Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

66

subject let me warn his Majesty's present "Ministers to beware how they try any rash . experiments upon the trade of this country by an universal blockade, in consequence of the attempts of France to obstruct it. Let them not wean Europe "from our manufactures, by attempting to "shut them out altogether, lest new habits "of luxury and new channels to supply "them should start up. Let them take "their chance of finding their way till the "storm is overblown, and by a manly po

licy, as it regards America, let us break "the French party there, and look to the "infinite resources which almost from pole "to pole the new Western world presents σε to us. The late ill-contrived, abrupt, "unanthorized landing in La Plata,

proves nothing against the probable success which may be expected here"after from the meditated plans of a vigorous and prudent Government. We "should have looked merely to con

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

merce, and not to settlement. We "should have held out to the inhabitants the safe pursuit of their own interests, and not have attempted to plant the stan"dard of conquest in such distant regions, which, with our limited population, it was impossible to maintain by force. This "mistake may, and I hope will be cor"rested hereafter. The people of England fought more cheerfully to subscribe to the

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

expenses of such plans, however unsuc"cessful in the beginning, than to the vi

་་

sionary attempts of weighing the powers "of Europe in an imaginary balance,

[merged small][ocr errors]

which, after the labour of a century and a half, has ended in our scale being kicked up into the air, with the loss of five Diarmut Enes whilst hundred milli spended but

"all the nation

together in

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

that, by this wiser policy, the Divine Providence may be preparing the light of the Gospel, and all the blessings of civilised "life which fellow in its train, for nations in the shadow of darkness; and that this "favoured nation may still be made the

66

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

day-star (as she so long has been) of the most extcosive human blessings? Who' "knows, but that thus the emperor of "France may live to see, that, instead of obtaining universal empire by ways that are unjust and unwarrantable, his ambition is only raising up more numerous and more virtuous communities to balance his power, and in due time to break it into "the atoms which compose it? But the age of miracles is past. It is only by human means that human advantages are to "be obtained, and we must do our parts. We "stand upon the vantage ground. Nothing "conceded by Great Britain can be imputed "to fear--she will only rise in dignity by "the mildness and moderation of her coun

[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

cils."Here, again, is another of the "Miseries of Human Life." We are here led, or rather tossed away from America to the continent of Europe, and thence to South America; and, from the propagation of trade we are tossed to the propagation of the Gospel; and, what is worse, we must take notice of every point, or be thought to admit the truth of what is said upon it. As to the propagation of the Gospel, I do not believe, that that BEING, in endeavouring to form an idea of whom, the greatest of minds shrinks back with the perception of nothing but its own littleness, ever made any of his creatures with a view to punish them for not believing in that which they never have heard of, or, hearing of, have not capacities to understand; and, when I consider the abominations, which, under pretext of carrying the light of the Gospel, have been committed by Spaniards in South America and Englishmen in Hindostan, I am rather disposed to invoke Divine Providence to prevent sny farther progress in that way. Í am for ** raising up no more new communities," guided, as I am, in my wishes by experience of the past; and, I cannot help saspecting, that the world has not been much improved by the exchange of inhabitants, which has taken place in the United States of America. But, to finish this peroration since we have begun upon it, is it not kind in this ill-disguised American to send us to find new markets in South America, and to carry on the work of religion there, while his country is to be left to carry on a free trade with our enemies in Europe? "Let us," says he; by a

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

manly policy towards America, break the "French party there, and look at the infinite resources, which, almost frour pole to pole, the Western world presents to 66 us." And what is this “ manly" policy? Why, concessions, to be sure. "We stand," Says he, " upon the vantage ground. Nothing conceded by Great Britain can be imputed to fear. She will only rise in dignity by the mildness and moderation of "her councils." If this writer had not in his memory the dialogue between JOHN BULL and NIC FROG, wherein the, latter wheedles the former to ruin himself that Nic may be the gainer, this passage is only another proof, added to the many already existing, that great wits often fall upon the same idea. Of one thing I am pretty certain, that the late ministers, were they in power, would follow the advice of this writer; for, the person who has the controul over the pages of the Morning Chronicle, would not, otherwise, have given such unqualified praise to these letters, which have evidently been published with a view to the producing, in the public mind, an effect in favour of concessions to America. But, how impudently false is the assertion, that, concession to America, at this time, would not only be imputed to fear, but would raise Great Britain in dignity! Was there ever any thing so impudent as this! It must be imputed to fear, because it could be imputed to nothing else; and what but an enemy, an enemy base and hypocritical, could give such advice? If these concessions are made, there is, at once, an end of the struggle. We give up. We acknowledge ourselves beaten. We declare ourselves a set of traders, who must starve if their trade be considerably diminished; and, our enemy, who waits for the confession, will give us back our beloved trade," upon the sole condition, that we give him up the country. The treaty will be short and pitby, and, from the bottom of my heart, I believe, that there are many persons in the country who would hail it with joy, if they could obtain security for the peaceful continuation of commerce.But, let us, since we are so far in, examine a little into the farther consequences, which this writer apprehends from a rupture with America. She will (dreadful thought!) manufacture for herelf. We have proved, that it would be a change advantageous to us to cease to supply her with manufactures, but, at this time, it is worth while to see what her ad vocates say, as to the effect of that change upon her. We are told by this writer, that she would make it a national distinction to

