consideration of this matter? Why did not they write a word on the tribute exacted by the English and paid by the Americans?

M. Le Borgne de Boigne, who is pleased to exhibit a view of past and future expenses of our government, asserts, in the recapitulation, that we have great capitals, and expend very little; sinee there is in Hayti no kind of institution for the arts and sciences, or for the relief of suffering and wretched humanity; nothing, indeed, of what does honor to civilised nations and governments. M. Le Borgne knows very well, then, that we cannot better employ our money, than in creating and meliorating public establishments; in calling from abroad schoolmasters, artists, and professors; in giving them liberal salaries; in furnishing the necessary supplies for the public service; in filling our magazines and fortresses with every requisite in case of an invasion by the French: and so does our august and beloved sovereign. Could he make a nobler use of the sale of the national property, than in striving to diffuse knowledge, comfort, and happiness, on a people so long unfortunate, and bent under an iron yoke? Is it not very just that the produce of that property, which the ex-colonists call theirs, and from which all our misfortunes originated, be now expended for the promotion of our welfare? I do not doubt, but M. Le Borgne will be one of the first to praise that judicious and useful way of using our treasures: or could it be else an impudent hypocrisy on his part to appear to pity our fate, and to pretend that we have only changed our name, but gained nothing in reality by acquiring freedom, and that our chiefs, instead of alleviating our miseries, have made them still heavier ?

So that, according to him, we must have suffered, fought so much, spilt so much of our blood, for nothing; nay, for increasing our unhappiness, instead of diminishing it. What perfidious hypocrisy! What baseness of falsehood! This is the most daring impudence indeed, to endeavour to convince us that slavery is better than liberty; that to crouch ignominiously under barbarous tyrants, is better than to live free, independent, happy, and comfortable! To give back to us the same felicity we enjoyed in bondage; to draw again on us the happy times of Leclerc and Rochambeau;' such are the views of M. Le Borgne. It is for that purpose he contrived his system, the principal basis of which is the creation of a commercial company. The key of all his fabric is commerce: commercial companies, says he, are not new; they had been used at first by the English in India, and we may imitate them in Hayti,

Commerce is the only way by which our enemies hope to intreIV. Histoire de St. Dominique, 1 Vol. 8vo. 1816. (Transl.)

VOL. XIII.

Pam.

XXV.

P

duce themselves among us, and to corrupt, disunite, unsettle, and at last oppress us. Of this they made us acquainted long ago; and we do very well remember their maxim: "Let the negociator be at first a merchant only: they will begin by liking the merchandise, and then the merchant."

Their lace, silk, galoons, and cloths, their Marseilles and Bourdeaux goods; such are the baits which they prepare for us. They hope to seduce our gross and obtuse senses. Such, they think, is among us the power of vanity and luxury, that nothing can prevent us from falling into their snares; neither the many instances history affords, nor their own giving us warning of their artful views.

Doubtless they will use every possible means of enforcing a system of corruption, which offers to them at once so many advantages.

At first, they are willing to communicate with us, but not to acknowledge our independence. Commerce is the only medium by which they wish to have intercourse with us; and to them it is a powerful one indeed.

1st. Because it would enable them insensibly to meddle with our affairs, to disunite and corrupt us; to know thoroughly our political, moral, and internal situation, and to seek for the weak sides they could attack.

2nd. Because they would find themselves in intercourse with other trading nations; stir up rivalries, excite squabbles, inspire foreigners with disgust, and by intrigues make them at last renounce

our commerce.

3rd. Because they would elude the question of Haytian liberty; and would annihilate in fact the right we have acquired: for were we to receive the French flag into our ports, under their unjust conditions, we would in fact 'give our tacit acknowledgment to their pretended rights, and resign our independence.

4th. In fine, because they would be at leisure to temporise, to undermine our state, to rekindle all the torches of civil war, to crush one party by means of another; and they would enjoy the advantages of our trade, till they could act openly against us and rise to oppress us.

What would be plague and starvation, compared to the introduction of such a commerce among us? O my countrymen, distrust the French! From those modern Greeks you have nothing but evil to expect. Distrust them, even when they bring gifts to you. French trade like the wooden horse of the Greeks, contains in itself all the elements of destruction. Deaf to the counsels of Laocoon, their fellow-citizen, the Trojans introduced that horse into their town, Négociant and négociateur, which signify a merchant and a diplomatist. form here a kind of jeu-de-mots, which it seems impossible to translate, (Transl.)

and were ruined. Haytians, you will be ruined, as the Trojans were, if you introduce French commerce among you. May you not be deaf to my advice! And may it please the Almighty, that my predictions be never fulfilled!

Commerce, as we said before, is the key-stone of the fabric M, Le Borgne intends to build. Without it, the fabric cannot either rise or stand: he was so good as to tell us so, and might have saved himself that trouble.

Commerce being the mean of destruction which the French are to employ against us, let us proscribe French trade. By this we shall annihilate all their hopes; and crush, before it rise, their airy nothing, their chimerical fabric.

Never, therefore, had we a greater proof of our king's deep wisdom and foresight, than when, by his act of the 20th November 1816, his majesty declared,

1st. That the French flag should not be admitted in any sea-port of the kingdom, nor any individual of that nation, till the Haytian independence should be fully acknowledged by the French govern

ment.

2nd. That on proposals or communications which should be made by the French government to that of Hayti, either by writing or vivâ voce, should be received, unless made after the forms and etiquette established in the kingdom for diplomatic communications.

