein concerned, who shall not in

66

[ocr errors]

stantly and without delay disperse and re"tire to their respective abodes, and to de"liver them over to the civil authority of "the place, to be proceeded against accord. "ing to law."This must be the case. The government has no authority in those distant parts, except merely in name. Mr. Thos. Jefferson now begins to find, that his partiality for France will be tolerated only as long as it does not manifestly injure the people. The people know, that the embargo arose out of the president's hatred of England. This they know full well, and, all its numerous embarrassments they will impute to him. They will forget their own prejudices and violence; they will forget, that their malignant clamour emboldened him to do what he has done; they will make him the 'scape goat; they will send him from his offices with an universal hiss.It appears, from these newspapers, that the elections are running against the French party. Here a little explanation is necessary. The President is elected every four years, the election taking place in the autumn and he entering upon his office in the ensuing month of March. But, the elections for the Senate and the House of Representatives take place oftener; it appears that some of these elections were going on in April, and that, as far as they bad gone, they clearly indicated a change in favour of a resistance of French politics and French influence. This change, if it be such as is anticipated, will, at once, put an end to all the disputes with England, and may lead to consequences the most pleasing and most important. The events in Spain, the abdication on the part of the Bourbons, and the assumption on the part of Napoleon, will, unless the Americans are quite mad, have great weight in producing this desired effect; for extensive as their country is, they will not be safe an hour, without our assistance, if Napoleon take possession of Spanish America. In the mean while, it is evident, from letters sent by the Secretary of the Treasury, to

the several ports, that the Embargo-law
has been evaded, th at numerous vessels have
sailed out laden with lumber and provisions,
and that, in short, the law is obeyed by
those only, who are unable to stand the risk
of disobedience. This was to be expected.
There are no threats that will prevent it. The
government has not the power of making
itself obeyed against the interests of so large
a portion of the community. Where are
now the grounds of that alarm for the sup-
plying of our West India islands, which
Mr. A. B. (or Alexander Baring) of the
Morning Chronicle so pathetically laid before
us? I should not be surprized if our West
India colonies were now better supplied than
ever; because the American ships are now
prevented from going to our enemies' colo-
nies.- -The people in Vermont carry on
a trade, across Lake Champlain, with Ca-
nada. They have set the Embargo-law at
defiance; they still carry on the trade, and
carry it on they will in spite of ten thousand
proclamations from Thomas Jefferson. In
the Western States, it is said, that the go-
vernment gun-boats have been burnt, and
the militia beaten. All this, the reader will
I said
recollect, I said would be the case.
it till I was afraid my readers would be
wearied with the repetition; but Mr. Alex- |
ander Baring and his set dwelt so strongly
upon the dangers of a prohibition of trade
on the part of America, that I was obliged
to repeat it. It is worthy of observation,
too, that the very States, which have now
risen in opposition to the French party, are
those which, until now, were most decidedly
in favour of that party. -How often have
1 said, that the Federal Government could
not exist a year under the effect of a probi-
bition of trade with England and her terri-
tories? The trade is, in fact, now carried
on. It was stated in Congress, just before
it adjourned, that a hundred thousand barrels
of flour had been smuggled from the single
port of Baltimore. What has been done,
ihen, from Philadelphia, New York, and
Boston? In fact, the law is nearly a dead
It must
letter; and I said it would be so.
ke so, or the government must fall. I told
the Americans, a thousand times, that, if
over they should be fools enough to try their
strength against England, their weakness
would be exposed to the whole world. They
would not believe me, They would insist,
that they were a great nation; that Eng-
land was dependant upon them; that they
could starve England, and now we see the
result of the attempt. There has, it
seems, been warm. work in the Congress,
This is
guarding and black eyes.

Discounts,

of

the natural consequence of a state embarrassment. They do not know who to blame but themselves. Like Lucifer and his crew, they fall to abusing one another. This blackguarding is, however, by no means the worst sign. It shews, that the combatants are sincere, at least. I would much rather hear them call one another rogues and traiters and sycophants, than hear them palavering with honourable genileman," and learned friend," and the like, which would sicken one to death. . I would much rather see an angry debate conclude with a fight, or even with a gouging bout, than see the anger all laid aside with the discussion, and the combatants shaking hands and laughing at the folly of their clients. A smooth smiling rogue is the worst of rogues, and when this "gentlemanly" sort of rogues get possession of power, they seldom let go their hold while there is any thing to be got. I, for my part, hate sham fights, in the senate as well as in the field. It is villainous to talk as if you were in earnest, and be in jest all the while; to express the greatest anxiety about what is a matter of indifference to you; to act the mere pleader, nay, the player, in discussions involving the well-being of millions of men.

