This was quite enough, and more than quite enough to satisfy any reasonable man, that the ministry and the Prince were resolved not to part; and the grant to Colonel M'Mahon only serves to confirm what ought before to have been believed, -But, amidst all this, what is to become of the country? "The Country!" say the people at Whitehall, "why, was it than the latter. Both parties wish to pre- | adherents of the Prince was almost that of serve the system; both parties are alike open hostility against those who questionanxious to thwart and defeat every projected the wisdom of Lord Stanhope's Billof Reform; and, as long as this is the case, both parties will stand upon the same footing in eyes of the independent part of the nation, who will not be persuaded to stir one inch or to utter one word in behalf of either. It was the height of indiscretion in the Outs to say a word against this grant to Colonel M'Mahon He, to be sure, has his thousands; but have not they their tens of thousands; and did they," ever in a more flourishing state? and, as while they were in place, take any mea- “to the war, have we not taken one of sure to relieve the people from any of " Buonaparte's Great Praams?" these burthens? No: they disappointed the people, they mocked the people, they showed that they despised the people. They fell; and they fell like Lucifer, never to rise again. They would fain retrieve the ground that they lost; they would fain call in the people to their assistance; they would fain once more talk of Reform. But talking will, they are aware, no longer serve their turn; the people are not again to be gulled by promises and professions; nothing short of actions will satisfy them now; nothing short of real Reform, a real Reformation of the Commons House of Parliament, and such a Reform the Outs well know would strip them of those thousands and hundreds of thousands of the public money, which constitute the great object of their pursuit. This the ministry know very well, and, knowing it, they are not at all afraid to advise grants like that to Colonel M'Mahon. They give such advice upon what is called their responsibility, and they know well the situation and the interests of the parties who alone, in the present state of things, can call them to account.In the passage, which I have taken for my motto, I told the fortune of the Outs, and though they laughed at me then, I should suppose, in spite of their infatuation, they would now begin to think that I was right. More than four months ago, the COURIER news-paper, and other prints of the same stamp, began to talk a new sort of language about the state of the King. They no longer appeared to have any hopes of his recovery. They gave the world the most melancholy and even dis gusting descriptions. This shewed which way the tide was setting. Before the parliament separated, we saw Mr. SHERIDAN figuring away against the principles of the Bullion Report, and, I was well informed, at the time, that, the language of the old THE GREAT PRAAM.In another part of this Number, the reader will find the Official Report of Captain Carteret, relative to an engagement off Boulogne, which ended in the capture of a French Vessel, called a Praam. The statement of the Captain is circumstantial and clear, the latter a quality very well worthy of imitation by our land officers.The affair, though little in itself, is of great importance if considered as showing what the French boats are capable of when engaged with our vessels of war. I am by no means disposed to under-rate the value of the exertions of our officers and their crews upon this occasion, where they appear to have discovered as much skill as courage, and a great deal of both. But, I cannot disguise from myself the fact, that these gun-boats have shown, that they are not such contemptible things as they have been so often represented to be. There were, it seems, seven of them, and four of our vessels; some of the latter small indeed, but one of them a frigate; and, from what we have frequently been told of these boats, one frigate would appear to be suf ficient to destroy a score or two of them. This now seems to have been disproved. The boats make resistance. A frigate is, indeed, too much for one, or, perhaps, two of them; but, they resist; they make battle; and that is doing much more than was expected. It is right, therefore, for us to be upon our guard as to this matter; for, if even a score of them be a match for one of our ships of the line, we may be assured, that, in time, and sooner than may be thought, scores of them will not be wanted. They are things that require little time in the construction, and less skill in the management. They are a sort of floating batteries; and, if they should be found capable of resisting our vessels for any length of time, the effect of them is a thing certainly to be feared, unless timely measures are taken to render this mode of attack abortive. What those measures are, however, I must leave to the wisdom of our War-Minister and our Commander in Chief, who understand, or, at least, ought to understand, these matters much better than I do. How Captain Carteret came to be able to know so exactly where "that Personage" (why so shy of naming him?) was, it is not for me to say; but, his account falls, in this respect, very short of that of our news-papers, who gave us an account of the very words and even gestures of "that personage," upon this occasion; and they told us, that he caused the guns of the batteries to be fired upon his own vessels, by way of punishing them for their retreat! The Morning Chronicle of the 26th instant has published a fabricated paper, entitled "the French account of the "Battle of Boulogne;" an Impostor Paper, full as foolish as the one lately fabricated and published by the Courier. Our press is free to utter falshoods at any