children, who may present themselves | FRANCE Orders to the Directors of French Customs. 2nd July, 1810. Consul, accompanied by a passage or sentence in cyphers.-The Merchants who give orders for these Americans to come, must prove that they are in partnership with manufacturers of Paris, Rouen, or other cities," &c. PRUSSIA.-Notice respecting Commercial Confiscations.-12th July, 1810. The public are hereby informed, that the process of confiscation on all vessels seized in this department, is now in full execution on the roads of winer, and will be concluded in a few days after which goods and merchandizes condemned will be put up to sale to the best bidder. FRANCE.-Commercial Decree.-Dated Ani werp, 7th July, 1810. Napoleon, &c. We have decreed, and do decree as follows, by the advice of our Minister of State :-1. All Colonial produce and other goods, which by our de cree of the 30th June last, were ordered to be confiscated, shall be subjected to a duty of 50 per cent. on their value. This value is to be settled according to the average price at Paris for fourteen days, as it appears in the price currents. The duty on Indigo and Campeche wood shall be estimated according to its present value. Sir-In my circular of the 20th of October last, I apprised you that according to a regulation of the Minister of the Interior, dated the 18th, vinegar bei a description of wine, might under that denomination, be comprised among the productions of the soil permitted to be exported under the licences.The propor tional quantity of wine and brandy, that may be put on board the licensed vessels, having been since determined by the decree of the 14th February, his Excellency decided, on the 30th of June, that the intent of the said decree would not be fulfilled, if the vinegars were merely admitted in the room of wines, and that they can only form part of the surplus of the cargoes, as productions of the soil.-You will consequently, be pleased to give 2. The above and other articles shall orders that one half at least of the cargoes be calculated upon the following basis:of vessels provided with licenses, shall be Then follows a long list of articles of trade, composed of real wines and brandies, with to which the prices are affixed, for the out tolerating any substitution of liquors purpose of ascertaining the duties, and of of the same species, but differing in quality. other articles make various exceptions. -I beg you will enforce this regulation, It is signed by Napoleon, and counterand assure me of your attention in this re-signed by the Duke of Bassano. spect, by acknowledging the receipt of the present circular. - FRANCE. Decree about American Ships.-5th Thirty American vessels may import. into France cottons, oils, fish, dying wood, salted fish, leather and furs. The same vessels may export wines, brandies, silks, linens, jewellery, furnitures, and other manufactured goods.-These vessels shall be obliged to sail from Charleston and New York, and must be furnished with an American newspaper of the day of their departure, as also a Certificate d'origin of the Colonial produce, signed by the French SICILY.-Proclamation.—Ferdinand IV. by the Grace of God, King of the two Sici lies, Jerusalem, &c. Infant of Spain, Duke of Parma, Placenza, Castis, &c. Grand Hereditary Prince of Tuscany, to our be loved and faithful people of Sicily.-10th July, 1810. The ferocious enemy who threatens to invade this happy kingdom, and to bring amongst us desolation, shame, and death, is carrying on his preparations. His pride supports him, notwithstanding the want of confidence of the unfortunate victims of his despotism, whom he intends to employ on his rash expedition. (To be continued.) Published by R. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent Garden :-Sold also by J. BUDD, Pall-Mall, LONDON:-Printed by T C. Hansard, Peterborough-Court, Fleet-Street. VOL. XVIII. No. 21.] LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1810. [Price Is.. Every victim of injustice and cruelty” (speaking of the French government) “bequeaths his revenge to his connections, to his friends, and to his relations: or (if all these should be involved in the same "common fate with himself) every such execution raises detestation and abhorrence, even in the breast. "of ordinary spectators, and unites the public opinion against a Government, which exists only by the "daily practice of robbery and murder. From this disgusting scene, let us turn our eyes to our own "situation. THERE the contrast is striking in all its parts. HERE we sce nothing of the character "and genius of arbitrary finance; none of the bold frauds of bankrupt power; none of the wild struggles "and plunges of despotism in distress; no lopping off from the capital of debt; no suspension of interest; "no robbery under the name of loan; no raising the value; no debasing the substance of the coin. “ HERE we behold public credit of every description rising under all the disadvantages of a general war ; an ample revenue, flowing freely and copiously from the opulence of a contented people."