[Harlow, Printed by B. Flower.]

GENERAL REFLECTIONS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE,

AT the commencement of the present work, our country was

unhappily engaged in war: a negociation had been set on foot by that friend to the peace and liberties of his country, and of the human race, CHARLES JAMES Fox; considerable progress had been made towards accomplishing the desired object, when the Almighty in just judgment to this guilty country, removed that illustrious statesman from the world, and the negociation was broke off by an administration, no longer influenced by his wise pacific councils. On the authority of one of the negociators, Lord YARMOUTH, we assert, that peace might have been procured on safe and honourable terms; and on the authority of the friend and colleague of the deceased statesman Lord GREY, we farther assert, that had not the melancholy event of the death of his right honourable friend intervened, the negociations would in all probability have terminated favourably.

If our countrymen in general, or if our statesmen in particular, would take a retrospect of the events of that period, together with the events which have since taken place, it is impossible, unless all sense of national honour and safety is swallowed up in some mercenary or selfish principle, for them not deeply to regret the failure of the negociation:*-What is the situation of the country Now!

* See Remarks on the Negociation in Pol. Rev. Vol. I. p. xxi-xxxii. As several of our readers may not have the volume at hand, we here copy the terms of peace offered by France:" The Emperor of France," as was observed by his minister, "being determined to make great sacrifices." 1st. "That HANOVER with its dependencies should be restored to the King of Great Britain. 2d. That the possession of MALTA should be confirmed to Great Britain. 3d. That France would interfere with Holland, to confirm to his Majesty the whole possession of the CAPE. VOL. IX.

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After an expenditure of several hundreds of millions of principal, and incurring a vast and settled augmentation of debts and taxes, our principal ally, Russia, on whose account we professedly broke off the negociation, shortly afterwards being vanquished by France, yielded much more than the object of dispute, and ranked amongst the allies of the Emperor, and the enemies of Great Britain; to which must be added, France herself has had a vast accession to her dominions and power, by the conquest of surrounding countries, and by the alliance of most of the remaining sovereigns of Europe. After the treaty of Tilsit, different offers were made on the part of France, Russia, and Austria, to negociate for a general peace; bow far any or all of these powers were sincere in their professions it is impossible to determine. It is however, to the honour and the advantage of a country at all times, not only to accept of, but to make overtures for negociation; but the British nation, guided by the councils of Messrs. Perceval, Canning, &c. not content with rushing into war by breaking the treaty of Amiens, have with equal haughtiness refused to negociate for peace: it thus seems to be determined that injustice and haughtiness should, throughout the contest, form the distinguishing characteristics of the counsels of Great Britain.

Ministers at that period had indeed a favourite object at heart, and in which, contrary to the usual course of events under their direction, they unhappily succeeded; but at what expence? The breach of national faith, the fraud, the violence, the rapacity, the cruelty, the conflagration, the slaughter, the mass of crimes, the essence of every species of wickedness, which marked the COPENHAGEN EXPEDITION, will for ever remain an indelible blot in

4th. "That the French Emperor, would confirm to his Majesty, the possession of PONDICHERRY, CHANDERNAGORE, MAHEE, aad other depen5th. That as TOBAGO was originally settled by the dant countries. English, it was meant to give that island to the crown of Great Britian.” To which it was added-" That Sicily was to be ceded to France, and "that his Sicilian Majesty should receive as an indemnity, not only the "Balearick islands, but should also receive an annuity from the court of "Spain to enable him to support his dignity. It was offered to cede to "Russia, the full sovereignty of the Isle of Corfu." These terms, however, as they did not comprise the cession of Dalmatia to Russia, and of Naples to the King of Sicily were rejected. Lord LAUDERDALE renewed his demand for passports, which after some delay and remonstrance on the part of the French minister, who, not very unjustly remarked," that "the British government had resolved to forego the prospect of peace," were granted, and bis lordship returned to England. The horrid shouts of the war lovers at LLOYDS, on the renewal of the war, will never be forgotten: many of these votaries of corruption and bloodshed are now reaping the suitable fruits of their wickedness and folly!

the history of Great Britain, more black and bloody than is to be found in the records of any inoderm, if not of any ancient history.