rate, provided they be of a palatable sort, supposed capture of an American Frigate and at the disgrace of the American flag. As to Robert Smith, he seems to be lost to every sentiment of honour and of common honesty he has no character to lose; he manifestly cares nothing for his country. But, Mr. Pickering is an honest man; a man who, I believe, sincerely loves his country, and would, as he has done before, stake his life in defence of her liberties. I knew him very well; I had many opportunities of knowing his sentiments; I always saw in his actions proof of great public spirit and of the strongest attachment to his native country and to public liberty; and, as I am convinced, that he is still the same excellent man, I beg him (if this should happen to have the honour to meet his eye) to observe, that his present writings are applauded and fostered in England, by those, and those only, who are the bitterest enemies of public liberty all over the world, and who hate America chiefly because her institutions and the happiness of her people are living and permanent evidences against their intolerant and tyrannical principles. The instance I have given above ought to suffice: it ought to be sufficient for Mr. Pickering to know, that his letters are carefully republished and his efforts highly praised by that same hireling print, which openly exulted at the news of the capture of an American Frigate and the disgrace of the American Flag. AMERICAN FRIGATE.—Last week there was, on foot, a rumour of the American Frigate, President, Captain Rogers, having been captured by the English Frigate, the Melampus, and taken into Halifax. The whole story, which was very circumstantial, has now been acknowledged to be false; but, the remarks of the hireling writers upon the subject ought not to be SICILY.-There was a time when a forgotten. On the 21st instant, the Cou-war, such as we are, and have long been, rier newspaper (who praises the treacherous Smith, late American Secretary of State) said: "Nothing, we must say, "could give us more pleasure than the cap"ture of Rogers." And, on the 23rd instant, the same paper said: "A very ge"neral satisfaction was produced on Satur. "day, by the report of the capture of the "American frigate President.”. It is but justice to the public to say, that this was false; and, that, so far from general satisfaction, general apprehension was the effect of the report. From these wishes and assertions, however, the American government and people will know what they ought to think of those, from whom they have proceeded. And, it may not be amiss for MR. TIMOTHY PICKERING to be informed, that the very same writers, in England, who applaud his and ROBERT" SMITH'S attacks upon Mr. MADISON ; these very same persons express their joy at the carrying on in this island, would have attracted a good deal of public attention. But, I do not know how it is, though we maintain, at an enormous expence, an army of from 12 to 20 thousand men in Sicily, the public seem to know little and to care less about what is there going on.-To read the letters, or pretended letters, in our news-papers, as relating to Sicily, one would naturally be led to suppose, that we were there in an enemy's country, instead of being there for the purpose of defending the country against an enemy--I will take a little specimen from my friend the Courier of last night: "You will perhaps 66 66 be surprised to hear that a Greek vessel, “with a British licence, and which was brought into this port the 15th of May, "by three Sicilian privateers, after the Owner (Mr. R. Campbell) and the crew "had been turned adrift at sea und left to ' "the mercy of the waves, has been condemned, speak truth, our minister is expected to complain of the conduct of the court. And, yet, in both cases, we are keeping of using us ill!--As to the fate of Sicily, the reader will, perhaps, recollect, that the Emperor Napoleon finally decided upon it on the 27th of Dec. 1805, in a proclamation to his army, dated at Schoenbrun. In a few weeks after that, the king, queen and courtiers, together with the English army, under Sir James Craig, who had been sent to defend the country against the French, or to assist in doing it, thought it prudent to betake themselves to the shipping and to get off to Sicily. Napoleon said that the Dynasty of Naples had ceased to reign; and, he is a man very apt to make good his sayings. They have, however, not yet ceased to reign in Sicily; and, it is possible, that they may not. But, the question is, should we refuse peace, unless Sicily were preserved to that family? Are we prepared to say, that we will, on no account, sheath the sword unless Sicily be left in the hands of the reigning people? This is the question; because, if we are not prepared to say this, the court of Palermo play a ticklish game; and, if we are prepared to say it, we may safely count upon a war of a comfortable duration. "and thus British, licenses declared useless " and null. During the night of the 19th "and 20th inst. five of the first Barons in "the land, viz. Princes Belmonte, Villa-up armies to defend those who are accused "nosa, Villafranca, Augio, and Jaci, who "have been considered firmly attached to the "British interest, and highly respected by the "people, were seized in their beds and "carried on board a Sicilian Corvette, "which sailed with them immediately for "the desert Island of Pantelleria. A dis"patch has been laid before the King for "his signature, giving to the Cav. Cas"trani, the liberty of ordering away any "foreigners who have not been ten years "established in the country, whom he "should think unfit subjects. The King "required forty-eight hours to reflect "thereon, and during this interval Lord "Wm. Bentinck fortunately arrived. He "is to be presented at Court to-morrow; "we hope that his instructions are strong "and positive."