'the head of a regular government, having during this war, become Emperor of France and King of Italy, has established what he calls an Imperial Go

⚫ more than an unfriendly nature. You now became the soul of a coalition of kings against this new republic, the professed objects of which coalition were, the pre'servation of regular government, socialvernment, and what you call a Military order and the holy religion, though, Despotism; and still I find you at war ' amongst the coalesced parties, the reli- with France. What, then, Sirs, again I gions were many. Upon various occa- ask, is this cause for which you are fight⚫sions some persons in your legislature re-ing? Social order? Do you tell me that 'mended overtures for peace; but still you are fighting for the order and happi'you refused upon the ground of theness of mankind? Social order? Why, anarchy which existed in France, and of 'Sirs, could you, in none of these forms of the danger to be apprehended from a government see a chance for the existence • communication with her licentious peo- of social order? In the Limited Mople. The next form of Government in narchy, in the Republic, in the Direc France was that of a Directory; but, tory, in the Consular Triumvirate, in the though, after many and sore defeats, Consulship for life, in the Imperial Goyou condescended to treat with this go- 'vernment or Military Despotism: could ⚫vernment, you still kept on the war, and 'you in none of them see a chance for the that too upon the ground, that there was security of surrounding nations? Have you not in France a regular government, found, that the principles of them all are and an order of things to afford security so dangerous that you cannot live in safety ⚫ from the democratical principles in vogue within their vortex? Really, Sirs, if this in that country. A Consular Government 'be the case, I am constrained to believe having arisen upon the ruins of the Di- you to be very difficult to please; and, I rectory, the chief of that government must say, that it is wholly beyond my implored you in the most 'mental powers to guess at what your 'manner to put an end to the misery 'cause, considering it a cause in which the of war and the effusion of human blood, rest of the world are interested, can posassuring you at the same time, of the sibly be. I will, however, out of compacific wishes of France; to which you plaisance to you, now notice the parti

earnest

replied, that assurances were not suffici-cular parts of your remonstrance. You te!! ent, that you waited for " the evidence ""of facts," and that until you had it, 'you would not treat with him, who, on his part, eager, apparently, to prevent 'you from waiting long, gave you the ⚫ evidence afforded by the battle of Ma' rengo and a long list of other such facts. Having imbibed, though very slowly, the conviction which facts so notorious and so striking were calculated to produce, you, at last, amidst the pressure of scarcity at home, condescended to treat with the person who had obligingly af

me, that on one side, I see " a self-created Emperor," and at another time, you 'call him an "usurper." It is not for me to judge of the ways, in which foreign 'rulers become possessed of their power; but, I do well remember, that there was an election of the Emperor of France, and being aware, that you may say that this 'election was a mere sham, a mere cheat upon a degraded people, the mere dirty result of the vilest jobbing, of the basest bribery and corruption carried on be 'tween the most infamous miscreants upon 'forded you those facts, though the go-the whole earth; being aware, that you

•vernment of France had undergone no

'change since your last refusal to treat, and though the political principles 'professed by the French still remained

the same, liberty and equality being still the rallying words of the nation. The 'peace at that time concluded, lasted

not long, but soon terminated in a new war against the Chief Consul, now be• come, as it were to please you, Consul for • Life. The hated name of republic has since been dropped, that of Empire assumed, and the man, whose offers of peace ⚫ you once rejected because he was not at

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may say all this, and, while being ignorant of the facts, not at all disposed to question the propriety of your epithets, if the acts were such as you state them to have been, I shall content myself with just putting this question to you: will you assert, that these reasons are sufficient to justify a resistance of his authority? If you say no; then what is 'the source of his authority to me? And, if you say yes, I must still take the ac quiescence of the people for an expres sion of their consent. Besides, have I not seen him recognized by you as the

