66 pocritical orations, prayers, and hymns, You may tell Sir Joseph Yorke, whose which have become objects of ridicule, father I once knew, that Mr. Madison, and are fast sinking into contempt. has concluded (before hẹ goes to the Common-sense begins to draw comparisons Island of ELBA,") to pay a visit to the between our fine, dancing soldiers, who Eastern States, in which case, it is more seldom make an excursion beyond a mile than probable that the Saints of Massafrom their fire,sides, and hardly ever chusetts will pay him all possible marks march off the pavements of our sea-ports, and the brave heroes, who conquered at Chippewa, Bridgewater, Erie, Baltimore, and NEW ORLEANS. One great and powerful source of influence, is literary and clerical patronage. The Junto have managed that matter admirably. They have contrived to get almost all the learned professions under their thumbs. This has greatly increased their number of slaves. They took the Jesuits for their example, and have imitated with considerable success. They, like the Jesuits, make sure of every young man of brilliant talents, and fix him in a pulpit, or at the bar; or in practice, as a physician, or in their Benevolent Society, or by some means or other, impair his independence, and secure his subserviency to their views, which views are to establish AN UPPER CLASS, who shall shine and think for all the rest. These are the glow-worms, or fire-flies, or lightening bugs, that give you and me so much amusement and food for ridicule. These buzz and flutter around the nose of honest Jonathan, while he is cultivating the ground, shooting invaders, and pouring a stream of republicanism on the wheels of the national governments, which these base creatures are trying to clog (3). is no established church in America; yo compul. sion to pay priests of any sort. But, if men are persecuted, no matter in what way, for their opinions about religion; if a book, or au essay, is to be condemned in a lump, on the charge of being blasphemous, without any reference to its facts of its reasonings; if this be the case, priestcraft, say what you will, is still powerful in America. The final blow, is to inculcate, in all possible ways, way, and the only way, to give priestcraft its the liberty of opinions on religion. The law of America does this; but the friends of freedom should jealously watch, that cant does not, in this respect, triumph over the law. Can any man say, in the face of the world, that TRUTH ought not 1 to prevail? No man will say this. And if the religious opinions of any sect be founded in truth, what fear is there that they will be injured by unreserved discussion? Did it ever happen to any individual to protest against the discussing of a question, as to which he was sure that he was in the right ?-Let the honest man; let the sincere Christian, be upon his guard against every one, whom he hears abuse any book as blasphemous, without first showing it to be false. Let him be upon his guard against the Crafty Crew (in America, I mean), who eat and drink comfortably upon the fruits of other men's labours; or, if he does think it right to pay them as teachers of re ligion, let him, at any rate, call upon them to ANSWER, instead of ABUSING, those who attack their systems. As to the conduct of the Federal priesthood of Massachussetts, it is such as defies all description. Such a prostitution of the priests' office never was before seen, except amongst some of the most wicked of the regular clergy of the Romish church, in the very worst times of that church. A string of passages, which Mr. CAREY has collected and published in the (3) My Correspondent will smile, when he sees, that I had anticipated this trick of literary enlistments and benevolent societies. It he will look into the Register of the 13th of this month, at page 591, he will find, under the head of "Literay Fund and Washington Benevolent Societies," that I had hit the case in the eye before I received his letter.-As to the Clergy, the case is more serious. As long as men continue to die," Olive Branch," would not have disgraced the there will, in all probability, be some who will be willing to pay people to instruct them as to a future life; and, as long as men prefer eating the earnings of others to eating their own earnings, such instructors will never be wanting. Besides, I find no fault with one party or the other, both may be perfectly sincere; and both right in their | opinions and views. All that I blame in matters of religion, is, the use of force of any kind. There lips of those, whose exhortations armed the hands and hardened the hearts of Clement, Ravillac, or any of that numerous horde of assassins, who have, at various periods, undertaken to shed the blood of Napoleon. Can those be virtuous men, who, with patience, and even with applause, listened to these bloody exhortations?