wear goods of her own manufacture, and would make it penal to wear any other, such regulations, to his own knowledge, having been in contemplation during the rebellion, and, as he also knows, are now again talked of from one end of the States to the other; that this is a matter for most serious consideration with us, because the effect of such a spirit of industry, turned suddenly on manufacture, would not cease again upon any peace, which the pressure of our arms might produce; that she has the raw material in abundance, being capable of growing cotton enough to supply the whole civilized world.What, then, is cotton all that we supply her with? It does not make a tenth part of her imports from England. By descending to almost a savage state, she might do without our hardware and some other branches of manufacture; but, without our wool, she could not exist even in that state. It is as necessary to her as food. Without it life cannot be preserved; and, were I minister of England, I would soon convince her, since she has begun to be so insolent, and to treat us as shop-keepers, that she held her life at my mercy. America is a country which has an average hard winter of seven months. There needs no authority to convince us, that she must want a great quantity of woollens of every description, and that she cannot produce, proportionately, much wool; because, as to the first, the bodily sensations of every man will lead him to a right-conclusion, and, as to the second, it requires but a very slight degree of observation to convince one, that, in a country which has such winters, sheep cannot be raised to any extent. Add to this the three circumstances, that the winters are always accompanied with deep snow, that the summers are as much hotter than ours as the winters are colder; and that the untilled land is covered with impenetrable woods, instead, as here, with grass or heath. There needs nothing more to convince the reader, that America not only cannot produce woollens enough for her now, but that it is absolutely n possible that she ever should. Mr. Spence has, I perceive, been deceived by one ot those deceivers, the American land-jobbers, upon whose authority he states, that the Kentucky farmer" makes even his own

[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

England. And where does this Kentucky farmer get his hardware? Good God! what silly lies do these fellows put into print! And yet they find even sensible men ready to believe them. Mr. Spence has, I should think, in his single head, more real wisdom than all the "New Ampbyctionic Council," (as poor Mably called the Congress) put together. But what the Americans want in wisdom and in wit, they amply make up for in impudence; and experience teaches us the great utility of that endowment in obtaining beliefto falsehood. What always surprised me most, was, how they could lok one another in the face after having published their lies. But, it seemed to be a thing understood amongst them. As if they had entered into a compact, as if they had promised and vowed at their baptism, to humbug the whole world and especially England. I really am not quite in charity with Mr. Spence for having given currency to this representation; for, what sort of pets and kettles and candlesticks and locks and keys and plates and dishes did he believe it possible for a Kentucky farmer to make at home? What sort of shoes? Nay, though he may grow the flax, what sort of shirts and handkerchiefs? What sort of caps and other things for women and for young chil dren? I'll tell Mr. Spence what an American farmer makes at home. Most things in wood, except what is called furniture, and that be bays. Coarse aprons; coarse linen for summer trowsers; bed-ticking of a Compe kind; and in families abounding in females, some coarse shirts to work in; as also a little of a sort of stuff called linsey Woo.sev. But, even this practice is far fbeing general, there not being, perhaps, one farmer in ten who is able to adopt it to any extent worth mentioning. This is the real state of the case. I know it to be so from having not only lived many years in America, but from having passed a considerable part of my time in the houses of farmers. From this statement is it not clear, that the people cannot exist without imported woollens, and that, too, in great quantities The country never could have been settled without the aid of the wool of Europe; and, for the reasons which I have giyes, it cannot now exist without it

