of the Navy to its state of 1788; a total discharge of the regular army; and an organization of a military force for the defence of the country upon the plan of MAJOR CARTWRIGHT, which puts arms into the hands of all those who vote for members of parliament, which gives a vote to every man who pays a tax of any description or to any amount however small, and which impartially calls forth every able man to the performance of that first of all duties, the defence of his native land, its liberties and laws. TRICK OF THE LONDON PRESS. his conduct with that of his brother, who is long since dead. The attacks upon SIR GEORGE PREVOST were of the same character. The MORNING CHRONICLE, in the most foul manner, assaulted this gentleman's character, attributed our failures to bis cowardice or his folly, and this too, without the smallest foundation. Indeed, there is scarcely any man, or any woman, who becomes at all pre-eminent in the eye of the public, and who cannot or will not pay the London Daily Newspapers, whose characters, and, in some cases, whose property and whose life, is safe. The public have lately seen that the trifling private concern of my acTHE effect of this Trick I mentioned cident by fire, could not escape them. in my last. The reason why I enter fully They could not let even that pass, withinto an exposure of it, is, that the pub- out an attempt (it proved rain to be sure) lic, and that the Americans and French, to deprive me of the benefit of my havmay be able to form a correct judgment ing insured the premises, by insinuating of the state of the English Daily Press, that I set fire to them myself, a crime and may estimate its productions accord- which is death by the law." The recent ingly. I am the more desirous of doing attempt of these papers to prevent Mrs. this at the present moment, because the Perceval from marrying, is an instance London newspapers, and especially the of their baseness in another line. There most venal of them, are labouring hard is no doubt of their having been paid for to pave the way for some measure (it it any more than there is of their being must be an act of Parliament) to enable paid for the puffs on private characters them to be sent abroad duty free, in or- which they daily publish; and for their der, say they, that England, that the attacks on private characters. They have "true character of England, that the carried on this trade for years; and the principles and conduct of England, may traffic has increased, because the severity "be known upon the Continent of Eu- of punishments for what are called polirope, where, now, owing to the influ- tical libels, has naturally put the Daily"ence of the French press, England has press into worse and worse hands."lost, and is still losing ground, both in And, yet, these are the people, who re weight and character." -It is sur- present themselves as the organs of Engprising, that they should have forgotten lish Honour! Their papers, they tell us, America. That, say what they will, is would enlighten all Europe, if they could the country, where we ought to endea- but export them duty free! Is it not a vour to recover our character. But, do bounden duty on every one, who is able these nien suppose, that the nations of to do it, to expose the tricks of this vile the Continent do not know how to judge press? Do not morality and political of the principles and conduct of Eng-principle call aloud for this exposure? Tand without the illuminating influence of their balderdash; their Lottery and Quack puffs: their paltry party quarrels; their garbled reports; their endless strings of paid for paragraphs SIR JOHN MUR-titude against the owners of land and the RAY, in the out-set of his most able des fence, was obliged to occupy the time of his judges for half an hour in stating his complaints against the press, the paragraphs in which had actually caused him to be condemned by the public before he was brought to trial; and, he alluded particularly to au infamous paragraph in the TIMES news-paper, which coupled Last year, at this season, these prints were bellowing forth invectives against those who asked for a Corn Bill; they were marshalling the worst passions of the mul growers of corn, whom they accused of a wish to starve the people." They are now abusing those, who think a Corn Bill unnecessary, and ascribing to them seditious motives. And, this; this (öb, inpu dence) is the press, which is to ENLIGHTEN all Europe? Now, as to the Hampshire Meeting, the facts are these: there were several newspa received it from the gentleman, who had it from me, and who, at my request, got it back from London on Tuesday last. I have before given the substance of the Petition: I here give it word for word :- per reporters at Winchester for the purpose of reporting the proceedings on Sir John Murray's Trial. About an hour before the County Meeting took place, one of these gentlemen came to me at the Inn where I had put up, to ask me, whe-"To the Honourable the House of Com "mons of the United Kingdom