wholesale," I assure you, when I mentioned the word "artificer" in my former communication,, I was not as you charge me to have been,

driving at that title": I meant only to shew, the general and extensive construction which the term was capable of admitting will now state a further authority or two on the right of expatriation, and in doing so, I think I shall escape the charge of referring to revolutionary times, even from your “learned correspondent, Candidus. Cicero saith, that the citizens of Rome might, at their pleasure, leave their freedom of citizens to become citizens of another city. In Spain it is free for any man to remove elsewhere and to be enrolled into another city: and we, too, have held out and invited foreigners to become subjects, from which by reciprocity, we should allow our subjects to become foreigners. Richard proposed unto strangers all the immunities granted unto citizens, so that they had dwelt ten years in the city. In Venice, fourteen years residence entitled a man to the privileges of a citizen, without having any other interest in the state except in certain mean offices. In Ferrara, ten years residence was required -Vattel, book 1. chap. 19. sec. 218, says, "The natural or original domicil is that given us by "birth, where our father had his; and we "are considered as retaining it till we have "abandoned it in order to chuse another. "The domicil acquired (adscilitium) is that "where we settle by our own choice "And again, in sec. 220,"Many distinc"tions will be necessary, in order to give a complete solution to the celebrated question, whether a man may quit his country or the society of which he is a "member." I am afraid, Sir, if I enter so fully into this writer's observations and Wicquefort's remarks as I might deem expedient, that I should encroach upon your limits; I will, therefore, be as brief as possible. Vattel says, children have a natural attachment to the society in which they are born. They ought then to love it; but every man born free, the son of a citizen, arrived at years of discretion, may examine, if it be convenient for him to join in the society for which he was destined by his birth. If he finds that it will be of no advantage to him to remain in it, he is at liberty to leave it, preserving the sentiments of gratitude he owes it: every man has a right to quit his country, in order to settle in any other, when by that step he does not expose the welfare of his country. A good citizen will never re solve to do it without necessity or without very strong reasons: and, Mr. Cobbett, if

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you refer to sec. 225, page 98, book I, chap 19, you will find that it would not be a novel thing if this country should stipulate in treaties respecting the right of expatriation. The days of vassalage are gone by; those days in which a prince considered his subjects in the rank of his property and riches; he calculated their number as his flocks, and as Vattel adds, to the disgrace of human nature, this strange abuse is not yet every where destroyed: but, Mr. Cobbett, although I adduce authorities tending to prove the right of expatriation, yet if I could possibly conceive the least injury would arise in consequence of a promulgation of that doctrine as Candidus thinks such might be the case, I would not have canvassed the subject, and having written upon it I would have ceased; but no inconvenience can arise; I am an advocate for liberty of action, but not for licentiousness. Let us obey the laws, but let them not be ambiguous; for we not only frequently puzzle and confound our clients but ourselves.-Wicquefort, chap. xi, page 75, even goes further than I have attempted in the doctrine of expatriation; he not only asserts and proves the right of expatriation, but even that a prince may send, as his ambassador, a subject of that country to which the embassy is sent. In page 77, he adverts to the case of John' Webster, in the year 1644, an English merchant, living at Amsterdam, who assisted the king with his money; his reference to this case, and his observations thereon, fully bear me out in my fortner remarks. "In England," says he," the subjects have

a stronger, and more particular obligation

to their sovereign than elsewhere, by vir"tue of the right which they call allegiance. "But that does not hinder the English "from retiring out of the kingdom without "the king's permission, and when they "have settled themselves elsewhere, neither. "the king's authority, nor the laws of the "kingdom, have any further power of "them."-Now, Mr Cobbett, after these celebrated authorities, tending to, the right of expatriation, I do repeat the observation, that it is absolutely necessary a declaratory law be passed, or a stipulation in treaties, in general, be adopted, either permitting or disallowing expatriation. If it be deemed impolitic to allow a man to be a subject to day, to-morrow a citizen of America, and on the third day to receive him back again and suffer him to be enrolled among us as a subject; let it be boldly declared, or legilated, that a British subject once departing from his natural allegiance, will never be permitted to reassume the character of a Bri

