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titude in accommodating, with large elbow | serious subject. The eight hundred millions room, the gentlemen who will return from of debt; the paper-money; the income-tax, the wars. No longer shall we see families and such like topics must be reserved, 'till plunged in mourning for the loss of rela- the delirium has subsided a little. At preraris on service; tender fathers and mo- sent, therefore, I shall deal with minor thers, 'who, out of pure love of their king matters. If we do not reduce our expenand hatred of Napoleon, have sent their ces; if we do not reduce very low our misens into the army and navy, will no longer litary and naval force; if barracks, and be looking with paternal anxiety into the depots, and military colleges, are still to go lists of killed and wounded, They will on, what shall we have gained by this great now enjoy the society of their children by event? While the war lasted, or, indeed, their own fire-sides: under their own vines, while the warlike Devil had been in power, and own fig-trees they may sit, with no people would have paid, as far as they one to make them afraid. Those, who could, with some degree of content; but have been supplying great-coats for the this Devil being so completely destroyed, army, and trousers for the navy; all the what will they say, if they have still to pay army butchers and bakers; all, yea all, the same taxes as when he was in power, may now, and must now, cultivate the arts and when they were made to believe, that or peace; that is to say, they must work, the income-tax was absolutely necessary in some way or other, for their bread; for to preserve them from being devoured by the warlike Devil is, destroyed, and their him? -This event will have fine effect occ. pation is gone.--And, oh! ye Bar-in opening of eyes. We have been groping rack-Masters; ye guardians of the nation's coals and candles, and bed-steads, and bedding, and pots, and kettles, and fire-shovels, and pokers, what think ye of the fall of Napoleon? Think you that your horses will be so sleek and the livery of your serVas so gay? Will your wives now find it so difficult to curb their steeds, sufficienly to restrain them from trampling on the people by whose labour they have been raitamed?--The constables staff; this is the sort of arms, to which Englishmen formerly yielded obedience, and to which alone, let us now hope, they will, in future be, in any way subjected. There is now no room for any pretext for keeping up any force greater than that, at most, which was kept up after the close of the American war, when, colonies included, the whole did not exceed thirty-seven thousand men.nothing, to eat. When a man now ven--But, if, contrary to every rational ground of hope, a great force should be kept up, and a great annual expence still iarred, what reason should we have to East of this termination of the contest? 1ill be very easy to shew. when the proper time comes, that all which we shall now get, all which we shall now secure; that all which we say we shall get, we had before the war began, and might have continued to enjoy it without any war, or any debt at all; but that is too large and too interesting a subject to be treated of here, and especially before people's minds have settled down into any thing like sober thought. We are as yet in the delirious hour of the feast, and it is too soon to talk about the reckoning. The bill; the bill is the

on blind-folded for twenty-two years. Many things were amiss, it was acknowledged, but peace, and especially the fall of Napoleon, would put all to rights. Now, then, we shall see. We shall see whether the income-tax will be repealed; we shall see whether the Bank will pay in specie; we shall see whether it was the malignant hostility of Napoleon that kept our guineas out of circulation; we shall see whether the paupers will become less numerous, without the repeal of taxes; we shall see whether loans will cease: and, if we see none of these, we shall see how the loyal people, who pay taxes and do not receive any, will stare at one another. They will all become jacobins, I am afraid; that is to say, people who do not like to work to earn bread for others, who do

tures to say, that he thinks it wrong, that one man should receive out of the taxes many thousands a year for doing nothing, he cannot be answered by an observation that he is a partizan of Napoleon. This answer will not now be given to those who say, that seats in parliament ought not to be bought and sold. Some other answer must now be found out; and, when the people are called upon for as much in taxes as they were before, they will look so silly at each other first, and then they will begin to bite their lips and grind their teeth. But, gentlemen! act like gentlemen. You have had a feast; you have just been shouting and rejoicing; and pray, pay the reckoning. People do not, now-a-days, have feasts for nothing. They pay the bill;

