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naval superiority would be short indeed; but our naval greatness rests on no such basis, The forests of Napoleon may yield timber, and the extent of his population afford abundant supplies of ship-builders; but this is a first and very short step to a powerful marine. Deficient in seamen, and deficient in officers, he may send out fleets to be dispersed by tempests, or defeated by our squa drons, a fate I am justified in predicting from the uniform result of every expedition that has left his ports during the present war. Our safety, thank God, does not depend on the possession of the hulls of a dozen Danish seventy fours, and as many frigates; nor does the importance of that pos session in my mind, justify the measure by which it has been attained. The policy of Pitt, his constitutional buttresses, his commercial nobility, his bloated system of paper credit (so repeatedly and powerfully denounced by your energetic pen), have been a fruitful source of puch suffering and disgrace; but, I deny that we are so broken down as to be reduced to the humiliation of avowing in the face of all Europe that our existence depends on a breach of those laws which hold together the frame of the civilized world. This were, indeed, 'to vield a base homage to the power of Napolcon, and drink of the cup of shame to the very dregs! Objecting as I do to the principle of the measure, the mode of its execution is with me a very secondary consideration. I am disposed to leave that question to the Post and the Chronicle; but, I own I am unfortunate enough here again once more to differ with you; near a fortnight was wasted before the attack was made, and when the enemy were reduced to an utter incapacity to further resist, a capitulation was granted, by which Denmark retains her seamen, and we stipulate 6 weeks to abandon his territory; and, already (if the public prints deserve credit) it has been found "expedient" to dispatch Capt. Cathcart with instructions 'to extend our possession.-Aye, Sir, extend our possession in the very teeth of the terms we have so recently granted.--Sir, these are means little calculated to save the country; the vile press are entertaining us with a negotiation for peace. I do not believe the report, nor do I believe (making all due allowances for difference of opinion among sensible and well informed men,) that one man in 100 of that description in the United Kingdom, imagine a safe peace to be a practicable measure. We are embarked in a severe contest, the continuation of which, I do not hesitate to declare, must in all human probability, be at least commensurate with

the life of Napoleon. Vast exertions and great sacrifices must be made. The country must find its safety in high principles, and that magnanimous spirit which never yet existed where they were wanting. A reform founded on "the antient rights of Britons," and carried into effect agreeable to the practice" of the British constitution, will

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in "
our generation" enable us to abide
"the pityless pelting" of the utmost rage of
the storm that howls around us, and hand
down to posterity a monarchy powerful and
permanent. A nobility antient and honour-
able. A nation loyal and free. Or if des-
tined to perish in the mighty conflict, let us
tall as becomes our honour, without one un-
secmly wound, as fits the descendants of that
ancestry from whence we are sprung:

As to Sebastian, let them search the field;
And where they find a niountain of the stair,
Send one to climb, and looking down beneath,"
There they will find him at his manly length,
With his face up to heaven, in that red monument
Which his good sword had digged.

Sept. 20, 1807.

AN OLD ENGLISHMAN

AMERICAN STATES.

SIR :——You are the only man, who has publicly expressed sentiments hostile to an arrangement in our dispute with the American States, unless it should be on terms which, I am afraid, our government is as little inclined to demand, as the Americans to grant. Your opinions on this, as on most other subjects, is, as far as my observation goes, completely popular. A war with America, is not only wished for, but is looked upon by many, as a measure that would be ultimately beneficial to this country. A comparison of the relative situations of the two countries, seems to offer every argument in support of this doctrine. Every body knows, that the rapid progress the Americans have made, is solely owing to the undisturbed repose with which they have been permitted to carry on their internal improvements; and to the safety with which from our forbearance, they have prosecuted their commerce with the different European States at war. They enriched themselves at a time when the means of subduing their enemies alone occupied the attention of other nations. Their success has made them insolent, and nothing will now satisfy them but that we must yield up rights which we ought never to abandon. These rights, the prond legacies, handed down to us after having been obtained in many a well fought battle, we are now asked to surrender, although we never were