But, this writer, of whose lacubrations the Morning Chronicle is so anxious to obtain a continuation, tells us, that, by making it a national distinction to wear home manufactures, and penal to wear any other, the thing would be easily accomplished. Very easy indeed, to hang a man or woman, or, according to the old practice, to ride them

naked upon a three sided rail having first dressed them in a garment of tar and feathers; or, not having a jail at hand, to shut them up in their own houses, or townships, denying them all communication with friends or relations, and denying them, at the same time, all medical assistance: by hellish means like these, which none out Americans ever practised, they might prevent people from wearing many articles that they now wear; but, not English woollens; for them even the tormentors themselves must wear, or they would be frozen too stiff to be able to inflict their torments. However, supposing the Devil to come to the aid of the fraudulent debtors to English merchants (for those are the great enemies to England), and to turnish each of them with a garment from his own manufactory, frost and snow proof; and supposing, that, by one means or another, a state of things is brought about, in which even English woollens can be dis pensed with. The consequence to us, we have shown, would be beneficial; but, in order to shew that this profound gentleman has, if he be sincere, taken a false alarm, let us apply what he says of America to our selves. He tells us, that the agricultural industry of America would suddenly te turned on manufacture. Well, then, I think our manufacturing industry might, without any riding upon three edged rails, be as suddenly turned upon agriculture; for, it is pretty evident, that a man weaver will learn to thresh quite as soon as a thresher will learn to weave; and that a boy or girl spinner will learn to weed or to tend sheep quite as soon as a boy or girl shepherd or weaver will learn to spin. They will require the same quantity of food in one situation as in the other; and, if the loss of American commerce had this effect, the change would produce no other consequence, than that of an addition to the good morals, the bealth and bodily strength of the people here, while the change in America would produce a contrary effect, except as to morals, for, in that respect, with the exceptions before made, it may safely set all change at defiance. But, the truth is, as has been before amply proved, that the cessation of commerce altogether, and, of course, with America, would produce in England, the effect here contemplated only in part, and that, perhaps, a very small part. We now raise, upon our own lands, food to keep, say a thousand, manufacturers to make goods to be sent to America, there to be exchanged for tobacco, for instance; if we did not give them the food for this purpose, we should give it them for some other purpose, and, as to

bacco is a pure luxury, though, it must be. confessed, a very strange one, we should, if we could no longer get tobacco, give these thousand persons food to make us some other luxury, and, perhaps, it might be a luxury contributing more towards what may be called national wealth than a thing which we send upwards in smoke or downwards in something still more offensive to the beholder; and, as to revenue, of which also this gentleman is pleased to speak, as arising from commerce, we have proved, I trust, to the satisfaction of every man capable of putting two ideas together, that all revenue, in this country, is paid by the people here, and that the ability to pay it comes from resources inseparable from the land. In this instance of the tobacco, who pays the revenue? The Parson, who smokes it; and the Parson is enabled to pay for it by the produce of his living, and that produce comes from the land. A newspaper publisher, in imitation of his betters, smokes it too. Here the operation is a little more intricate; but, if we trace back the money, which the publisher gets by his newspapers, to the pockets of those who read them, we shall find that they, too, are the representatives of something which the land has produced. Thus, then, in whatever light we view the commerce of America,' its cessation can be no injury to us as a nation; but, on the contrary, must, if the thing can be accomplished, be finally a permanent benefit. We are so situated as to want nothing but what our land produces, with the exception of the few articles of naval stores, of which, too, our marine, a marine naturally growing out of and supported by our own mines and domestic trade, will always insure us an abundance, in spite of the world combined. We want no "national distinctions" to induce us to wear cloths of our own manufacturing and produce; much less do we want, for that purpose, the three edged rails, or any of those infernal transatlantic inventions, by which murder is committed with the levity of a wake. We have no need to have recourse to any violent or unnatural means. The surplus produce of our soil will still feed all those whom it now feeds; and, though, doubtless, for a short time, there will be some individual inconvenience and distress arise from the changing of the channel through which it now reaches that part of the people who are employed in making manufactures for exportation, we have only to let the thing alone, new and regular channels will open, and we shall have the experimental proof of the truths, for which I have been contending, and from my anxiety to establish, which I have,

