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"" cover that it must have some relation to "the points in dispute between the two "countries. That the Americans will not "hazard a contest we have always been of

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opinion; but we do not think by any means that the proclamation is to be con"sidered as any adjustment of our dif"ferences with them."- -In order to get the rubbish out of the way, and to clear the ground whereon to remark upon the contents of this article, as a defence of the proclamation, we will first dispatch the concluding part of it, wherein we are asked, why, if the proclamation is to be consi"dered as an adjustment of the differences "with America, Mr. Rose is now sent up66 on a special mission thither?" Aye, why, indeed, is he sent thither, whether the proclamation is to be considered as an adjustment of the differences, or not? But, this question should be put to old George Rose and the rest of the set. We, who shall have to pay so dearly for the travels of the reversionary Clerk of the Parliaments, cannot tell, or guess, what use to us the mission can be of; and, it is most grossly insolent to produce as a proof, that the proclamation is wise and vigorous, that we are to pay for sending a man to America to explain it to the government of that country. One of the faults, that has been complained of, is, that the proclamation, while it evades and shuffles and blusters and whines, settles nothing; and, in answer to this complaint, which is a very heavy one, we are bid to look at a proof of the truth complained of, and, in that proof, to behold a considerable and lasting addition to our taxes.Taking the defence, now, in its due order, the verbal criticism is the first point that attracts our notice. The use of the phrase "make to stay" is justified upon the ground of their having been made use of heretofore upon all similar occasions; and then the defender breaks out in a sublime and pathetic quotation: "They are the words of our fathers, " and the children have not forgotten them.' What! make to stay? Oh, the wonderful merit of having remembered that noble saying of our fathers, make to stay! Nay more, "stop and make to stay"! Oh! dear, glorious and ever-memorable words, the blessed bequest of our gallant fathers!-But, there were other" words of our fathers," which this defender and his clients seem to think may as well be pretty completely forgotten. Our fathers, for instance, contended, and maintained, that England had a real sovereignty of the sea; that the sea, round about her even to all the opposite shores, was her own; that she had a right to do

ings or that determination. When per"sons talk of concessions to America, let "them recollect that part of the proclama❝tion which relates to letters of naturalization, or certificates of citizenship from foreign states, and which lays down the principle, that no such letters or certifi"cates shall or can divest British seamen of "their allegiance to their lawful sovereign. "This is the first time, we believe, that "this principle has been broadly laid down "in any proclamation.And now with respect to the idea that this proclamation "is to be considered as conceding so much "to the Americans, that the differences may be considered as adjusted between "the two countries. Ministers certainly "did not intend this prohibition to search "ships of war as any concession-they no " doubt weighed the subject maturely, and "they felt that they could not allow a reciprocal right without making the balance "of advantage infinitely on the side of "America. It is not by any means to be "considered as an adjustment of the dif "ferences with America-if it were, if the "American ministers had thought it so, "why have not long ago the negociations "been brought to an amicable conclusion "in this country? It were impertinent " for us to pretend to know any thing of the progress of the negociations or of the "state in which they are; but as ministers "were no doubt ready long since to have com"municated to Mr. Munro or Mr. Pinck"ney their determination not to claim or "enforce the right of searching ships of war, the negociation would have, 'ere "this, terminated, had America resolved to " content herself with that determination? "Besides, if the proclamation could be considered as tautamount to an adjustment " of the differences between the two coun"tries, why, it may be asked, is Mr. "Rose going on a special mission to Ameri"ca? of the nature of that mission we cannot, of course, know any thing, but surely it requires no great sagacity to dis

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thereon whatever any one had to do upon lands that were his exclusive property; amongst the rules for the exercising of her dominion thereon, one was, that her ships of war should, when they saw occasion, search the ships of war of neutral nations, for English seamen; and, when her ships of war did make such search, producing a complaint from neutral nations, the answer which " our fathers" gave was, "such is

and always has been our right, and, by "God, we will maintain it." These, too, as will be seen by searching the records of the English admiralty, were the words of our fathers; and, I imagine, the reader will think them full as worthy of being remembered as the words "stop and make to stay," the simplicity of which, when hashed up with the modern half-poetry half-prose of the "Captain" of Eton, produces an effect somewhat like that which would arise upon seeing lord Erskine of Clackmannan in the rust and beard of Sir Thomas More, or the Duke of York in the long-skirted coat and jack-boots of Buonaparté-As to the decla. ration relative to those British seamen, who, after voluntarily entering into the service of foreign states, shall be captured and held in slavery by the kings of Africa, there is not, that I can perceive, any other objection to it than its splenetic appearance. It forms one of a list of threats; which threats are all against the defenceless, while nothing is distinctly threatened against any party that can resuably be supposed efer to possess the capacity of self-defence. This writer says, that he heard with pleasure, that the people in the city were displeased at the proclamation, as containing the expression of a sacrifice of our national rights; and, that his pleasure arose from the reflection, that this was a proof of the truth of what he before believed, namely, that "the patriotism of the monied interest "had not, as some simpletons aver, "decreased with the increase of wealth." Now, first, I disbelieve the fact. I do not believe, that what this writer calls the "monied interest," and from the dawn of which interest we may date the decline of England, were at all displeased with the proclamation; and, if they were, should be inclined to attribute their displeasure to any thing but patriotisun. The truth is, that they never think upon subjects of this sort but as the questions and measures affect themselves. They. have had no feeling at all connected with the proclamation; and the contrary is merely supposed for the pureofyag a compliment to them,

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origin of this mean and shuffling defence of the proclamation. But, we are told, that there is no concession to the Americans; that we have not claimed the right of searching neutral ships of war; and that, therefore, we give nothing up now. Afterwards, indeed, it is acknowledged, that during and before the 17th century, we did claim and exercise this right; but that, we have abandoned it since; and, that now," it was more