-LORD MORNINGTON (now Marquis Wellesley). SPEECH in the House of COMMONS, 21st January, 1794. " રૅ "The interest of the national funded debt is paid at the Bank in the same kind of paper in which the "taxes are collected. When people find, as they will find, a reservedness among each other in giving gold and silver for bank notes, or the least preference for the former over the latter, they will go for "payment to the Bank, where they have a right to go. They will do this as a measure of prudence, " each one for himself, and the truth, or delusion, of the funding system will be then proved."-PAINE. DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ENGLISH SYSTEM OF FINANCE. Published in 1796. "The great object, however, is to open the Bank of England and to enable it to carry on its pecu"niary transactions to the extent which its resources will admit of, on the solid principle of giving either "cash or paper at the option of the applicant. Until that is done, neither public or private credit, nor "agriculture, nor commerce, nor manufactories, nor the income of the nation, can go on prosperously."SIR JOHN SINCLAIR. LETTER, published in 1797. 673] PAPER AGAINST GOLD: OF THE Report of the Bullion Committee: TRADESMEN AND FARMERS LETTER XII. Gentlemen, [674 Having, agreeably to the intention expressed, traced the increase of the Debt and of the bank-notes down to that grand and memorable effect, the stoppage of Gold and Silver payments at the Bank of England, our next object must naturally be to know what impression that event produced upon the nation, and what measures were adopted in consequence of it; in other words, to continue the history of the stoppage down to the time, when the evil of paper-money produced the forming of the Bullion Committee. The impression made upon the country by the Stoppage of Gold and Silver payments at the. The impression made upon the nation. Bank-Ridiculous situation of the ministers in general was such as might have been in complaining of False Alarms-The Jacobins expected, after all the flait ring accounts. now accused of exciting the False Aların-which had been given of the national reJacobins accused of causing the run upon the Bank-Foolishness of this accusation-Mr. Wilberforce answered by Mr. Fox-Now was the time for Mr. Pitt's adherents to leave him -They had been warned by Mr. Fox and others-King's Speech and language of the Minister at the opening of the Session during which the Stoppage took place-If the Minister's adherents had now quitted him it might have prevented the present dangers-Mr. Pitt's humiliation in the House of CommonsQuestions put to him upon the subject of the Legal Tender, by Mr. Combe and Mr. Nicholls -His inability to determine on what measures he should propose, sources. The ORDER OF COUNCIL does, every town into commotion by inquiries | their notes. These prints, never equalled "as to the number of Orens, the quantity in venality, I believe, by any prints in "of grain, and the state of the Provisions." the world, the MORNING POST only exNay, the preamble of the Arming Acts cepted, now abused those same unfortunate itself proclaimed, that the measures were Jacobins for not acknowledging the necessity become necessary, "in order to prevent, of the Order in Council. They (3rd March, " or repel, any attempt, which the enemies 1797) again accused the Jacobins of hav "of the country might make to effect a descent ing caused a distrust of the Bank," and "upon the kingdom." After all this it was, of having formed a design to ruin the credit that the Privy Council spoke, in a sort of of the country, in which “ they had so fir complaining tone, of" ill-founded and ex- "succeeded, at least, as to persuade the aggerated alarms"! people, in some parts of the country, that "gold was preferable to Bank notes." When the matter came before parlia ment, the Opposition did, certainly, not spare the Minister and bis adherents, who had the confidence to hold the same tone as to the alarm, and whose opinion of the minds of the people was such, that they scrupled not to repeat the assertions of the venal prints, and to ascribe the injury (for they then acknowledged it to be an injury) which Public Credit had sustained to unfounded alarms, excited by the internal enemies of the country, which, in a contrary sense, some members were malicious enough to believe. GENERAL WALPOLE (in the Debate of 1st March) made an admirable exposure of them in this way, to which no answer was given, but that they were not always to feel alarm, because they had once felt it; though the fact was, that they were proclaiming alarm, with all their might, 'till the Bank, as it afterwards appeared, represented to them secretly, that the alarm, if continued, would take away all their cash. MR. SHERIDAN, in adverting to the speech of GENERAL WALPOLE, who had remarked upon MR. WINDHAM's not having signed the Order of Council, said, "that he believed it proceeded from the "reflections it contained against the alar"mists," and he added, that " even amidst "the wreck of public credit, it was im"possible not to laugh at the juggling "tricks and miserable shifts to which the "ministers had recourse." The venal part of the press, now that it was impossible any longer to