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and, I also found, that, under this treat-now, if it should become necessary, she ment, the Merino race of sheep as well as could do very well without importing any others had succeeded perfectly well. I wool or woollens from any part of the now find, too, that the very finest wool world. This is a great event. It is a known to the English manufacturer comes great change in the affairs of nations. from Saxony; into which country the The Americans, who, until now, have breed of Spanish sheep has been introduced been obliged to look to England chiefly only forty-six years at the longest; that is for coats, made of wool that came from to say, a little more than twice the length Spain; ten millions of people who got the of time that the present war has been principal articles of their wearing apparel going on. When I learnt, that flocks of in this round-about way, will now grow sheep could be kept for whole winters, those articles upon their own lands, and year after year, in houses and yards, fed will keep at home, for the feeding of upon straw, haulm, dried leaves, horse- cloth-makers, those articles of food, which chesnuts, hay, and potatoes; and, when I they used to raise in order to pay England perceived, that these flocks not only lived and Spain for manufacturing and for wool. but increased most wonderfully, and that The intelligent reader will be at no loss they sent to England even finer wool than to perceive how great must be the advanany that ever was, or that could now be, tage of this change to the American States; obtained from Spain; when I perceived a change which that country owes to the this, I could entertain no doubt of the folly and tyranny of other governments. practicability of multiplying sheep to any But, this change, favourable as I hope it extent in the American States, where ani- may prove, to the interests of mankind in mals of every kind are uncommonly pro- general, could not have been so rapidly lific, and where all the above-mentioned produced, had it not been for the actual means of wintering are found in super-invasion of Spain by the Emperor Napoabundance. Before, therefore, I saw Mr. Livingston's Essay, I was fully convinced, that, if the Americans did not speedily become independant of all other countries for wool and woollens, it must be entirely their own fault. It appears that they do not mean to incur this blame; for, the whole country seems to be animated with the desire of rearing sheep chiefly for the sake of the wool, as will clearly appear from the facts stated by Mr. Livingston. Indeed, the circumstance of this Essay having been published by Order of the Legislature of New York, and at the public ex-levelled with the ground: and, the ground pence, professedly, (as will be seen from itself is all that seems to have any security the subjoined Resolutions. of the two of remaining. Yet, amidst all this ruin, Houses,) upon the ground of public utility; amidst this general wreck of society, it is this circumstance alone is quite conclusive much to be questioned, whether the great as to the fact, that the increase of sheep mass of the people in Spain are not as and of the manufacture of wool are be well, and even better off, than they forcome objects of great public interest in merly were; for, what interest had they America; objects in the accomplishment in the flocks which composed the riches of which they will have been powerfully of their country? What knew they of assisted by the measures adopted against those flocks but in as much as they were a their commerce by the Governments of scourge to themselves? The exclusive England and France, who, very likely, property of the privileged order, not only were wholly unconscious, that they were, was it impossible for the cultivator of the in this case, acting under the guidance of land to obtain any share in the benefit aristhe genius of freedom.-It is, I think ma-ing from these flocks, but he was compelled nifest, from the following pages, that, in three or four years, at the most, America will be able to supply herself with wool, and also with woollen cloth; and that, even

leon, who, without intending it, perhaps, has by this invasion, scattered the inestimable flocks of Spain over the face of the earth. Not the Spanish monarchy only, but the Spanish nation, has he broken up, dispersing its goods and chattels to all who were in a condition to take them away. Its pictures and its plate and its jewels, all its valuable moveables are, long ago, divided amongst its invaders; its flocks have been driven out, shipped off, or devoured; its houses, after having been pillaged, have, in no small proportion, been

to assist, without payment, in their support, by throwing open his fields and his garden to be devoured by them in their periodical journeys from one part of the

country to the other!* With this fact before him, what man, who is not either a tyrant or willing slave, can regret that these flocks have been dispersed? And, I think, it must be peculiarly gratifying to the American farmer, to see raised in his own fields and fashioned under his own happy roof, that coat, by his former mode of obtaining which he used to enrich and abet the owner of those flocks whose ravages insured hunger as well as nakedness to the miserable peasant of Spain. I am aware, that there are many persons, who will learn with sorrow, that America is becoming, if not actually become, independent of England. Such is not the feeling, with which I have learnt the fact, being of opinion, that what has generally been called commercial greatness may be fairly numbered amongst the most grievous of our country's calamities. And, indeed, it does appear to me to require a pretty complete perversion of intellect, to make men regard such a traffic as that which has existed between America and England, as conducive to the happiness of their people. Is there not, upon the face of it, something offensive to reason in the proposition, that the mutual happiness of two nations is promoted by the clothing of the one being made by the other in return for food supplied to the latter by the former; and that this interchange takes place across a sea of three thousand miles broad, while, at the same time, each nation has the means of making the whole of its own clothing and raising the whole of its own food within its own territory? What we receive from America, in payment of our cloth, is the produce of her lands. We sell our wool and the labour of our manufacturers for the produce of American lands. Now, why not employ this labour upon our own lands, and produce thereby (as we can as far as her commodities are useful to us) those articles we now receive from the American lands? And why should not she keep her food at home for the use of those persons who

