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he may, of the matter, he will

gone far towards the fate of the South American Republics." The Courier announces to us.

jesty, to exclude the deliverers of Europe from the Councils of Europe! But, if these Councils should decide, that South America shall not be independent; then, what have we left but war?

moured with the rulers of Ire- and, think Mr. CANNING, what land. There are powerful parties in find that the fall of Cadiz has all the States of South America; and these parties are, in some cases, opposed to the Government of Old Spain. With great aid that, "the great question of South from without, these parties might "American independence, will, ere establish independent Govern- "long, occupy the Councils of Euments; but, never without such "rope." From those Councils, your aid, unless we could annihilate Majesty is (as the Courier has the intriguing faculties of Europe. told us), to be excluded; that is to It is said, and in the Moniteur, say, your Ministers will have notoo, that the Spanish vessels of thing to do with those Councils. war are preparing at Cadiz to pro- Hard, may it please your Maceed to South America. That these are manned with Frenchmen and are carrying French money (borrowed, very likely, in London), there can be little doubt. But to prevent the establishment of Governments in the Colonies, these In the meanwhile, the Spaniards armaments are by no means ne- (that is to say, the French), are cessary. The news from Old Spain sending án armament to the scene will have much more than half de- of action. England is proceedstroyed; the bare news, without ing by "BEAT OF DRUM," and any thing else; the bare news of (a thing by no means to be overthe surrender of Cadiz to the looked) the sister republies of the French; the bare news of this North are sending a squadron, for event, will have half destroyed all the "suppression of piracy," in the works of the revolutionists in the West India Seas. This is a the Colonies. If I, seeing Eng- mere pretext. Four well equipland in a state of republican re-ped vessels of war, have just volution, were to place myself at sailed from the Potomac to the the head of a revolution in Nova West Indies; and I am sure, that Scotia, and were to declare that no man in his senses will ask for country in a state of independence. what. If I were in this situation, and The foregoing observations are were to receive news of the Hano- intended merely as an introducverians having come over to Eng- tion, to the Petition which I am land, and of their having first been about to annex; but I cannot conreceived with acclamations of joy clude this Memorial, without obin London, and then, taking pos- serving on the perverseness; on session of Portsmouth and Ply- the wilful blindness of even the mouth: if I were to receive such most intelligent part of the Lonnews in Nova Scotia, I should, I don Press; on its wonderful obbelieve, think much less about the stinacy in disguising from itself, independence of Nova Scotia than the part which the United States about the saving of my own neck; have acted and are acting in this

great drama. This Press has re-confirm the opinions contained in cently informed us of the detec- the following Petition. In it tion and imprisonment of two will be found the true clue to the French spies in Mexico. It was, conduct of the United States. it seems, discovered, that they But, circumstances have wholly were carrying on a "treasonable changed, as far as relates to the correspondence." A treasonable relative power of those States, as correspondence with the French connected with this question. Minister: not with the French When the Petition was written, Minister at Paris, however, but they had no ally to support them with the French Minister at Wash- against England. They have ington! At Washington! Carry-now the whole of the House of ing on a conspiracy against "li-Bourbon and Russia. If the berty," even in liberty's own Spanish Colonies of America, "Capitol!" Like SYPHAX and again take their place under the SEMPRONIUS, carrying on a con- House of Bourbon, England must spiracy against CATO, in CATO's own hall !

Ah, Sir! if you had Ministers that thought less about the safety of the boroughs, and more about the safety of your kingdom, how soon would Englishmen laugh to scorn all the petty hatchings of these conspirators!

Your Majesty's

abandon all those maritime rights, which have been the chief source of her power, and always the rock of her safety; and return under the dominion of the House of Bourbon those Colonies must, unless we send forth fleets and armies to effect and to secure their independence. That your MaIn spite of this discovery; in jesty will, at last, call upon the spite of the Act of Congress con- Parliament for those fleets and tained in the subjoined Petition; armies, I have little doubt; and, in spite of the matchless duplicity when you shall be compelled to do of acknowledging the independ- that, may I be permitted to hope, ence of Buenos Ayres in news- that you will condescend to read paper paragraphs, and in no offi- the following Petition of cial document; in spite of the sailing of the squadron from the Potomac; in spite of facts sufficient to enlighten the understandings of idiots, the London press still affects, when it is speaking of the affairs of South America, to leave the interest, the disposition and the power of the United States, wholly out of the question! The main object of this Memorial is, to press upon the Public, under the form of an Address to your Majesty, the necessity of being prepared for the hostility of the United States. Every day brings forth something to strengthen and

Faithful Subject and
Most humble Servant,
WM. COBBETT.

