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war against England; for, no treaty has been made with him; no peace has been made with him, or with any person acting under his authority. It has been declared, that we are at peace with the Spanish nation; but, not a word has been said about peace with a king of Spain. Ferdinand is in France, and the last act which we hear of, as his, was a declaration that he had made voluntary surrender of his authority as king of Spain, and as heir to the Spanish throne. But, the turtle-patriots wanted a something to set up against Buonaparte, and it mattered, to them, very little indeed who, or what, it was. It was a dread of Buonaparte, and not a love of freedom, by which they were inspired. They will not, however, get the nation to adopt their sentiments. Hundreds and thousands would willingly venture even their lives in the cause of Spanish freedom; but the turtle-patriots will find nobody fool enough to hazard any thing for the sake of Ferdinand VII, whom there is no man, not a peculator in one way or another, that does not wish to keep where he is, as being the fittest place for him, who gave up the sword of Francis I.

-The victory of CASTANOS and DE TILLY Over DUPONT is of great importance, be the object of the war what it may; for, it will tend to lengthen the contest; and, if there be a long contest, let us hope, that new men will arise, and, by degrees, extinguish the miserable tools of the despot. If the people have to bleed for what they win; if they suffer severely for the purpose of keeping out a foreign despot, let us hope, that they will not again yield their necks to a despot of native growth.-This COUNT DE TILLY is, I believe, a Frenchman, a circumstance, which, I suppose, the newspaper editors thought of too little interest to notice. In 1798, or 1799, he was amongst the emigrants in Philadelphia, where he was married, by a methodist preacher, to a daughter of the late Mr. Bingham, and which daughter, after having been divorced from the Count by an act of the legislature of the State, was, I have heard, inarried to a son of Sir Francis Baring. The Count, from precisely what consideration I know not, left Philadelphia, soon after the marriage, and it was said, that he went to Spain. If it be the same man, and I see no reason to suspect the contrary, he is now, about forty years of age, a very gay and very clever man, and a man likely to be engaged in dashing enterprizes. If the Count and I were to meet again, we should bardly forbear expressing our admiration of the freaks of Madam Fortune, who chose to

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send him to fight the battles of the Span iards, while she set the family of Baring, at the head of the turtle-patriols, to celebrate his deeds in arms, and to number him amongst our gallant associates in liberty." This shews, that, as Rousseau observes, "we are all good for something or other." Some for fighting and some for having wives.

Duke of York.I have lately read, in several of the news-papers, a great deal about this" illustrious person," as they all have the grace and good-manners to call him; but, though I have been long enough used to their language, I do not distinctly understand what they mean. It would seem, that there had been a design, on the part of somebody or other in the government, to send the Duke as commander in chief of our armies in Spain and Portugal; and, I supposed, of course, that this measure was to be adopted, because, at present, there was no danger of invasion, and, of course, no immediate need of any exertion of the skill and courage of the royal person in question. But, from an article in the Morning Chronicle, which has just reached me, I am inclined to think, that I have misconceived the meaning of these writers, who, though differing very widely upon almost every other subject, perfectly agree upon this. I have been not a little surprized at this uncommon coincidence in sentiment, and have made some very earnest efforts to get at a correct account of the cause of it. At first, I attributed it to the general dread of leaving this island without a Commander in Chief, at a moment so critical, when an unlucky accident to our fleet, co-operating with an easterly wind, might, in twenty four hours, have brought fifty thousand Frenchmen, with a General Brune (Lord preserve us!) at their head. But, I soon found, that this dread was not so prevalent as I had imagined; and, from the article I am about to quote, it would appear, that the objection to the departure. of the royal commander had arisen from different motives. It seems, from this article, that some one has written, and caused to be printed, an address to the cabinet ministers, censuring them for listening to the public voice as to the talked of appointment of the royal soldier as commander in chief in Spain and Portugal"We have," says the editor of the Morning Chronicle, in his paper of the 9th instant, "seen a printed address to the cabinet "ministers (which, however, we believe is "only confidentially handed about), upon "the subject of the appointment of his royal