--Now, what can all this mean? British licenses declared null! The friends of England seized in their beds and packed off to a desert Island! Hopes of Lord Wm. Bentinck having strong and positive instructions! About what, I should be glad to know? Why, our government used to be upon a most cordial footing with the king and queen of Sicily, who were amongst the most zealous of their allies during the Anti-jacobin war. All the world must remember how cordially they co operated at the time of the counter-revolution at Naples in 1799, when Lady Hamilton and ber husband and Lord Nelson were in the Bay of Naples with the King and Queen of Sicily. All the world knows, how cordially they then co-operated; and, what can have disturbed their harmony now? There are men of the very same school, nay, mostly the very same men, in power in England now that were in power then. I can, for my part, see nothing that should render it probable that the Queen of Naples, whom the newspapers sometimes describes as disliking us, should dislike the Wellesleys and the Jenkinsons and the Percevals, whom, on the contrary, I should suppose to be, of all men, the most likely to stand high in her esteem. Indeed, I can see nothing for her to object to, either in the members or system of our government.--It is, however, a strange state of things that we are got into. At Cadiz our minister is complaining that the people write and talk against our King and government and arraign their motives; and, at Palermo, if these news-papers WM. COBBETT. State Prison, Newgate, Friday, 27th September, 1811. PAPER SYSTEM. Article translated from a German Print, published in the London newspapers on the 24th Sept. 1811. The financial measures of which the English Ministers procured the adoption in Parliament, during its last session, are of a character so singular, that they cannot escape general attention. We perceive in them,-The creation of a papermoney, by giving bank notes a forced circulation (1);-The abolition of the law which imposed on the Bank the obligation to recommence its payments in specie two years after a peace. This is a necessary consequence of (1, 2) See Lord Stanhope's Bill on the circulation of gold and that of bank notes, agreed to on the 8th of July by the House of Lords, and on the 19th by the Commons, and the debates which took place in Parliament on that occasion, in different numbers of the Journal de l'Empire. funds which he had advanced. But whether the loan proved unsuccessful, or Government was under the absolute necessity of otherwise employing the funds destined for the payment of their banker, Goldschmit failed to receive them at the time agreed upon, and found it impossible to pay his bills of exchange, and satisfy the bankers who had assisted him with their advances. There was only one resource left him; that was, to expose the inability of Government, and to demand a delay; but what a scandal, what humiliation, for the ministry! Goldschmit preferred taking the shame of the event upon himself, in order to save, if possible, the honour of the Government at the expense of his personal credit.-The English Ministers, having es the preceding measure; for bank notes | become representative signs, are no longer susceptible of conversion into specie; a thing, besides, impossible, when we consider the numerous issues of notes that will take place in rapid succession (2);-The depreciation of the Coin. The pound is actually coined at 16s. instead of 20s, a measure evidently adopted, in order to place gold and silver on a level with the exist ing value of bank notes, which are at a discount of 20 per cent. The export of gold and silver is thus hoped to be prevented; for, according to the old proportion between gold and notes, 51. in notes may be purchased for 41. sterling in gold. -The solemn declaration, that England, being no longer able to pay off her debts, must confine herself to securing the pay-caped, as it were, by a miracle from a ment of the interest; which is, in effect, danger so imminent, perceived that there saying to the English,-If you mean to would be too much risk in any longer receive the interest of the funds lent to making the movements of the machine of Government, you must accept of paper politics depend upon springs which were money (3)-The necessary result of these worn out by long friction. A second emdata is.--that the English Ministers have barrassment of the same sort with that changed their system of finance, and propose from which the heroic devotedness of that the system of loans should give place to Goldschmit delivered them might prove that of paper money.-All enlightened men fatal, because the bankers would be more have foreseen that the infallible and com- cautious in their advances, and it was not bined system upon which the French Go- probable that a second Codrus would step vernment pursues its attack on English in to save them.-The matter then was, monopoly, must sooner or later sap the to replace the borrowing system by another. system of loans in its very basis,-public There are only three modes of providing credit. Its predictions have been strik- for the wants of a state. 1st. By a good ingly accomplished; the facts which we organization of the system of contributions and have enumerated leave no doubt of it, and imposts: but this system, pursued by equal the most brilliant victories which France, would have been insufficient for a could have been obtained. The acknow- government whose pretensions are ledgments torn from the English Ministers greatly beyond its natural resources: to themselves are real spolia opima; for they adopt this system, the safest of all, it would are a conquest gained over what the Eng- be necessary for England to renounce ber lish hold most dear, their credit.-But usurping claims. 