briety, vigilance, and consideration for his crew; and these qualities are within the reach of every man. The American government, too, has a wide range for choice; with it no intrigues, commonly called "in our inferiority of force is another of the possession of the powers of the state depend " 1. HAL -Those predict, that, day after day, will tend to shilling of the £6,000 that, as President, convince all persons of impartiality, that he receives. And, why should he not? we are right. -This war we owe entire- What, claim would he have to the title ly to the presumption inspired by our fool- of patriot, if he grudged to use his talents ish and venal writers. The language of for his country; or, which is the same the late PERCEVAL, who talked of not wish- thing, if he refused to use them without ing for the "destruction" of America, and being paid for their use? If such were his who spoke of her as of a power depending disposition, what claim would he have to on his will for her very existence; this lan- the confidence of his fellow-citizens? But, guage, which will long be remembered, with the common soldier or sailor, or other was the general language of the press. inferior person employed by the governWe could not believe it possible, that a go- ment, the case is wholly different. He vernment, the whole of the officers of which, has nothing but his labour for his inhePresident and all, did not receive from the ritance; he possesses no part of the counpublic so much money annually as one of try; his time is his all; and, of course, our sinecure place-men; we could not he is paid for that time at as good rate as if conceive, that a government who did he laboured for an individual.not get more money for itself would who speculate upon the resources of Amebe able to get money enough to carry on a rica should not overlook these important war more than sufficient to last our sloops circunstances; but, hitherto, I am sorry for a few months. We have now found to say, that we have almost wholly overour mistake; and, indeed, the premises looked them.- -I never shall forget the which we had in our eye should have led obstinacy of many persons with whom I am to a directly different conclusion; for, acquainted, as to the intention of the Amewould not common sense have told us, that rican government to go to war. They perthe less of the public money was taken by sisted to the very last, that it was imposthe officers of Government for their own sible. They called the declaration of the use; the less of it that was devoured by Congress "bullying," they said it was "all placemen, and by others for no services" smoke;" and so, indeed, said the hired rendered the public, the more there must press, that vehicle of lies, that instrument of be for the Government to employ in the ill to England.They have found some public service? This would have been fire as well as smoke; they have found that the rational conclusion; but, to reason the Republicans have something at their thus, suited not those who had, and who command besides words; and, when it is too have, the control over ninety-nine hun- late, I fear that they will find, that this is dredth parts of the press of this country. the most fatal war in which we have yet They, therefore, represented America as been engaged. One effect of it appears to a nation destitute of warlike means; when me to be inevitable; and that is, the crethey should have made an estimate of her ation of a Navy in America.--Pray, resources upon the grounds stated in my good hired men, do not laugh at me; for I last number.- -The persons in high am quite serious when I say, that my fear offices in America are badly paid; but (and is, that this war will lead to the creating of the fact is worth great attention) those in a formidable in America. The means low rank, or, no rank at all, are well paid. are all in her hands, and her successful The former have very small salaries; their beginning will not fail to give activity to gains are much less than those of any con- those means.- A Navy, a military masiderable merchant or manufacturer, law-rine, in America, is, to me, a most formiyer, or physician; but, the common sol- dable object. Twenty frigates only would dier and sailor are paid at a very high cause an expense to us of millions a-year, rate; at such a rate as not to make him unless we resolved to yield the West India regret his change from civil life. Islands at once. -I would not advise should not say, perhaps, that the former our government to look upon the rearing are badly paid; because, there is something of an American Navy as something necesin the honour of high office, which the sarily distant. America has swelled her common man does not enjoy; and, besides, population from about two to about eight there is something due from every man to millions in the space of less than 30 years. his country; and, the greater that is his Another ten years may see her population stake in the country, the less is his right to ammount to twenty millions. From not bedraw from her purse. Mr. Madison does, ing permitted to make a hob-nail," she I dare say, expend, as President, every has risen to be an exporter of numerous navy useful manufactures. I state it as an unde- I am not one of those who shall regret this independence of America, which I do not think will prove any injury to England in the end; but, I could have wished the change to have been less abrupt, and effected without war, and without the animosi-, ties and the sufferings inseparable from war. To me it appears as absurd as it is unnatural, that the American farmer should not have his coat untaxed at the customhouse in England. I can see no sense and no reason in it. Nor do I see why the people of England, or any portion of them, should make coats or knives, or any thing else for the use of other countries, except merely in such quantities as may be necessary to exchange for wine and oil, and some few other things which really are useful to man. com The use of commerce is to effect an exchange of the products of one climate. for those of another; but governments have turned it into the means of laxation, and, in many cases, that appears to be its only. object. An exchange of English coals for French wine, the former at 30s. a chaldron, at Paris, and the latter at 6d. a bottle in London: that would, indeed, be a merce to be contemplated with pleasure. But a commerce, carried on under a code of prohibitions and penalties, such as those now every where in existence, is not to be desired. It is an instrument of taxation, and an endless source of war, and it is nothing more.