briety, vigilance, and consideration for his crew; and these qualities are within the reach of every man. The American government, too, has a wide range for choice; with it no intrigues, commonly called "in

our inferiority of force is another of the
means made use of to deceive the people,
and to encourage them in the continuation
of the war.
When, until now, did we
think of disparity of force? When, until
now, did we dream of an English ship sur-terest," is likely to prevail; because the
rendering to a ship, the superiority of the
force of which it required a minute calcula-
tion to show? When, until now, did an
English Captain hesitate to attack a ship of
a few guns more than his own?-Instead
of all the calculations that we have seen in
the news-papers; instead of those swelled
out accounts of the vast force of the Ame-
rican frigates, we should be plainly told,
that we have now an enemy to cope with
equal to ourselves as far as his numbers
will go.-
Amongst all the calculations
and computations, however, that we have
heard, I have not perceived it any where
taken into account, that we have experi-
ence, which the Americans have not.
Where did Isaac Hull gain his naval expe-
rience; and where Mr. Decatur? There
are two Decaturs, the father and son.
They were my neighbours, in the country,
in Pennsylvania. They were farmers more
than seamen, though the elder went occa-
sionally to sea as commander of a merchant
ship. If it be the father who has taken the
Macedonian, he must be upwards of three
score years of age; and, if it be the son, I
am sure it is the first battle he ever was in;
for, twelve years ago, he was but a mere
lad. The father was a man of great pro-
bity and of excellent sense; and, I have no
doubt that the son is the same; but, I'll
engage, that both have had more experience
in raising Indian corn than in naval tactics.
Something, therefore, in our estimates,
should be allowed for our superiority in
point of experience. We have no officer of
the navy, who has not passed a great part
of his life on actual service; we have
scarcely one who has not been in numerous
battles; and, in the unfortunate cases above
spoken of, one of the Captains appears to
have been of long standing even in that
rank. When we are speaking of the
naval preparations of Napoleon, we always
dwell upon the difficulty of his forming
naval officers; but, here we see, in the case
of America, that that is attended with no
difficulty at all; we here see gallant and
consummate commanders start up in a trice;
and, in a moment, is dissolved the charm
which bound us in ignorance as to this im-
portant species of information.The
truth is, I believe, that, amongst the first
qualities of a marah commander, are so

possession of the powers of the state depend
solely upon the will of the people, and, the
government, having such support, is not re-
duced to the necessity of seeking support
from any individuals; and, of course, is not
exposed to the danger of being compelled to
employ as commanders, or as officers of any,
rank, persons not recommended by their.
own good qualities.This is
-This is a very
great advantage possessed by the American
government; an advantage to which, per-
haps, it owes those successes, which we so
sorely lament, and which seem to be very
likely to form an era in the naval history of
the world. But, let what will be the
final result of these transactions, I really
can see no good ground for accusation
against the ministers on account of the mis-
fortunes that have befallen our frigates.
Blamed they may be for the war. There,
indeed, there is matter for blame; because,
if my reasoning upon the subject be correct,
they might have avoided the war without
any dishonour to England; but, for this-
they cannot be blamed by those who are
seeking for their places; because some of
those very persons were amongst the men
who adopted and adhered to the measures
which produced the war; and, the rest of
them have pledged themselves to prosecute
it upon its present ground. -Mr. Can-
ning and Lord Wellesley were, in succes-
sion, Secretaries of State for Foreign Af-
fairs while the dispute was maintained
against the abolition of impressment of per-
sons on board of American ships. Indeed,
the former has expressed his disapprobation
of the "concessions," as he calls them,
made to America, in the repeal of our Or-
ders in Council. Of course he cannot com-
plain of the ministers for going to war;
and Mr. Ponsonby, as the organ of the
Whigs, distinctly declared, that, if Ame
rica was not satisfied with that repeal, he
would support the war against her.
Not, therefore, being able to find fault with
the ministers for the war itself, they fall on
upon them as to their manner of conducting
it; and, as I think, I have shown, they do
this without a shadow of justice.We,
"Jacobins," blame all the three factions;
some of them for causing the war, and
others for pledging themselves to support
it; nor have I the least hesitation to

"

1.