tish subject; and reinstated in his natural privileges and immunities, but that by such new election he forfeits all claim to the privileges of a British subject. America will not then decoy our fellow subjects, as their acceptance of American citizenship will, for ever, incapacitate them from returning again among us; and British subjects will then clearly know the predicament they voluntarily place themselves in.-I am not an advocate for dereliction of allegiance, unless from compulsion, either on the part of this country or any other; and condemn, as strong as you can disapprove of the introduction of foreigners here, but I contend for consistency. So long, therefore, as this country admits into its bosom, into its very vitals, foreigners of all nations, the very refuse and outcast of society to all the immunities of subjects, it should consistently permit its own subjects to expatriate.-S. V. Oct. 13, 1807.

IRELAND'S INTERNAL SITUATION.

(Being the 2d Letter of M. H.), SIR; In your last Register, after approving of my description of the internal situation of Ireland, you proceed to object to my recommending the introduction of manufactures into that country, as a means of bettering its condition. You say, "if my

correspondent would wish to subdue the spirit of the people, I know of no better way than to shut thousands of them up in a large house, and making them work for 66 one man who rings them to their labour "and meals by a bell." Before I received the Register in which the above observation appeared, I had forwarded a letter to you, in which I endeavoured to prove that manufactures and commerce had been carried to excess in England; but, I am nevertheless, inclined to think that manufactures are a blessing, and not a curse, to any country, that is to say, when properly regulated, and kept within due bounds, so that they should not draw too many hands or too much capital from agriculture; or, in other words, prevent the sufficient supply of food. I am, however, upon all subjects open to conviction, and should you differ from me, I should therefore, thank you for your arguments to prove that I am wrong. It has been accidentally my lot to have resided in several parts of both England and Ireland, and I have taken some pains to inspect manufacturies. I mention these circumstances only to shew that I have some little advantage over those who merely read, and inquire, in making comparisons between places, whether in England or Ireland, where there are manu

factures, and other places where there are none, and in comparing the condition of the labourers in different districts. I shall now proceed to observe, that those industrious labourers and their families (for I have nothing to do with the idle) who live upon the Down, or uninclosed districts, live harder (if I may so express myself,) than the journeymen manufacturers and their families, or any working people that I know of, either in England or Ireland. I shall here observe also, that in the North of Ireland, where the linen manufacture is carried on, that the lower classes were (before the French revolution) more contented and happy than the same classes in the South. I have travelled through the manufacturing counties in this kingdom, and I must say that I have seen great comfort enjoyed by the industrious, whether they were employed in the iron, cotton, woollen, glass, or any other manufacture; and if you will have the goodness to reflect, you will think this not to be improbable, as most of our manufactures follow the veins of coal, fuel therefore is absolutely to be had for little or nothing. The men, women, and children are all employed, and most of them furnish some money to pur chase provision and other necessaries; I imagine, therefore, that many persons have been induced to think manufacturers poor and wretched, from their black and shabby appearances, and from the dirty look of the outsides of the cottages in all coal countries. But, Mr. Cobbett, you conclude that the introduction of manufactures into Ireland would subdue the spirit of the people. I cannot imagine that this would be the case, for, is the spirit of the people more subdued in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham or Belfast, than in York, Winchester, Canterbury, or a hundred other towns where there are no manufactures? I have no method of proving that a manufacturer's bell may not call his apprentices to severe labour and scanty meals, but, if this is the case, the legislature could, and surely ought, to put a stop to such injustice. A journeyman is of course free to quit a manufacture if ill treated. I can not therefore suppose, you can wish to an nihilate manufactures, but only to effect some reformation; for, I apprehend that it would be impossible that you should desire, that the making of steam engines should be put a stop to, and that all those wonderful inventions for the saving of labour should cease to be made use of. To break the spirit of the people of Ireland is by no means my olject, but quite the reverse. By recommend. ing the introduction of useful manufactures, I wish to encourage the people to collect in