- -Those, however, who are of a different opinion, may look upon the war with America as one of the surest means of destroying, or, at least, diminishing for ever, the best branch of what they admire; but, while I blame the ministers for the war, I must say, that the merchants and manufacturers (I mean the powerful ones) have no right to blame them. The ministers, in their measures towards America, have done no more than pursue that same system, of which those merchants and manufacturers have a thousand times, and in the strongest terms, ex¬ pressed their approbation. At the out-set of this long and destructive war, who stood forward so readily in support of it as this class of persons? The war-whoop has invariably originated with them. They indulged the selfish hope of seeing themselves in possession of all the trade and all the riches of the world. The English news-papers contain a record of their love of war, of war against any body, so long as it promised gain to them. They have, over and over again, called the war which began in an invasion of France by the Duke of Brunswick, 65 a just and necessary war;" but, of late, they appear to have been taught by their poor-books and the list of Bankrupts, ❝ence that the war is not quite so necessary, "" notice by the rapidly increasing Beggary however "just", they may still think it." and Wretchedness of Myriads of its inThey have, I repeat it, no right to com- "dustrious and frugal Inhabitants, who, plain against the ministers, who have not" at no very distant period, enjoyed affludeviated from the system of Pitt and Grenor competence; and also by the ville, and who, with regard to Ame-" obviously increasing INABILITY of our rica, are only acting upon the very same "ablest Financiers, even while imposing a principles, and pursuing the very same ob-"most oppressive Taxation, to devise means jects, that have been acted upon, and pur"for raising Supplies in any wise corres sued from the year 1792 to the present "pondent to the Public Annual Expenditure, day; and the manufacturers are tasting, In the largest Parish of this once as is most meet, of the fruit of the tree of" flourishing, but now miserable Town, their own planting and protecting. "nearly a third part of its Population, in "consequence of the interruption of Trade, PEACE. The following Petition for "is reduced to the state of PAUPERS; and Peace, of the Town of NOTTINGHAM, is in the other Parishes of the Town, not worthy of particular attention on account of "less oppressive to those Inhabitants on the facts it states. To His Royal High-whom a levy can be made, is the BURness the Prince Regent.-Sir, We, the "DEN OF POOR'S RATES. And we are "Undersigned, Burgesses, or Inlrabitants "credibly informed, that a like reduction of the Town, and County of the Town of " to Beggary and Want of Multitudes of Nottingham, and its Precincts, beg leave our Countrymen in the different Manuto claim the attention of your Royal "facturing Towns of this Kingdom, is the "Highness, as being the Representative of "consequence of the annihilation of our "a Sovereign, whose highest glory we "Trade, and of the increase of the Taxa-. presume it is, that he should be consi- tion produced by War. Additional ❝dered as the Father of his People; while to these Evils, might be recalled to your "we dutifully present, before the Throne," Royal Highness's recollection those also,, "a statement of the Evils from War, ex"which are inevitable concomitants of the perienced by Ourselves, and by Millions most successful Wars, even when waged beside of His Majesty's vast family: and "by Nations whose resources may be the while we earnestly supplicate, from a "most ample, and whose condition the * Paternal Regard, so becoming an English "most flourishing. It assuredly cannot "Monarch, that relief from dire distress, ""be a matter of little estimation with your "which the speedy restoration of Peace "alone can be expected to afford. แ 66 On 66 Royal Highness, that Thousands of brave "Men should be extended lifeless on the that Royal Power, which was designed "Field of Battle: that Thousands should' "to be a blessing and protection to Mil-"perish by the hardships of Warfare: that lions, we call for an exertion of God-like" that there should be Thousands of mourn* Benevolence, which shall speedily termi-"ing Widows and Orphan Children: that "nate a Contest, unhappily commenced "Thousands of Parents should be hurried "with precipitancy, and direfully pro"to the Grave by the loss of beloved Sons, "longed by the exasperated passions and passions and "who were the support of their declining "the d underings of Men." Years: that Thousands should die linMany are the Motives to Peace, and most "gering deaths in Captivity; and that the powerful, which might be expected to "Majority of the Survivors of a long and "influence the mind of your Royal High- "bloody Contest, having, in a course of