of "Great Britain and Ireland, in Par"liament assembled, the Petition of "the Freeholders, Landholders, and "other Inhabitants of the County of Southampton, paying Taxes; "SHEWETH, That the Taxes, usually denominated War Taxes, and which by "law expire in a short time, cannot be pretended to be necessary any longer, since the nation is now, happily, at peace. ther I should have any papers, or memorandums, which might assist in making the report of the proceedings more complete, as he thought it would be important to obtain such papers; to which I answered, that, if I should have any such, he should have them, (and as I know him) I observed, that I should be glad" to see them in his hands. After the Meeting was over, the same gentleman came to me, while I was at dinner, to" apply for a copy of the Petition which I had presented, in order that it might That these Taxes, especially the be forwarded for insertion, with the rest "Taxes on Property, Beer, and Malt, are of the proceedings, in the Morning Chro-"grievously oppressive, and have pronicle, the Morning Herald, the Morning" duced distress, misery, and degradation Post, and the British Press. I told him, " throughout the whole of the middle that I had no copy; but, at his request, "and lower classes of the people, who and upon his engaging to forward it for them to an insupportable "smart und insertion, I sent to the Deputy Sheriff," degree. obtained the original and had it delivered "That the Taxes, which will remain, to him. Before I left Winchester, I saw after all the War Taxes shall have been the same gentleman again, Mr. HUNT "taken off, will be much more than sufof Andover and Mr. HINXMAN of Chil-" ficient for the maintaining of the credit ling being present. This gentleman then" and honour of the nation; provided that informed us that the PETITION was "a system of economy and peaceful gosent off to be inserted in the Report, we “vernment be adopted instead of the being anxious, that it should appear in print " enormous expenditure, and the all-perif any thing of ours did appear; because our "vading military establishment, whtch principles and wishes would then defy" now exist, and which latter, though misrepresentation. But, upon being in- " wholly unknown to our forefathers, now formed by him, that the four papers be-" seem to threaten to swallow up all the fore-mentioned had COALESCED as to re- "ancient civil powers and distinctions of ports from Winchester; and that each "the country. had one fourth of the report sent to it, and, "That it is, in the opinion of your after setting up, sent its part to each of "Petitioners, owing chiefly to the laws, the other three papers. Mr. HUNT asked," passed during the war, against persowhich of the papers my part and the peti-"nal liberty, the freedom of the press and tion was sent to. He was told, to the "of public discussion, that the above Morning Chronicle: "Then," said he," evils have been so long endured. "it will never appear. That part hits Perry's faction too hard for him to print it." I was of a different opinion; but Mr. HUNT knew his man better than Ì did. Perry did suppress the PETITION," and suppressed it too from the other three papers as well as his own? I have the authority of the gentleman, who received the Petition from me, to assert, that it was sent to the Chronicle Office along with Such, reader, was the paper, which Mr. the report; and that it was "marked PERRY suppressed, though he found it "in" that is to say, made part of the re-incorporated into areport, sent to his office, port itself. To-day (Thursday) I have and though it had been obtained from me "Therefore your Petitioners pray, that you will repeal all the laws, passed during the war, against personal liberty, "the freedom of the press and of public discussion, that you will not revive or renew any of the Taxes, called War Taxes, and that you will not authorise the raising of any other Taxes in their "stead.- -And your Petitioners, &c.” the electors any bribery or corruption.This being a fact, well known to all the world, I cannot help wishing that a respectable English gentleman had refrained from the use of a phrase, fit to be applied only to the head and members of governments of a very different description. To MR. COBBETT. under an express promise, that it would appear. It was thus kept out of three other papers, and kept from the Register too, until after the Saturday's Register was published. I do not blame the reporters. They acted fairly and honourably by the public? but, the conduct of Mr. PERRY has been precisely the contrary. It was due, not to me, but to truth, that SIR,-As you have gone to some length this petition should be published. It had been rejected at the county Meeting; which was stated, originally, in a Bath of animadversion upon an expression but there was nearly one half of the meeting in its favour. It did, too, embrace weekly paper, and have fallen upon me, objects, which, one might have expected at the Somerset Meeting, I trust to your a printer