—I put this question to the bosoms of the worthy part of the Federalists,-WM. COBBETT. that must excite their alarm, if not despair. In spite of their "benevolent societies," they are going down the stream and over the dam. By consulting the Boston papers of last Autumn, you will find that the volunteer services, in the defence of Boston and the sea coast, far exceeded those of Philadelphia, and were only surpassed by New York. The Federalists were as eager as the Republicans "to meet the enemy at the water's edge." The only contest would have been, who shall close with the enemy first? Lord Liverpool's ignorance of the individual feeling proves him not fit for his station (4). (4) No; but, it proves, that he never heard the Boston, 4th April, 1815, Mr. COBBETT,-The following instance of unfair conduct is worthy your attention. The frigate President, Captain Decatur, after running a-ground, and, in consequence of it, losing her trim, fell in with Admiral Hotham's detachment, who chaced her. The Endymion (the same that suffered so severely from the Neufchatel privateer) was nearest to her in the chace. This ship the President si-truth, any more than his predecessors had done lenced, and would certainly have taken her, had not the Pomone come to her assistance, and soon after that the Tenados, and an armed brig, and a rasee 74, but a little astern of them. In this situation, Decatur, after doing all that any man in his situation could do, struck his colours, and delivered his sword to the commander of the 74. way Admiral Hotham says officially, that the President was captured by a detachment of his fleet; and when Decatur arrived in New London, the populace took the horses from his coach, and dragged him in triumph through the streets, and the applause was universal. before him. I told it him; but I was not in the pay of government. It is the interest of those who supply our government with intelligence from America to deceive the ministers. Good news pleasanter than bad; aud, since conclusions drawn in favour of the effects of the princi ples of freedom, have been looked upon as á proof of Jacebinism in the party drawing such conclusions, persons under the government can. not be expected to be very forward in performing such an office. The evil, however, is very great. I verily believe, that PERCEVAL entered on the war, and that it was afterwards continued, under the impression, that the States were ready to devide, and that a part of them was anxious to join this country against the Fe belief in this country is notorious. Nay, nine- But what have the officers of the Endy-deral Government. That such was the general mion done? They give out that the President was taken by the Endymion; and this frigate has lately sailed from Bermuda for England with the President as HER PRIZE, having the English colours hoisted over the American flag, signifying to all they meet-" We of the Endymion ALONE took the American frigate Presilent." This deserves to be gazetted throughout Europe, as it will be throughout America. Such miserable tricks are unworthy the people whence we sprang. It is furnishing Johnny Bull with a cork jacket at the expence of honour. If he cannot hold his head up above the waves, without such a dishonourable apparatus, let him sink.-" FIAT JUSTITIA RUAT 4 CŒLUM." JONATHAN. "The Friend," are appellations of more practical consequence than the Americans seem to be aware of. I see with pleasure, that the Presi P. S. By the return of votes yesterday, dent keeps to his good plain address of “ Fellow we find that the federal party have lost "Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Reground since the last April, to a degree" presentatives." When the French Assembly TO CORRESPONDENTS, IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Botley, near Southampton, 30th May, 1815. In my last Number, dated May 27th, 1815, I pointed out very fully how per sons in America might write to me, or send papers, or pamphlets to me.-I-shall be obliged to the American Printers of newspapers to give insertion to that notification, as it may lead to a communication equally beneficial to both countries.-I have, in the article just mentioned, acknowledged my obligations to Mr. CAREY for his "CALM ADDRESS." I have now words, it is not to hard names; it is to thumping facts clearly stated, and to sound argument closely packed and strongly pressed upon the mind, that we must look for the producing of conviction. But, principally facts are the things. "Bricks! mortar !" I hear the fellow cry, when they are building houses. So, when men read, they keep crying out for facts.-If any new writer should be disposed to give me the information I seek, I cannot tell him what sort of style I like in any way so well as by telling him, that it is precisely the opposite of that of a letter, which I see in the Boston Yankee of the 6th Jan. 1815, signed" JouN RANDOLPH, of Roanoke," the feelings arising from the reading of which really resemble those which would succeed the swallowing of a quid of the tobacco grown on the borders of that delightful river. If this gentleman be not deemed insane, it must be allowed, I think, that his letter is a practical proof, that sanity may, at times, perform the functions of madness.-I shall send, in a few days, or, rather, cause to be sent, a copy of a small work, lately published here, by MR. MORRIS BIRKBECK, on the internal state of France. As MR. CAREY, or some one else, in America, may republish this work, a work of great consequence to the cause of freedom, it may be useful for such re-publisher to know something of the AUTHOR of the work; because when the work is a statement of facts, and when these rest upon the writers assertion, as being the fruit of his own observation, the value of the work must depend on the veracity and judgment of the author. Now, the author of this work is a most respectable man; he is a great farmer, occupying one whole parish and part of another; he is celebrated for his agricultural experience evidence upon the abstruse subject of the and skill; he was one of the persons whose order of the Committee of the House of Corn Bill was taken by and printed by the judges at the last prize show of MeLords last year; he was chosen as one of abolished titles, we laughed at their attachment England, there is not a man of fairer rerino sheep in London.