* I have heard of but one species of oppression to exceed this; and that is the instance which the Rev. MR. BUCHANNAN gives us of the poor people in the Western Islands of Scotland being compelled to rear and feed the children of the rich; and also to give part of their goods to their landlord's bride at the time of her marriage!

might be employed in making her the articles she now gets from us? This is the true view of it. Men may load the subject as much as they please with fine sounding terms and epithets; but, at last, to this it comes, that we employ clothiers to make coats for the American farmers, and America employs farmers to raise food for our clothiers; and that this is going on, while we have land whence to raise more food than sufficient for all our people, and while America has ample means of raising wool and of making coats for all her people. If, indeed, it was impossible to make cloth in America and also impossible to raise food enough in England for our people, I should be ready to acknowledge the exchange to be advantageous, though carried on at a distance of three thousand miles, with all the expences and uncertainties of maritime commerce. But, situated as the two countries are, each possessing within itself ample means of being independent of the other, it appears to me, that the exchange operates, and can operate, solely to the advantage of monopolizing individuals and companies, who thrive not from administering to the necessities of the two countries, but from the supplying of wants created solely by folly.-There is another light, in which the change, now taking place, is of great importance. It will, for a while at least, diminish the power of taxation. The American farmer now pays, upon his coat, not only all the duty laid on by his own government, but all the duty laid on by foreign governments. The arm of foreign governments can never reach his coat, if raised and wove in his own country; and, as to his own government, it will be, at least some years before it will have power to tax the produce of the land or any domestic manufacture: so that, as Mr. LIVINGSTON has shown, the American farmer will obtain his coat at a third part of the expence that it has hitherto cost him; while he will have the satisfaction to reflect, that he is no longer clad by the labour of the ragged and the naked; that he does not owe these, which are amongst the greatest of his comforts, to the ingenuity and the toils of misery; that, "For him no wretches, born to work and weep, "Pine at the loom, or tempt the dang’rous deep."

When we reflect on the vices and misery, on the degradation of the human character, generally attendant on a seafaring life, it is impossible not to feel plea

change is to render so large and increasing a country as America independent of others, and, of course, to prevent the corruption of her people by collecting them together in sea-port towns: and, as to us, I am thoroughly convinced, that, the same cause will operate equally to our advantage; and that, in the end, all that France is now doing, as to commerce, will be found to have contributed to the permanent safety and happiness of England.Be it, however, matter of joy or of regret, the fact is, that the dependence of America upon Europe, is now at an end; and, indeed, political circumstances seem to threaten an end even to the intercourse. This I should regret; because, an intercourse between nations is the source of an increase of knowledge, which has always been as favourable to the freedom and happiness of mankind, as a great, monopolizing, combining, speculating, taxing, loan-jobbing commerce has been hostile to every thing that is patriotic, liberal, and

sure at the prospect of a diminution of maritime commerce. It may be said, that men enter voluntarily on board of merchant ships. So they do into the stews and the gaming-houses, and into every thing that tends to a corruption of morals and to the producing of unhappiness and dishonour. It certainly is the business of individuals to resist temptation; but, it is the business of governments, and, indeed, their duty, to lessen, as much as possible, the number and the strength of temptations to vice. The first duty of a government is to see that the people who live under it are happy; and, of course, it is its duty to prevent, or, at least, to discourage, by all the means in its power, the establishment, or growth, of those professions, or callings, which, from experience, have been found to produce vice and misery. It may so happen, that, without employing a considerable number of the citizens of a State upon the waters, the independence of the State itself would be endangered. In such a case the go-just. This sort of commerce, so different vernment has no choice; but, this is not the situation of America, who stands in need of little maritimè force for her defence, and who, after a diminution of her foreign commerce, would require still less, because she would have less shipping to protect, and her sea-ports would become an object of less importance. The large towns also, those numerous assemblages of people, which are formed by maritime commerce, constitute an evil the extent of which is hardly to be calculated. No one will deny, that vice and wretchedness choose populous cities as their favourite abode; that there no small part of the causes of all the miseries of mankind are engendered; and that, of all descriptions of population, that of a sea port is the worst. Let any man, who has a mind formed for serious reflection, only walk through the streets and alleys in the neighbourhood of shipping. The whole of a sea-port town presents a picture sufficiently disgusting; but, as we approach the water's edge; as we draw near the bales, the casks, the boxes, the wharfs, the lighters and the ships, the aspect of every thing animate or inanimate, grows more and more loathsome, every sound grows more and more hideous; all is a scene of wrangling, rapacity, violence, insolence, deceit, bribery, perjury, filth and disease. It is impossible, therefore, for a man of a right mind, not to see with pleasure, any change in the affairs of the world, the natural tendency of which