2nd. By loans; but what were the events which convinced they require credit, and England has just Ministers that their credit began to fail, experienced that the most extensive credit and that it was time to abandon a system has its limits. 3rd. By the creation of a which no longer had any support? The paper money. As this was the only exMinisters are silent; let us endeavour to pedient that remained to the English Gopenetrate the darkness in which they love vernment, it had no other choice left, and to wrap themselves. It is well known Parliament adopted this system contrary that the English Government employed to its own convictions.-Such has been at the house of Goldschmit, of London, to all times the financial career of weak Gonegociate its loans in the Stock Exchange, vernments: they borrow when their exand to exchange them for money. Gold-penses exceed their ordinary income, and schmit advanced to Government considerable sums in money, and in bills of exchange, payable at the times when he depended on receiving from Government the 80 they create a paper money when they can no longer find credit for their loans. For some months the English Government will experience no great difficulty in meeting its enormous expenditure; but is there in all Europe, and even in England, one rational being who does not foresee where 66 preponderance upon the Continent, and even then required a tutelary hand to draw her out of the crisis in which she was placed. England, on the other hand, excluded from the Continent, is unable to de without it. OFFICIAL PAPERS. ENGLAND-Capture of a GREAT French such a system must end? Is it not evident, that the paper money drives specie out of circulation; and that this exclusion, with the always increasing wants of a Government bent on chimerical enterprizes, must indefinitely augment the issues of paper money, and thus accelerate its fall? Have not the Ministers themselves announced it, when, to this question, What will set bounds in future to the issue of notes?" they replied, "Our wants!" (4).—If, on the one hand, paper money may lend an apparent strength to Governments, it does nothing more but augment their embar7 o'clock, Morning. rassment for the future, and they arrive SIR, Yesterday morning, while this by rapid strides at the fourth financial ca- ship was lying at an anchor off this place, tastrophe,-bankruptcy. The eternal laws, much bustle was observed among the which secure the preponderance of the real enemy's flotilla, moored along shore close over the chimerical, will not permit, for under the batteries of their bay, which the first time, an exception in favour of appeared to indicate that some affair of England she will be reduced to bank- unusual moment was in agitation. At ruptcy, by the very extent of her efforts, about noon, Buonaparté, in a barge, acsooner than any other nation. Lord Stan-companied by several other officers, was hope may maintain as long as he pleases, distinctly seen to proceed along their line "that to consider gold as the only legal to the centre ship, which immediately money, is an idea worthy of barbarous hoisted the imperial standard at the main, times." Sheridan may exclaim, "it is and lowered it at his departure, substitut only in countries where there is no credit, ing for it a Rear Admiral's flag; he afterthat paper must be replaced with specie." wards visited others, and then continued in These declamations will not restore to his boat for the rest of the evening.bank notes that credit which they have Since it is so much within the well known lost since the Bank ceased to pay in specie, custom of that personage to adopt mea -England seems to reckon upon bank- sures that confer supposed eclat on his preruptcy as a last resource. Let her not sence, I concluded that something of that hope for safety in this expedient! Na kind was about to take place. Accordtional bankruptcy is the situation in which a ingly, seven praams, each having twelve nation, deprived of all means of credit, is re- 24 pounders, long guns, with 120 men, duced to its own physical force; it is a re- and commanded by Rear Admiral Baste, source which brings into play all the weighed and stood towards this ship, being springs inherent in a machine, but which expressly ordered by the French Ruler, as at the same time destroys all such as were I have since learned, to attack us. As the only fictitious and imaginary. It is in wind was S. W. with a very strong floodsuch a moment that a nation shews all its tide setting to the N. E. while the enemy physical power, and all that it is entitled bore nearly south from us, it was clear to pretend to. Deprived of her credit, that by weighing we could only increase England will be obliged to combat with our distance from him; so that our only her naked arms, that is, with all the force chance of closing with him at all was by which her territory can furnish; and then remaining at an anchor.-The Naiad, the contest will not be long doubtful be- therefore, quietly awaited his attack in tween a nation of fourteen millions of men, that position, with springs on her cable. and ninety millions of men inhabiting theIt was exclusively in the enemy's own Continent. England cannot console herself by the example of Revolutionary France. France then numbered about 30 millions of inhabitants, and had all her resources within herself; she exercised a natural (4) See the exposition of the situation of the Bank of England, in the Journal de L'Empire of the 14th of April. power to choose the distance: each ship of his squadron stood within gun shot, gave us successively her broadsides, tacked from us, and in that mode continuously repeated the attack. After this had so continued for three quarters of an hour, ten brigs (said to have four long 24 pounders), and one sloop (said to have two such guns), also weighed, and joined the ships in oc |