"Guadaloupe, &c. but even of countries | the producing of a most alarming evil, I "under the direct influence of the enemy, know very well; and I only beg you to "whose traders have been anxious to note, that it is not wealth; but the sign of "avail themselves of the PROTECTION a want of wealth." The power of the "OF BRITISH LAWS, and the HONOUR "nation." Here you are wrong again. « OF BRITISH MERCHANTS-that the It is not the power of the nation that has "POWER, WEALTH, AND HIGH caused Napoleon to shut the ports of the "CHARACTER of the nation have in Continent of Europe against you. Oh, "fact contributed TO PRODUCE A no! it is want of power in us to prevent “ MOST ALARMING EVIL. And the him from doing it. If we could have pre"measures of the enemy having been especi- vented it, he would not have united ally directed to the preventing the exFlanders and Holland and the Hans Towns "portation of the immense quantities of to France; he would not have taken pos“merchandize of all descriptions thus ac- session of Italy and Naples; he would not "cumulated, the CONSEQUENCES are, have forced Prussia and Russia and Swe "that THE GOODS ARE BECOME A den to shut us out; he would not have "BURTHEN, and the advances to the broken up Spain and Portugal. He "owners on account, and the payment of would not have done this, if we had had freight and insurance, have become griev-power to prevent it; he has done this, ous, in such a degree as to threaten and this it is that has produced the THE MOST SOLID AND RESPECT- evil; and, how, then, do you make it ABLE HOUSES WITH ALL THE "EVILS OF INSOLVENCY.”—This is something like the thing! This is famously fine! There is immortality stamped upon the very front of this! There never, surely, was any thing like this uttered before. Yet, it is no hasty effusion. It is not the language of a drunken toast at a London Tavern Dinner; at a Turtle feast; at a meeting of Turtle Patriots. It is a document of authority sufficient to be subjoined to the Report of the Select Committee, and to be placed upon the records of the House of Commons; and here it is directly stated, in so many words, that the protection of British laws, the honour of British merchants (in the existence of which latter we must believe, of course, since they themselves, who ought to be the best judges of their own hearts, have declared the fact), the wealth, power, and high character of the nation have......what? Why, contributed to produce a most alarming evil! Bravo! Take wind, and at it again. This wealth has had the effect of exposing the most solid and respectable houses to all the evils of insolvency !— There! If any thing like that; or, coming within many degrees of it ever was uttered before, I'll suffer my hand to be chopped off-No: it is not wealth that you mean. You mean paper-money; you mean promises to promise to pay. You mean bills and stock and the like, all which, my good gentlemen, are so many certain signs of the want of wealth, the only true sign of which is real money. That the sort of wealth of which you speak, or to which you allude, has contributed towards out, that the evil has arisen from the fore amply shown, not only are the American ports shut against our goods, but, it is the policy of the American Government that they should continue shut against our goods; and, further, that it cannot be more than four or five years before America will be able to export, in large quantities, those sorts of goods which she has heretofore imported from England. Let any man read MR. LIVINGSTONE'S book upon the subject of sheep and wool, and doubt of this if he can.I shall be told, perhaps, that Mr. PERCEVAL has said, that " relief. It will, however, tend to aggravate the evil; for, it is impossible for any man not to perceive, that the system of Napoleon will now be more rigorously enforced than ever. We have now told him, that, if he persevere, we are totally ruined in commerce.- So much for the nature, extent, and cause of the failures and misery prevailing; now, as to the remedy recommended by the Committee, which is simply the lending to certain merchants and manufacturers, in Exchequer bills, the sum of 6,000,000 of pounds of Bank Paper, which, according to Mr. Hus-"he looked forward to the probability of KISSON'S statement, is worth seventeen shillings in the pound. The precedent for this measure is drawn from the achievements of the great statesman now no more," who made a similar loan, but to a less amount, in 1793, at the commencement of the war against the Jacobins and Levellers. * But, very different indeed were the circumstances of the times. There the stoppage of trade was merely temporary. France was soon crippled in her navy. The rest of Europe was all open to us, and so were the American States. There was no power in the world able to throw any material impediments in the way of a revival of commerce. Now what is the case? Why, there is nothing in it of a temporary aspect. The system of Napoleon is a settled thing; durable, at least, as his life; and, though he has very poor health, and has had all the disorders that the human frame is subject to; though he has been dying a thousand times, and dead several times; still he is, somehow or other, able to plague us, and has even lately married and is about to become the father of a family.His system is a settled established thing, as much so as our custom-house system; and there is no more hope of seeing it done away, than of seeing the Bourbons upon the throne of France or the Stadtholder replaced in Holland. And, as I have be * It appears by the Report of the Commissioners for the issue of Exchequer Bills in 1793, to assist commercial men, that the whole number of applications for loans was 332, and the amount of the sums applied for 3,855,6241.