and John Bull, who is a very liberal fellow, | Clarence, may amuse himself with reading ought to act like himself, and pay it with- the Treaty of Amiens. That document out grumbling. This is what old George will always be an instructive lesson to him; Rose will tell us, I am sure, when he calls and will, doubtless, keep alive in his boa county-meeting in Hampshire, and at som that gratitude, which he is said to owe which meeting I shall, if alive and well, to this country.In short, it is nonsense certainly attend to give my voice for con- to talk in this strain. He owes no gratigratulating the Regent upon the cessation tude to any power. All the powers have, of war and plunder, and upon the speedy by turns, left him to his fate; and they approach of guineas in lieu of paper.- have now restored him, because they were The reckoning is a part of a feast, which afraid of Napoleon, or of the example of some people forget; but we must not for- another revolution. They have, for their get it: we must keep it constantly in view; own safety, put him upon the throne; and, and, amongst the benefits of the French if he be a wise man; if calamity has not revolution to France, the French people been a teacher in vain, he will seek the have no reckoning to pay. They pay off good will of HIS PEOPLE, who alone can the score of the old government, and they make that throne secure.-It now remains have contracted no new debt. They begin to be seen whether we shall have a comthe world afresh, full-handed; and they mercial intercourse with France; whether will, as they would have done under Na- we shall be upon the same footing, in that poleon, start in the career of peace with respect, as we were before the war began. amazing advantages. Their country has If we are not, there will be a clear loss by not been drained. It is the finest country the war; and, if we are, we shall see whe in the world. Those who cannot live here ther that intercourse will bring our guineas and pay the taxes, will go thither to spend back again into circulation. So many their money and live cheap. But, I sup- topics arise, that the mind is puzzled pose, the king of France, out of gratitude which to choose; but, the event has a to this country, will not suffer his people great good in it, as it will inevitably throw to rival us! These notions are afloat. into honest labour, or send to Botany Bay, Wild as they are, they are afloat. The or the gallows, that swarm of reptiles, who King of France, who certainly has shown have so long lived by the means of a hiregreat constancy in all his trials, will, I dare ling press. No more SECOND EDIsay, be highly gratified to see himself TIONS and THIRD EDITIONS. No under the royal flag of the Duke of Cla- more trumpetting of lies and cheating the rence, wafting him over to France; but, public: Curiosity will now have nothing that will scarcely deprive him of his memory. to work on: The alarm is over: The old He must bear in mind a little what is pass-maiden ladies will sleep in peace; espeed. He has travelled about a good deal from country to country. He knows a little of mankind by this time; and, he must be strangely infatuated, if he does not do all that he is able to conciliate his people. His army is made to his hands, generals, soldiers, all will be given to him ready prepared; and such an army, too, as there is not in the world. He will not be so weak as to reject the services of such men as Soult and Marmont; and, we may Lay our account with not seeing France receive it. It will be no longer treason to, duced to a shadow to please us. The powers of the continent, having got rid of their dread; having no longer any occasion for our fleets, or our subsidies, will not be very desirous of leaving us absolute masters of all the colonies, and all the commerce of the world; and, besides the war gentry, I shall not be at all surprised to hear many others, before this day twelve months, regret the fall of Napoleon.-The King of France, as he sails over with the Duke of

cially if their incomes should be enlarged by the turning of paper into gold. The hirelings of the press will soon begin to find the lack of traffic. Their talents will soon cease to be vendable. They will be no more wanted than the commissaries and contractors for prisoners of war. Away goes that profitable branch of commerce, the dealing in Moniteurs. News will now come from the Continent by the post, and to every one who may have a mind to re

correspond with France, or to shake a Frenchman by the hand. To revile a man now as a jacobin, will be senseless, and will excite ridicule amongst a people who have lost their fears.--This is a great good. The bugbear is gone: The hobgotlin is destroyed: Reason will now resume her sway; and, in spite of all that can be done, I do not care by what means, the lot of those who do not now live upon the taxes, must be bettered.

