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beg leave, through you, to communicate this answer to the address, on which your signature had the first place, and to add as surances of my respect.-(Signed) THOMAS JEFFERSON.-To Col. Edward Proctor.

pine spreading itself over the ocean. On this element it has reached us, and at length in so serious a degree, that the legislature of the nation has thought it necessary to withdraw our citizens and property from it, either to avoid or to prepare for engaging in the

Petition of the Subscribers, Officers of Mer-general contest. But for this timely precau

chant Ships, belonging to the Port of Philadelphia, to Thomas Jefferson, Esq. President of the United States of America: Respectfully Sheweth, that in consequence of the present embargo laws, the situation of your petitioners is grievous and afflicting; that they have been engage in the mercantile service since their infancy, with few exceptions, and accustomed only to conduct ships or vessels across the ocean; that from the operation of the present restrictive laws, they find themselves cut off from their usual employment, and of course the means of subsistence are gone.-Your petitioners are well acquainted with the duties of conducting ships from port to port-well versed in naval tactics, but unable to bandle the harrow or plough.-Your petitioners have for a long time borne with patience the privations incident to these restrictive laws, without murmur or complaint; but when imperious necessity compels them to disclose the cause of their grievances, they humbly suppose they have a right so to do in a decent and respectful manner.-Your petitioners, therefore, pray that your excellency will take their case into consideration, and adopt such measures as will relieve the wants of your petitioners; or, if there are vacancies in the navy to give to your petitioners, or some of them, an opportunity of serving therein, as they think themselves capable of performing services of that nature. They, however, submit their whole cause to your consideration, hoping your excellency will adopt such measures as wisdom and justice may point out, and as in duty bound will pray, &c-Philadelphia, August 10th

1809.

The President's Answer.

SIR. In answer to the petition which you delivered me from the officers of merchant vessels belonging to Philadelphia, I must premise my sincere regret at the sacrifices which our fellow citizens in general, and the petitioners in particular, have been obliged to meet, by the circumstances of the times. We live in an age of affliction, to which the history of nations presents no parallel; we have for years been looking on Europe covered with blood and violence, and seen ra

tion, the petitioners and their property might now have been in the hands of spoilers, who have laid aside all regard to moral right. Withdrawing from the greater evil, a lesser has been necessarily encountered; and certainly, could the legislature have made provision against this also, I should have had great pleasure as the instrument of its execution; but it was impracticable by ang general and just rules to prescribe, in every case, the best resource against the incon. veniences of this new situation. The diffi culties of the crisis will certainly fall with greater pressure, on some discription of citizens than others, and on none perhaps with greater than on our seafaring brethren. Sould any means of alleviation occur within the range of my duties, I shall with certainty advert to the situation of the petitioners, and in availing the nation of their services, aid them with a substitute for their former occupation. I salute them and yourself with sentiments of sincere regard.

"TH. JEFFERSON."

king

HOLLAND-Dutch Commercial Decree, dated 18th October, 1808. Louis Napoleon, by the grace of God and the constitution of the kingdom, of Holland, and constable of France, hai decreed and decrees as follows:-Art. 1. The exportation, by sea, of the produce of the kingdom, hitherto permitted to be exported to neutral ports, is provisionally suspended until further orders.-Art. II. The superintendance of the coast shall be divided into three grand precincts; the first, extending from the Helder to the Isle of Walcheren, inclusive; the second from the Helder, inclusive, to Harlingen; and the third from Harlingen to the Jahde, inclusive. -Art. III. The commanders-in-chief shall be personally responsible for the execution of the dispositions that relate to the complete shutting of all the ports of the kingdom, and the prevention of all communication with the enemy, and likewise of all that we may hereafter decree. They shall daily transmit a report to our ministers of what relates to their respective departments. (To be continued.)

Printed by Cox and Baylis, Great Queen Street; published by R. Bags) aw, Brydges Street, CoventGarden, where former Numbers may be had: sold also by J. Budd, Crown and Mitre, Pall-Mali.

OL. XIV. No 21.] LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1808. [PRICE 1OD.

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SIR,

TO THE

"Save me from my Friends!",

REV. EDMUND POULTER.
(See his Letter below.)