to feel peculiar interest in; but, candour that you will give equal publi strange as it may seem at first sight, there city to this fact-that in the same paper are, perhaps, no persons in England such in the following week, an express denial determined enemies of the real freedom of appeared, "that any such expression 'was made use of by me," either in speakthe press and of free public discussion as the proprietors of these paid-for-para-ing of the Americans, in the aggregate; or of their President and his party, of graph newspapers. They thrive by falsehood; and, therefore, whatever has whom nevertheless I am ready to admit, a tendency to the triumph of truth, they that I did speak in terms of strong reabhor. They resemble those insects probation, without adopting terms so unwhich fatten in a poisonous atmosphere. charitable and even absurd as those im-And these are the men, who puted to me. I am, Sir, your very obedient Servant, J.Cox HIPPESLY. enlighten all Europe! These are the men, whose publications are to wipe away all stains from the English character! These men are to perform this work, who, in fact, have been the principal cause of all our degradation both at home and abroad. SIR JOHN Cox HIRPESLY. are to 66 STATE OF THE NATION. MR. COBBETT.-It must be in the recollection of your readers, how often and how emphatically you have raised your warning voice against the tremendous war system, and war expenditure. of our once happy country. Your calculating acuteness has been shewn in I send, with great pleasure, the follow- nothing more strikingly than in the full ing letter for publication. I do not re- realization of the predictions which you gularly see the Bath newspapers, and have, again and again, offered to the did not see the publication which is men- consideration of our unthinking peotioned in the letter.-I am glad to per-ple, on what would be the effects of a ceive, that an English gentleman is anxious to deny, that he made use of expressions, worthy only of such men as the proprietors of the Times, the Courier, and the Chronicle; and, though I cannot blame him for expressing his reprobation of "the President and his Party," I wish he had not made use of that phrase, seeing that the President can have no party, which is not supported by a majority of the people; seeing that he has no power but what the people voluntarily put into his hands; that he is elected by the free voice ofa people, every man of whom who pays a tax has a vote; that he can neither make war or peace without the approbation of a Congress also chosen by a free people, and in which Congress there are no selling and buying of seats, nor amongst protracted course of warfare to this country-a course of warfare as unique in its management, as awful in its termination. It could not, Sir, have ever entered into your imagination, though always on the alert in political discernment, to have conceived it possible for the councils of a nation to have obstinately pursued a scale of expenditure that could not be sustained by even the united resources of Europe at large :-Had this truly gigantic exertion been instituted for objects connected with rational liberty, and not for the re-establishment of despotic rule, the virtuous and the intelligent part of mankind might have been gratified by the generosity of the effort, though they must have deplored the incorrigible folly that had urged so unnatural an adventure. It is almost inconceiveable, though an un- the disposal of the secret service money of deniable fact, that the people of these Government, can know any thing about. realms, during these twenty years, have-If the British Government, when it bebeen witnessing the prodigious efforts made by their Government, to repress the growing power of France, at an immeasurable expence, as if the object could not be purchased at too high a rate, without adverting to the ways and means of meeting and enduring the ultimate burthen. The ruin of this country has been its paper credit. This Pandora's box of civil and political mischief, has unhappily overwhelmed our unthinking people (thinking belongs no to them) with dismay and impending ruin. Well then? how does the land lay? The expences that have been incurred, the interest of the heavy loans contracted, must be paid; peace has been obtained; Bonaparte has been deposed; and the Sovereigns of Europe are sitting in solemn judgment, on, what they would have to be, the future political arrangement of the world! Now, Sir, if these splendid reveries could be carried into effect as easily as they may be imagined, we might some day see them realised. But how does the case stand? Why, the British Government has been all along foremost in the field of expence as well as in that of battle. It has tried all sides, over and over again, and has at ength, proved to a gaping and an astounded public, that though it has, ever tually, as it were, gained all; though it has effected every object for which it began the contest, it has actually lost infinitely more than