-of these 238 were granted, and the amount lent was on personal security 2,015,000l. on deposit of goods 187,200l. total 2,202,2001. The whole sum was repaid, a considerable part before it became due, and the re mainder regularly at the stated periods. "new openings presenting themselves by degrees, and to the progressive vent of the goods now locked up in our warehouses." I dare say he had my last Saturday's proposition in his eye; but, if he had not, I wish he had named those new openings to which he looked forward; or, at least some of them. Portugal, indeed, and Spain, which are upon the eve of being delivered, as we are told by the Morning Post, may present new-openings; for, it is pretty clear that the people will stand in need of almost every necessary of life by the time that they are completely delivered of the French. Other new openings than these two it is out of my power to discover, unless we can destroy the power of Napoleon in the rest of Europe, for the doing of which I do not, however, pretend to say that Mr. PERCEVAL and his colleagues may not have devised the means. The sum of £6,000,000 was, however, voted without a division, in the House of Commons, on Monday the 11th instant, upon the motion of Mr. PERCEVAL. Mr. WHITBREAD intimated his intention of moving for an inquiry as to what part of the money (or rather bills) was received by members of the Honourable House; but, as this is a rather" delicate" matter, we will leave it untouched for the present.It was re peatedly acknowledged in the debate, that a market, that customers, that backs to wear and mouths to swallow the goods, were wanted; and, indeed, the whole of what I said, in my last Number, was fully con firmed; though no one appears to have thought of my remedy, to which I beg leave again to refer the reader; and I cannot help repeating my earnest wish to see it adopted. Why should we go wandering about the world for customers, while we have such an ample market at home? We are acting, in this, like MR. BROUGHAM and the other emancipators of the Black Slaves, who seem always to forget, that there are any other in the world, and especially within their reach; and, I shall certainly never give them much credit for their endeavours, as long as I see them pass quite unnoticed the Scallags in the Hebrides. Charity begins at "home," and so ought humanity. I have no objection to doing all that can be done for the Black Slaves. I have no objection to see the trade and the slavery all done away. But, first let us do all that can be done in the Hebrides. Why should these islands not have our attention? A Clergyman of the Church of Scotland has written and published a comparison between the treatment of the Negroes and that of Hebridians, and he gives the preference to the former.* I will, therefore, never hear of humanity as connected with measures in favour of the Black Slaves, while a part of my own countrymen are in this situation. To return to the subject before us, it is, I think, as clear as daylight, that the relief proposed to be given, and now voted by the House of Commons, can have none of the effects which its advocates seem to anticipate. Mr. RICHARD WELLESLEY, in his maiden speech, expressed his confidence in the reviving spirit of the British mer"chant" but, is this measure a sign of it? Mr. HENRY THORNTON, in the debate on Monday, said, that "he wished the loan to be applied on a charitable and humane "principle." Good lack! What, a loan to our great merchants and manufacturers upon principles of charity and humanity! Does this savour of a reviving spirit? Mr. CURWEN (I quote the Morning Chronicle) said, "that it was impossible not to see, that public confidence was gone; and, that "this, therefore, rendered the measure imperious, though all the money lent were finally to be lost." But, without asking for the why or the wherefore here, if it be true, that public confidence is gone, what becomes of the reviving spirit that Mr. Richard Wellesley talked so much of? That man must be most completely hoodwinked, who sees any hopes of revival of the commercial spirit, which, of course, is engendered and kept alive by the prospect of gain. Indeed, he must be very stupid who does not see, that commerce, I mean external commerce, has run its race; and that it is now producing all those effects, which * Travels in the Western Hebrides, from 1782 to 1790. By the Rev. J. L. BuCHANNAN, A. M. Missionary to the Isles from the Church of Scotland. the ABBE RAYNAL long ago delineated, and which he said would take place if ever France became mistress of the