legitimate ruler of France? Have I not seen you conclude and ratify a treaty of "peace and friendship" with him? Have I not seen you receive territory in the Iway of cession at his hands? Have you not, by acts the most solemn, in the face of the whole world, acknowledged him to be the lawful ruler of France? And, how can you, after this, urge his usurpation, as you new call it, as a reason why I should not use my best endeavours to live at peace with him and his people? Besides, if need were of further argument, have I not seen one of the French emigrants in your country, one of those who (from whatever motive) • remained attached to the Bourbons, prosecuted by your Attorney General by Ex Officio information, tried in your Court of King's Bench, and convicted of <a libel on this same person, whom you now call an usurper, and that, too, upon the express ground, as stated by the judge, of his being the Chief Magistrate of France? And, yet do you reproach me,' ◄ because I will not suffer what you call his usurpation to be an obstacle to my endeavours to preserve peace between the people of America and <those of France?--You tell me, Sirs, < that Napoleon is "the sworn foe of all Ipolitical liberty, and you cite for instance his conscription laws, and his laws against the liberty of the press in France.' As

weak have not; whether the taxes be levied impartially; whether there be a 'system of espionage established; whether powerful plunderers of the public 'be protected; whether the officers of the Emperor be screened from all real re'sponsibility; whether the people of France can be sent to prison without

any previous legal inquiry into their 'conduct; whether, in short, the Napo leon Code, which you number amongst his wicked acts, be a mere sham, a fraud, a mockery, and that all the proceedings under it be intended as the safest means of exercising that tyranny, which, if openly avowed, the people would not bear: I do not know how these things are; and, until I do, you will excuse me for hesitating before I pronounce him the foe of all political liberty, or of civil liberty; but, if I am to believe, that the Napoleon Code is intended by him to be sincerely acted upon, I must say, that with your Edinburgh Reviewers, I look I upon him as being a friend to the latter ' at least. Besides, are you aware of what you are doing here? Are you aware, 'that by calling upon me to make com. mon cause with you against him, on ac'count of his mode of governing France, 'you acknowledge my right to join him. ' against you, on account of the mode of governing your country? You must be aware of this, but doubtless, you will tell me, that the English mode of governing is very different from that in use in France. True, but it may not suit my taste; so, the best way will be for us not to meddle with that point any further, than for me just to observe, that, as long as the people of either country yield obedience

to the former, it is a thing which, disguised under whatever name, my country knows nothing of, and, therefore, I shall say nothing particular with regard to it; and, as to "the liberty of the press in France," though I am sorry to see it put an end to, I must say, that I am better pleased at seeing the press under a li-to their government, the Americans, ⚫ censer openly avowed, than I should be to see it really enslaved under the pretext of being left free, and thus made a partial mirror, the slave of power, the cheat and the disgrace of the French • nation, and, withal, the cause of much individual suffering and ruin, oppression

'whatever may be their wishes, will not attempt to interfere.--In your next charge against Napoleon I feel much < more interest. You tell me, that he openly aims to be the despot of the "whole earth." And here, Sirs, permit me to express my surprise, that you say nothing of the sea. You go on: "supported by a military system entirely incompatible with civil rights." Nothing again about a naval system. You proYou say, Sirs, that this enemy of yours is "ceed: "invading, annexing, subverting, the sworn foe of all political liberty. I annihilating free and independent go• do not know how elections are conduct- vernments, the friends and allies of ed in France; whether the people be "America, without pretext or the formareally represented in the legislature or "lity of excuse; fraudulent, equivocating, not; whether the strong have the law" rapacious towards allies: to enemies mildly administered to them, while the "barbarous and perfidious beyond exam

never being so severe and the cause of the oppressed never being so desperate" as when tyranny is exercised under the • names and forms of liberty and law.

