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"the subject of that Appeal, and particularly with respect to the BANK NOTES." I dre say, that there will be no objection to the insertion of the intended letter; but, I cannot refrain from apprizing the writer, that I am rather surprized, that the numbers of the Bank Notes have not been published. As the Major expressed his anxious desire to return the notes, one would think that he must still have them in his posses. sion; and, the gentleman who suggested the question to nie, assured me, that, if the numbers were advertised, the notes would be traced to the late possessor, with the greatest facility. What I should do, were I in the Major's place, is this. State publickly the numbers of the notes, and offer to give them up to whomsoever would prove a proprietorship in them, than which, I am -told, nothing is more easy. The fact is, that, if the Major does this, the public will believe bis account, respecting the notes, -to be true; if he does it not, they will, with very great reason, believe it to be a most atrocious falsehood.

Botley, December 2, 1808.

NEW EDITION OF THE STATE TRIALS.

On Monday, the 2nd of January, 1909, will be published (to be completed in Thirty-six Monthly Parts forming Twelvevery large Volumes in Royal Octavo), Part the First, Price 10s. 6d. of

AND

COBBETT'S

COMPLETE COLLECTION OF

State Trials,

PROCEEDINGS FOR HIGH TREASON, AND OTHER CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME.

In proceeding with the PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY, which it has been, and is, one of the principal objects of my life to lay complete before the public of the present day, and, in that state, to have the satisfaction of leaving it to posterity, I have, for some time past, perceived that there would still be wanting a Work like that above described. In putting to myself this question, "How shall I go to work to secure "the best chance of rendering a son capable "of accomplishing great things; fit to "have a share in guiding the minds of "others; of weight sufficient to make him "an object of respect with good, and of "dread with bad public-men ?" In putting this question to myself, the answer my mind suggested was " Suffer, not his time to be

"wasted in learning sounds instead of sense; "suffer not his body and mind to be debi"litated by continual confinement and "continual controul and correction. Gire

"him, God being your helper, a sound

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body and strong limbs; habituate him to "bear fatigue, to move with confidence "and rapidity in the dark; to fare and to "sleep hard; and, above all other things in "the world, to rise with the lark, thus making his year equal to eighteen months "of his effeminate contemporaries. Nest "lead him into the paths of knowledge, not "minding whether pedants call it learning, or not; and, when he arrives at the proper age for acquiring that sort of knowledge, make him acquainted with every thing material, as to public affairs, "that has really occurred in his country "from the earliest times to the present day.

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Open to him the book, not of speculation, "but of unerring experience. That he may "be able to judge of what is, as well as of what ought to be, show him, in "detail, all the political causes and effects, "to be found in our history; make him see clearly how this nation has come up, "and how this government has grown to gether

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From these, or such like reflections, sprang that arduous undertaking, the PARLIAMEN TARY HISTORY OF ENGLAND; and, from the same source arises the Work, which I now submit to the judgment of the public. As I proceeded with the HISTORY, I found. that to read discussions, relating to Trials for High Treason and for other high Crimes and Misdemeanors, and not to be able to refer immediately to those Trials, they being so intimately connected with the history of the parliament, and being a detailed relation of some of the most important and most interesting events to be recorded, could not fail to be greatly disadvantageous to the student: yet, to bring into the HISTORY such a mass of legal proceedings, which admitted of little abridgment, was, for several reasons, not to be thought of. I, therefore, resolved to form them into a separate Work, to be published during the same time, and in the same manner, as to paper and print, with the PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY.

Besides the consideration of uniformity, there were others which had great weight in this determination. The STATE TRIALS are now to be found only in an edition of Eleven Volumes in folio, a form so unwieldy that it is impossible they should ever be much read, to say nothing of their incomplete state, or of the expence; which latter alone, owing to the scarceness of even this imperfect ed

30

HAW

relating to such points, are laid down, or collected: 9. In like manner, references will be made to my Parliamentary History for Parliamentary Proceedings connected with. any Trial, and to other works calculated to elucidate any part of this Collection of Trials 10. Some Trials before Courts Martial, but those only of the greatest importance and most general interest, and illustrative of the history of the times, will be preserved in this Work: 11. To each Volume there will be prefixed a full and clear Table of Contents, and in the last Volume there will be a General Index to the whole Work, so complete that I hope it will be found to leave nothing of any importance difficult to be referred to.