-The way that the American States will get out of their embarrassment, with respect to us, will, I should think, be this: Mr. Thomas Jefferson and his party will be ousted, and then, the new president will disclaim all their hostile acts. Should this be the case, we shall go on harmoniously for the future; and, I think, that the Americans (especially if Napoleon succeed in Spain) will not be long before they join us against France. That this may be the case, heartily wish; but, I am sure, it never will be, if we make the first movements towards it.

[ocr errors]

SPANISH REVOLUTION.A very great part of this sheet is devoted to the docaments relating to this great event. They are regularly arranged, and will hereafter be found very useful. They exhibit the parties in their true colours, and most black some of them appear.-In some papers of a more recent date, but not official, it is stated, that the Queen of Spain has openly declared her eldest son to be the fruit of an unlawful amour in plain words, that he is a bastard and she a whore! And yet, I'll warrant you, that girls in Spain used to do penance for having bastards. Well, Ferdinand has the consolation of knowing, that he is not the only bastard fruit of a royal mother. It might be somewhat indelicate to investigate such matters; but history informs us of a

HA

great many bastards, female as well as male, who have put forward their pretensions to a crown; and, the worst of it is, we find that nations, that millions of men, have ranged themselves on different sides, have vexed, harrassed, lacerated, and killed one another, in disputes and wars about the honour of such bastardized geutry. This species of madness is, however, at an end, I hope. I do not think that any people could now be found to cut one another's throats for the sake of maintaining the pretended rights of a bastard girl or boy. In this respect, the world is certainly grown wiser than it was. What a shocking thing it would be to see a whole nation involved in confusion; to see it desolated; to see the people (wise and virtuous people too) stained with each other's blood, and all this in consequence of the freaks of a woman, who, perhaps, might owe it merely to her diguity of place, that she was not found amongst her coarseskinned and big-mouthed sisters, in the rear ranks of the stews. Mind, reader, I have been speaking here merely upon the supposition that the account of the late Queen of Spain's declaration be true; for, as to myself, I cannot suffer the belief of the fact to enter my mind. Princes, indeed, not only have bastar is, sometimes, but boast of them, and not unfrequently when it is pretty well known, that they are perfectly innocent of the guilt they so generously assume.

To see

a Prince with a troop of bastards, whether his own or not, at his heels, would be no very, seemly sight, especially while bastardizing is held to be criminal in the people. But, for a Queen, reigning " by the grace of God," or for a gracious Princess, to have a bastard, is not to be believed, though averred by half a score of witnesses, the single oath of either of whom would hang a hundred forgers or coiners.If the account be true, which has been given of the conduct of the Queen of Spain, her royal husband seems to have acted a very amiable part. He must be, upon this supposition, what Pore calls "" a well-bred cuckold." The good man said not a word, which, though not without an example, perhaps, is certainly worthy of imitation amongst all gentlemanly" husbands, whose fate bears a resemblance to his. Turning now to the Patriots of Spain, there really does appear to be some prospect of their final success. There seems to be a general spirit of resistance against France. The language of the several addresses is that of men resolved. All this noble spirit lay smothered under the incubus of despotism. That removed, up it bounds with the quickness

of lightning. Lightning, forked lightning, may it prove to all those, be they who they may or where they may, who would wish again to smother it! And yet I do fear, I greatly fear, that there are persons, and those not few or feeble, who would rather see Buonaparte slaughter the Spaniards, man, woman, and child, than see those Spaniards succeed in establishing a government upon the principles of freedom, upon the priuciples of the real constitution of Engiand. I trust, however, that no such villains as these will obtain influence with our ministers, and prevail upon them to be suspicious and tardy in their operations for the assistance of the Patriots. This is the only fair opportunity that has offered for checking the progress of Napoleon. It is the only cause to which all the people of England have heartily wished success. In all probability it is the last opportunity that will offer for enabling us to give a turn to the long-flowing tide of success.

And, if

I

we neglect this opportunity; if we waste the precious hours, that are now given us for action, in doubts, hesitations, and delays, we, or, at least, those amongst us who shall be found to have been the cause of such conduct, ought to perish, or, which would be better, to linger out a life of misery, loaded with the curses of all good men. know, that there is, amongst some persons, a disposition to hate Buonaparte, not on account of the hatefulness of his tyranny, but from a feeling of envy; and where that disposition exists, there can be no desire to assist, for any good purpose, the Patriots of Spain "I do not like that word patriot,” said a man (I am informed) the other day; and, I am much afraid, he is not quite singular in his taste. That taste will not, I hope, prevail. I am confident it will not become general; but, I am not quite confident that it may not do mischief. Botley, June 30, 1808.