HAL

-Those

predict, that, day after day, will tend to shilling of the £6,000 that, as President, convince all persons of impartiality, that he receives. And, why should he not? we are right. -This war we owe entire- What, claim would he have to the title ly to the presumption inspired by our fool- of patriot, if he grudged to use his talents ish and venal writers. The language of for his country; or, which is the same the late PERCEVAL, who talked of not wish- thing, if he refused to use them without ing for the "destruction" of America, and being paid for their use? If such were his who spoke of her as of a power depending disposition, what claim would he have to on his will for her very existence; this lan- the confidence of his fellow-citizens? But, guage, which will long be remembered, with the common soldier or sailor, or other was the general language of the press. inferior person employed by the governWe could not believe it possible, that a go- ment, the case is wholly different. He vernment, the whole of the officers of which, has nothing but his labour for his inhePresident and all, did not receive from the ritance; he possesses no part of the counpublic so much money annually as one of try; his time is his all; and, of course, our sinecure place-men; we could not he is paid for that time at as good rate as if conceive, that a government who did he laboured for an individual.not get more money for itself would who speculate upon the resources of Amebe able to get money enough to carry on a rica should not overlook these important war more than sufficient to last our sloops circunstances; but, hitherto, I am sorry for a few months. We have now found to say, that we have almost wholly overour mistake; and, indeed, the premises looked them.- -I never shall forget the which we had in our eye should have led obstinacy of many persons with whom I am to a directly different conclusion; for, acquainted, as to the intention of the Amewould not common sense have told us, that rican government to go to war. They perthe less of the public money was taken by sisted to the very last, that it was imposthe officers of Government for their own sible. They called the declaration of the use; the less of it that was devoured by Congress "bullying," they said it was "all placemen, and by others for no services" smoke;" and so, indeed, said the hired rendered the public, the more there must press, that vehicle of lies, that instrument of be for the Government to employ in the ill to England.They have found some public service? This would have been fire as well as smoke; they have found that the rational conclusion; but, to reason the Republicans have something at their thus, suited not those who had, and who command besides words; and, when it is too have, the control over ninety-nine hun- late, I fear that they will find, that this is dredth parts of the press of this country. the most fatal war in which we have yet They, therefore, represented America as been engaged. One effect of it appears to a nation destitute of warlike means; when me to be inevitable; and that is, the crethey should have made an estimate of her ation of a Navy in America.--Pray, resources upon the grounds stated in my good hired men, do not laugh at me; for I last number.- -The persons in high am quite serious when I say, that my fear offices in America are badly paid; but (and is, that this war will lead to the creating of the fact is worth great attention) those in a formidable in America. The means low rank, or, no rank at all, are well paid. are all in her hands, and her successful The former have very small salaries; their beginning will not fail to give activity to gains are much less than those of any con- those means.- A Navy, a military masiderable merchant or manufacturer, law-rine, in America, is, to me, a most formiyer, or physician; but, the common sol- dable object. Twenty frigates only would dier and sailor are paid at a very high cause an expense to us of millions a-year, rate; at such a rate as not to make him unless we resolved to yield the West India regret his change from civil life. Islands at once. -I would not advise should not say, perhaps, that the former our government to look upon the rearing are badly paid; because, there is something of an American Navy as something necesin the honour of high office, which the sarily distant. America has swelled her common man does not enjoy; and, besides, population from about two to about eight there is something due from every man to millions in the space of less than 30 years. his country; and, the greater that is his Another ten years may see her population stake in the country, the less is his right to ammount to twenty millions. From not bedraw from her purse. Mr. Madison does, ing permitted to make a hob-nail," she I dare say, expend, as President, every has risen to be an exporter of numerous