It is computed, that the Eleven Volumes of the last edition of the State Trials will be comprized in Nine Volumes of the New Edition, and that the Additional Matter to bring the Work down to the present time," will make three Volumes more. The whole Work, therefore, will consist of Twelve

very large Volumes. The paper and print

tion, must be a serious obstacle to general circulation. So that this Work, though absolutely necessary to the lawyer and the - professed politician, very curious, interesting and instructive, in itself, and, in a high degree, illustrative of the legal, political, and constitutional history of the country, is to be met with in but very few private libraries, those of counsellors and solicitors not excepted. The mere reduction of size, from the unmanageable folio of former editions to that of the Royal Octavo, double page, which unites economy with convenience, will, in itself, be no inconsiderable improvement. But, the proposed edition will possess the following additional advantages: 1. The Series will commence more than two hundred years before the time of the earliest transaction noticed in the former editions. 2. Many very important Trials and curious matters, omitted in the former editions, though occurring within the period which those Editions embrace, will be supplied; and the Series will be continued down to the present time. 3. Many useless repetitions, ceremonials, &c. will be omitted, but every Trial will be scrupulously preserved: 4. Many unmeaning and uninstructive pleadings will be omitted; yet, all those, which are either curious in themselves, or upon which any question arose, will be carefully retained: 5. The different articles, relative to each case, will be placed together, so that the trouble of frequent references backwards and forwards, attending a perusal of the former editions, will be avoided; and, where references from one part of the work to another necessarily occur, the paging of the present work will alone be regarded, so that the confusion arising from the various pagings of the former editions will, in no case, arise to teaze and retard the reader : 6. The Trials, instead of being placed in the vexatious disorder of the former editions, will stand in one regular chronological succession, unless where a different arrangement shall be dictated by some special reason; as for instance, where more Trials than one concern the same party, or the same transaction; for, in such cases, it may sometimes be thought adviseable to break through the order of time, for the sake of exhibiting together all the particulars relating to the same matter or the same person: 7. Brief historical notices of the conspicuous persons mentioned in the Work, or references to published accounts of them, will be occasionally inserted: 8. Where points of law arise, references will be made to those parts of the Law Digests, or Treatises on Criminal Law, in which the principles and cases,

will be, in every respect, similar to those of the Parliamentary History. In the mode of publication only there will be this difference; that, while the History is published in Volumes, the Trials will be published in Parts, one Part coming out on the first day of every month, in the same manner as the Magazines and other monthly publications; and will, like those publications, be sold by all the Booksellers, Law-Stationers, and Newsmen in the kingdom. Three Parts will make a volume, and it will be optional with the Subscribers, to take the Parts separately, or quarterly to take the Volumes bound in boards, in a way exactly similar to that of the History.

For me to pretend to undertake, unassisted, a Work of this sort, which, to execute well, requires the pen of a person not only possessed of great legal knowledge, but also well versed in the history of the law, would be great presumption. Without such assistance the Work was not to be thought of for a moment; and, I am convinced, that the very first Part will satisfy the reader, that it has not been undertaken without means of every kind sufficient to carry it on to a conclusion, in a manner worthy of matter so generally interesting and highly important. In the publication of the History, I relied upon the sound sense of the public, rather than upon the prevailing literary taste of the times; and from the success of that Work, I am convinced that success will attend this also. I am convinced, that there are readers, and readers enough,

who wish to know, from authentic sources, what the facts of our history are; how our government really was administered heretofore; what sort of men our forefathers really were, and how they really acted; and who will not be satisfied with the vague notions which alone can be collected from historical magic lanthorns, like that of Hume for instance, in which no one single object is plainly or distinctly presented to us, but where a multitude of images are made rapidly and confusedly to pass before our eyes, distorted and discoloured according to the taste of the showman. W. COBBETT'.