"ple."You lay it on pretty thick here, plaint respecting the subversion of comSirs, especially for "the wisest and best mercial states, you ask me, Sirs, if it be "writers." But Sirs, as you have drawn a the Continental System of Napoleon, contrast, or professed to draw a contrast, with its burnings, its confiscations, its your picture is defective in as much as capital punishments for the horrible crime · you have not said a word of the con- of smuggling, that is the object of my duct of your own government towards enlarged philanthropy; if so, you say • other countries and governments. You God defend your country from the goshould have brought into view the his-vernment of such a philanthropist ! Take tory of your own conquests, of which the Amen! so well merited by such a pious you have made not a few, as well in ejaculation. But, really, Sirs, did you, then, islands as on continents. "Till, how-never hear of punishments for smuggling, and ever, you choose to do this, I shall, as of capital ones too? Surely you do not come impartiality demands, pass no judg-from England! Surely you have never <ment between you upon this head. It

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hoods. They would have said, that what 'America possessed as to soil and climate, 'she received from the hand of nature; ' and that, if the religious, the civil and poli'tical possessions, and the possessions of 'agriculture and the arts, of America were the things of value meant, they owed them to their own wisdom, courage and indus'try. To come to particulars, however, you tell me, that we owe to England the spirit of civil liberty and religious toleration. That we derive the forms of our legal proceedings from England, that our common law was thence derived, and that they are, for the most part, excellent, we are proud to say; but, we cannot forget, and we are sorry that you force us to say, that, if we still possess these in their ancient purity, no thanks is due to England,

'country under her controul, any wheat, or grain, or flour, or flesh, or potatoes. Yes, Sirs, if any Englishman, or any man residing in England, had been detected in any act of this sort; if he had been detect'ed in the crime of smuggling food of any 'kind to the people of France, at a time when they were thought to be in the 'midst of famine, the punishment which your law allotted him was, first to be hanged by the neck till he was dead; next to be cut in quarters, those quarters being placed at the King's disposal; and, lastly, to have his estate and goods 'confiscated, and his family consigned to beggary. Look, Sirs, at the 27th Act of the 33rd year of the reign of George the Third, and say, if I have misinterpreted 'your laws. Very imprudent was it in you, therefore, to impute to me a wantseeing that we were compelled to wage a

of sincere philanthropy, merely because

I did not express my disapprobation of
Napoleon's laws against smuggling; for,

long war against her in order to save ourselves from being taxed and being bound in all cases whatsoever by a legisla

with what justice could I have so done,ture, in the choosing of the members, of

without, at the same time, saying what I have said of your code? I did not wish to say any thing of either; for, though I feel for those who may be subjected to them, it was not my business to interfere in the domestic management of foreign countries, especially in cases, where

I really possess no power to make any alteration I have before observed, Sir, that your contrast as to the conduct of France and England was incomplete, because af er having, on the one side, told me what France had done towards other countries, you did not tell me what England had done towards other coun tries. You do, however, say something about the benefits which America has ⚫ derived from England; and as you ap'pear to erect here a charge of ingratitude against her, it is my duty as well as my inclination to be somewhat particular in my answer to this charge. You tell me, that I should have told my fellow-citizens, tha', on the other side (in contrast with the French) they might behold "a "country, from which America has "drawn, as from a mother's breast,

every thing of value that she possesses."

My fellow citizens are a plain, common 'sense sort of people, Sirs. They do not 'much relish bonibast. They are apt to analyse, and to dive into the literal meaning of words, They would, therefore, have laughed at me; or, which would have given me greater pain, they would have charged me with telling them false

which we were to have nothing to say. Nor can we, Sirs, thank you for the li berty we enjoy in carrying on all sorts of trades, when we remember, that the maxim with England was, that we ought not to be suffered to make ahob-nail for ourselves. I wish you had said nothing about religious toleration. Indeed I do; for it compels me to remind you, that the far greater part of these states were settled by those of our forefathers, who fled from religious persecution. It is true, that the great State of Pennsylvania, which has always been so interesting a 'member of the Union, was settled, that " all its wise and benevolent institutions were founded, that all the exemplary virtues of the greater part of its inhabitants were implanted, by an Englishman, whose name will be held in veneration as long as gratitude remains a feeling of the human breast; but, Sirs, we recollect, that this Englishman was persecuted for his religion in England; that, at one time, he was, for uttering his religious opinions, prosecuted as a seditious libeller; that he was saved from a jail, and, 'perhaps, from a lingering death, by a Jury,who had the virtue to withstand the menaces of a ruffian Judge; and, in short, that it is to religious persecution in England that America owes the wise regula tions and the bright example of William Penn. I would not add, but you force me to do it, that of the present popula tion of America no small part are Irish

Catholics. I will say no more, but refer , you to them, who will be able to tell you, whether the religious toleration they now enjoy is, or is not, of English origin.