had these means but been resorted to. But consideration, it seems, for the interest of a few individuals who are engaged in the American trade, prevented their recourse to strong measures. No man who feels the love of his country yet unextinguished, can repress indignation when he sees its honour bartered for such pitiful ends. Would it have been believed in former times, that the government of Great Britain was to have been influenced by the meeting of some traders at the London Tavern? I believe all reasonable men will agree, that political considerations are of vastly greater importance than any commercial ones whatever; because the last have a reference to individuals only, the first to the community at large. The period is in all probability approaching, when necessity will inforce the conviction of this truth. We must give up part of our commerce for our political existence. As long as France-domineers on the continent, our obvious policy is to deprive her and the countries under her controul of every external communication. This would bear hard against the Americans, Danes, &c. but the situation in which we are placed, completely justifies a measure that would be otherwise harsh and unjust.— R. M.Sept. 15, 1807.

in a better situation to maintain them. But, Sir, I hope the government of this country are determined to preserve them entire in spite of every consideration, and if the Americans are not contented let them take war, the only other alternative that will be likely to please them. I am, however, well convinced, that matters would not be allowed to proceed thus far. Were we to shew a determination to support our rights, they would be very willing to accommodate the business in any way we might choose. I should be glad to know what resistance a raw and selfish government, with instruments despicable in the eyes of all nations, could oppose to British exertion under active and energetic management? What would be the issue of a war commenced against the greatest maritime power on the globe, by a people whose political existence depends upon foreign commerce, and particularly that part of it which is derived from being the carriers betwixt belligerent nations? Is it for a country relatively circumstanced as we are, to surrender rights which are the sources of our naval superiority, and which have been formerly inforced and maintained against the united efforts of the principal maritime states in Europe? These are questions which, I believe will be answered in one way only. We should not concede a single point in dispute that is not incompatible with our safety and honour. I never could see any good reason for permitting the Americans to be of so much consequence in the political scale. They enjoy a pre-eminence which they shew themselves wholly unworthy of possessing, and had their insolence been treated in the manner which it deserved, we should not at this day have to carry on a negotiation in which, I am afraid, not only the interests, but also the honour of the country runs the hazard of being disregarded. I never experienced any other feeling than that. of contempt for the late measures of the American government. The House of Representatives are worthy the people represented. Every thing is conducted with so much candour, moderation, and dignity. The non-importation act, and the manner in which it was passed, were truly characteristical of these qualities. Never were legislators so disgraced as were the Americans on that occasion. That measure both on account of the temper and spirit with which it was conducted, will long remain a striking monument of madness and fanaticism. Mi-aneous one; for, truly, Mr. Cobbett, you nisters in allowing this famous act to pass unnoticed, were guilty of a great sacrifice of the dignity of this country, holding as they did the means of inforcing instant redress

POOR LAWS,

SIR,In reading your Political Register, I frequently meet with much good information, and, at all times, a vast deal of entertainment. It astonishes me to observe that, whether you happen to be on the right or wrong side of a subject, you are never at a loss for stout argument, and an abundant display of oratorical parrying. You certainly have good bottom, as they call it, Mr. Cobbet; for, give you never such a mauling to day, by Saturday again you are at it tooth and nail, and with as much courage and sans-froid as if you felt nothing at all of your bruises. Upon this redoubtable bottom of yours, you seem to place your chief confi dence; and well you may do so, provided you be in that quarter equally unsusceptible of blushing, as you are in the non-sanguiferous lineaments of your frontispiece.—It was only yesterday it came to my turn to peruse your Register of Saturday se'night, in which, I find a miscellaneous paper containing remarks upon Mr. Whitbread's proposed alteration on the poor laws.This paper may well be, in my opinion, called a-missile

throw about you in all directions. You make a violent thrust at Mr. Whitbread; give the reviewers a chopper, and have knocked down a million and a halt of my poor countrymen.