To His Royal Highness the PRINCE,
Regent of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and ireland.

The Petition of WILLIAM COBBETT
of Botley in the County of South-
ampton, now residing at North
Hampstead, in the State of New
York, this 17th day of October
1817,

Most humbly Sheweth,

1. THAT, next after the present situation of England herself, the

object the most interesting to every and which bid him upon this occawell-informed and patriotic Eng- sion, as upon all other occasions, lishman must, as your Petitioner to make every exertion, within the humbly presumes to believe, be compass of his humble means, to the present situation of the Spanish promote the welfare and advance Colonies in America, in whose im- the honour of England. mense and fertile regions there are 3. To the mind of your Royal preparing, and, indeed, there are Highness the bare fact of a Revonow in progress, such changes as lution being in existence and agiwill, in all human probability, pro-tating the breasts of the whole of duce a new distribution of wealth the population of a country, which and of power amongst the most reaches from the 18th degree of considerable of the nations of the North Latitude to the 50th degree world; and, as will, at the very of South Latitude; a country which least, materially affect many of those nations, not only in a Commercial, but also in a Naval and Military point of view. Of all those nations no one is, as it appears to your humble Petitioner, nearly so deeply interested as England in this grand Revolution, which, if your Royal Highness's Councillors be wise, prompt, and faithful to their King and his People, may greatly tend to restore her to prosperity, may secure to her an undisputed maritime predominance for ages not to be numbered, and may, at the same time, and from the use of the very same means, crown her with the unfading glory of having given freedom to twenty millions of people, who now groan out their lives under the double-thonged scourge of Civil and Religious tyranny.

thus extends four thousand miles in length, which, in breadth, at some points, extends three thousand miles, and which is unbroken except by the comparatively trifling possessions of the Portuguese and the Dutch; a country which borders, at one extremity, on the part of the United States, at once the most fertile and the most important as to all probable future military and naval operations; a country which has numerous ports on the side of the Pacific, as well as on that of the Atlantie, ocean; a country, which, to all the articles of European produce adds many articles that are refused by nature even to the most favoured part of the United States; a country, which, while it is cheered by a continual summer on the surface of the earth, has mines beneath inexhaustible in silver and in gold; a country which abounds in, or is capable of

2. Such being the opinion of your Petitioner, it is impossible for him to refrain from soliciting most hum-producing, almost all the commobly, though most earnestly, the attention of your Royal Highness to this important matter. And, he begs leave here to be permitted to represent to your Royal Highness, that, while taking this step, he forgets not the injuries at this time unjustly inflicted on his fellow subjects in general, and on himself in particular; but, that, bearing these in mind, as he trusts he shall, to the last moment of his life, he also bears in mind those sacred obligations of law and of nature, which bind him to the land of his birth,

dities, greatly useful, as imports, to England, and which, at the same time, offers to England the surest, the most extensive, and the best of all possible markets; a country, which, if independent, nature would forbid to become, in any respect, the rival of England, and which from necessity must seek her friendship, and rely, in a great measure, on her power: to the mind of your Royal Highness the bare fact of a Revolution being in actual existence in such a country; to the mind of every one who feels for the inte

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side, and with regard to the resources and power of which United States, the establishment of the independence of Mexico, must, as your Petitioner will hereafter humbly endeavour to show, have a most important effect.

rest and honour of England, this favour; that the Viceroy, indeed, bare fact, as your Petitioner hun-raises troops, but that even these 'bly presumes to believe, must sug- are disaffected towards him; that, gest the strongest desire to know on the Atlantic side, the only conthe true state of that Revolution | sidérable seaport of this Viceroyand to see clearly developed the alty, La Vera Cruz, is, as yet, in probable consequences of its ulti- the hands of the Spanish governmate success. ment, but that, to drive the present 4. Deep is the sorrow of your possessors from that port, and to Petitioner when he reflects on his afford every necessary assistance incapacity to perform this task in to the oppressed people, one single a manner worthy of the magnitude English frigate, with twenty thouand importance of the subject; but, sand stand of arms, sent to the urged thereunto by a sense of im- Gulf of Mexico, would be suffiperious duty towards your Royal cient; that this Viceroyalty, which Highness and his Country, no con- proposes to form itself into a disviction, however perfect, of his in-tinct independent state, has a popuability can be sufficient to restrain lation of from seven to eight milhim from making the attempt. lions, nearly equalling the popula5. Minutely to describe the state tion of the United States of Ameof the Revolution in Spanish America, on which it borders on one rica; to lay before your Royal Highness in detail the number of men in arms in the several Provinces and Viceroyalties; to state the precise situation of the hostile armies and armaments; to say what are the exact means, which, in the ́several warlike scenes, the parties possess, or may speedily expect: these would demand a mass of information not only greater than is possessed by your Petitioner, but greater than can, at this time, possibly be possessed by any one man. But, the information which your 'Petitioner has acquired, not from mere rumour or from published accounts, but from a personal communication with men of high cha-claration of independence, and a racter, coming directly from the spot, enables him confidently to state to your Royal Highness, that, in the Viceroyalty of Mexico, which is the most Northern part of the Spanish Dominions on the Main, and which borders on the United States, the people are wholly disaffected to the government; that they have a Junta, or Assembly of Representatives, in the Province of Validolid; that they have leaders of great enterprise and talent, and that arms only are wanted to decide, at once, the struggle in their