disguise the state of the credit of the Bank, began a regular new attack upon the Jacoinns, whom it had before reviled for endeavouring to check the alarm, and whom it now accused of causing the alarm. The notoriously venal prints before-mentioned TRUE BRITON and SUN), which had, to the last moment, abused the Jacobins for (as they said) propagating the false notion of the Bank not having gold to answer Gentlemen, pause here, for a moment, and contemplate the foolishness as well as the injustice of such observations as these. You will bear in mind, that the Jacobins, as they were called, were, by these same writers, constantly represented as men without learning, without sense, without property, and, of course, without influence. How, then, were they to have the power of producing such an effect upon the minds of the nation; and, upon the minds of those, too, who held the bank-notes and who owned the Stock? The Jacobins, as these venal prints had the impudence to call them, had not been able to persuade the people to check Mr. PITT in his ruinous career of war and expenditure; they had not been able to prevent any one of the measures of that Minister; they had not been able to persuade the people to do any one thing that they wished them to do, and, at the very time we are speaking of, they were out-voted in the parliament, four to one. Yet, to these same Jacobins was now ascribed that run upon the Bank, which produced the Order in Council; which produced an order, issued by the king's Privy Council, to encourage a Company of Merchants to refuse, illegally, to pay their promissory notes, when duly presented. The Jacobins, as they were still called, with a degree of impudence not to be adequately described; the Jacobins, who were represented as defeated and put down, and as being held in abhorrence by the people, were, nevertheless, at the same moment, represented as having such power over the mind of that same people, as to cause them to make a run upon the bank, which was called "stabbing the 61 country in its vitals." MR. Fox, in answer to MR. WILBERFORCE, who (March 1, 1797) attributed "much of the public. "calamity to the conduct of the Opposition, "and to the conduct of those who had "proceeded to lengths which the Oppo by the annihilation of his naval force, which seemed to have been nearly completed by the fourth year of the war; they had had, year after year, exhibited to them such pictures of the finances of France compared with those of England, as to make them believe that France must "sition would not avow" in answer to this Mr. Fox said: "this reminds me of a scene in Ben Jonson, where it appears, "that an Impostor had played his tricks "very successfully for a long time upon "his dupes, and, when he was detected, "the dupes became very angry, not at "the Impostor, but at those who had de-speedily become bunkrupt, while England "tected him." Now was the time for those, who had been deluded into a support of Mr. PITT's measures, to make a frank and manly acknowledgment of their error, and to join MR. Fox in demanding a change of system. They had, when war was first contemplated, received the most solemn assurances, that the resources for vigorous preparation (at first preparation only was talked of) were ample, even from the excess of the revenue *; they had been, when, after the war had begun and had brought, at once, very disastrous effects as to pecuniary matters, told that those effects were completely removed, and that the revenue was in a favourable state; + they had been told, that the war could not be of long duration; they had been told, that the situation of France, in every respect, and especially in respect to her finances, was desperate beyond description; the French system had been repeatedly described to them as one that could not last above a few months, having in itself the seeds of inevitable destruction; they had been assured, that all the powers of Europe would join us against France; they had been told, that, if there were no other cause of ruin to our enemy, that enemy must be ruined by the loss of all his colonies (which we had taken), and was (and partly in consequence of the war) becoming, every day, more and more rich, that her commerce was daily increasing, and that her credit, which was always firmly established, was now built upon a rock; they had, even in the King's Speech, made at the beginning of the ses sion of which we are now speaking, and during which the stoppage took place, at the beginning of that very session they had been told, in the King's Speech, of the SOLIDITY of the pecuniary resources of the country*, while the Minister and his adherents echoed back the assertion. Upon this last occasion, which, Gentlemen, is worthy of particular attention, the time being only four months before the Bank stoppage actually took place; upon this occasion, SIR WILLIAM Lowther, who seconded the address, and who is now aLord, I believe, said: "if we regarded our "finances, they were ABUNDANT in the EXTREME, and such as were adequate "to any emergency of the country." LORD MORPETH, son of the earl of Carlisle, who moved the address to the king in answer to his