-Perhaps, in all to forms; but, in fact, they were substances.-putation; not one man, less to be susThe war, now about to be entered ou, will, perpected of straining facts to meet his own haps, bring them back again to the spot whence prejudices. I much question if he will be they started. At any rate, if America wishes to pleased with me for undertaking to give continue a Republic, she must resolutely set her him a character. But, though nothing face against these nick-names. that I can say would have any such effect in England, it is different as to America, to thank a Friend at Boston for a copy of "the Olive Branch" by the same author; a work which deserves all the praise and all the success that it has met with. I have also received newspapers from Boston, and will use my best endeavours to repay these acts of civility in kind. I perceive that a letter which I wrote in De'cember, or November last, addressed to a Correspondent in America," containing a comparative view of the Taxes, Debt, &c. of England and America, has been republished there.--I should be obliged to any one who would take the trouble to give me information about America on all the heads that I have there touched on with regard to England.-The best would be to do this in print in some American newspaper, in a letter addressed to me, with the writer's real name at the bottom. Men are more careful about facts when they publish in the face of those amongst whom they live, and are to live, and when they sign with their names that which they publish. In any thing intended for re-publication here, the writer must remember what sort of libel-laws we live under. He must abstain from much that he might be disposed to say. My letter, last-mentioned, may serve him as a model. He will there see a notable specimen of the spirits' sacrificing to the safety of the flesh.—And, after all, it is not to WM. COBBETT. way There he cannot be so well known; and, his book, or, at least, the facts contained in it, being now the property of mankind, it is just that it should go into other countries, accompanied with all that fairly belongs to it, WM. COBBETT. LETTER IV. To LORD CASTLEREAGII. On the Debates relative to the commencement of the War against the French. Botley, 1st June, 1815. MY LORD,At last, then, you appear to have striken the first blow; for, we are now told, by the public prints, that our fleets have taken a French frigate in the Mediterranean, But, this is of no consequence as to the grand question. We have long been in a state, which would have justified France in attacking us openly; and, indeed, it has now been officially stated, that we have for some time past, been at war, though to this very day, or, at least, till yesterday, French vessels have freely come into our ports, and have landed and sold their goods; and then sailed quietly for France. However, the fact is, that you and your colleagues have now distinctly asserted, that we are at war, and have been at war for some time. Here you start, then; and, here I start with you, as I did with your worthy colleague in the American war; that is to say, in that war which, as we are told, was to depose Mr. MADISON. I mean to accompany you through this war. I have been hesitating who I should go along with; but, after due consideration, I have preferred your Lordship to every body else; not merely because you were the aptest of all Pitt's disciples; not because you have been the grand actor at the Congress; not because you have, in point of character, more at stake on this war than any other man, excepting only Napoleon; but because the times are likely to be ticklish, and because the mere sound of your well-known name is enough to fill any man living with ...... prudence, my Lord. Doubtless we shall see times different from these; and I am not at all afraid, that I shall have to address you in those times; but we must, in this world, take things as we find them, and fashion ourselves a little to what the Whitehall people denominate existing circumstances." 66 Therefore, my noble companion, before we start upon our journey, it is my intention, in this letter, to put upon record the substance of what has now been published to the nation, in the report of the debates in Parliament, upon the following subjects: 1st, of the character of Napoleon; 2d, of the French system of Government; 3rd, of our present situation with regard to France; 4th, of the Pitt System; 5th, of the great means of the Allies against France, including subsidies; 6th, of the small means of the French to defend themselves; 7th, Morality of the subsidies. Who that sets out on a voyage does not wish to understand something about the road that he has to go This, however, it is not always in his power to arrive at ; but, he must be a fool indeed, if he undertakes (if he can avoid it) a journey without knowing why he undertakes it. The causes of the two former wars against the French were lost sight of, long before the wars were half over. This was a very great evil. It was not so with the late American war, I myself took charge of the cause of that war; and, in spite of all that falsehood and hypocrisy have been able, to do, on both sides of the Atlantic, the cause, the character, the result, the effects, of that war are all