people! Who, in the very teeth of "rank, "wealth, and office," which fill the House of Commons, and which, it is proved by the Reviewers, ought to fill it; which "rank, wealth, and office," "enable men indivi"dually to influence the opinions and con"duct of those around them :" How provoking, I repeat, must it be to the Edinburgh Reviewers, who have shewn " that it" naturally follows that these qualifications, "rank, wealth, and office," should have "their due share in returning members of "the legislature; and that the government "could not otherwise (page 408) be either " stable, or respectable." I say, how extremely provoking must it be to these Ecin'burgh Reviewers, to be obliged themselves to admit in this very same critique "that the "sale of Boroughs is dishonourable to both "the parties concerned in it;" and, what in their estimation, is probably a great deal worse than dishonour, as it is a great deal worse for their argument, "that there is a "very general spirit of discontent, distrust, and contempt for public characters amongst "the MORE INTELLIGENT, &c. &c. of the people;" that they see the seeds of a "revolution in the present aspect and tem per of the nation; that they are afraid "in the event of any great emergency or "disaster, NO REASONINGS, (I presume they mean such as their own) and no motives "of prudence will be sufficient to uphold the "established forms of the constitution," (this is what every body thinks) "unless some effort be made on the part of public men to wipe off the imputations which are "now thrown upon their characters!!!" I ask you, Mr. Cobbett, how this could have happened? For, it is in vain to ask the Edinburgh Reviewers; who have, in one and the same sheet of paper, admitted, both that it has happened, and proved, that it cannot happen! But, I pause, Sir-an apology is due to your readers for an attempt, however brief and playful, at refuting, what refutes itself. But as, whatever may be the patience of the reader, the Reviewer's critique is not yet half exhausted, and as the whole of their developement of the rationale of our constitution is a gross libel upon its genius, as well as an insult upon those, who venerate its genuine spirit, and who wish to restore it to that spirit, I will devote another day in one of your next Registers to the duty of further exploding the doctrine of the promulgators of A NEW CONSTITUTION, which admits by i's very principles "DISHONOUR" in its origin, and in its operation, is a practical abandonment on the part of the people of their own most valuable property their he reditary rights and liberties.I am, Sir, yours,JOHN COTTON WORTHINGTON. EAST-INDIES. SIRI have observed it is seldom you, advert to the affairs of the East-Indies, and that when you do so, it is with an apparent reluctance, as to a subject painful to you. Yet, if you could sometimes bring yourself to bestow a few hours and a page or two on that quarter of the world, it presents a field in which your exertions miglit not be without avail for the honor, if not the interests, of our country, and in the cause of humanity. This without entering into the depths of its motley policies, but only occasionally strik. ing at some of the most glaring features of its management under the British rule. At present it is my hope, through your means, to obtain the timely attention of the Direc tors of the Company to what, from obvious reasons, may not have been very fully offi cially detailed to them; the alarming Desertions, that since the unfortunate catastrophe at Vellore, have extended themselves throughout the whole Madras Native Army; threatening its speedy annihilation, if some more effectual measures are not adopted, towards doing away the present discontents,. than any yet resorted to by the local government. -The impossibility of the subjection and defence of a territory equal in extent to the half of Europe, and of a population exceeding fifty millions, by any military force from England, must be self-evident. It would be a waste of the patience of every one acquainted with India, to attempt to shew, at any length, how our dominion over it is de-. pendant on the arms and loyalty of its native troops; or to dwell on the like eventual fatal result to our power, whether we drive them to a state of general open mutiny, or, they have recourse, in disgust, to the more quiet, but not less destructive operation of desertion. Nor can it be necessary to expatiate on the policy of a consideration of their national and religious habits, that by avoiding what may disgust them, and attending to what may please them, we may render them satisfied with their situations in the British service, and attach them to the British interests. The public are already. acquainted, that the late lamentable occur rence at Vellore arose out of an endeavour to expunge from the forehead of the Pagan soldier the distinguishing mark of his faith, to clip the Mahomedan's whiskers, and to. force upon the heads of the whole some, fancy cap, in the room of the turban.. But this has been by no means the first mark of dissatisfaction from similar measures. Twens, ty years since, a regiment of cavalry mutinied at Arnee, rather than receive the helmet. About ten years since a Rajpoot destroyed himself upon the parade of Tiagar, in consequence of pollution at drill. But the detail of nutinies and executions or other punishments is a painful task, and unnecessary to my purpose. The experience ef every Madras officer will sufficiently confirm one general statement, that for some time back, scarcely any year has passed, in which, in some corps or other, strong discontent has not been evinced, in consequence of an interference with their habits and customs; and this often in points enjoined by their