speech, said: "As to our “ internal situation, we have witnessed it, " for some time past, with joy and exulta"tion, and have reason to congratulate "his Majesty and the people at large, " upon our auspicious prospects in that re spect." And Mr. PITT himself said, "As "to our resources, they furnish, indeed, in "a moment like the present, a subject of "peculiar congratulation and well grounded "confidence. Out "resources remain as yet, untouched, and "we shall be able to bring them into ae"tion with a degree of concert and effect, worthy of the character of the British 1 Such, Gentlemen, was the language of the Minister and his adherents at the be. ginning of that session, during which took place the memorable event, recorded in the foregoing Letter; and before you proceed any further, I beg you to look well at it. I beseech you to consider it well. If you do so, you never will be deluded again by any high-sounding assertions, let them come from what quarter they will. These, which I have just quoted, are memorable words. They are precious matter for history. They go a great way in enabling any one to judge of the character of Mr. PITT, as a statesman, and especially as a political economist. Gentlemen, there is no such thing as answering me here. No one can contradict me. What I have laid before you is indubitably true; and, as such, I am sure, it will have weight upon your minds, whatever your prejudices heretofore may have been. nation, and of the cause in which they | leave a doubt in any man's mind, that the "will be employed. These resources system which they had so long supported have in them, NOTHING HOLLOW was ruinous to their country; when they "OR DELUSIVE. They are the result saw the Bank of England stop payment "of an accumulated capital, of gradually of its notes, and take shelter under an "increasing commerce, of HIGH AND Order of the Privy Council, immedi“ESTABLISHED CREDIT; and they ately followed by an Act of Indemnifica "have been produced while we have been tion, that is to say, an act to shelter the contending against a country, which parties concerned from the penalties of the "exhibits, in every respect, the reverse of law; when the adherents of Mr. PITT saw "this picture*." this; when they beheld these effects, this mighty ruin, which that adherence had brought upon their country; when they beheld this, they ought to have withdrawn their support; and, if they had done this, though I am very far from saying, that they could have restored Gold and Silver pay ments at the Bank, and am still less inclined to say, that they would have put a stop to the workings of the French revo lution, I am decidedly of opinion, that there was yet time to give such a turn to that revolution as to render it less violent in itself, less severe towards Europe in general, and infinitely less dangerous to this country, as we, in all likelihood, never should have seen an Emperor in France, and, of course, should not have had to dread, and to guard against, the effects of his ambition and his power. It must, I think, be now clear to all the world, that to Mr. PITT, supported by the great mercantile and monied bodies, BUONAPARTE owes his rise and his greatness; and, that, instead of being, as Mr. PITT once called him, "the child and the champion of Jacobinism," he may be truly called the child of Mr. PITT and the puper-system, that system, the effects of which we shall, every day, feel more and more; that system, of the evils of which almost every man seems now to be thoroughly convinced; that system, of which to prevent, or, at least, retard, the still greater evils, the Bullion Committee have proposed that remedy, into which we shall, by-and-by, have to examine. The adherents of Mr. PITT had been told all that we have now taken a hasty review of; and, though they ought never to have believed it, having constantly been warned against the delusion by Mr. Fox, Mr. SHERIDAN, Mr. NICHOLLS, Mr. HOBHOUSE, Mr. GREY, Mr. TIERNEY, and others, but especially by the three former; though they ought not to have believed, and would not, had it not been for the blinding influence of the fears excited in their minds, have believed in those delusive assertions and predictions; still, if they did believe in them, they were not (if they looked upon the principle of the war as being just and wise) to be blamed for supporting the minister; but, when experience had undeceived them; when they saw the proof of their error; when clearly established facts told them that they were in the wrong course; when they had before their eyes, that which could not possibly *See Parliamentary Debates, 6th Oct. 1796. Mr. PITT, who was, in the House of Com mons, boldness personified; who never seemed to feel as men in general do upon being defeated in argument, or at being detected and exposed as to points of fact; who always appeared to increase in boldness in proportion as he was worsted in the contest, docs, however, seem to have, for a while, at least, felt himself humbled upon this occasion, and to have been, as the vulgar saying is, completely chop fallen; and, after what we have seen him (in the above-quoted passages) assert, only four |