clearly. understood. So shall they all, in this case, unless I am deprived very speedily of all my bodily or all my mental powers, Give me life and health for only three months longer, and I defy all the ingenuity and all the impudence of all the corrupt hirelings in England (and their, number is not small) to cause ignorance to prevail in this country as to the real cause, or causes, of the war, on which we are about to enter. From the time of Napoleon's return being announced, our hirelings of the press cried war! I cried, peace! peace! Between the 11th of March last and the present time, I have published 1st, Two articles at the head of the Register; 2nd, My first Letter to you; 3rd, A Letter to Louis; 4th, My second Letter to you; 5th, A Letter to the Merchants; 6th, A Letter to the excellent people of Nottingham; 7th, A Letter to the Earl of Liverpool, (called the VII.); 8th, A Letter to the Fundholders; 9th, My third Letter to you; 10th, A Letter to Sir Francis Burdett. In these ten papers, accompanied with the official documents, all to be found in the Register, I flatter myself, that we shall hereafter be able to see (without hunting through volumes of verbose, stupid stuff, in one shape or another) a complete history not only in point of fact, but of argument, of the beginning of this war. These articles contain, too, the political œconomy of the question, which you and your colleagues, and even your opponents, take little or no notice of. Thus far, then, I have made all safe; but, before we actually enter upon the work of blood, I mean, further, to put upon record the fair substance of what has been published as the reasons for the war, stated in the House of Commons, during the debate upon the question of war itself; because, the time is to come when we shall have to refer to, and to cite, these opinions and declarations. I should, perhaps, take notice of a reported debate of the Lords; but, it would be but repetition. I shall now proceed, point by point, to notice the report, and particularly to put its substance upon record. İ. Of the character of Napoleon. shall be enough there, who assail Napoleon; or, at least, who used to do it. Now, I hereby challenge any one of these upon the subject. Let him, like a man, publish in the Boston federal papers the Daily Advertiser, a regular attack upon the character and conduct of Napoleon, embracing all parts, public and private, of that character and conduct. Let any one do this; let the paper be sent to me; and I pledge myself to answer it, in a Letter sent in manuscript to that same paper. If the assailant puts his name, he will act more like a' man; but, I will not stand upon that point. He must take this along with him, however; that I shall not admit of any fact being true, merely upon the assertion of any body; and when such assertion has been often repeated without any attempt at PROOF, I shall always regard that circumstance as a presumptive proof of its falshood.-But, though I, for the reasons here stated, decline entering into what I call an ANSWER upon the subject of the character of Napoleon, there is a passage in the report of Mr. GRATTAN's speech that I ought to put upon record, at least.-It is this: "He had "I"made his brother King of Holland 66 he had banished the Prince Regent very short upon this head, Lions are not painters; if they were,' of Portugal from his native land - he said the Lion in the fable," you would "had imprisoned the King of Spain"not see a man painted in the attitude of "he had raised an army of 60,000 men, "crushing a Lion." I totally disagree" which he meant to employ solely for the " 66 with all those, who drew hideous pictures 66 purpose of conferring the same favour of Napoleon's character; I could, even "on the King of England; and had the with safety, triumphantly answer what space between the wo countries been was said; but, justice would demand a "wholly composed of land-had not that full exhibition of the contrast that might channel intervened which gave full scope be presented; and, as this cannot be made to the power of the British navy, he with perfect freedom, the answer ought" would long ago have put his design not to be entered, on. It would be the "into execution. When he conceived the height of injustice to enter on the defence “wild and extravagant idea of conquerof any man without being free to produce" ing Europe, he acknowledged he must all that can be produced in his justifi-"first conquer England, and complained cation; what, then, would it be to enter "bitterly of the power of her marine, the on such defence without being able to "subversion of which he was determined produce hardly any of the main facts," to attempt by the destruction of her calculated to put the character of Napo- commerce. For the attainment of this leon in its true light? Let it be declared," object he put in motion all his political that truth shall never more be a libel ; engines; and after subjugating the and, then, the character of Napoleon will "whole continent of Europe to his sway, have its fair chance; then, and not till "he contrived to place you between two then, will his abusers have a right to ex- 'fires-that is, between the Continent in pect, that until contradicted, their asser- Europe, in which was the army of tions ought to pass for truth. But, there" France, and another Continent in Ameare Aristocrats and Cossack Priests" rica, which was our great rival for the enough in New England. There are men "palm of commercial greatness, and by 66 66 |