COBBETT'S

Parliamentary History

OF

ENGLAND,

Which, in the compass of Sixteen Volumes,

royal octavo, double columns, will contain a full and accurate Report of all the recorded Proceedings, and of all the Speeches in both Houses of Parliament, from the earliest times to the year 1803, when the publication of "Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates" commenced.

The Fourth Volume of the above work is ready for delivery. It embraces that period

of our Parliamentary History, which is, perhaps, the most interesting of any; namely, from the Restoration of Charles the Second in the year 1000, to the Revolution, in 1658. For this period, the Proceedings and Debates, in both Houses, have been, for the most part, collected from the following works: 1. The Journals of the House of Lords; 2. The Journals of the House of Commons; 3. That portion of the Parliamentary, or Constitutional History of England, which contains the proceedings of the Convention Parliament, from its meeting on the 25th of April, 1000, to its dissolution, on the 24th of December following, at which epoch the editors of this able performance conclude their labours; 4. The Life of the Earl of Clarendon, written by himself, containing some interesting Debates, in both Houses, during the period between the Restoration of the King and the banishment of the said Earl, in the year 1657, which Debates never yet found their way into any Collection; 5. The Proceedings of the House of Commons touching the Impeachment of the Earl of Clarendon, with the many Debates in that House upon the subject; 6. The Works of the celebrated Andrew Marvell, who, from 1660 to 1678, regularly transmitted to his constituents of Hull, a faithful account of each day's proceedings; 7. The Debates of the House of Commons, from 1657 to 1694, collected by the Honourable Antichell Grey, who was thirty years a member for the town of Derby; 8. The Debates in the House of Commons on the Bill of Exclusion, in the year 1680, first published in 1691, in a small duodecimo volume, and afterwards repablished in 1716, andagain in 1897, with the addition of the Debates in the Short Parliament held at Oxford, in the month of March, 1680-1, the proceedings of which related chiefly to the same subject, that is to say, the Exclusion of the Duke of York from the succession to the crown; 9. Timberland's History and Proceedings of the House of Lords; and, 10. Chandler's History and Proceedings of the House of Commons.-It will, doubtless, have been observed by most persons who have much attended to the matter, that, for the period from the Restoration to the year 1743, the two last mentioned works, that is to say, those of Tim. berland and Chandler, have hitherto been regarded as a regular and complete collection, and the only regular and complete collection, of the Proceedings in Parliament; and that, as such, they have been introduced into, and enjoyed a distinguished place in, almost every public and great private library in the kingdon. Therefore, in preparing

the present volume for the press, it might naturally have been expected, that considerable assistance would have been af forded by these works. It is, however, a remarkable fact, which may be verified by a reference to the proceedings of any single session, that very little assistance indeed has been received from them. To say the truth, a discovery of the extreme imperfectness of these works produced one of the motives which led to the present undertaking. On comparing their contents with those of the authentic works before enumerated, they were found to be so extremely defective and incorrect, that they could, in hardly any case, be relied upon with safety. In them, King's Speeches are, in numerous instances, either wholly omitted, or very much curtailed. Scarcely any of the Speeches of the different Lord Chancellors, delivered at the opening of the several Sessions, though those speeches generally contain an outline of the state of the national affairs, are preserved. The Journals appear to have been rarely consulted. Scarcely a Motion or Resolution, is given as it stands in those authentic records. Explanatory notes there are none; and, in only one or two instances have the compilers deemed it necessary to favour the reader with information as to the source, whence they have drawn their materials; which would seem, indeed, to have been moulded into the form of volumes for the mere purpose of filling up a chasm in a book-case.-Besides resorting to the above recited works, recourse has been had to the best historians, and contemporary writers. From Burnet, Echard, Kennet, Cldmixon, Rapin, North, Ralph, Marvell, Reresby, Temple, Walpole, and the Work of the late Mr. Fox, recently published, many Notes, historical and biographical, have been introduced; and, for the sake of connexion, a short account of the principal Occurrences, during each recess of Parliament, has, where necessary, been inserted.

By way of Appendix to this volume, is subjoined a Collection of scarce and valua ble Tracts, purely parliamentary, taken from the State Tracts, privately printed in the reign of Charles II. and James II, from the Harleian Miscellany; and from the noble Collections of Lord Somers. Through these, a more lively image of the times is conveyed, than could be received from any general description, from however eloquent a pen it might proceed. From their scarceness, it is impossible that they should, in their separate state, be generally known; and, as the utility of them, when accompanying the Parliamentary History of the times in which they were written, must

« AnteriorContinuar »