navy

useful manufactures. I state it as an unde-
niable fact, that she is now able to supply
herself with all the articles necessary to
man, even in polished life. And, if this
be so, why should she not be able to rear a
Navy, having already nearly as great a mer-
cantile marine as our own. Whether it
will be for her happiness that she should
do this is another question; but, that she
will do it I think is most likely; because,
in the mass composing every society of
men, there is generally a sufficient number
on the side of power and glory to decide
the nation in favour of the love of those
captivating objects. This war, there-
fore, if not speedily put an end to, will,
in my opinion, not fail to make America
a manufacturing nation, as far as her own
wants call for, and to make her also a naval
nation; and will thus, at one stroke, de-
prive us of our best customer for goods,
and give us upon the seas a rival who will
be daily growing in strength as well as in
experience. In my preface to the re-
publication of Mr. Chancellor Livingstone's
Treatise on Merino Sheep, I showed how
necessarily it would follow from the intro-
duction of flock-keeping in America, that
she would become independent of us as to
woollens. Nevertheless, and in spite of all
the facts which have, from time to time,
been published relative to the manufacturing
of cloths in that country, there are still
men to treat with ridicule, aye, even with
ridicule, the idea of America being able
to make her own coats and blankets. I
remember, that, while I was in Newgate
for two years, for writing about the flogging
of the Local Militia, at the Town of Ely,
in England, under the superintendence of
German Troops, there came a gentleman,
who was, I believe, a dealer in wool, to
ask my opinion relative to the future com-
merce with America. After having spent
about a quarter of an hour in a detail of
facts, which, in my mind, contained proof
unquestionable, that the woollen trade with
America was for ever at an end, he began a
sentence upon the surprising increase of
the manufactures in America, which he
concluded in words to this effect: "I dare
say, that, in less than half a century,
we shall not ship a bale of cloth to that
country. This put me in mind of the
effect that the Botley Parson's sermons used
to have upon me; and I lost no time in
changing the subject of conversation.

I am not one of those who shall regret this independence of America, which I do not think will prove any injury to England in

the end; but, I could have wished the change to have been less abrupt, and effected without war, and without the animosi-, ties and the sufferings inseparable from war. To me it appears as absurd as it is unnatural, that the American farmer should not have his coat untaxed at the customhouse in England. I can see no sense and no reason in it. Nor do I see why the people of England, or any portion of them, should make coats or knives, or any thing else for the use of other countries, except merely in such quantities as may be necessary to exchange for wine and oil, and some few other things which really are useful to man.

com

The use of commerce is to effect an exchange of the products of one climate. for those of another; but governments have turned it into the means of laxation, and, in many cases, that appears to be its only. object. An exchange of English coals for French wine, the former at 30s. a chaldron, at Paris, and the latter at 6d. a bottle in London: that would, indeed, be a merce to be contemplated with pleasure. But a commerce, carried on under a code of prohibitions and penalties, such as those now every where in existence, is not to be desired. It is an instrument of taxation, and an endless source of war, and it is nothing more.- -Those, however, who are of a different opinion, may look upon the war with America as one of the surest means of destroying, or, at least, diminishing for ever, the best branch of what they admire; but, while I blame the ministers for the war, I must say, that the merchants and manufacturers (I mean the powerful ones) have no right to blame them. The ministers, in their measures towards America, have done no more than pursue that same system, of which those merchants and manufacturers have a thousand times, and in the strongest terms, ex¬ pressed their approbation. At the out-set of this long and destructive war, who stood forward so readily in support of it as this class of persons? The war-whoop has invariably originated with them. They indulged the selfish hope of seeing themselves in possession of all the trade and all the riches of the world. The English news-papers contain a record of their love of war, of war against any body, so long as it promised gain to them. They have, over and over again, called the war which began in an invasion of France by the Duke of Brunswick, 65 a just and necessary war;" but, of late, they appear to have been taught by their poor-books and the list of Bankrupts,