Without any waste of time or room the sake of ceremony, I shall, at once, d following the order you have pursued, deavour to answer every part of the letter, hich you did me the honour to send me Thursday evening last, which should, I had had it three hours sooner, have peared in the Register of the last week, d which I now ain about to send forth to e public.

First, then. Sir, you complain of the artiality of the gentlemen, by whom the eport of the Proceedings was taken and ablished. I really did not, when I read e Report, perceive in it any marks of artiality. It appeared to me to be as nearcorrect as such a report could be expected be. You cite, however, a particular stance; and, in this you are unfortunate; r, I myself am ready to take my oath, at you, in speaking of Mr. Garnier, scribed him as your " near and dear refation." I have, since I have received ur letter, put this question to six gentleen, who were present, two of them ergymen : "What was it that Mr. Poulter called Mr. Garnier, when he gave his reasons for not having called me to order when I was going into that subject?" The answer of every one has been : he called him his near and dear relation." Besides this, I well remember, at, while you were speaking, a gentlean upon my right band, asked me how u were the relation of Mr. Garnier; and, hile at dinner, the same day, there being one present but persons of the county, ere arose a conversation upon this very estion of relationship. To be at issue, as, upon a point of fact, is not pleasant; it, it is generally true, that no one reembers so imperfectly what a speaker ys, in the heat of disputation, as the eaker himself. Ask any of your friends, r, who were near you, in the Hall; and am satisfied, that you will find reason to ubt your own accuracy, in this respect, least. That you should forget what you id, in the baste of the moment, is not

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only probable, but it is what one would naturally expect; but, that you should now give us, as the very words; that you should now lay before the public, marked by in verted commas, words which you did not utter, does, I must confess, greatly surprize me; and my surprize is not diminished by the reflection, that it is a matter of no importance, as far as I can conceive, what the words were; for, what difference could it possibly make, as to the merits of the case before the meeting, whether Mr. Garnier was your relation, or not? What possible inducement could the reporters have to misrepresent you in a thing of this sort? Supposing their partialities to have been against you, what end could they propose to themselves in making the world believe that you were the relation, instead of the friend and admirer, of the person of whom mention had been made ?

As to my being out of order, in introducing the subject of Mr. Garnier and his immense emoluments, that I now deny, as I denied at the time. To talk over again the demerits of the Convention appeared to me to be quite useless; but, nothing seemed more proper, in addressing one's self to a meeting of tax-payers, than to show the causes of the friendship and support. with the Convention-makers found; and, the particular instance in question was a very striking one of the interest which some persons had, and must naturally have, in a continuation of the war, at all events, and to which continuation the Portugal Convention was so manifestly a friend. The people want to be made acquainted with facts. They have so long been bandied about from faction to faction, that they cannot know what to think. They cannot know their friends from their enemies." The way is to give them some facts; names and dates and sums. Fix their attention to things, and not amuse them with sounds. The corrupters and the corrupted want nothing more than to keep facts from the people. Neither faction exposes, or attempts to expose, the other, in those points where the public are really interested. They quarrel; they hate one another most sincerely; but, their ha tred is that of rivals; that of rivals for

plunder; and, they take special care not to attack the object of their common pursuit. -We were met for the purpose of considering, whether it was proper to petition the king for inquiry into the cause of a great military failure. You called me to order, because I was making a statement of the expence of supporting the Duke of York, of whose failures and of whose memorable Convention at the Heider, I had just been speaking, as of the example, which had led to all our subsequent disgraceful capitulations and conventions. And, if this was not being in order, what could be so ? Was I not, when I was speaking of the services of a person, to speak also of the compensation, which he received for those services? Why was this, above all other matter, to be avoided? Was it because you did not wish the people to know how their money was expended? Were you afraid, Sir, that they would begin to perceive, that the sacrifices they were making were not for the defence of their country? I can see no other reason; but, if another such opportunity should occur, the cry of order shall not prevent me from proceeding to discharge what I deem my bounden duty.