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and infamy which would justly be our lot, if we were ever to forget those examples, to show our gratitude for which the best way is to follow them and not brag about them.- You tell me, in rather a pathetic strain, that I should have told my fellow citizens, "that Eng"land, whatever be her errors, is now heroically contending in a more glorious "cause than the page of history records." • Indeed! This would have been going very far. What! was I to prefer her cause to that in which America herself 'contended? Was I to prefer it to the 'cause of our common ancestors when contending against the Star Chamber and arbitrary taxation and arrests? And, was I to say nothing about those errors, of which you condescendingly seem to admit 'the existence? But, Sirs, as I have said before, I cannot for my life discover ' what your cause really is? In Portugal I see you contending for the old government; in Spain I see you contend

You next tell me, Sirs, of "the pre"“cious writings in the English language," that we derive from you. Why, Sirs, what favour is this? Do you hold yourselves indebted to the Saxons and the Normans, from whom you derive your 'language in common with us? Or, if you allude to mere books, what favour do you confer on us any more than on any other nation, who may choose to pur'chase your books, and who, in fact, there'by, in a commercial sense, confer a favour on you. The French write more books than you; they do not prevent us from ' having them, and we have the capacity to 'put them into our own language; but ought we for this to look upon ourselves as politically obliged to France? As to myself, I do not wish to suffer my personal feel'ings to enter into this discussion, but, I 'will just observe, that I have seen, ining for the ancient Spanish monarchy, 'some of your "precious writings," great abuse of me, and most false and foul mis⚫ representations of my character and mo'tives; and, at any rate, you cannot ex'pect me to feel towards you any grati.constitution as I saw you reprobate in tude for those; if I feel no resentment, it is as much as you can expect. Be'sides, amongst the writings from England I have seen histories full of falsehoods; ' and, indeed, as to all matters wherein your government is concerned, and those are the matters most interesting, we in this country never expect to hear from an English writer a single word of plain 'truth; our reasons for which I would 'state to you, were I not disinclined unnecessarily to offend your ear, those reasons being to you, who are "the wisest "and best writers," in England, very well 'known.--You next tell me, Sirs, that we owe to England "the salutary laws, "the proud examples, of our common an"cestors." You do not, of course, allude

to the smuggling laws that I have mentioned above; and, as to the other laws 'which we derive from England, I have 'spoken of them before. The " proud "examples of our common ancestors," we 'owe to those ancestors; we are indebted and so are you to them. With your do<mestic affairs we pretend not to meddle; but, as to ourselves, we have endeavoured to follow those examples by guarding ourselves against public robbery and all those oppressions and that degradation

the inquisition being still in being; I see you contending for the son of the 'Old King, while the father is alive, and 'while the Cortes are framing just such a

'France. In Sicily I see your writers
' recommending the taking part with the
people against the King. In Asia I see
you continually extending your domi-
nion, and by what means I need not de-
'scribe. I pretend not to say, that all
this may not be very just and very wise;
but, really, you must excuse me, if I do
not clearly see what your cause is;
and, while I am in this state of un-
'certainty, you will have the candour
to allow, that it would have been unpar
'donable in me to pronounce your cause
to be more glorious than any that the
page of history records.But, you tell
me, that your country" has staked her ex-
"istence upon the event; and that, if she
"fall, liberty and independence cannot, for
"a moment, survive." You wish me,
Sirs, to have told my fellow citizens this;
'but, as I said before, they are a plain,
common sense sort of people, given to
inquire, examine, and analyse; and, I
'do assure you, that I should have found it
very difficult to make them believe these
'facts. They would have asked me how