I am afraid, put to too severe a trial the patience of the reader.In taking leave of this subject, for the present, I must point out to the reader a letter from MR. SPENCE (which will be found below), com> plaining of my insinuations against bin, in the making of which he has convinced me that I was wrong, and I, therefore beg his pardon. I do not, however, allow, that I was a plagiarist either from Aristotle or Bishop Berkeley; for, though it now appears (what I did not know before) that they inculcated the same principles, which I have been endeavouring to inculcate, the appli cation of them to a state of things like the present is new. I felt, before receiving his letter, great admiration of the talents of Mr. Spence, entirely unmixed with any thing like literary envy; but, I must con fess, that there is one honour, which, as I have hitherto enjoyed, so I wish always to enjoy, undivided with any mortal breathing, and that is the honour of being abused by the hirelings of the press, those enemies of truth, those darkness and pestilence shedding stars, those curses and scourges of the community. This wish is, perhaps, a weakness; but, who has not his weakness? Mr. Spence makes but a poor apology, or rather none at all, for putting F. L. S. to the end of his name. Plain WILLIAM SPENCE would have answered every useful purpose; and, I venture to say, that he is, in his own mind, convinced, that the society, to which he belongs, wherever and whatever it may be, is unworthy the honour he has done it. Men who are nothing of themselves naturally wish to crowd into a society or party. "What are you?" said a friend of mine, one day, to another person. "A staunch Pittite," answered he. That's well for you," replied my friend," for now you are something." But, Mr. Spence is not one of those nothing-men. He had no rational temptation to add any initials to his name ; and, besides, it was imitating those impostors, who cheat the unwary by practising the trade emphatically called book-making, which is entirely an operation of the hand and scissars. I declare with perfect seriousness, that my insinuations, of which Mr. Spence so justly complains, arose, in great part, from the prejudice excited by those unfortunate initis; and, when one starts, with a prejudice, it generally sticks by one to the end of the journey. When I see L. L. D. in a title page, if I am not well acquainted with the name that precedes it, I instantly throw down the book, as the work of one who has obtained his certificate of learning from our well cauce)

neighbours to the North, at the price of a second-hand wig.

AMERICAN STATES. -Since the greater part of the foregoing artiele was written, I have, through the news-papers (who said they were good for nothing?), received a speech, or address of President Jefferson, at the opening, on the 27th of October last, of the New Amphyctionic Council," commonly called the Congress of the United States of America.- -Upon the want of

cindour, the partiality, the falsehood, both expressed and by omission, of this Amphyctionic address, it is quite unnecessary to comment; they being too glaring to escape the attention of the most superficial reader. The sum and substance of the address is this: "We will frighten the mercantile govern"ment of England into such further con"cessions as shall serve her enemies in Eu

rope for an example at the next peace, " and thereby we will undermine her ma "ritime power, and glut, in her fall, that vengeance, which her having continued great in spite of her loss of us, has ex"eited in our breasts, as being a sore rebuff

to our vanity." This is the language of their hearts; this is the design which they harbour; and, looking at the ministers, looking back at the school in which they were bred, looking at their recent proclamation with regard to America, looking at the number, the connections, and the influence of those concerned in American trade, American lands, and American funds, I am far from being confident,' that the design will not succeed.The temper of the ministers may, in some degree, though, I should hope not wholly, be judged of from the following article, taken from the Courier of the 8th instant, that paper being, at present, engaged in serving them in the double capacity of injector and pulsefeeler with the public. "The partizans of

46

"America assert that it is the interest of "this country to remain at peace with Ame"rica. It is so-but it is equally the interest of America to remain at peace with "us-the interest is mutual, or rather we "should be justified in maintaining that it 66 was more the interest of America than of "Great Britain. But America acts and has "long acted towards us as if she thought the "behaved with great condescension and favour to us in not taking part against us, as if she thought the advantages of peace were all on our side, and as if in not going to "war she consulted a principle of generosity "towards us rather than a principle of incli

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

nation. Hence she has never failed to manifest discontent, to make complaints,

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

against the Administration of Mr. PITT "it was a charge which was very gene "rally brought against the late Administra"tion-It was a charge which, in the affair "of Admiral BERKLEY and in the procla "mation against searching neutral ships of war, has even been brought against the present Ministers. Whether these charges were past to the extent to which theyare urged, we shall not now enquire; but they proved, at least, that there was no disposition on the part of any Administra"tion to behave with harshness or injustice "towards America. In proportion, how

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

66

ever, as she discovered a yielding and "conciliating disposition on our part. Did "her avarice and desires increase-acquie "scence in one demand created only fresh "demands, and the more moderation we " evinced, the more did it fail to produce a "corresponding disposition on her part."We have now the proof and demonstration "before us, that America is not to be con

ciliated by concession The period of "concession is past-she has mistaken our "moderation for meanness-she has impu"ted our forbearance to fear-it is high time "we should convince her of her error."A more disingenuous speech than that of "Mr. JEFFERSON's-a speech more unwor "thy of a statesman-more resembling "that of the leader of a party than of the "head of a government-more liable to "the charge of partiality, of wilful con"cealment of facts, it were difficult to "conceive.-We know well enough that "Mr. JEFFERSON has always had a strong "attachment to the French, an attachment "which all the horrors of the Revolution

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]
« ZurückWeiter »