religious persuasions. Intimately so, are the painted forehead denoting at once the sect of the individual and the performance of his morning ablutions; and the whiskers and manner of shaving marking religious fasts and private mournings. Such also is the Asiatic predilection for the turban in opposition to the European bat or cap, that it is impossible to pass along the streets of any town without hearing the very children, in their terms of abuse to each other, use that of Hat-fellow, as one of the most stigmatizing-The investigation of the cause of evil is commonly the first step towards its remedy, and in this view, I have been led to the present endeavor to trace out the sources of the great change that has taken place, in the sentiments of the Sepoys towards the English. service, with deference, however, to my brother officers, from whom I hope support, by giving publicity to their opinions., In the days of Sir Eyre Coote, although the European troops were regularly paid, the whole native army was from six months to three years in arrears, in distress borrowing at usury, and some even selling their children into slavery, for a subsistence; yet was every proffer from Hyder indignantly repelled by them; and under every hardship of warfare desertion almost unknown. It may not be credited, but so it was, and I appeal to Sir Hippesly Cox, then one of the paymasters, to verify the fact. On the making peace, a considerable reduction of the army took place, and these men were paid their arrears in paper, which when they presented at the pay offices, they were told there was no money: the pay-master's clerks and servants, however, offering to buy this paper of them, at 75 per cent. discount, or, perhaps, the amount of a month or six weeks pay, for that of the whole three years. The poor fellows had no alternative, but to take what was tender. ed to them. Stung by such rank injustice, and to escape their debts, the greater part of them resorted to Tippoo's dominions, and to his service for their future bread. It was neither renegado Frenchmen, ever mistrusted; nor the idler tale of Hyder's own acquired experience in a French camp: it was these brave faithful ill-treated soldiers, who carried with them into the ranks of the Mysore army that discipline and knowledge. of war, to repress which ultimately conpelled the Company to double their military establishment at Madras; and has called forth those arduous and repeated exertions, for the expenses of which they are actually so many millions in debt; and what is worse, has cost the lives of so many thousands of British soldiers, and of so many tens of thousands of Sepoys.—In the face of experience are we to imagine these veterans, driven to desertion by our persecutions, are not at the present day anxiously sought by every power of the country; and that the warmth of reception shewed to the forerunners will not create such a general excitement, that every day's delay in the application of the sufficient remedy must be an extinguisher to the very hope of any arrest to this disastrous turn, which our own follies have set in motion? To what quarters are these veterans how transporting their arms and their experience? In the camps of Scindia and Holkar, will they not be received with open arms? Among the namerous Jageerdars by whom our territories are surrounded, may no new Hyder appear? What additional strength to the disaffected Poligars of the western hills, through an exposed extent of coast reaching from Cochin to Mangalore! What fellows for the service of our most inveterate enemy, whenever he shall be able to obtain a footing in these distant regions !-The unfortunate regulations, which created so sad a resistance, are now explained to have been drawn up by an officer of the Company's European Regiment, and who never served in any native battalion; but, being on the staff of head quarters, had access to the commander-inchief; and vaguely sanctioned by two other staff officers, long since removed by their situation from immediate intercourse with only native troops, were hastily adopted, not only without consulting any of the officers commanding the battalions, but even in opposition to the remonstrances of some of them, when ordered to carry the code into effect.-By late accounts from Madras we learn that this spirit of desertion is no longer confined to the infantry, but that since the appointment of Lieut. Col.. Gillespie, of His Majesty's Nineteenth Dragoons, commander-in-chief, in the respective senior officers of infantry and cavalry, each in his own branch, in all matters of its in cise an arrangement as shall admit no pretence from commanding forts or detachments, or in any other way, for an interference in the subordinate degrees of either of its departments by the officers of the other, or by the officers of his Majesty's service: whether in respect to the detail of discipline or the personal appearance of the men; or the delicate attentions necessary to their peculiar habits and family arrangements, religious ceremonies, feasts and fasts, holidays and processions and other private occurrences. In this manner not refusing the influence of that personal love and confidence, began ir. youth and strengthened by years, from the Sepoys towards their own officers, under a long participation of the same toils; nor slackening the bonds of their authority, by degrading and lowering them to a secondary class; but giving to the proper officers of the native troops a reasonable chance, if not too late, that under the control and guidance of their seniors, and by such a course as their discernment and judgment, formed on a long local experience, shall suggest, they may avert from the Company and themseves the threatfining dangers of the present awful period, and save a fine army to the services of their country.