With respect to Mr. Garnier and his patent and emoluments, I should be fully justified in refusing to admit into my Register, any answer to what I thought proper to say at a public meeting of the county. The time and place for answering me was when and where the speech was made. I am ready, however, to admit any thing respecting this matter, until the discussion be fairly closed, because it is a matter of deep and general interest; but, I must; before I proceed further, beg you to observe, that it is upon this account that I admit your letter, and not from any persuasion, that I am bound to give an opponent at Winchester an opportunity of reviving the debate in my Register, which is intended for general circulation; for, otherwise, every one who had a dispute with me, no matter of what kind, might claim the insertion of his letters, and the public, as far as they read my publication, would be entertained with, at best, the mere politics of Hampshire.

Mr. Garnier's is a case of great and general importance. I am happy, that he has, through you, challenged this sort of discussion; not, because I am convinced, that he will have cause to repent of having yielded to the suggestions of zealous, though injudicious, friendship; but, because I regard his patent, and the concern growing out of it, as being amongst those flagrant abuses, the exposure of which must, in time, work

a change in the minds of this deceived and torpid nation.

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You tell me, Sir, that Mr. Garr loaths and abhors the very name 12 nature of war;" and this," from b general feelings of humanity, andtroni having lost four sons in the service of country by the war; and that most! pily would he restore the money ha gained by the patent, if the blod he' "lost could be restored to him." Now, S this is very full of fine sentimeat, andma do very well in a modern romance E how far will it stand the test of rease Why did he place four sons in the array. navy, if he loathed and abhorred the v name and nature of war? He, surely, tended they should, sometime or other, forth to fight? Or, if he made them diers, or sailors, upon the speculation continual peace, I see, in his conduct, za thing better than the proof of a desire obtain for them a livelihood out of the b lic burthens without any corresponding s vices. This is a dilemma, Sir, from wha I am of opinion, you will find it very diffic to extricate Mr. Garnier. It is in vain, you apply a general argument in support a a statement from personal knowledge; in vain, that you tell me, that “ his te education, generous habits, and "rental feelings, would prevent him f "bartering affections for interests;" shall be satisfied with nothing but c clusions, drawn from facts. into the list of places and pensions; there you will find proofs of greediness: meanness too hateful to be described, in sons, who have bad, what you are please the common phrase of the day, to e "liberal education." Indeed, it w seem, that, in many instances, such ed tion, instead of having produced dignis notions; instead of having given rise te dependence of mind and of conduct, is k ed upon as a sufficient plea for saddling possessor as a sort of state pauper upsi public. This education, call it what will, has a degrading effect. I have nee yet seen it productive of any thing great praiseworthy. I see it sending forthata of shameless drones and peculators; 2 therefore, I despise it. Of Mr. Garnit generosity we shall, presently, see sone 14 stances not to be controverted; but, give t leave to make a general observation; that is, that, according to the old max 3, we should be just betore we are gener The Apostle, you well know, Sir, bids give to those who need, a precept which t had copied from his Master; but, hosi

Look,

something, too, about the manner of getting what we give; and he tells us, to be sure to get it by our labour; to earn it; to be able to call it our own, in conscience as well as in law, before we attempt to give it away. Whether Mr. Garnier's generosity will stand this test we are now proceeding to inquire.

The date and the duration of Mr. Garnier's patent you have accurately stated. It has been in the hands of his father and himself for seventy-four years; during that time they have bad, in virtue of their patent, a monopoly of the supply of the army with meditines and surgical instruments. Mr. Garnier birself has never, in any instance, performed any part of the duty; and yet, besides the immense profits derived from the monopoly, he, who never has done an hour's duty, who has been proved upon oath never to have given a moment's attendance, in any way whatever in the public service, has been in the receipt, and is now in the receipt, of the pay of ten shillings a day, as being upon the staff of the army, though he "loaths "and abhors the very name and nature of ** war!" Sir, fine sentiments will not silence this fact. Talk to me not of the natural effect of a liberal education;" talk to me not of Mr. Garnier's "generosity ; for, if ever there was a proof of consummate meanness, it is that which we here have before us. Good God! Look at the estates in and about Wickham; look at the endless church preferment of his sons; look at his splendid mansion and equipage, and his numerous train of menials. Look at all this; consider that it has all come from the public burthens and without one day's service on the part of the possessor; consider that this possessor still receives, in pay from that pub. lic, the sum of ten shillings a day, as an offi cer upon the staff of the army, in which office he has never acted for one hour; and then insult us, who are the payers of this man; then insult us again, I say, with an argument, in favour of his disinterestedness, founded on his "liberal education" and his ".generous habits !"