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highness the Duke of York to the com"man of the army destined for foreign "service. The object of it is, to persuade "the present ministers of the crown that the "judgment generally passed upon the merits "of his royal highness is most injurious"that it cannot be justified by a review of "his past services, but that it has been hastily formed upon the false representations of newspapers and other periodical "writers, who delight in nothing so much as in severity of remark; and, in fine, that ministers, instead of suffering them"selves to be guided by public opinion, ought

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to govern it, by acting in defiance of the popular sentiment. The writer, however, "has been rather injudicious in the choice

of his arguments, when it is considered to whom they are addressed, for, without "affecting at all to disguise the uniform "failure of the military enterprises of the "Duke of York, he endeavours to shew "that all his failures ought to be attributed not to any want of science in his royal highness, but to the administrations un"der which he acted. The siege of Dankirk, for example, he ascribes to the "silliness of Mr. Pitt and his colleagues,

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in suffering themselves to be deceived by a ruse de guerre of the cabinet of Vienna; "and the unfortunate capitulation of the "Helder, he represents as the inevitable "result of General Abercrombie's impru"dence, in allowing himself to be influenced

by the advice of Johnstone, the smuggler, "and the total want of judgment manifested "at that time by Lord Melville, who was "at the head of the war department. The "former part of this insinuation is of too "foul and false a nature not to be repelled "with scorn by every one who recollects "the exalted character of General Aber"crombie, and the accusation against Lord "Melville we shall leave to those to answer "who feel more interested than we do in "that noble person's character. But upon "the whole, we do not think the present "address very well calculated to make

proselytes in the present cabinet. One obvious inference which the public "would draw from it (were they permit

ted to see it) is this, that when, in "the case of any great military disaster, "the officer who commands is not brought

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before a court martial, the minister "who appointed him ought to be im

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peached."It is -It is not for me, who Ive at such a distance from the all-enlightening metropolis, to pretend to meddle much with such high matter." Whether, therefore, the judgement generally passed

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upon the merits of the royal commander be correct or not, I shalt not attempt to decide; but, one thing may, I think, venture to assert, without the risk of committing an error, and that is, that if, from whatever cause, the ministers, have, as this news pa per insinuates, refused to suffer the royal chieftain to go to Spain after application made by him for that purpose, they are, in justice to that royal person, bound to lay that cause before the public, seeing that the royal chieftain still has the command of all the numerous troops kept on foot for the purpose of defending this country against the very same sort of enemy, that he would have to encounter in Spain or Portugal. This writer talks of the uniform failure" of the royal captain; but, without stopping to inquire into the fact, is it, if such fact be true, a good reason for not sending the royal commander abroad, and also a good reason for keeping him in the chief cominand at home, where the emoluments of the office are so very great? Would not "failure" bere, be as fatal to us as failure in Spain? It can not be that this is the real cause; for, if it were possible that any set of ministers would, for such a reason, not suffer a commander to go abroad, and were still willing to suffer him to remain commander in chief at home, it is quite impossible that any man, I will not say any prince of the blood, but any thing having even the outward shape of manhood, should continue in such command. Why, the dogs in the street would bark, the cats would miaw, the very chickens would coc coc-coe, at the approach of a creature so loathsomely base. Dismiss from your mind, therefore, my honest reader, all the notions, which may have been imbibed through the insinuations of articles like that above. quoted; and believe, like a faithful and loyal subject, that there is some very suffici ent and honourable reason for the royal com mander's remaining at home. I beg you to remark, too, that these insinuations are thrown out by men, who are but too apt to accuse others of a want of attachment to the person and race of the sovereign. I always said, that, when it came to the pinch, wei should be found to stick most steadily to the royal family. Their flatterers now show a disposition to skulk; but, I trust, we shall be firm at their side, as long as there is a fezther and a drop of ink to be found. Botley, August 10, 1809.

SPANISH REVOLUTION.