- -A MADRAS OFFICER.Oct. 11, 1807. to superintend the discipline of the native cavalry, it has also extended itself to this branch of the army.-When we consider the whole affair of Vellore, the circum-ternal economy; and restricting, by so prestances in which it originated, and the part which it fell to the lot of Lieut. Col. Gillespie to have to perform, I think it might have been apprehended, that he would not prove the officer, whose interference would be the most acceptable to any branch of the native army, in the regulations of their details; and to whose opinions they might be most cheerfully brought to yield any peculiar usages, if necessary to be exacted from them. And it appears further strange, when we call to mind the hitherto pre-eminent discipline of the Madras Native Cavalry, and the acknowledged professional skill of its proper officers, that there should have existed any necessity to pass by them; and to call in an officer from another service, junior in rank to some, and in practical professional experience to many of them. Let me now ask on what grounds it can be inferred, that an officer fresh from Europe, without a knowledge of the language of the country; or if any time resident in India, his attention absorbed by the duties of his European Regiment, or staff employ; and consequently without the equal opportunity of observing, should equally understand with their own officers, whose lives are passed in the midst of them, those religious tenets by which the constant demeanor of the natives, Mahomedan and Pagan, is influenced; and be in the same manner aware of the variety of their sects, the difference of their superstitious forms and ceremonies, and the intricate amities and hostilities by which they are actuated towards each other: or may it not be more rationally expected, that with European hauteur looking down contemptuously on prejudices and principles he does not comprehend, he should convert to grounds of dissatisfaction, what constitutes in the hands of their own officers, the best assurance of the fidelity of the Indian soldiery?—I have now candidly exposed what, as well from my own observations, as from communications with some of its oldest and most resspectable officers, I do conscientiously believe to be the genuine sources of the present state of the Madras Native Army, inspiring such just apprehension. If the voice of an individual should reach those who rule over the affairs of India, it earnestly calls on them to weigh the policy of confiding the superintendency of the native troops to their own officers, practised in their usages; with the responsibility, vesting also an authority, under the EXPATRIATION. SIR,My attention having been principally directed to the remarks of Candidus, and to your observations upon the subject of my communication, the animadversions of your correspondent R. R. (569) had escaped my notice until this day, which I had de voted to a perusal of the favours of your other correspondents. While I with R. R. condemn "personalities and invectives," I cannot with him agree, that "vice to be despised and abhorred is necessary only to be seen;" that superabundant portion of self denial, that more than usual share of reason which R. R. may possess, may cause him to controul his passions, and detest not only the sight of vice, but forcibly condemn it in others; while, however, he happily possesses the rigid stoicism of men who never have been in the way of temptation, The should not condemn an unfortunate wretch as he represents me, who possibly may be as free from vice actually, as R. R. may pretend to be, but who have also withstood the temptation never perhaps thrown powers of muscular strength and Stentorian violence; some little shew of argument should accompany mere assertion; for, though I might perhaps, from my diminutive stature, a mere sesquipedalian as I am, succumb under their Herculean fist, yet neither their Stentorian voices not Ciceronian expression, without argument, tending to conviction can stifle me. I am not to be dragooned into conviction; if your correspondents will adopt rather more of the argumentative than the dogmatical stile, it will be more beneficial to them, as it may to me, for I shall not pay much attention to a man's doctrine, whether diametrically opposite to mine or in favour of it, unless he chuses to assign a stronger ground in support of it, than because it may suit him to say such is my doctrine, because so it is-ita lex scripta est, may do in the mouths of men of authority, but when adopted by anonymous correspondents it must be accompanied by argument, for from argument conviction must result. The first section of the proclamation "for recalling and prohibiting seamen from in his way. I arrogate not to myself a stoicism superior to R. R. I advocate not the cause of vice; but, I think R. R. did not act with his wonted profundity, when he declined commenting upon the doctrine I have advanced, howsoever indignant' his feelings and strong his "personal invectives" may be. But should R. R.'s" indignant" feelings continue, and he should be as well able as he probably may be disposed to enlarge upon the extravagant and ridiculous' doctrine I have broached. I now furnish him with a further observation, on which he may employ a portion of his invaluable time. But, I must request R. R. before he hastily and inconsiderately replies to the absurdity of my doctrine, and howsoever extravagant and ridiculous' he may at present deem it to be, to consult the authorities I have referred to, as well as duly consider my observations; although the latter may not lead him on to conviction, they may possibly induce him in future to