With the burden of Atlas on your back, you are, at the same time, the greatest Hector I ever heard of. Not contented in adding America to the list of your enemies, you seem also to have no objections to end a truce with this peaceable part of the creation. But, go on, Mr. Cobbett, you know exceedingly well how to earn your bread and butter. And if you will only allow us fair play, be assured, we shall never propose to gag you. I wish, then, to correct you in a few points that you have either mis-stated, or not stated at all, respecting this here country. You say, that the taxes, raised annally in Scotland amount to something less than one-seventeenth of the taxes raised in Great Britain," and that, "the population of Scotland amounts to something less than one-seventh of the population of Great Britain." And then, by your ready arithmetic, you tell us sneeringly, that " each person in England, (including Wales) each of these lazy vicious English, pays to the state annually much more than double the sum that is paid by each of those industrious and moral Scotch, of whom our labourers, &c. &c." Why so much irony, Mr. Cobbett? You will surely grant me that, according to the present system of taxation in Great Britain, every man pays (at least, as much so as possible) in proportion to his circumstances and situation in life. If two persons worth a thousand pounds each, pay together a hundred pounds in taxes, while another person worth two thousand pounds pays as much as both of them, have they not all equal credit for their contributions? May they not be all equally intelligent, cqually useful, equally honourable members of the state, although towards the support of it one of them pays twice as much as the other two individually? Just so it is with Scotland. Our means when compared with England, are not in proportion to our population. But there is something more to be said on the subject, and I must request of you to take notice of the rapidity with which we have been improving for the last century. Lord Buchan says, (and I think the opinion of a strong anti-unionist may be pretty safely trusted) that" at the Union of England and Scot land, England is supposed to have been superior to Scotland as thirty to one in landed revenue, and forty to one in general opulence." Now, Sir, if in the course of a hundred years, we have from such a state of diminutiveness improved our resources, so as to enable us to pay a seventeenth part of the taxes for the support of our government, by applying one of your own rules in arithmetic, I find that this little nation of fifteen

hundred thousand souls, should be capable in seventy four years hence, to pay a sum equal to England, "the great nation," with eight millions of rich subjects. I am surprised, Mr. Cobbett, to hear you talk so insidiously of Scotch industry. You say "you have seen colonies that have been settled by Englishmen, and some by Irishmen, but you never saw a country settled and cleared by the labour of Scotchmen." This, Mr. Cobbett, is not like your usual candour, for, although you may never have seen countries cleared by Scotchmen, you certainly must have heard of such places as Prince Edward's Island, near the coast of Nova Scotia, New Galloway in the state of new York in America, and many more, cultivated and inhabited by Scotchmen entirely. I cannot understand why you should have spoken in this manner, unless with a view to impress upon the minds of the rich, rather than the poor, that education has a tendency to give a people idle habits and to make them aspire to situations incompatible with the general interests of a nation. But depend upon it those notions are erroneous; no doubt, a person with some education will very soon acquire an ascendency over those that have none, but where all are nearly on an equality in this respect, there is no lawful occupation whatever but what will be filled even by persons who can read and write the English language very well. You never were in Scotland, I suspect, Mr. Cobbett. Should you come to this part of the country, it would give me much happiness to meet with you. And I shall engage to shew you Journeymen Butchers at their masters' stalls, and labourers working at the public roads, who can read and write as well as you can do.I don't mean to say that they are able to hammer at hard words, or to cut up a review in such a style as Mr. Cobbett, I only allude to what may be called the mechanical part of their scholarship; yet these men are happy and contented, and perhaps not one in a thousand ever thinks of out-bounding his useful sphere.-I do admire, as much as any one, the good nature, the many virtues, and, generally speaking, the comfortable state, of the people of England-In several good things they are greatly before my country, particularly in cleanliness, which coming with propriety under the name of a domestic excellence, to the merit of it, I think your females are best entitled. But in this respect, I am glad to say, we are also mending very fast-And now, give me leave, Mr. Cobbett, to lay before you something like a comparative statement of the crimes coinmitted in both countries.