ness. A respect for the divine principles "Warfare, experienced interruption to "of Christianity and Humanity, it may be "those Moral habits, which promote the hoped, will prevent your Royal High-" harmony, comfort, and welfare of Civil 66 ness from being swayed by the represen- "Society and of Domestic Life, should, on ❝tations of Men, whose prejudices, pas- "the return of a state of Peace, be rendersions, or selfish interests, render themed less valuable Members of Society, and Advocates for the PERPETUITY OF A WAR "less welcome to the Roofs of their Rela"which, if much longer persisted in, will" tions and Friends.evidently be accompanied by civil com-"ration of Peace alone motion, by famine, and by pestilence." heavy Evils we endure, and save the InAn awful admonition of our having ❝nearly exhausted the Resources of the Country is painfully obtruded on our As Speedy restomitigate the habitants of this Land from impending ruin, and the irrecoverable loss of their once prosperous and enviable Condition; as 66 of Nottingham now claim our attention, and, we are told, that in one of the principal parishes, nearly every third person is a pauper. The misery must, in such a case, be dreadful; and it will, I trust, meet due attention from the parliament. "now the ill success and disappointed views "of the Enemy may lead him to listen "more readily to reasonable Conditions of Peace; we join our afflicted Countrymen in earnestly petitioning your Royal High ness to manifest by some unequivoca! Expression or Public Act of the British Go- Perceval used to say, in answer to all "vernment, your truly Royal desire to applications for relief to such persons, that seize the earliest opportunity of sheath- it would do harm if granted; but, why, ing the Sword of Slaughter, and healing then, make grants of relief to the Russians 2 "the wounds of a long-protracted War: Why should such a grant do more harm in that thus the Enemy may be precluded England than in Russia? Mr. Wilberforce "from plausibly throwing the odium of (formerly member for Yorkshire and now "delight in War and its concomitant mi- for the borough of Bamber) said, that he "series on your Royal Highness's pacifica- had attempted to make a calculation of the tory Government.- -We will indulge sum per head which the Russian £200,000 "the hope that your Royal Highness will would amount to, if divided amongst the grant the Prayer of our Petition; and paupers in England: but that he had "that your Highness's endeavours will be found it to be too small to admit of a name. "effectual in soon restoring to the afflicted Indeed! Why, there are 4 millions of "People, intrusted to your Royal protec- shillings in £200,000. And, if the "tion, that lasting Peace after which they worthy representative of the borough of so ardently aspire.Thus may the Bamber did not estimate our sons and "blessings of the Peace-maker descend on daughters of misery at more than 4 mil"your Royal Highness; and thus may lions, the £200,000 given to the Russians your Royal Father, when called from would have given each of our poor crea his present state of sufferings to a better tures a shilling; and would have fed them "World, be enabled to resign to your better than they are now fed for half a "Royal Highness, in a state of Peace, that week. If he considered the number of "Throne, which he ascended amid the din paupers at 3,000,000, and that is nearly "of arms, and on which he has continued one-third part of the population, the "to sit during so many years of war." £200,000 would have afforded all our -The statement relative to the paupers paupers is. 6d. each; and, I can assure is very alarming. The consequences of the member for Bamber, that eighteen such a state of things no man can foresee. pence a-piece would have made their eyes The news-papers tell us, that a detachment sparkle.Nay, would not £200,000 of the Queen's Bays have been marched have maintained all the paupers in England into the town; for the purpose, I suppose, and Wales for a whole week? £200,000, of giving relief to the hungry bellies of the multiplied by 52, gives the sum of people! The writers are assuredly the £10,400,000; and, I believe, that, at most callous men that ever breathed. They the last return laid before parliament, the never, upon any occasion, let slip out, total amount of the poor-rates, in England even by accident, a sentiment of com- and Wales, for one year, was less than passion for the sufferings of the people, £6,000,000. Indeed, I know that it was They are always for measures of vigour so; and, therefore, unless the poor-rates towards them. Vigour, indeed! What have nearly doubled in amount during the vigour is wanted towards a set of poor last ten years, the member for Bamber creatures whom the wind would almost will find, that this grant to the poor of blow away? ? For my part, however sin-Russia would have maintained all the poor gular my taste may be, I would much ra- in England for one whole week; and, ther give a pound to these poor souls at would it have been nothing to give them a Nottingham than the millionth part of a double allowance for a week? Would it farthing to the people of Russia, who, as be nothing to give all the poor of our own we are NOW told by the Times news-country a week's food in this pinching paper, set fire to their own houses, their people at Lloyd's; own goods, their own food, their own as to the SUBSCRIBING people, let them sick and wounded soldiers; and, in short, have their taste; they subscribed towards the whole of the capital of the Russian the war, and so did the old, famous old Empire. But, more of these impudent gentleman, who subscribed £10,000 tolies about Moscow another time: the poor wards the voluntary contributions, and season? As to the P ་ |