Dec. 1, 1808.

**The First Part will be published on Monday the 2d of January, 1809; and as the number of copies of the succeeding parts must, of course, be regulated by the degree of success that can reasonably be counted upon, Subscribers are respectfully requested to send in their Names as early as possible.

The Work will be published by R. Bagshaw, Brydges Street, Covent Garden; and will be sold by J. Badd, Pall-Mall; J. Faulder, New Bond Street; H. D. Symonds, Paternoster Row; Black, Parry, and Kingsbury, Leadenhall Street; J. Archer, Dublin; and by every Bookseller, LawStationer, and Newsman in the United Kingdom.

LORD ANSON

To the Freeholders of the County of Stafford. Having taken an active part in the Requisition to the High Sheriff to call a Meeting of the County of Stafford, I am induced to trespass upon your patience, to state, as briefly as possible, my sentiments respecting some part of the proceedings which did actually take place at the Meeting. I entered my Protest against the form adopted by the High Sheriff for introducing the Requisition to public notice. The form was certainly unusual, I believe unprecedented, and a direct deviation on the part of the High Sheriff in his official capacity, from what I humbly conceived to be strictly his duty. I should be almost inclined to say that the calling together a Meeting of any County in a manner so novel, was ill-judged and ill-advised, inasmuch as it might be liable to the imputation of having been so proclaimed, for the express purpose of creating some difference of opinion, as well amongst the Requisitionists, as amongst the other Freeholders of the County, with the hopes, by such a manoeuvre of marring the object of the Meeting, and thus checking, if possible, the ebullition of public spirit. Such having been my sentiments respecting

the manner in which the Requisition was announced, I now feel it my duty to enter my public protest against a Vote of Thanks to the High Sheriff, moved at the Meeting which did take place at Stafford; for, in direct opposition to the statement made in that motion, I do conceive that there was at least, much, and most notorious irregularity in the mode of convening that assembly. Under the same impressions it was judged right by many of my friends, not to give sanction to such a Requisition by their attendance on the day appointed by the Sheriff. In this, I felt myself obliged, though unwillingly, to concur, as my health would not allow of my personal appearance in the county-a circumstance which I cannot sufficiently deplore. For, most assuredly, had I been present at Stafford on the 11th inst. 1 would, at all events, have had the honour of proposing to you the intended Address or Petition to his Majesty, (a copy of which you have no doubt seen in the Staffordshire Advertiser); and notwithstanding it was a Convention of the County, not at all agreeing with my own ideas of regularity, should certainly have given my Brother Freeholders an opportunity of deciding upon the merits. of the Address, which it would, under such circumstances, have fallen to my lot to propose, and the uncalled-for Resolutions, which, though they may probably speak the sentiments of some few of the most powerful interests in the county, I will venture to assert and maintain, are by no means declaratory of the real and general sense of the people, with respect to the terms of that most weak and disgraceful, though impor tant Convention, upon which myself and many of my friends felt anxious to express our sentiments to his Majesty, in a manner the most loyal and constitutional. It may, I know, be urged, that his Majesty has been graciously pleased to institute an Inquiry. It is upon this point, that myself and my friends on the other side are at issue.

