seems to talk of nothing but mariners and sea-faring men (words of very indefinite signification), but, by the word others, introduced afterwards, the warning and declaration extends to all British subjects, who may have been induced to accept of

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of ingratitude, a right to run away (as "you term expatriation) at the age of man"hood from my nurse? Surely, her power ceases, when I am able to "elect my place of residence, just in the

same manner as does the power of the "Court of Chancery, the guardian protec"tor of infants."- -Had not S V. mentioned the Court of Chancery, whose proceedings are well calculated to awaken in one's mind the awful idea of eternity, I should have thought him in jest; for, it is almost incredible that a man so clever, as he evidently is, should, in sober earnest, have had recourse to such a sophism. For an illustrative argument to have ļ any force, there must be no question upon the score of the analogy; and, what analogy is there here? What resemblance is, there between the nation and the nurse with regard to the circumstances and effects under consideration? The nurse is, in due time and manner, rewarded for her services to the child; but are the nation rewarded, until he grows up to man's estate, and has, indeed, used his talents or his strength? The nurse comes voluntarily to his aid; but the nation are, some or other of them, compelled to support and defend him. The nurse, if he die in his youth, loses nothing by him (and the same may be said of his parents); but the nation lose all the food, raiment and labour that has been bestowed upon him The nurse can, whenever she pleases, withdrawall her cares from the child; but the nation never can withdraw its cares, that is to say, the protection, the rights, and immunities, of the subject. S. V. complains, that I would not permit him to forego the kind duties of his nurse; whereas I object to the withdrawing of his duties from his country.My argument, above referred to, requires, I think, a better answer than this; and, until it receive a better, I shall be contented to leave the discussion where it is.I must, however, just notice, that the proclamation, above spoken of, has, in an incidental way, made the declaration, which S. V. was so anxious to obtain in the shape of a law, or a treaty. It

"citizenship, from foreign states," and then comes this declaration, "that no such. "letters or certificates do, or can, in any "manner divest our natural-born subjects of "their allegiance, or in any degree, alter "the duty which they owe to us. This is. very right, and very proper to be said át this time; but, why not have placed the word others in the first part of the sentence, as well as in the last? Is it not notorious, that, where one mariner has accepted of certificates of citizenship, there are one hundred, at least, of merchants, manufacturers, land-jobbers, and fund-holders, who have made such acceptance? The declaration is, however, as to its effect upon legal decisions, complete; and, therefore, I hope we shall never again hear of a cargo being released, in our courts of admiralty, upon the ground, that the owner (a British subject expatriated) is become a citizen of the American States, which cargo would have been condemned, if the owner had been regarded as a British subject. For instance, an American ship is taken by one of our men of war, having on board a cargo of wine, going from France, the property, of, the house of Turncoat and Co. residing at Philadelphia, but native subjects of Eng-t land; and, as all British subjects are fore bidden to trade with the enemy, the cargo: is good prize; but, in come the advocates: of: Turncoat and Co. and plead, that their clients are become citizens of the Americane States, and that, therefore, their cargo is, not good prize. If decisions have, upou such a plea, taken place in favour of the captured, 1 hope we shall now bear no moreof them; and, if our naval officers, upon the American station, look out sharp, and make a good use of the intelligence which may be easily obtained in those resorts of: rascality, the sea-ports of America, theyr will, in a pecuniary point of view, not have to regret being placed upon that sta-) tion.

POOR LAWS. The only part of Mr. Whitbread's project that much has been said about, is that which related to the establish•· ment of parochial schools, and that too would, probably have been forgotten by this time had I not thought it right to resent the unjust aspersion upon the people of England, contained in the preamble of his bill.

This has drawn forth a good dear of angry language from some of those Scotchmen, whose natural partiality is greater than their justice or their sense, and who, in indulging that partiality quite overlook the circumstance, that some degree of national partiality may be expected to be entertained by Englishmen as well as Scotchmen. Amongst the persons here described, my correspondent, SAWNEY, whose letter will be found in the present volume, at page 540, is, I think, the most conspicuous. He has now sent me another letter, by way of answer to my short remarks upon his former one (see page 531), a part of which last letter I shall here insert, leaving out more than two-thirds of it, which consisted of mere effusions of wit and politeness, which, as my readers have had a sufficient specimen of them, in, his former letter, it would be waste of paper to commit