Continent, or acquired a great and decided preponde. rance in the affairs of Europe. He was a friend to England, because he looked upon her as a friend to freedom; and he therefore lamented, that she seemed to be abandoned to a system, which, if persevered in, must finally lead to a crash which might endanger her independence.Commerce, in its free and natural course, produces many good effects besides that of the extension of knowledge, which is generally accompanied with an extension of virtue and of freedom; but, when it swells out to an extent that makes the country dependent upon other countries; when it grows into great masses and companies, and when these become closely connected with the government; then commerce becomes an enormous evil; and, whoever will candidly trace the present external dangers of the country to their real source, will find them to have arisen, in a great measure, from commerce. The war against the Jacobins and Levellers was full as much a war of commerce as of aristocracy. Between them they succeeded in putting down the democrats; but, what have either of them gained by it? The merchants and great manufacturers subscribed and resolved and toasted and addressed in favour of a war against the Jacobins and Levellers. Well: they succeeded. They said and they swore that all that PITT did was right. They stood by him in every thing. And, shal! they now complain, when the natural consequences of the contest begin (for they are. only beginning) to come upon them? They, perhaps, do not wish to look at the matter in this light; but that is no reason why we should not. Because they do not like to look back to the glorious days of PITT and SIR BROOK, there is no reason why the people should not take the retrospect. Now is the time to look back; when men complain of an evil and call upon you to assist them, you have a right to inquire into the cause of the evil. They will freely go back as far as the decrees of Napoleon, and endeavour to enlist your feelings against him as the enemy of us all. Aye; that is very well; but, who was it enabled Napoleon to put such decrees in force? Whose plans and execution was it that gave him the possession of those countries whence he now excludes our commerce? Who was it that made France an armed nation; who increase, for instance, of printing and of periodical publications, a very large body of the people were daily subject, in the exercise of useful and honest occupations, to a prosecution, not attempted to be vindicated by the greatest law authorities, but as an anomaly in the Constitution for the punishment of enormous offenders against the very existence of the State. On this principle he admitted that Informations er officio were as ancient as the law, and were suffered to remain by the statute of King William, when Informations by the King's Coroner were taken away. But if these Informations, instead of being applicable as formerly to a very small number of persons upon extraordi nary occasions, became applicable to ordinary abuses or mistakes by all persons engaged in printing, it became the duty of Parliament to enter into an inquiry upon the subject, and even without the suggestion of an abuse, to provide a protection against State Prosecutions for misdemeanors analogous to those which the statute law had long enacted for the secu rity of persons arraigned for treasons against the State. In ordinary criminal cases the law, though universally indulgent, thought it necessary to keep within limits the privileges of parties accused.A man, accused of felony, may be prosecuted at any period. There is no statute of limitation to secure him when his witnesses may be absent or dead. He hears the indictment read for the first time by the clerk of the arraigns when he is put upon his trial; he has no copy of it delivered to him; he knows nothing of the case intended to be made against him; he is a stranger to the witnesses who are to prove it, and he can have no counsel to make his defence to the Jury, but only to argue matters of law with the court. LORDS ERSKINE and ELDON's Speeches, in Such is the naked condition of a prisoner, the House of Lords, on the 4th inst, on when his adversary is a private man. But Lord Holland's Motion for an Account when he is accused of High Treason, he of INFORMATIONS EX-OFFICIO, filed by is covered all over with the armour of the the Attorney General.-(See Lord HOL-law. He has a giant to fight with when LAND'S Speech at p. 593). LIBEL LAW.I subjoin the speeches of LORD ERSKINE and Lord ELDON upon the EX OFFICIO Informations; but have no room for any observations here, and can only recommend them to the attentive perusal of the reader. WM. COBBETT. State Prison, Newgate, Tuesday, LIBEL LAW. LORD ERSKINE said, that in his way of considering the subject before the House, it was not necessary that his noble friend, who had moved for the Informations filed within the last ten years, should be able to establish by evidence a probable ground of abuse to entitle him to have the papers he asked for. It would be sufficient for him to show that from any cause, from the he has to encounter the whole weight and influence of the Crown, and he is