-I have heard an affirmation made, and I believe it cannot be refuted, that take the whole number of criminals executed in Scotland in the last twenty years (including foreigners) they will not average in a year more than seven or eight. Need I say any thing of your Newgate Calendar? I think I may safely aver that in one County in England, with a population of three hundred thousand, there are more capital crimes committed annually, than in ail Scotland in two years-And I have seen such hellish scenes in Lancashire, in their mode of fighting there, as, I am sure, would have chil led the blood of Rob Roy. Such feelings and conduct in Caledonians you surely will not attribute to any national timidity or want of valour. Without partiality I am rather inclined to place them to the credit of general education, and consequently, a general amelioration on the ruder passions of the mind in all classes of the community. I am, Sir, &c.-A SAWNEY.-Peterheard, September 11, 1807.

DOMESTIC OFFICIAL PAPER. DENMARK.Declaration of the King of Great Britain, relative to the War with Denmark, dated Westminster, September 25, 1907.

His Majesty owes to himself and to Europe a frank exposition of the motives which have dictated his late measures in the Baltic. His Majesty has delayed this exposition only in the hope of that more amicable arrangement with the Court of Denmark, which it was his Majesty's first wish and endeavour to obtain; for which he was ready to make great efforts and great sacrifices, and of which he never lost sight even in the moment of the most decisive hostility.-Deeply as the disappointment of this hope has been felt by his Majesty, he has the consolation of reflecting, that no exertion was left untried on his part to produce a different result. And while he laments the cruel necessity which has obliged him to have recourse to acts of hostility against a nation with which it was his Majesty's most earnest desire to have established the relations of common interest and alliance; his Majesty feels confident that, in the eyes of Europe and of the world, the justification of his conduct will be found in the commanding and indispensible duty, paramount to all others amongst the obligations of a sovereign, of providing. while there was yet time, for the immediate. security of his people. His Majesty had received the most positive information of

the determination of the present ruler of
France to occupy, with a military force, the
territory of Holstein, for the purpose of ex-
cluding Great Britain from all her accustom-
ed channels of communication with the con-
tinent; of inducing or compelling the court
of Denmark to close the passage of the
Sound against the British commerce, and
navigation; and of availing himself of the
aid of the Danish marine for the invasion of
Great Britain and Ireland. Confident as his
Majesty was of the authenticity of the sour-
ces from which this intelligence was derived,
and confirmed in the credit which he gave
to it, as well by the notorious and repeated
declarations of the enemy, and by his recent
occupation of the towns and territories of
other neutral states, as by the preparations
actually made for collecting a hostile force
upon the frontiers of his Danish Majesty's
continental dominions, his Majesty would
yet willingly have forborne to act upon this
intelligence, until the complete and practical
disclosure of the plan had been made mani-
fest to all the world. His Majesty did for-
bear, as long as there could be a doubt of
the urgency of the danger, or a hope of an
effectual counteraction to it, in the means or
in the dispositions of Denmark.——But his
Majesty could not but recollect, that when,
at the close of the former war, the court of
Denmark engaged in a hostile confederacy-
against Great Britain, the apology offered
by that court for so unjustifiable an abandon-
ment of a neutrality which his Majesty had
never ceased to respect, was founded on its
avowed inability to resist the operation of ex-
ternal influence, and the threats of a formi-
dable neighbouring power. His Majesty
could not but compare the degree of influence
which at that time determined the decision
of the court of Denmark, in violation of po-
sitive engagements, solemnly contracted but
six months before, with the increased ope-
ration which France had now the means of
giving to the same principle of intimidation,
with kingdoms prostrate at her feet, and
with the population of nations under her
banners. Nor was the danger less eminent
than certain. Already the army destined
for the invasion of Holstein was assembling
on the violated territory of neutral Ham-
burgh, and, Holstein once occupied, the
island of Zealand was at the mercy of France,
and the navy of Denmark at her disposal.-
It is true, a British force might have found
its way into the Baltic, and checked for a
time the movements of the Danish ma-
rine.
(To be continued.)