to the press.- He appealed to an estimate

SO

of Lord Buchan, in order to shew, that Scotland had surpassed England in increase of population; and, without attempting to stir the question, whether either of them had really increased, I observed, that I could not submit to be decided by any loose estimate; and that the Lord Buchan was no better authority than Gregory King, who, in his famous estimate, preserved with such care in the archives of that wise and useful institution, the British Museum, was minute as to include the number of rabbits in the kingdom.-Upon this "SAWNEY" remarks, that I question the correctness of Lord Buchan and Gregory King oney bee cause they were too minute. This is true in words, but false in meaning. I question their correctness because I find a statement in their estimates, of the correctness of which it was impossible that they could possess, or come at, any proef; and, finding this, I have a right to conclude, that the whole of the estimate is mere raudom guess. If, for instance, a man were to tell us, that he bad ascertained the number of flies in this kingdom in the month of July last; should we not laugh at him? Should we cite his estimate as an authority wherewith to oppose an argument, built upon acknowledged, well-known, and undeniable facts? And to come at a knowledge of the number of flies is not more difficult than to come at a knowledge of the number of rabbits, because both are impossible.But now for SAWNEY's answer to my argument, founded upon the fact, that large sums of money were annually granted by parlia ment, that is to say, out of the fruit of the labour of the people of England, for the purpose of furnishing foot and making

work for the labourers of Scotland, in order to prevent those labourers from emigrating to America. This, I said, could not be denied, and, then I drew the conclusion, that the state of Scotland, with respect to its labourers, was not such as to be held up as an example for England; adding, that nothing ever was so outrageously impudent and insolent, as to charge the labourers of England with laziness and vice, and to bid to look, for an example, to the industrious and virtuous labourers of Scotland, and that, too, at the very time, when the former were compelled to give up part of the fruit of their labour to furnish food for the latter, in order to prevent them from wandering away from their country. Let us hear "Sawney's" answer to this:- "I come now to

"the grants of money you speak of, as "drawn from the people of England for "the support of the Scotch. This, I un"derstand, is your Crown battery, from "which you are to maul us without "mercy-it is a sunk battery to me," [he will be witty still]"for the deuce take me "if I know what you mean. For my "part, I am not aware of any annual grants "made to Scotland, but what are of a very "trivial kind indeed.-Do you allude to

the money advanced by government to further that important undertaking the"Caledonian Canal, which is to be large enough to float ships of war from the

persuaded that that change cannot be for the worse. All the while that the farmer has hopes of getting in his hay in such a state that it may be of some use in the way of food for his cattle, he feels some degree of anxiety about the weather; as the showers succeed each other, his anxiety becomes less and less, till, at last, when he knows that what he called hay a week ago, is now merely muck, his anxiety ceases. A man, going to the gallows, would, for want of time to reflect, tremble at a thunderbolt striking the sledge; but, the Portuguese have had time to reflect upon the expected change; and, therefore, if they are in that state of feeling, or, rather, of want of feeling, which is so feelingly described by the writer of the Morning Chronicle, he may comfort himself with the assurance, that, in their view of things, the change would not be for the worse.- -Mind, I give no opinion of my own about the effects which the change would have upon the people of Portugal, because I know nothing at all about the nature of their government, or the conduct and character of their rulers. I am, therefore, compelled to reason upon hypothesis; but, I think, I may venture to assert, that, if the people of Portugal are suffered to enjoy the fair fruits of their labour; if they are not ground down to the earth by a set of villains who have, by one means or another obtained the power of making them sweat drops of blood in order to support those villains in idleness and profligacy; if the liberty of expressing their thoughts, either verbally or in writing, be not taken from them; if one part of them are not armed and stationed about the country for the purpose of keeping the other part in awe and plundering them without mercy, in order to fatten successive swarms of corruptors and peculators; if they have not seen honour after honour of their coun try bartered away for the advantage or convenience of those whose duty it was to maintain those honours, until they have nothing left worthy of being called a country; if this be not the case (and I never heard that it was the case in Portugal, notwith"standing that there long has been an English Factory in that country, and necessarily great intercourse with it) then I venture to assert, that the Morning Chronicle is misinformed, and that the Portuguese are not so indifferent as to the expected change, as he describes them to be.- The principal cause of the successes of Napoleon has been a persuasion, in the people of the conquered countries, that no change could be for the worse. A reliance has been placed upon

armies; but armies are always, when the hour of trial comes, the least to be relied upon, in such a state of things. While the enemy is at a distance, an army is kept in a disjointed state; if a regiment mutiny, two or three can be brought against it; and thus, while soldiers are used to overawe the people, they are also used to keep each other up to the sticking place. But, when the enemy enters, all is changed in a moment. The bands are all broken; and those who before haughtily commanded, are now reduced to wheedle; and, from the wheedling of soldiers, there is but one step to their revolt, especially when they have the people in general with them. The reliance, to be safe, must be upon the hearts of the mass of the people. There is no other, and, indeed, there ought to be no other, defence of governments.