His

But I

Majesty (as we are informed by the public prints) has indeed ordered a Military Court of Inquiry, and the adoption of such a mode of Inquiry may, at first view, appear to some persons to be all-sufficient. beg leave to ask, in case that Military Grand Jury should throw out the Bill, how, or from what quarter is the nation to look for an explanation either consolatory or satisfac tory? And I very much doubt whether, in any point of view, such a Court will be competent to afford full and comprehensive satisfaction to the Country at large. It is upon these grounds that myself and friends were desirous of petitioning his Majesty to

convene his Parliament, for the purpose of instituting an Inquiry and Investigation before that Constitutional Tribunal. Parliament is said to be the voice of the People; by some persons it may be objected that it is not precisely so at this moment, and though the public expectations and anxious wish for truth, and nothing but the truth, might be disappointed equally, even by such a reference, yet the people at large would certainly have no right to complain, as they could only blame themselves for having elected such Representatives, as could sacrifice their Country's glory and honour, either from fear of avowing constitutional principles, or with a view of promoting their own private interest, or party spirit.- Having thus entered my decided protest against the Resolutions passed at the Meeting which did take place, I shall now say a word or two upon the Address intended to have been proposed, the object of which was. to request his Majesty to summon his Parliament, and to bring the discussion of the unfortunate Convention before that, the only Constitutional Court.-I earnestly request you to examine with attention the words of that Address. No attack is made upon the character of any set of men. No attempt is made to prejudge any Commander. allusion is made to any individual.-1 defy the most zealous or scrutinizing prerogative stickler, to point out any part of that Address, which is wanting either in loyalty, or attachment to the Sovereign. It is, on the contrary, couched in terms of the most proper respect towards his Majesty; at the same time, that, in temperate but dignified language, it asserts the right of the subject, and expresses boldly, that just sense of the disgrace, which has fallen upon the national character, by an event as unaccountable, as it was unexpected. The Address implies distinctly an imputation of blame somewhere, and solicits a Parliamentary Inquiry into the causes of an evil of such magnitude.

No

I shall now take my leave of you, with only requesting that you will compare carefully and without prejudice the intended Address, with those Resolutions, which were carried at the Meeting. Let every man appeal fairly to his own heart, whether the Address intended to have been proposed, is not, more adapted to his own private sentiments, more consonant to the public opinion, and more congenial to the feelings of every Englishman, who professes an honest, though not parasitical loyalty to his King, and an attachment invincible to the laws and Constitution of his Country.-I entreat you to make this comparison in order to convince

yourselves, that the Address alluded to, breathes NO spirit, which is not most truly and strictly honourable to the feelings of subjects of a great empire, and that I may stand acquitted before my Brother Freeholders, of having been actuated by any other motives, than such as glow in the breast of every true and free-born Briton. I am proud of participating in such sentiments, and have the honour to be, "In this matter, as in all others in which" not only "the Independence and Honour of the County "of Stafford'' but of "the Kingdom at large, are concerned,"-Brother Freeholders,-Your devoted and faithful Servant, -ANSON. Bath, Nov. 15th, 1808.

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OFFICIAL PAPERS. BUENOS AYRES.- Proclamation by Don Santiago Liniers y Bremond, Viceroy, Governor, and Provincial Captain-General of the Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, &c. Dated Buenos Ayres, Aug. 15,1809. (Concluded from p. 864.)

I communicate this by special couriers, to all the heads of provinces on this continent, that by adopting one uniform system, they may make the greater efforts to facilitate the succours necessary to preserve the glory acquired by a city, which from its local situation, and its energy, has been, and will continue to be, the impregnable bulwark of South America. But [ cannot conclude without impressing upon you, and yourselves cannot but know it, that no force is comparable to union of opinion and feeling, nor any means more effective to preserve you invincible than reciprocal confidence between you and the constituted authorities, who, attentive only to the public interest and benefit, will see with dissatisfaction and abhorrence every thing that opposes or separates itself from the general prosperity.-SANTIAGO LINIERS. -Buenos Ayres, Aug. 11, 1808.