I should now enter upon a refutation of the statement, which you have made with respect to the profits of Mr. Garnier. But, Sir, you are not to learn, that, early in the present year, a Report, relative to his department, was laid before parliament by the Commissioners of Military Inquiry, which Report, as far as it relates to the said profits, I shall, before I proceed further with my own observations, quote, word for word. The Commissioners first observe, that there is no efficient check to Mr. Garnier's Accounts, either as to quantity, quality, or

prices. All that you have alledged about long credit, the Apothecaries Company's prices to the Navy, and so forth, was alleged before the commissioners; and, in this extract from their Report, you will find it all completely refuted. Before we pro"ceed to state the course we have followed "in endeavouring to get at a correct

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judgment of the prices allowed in "these bills, it may be proper to notice, "that the form of the certificate, at pre"sent signed by the physician and surgeon general, differs from that which was in use when Sir Clifton Wintringbam was physician general to the army. His "certificate states, "that the medicines and materials, as recited in the invoices, "had, agreeable to their respective dates, "been carefully viewed and examined by him, and that they were found to "be very good; and further, that he "believes the prices, as far as his inqui""ries could ascertain, were reasonable,

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as being rated at the current price

which they bore at the time they were ""supplied by the apothecary general.' "From this form of certificate we infer, "that the very articles named in the invoices "had been examined by the physician ge"neral on the dates of their being placed "in the packages; and that the current "rate of price on the days of the supply "was that which was certified by him. "The present form of the certificate states, "that the physican general and surgeon ge"neral" have, from time to time, care

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fully examined the different articles "contained in the account, and that

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they have uniformly found them of the "best quality." Whatever inference may be drawn from the words used in "this certificate, we learn from Mr. Clarke, "that there is no security but the "inte""grity of the parties employed," that "the articles which have been inspected

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"checking the apothecary general's "" charges, he always takes into consi

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dération the variation in the prices of *** the medicinés."- On an inspection, " however, of the two accounts which we "have procured from the treasury, one of which amounts to about forty-four thou"sand five hundred pounds, and the other "to upwards of seventy-five thousand pounds, we cannot find, except in one or two instances, that there is any variation in the prices charged in each year; not"withstanding the supply is extended "through the whole of the year; and we have understood that, in one material "article at least, that of bark, there was a very great variation in its price during "one of the years. We have remarked too, on an investigation of those bills, that the prices charged by the apothecary "general have been uniformly admitted; *for we can find no alteration or deduction

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"bill for which was communicated to us "by Mr. Calvert Clarke. It will be seen,

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on an inspection of the two columns in "which the different rates of charge of "the apothecary general and of Messrs. "Kempson and Co. are given, that the rates of the first are almost in every instance higher than those of Messrs. Kempson, and, on the amount of the "whole, are 40 per-cent. higher than "theirs: : yet Mr. Kempson says, that "bis prices would have afforded him something handsome in the way of profit; and that the price of bark, particularly, is taken at a high valu ""ation."The blank bills submitted to Messrs. Godfrey and Cooke, and to "Messrs. Corbyn and Co., also chemists "and druggists in London, were copi d "from invoices of much larger quantities than that submitted to Mr. Kempson, " and were selected from the apothecary "general's bills for 1804 and 1805. Oa an inspection of the comparative state

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ment in the Appendix, of the rates of "the charge of the apothecary general, "and of the gentlemen before named, it

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appears that there is often a difference is "the prices of these gentlemen as between "themselves, and that, in some instances, "their prices exceed those of the apothe "cary general; but that, on the whole, "his prices exceed those of Messrs. Godfre ana Cooke by 41 per-cent. and of Messrs. Corbyn and Co. by 18 per-cent in the year 1804; and in 1805 they exceed the first by 37, and the second by 19 per-cent. "Some explanation, however, is neces sary in this place: it is well known that "the prices which merchants and tradesmen

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