Since writing the first article in this Summary, I have received the half-official defence of the Proclamation, the pitiful contents of which defence, I will remark upon in my next. It is misery itself. Never was any thing so shuffling, so mean, so despicable in every respect.In the mean while, I think it right to insert, below, an excellent article upon the subject, from the Morning Post newspaper, protesting, however, against the sentiments of the last two sentences, except as far as they go in commendation of Admiral Berkeley. No; it will not do to attempt to throw the blame upon the late ministers. They had nothing to do with the natter. They could not pos sibly have any knowledge of the case. all the work of the present set, and pretty work it is! The ministers have, however, the consolation to know, that it has merited and received, the commendations of the Morning Chronicle; and certainly to silence the patrons of that paper was, in their usual view of things, an object worth a tolerably lumping sacrifice.

ON THE PROCLAMATION.

It is:

Taken from the Morning Post newspaper of the 20th inst.

The proclamation respecting British seamen engaged in foreign service, inserted in our paper of yesterday, is a document of so much importance as to call for some serious observations from us. We had expected that the firmness of the present cabinet, whose general conduct claims not only our commendation, but the gratitude of the country, could not have been brought to concede so strong and justifiable a right as that of searching any vessels, in case of positive information that British deserters were serving

on board. To give up the right of searching neutral ships of war generally, is a totally different concession from that which relinquishes the right of search in the case of positive information that British seamen are serving on board a neutral vessel of war. Every nation that values its own indepen. dence, must be disposed to respect the rights of other countries, if it be actuated by principles of reciprocal consideration. The act of inticing our seamen to desert their duty, is manifestly an act of hostility against us, as, by diminishing our means of resistance to an enemy, it renders us less capable of maintaining our independence. Whilst the Americans, therefore, or rather the American government, not only permit but autho rise such conduct, we cannot be readily persuaded to approve of giving up the right of searching their vessels of every description. If the right of searching ships of war generally were only conceded, we should not perhaps have objected to such an instance of moderation on the part of our ministers. But when it is notorious, from irrefragable documents, not only that the American officers receive our deserters, but that the American government, without any qualification, justifies the transaction, we cannot perceive any good ground for abandoning the right of searching even ships of war, in case of positive information that British deserters are on board. The exercise of such a right would, of course, and must depend on the circumstances of the case. If no deserters should be found, the officers exercising such interference with the flag of a neutral nation, would necessarily be subjected to the consequences of the act. But if it should be found, that, notwithstanding the assertion of the commander of the neutral ship of war, British seamen were by positive information proved to be on board, we do not see, how, consistently with the interests of this 'country, a British commander could avoid exercising the right of search. To concede the right generally, and to insist upon it under particular circumstances, are very different cases. Every Englishman's house is his castle, and must not be forced, unless under- positive information, that its contents are exempted by law from domiciliary protection. Why then should we, as a nation, extend to the vessels of other nations, upon an element, on which we have rule, an exemption which we do not grant to the most favoured inhabitants amongst ourselves. The law of nations, if it have any influence on the affairs of great communities, must subject them collectively, equally with individuals under municipal regulations, to the principles of

universal justice. It is no matter whether a subject conceal a traitor, or a neutral vessel a deserter, whom its commander enticed from his duty and allegiance; the right of search is the same, after ineffectual application for his surrender. The whole merit of the case turns upon the previous information, and the demand and refusal to give up the offender. Upon this ground it is that we do not approve of the terms of the late proclamation, or of the recall of Admiral Berkeley, who appears to us to have acted with all necessary moderation and forbearance. It is our opinion, that in both cases, too much has been conceded to the Gallic party in Ame rica. Besides the recall of an excellent officer from a station, on which he had behaved with such judgment and firmness, may have very serious effect upon the conduct of other officers, who may hereafter be employed upon that service. The negligence of the magistracy of Loudon during the riots in the year 1780, is said to have proceeded from the trial of a Surrey magistrate for his life, a few years before, for having done his duty on a similar occasion. If officers are to be ex posed to recall and comparative disgrace, for having acted under difficult circumstances, to the best of their judgment, for the honour and interest of their country, there must be an end of our superiority at sea, and perhaps to our protection at home, For our own part, we must, confess that we should have preferred the more decisive determination of making known to all powers, that our officers would seize and carry off British seamen, wherever they could find them, without caring whether they were on the territory, or on board the ship of a neutral power. Is it by pursuing a different line of conduct, that we can hope successfully to continue a contest with an enemy, whose uniform and studied practice it is to convert every thing that bears a neutral character to the advance ment of his own perfidious views, and the consequent detriment of the essential interests of Britain? But it may be argued, that, by this concession, we accomplish a great object in adjusting our differences with America. For our own part, we never could bring ourselves to suppose that the Americans, notwithstanding their violence and abuse, would hazard a contest with us; and though our differences with America may be adjusted, we see no likelihood that the system of enticing and encouraging our seamen to desert will be done away, or even checked. By the proclamation, our officers. are first to claim the men of the neutral captain! if he refuse to give them up, we are then to give notice to the British commands