3rd. That his majesty would never consent to any treaty whatever, in which should not be acknowledged the liberty and independence of all the Haytians who inhabit the three provinces of the kingdom, known under the denomination of North, West, and South; the territory and cause of the Haytians being one and indivisible.

4th. In fine, that his majesty's relations with the French government should be on a footing of equality, as between power and power, between sovereign and sovereign: that no kind of negociation with France should be entered on, but with the previous basis of the Haytian liberty being fully acknowledged, as to commerce and government: and that no definitive treaty should be concluded with her, unless we have obtained before the guarantee of some great maritime power, which should warrant the faith of the treaty from being violated by the French.

That declaration of the King of Hayti, is a great proof of his wisdom, prudence, and of the love he entertains for his people. That act is the Haytian Habeas Corpus; it is our Palladium against the French.

All the projects of France on Hayti are completely baffled by that act: the king has foreseen and eluded all their plans. While they ask for an act of submission from the two chiefs to the King of France, his majesty declares that he will only treat with the King.

of France on a footing of equality, as it becomes a sovereign treating with a sovereign, and a power with a power. While they wish to break the unity, to sever the territory, to invade the common interests of the Haytians, the king declares that he will never consent to any treaty which shall not fully recognise the freedom and independence of all the Haytians who inhabit the three provinces of the kingdom, known under the names of North, West, and South. While they continue the system of duplicity, perfidy, insult, and violence, still considering us in the light of rebels; his majesty has declared that no kind of communication will be received, except it were couched after the forms and etiquette established in the kingdom. They would decline the question of our independence, and afterwards introduce themselves by means of commerce, with a view to carry their plans more effectually into execution, of which the object is division, and the arming us against each other: but the King of Hayti has declared, that neither the French flag nor any individual of France should be admitted into the ports of the kingdom, till the independence of Hayti were definitively recognised by the French government. Greater penetration or a sounder judgment could nowhere be displayed than the King of Hayti has shown in this respect.

Did not France herself afford us a striking example of the anxiety which all governments feel for the preservation and safety of the people; and to what an extreme point it may be carried?

From Bayonne to Hamburgh, did she not, in order to support the continental system, burn and destroy in the market-place, the produce of English manufactures? If a single hat, a piece of cloth, or even a knife of English manufacture were found, the owner was deprived of them immediately; and the hat, piece of cloth, and knife were consigned to the flames.

Can it be imagined that we fight for objects less important or dear to us than the interests of France are to herself? She invaded Europe under pretence of maintaining the liberties of the ocean, which, she affected to say, England would soon destroy. But we have to maintain against France our rights as men, our political existence, which she would assail and destroy through the medium of her trade. Who can be so infatuated as to put in competition interests of such magnitude, with the trifling advantages of commerce?

Is there a man who would exchange life, liberty, independence, for a bauble, for lace and silk manufactured at Lyons, and merchandise from Bourdeaux and Marseilles? Up to the present moment, we have permitted the importation of French merchandise; for as it passed through other hands before it reached us, we considered it refined and purified, and did not object to the sale of it. But the merchandise is French notwithstanding. We augment the

wealth of our most implacable enemies, acquire an additional taste for their manufactures, and are led into an abyss by a flowery path, which conducts us imperceptibly to slavery, and loads us with

its fetters.

If France, therefore, persist in her system of insult and aggression, if she obstinately refuse to acknowledge our independence fully and effectually (the only proper guarantee); it will be our duty, after having proscribed the flag and people of that nation, to proscribe also its merchandise. Every thing compels us to act in this manner; our true interests require it. There is a proverbial expression commonly used in that part of Ethics which treats of man in private life, that to win a cow, we may give an egg. In the same manner, we may say, politically, when speaking of the existence and welfare of nations, that the loss of a day is nothing, when centuries are to be gained. Let us apply these maxims to ourselves, which, though extremely simple, are nevertheless fundamental. Let us say to ourselves: France obstinately refuses to acknowledge the throne and independence of Hayti; she seeks for all imaginable means and pretences for declining that important question: but she wishes at the same time to participate in our commerce, and be able, through the medium of it, to preserve her relations with us unimpaired; insinuate herself into the country; temporise, corrupt, and disunite. In fine, she prepares herself for the opportunity of destroying us whenever it presents itself. What then remains? We have only to disappoint the very hope of her being able to enslave us again : we have to break, not only every link that united us with her, but drive far from us every thing that comes from her. Let us proscribe her merchandise; and not suffer any thing to remain in the country that bears her stamp. France, completely baffled in her criminal designs, will be under the necessity of acknowledging our independence, if she wishes to enjoy, in common with other nations, the advantages of our commerce. It is on these terms, and these terms only, that Frenchmen can be allowed to approach us with less danger; and if we adopt measures to secure the public welfare, we shall gain for an egg that we lost, a cow: for a day, centuries. Would it not, indeed, argue madness in the extreme, were we to sacrifice the future to the present? In what way could trade, conducted on a footing so insecure and dangerous, be of any service? What would it avail us to accumulate wealth without the power of enjoying it? The only real wealth and treasure of Hayti, are liberty and indeperdence! This must be the end, the sole and exclusive object of all her designs. Without this there is nothing.

Experience has often taught us, that errors in politics and morals cannot be trifling. In both, the smallest fault induces a greater,