it has won; nay, that the very winnings themselves, have turned out to be, (as you, Sir, have always held must be the case) its bitterest, its most irretrievable losings. In short, we have been at the expence, by all conceivable means and devices, of over throwing the Emperor Napoleon, and of delivering from his inuence the various nations of Europe, who are now beginning to discover the advantage of being at liberty to cultivate the soil, to manufacture raw materials, and to traffic in such a way as might best suit their respective interests; and all this without Ether feeling or acknowledging any dependence on English commerce. All they seemed to require from England was money, and that, it must be confessed, they have had almost to the last guinea, and are probably further accredited for sams that none, but those conversant with I gan its career of expending, when it require for the objects of the war unlimited millions, could have contrived to have bona fide provided, that all the nations receiving its subsidies, and for whom the British sword was actually unsheathed, should for ever disclaim, and abandon, all right and title to manufac ture for themselves, and that they would be wholly dependent on commercial supplies from England, then indeed, some prospect would be afforded of an extended trade, and of liquidating in time the abyss of debt into which the national property is so deeply sunk. But Sir, this is not the case; it could not be the case. We have, therefore, been fighting the battles of others, and have most profligately and irretrievably sacrificed British interests to foreign and ruinous objects.-That either the Eritish agricn!turist, manufacturer, or artisan, should now have any chance of successful competition with the nations of Europe, is a vain expectation.-The miseries of an exhausting taxation are exhibited at all points. All classes of men severely feel the consequences resulting from a wasteful expenditure of public money, and, too late, begin to perceive that a defensive system of warfare was, and always will be, best adapted to the insulated situation. and civic privileges of the British nation. The European war is at an end; that with America is also on the eve of closing; we are without a market for our agricultural produce, without a demand for our manufactured articles, and our artisans are for the best part without employment! In exchange for these wonted advantages, we have the renown of having extravagantly subsidised in turn most of the different powers of Europe; of sending a first rate Plenipotentiary to these subsidised Potentates; of engaging in treaties offensive and defensive with them; of at least amply sharing in the pleasing task of remunerating the services, ordinary and extraordinary, connected with the abrupt and strange termination of the late European war; and finally, though not least in either tinselled grandeur, or aristocratic fame, we may boast, as the legitimate offspring of these poitentous times, Knights Grand Crosses, ditto Commanders, and ditto Cempanions, in vast abundance, all animated with a LORD COCHRANE-PERRY AND THE IN the most conspicuous part of the Morning Chronicle, of yesterday, Mr. Perry inserted a string of resolutions, which that nest of iniquity, that vile crew at the Stock Exchange, have thought proper to agree to, as a sort of set off to Lord Cochrane's unanswerable letter to Lord Ellenborough. Nothing surely could be more detestable than this! Even that sink of corruption the Times, inserted only a modest paragraph, noticing the meeting of the Sub-committee, and with out even naming Lord Cochrane; thus shewing a degree of moderation towardsan oppressed opponent, which the Whigs, and Perry their organ, had not decency to evince. These resolutions (which Perry has evidently been paid for inserting) state, over and over again, the hacknied evidence of the backney coachman, and the hackney post-boy, on the subject of the colour of De Berenger's coat; which evidence has been completely falsified, in the most incontestible manner. Lord Cochrane has already so ably and so effectually vindicated himself, that it would be supererrogation in me to say a syllable on this subject. It is the detestable conduct of Perry and the Whigs, in becoming the trumpet of the Stock Exchange Committee, that I wish the public not to overlook. Lord Cochrane has been ever the steady opposer of places, pensions, and corruption in all its branches. Nothing more is wanted to explain the deadly hatred of Perry and the Whigs. ON RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. LETTER VI. "If we were to use Violence in defending the "Faith, the Bishops would oppose it." of the most powerful Guarantees of "social tranquillity: for where Liberty of Conscience is respected every other "cannet fail to be so. A sentiment like this from a man who stands unrivalled " Jan, 29, 1815. A THINKING BRITON. for his knowledge in Political Science, ought to have some weight. How opposite are the opinions of this enlightened |