FRENCH EXPOSÉ.- -Paris, Nov. 3-In the sitting of yesterday, his excellency. the minister of the interior, accompanied by Messrs. de Segur and Corvetto, counsellors of state, pronounced the following speech on the situation of the French empire :-Gentlemen, you terminated your last session, leaving the empire happy, and its chief loaded with glory. The year has passed away, and a multitude of new circumstances have added to the good fortune of the country, and increased our hopes of future benefits. All that I have to state to you, gentlemen, is already known to you; and, for your full information, I have only

to retrace to your memory the principal | enriching by the requisition of new patterns,

events which have filled up the interval between your last and your present session, and to recal to you the additional advan tages for which France is indebted to the wisdom and valour of her sovereign. I will speak to you first of the wants of nations; justice, public instruction, the arts and sciences, the numerous branches of internal administration, public worship, the finances, and our principal relations with the states of the Continent. The recital will bring us of course to this lamentable war, which we maintain against one single people. The glory of our nation wounds that people, our strength alarms them; the independence of our commerce and our industry disquiets them; every thing is again subjected to the fortune of war; but the days of justice are not far distant.-[Here follows a long detail respecting the administration of justice, the principal amelioration of which consists in the establishment of the trial by jury, on the precise principles of the English law. The next head is that of public worship, which is followed by that of sciences and literature, public instruction, &c.-These articles being of great length, and less immediate importance, we reserve them for a future opportunity, and proceed to the heads which are most interesting to the English reader.]

Among the arts of indusry which have made progress in the course of this year, we must enumerate the manufactury of tin. In two of our manufactories they have attained a degree of perfection, no ways yielding to that of the English. A premium of encouragement has been given accordingly; and another is also destined to ulterior efforts in the same branch.-The mechanics, in their endeavours of simplifying their looms, and introducing economy in their labours, have often also improved the quality of their stuffs. Those that are used in the weaving of cotton, have, for several years, been much multiplied; the spirit of invention has brought them to perfection. There is nothing now but what we can make, and very well. The weaving of the cotton has made as marked a progress as the spinning. These two kinds of industry are already adequate to the consumption of the empire, which is for ever liberated of the grievous taxation it has hitherto been under to the Indian manufacturers and to their oppressors. The machines best calculated for the manufacture of cloths, are already in wide circulation; they have lately been much encouraged by advances made to different manufacturers in the departments.-The Conservatory of arts and handicraft is daily

and is entitled to commendation for the information which the pupils receive, who frequent its school of drawing and descriptive geometry. Reforms have been made in the school at Chalons-sur-Marne.-The consultation chambers of the manufactures are hastening to present useful views, which will be taken advantage of. The institution of arbitrators, for the purpose of deciding with celerity variances that may arise between the workmen and their employers, render to industry services which have been set forth. Since your last session, gentlemen, several towns have demanded them, and there are already some established at Nimes, Aix-laChapelle, Avignon, Troies, Mulhausen, Sedan, and Thiers.

Commerce.-The political events have been unfavourable to commerce. It still was kept alive in the midst of the contentions that have deluged the Continent in blood, because those nations that were involved in the war preferred their neutrality—that right deemed, even in our times, inviolable. But the English legislation, already misled by the ambition of universal monopoly, has overthrown the ancient barrier of the law of nations, and trampled their independence under foot, substituting in the room of them a new maritime code. The ordinances of his Britannic majesty have realized these innovations that of the 11th of November, 1807, is particularly remarkable; it pro nounces, by an universal blockade, the interdiction of all our ports, in subjecting the ships of neutral powers, friendly and even allied to Great Britain, to the visitation of its cruisers, to be conducted to British ports, and there to be taxed by an arbitrary inquisition. The emperor, obliged to oppose just reprisals to this strange legislation, gave out the decree of the 23d of November, ordaining the seizure and confiscation of the ships which, after having touched in Enggland, should enter the ports of France.From these measures, provoked by the British laws, the almost absolute cessation of the maritime relations, and many privations for the French merchants, manufacturers, and consumers, must have necessarily ensued. We all know with what resignation these privations were endured; we know that they are already become habitual, that they have awakened the genius of invention, and produced a thousand resources in substitution of the objects which we are in want of; we know, finally, that a great nation, essentially agricultural, can, by possessing in abundance all articles of utility, easily forego those, which only forny certain luxuries

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