to be at the disposal of his country, and that he would joyfully lay down both for its salvation and prosperity. In the opposite scale to gold, he throws magnanimity; but, in this refined age, gold preponderates, and Napoleon falls! Yet this was the man of the people's choice.-Now the malignant scribblers of venality accuse him with cowardice for having so abdicated. These dastardly and time serving reptiles, well versed in the suggestions of cowardice, judging of Napoleon's mind by their

M.De Fontanes to the Conservative Senate. The whole discourse would well bear, at this critical juncture, a republication, with explanatory notes, for the use of the

luded to runs thus:-" This appeal to the national honour is dictated by the love of peace; of that peace, which is not obtainLeted by weakness but by firmness; of that peace in short, which the Emperor, WITH

HAS NAPOLEON FALLEN? MR.COBBETT. "Whatever is is right:" -So says Pope, and late events prove it true. It was right that France should be vanquished and that Napoleon should be deposed. It is a highly useful lesson to mankind, to nations, and to sovereigns. It is right despotic monarchs should be taught, that nations are not their property; that their will or eaprice do not constitute law; and that the kingly office is but a trust! Often have they been told this; a Charles, a James, and a Lewis have, atown, cannot conceive any other motive for their cost, been so taught.-These lessons, his resignation: But were they, or were however, having proved insufficient, the the impartial and sensible for them, to reFrench nation and Napoleon, have now vert to a public document published four given to the world another, and a more months prior to the date of his abdication, exalted specimen. The first of these have they would there find that step intimated, exerted their indefeasible right in deposing not indeed in positive language but strongly Napoleon. The latter has frankly acknow-hinted at, as the future purchase of peace ledged that right, by nobly signing his ab- to the French nation, if it should prove nedication; and, like Cæsar, when assassi-cessary. This is contained in the speech of nated in the Senate, on discovering his son among the conspirators, after feebly and tenderly exclaiming, et la Brute, covered his head with his robe, and sunk unresisting and silent. So Napoleon, when in-good people of England.-The passage alformed of the national will, expressed by the senate, with an elevation of sentiment to which few can attain, calmly and with dignity signed his own abdication! the unfeigned and grateful thanks of mankind follow him for having acted thus. After having rendered the most essential services to the nation while a Republic; CRIFICES."--Although the word ABDIafter having accepted the crown and the CATION is not here positively made use of, throne, made hereditary in his family by yet it is strongly implied in the expressions, the gratitude of that same nation, he, upon with a new species of courage and at the a change of the public opinion, and to pro- price of great sacrifices.-Subsequent cure peace to his beloved country, to pre-events have shown what, that new species vent a civil war for his personal rights, ac- of courage meant; though our venal and quiesces with its will, expressed by a Se-ignorant writers cannot comprehend this nate of his own choosing; calmly descends because it is made up of materials they are from the throne; writes, with his own not provided with; because it is composed hand, his abdication; and retires. of principle, honour, self-command, and Monarchs of Europe, to you and to your disinterestedness, of which they are wholly people this lesson is addressed! From it destitute. Noble France! Magnanimous learn, that it is both honourable and safe to Napoleon! if it be true that this twenty attend to your people's wishes!—Napoleon years war has cost Britain upwards of eight in his abdication says, "The allied powers hundred millions; this, dethroning, this having proclaimed that the Emperor Na-abdicating lesson, is fully worth the expoleon was the only obstacle to the re-es-pense; for although other nations may reap tablishment of the peace of Europe, the the benefit while we alone pay the cost, Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, yet the whole human species will derive declares, that he renounces for himself and advantage from it. In marching the comhis heirs, the thrones of France and Italy, bined armies into France; in taking pose and that there is no personal sacrifice, even session of the capital, in compelling the that of life, which he is not ready to make Senate to dethrone Napoleon; and to asto the interest of France."-Here he as-sign reasons for so doing, the Allies have serts, not his crown merely, but his life jointly given the death blow to despotisın