from that which opened and kept up the enlightening intercourse between nations, is always, and always will be, the fast ally of despotism, wherever to be found, in whatever shape, under whatever sham names or outward appearances the accursed thing may exist. This sort of commerce is not only a fast ally of despotism, but, is, perhaps, its most powerful ally; and, I cannot disguise, that it gives me very great pleasure to see, and to have the proof before me, that, at any rate, this allcorrupting commerce, which was fast growing up in America, has now received a deadly blow; and, of that blow, it appears that no small part of the merit is due to the Author of this work.

WM. COBBETT.

State Prison, Newgate,
Wednesday, 3rd April, 1811.

OFFICIAL PAPERS.

FRANCE.-Address to the Emperor from Lu
Lippe and from the Ionian Isles, together
with his Imperial Majesty's Answers--
Paris, 19th Aug. 1811.

(Concluded from puge 320.)

Penetrated with respect for the eminent virtues of your Majesty, and full of confidence in that powerful genius which regulates the destines of Europe, and secures the happiness of all his subjects, we present as pledges of our fidelity and entire devotedness, the benefits which our department is

about to enjoy from the union of its inha- a moment, but always faithful to your bitants with the great family of which Majesty, could only have been calumyour Majesty is the father. Already the niated by the machiavelism of an enemy genius of your Majesty has divined our envious of their felicity.-If it is true, wants; an uniform and enlightened legisla-Sire, that in those of our isles occupied 'tion will secure the rights of property; speedy justice, founded upon one system, will watch over its maintenance. The creditors and pensioners of the State, whom the misfortunes of war had condemned to long and painful privations, will owe their happiness to their new quality of French subjects. Already the roads which are opening, the canals which are digging, restore comfort and industry in countries little favoured by the nature of their soil; and your new subjects have formed the hope of rivalling your old ones in prosperity, as they this day engage to equal them in devotedness to the august person of your Majesty.

The address closes with felicitations on the birth of the King of Rome.

at this moment by the enemy, there are to be found some senseless beings who have the audacity to prefer to the glorious title of your subjects, the ever hateful name of enemies of their country and of its most sacred rights, let them experience the fate which their crimes and the indignant voice of their fellow-citizens invoke upon their heads. But let not Greek honour be sullied by the crimes of some infatuated individuals; the Greeks are still the same men, whose former ages of glory can only be effaced in the records of immortality by the age of your Majesty.-The benefits, Sire, you have conferred upon us, the treasures of industry which your imperial munificence has poured out, your cares, by which Corfu. the central security of the Ionian isles, is daily surrounded by new resources traced out by your genius,-and the choice of a man to govern us who does honour at once to humanity and war,-all these are

Reply of His Majesty. Gentlemen, Deputies of the Department of La Lippe,-The city of Munster belonged to an ecclcsiastical Sovereign. De plorable effect of ignorance and of super-powerful motives which attach our hearts stition! Providence, which has willed that I should re-establish the throne of Charlemagne, has caused you, with Hol

land and the Hanseatic towns, to return to the bosom of the empire. The moment you became French, my heart made no distinction between you and the other parts of my states. As soon as circumstances shall permit, I will feel a lively satisfaction in being in the midst of you.

M. Theotoki, President of the Ionian Deputation, presented the following address.

SIRE; Interpreters of the wishes of your people of Ionia, we come to place at the foot of your Majesty's august throne, their renewed expressions of fidelity and lively joy for the fortunate event which has given an heir to your great empire, an infant to your paternal heart, and to us the assured hope of an hero, who, to be the worthy Sovereign of forty millions of men, has only to place before himself your immortal model.-From the sovereign height of glory to which your triumphs, and magnanimous talents have raised you, deign, Sire, to turn your regards towards the inhabitants of the Ionian Isles, of which a part, though usurped for

to your sacred person, from whom alone we can expect our regeneration.-Should the enemy dare to present himself under our walls, we will seize with zeal that opportunity of proving to your Majesty, and to the universe, the value which we attach to the ever glorious title of subjects of Napoleon the Great.