Sir; It is a fact to be lamented, but which we collect from daily experience, that integrity of principles and virtuous demeanor

are not always rewarded with kindness and esteem; but this reflection with a man who soars above the sordid baseness of the world, fortunately stimulates, not damps, the generous ardour of his mind. I find, Mr. Cobbett, that your sentiments upon the subject of Spanish patriotism have met with the disapprobation of a correspondent who subscribes himself " Scoto-Britan"nus." How long that gentleinan may have plumed and cherished himself under the wing of sovereign power, I know not ; but though his gratitude may be applauded in bis universal zeal for potentates, not even excepting the family of the Bourbons, I cannot hold that virtue as an apology either for ignorance or wilful misrepresentation. Your correspondent's observations, in the introductory part of his letter, on the right of ceding a sovereignty, are built upon the following position, which ScotoBritannus lays down as an axiom; namely, that "In private property no man can cede his right of inheritance or pos "session. This right belongs not to him

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exclusively, but to his family. He is a "mere life renter. From his ancestors his " inheritance was acquired, and to his own posterity it must be faithfully transmitted." Now, Sir, there must really be a strange vernacular property in the atmosphere of Scotland that could induce a man to make so modest and extraordinary a declaration as the present. That because a man derives an inheritance from his ancestors, it must be therefore faithfully transmitted to his posterity, is sc adverse to truth, that daily and hourly experience contradicts the assertion. Do we not every day see a profligate heir dissipating the estate which his ancestor has left him? Are not men daily dis-. posing of inheritances which they enjoy by descent, by public auction, and private contract?

So contrary to the fact is the assertion of Scoto-Britannus, that the perpetuat ing estates in families called for legislative interference so long as four centuries ago, and the thing is rendered impossible by a solemn act of parliament. But what occurs tome, Mr. Cobbett, as the most extraordinary, is, that this strange gratuitous assertion should be made for the purpose of establishing that "a sovereign is the delegate of his subjects, to whom, according to the nature "of the government, is entrusted the ma"nagement of the public affairs, and the "furtherance of the laws of the nation" I accord perfectly with Scoto Britannus that "a sovereign is the delegate of his subjects," but I really should have sailed round the compass many times before I should have

enforced such an opinion by a discovery that property was unalienable, from which (if it were true) the only inference I can collect is, that no act of the people can prevent the crown from lineally descending; in which case, as it should seem, the people are di vested of all possible right of interfering with the crown. Whether monarchical power takes its origin from a contract with the people, or exists as of Divine right, has been for ages asserted either way, as party interest has predominated; but what judg ment a dispassionate unbiassed mind would form, who, without supernatural grace, collects his information from the cxperience of things as they pass before his eyes in this material world, I think there can be little doubt. Mr. Hame has observed, that theory is in favour of all kingly power originating in popular contract, but that experience is against it. How it happens that the latter is true I should imagine to be this; that by the supineness and inactivity of one side of the contracting parties, the other has been suffered to establish a power which has enabled him to hold the contract at defiance; and though there be an axiom in the English constitution "that no right can exist with

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out a remedy," yet I fear it is an axiom very often incapable of being realized. Now, Mr. Cobbett, I perfectly accord with your sentiments respecting Spain. I hold it, with you, to be the bounden duty of this conrry to give the Spanish Patriots the most disinte rested assistance in her power Spain is now in arms against the universal enemy of law and liberty, and it becomes every man of independent principles to aid and assist her in resisting the tyrant's grasp; but in so doing, what right there can exist to interfere in the internal regulation of the country, with whom our arms are to be united, quite passes my conception. Scoto-Britannus, who deals in the marvellous in point of argument, is for making the restoration of the Bourbons a sine quà non of our assistance; and as a reason, he asserts" that the practice of interfering in the regulation of internal government rminates always in the detriment or ruin, either of the assisting or "of the assisted ;" and to excmply this, be states an historical fact, that the ancient Britons, by calling in the axons and Normans to assist them in organizing their legislature, became the slaves of their assistants How this can shew that we ought to impose on Spain, as the terms of our assistance, that Ferdinand the VIIth, or any other of the Bourbons, should be established as their mo narch, I profess not to have sagacity enough to penetrate. If the people of Spain are