A NEW SPECIES OF COURAGE, PROMISES'
TO GRANT AT THE PRICE OF GREAT SA-

important and well deserving of attention, not only for the ultimate moment of the subjects themselves, which were discussed, but for the manner in which they were brought home to the "work day" consisideration of every Englishman --My

all over civilized Europe; they have deliSPANISH GRATITUDE. niated, in strong colours, the facility of a MR. COBBETT.-If the opinion of an people's overthrowing every species of ty- individual, who has long perused your ranny; they have taught their own sub-weekly pages, is of any consequence, I jects that they are men; that reason, right, venture to say that you effected a most and power, belong to the people. Their judicious reform in your work, when you soldiers, after receiving instruction in excluded the official papers, and threw France, will carry it to their fellow sub-open the whole scope of its pages for origijects at home. The very savage and fierce nal discussion.It is of little conseCossack will say, it was in obedience to quence, in the end, perhaps, whether a the sovereign will of the people that the public writer, like you, be, in heart, a lover great, the renowned Napoleon, who had of truth, provided there be, in all that he so often and so valiantly vanquished their puts forth under his own name, a proper sovereigns, and then extended his friendly degree of apparent earnestness, and immehand to raise them from the dust; that diate consistency. The thinking part of this very Napoleon, the conqueror of Em- the nation, there is no fear, will afterwards perors, the maker of Kings, had abdicated exercise their own judgment, with good his crown at the wish of his people! - He effect, and decision. Your strong redid not make war upon them; he did not marks on the war in Spain; on the general reproach them as rebels; he abdicated. continental policy of this government; and On learning this, Russians, Prussians, Aus-on the public and private professions of trians, and Germans of every denomina- regard for the national independence, as it tion will ask, have the people then such is called, of states, which are so common rights? Have the people such powers?- with a certain set of interested and half deReflexion follows.--But these advan-luded men, have always appeared to me tages are confined to our Allies.-Our King (God bless him) can do no wrong. We, therefore, can have no pretence for voting him out of the throne. But our good King, like unto a valuable plant upon a hot-bed, may grow surrounded by noxious weeds; may be both stinted and shaddow-object in troubling you with this simple ed by them. These weeds it is equally a gardener's, as a nation's duty, to pluck up by the roots; and among other such weeds now growing rapidly, and surrounding the royal plant, we certainly must class corruption, and consider it an imperious duty to root it out most speedily.--REFORM OF PARLIAMENT-a dreadful sound to the corrupt;-a Reform of Parliament, now the sole means of saving the country, can at present meet with no opposition but from corruption.-A Reform of Parliament to remedy the past and to prevent all future abuses-a Reform of Parliament will lay open to the public eye all the items of an expenditure of 800 millions-a Reform in Parliament will, by economy, reduce such extravagant expenditure for the future; and a Reform in Parliament, by acts of justice, may bring back much of it to the public purse. The flimsy excuse, that this is not the time, for we are at war, is now upset. We are no longer at war. None, then, but the base and the corrupt, can now resist a REFORM OF PARLIAMENT.

ARISTIDES.

note, is to copy for your Register, if you choose, an extract from a letter addressed by a private soldier in the British artillery to his mother in this city. The substance of this extract is accurate, and such as any man of honour might attest. I shall only further premise, that the writer is an Highlander of spirit-pretty fair sense at the bottom, and of good common education. This distinction is necessary to satisfy some persons; but you will say, I suppose, that with such useful, though not shining, gifts, any man may be a good member of society, and many with nothing more have made bold, able, and useful attempts. The letter is dated, at St. Sebastian's, in the month of January last.- "I am now here, in the hospital, and, as some of my comrades are writing to Edinburgh, I cannot omit to tell you the real state of my present situation, for fear that you should get, through other channels, or by report, an alarming account of me. The house in which I, and others of my comrades lately lodged, at a place not far from this, unfortuately took fire, in the night, and we had only time to escape with our lives. Some how or other, the inhabitants had most errone

a Spanish village.--It is for you, Mr.
Cobbett, to solve such difficulties. You
seem to luxuriate in them: your powers of
illustration are peculiarly suited to them;
and I gladly leave them to you.
Edinburgh,

5th April, 1814.