protected accordingly. The indictment must be preferred within three years from the commission of the crime. Every principle of limitation of time, as enacted in cases of Treasons, surely applies with tenfold force to prosecutions for Libels, but above all to periodical publications. Treasons may be most secret, and most generally are so. They may not be discovered till long after three years; but still the law, in its gene- them, and the cases are precisely the ral indulgence, imposes that limitation of same, except that the crown does not time; Treasons also, when discovered, fight with weapons that are mortal; but oppose other difficulties to conviction. It the wounds they inflict may be desperate. may be much longer before the traitors But they not only have not analogous pro can be detected, and longer still before teetion, but they are exposed to greater evidence can be obtained. But Libels in dangers than in cases of ordinary crimes, periodical publications, are known to the by the abuse of Special Juries. He did crown the instant they are published, and not mean to complain of the institution, government has already obtained laws but to want of proper regulation. He had which make known to them, immediately long had the greatest respect for many and universally, the responsible persons. gentlemen who served upon them, but the The names of all the proprietors, publish- most honest men were not equally fit for ers and printers being registered in the all trusts. They were often deeply con Stamp Office, not only for purposes of nected with government, engaged in the revenue, but expressly for the detection of collection of the revenue, and magistrates offences against the State. Upon what in every county in the kingdom. The principle, then, ought such prosecutions to List was not returned by the Sheriff, but be delayed? There ought, on the con- was made up by the Master in the Office trary, to be a very short limitation of time of the King's Bench. He did not believe indeed to prevent their being made instru- that an honester man existed than the ments of terror, or of dangerous influence individual who held that office, but that over the press. A copy of it must be was no answer to the subject who was cut delivered to him ten days before the trial. off from his choice out of the general mass of He must have the whole pannel of the the county where he is tried. He thought Jurors who are to try him, with their de- therefore that it would not only be just, scriptions and places of abode, so as to but the wisest policy, to take the whole entitle him to sift their characters for ob- subject into immediate consideration. jections for cause, and even for 35 capri- The administration of justice, to be useful, cious challenges without any cause at all. must be popular; and it never became If he dislikes the physiognomy of a Juror, unpopular but through abuse. He had he sets him aside; he is entitled to full always stood up for the character and defence by two counsel to speak to the honour of the law as the sure foundation Jury upon his whole case. The treason of all social order and happiness, but for must be established by two witnesses, that very reason he would always give his though one is sufficient to convict even in voice, by salutary improvements, to rescue any other capital case; and he must be it from suspicion and to deliver it from brought to trial without delay or be set at reproach. large. Nothing could be more striking than the illustration of these principles, in Hadfield's case for shooting at the King at the theatre. In most other countries he might have been trampled under foot or carried to instant execution; but here he was protected in the manner he had described. Though insanity was his defence, he was taken to be sane when he demanded all these privileges in open court, and he called upon the court to assign him (Lord Erskine) to plead for him, who had no privilege to refuse it. Such examples, instead of weakening government, was a bulwark to support it. Now, why should not persons, accused by the Attorney General, by ex officio Information, have analogous protections. They have the same antagonist to fight with, and why not the same armour to cover them? All the power and influence of government are exerted equally against Lord ELDON said that he could say with his noble friend that he also felt grateful for the honours with which a gracious master had rewarded his humble services; and that humble as his efforts might have been, those, who were to inherit those honours from him would know that he had done his duty. As to the distinctions which had been drawn between the proceedings in the case of treason and libel, it should be remembered that in the former the accusation rests upon general principles-in the latter upon an alledged specific fact. He believed that no Attorney-General had prosecuted more libels than it had fallen to his lot to prosecute when he held that office. He acted on a conviction at that time, certainly, that the publication of libel was one of the most formidable weapons then wielded against the constitution; and that it was an en gine which was directed to the subversion |