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the delegates, in whom the power of appointing a monarch or ruler is inherent, nothing can be so clear, as, that, if they wish to be governed by a Bourbon, they will adopt that no le of government, but if they have that mode of government; but if they have sist on their being governed by Ferdinand the VIIth, or in any measure dictate a government to them, what are we doing but following the very footsteps of those Saxons and Normans who displease Scoto-Britannus for having most unprincipally subjugated the ancient Britons? Scoto-Britannus, (who probably nestles himself in some snug birth within the air of royalty) I rather apprehend, thinks it improper to rerin those slaves who have a monarch set over them, though against their inclination. But if Scoto-Britannus will consult the lexicon of that favourite of ..is country. I mean Dr. Johnson, he will discover, that slavery may be defined to be the incapacity of a sane rational mind to act according to its inclination; and that it would be as much slavery for the Spanish nation to have a Ferdinand the VIIth reign over them, if contrary to their inclination, as it would have been for the Swedes to have had a jack-boot for a prime minister, which their indulgent master, Charles the XIIth, was inclined once to afford them I consider, Mr. Cobbett, that in affording aid to Spain, we are governed, or ought to be so, by a principle, generous in itself, and which can alone entitle our assistance to the approbation of an impartial world; I mean the principle of detestation of tyrants and despots of every description and of every climate; that, as a country enjoying more genuine liberty and freedom than can probably be found in any other spot on the civilized globe,

we are anxious to disseminate that freedom to others, and to stem the strides of ghastly despotism which, in the person of the French emperor, seeks the destruction of each latent spark of liberty. If this be the basis of our conduct towards Spain, I most fervently hope it will prove successtul; if it be not, the same fate will most likely accompany it, which generally attends, sooner or later, all base and servile acts; and instead of affording the future historian an agreeable theme for panegyrising the independent spirit of his country, will reluctantly compel him to throw down his pen, or, what will be more grating, to blast her character by recording the transaction. -W. F. S.-Lincoln's Inn, August 2, 1808.

R. COKE OP NORFOLK. SIR, I have been much charmed and edited by Mr. Thomas Roope's eloquent

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and glowing panegyric on "MR. COKE OF NORFOLK, which appeared in your Register a few weeks since.I do most sincerely congratulate our beloved representative," (to whom I am zealously attached), on the inestimable acquisition of such a partizan! He has long been strenuously supported by a great proportion of our large-acred men," who have powerful and necessary influence over the free suffrages of "inde"pendent yeomen." He has also been not a little indebted to other friends, who can play with consummate skill every card of the Party Game, from the knave to the deuce. But, what are all these, compared with a Man of Genius, gifted with that magic mastery of words, which, în every free government, ancient or modern, has been known to have such astonishing effects on the minds of the people? I cannot doubt, that these voluntary and generous efforts of such a man as Mr. Thomas Roope, on behalf of such an one as "Mr. Coke of "Norfolk," will very materially promote the good cause, and forward the wishes of the most truly independent yeomen" of our county. I particularly anticipate the happiest effects, from the very judicious publication of that panegyric, in a handsome separate form, (lest your Register, Mr. Cob bett, should not give it sufficient publicity), from the liberal presentation of copies to the Coffee-rooms in Norwich,-and from the distribution of them among proper persons, (I have one) even at that scene that "is NOT KNOWN ELSEWHERE, the Sheep.

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shearing at Hokham.-Who this Mr. "Thomas Roope" is, I cannot say that I exactly know. He now first appears before the public; and, like other mighty geniuses, bursts forth at once in meridian splendour. He is obviously a very shrewd observer, a very logical reasoner, and a very fine writer. Certainly, Mr. Coke has not such another writer to his back. The doer of late addresses, &c. I do not think worth mentioning. But there is Dr. Parr-what is he to "Mr. Thomas Roope?" When a barrel of gunpowder explodes, certainly it makes a dazzling flash, an alarming report, a prodigious deal of smoke, and no little stink. But the first two are over in a moment, and the others last but a very short time. They are nothing to the celestial beams which permanently warm, invigorate, and enlighten. Most certainly, it is not too bold a figure, to say that "Mr. Thomas Roope" writes with a sun-beam! Such is my decided opinion of him as an author. I can have no doubt, that he is moreover, “ a gentleman of enlightened mind and libe