suspend a hasty and inconsiderate decision, and teach him not to condemn as ⚫ ridiculous and extravagant' a doctrine countenanced, and ably maintained by wri-" serving foreign princes and states," sets ters much more able than either R. R. or full on, something more is necessary than the out with stating, that " seafaring men, na- authority aforesaid, that every such fa reign mariner or seaman who shall from "and after the 1st day of January, 1739, "have faithfully served during the time of war, on board any of his Majesty's ships "of war, or any merchant or other trading ship or ships, vessel or vessels, or priva teers (which at the time of such service "shall belong to any of his Majesty's subjects of Great Britain) for the space of "two years, shall to all intents and purposes subject of his Majesty's Kingdom of Great "Britain, and have and enjoy all the privi leges, powers, rights, and capacities, "which such foreign mariner or seaman "could, should, or ought to have had and r a enjoyed, in case he had been a natural "born subject of his Majesty, and actually " native within the Kingdom of Great "Britain."-Now, what I have heretofore contended for, and do now contend is, that we ought not to permit and invite foreigners to become naturalized, unless we allow other powers from whom we take their subjects, to decoy our subjects from us in a similar way to that which under the above statute we have the power of doing. Would it not be well to repeal on the first meeting of parliament, the above-mentioned section 2d?We then can properly insist upon the propriety of recalling our subjects who may have attempted to depart from their allegiance; but, so long as this section-remains in force in our written code, I do hold it to be inconsistent and impolitic, that we should condemn a foreign state for doing that which we sanction with respect to his subjects.S. V.Oct. 20, 1807. DOMESTIC OFFICIAL PAPER. Authentic Copy of the Letter addressed by Lieut. Gen. Lord Cathcart, to Major Gen. Peymann, the Commandant of Copenhagen, previous to the commencement of the siege of that City, dated Head Quarters, Aug. 20, 1607. SIR, Your letter of the 18th, did not come into my hands till late last night, The passport for Prince Frederick Ferdinand, with his retinue, is given on the same principle with those which have already been sent, but it must be strictly limited to the persons described. An irregularity is reported to me to have occurred on the part of the bearer of your letter. It will be of reciprocal convenience that such circumstances should not occur. Every mark of respectful attention having been paid to the illustrious persons related to the Blood Royal of Denmark, and due regard having been shewn to the household and equipage of his Danish Majesty, circumstances imperiously demand that a stop must now be put to the departure of any person whatever from the metropolis. In making this communication, I cannot refrain from availing myself of this opportunity of representing, in my own name, as well as in that of the admiral commanding his Majesty's fleet, to the most serious consi deration of your Excellency, the existing state of affairs at Copenhagen, which are drawing to an awful crisis. If this city, the capital of Denmark, the residence of the King, and of his royal court and government, the seat of learning, and the rendezvous of commerce, full of inhabitants of all ranks, ages, and sexes, will put itself on the footing of a fortress besieged, it must be attacked by all the means which may appear best calculated for its reduction, as soon as orders are given to that purpose; and, when such is the case, the officers employed have no choice but to use every effort to take the place. The attack of a city so rich and po pulous, cannot fail to be attended by consequences most destructive in preparation, as well as in final execution, to the persons and property of individuals. Impelled by the necessity of the case, our government has at the same time supplied positive orders and ample means to attack by sea and land, in case of refusal on the part of Denmark to treat in an amicable manner.The preparations are perhaps in a more forward state than you imagine. For God's sake, Sir, let it be calmly considered, whether resistance may not lead to the destruction of the very treasure you wish to preserve, and whether under the circumstances of the present dispute the praise of displaying the valour for which every body is prepared to give you credit, will compensate the ruin and destruction inseparable from the siege of a capital city; and the ultimate loss or destruction of your fleet and arsenal, which might be avoid ed. This is a -Property of every kind without the walls has been respected; you must know likewise that other objects, and of the greatest national importance to the power of Denmark are within my grasp, and have remained hitherto unremoved. state of things which cannot continue. I mean not to offend you by any thing like a menace, but I exhort your Excellency and your Council to think seriously of the irreparable loss which the operation of a few days may occasion, but which might still be averted. I have the honour to be, with the greatest personal consideration, Sir, your Excellency's most obedient humble servant, (Signed) CATHCART, Lieut. Gen. The Ninth Volume of COBBETT'S PAKLIAMENTARY DEBATES, comprising the period from the 5th of March to the close of the First Session of the Fourth Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to the 14th of August, 1807, is ready for delivery. Printed by Cox and Baylis, No. 75, Great Queen Street, and published by R. Bagshaw, Brydges Stree', Covent Garden, where former Numbers may be had; sold also by J. Budd, Crown and Mitre, Pall-Mell |