Reply of His Majesty.

Gentlemen, deputies of the Ionian Isles; I have caused great works to be carried on in your country. I have there collected a great number of troops, and stores of every kind. I do not regret the expence which Corfu costs my treasury-it is the key of the Adriatic. I will never abandon the Isles which the enemy's naval superiority has caused to fall into his hands. In India, in America, and in the Mediterranean, all that is and has been French, shall always be so. Conquered by the enemy through the vicissitudes of war, they shall be restored to the empire by other events of war, or by the stipulations of peace. I should consider it as an indelible blot on the glory of my reign, ever to sanction the abandonment of a single Frenchman.

Published by R. SAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent - Garden :-Sold also by J. BUDD, Pall-Mal},

LONDON:-Printed by T. C. Hansard, Peterborough-Court, Fleet-Street,

VOL. XX. No. 12.] LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1811.

[Price 18.

"The universal Spanish Nation."

-MR. CANNING. Declaration against France,

353]

SUMMARY OF POLITICS. SPAIN ENGLISH MINISTER'S COMPLAINT AGAINST THE PRESS THERE.The phrase, which I have taken for my motto, will remind the reader of what took place in the Spring and Summer of 1808, and, if he has forgotten it, he need only refer to the Register, Vols. XIII and XIV, where he will find, under the head of "SPANISH REVO"LUTION," the history of the origin and grounds of the war, which, from that time to this, England has been carrying on in Spain. It will there be seen, that the invasion of Spain by the French was viewed in different lights by different persons in England; that while some of us, amongst whom I was one, regarded it as a fine opportunity for the people of Spain to recover their freedom and form a new government; others saw in it nothing more than an opportunity of opposing a new resistance to Buonaparté, caring much less for the liberties of the people of Spain, than for that security which they thought the event likely to bring to themselves. We contended that if England took any part in the contest she ought by no means to concern herself in the internal affairs of the country, and, above all things, that she ought to avoid, as she would avoid the poisoned chalice, making herself the supporter or partizan of any part of the old reigning family: we contended, in short, that the thing to be desired was a real, radical revolution in Spain, without which there was not the smallest chance of eventually succeeding in a resistance of France. Our opponents contended, that England ought to take a decided part for Ferdinand , the 7th, though it was notorious, that his father was still alive, that his father denied the right of the Son to the Crown, and though it was equally notorious, that both of them had abandoned the people of Spain, that both of them, and the junior members of the family, had made a formal abdication of the Crown in favour of the Emperor Napoleon. Our opponents contended too, that the only way to secure success to the resistance against France, was for us to set our faces against every

[354

thing of a revolutionary tendency; and, in short, that the Spaniard who should think of a revolution, or of any new species of government to the prejudice of Ferdinand, ought to be considered as not less a traitor than if he were actually fighting under the banners of France.-. Tirere appeared to me to be something so foolish, so wild, so perfectly mad, in this last set of notions, that it was impossible for me to impute them to mere want of understanding. I could not help thinking, and I said at the time what I thought, that those who held this language were much more afraid of the example of Spanish liberty regained, than they were of the establishment and extension of French despotism; and I must say that he who has not arrived, by this time, at a conviction of the truth of this opinion, must have a mind incapable of profiting from observation, or must have been a very inattentive observer of what has been passing during the last three years.To our opponents, therefore, the present state of things in Spain gives much less pain than might be imagined. The French are sweeping over the country, and there appears little ground to expect that they will not become its conquerors; but, at. any rate, there has no revolution taken place in Spain; the people of Spain are not republicans; the people of Spain have not regained their liberties.--But, how is all this to end? How is it to end with regard to England, who has already expended so many millions of money in the cause of Ferdinand the seventh? This question cannot be answered with certainty yet; but a pretty good guess at it may be formed from the facts, which have recently come to light, and which it was impossible any longer to disguise, with all the means which a hired press holds forth for that purpose.- -We have observed, for some time past, that Cadiz was far from being a scene of harmony; we saw gen. Graham,whom the parliament and the city had thanked, quit the theatre of his glories, and join the army in Portugal. Mr. Sheridan's speech blubbering with joy, and the Scotch poems, seem not to have acN

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