J. M.

RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS. Sir-I am rather surprised at our excessive rejoicing on account of the restoration of the House of Bourbon to the throne of

ously and falsely taken a notion that we that has reason is capable to decide.had set the house on fire; and they came Taking the conduct of the Spanish peopleto us, in our naked and miserable state, to on the whole, however, I can neither join reproach us, and to have revenge. By one in the shouts of Mr. Canning, to "theof these people I was stabbed, with a knife, universal Spanish nation," nor in the parenin several places, particularly to a great thetical and inflated encomiums of Mr. depth in the fleshy part of my side, and left | Henry Brougham, on the noble conduct of on the ground, with some other wounded" that many-headed beast the multitude.": companions, to crawl to shelter if we have heard it stated by persons of could, or to die. I am now recovering good credit, that they had been told, by fast. But I cannot.help saying, my dear officers from the Peninsula, friends of theirs,parent, that the wounds in my flesh would that they would rather choose to lie down, have been hardly felt, had they been in- in the field of battle, at night among flicted by the hand of a generous French-Frenchmen, than take up their quarters in man*, in the field of battle, when I had at least the honour of my native land to maintain; but it cuts me to the soul to think how I have suffered from the stabs of a fellow who came behind me when I was naked and distressed; a cowardly and malignant Spaniard! And it is certainly both wonderful and provoking, to the last degree, that our country should spend its millions, and shed its best blood, under pretence of assisting a superstitious, a degraded, and an ungrateful people."Amidst all those obvious and outward signs of decay that present themselves to the wearied eye, it is consoling to think, Mr. Cobbett, that we have, in the ranks of our army, men who can write so shrewdly, and feel so honourably.--God grant that these fine materials may be less abused than they have been.--I leave this young soldier to you and your readers, with this short remark: I can allow much for a natural feeling of jealousy in any people towards Allies that come among them, and share their homes, and occupy their fields, as we do; and I think I have some notion what may be the conduct of a victorious army, flushed with success, and actuated by a spirit of revenge; not to view them, also, in the light of a great body of men, in a comparative sense, left to the full scope of all the mere animal passions, and all the worst vices of humanity. In such a state of things, acts will be committed that are calculated to injure, and to enrage any people, and to disgust them even with that cause which may have abstracted truth and general reason on its side. This is a point of universal feeling on which there can be no dispute. Every man needs only to put the case in his own person, and every man

* These are the exact words of this candid and spirited private soldier; one of the rabble who are so often complimented by certain

orators,

France, as it is without doubt the most unfavourable event, for this country, that could possibly have taken place: for, in a short period of time, we probably may, and certainly shall, see the family compact, and the united force of France and Spain, acting against us, and their joint fleets, perhaps, riding triumphant in the channel as they did during the latter part of the unfortunate American war. That master-, piece of politics, which united the different branches of the House of Bourbon in the closest connexion, was projected and concluded by the Duke of Choiseul, whom his countrymen, though they found in him the vastness of Richelieu, the activity of Louvois, the magnificence of Seignelay, and the amiableness of Pompone, dismissed, as they have done Napoleon to whom France is infinitely more indebted in various respects, than she has been to all her monarchs taken together. This extraordinary man has fulfilled his duty to that country to the very last, from which it would have been a scandalous departure in him to have put into the possession of her enemies the strong holds or fortresses, which they unreasonably demanded. For she had as good a right to make such a demand on them as they had on her: and but for the treachery of the very creatures of his own making, who will probably meet the just reward of their ingratitude, success could not possibly have attended

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