❝ence

that the war is not quite so necessary, "" notice by the rapidly increasing Beggary however "just", they may still think it." and Wretchedness of Myriads of its inThey have, I repeat it, no right to com- "dustrious and frugal Inhabitants, who, plain against the ministers, who have not" at no very distant period, enjoyed affludeviated from the system of Pitt and Grenor competence; and also by the ville, and who, with regard to Ame-" obviously increasing INABILITY of our rica, are only acting upon the very same "ablest Financiers, even while imposing a principles, and pursuing the very same ob-"most oppressive Taxation, to devise means jects, that have been acted upon, and pur"for raising Supplies in any wise corres sued from the year 1792 to the present "pondent to the Public Annual Expenditure, day; and the manufacturers are tasting, In the largest Parish of this once as is most meet, of the fruit of the tree of" flourishing, but now miserable Town, their own planting and protecting.

"nearly a third part of its Population, in "consequence of the interruption of Trade, PEACE. The following Petition for "is reduced to the state of PAUPERS; and Peace, of the Town of NOTTINGHAM, is in the other Parishes of the Town, not worthy of particular attention on account of "less oppressive to those Inhabitants on the facts it states. To His Royal High-whom a levy can be made, is the BURness the Prince Regent.-Sir, We, the "DEN OF POOR'S RATES. And we are "Undersigned, Burgesses, or Inlrabitants "credibly informed, that a like reduction of the Town, and County of the Town of " to Beggary and Want of Multitudes of Nottingham, and its Precincts, beg leave our Countrymen in the different Manuto claim the attention of your Royal "facturing Towns of this Kingdom, is the "Highness, as being the Representative of "consequence of the annihilation of our "a Sovereign, whose highest glory we "Trade, and of the increase of the Taxa-. presume it is, that he should be consi- tion produced by War. Additional ❝dered as the Father of his People; while to these Evils, might be recalled to your "we dutifully present, before the Throne," Royal Highness's recollection those also,, "a statement of the Evils from War, ex"which are inevitable concomitants of the perienced by Ourselves, and by Millions most successful Wars, even when waged beside of His Majesty's vast family: and "by Nations whose resources may be the while we earnestly supplicate, from a "most ample, and whose condition the * Paternal Regard, so becoming an English "most flourishing. It assuredly cannot "Monarch, that relief from dire distress, ""be a matter of little estimation with your "which the speedy restoration of Peace "alone can be expected to afford.

แ

66

On

66

Royal Highness, that Thousands of brave "Men should be extended lifeless on the that Royal Power, which was designed "Field of Battle: that Thousands should' "to be a blessing and protection to Mil-"perish by the hardships of Warfare: that lions, we call for an exertion of God-like" that there should be Thousands of mourn* Benevolence, which shall speedily termi-"ing Widows and Orphan Children: that "nate a Contest, unhappily commenced "Thousands of Parents should be hurried "with precipitancy, and direfully pro"to the Grave by the loss of beloved Sons, "longed by the exasperated passions and passions and "who were the support of their declining "the d underings of Men." Years: that Thousands should die linMany are the Motives to Peace, and most "gering deaths in Captivity; and that the powerful, which might be expected to "Majority of the Survivors of a long and "influence the mind of your Royal High- "bloody Contest, having, in a course of ness. A respect for the divine principles "Warfare, experienced interruption to "of Christianity and Humanity, it may be "those Moral habits, which promote the hoped, will prevent your Royal High-" harmony, comfort, and welfare of Civil 66 ness from being swayed by the represen- "Society and of Domestic Life, should, on ❝tations of Men, whose prejudices, pas- "the return of a state of Peace, be rendersions, or selfish interests, render themed less valuable Members of Society, and Advocates for the PERPETUITY OF A WAR "less welcome to the Roofs of their Rela"which, if much longer persisted in, will" tions and Friends.evidently be accompanied by civil com-"ration of Peace alone motion, by famine, and by pestilence." heavy Evils we endure, and save the InAn awful admonition of our having

❝nearly exhausted the Resources of the Country is painfully obtruded on our

As

Speedy restomitigate the

habitants of this Land from impending ruin, and the irrecoverable loss of their once prosperous and enviable Condition; as

66

of Nottingham now claim our attention, and, we are told, that in one of the principal parishes, nearly every third person is a pauper. The misery must, in such a case, be dreadful; and it will, I trust, meet due attention from the parliament.