6. That, with regard to the Second Grand Division of these immense regions, which division includes New Grenada and Venezuela, and which extends from the isthmus of Darien to the mouth of the Oronoca (along more than seven hundred miles of sea coast the most important in every point of view), containing a population of from three to four millions, a de

new form of government have, long since, been proclaimed; that a war, extensive and sanguinary, has, for years, been going on; that the Patriots have commanders regularly appointed and commissioned; that they have a Representative Assembly, officers of state, a national flag, and, in short, that they exercise the powers of sovereignty over a large portion of this extensive, fertile, rich and important territory. Here, as in the case of Mexico, arms only and a trifling maritime force are wanted to put

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an end to the contest, and, as your their rights and perfectly enlightPetitioner humbly hopes that he ened as to the nature of those shall be able to show, to open to rights, unless such people were England the fairest prospect of overwhelmed by an irresistible immense advantages. combination of foreign Powers, a

in such case she must, not only in violation of the dictates of justice and humanity, but, as your Petitioner humbly hopes he shall be able to show, in direct opposition to her own most important and most permanent interests.

7. That, in Peru, which forms circumstance that cannot happen the Third Division, and which is to the Spanish Independents, unbounded to the North by the last-less through the consent, or the mentioned Territory, to the East connivance, of England, acting, as by the Portuguese Possessions, to the South by the Territory of Chili, and to the West by the Pacific Ocean, and which has a population of from two to three millions, the spirit of independence is as active as in the afore-mentioned territories, and that here also a mere 10. In order to obtain an insight trifle in the way of maritime force as to the probable consequences of and of arms would decide the con- the ultimate success of the Revolutest, even, perhaps, without further tion of Spanish America, especially *struggle. as those consequences will affect, 8. That, in the Southern Divi-permanently as well as for the presion, including the Territories of sent, the prosperity and power of Buenos Ayres and of Chili, and England, and that he might be able containing a population of from the better to discharge his duty to three to four millions, the contest | your Royal Highness and his counis nearly at an end. The Patriots try, your Petitioner has carefully have established a new Govern- attended to the nature of the pro'ment, and, with the exception of a duets throughout the territories trifling portion of territory on the which are the subject of his petition. borders of the Pacific Ocean, on And, as to this matter, he begs leave which Spain is endeavouring to humbly to beseech your Royal Highkeep up the struggle, the whole of ness to bear in mind that Mexico this Division is under the actual produces all those articles of comcontrol of the Patriot Government. merce, which are produced in the 9. But, though your Petitioner United States, such as cotton, to-places, in relation to the state of bacco, ship - timber, and many, the Revolution, great reliance on others, and, besides these, cochithe particular information which neal, indigo, dye-woods, and mahohe has, from most respectable and gany, while it abounds in those authentic sources received, he mines of silver and of gold, of which places much greater reliance upon the United States have none. the natural and inevitable tendency city of Mexico, situated nearly of the existence, throughout the about the centre of this Viceroy-afore-mentioned countries, of a alty, and which city contains a hungeneral spirit of revolt against op-dred and eighty thousand inhabipression and insult exercised by tants, is blessed with a climate tu imbecility, and which spirit of re- knows no winter; a never-fading volt, together with which oppres- verdure clothes the fields; two sion, insult and imbecility are no- crops of any kind of European torious to all the world. The his- grain are, with facility, made, in tory of nations, as your Petitioner the same year, to succeed each humbly ventures to believe, fur- other on the same plot of ground, nishes no instance of the re-subju- and even two crops of maize, or gation of a people, once in arms for Indian corn, while one crop of this

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