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proper to follow the practice of the age "nearest us, as more likely to be congenial "to the present state of the world." Away goes, then, in the twinkling of an eye, all the high talk about raising ourselves to the extraordinary circumstances of the times; about, resorting to our "ancient and indu"bitable rights upon the seas, which rights "had been suffered to be dormant, when "Europe was balanced as to power;" away goes all this, at once, and we are now told, that the settled practice during the last hundred years is quite sufficient for all our purposes! Just the thing for the present state of the world! It is, however, false to say, that we ever till now abandoned the right. To search all neutral ships for British sailors has always formed part of the instructions to all our naval cominanders. Of course, they formed part of Admiral Berkeley's instructions, and he did nothing without due authority, except offering the Ame ricans permission to search his shipsThis right is now abandoned; and, at what time is it abandoned? Why, at the moment when the Americans have in force a procla mation depriving us of all the benefits which we enjoyed under our treaty of anity with them; at the moment when they are engaged in the commission of an hostile act against us; at a moment when they are doing us all the harm which it is, under any circumstances, in their power to do us; at a moment when they are excluding our ships of war from their ports, and receiving with open arms those of our enemy, while, on our side, we have taken no one step in the way of retaliation; at this moment it is, that our ministers come out with a proclamation, conceding the point upon which the hostile proclamation of America solely arose, and making that concession the basis of negociation as to other points. And this they call vigour ! -Great stress is, however, laid upon the explicitly expressed determination not to recede from the right of searching merchant ships. That is to say, that they have not given up that which the Americans did not ask them to give up. There is, indeed, an insinuation in another defence of this proclamation, that the Americans have

asked them to give up that also. But, they, like other nations, ask what they do not expect to get; and, if they were to insist upon it, as it is very probable they may do now, my opinion is, that that also will be given up, and if it be, the abandonment will not, while taxes can be raised in England, want defenders. This searching of the merchant ships, is, this writer tells us, the sore place with the Americans. The fact is otherwise. They have their vanity to gratify; and our wiseacre vigorous men have afforded them food for it. The former will compare this. proclamation to the famous Declaratory Act; or, as I did, in the case of Pitt's taking out the Lillies, to the conduct of the hunted Beaver. The Americans are not to be deceived by mere words. They know, that all the bluster is for show, and that all the abandonment is for real practice. - In the next argument, this defender admits, to its full extent, the doctrine of equality upon the seas, which has, by all the partizans of the ministers, been, from 'the moment that this dispute began, so strongly reprobated. Suppose, says he, we had, as some persons contend we ought to have, maintained our right of searching American ships of war. Could

we have done it without permitting them to search ours? Might it not happen, that, in spite of our great naval superiority, an American frigate would search an English sloop, if she happened to meet her alone?" Here, then, fresh disputes would " arise; and the principle would be a fruit"ful source of acrimony, vexation, and, "probably, of war." So, the fear of our arms was to do nothing? Our insisting upon the principle was not to induce the Americans to submit to it, without insisting upon a perfect equality? And we wanted, I'll warrant, the power to assert our sovereignty in any part of the sea where our fleets did not happen to be actually stationed? The taxgatherer goes to many a man, who would very much like not to pay him.' To many a man much stronger than himself, and yet he pays him very quietly, as soon as he can scrape the money together. The exciseman searches the house of many a man, who, were there nobody but him and the excise man in the world, would kick him into the street before his feet were well over the threshold. In these cases, the cause which produces non-résistance and submission, is, the knowledge, that, elsewhere, there is a power to punish resistance; and this knowledge, in the case supposed, is to have no effect at all! But, the enforcing of this principle might, possibly, lead to war. Horrid thing, to be sare; Lut what may not lead to

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war? It would lead to only one war; for, by that war the matter would be settled for ever; and, observe, that this very wiseacre states, that according to the complaining sys tem, now to be adopted, war is to be the fi nal remedy.It is to be observed, that the proposition of Lord Stanhope, that all nations were perfectly equal in point of rights upon the seas, and which proposition was rejected by the noble Lords, is now promulgated in a proclamation, as explained by the defenders of that proclamation; and, every argument, used by the Morning Chronicle, against the partizans of the ministry, is now used by those partizans against those who disapprove of the proclamation. Never was triumph more complete than that obtained by that paper over its opponents!--Having stated, that, to assert the right in questio without acknowledging a similar right in the Americans, mast produce ill-blood, and, probably, war, this defender next tells us, that the Americans have not above eight fri gates, and that it would be foolish in us to expose our thousand ships of war to be searched for the sake of searching their eight ships. Foolish enough, indeed; "what, then, were ministers to do?" How I hate this slang of the offices: "ministers," without the article before it. This, at any rate, was not the language of our fathers,: It is the slang of modern battling corrupt placebunting factions. "What were they to do?" Why nothing but let things remain as they were; nothing but let the officers of the navy exercise the right of search; for, as to the risk of producing war, if that is to be considered as a sufficient reason for forbear ance, what right could ever be exercised that was hostile to the interests of any foreign nation. The time, too, of issuing this sneaking proclamation was the very worst that could have been chosen. If at all, it should have been the moment that authentic intelligence was received of the affair of the Chesapeake. Coming after the threats of the American government had arrived, and particularly after the hostile conduct of that government had been made known here, it must be considered as the effect of fear, as doing that which "ministers," to use the Downing Street slang, thought they should be compelled to do. And, it is impossible not to believe, that this giving up of the great point at issue will have the worst possible effect upon any negociation (I almost laugh at the idea) which we are now about to carry on with America. We are desired to look at the proclamation for an instance of vigour in the declaration about the certifi cates of citizenship; but, at this the Ameri