"now the ill success and disappointed views "of the Enemy may lead him to listen "more readily to reasonable Conditions of Peace; we join our afflicted Countrymen in earnestly petitioning your Royal High ness to manifest by some unequivoca! Expression or Public Act of the British Go- Perceval used to say, in answer to all "vernment, your truly Royal desire to applications for relief to such persons, that seize the earliest opportunity of sheath- it would do harm if granted; but, why, ing the Sword of Slaughter, and healing then, make grants of relief to the Russians 2 "the wounds of a long-protracted War: Why should such a grant do more harm in that thus the Enemy may be precluded England than in Russia? Mr. Wilberforce "from plausibly throwing the odium of (formerly member for Yorkshire and now "delight in War and its concomitant mi- for the borough of Bamber) said, that he "series on your Royal Highness's pacifica- had attempted to make a calculation of the tory Government.- -We will indulge sum per head which the Russian £200,000 "the hope that your Royal Highness will would amount to, if divided amongst the grant the Prayer of our Petition; and paupers in England: but that he had "that your Highness's endeavours will be found it to be too small to admit of a name. "effectual in soon restoring to the afflicted Indeed! Why, there are 4 millions of "People, intrusted to your Royal protec- shillings in £200,000. And, if the "tion, that lasting Peace after which they worthy representative of the borough of so ardently aspire.Thus may the Bamber did not estimate our sons and "blessings of the Peace-maker descend on daughters of misery at more than 4 mil"your Royal Highness; and thus may lions, the £200,000 given to the Russians your Royal Father, when called from would have given each of our poor crea his present state of sufferings to a better tures a shilling; and would have fed them "World, be enabled to resign to your better than they are now fed for half a "Royal Highness, in a state of Peace, that week. If he considered the number of "Throne, which he ascended amid the din paupers at 3,000,000, and that is nearly "of arms, and on which he has continued one-third part of the population, the "to sit during so many years of war." £200,000 would have afforded all our -The statement relative to the paupers paupers is. 6d. each; and, I can assure is very alarming. The consequences of the member for Bamber, that eighteen such a state of things no man can foresee. pence a-piece would have made their eyes The news-papers tell us, that a detachment sparkle.Nay, would not £200,000 of the Queen's Bays have been marched have maintained all the paupers in England into the town; for the purpose, I suppose, and Wales for a whole week? £200,000, of giving relief to the hungry bellies of the multiplied by 52, gives the sum of people! The writers are assuredly the £10,400,000; and, I believe, that, at most callous men that ever breathed. They the last return laid before parliament, the never, upon any occasion, let slip out, total amount of the poor-rates, in England even by accident, a sentiment of com- and Wales, for one year, was less than passion for the sufferings of the people, £6,000,000. Indeed, I know that it was They are always for measures of vigour so; and, therefore, unless the poor-rates towards them. Vigour, indeed! What have nearly doubled in amount during the vigour is wanted towards a set of poor last ten years, the member for Bamber creatures whom the wind would almost will find, that this grant to the poor of blow away? ? For my part, however sin-Russia would have maintained all the poor gular my taste may be, I would much ra- in England for one whole week; and, ther give a pound to these poor souls at would it have been nothing to give them a Nottingham than the millionth part of a double allowance for a week? Would it farthing to the people of Russia, who, as be nothing to give all the poor of our own we are NOW told by the Times news-country a week's food in this pinching paper, set fire to their own houses, their people at Lloyd's; own goods, their own food, their own as to the SUBSCRIBING people, let them sick and wounded soldiers; and, in short, have their taste; they subscribed towards the whole of the capital of the Russian the war, and so did the old, famous old Empire. But, more of these impudent gentleman, who subscribed £10,000 tolies about Moscow another time: the poor wards the voluntary contributions, and

season?

As to the P

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