But what has been the object of the war on the part of Great Britain ever since the peace of Tilsit? The cuckoo note which has been chirped by every administration from that of Pitt to that of Perceval (the Fox administration excepted) THE DELIVERANCE OF EUROPE, is still sounded in our ears; but the experience of every campaign has proved that the prospect of attaining this object recedes farther and farther from our sight. And, (we care not what offence, the bold but important truth may give to the infatuated lovers of war) such a deliverance of Europe" as that which has been eagerly sought after by miuisters is not to be desired by any friend to the liberties, civil or religious, of the human race. In reviewing the revolutions which have taken place on the continent, we are firmly persuaded, that they have in general, proved beneficial to the best interests of a great majority of the inhabitants of those countries. We speak not of those which are still unfortunately exposed to the ravages of war, committed, pretty much alike, by the different hostile parties; as amidst their mutual reproaches it is not very easy to settle the balance of crime: but in the countries in the enjoyment of the inestimable blessings of peace,--what friend to humanity, or to those rights and privileges to which all men have a just claim, would wish to see those countries " delivered" in the mode which has been uniformly but happily in vain attempted, by a restoration of those abominable governments, those systems of despotism, political and ecclesiastical which the Almighty so long suffered to scourge and to plague the guilty people of Europe; but which at length in mercy to suf fering millions, such systems being too corrupt, and their supporters too obstinate to be reformed, following the uniform mode of his providence towards incorrigible states in all ages, he-swept with the besom of destruction. The inhabitants of those different states, it is to be lamented, have not discovered that love of liberty and independence, that virtue, courage and fortitude to enable them to form governments for themselves by which the choicest of national blessings might be restored and secured: but with respect even to civil rights, it is impossible they can be in a more degraded state than under their old governments; and as to religious rights they have already almost every thing to be wished. TOLERATION, amidst storms, tempests, fire and blood, has been marching rapidly and gloriously; and we are firmly persuaded the happy consequences which have already taken place m every country where ecclesiastical despotism has been overthrown, form the prelude to consequences still more happy, and which will ultimately mark

those resolutions as some of the most splendid and beneficial in the history of the world. Ecclesiastical despotism has been the principle ravager of the most valuable rights and privileges which the great parent of the human race originally and freely bestowed on his creatures; and the country from whence that Apollyon is driven to his native hell, cannot long remain in a state of depression: the natural energy of the human mind, unshackled by the chains of priestcraft, must ere long exert itself, and REIGIOUS LIBERTY be followed by her dear and never to be long separated companion, and friend, CIVIL LIBERTY.

But what has been the immediate objects of the war as pursued by this country for these three years past? The deliverance of Spain and Portugal: and we are ready to acknowledge, although we firmly believe the government of France over those countries would have been much more beneficial than their former weak and detestable despotisms, as the people of every country under heaven have a right to form their own governments; as the invasion of those countries on the part of France was a violation of every principle of national justice, if the inhabitants in general had discovered the inclination and the spirit suitable for the occasion, we could scarcely have objected, at a period when we were at war with France, to the fair experiment being tried of assisting the invaded to repel their invaders; but draining the resources and wasting the blood of one nation to assist another in obtaining an object of comparative indifference in itself, and of comparative indifference to the generality of the inhabitants assisted, is as unjust as it is impolitic. What have the different Revolutionary governments of Portugal and Spain done for the inhabitants, and what have the inhabitants done for themselves? The foundation principles of liberty, those principles which are alone worth fighting for, are anxiously kept out of sight; and the great mass of the people, are in one country indifferent respecting the restoration of a family, their oppressors, and who fled at the first approach of danger to themselves, and in the other country to the restoration of a prince who after engaging (if credit is to be given to his own confession) in a plot to dethrone his father, who likewise had just before his dethronement engaged in a plot to seize the throne of Portugal,-of a prince who thew himself into the arins of France in a manner so infatuated, as to mark not a common, but a royal idiot. The restoration of this beloved, this adored prince is the principal, if not the only object held up by the different governments of Spain; and the once famous Cortez appears as unwilling to rouse the mass of the people to action by the inspiring principles of liberty, as any of the old mise rable, and now perished governments on the continent.