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"ral education," (as he tells us "all M "Coke's tenants are ") one of "the most "learned men we can boast, and of the "best practical, liberal, and enlightened cul"tivators of land;"-one of " the men "most reputed for their agricultural knowledge;" -a "fit associate for such digni"fied men as Dukes of Bedford, and Mr. "Arthur Young"-most worthy to be "courted by Mr. Coke;"--and one of " the "first breeders of stock of every description."-But, Mr. Cobbett, among all his excellencies, agricultural, literary, or philosophical, I am most particularly struck with these two-with that "honest pride" of conscious genius, which prompts him to pit himself plump against you, in the Strife of "opinion"-and with that artful delicacy in insinuating censure, which must, I should think, make you feel ingenuously shared of your own blameable precipitancy, in venturing to speak as you have spoken, of the "little talents and ambition" of so great a man-whom, it seems, you "do not know!" I must, however, declare, that I am equally pleased with your candour, in inserting this elegant and spirited rebuke, which you cannot but severely feel. I am only surprized you have not cried peccavi, and am expecting it every week.-Really, the fervour of Mr. Thomas Roope's sentiments, and the splendour of his diction, are powerfully affecting.-Pungent, stimulating, titillating, they have caused a warm and tingling glow within me" scalpuntur intima! And as it is obvious, that his intention was by no means to excite the risibility of his readers, I can account for these feelings no otherwise, than by supposing he must have meant to provoke their mincturiency that by a surer criterion than the " temperality of the pulsidge," he might form a proper diagnosis of the cases he has taken in hand, and consequent hopes of cure. But it should seem that you are sullenly determined not to be cast! Yet a second dose, though weaker than the first, is sometimes known to insure its effect. Let me try to administer it. As I despair of writing like Mr. Thomas Roope, I endeavour to compensate for my deficiency, by quoting him as much as possible; and may perhaps here and there, in my own diction, catch some slight whiff of that ethereal spirit, with which his pen is impregnated, and even super-saturated. So that, upon the whole, I hope we shall not have given you these repeated scourings in vain.I desire it may be understood, that I write, though by no means in concert, yet, in the most perfect harmony and coincidence

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with M. Roope There can be no doubt that since Mr. Coke became " proprietor of "the immense tracts of land he now possesses," the desert of "Norfolk " is become a paradise! These are not indeed the words of Mr. Roope, but in a compendious form convey his obvious meaning. Before that auspicious æra, who ever saw any "sheep, "but such as disgraced the breeders of that "animal?" Who ever" paid particular "attention to planting?' By whom was the" barley and turnip sys'em introduced?" By whom were "layers regularly sown?" Who ever made the finest wheats" grow in the "western district," which (as Mr. Roope elegantly observes) was "conspicuous "for its growth of rye?" Who ever saw men mow corn on swamps, where before they had walked up to their knees in wa"ter to mow off the rushes?" who had "farm-houses and stack-yards full of corn?" Who ever heard "heaths groan for the sic"kle?" (which to say the truth, must be a very alarming noise to the neighbourhood,) Who, before that time, saw a farmer's "wife, "take pride in shewing the management of

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concerns within doors?" (for which they are so very remarkable now!) who ever knew

maids receive public gifts for their good "conduct?" Who ever got the better of that boisterous bully the " German Ocean,” till Mr. Coke got acquainted with "a man "of vast geological knowled,e, Mr. Wil"liam Smith, mineralogist?" Who ever thought of any one of all these things? To most of these questions, if not to all, I am well aware, that some persons pretend to have answers to give, many and diverse and all " as ready as a borrower's

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cap." But to every one of them, Mr. Roope and I answer promptly and decidedly, NOBODY." No abuse, Hal, none; none, Ned, none; no, boys, none ! The man of NORFOLK has himself individually accomplished all this good; and I will presently make it as clear" as the sun-beams in

a cucumber," which Mr. Roope has not done What! Is he not "Knight of the "Shire to represent us all?" Did he not tell us at the famous barley meeting at NORWICH, of the solemn charge he had received on a former similar occasion, from that great statesman Mr. Fox, then in power, not to allow the alarming question to be agitated, but to keep HIS county quiet? Does not that sublime title man of NORFOLK, (which he has been solicited," to bear) in its own proper import imply, that he absorbs and concentrates in himself, all the inconsiderable good, which may perchance, have been done by others? Does he not "reign is

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