towns: by opening a free trade between England and Ireland, I wish to enrich both countries, to make both countries friendly towards each other, and strong to resist the enemies of the British empire. I want by these measures to return that capital which England drains from Ireland by numerous channels. I want to improve the agriculture of Ireland, which cute done but by encreasing the capit of that country. I want to better the condition of the landlords, the middlemen, the farmers, and the labourI want that the landlords should be able to farm their lands, which they cannot now do as theychuse, to enable them to plant fences and trees, and male any sort of improvement upon their estates without being pillaged by the labourers. I want to employ

ers.

the middlemen in trade, instead of encouraging them to become stakes for the rent of land which other men farm I want that farmers should have markets nearer home, and that they also should not be pillaged, that they should have a power of making fences without the fear of their being nt up and carried away for fuel by the labourers, that they should be able to grow turnips instead of potatoes if it suits them, without the dread of their being stolen. In short, I want that all sorts of property should be respected in Ireland as much as in England. I wish to place the lower classes in such a situation that it would be their interest not to commit theft. I want not, as was the practice of a Mr. Parkinson when in Ireland, to put a stop to petty thefts by giving those people who committed them good horse-whippings. Instead of subduing the spirit of the Irish labourers, I am desirous of releasing them from their present dependance, and of making them altogether free This I would do as soon as possible by dispossessing them of their lands, and paying them amply for their labour in money; they would then have a power of saying, as the same class do in England, if ill treated by the farmers," pay me my wages and I will get work elsewhere." The farmers would then have it in their power (which they have not at present) to get rid of the idle and to employ the industrious. But, you have indeed, wonderfully mistaken the characters of Irish labourers, if you imagine they have any spirit to subdue. It is true, if you take them from home, they make as brave and good soldiers and sailors as any in the world; let them even come to England, where they of course receive money for labour, and can work for whom they please, and they soon adopt the English character, and to use a vulgar phrase, will not be put

men.

upon; but leave them fastened to their potatoe gardens, and they are the most pusilanimous, mean spirited wretches that ever inhabited the earth. Now, Sir, that they should be so is altogether natural, and it only proves that people may be either brave or cowardly just as they are managed. For the Irish labourer when at home is in perpetual dread of being punished for thefts which he is driven by necessity to commit, he is also in dread of being turned out of his land, which is to him an estate. In Ireland, therefore, he will flatter his superior without ceasing, kneel down to him, and either in a written petition or in words, supplicate his protection or forgiveness; and, as Mr. Parkinson says, (an extract from whose book I read in the Monthly Review, for July, 1807) suffers himself to be horse-whipped. But in England the very same man would not receive a blow from any one without returning it. After this, Mr. Cobbett, I presume you will think that there is no danger of breaking the spirit of the people of Ireland by taking off the restrictions upon her trade with this country, and by encouraging manufactures to a certain extent. I shall now mention, that some years since a free trade was considered to be the only thing necessary to Ireland; if at the time I allude to, it was wanted, it has been still more required since the Union, as the drain of capital has increased. Now, Sir, there is nothing to replace the capital which England draws from Ireland, but the profits of the provision trade and the linen trade. I conclude then, that if this continues, the more Ireland increases in population, and that population chiefly supported by the culture of potatoes, the more must Ireland increase in poverty. The true interest of Ireland, a free trade with England, has been completely forgotten since the Catholic claims have been discussed, which if admitted would scarcely benefit one man in five thousand. What a faint shade of difference then must there be between the situation of a Protestant and a Catholic. Buonaparté, however, takes care that the Catholics should think otherwise, by telling them that they are persecuted; but is not this the most ready way to obtain himself another kingdom? Would he be so great a fool to let slip so fair an opportunity of distracting and dividing us, that he may conquer us? But, it would be well worth while for the Catholic to reflect whether he does not enjoy every privilege that other dissenters enjoy? Whether a Protestant would not be treated as harshly if he disturbed the peace of the country as he would; and, finally, whether it would not be more to the