Printed by Cox and Baylis, No. 75, Great Queen Street, and published by R. Bagshaw, Brydges teet
Covent Garden. where farmer Numbers may be had; sold also by J. Budd, Crown and Mitre Pall Mallo

VOL. XII. No. 15.]

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1807.

[PRICE JOD.

"The natural born subject of one prince, to whom he owes allegiance, may be entangled by subjecting "himself to another; but, it is his own act that brings him into these straits and difficulties, of owing "service to two masters; and it is unreasonable, that, by such voluntary act of his own, he should be "able, at pleasure, to unloose those bands, by which he is connected to his natural prince."- -BLACKSTONE, Book I. Chap. 10.

545]

SUMMARY OF POLITICS. EXPATRIATION.In the present yolume of the Register, at p. 433, there is a letter, signed S. V.." on the necessity of a "declaratory law, or stipulation, with fo"reign powers, respecting the expatriation "of British subjects, particularly with the "United States of America."-To me,

who know how many persons there are in this country, and how many more there are in America, who derive great emolument from acting the double part of British subjects and American citizens, it does not appear at all surprising, that a measure, such as that proposed by S. V. has met with an openly avowed advocate.- -S. V. has begun by stating, in support of his doctrine, the opi 'nion of a French writer, named PECQUET; but, of that opinion it will be best to speak, after we have taken a view of the law of England, in this respect, as far as the statutes go. In order to show, that the statute law favours the supposition, that a British subject may expatriate himself, and may become, to all intents and purposes, an alien, and of course, justifiable in taking up arms against his native country, S. V. refers to the act of 14 and 15 Henry 8th, chapter 4, by which act such subjects of England, as had settled in other countries, and sworn obedience thereunto, should, so long as they should so remain, pay customs, &c. in England," as other strangers paid." Whence this writer infers, that, "it is implied, that persons may become subjects to other powers, and that, by such election to depart from their natural allegiance, they "become aliens to their native country for

"

so long a time as they shall chuse to con"tinue their new subjection; but, if they "elect to become subjects of England again, "they may have the king's writ, which will entitle them to their former immunities

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of Englishmen, upon their residing again "in England;" than which inference nothing, in my opinion, can be less warranted by the premises. The sole object of this statute was, to prevent such subjects as were

-[546

settled abroad, and had sworn subjection to foreign states, from enjoying, during their settlement abroad, the rights and immunities enjoyed by their fellow-subjects, who, at the same time, remained at home. The act is purely prohibitory; and does, in no possible sense of the words, imply any relinquishment, on the part of England, of its claims to the allegiance of the persons, thus to be treated as aliens, during their settlement abroad, much less does it recognize any right, on the part of those persons, to become enemies of England. It supposes fairly and truly, that Englishmen may possibly become subjects of foreign states. The fact was so; nor was it then, nor is it now, to be prevented by the native country; for, a subject being once landed in a foreign country, what power have you over him, while he remains there? It is for the foreign country to determine, whether it will admit him to become its subject, and to share in its immunities; it is for you, while he so remains, to deprive him, if you please, of the immunities of his native country, as was done by this act of Henry VIII.; but, you do not, thereby, lose any of your rights with respect to him, nor he any of his rights with respect to his country, in which, when he returns to it, he is precisely upon the footing that he was before.The next act of parliament, to which he refers, is that of the 3d of James I. chapter the 4th. This was "an act for the better discovering and "repressing of Popish Recusants." Sections 18, 22, and 23, are those which apply to this question. The first of these sections makes it felony in any natural born subject of the king to enter into the service of any foreign prince, or state, without having previously taken the oath of allegiance and abjuration; the 22d section makes it high treason in any one to persuade any of the king's subjects to withdraw themselves from their natural obedience, or to move them to promise obedience to any other prince or state, particularly the Pope, or See, of Rome; the 234 section makes it high treason in any

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