blood, he had fulfilled all the duties of a virtuous prince, adored by his subjects, and who, to the Supreme Being alone, has to account for his actions.-The French government there observed a line of conduct towards his R. H and bis dominions, which would be unprecedented in history, were not the invasion of Switzerland by France, in the time of the executive directory, of a similar description. Gen. Junot, without any previous declaration, without the consent of the Prince Regent of Portugal, entered the kingdom with the vanguard of his army, assuring the people of the country through which he marched, that he was going to succour his R. H. against an invasion of the English, asd that he entered Portugal as the general of a friendly and allied power. He received on his journey convincing proofs of the good faith of the Portuguese government; for he witnessed the perfect uneasiness which prevailed with regard to France; and that all the Portuguese troops were near the coast. His R. H. the Prince of Portugal, surprised in such an extraordinary manner, might have rallied around him the body of troops, which were at a small distance from him, caused the English fleet to enter the port of Lisbon, and thus cut to pieces the small and miserable corps with which gen. Junot was advancing, with a degree of temerity which would have been ridiculous, had not gen. Jumot, whose condret at Venice and Lisbon has but made him too well known, relied on the feelings of a virtuous prince, who would never expose his people to the most dreadful of calamities by a sure first success, which only could have served to chastise the audacity of a man, who, like many others, abused the power with which he was entrusted, or who acted in pursuance of orders which cannot be justified.-His royal highness the Prince Regent then adopted the only measure which could suit his situation, according to the principle which he had constantly followed, to save the blood of his people, and in order to prevent the criminal plan of the French government from being carried into execution, which bad nothing less in view than to secure his royal person and the whole royal family, in order to divide, at its own will and pleasure, the spoils of the crown of Portugal and the Portuguese dominions. Providence seconded the efforts of a just pr nce, and the magnanimous resolution which his royal highness adopted, to retine, with his august royal family, to Brazil, disconcerted at once the efforts of the French government, and exposed, in the clearest light, in the face of Europe, the criminal and treacherous views of a government which aims at the universal domination of all Europe and of the whole world, if the great European powers, roused from the lethargic stupor into which they are sunk, do not make common cause vigorously to oppose an ambition so im moderate and excessive.-Since his R. H.'s safe arrival in his dominions, in Brazil, he has learned with horror, not only the usurpation of Portugal, and the pil lage and plunder, practised in that country, but also the shameful proceeding of the Emperor of the French, who, as the true dictator of Europe, dares to represent it as a crime of his R. H.'s that he has removed his seat of gvernment to Brazil; and in his faithful subjects who followed him, to have accompanied a prince, whom all his people revere, still more on account of his virtues, than of the rights of his august royal family, which he has inherited, and by virtue of which he reigns over them. His R. H. has witnessed with horror the hardihood with which an attempt has been made, in an official paper, to proscribe the rights of his august royal family to the crown of Portugal, with which he will never part; aud he is entitled to demand of the emperor of the French, from what code of the law of nations he has drawn similar principles, and received such an authority, claiming to this subject the most serious consideration of all European powers, who cannot see with indifference what has here been stated, and the introduction of a new government in Portugal, without his consent: as well as the raising of an exorbitant contribution, demanded from a country which opposed no kind of resistance to the entry of the French troops, and which, on this very ground, could not consider itself as being at wat with France.-The most remote posterity, as well as impartial Europe, will see with grief similar transactions, the forerunners of ages of barbarism and misery, such as those which followed the downfall of the Roman empire, and which cannot be avoided, unless exertions be made to restore the equipoise of Europe, by an unanimous effort, and with a total oblivion of all ideas of rivalship, which have hitherto been the true causes of the elevation of that monstrous power which threatens to swallow, up all.After this correct and true statement, made by his R. H. the Prince Regent of Portu gal, to Europe and to his subjects, of every thing which has taken place between the Portuguese and French government; and as the emperor of the French has not only invaded Portugal, and laid that country under the most dreadful and almost incredible con◄ tributions, under the cloak of friendship, but has also long ago withdrawn his embassy from his Royal Highness's court, and evenly determination of the people of Portugal caused Portuguese merchant ships to be to establish the government of their lawful seized, which were in his ports, without prince, and emancipate their country from any previous declaration of war, and con- French oppression-I send, agreeable to trary to an express article of the treaty of your requests, ships, troops, arms, and amneutrality, from which he derived the munition, and have dir cted the standard of greatest advantages; and, lastly, declared his royal highness the Prince Regent of Porwar against him, according to the report of tugal to be reared, round which every loyal the minister for foreign affairs; his Royal Portuguese is hereby invited immediately to Highness, after having resigned his cause rally, and to take up arms in so just and so into the bands of the Almighty, whom he glorious a cause.-To be successful, Portuhas every right to invoke in so just a cause, guese, you must be unanimous; and, jointhinks it due to his rank, and to the dignity ed by your brave neighbours and friends the of his crown, to make the following decla- Spaniards, you must not be intimidated by ration His Royal Highness breaks off all menaces, nor seduced by promises.-Some communication with France, recalls all the months' experience must have convinced you members of his embassy, if any should yet of the effect of French friendship; it is now remain, and authorises his subjects to wage to British faith and assistance, aided by your war, by sea and land, against the subjects of own energy and efforts, that you will, I trust, the emperor of the French.-His R. H. de- be indebted to the restoration of your prince clares null and void all the treaties which and the independence of your country.the emperor of the French, has compelled (Signed) C. COTTON. him to conclude, and in particular those of Badajoz and Madrid, in 1801, and that of neutrality in 1804; because he has violated and never respected them.-His R. H. shall not lay down his arms, unless in concert with his Britannic Majesty, his old and faithful ally, and will never agree to a cession of Portugal, which forms the most ancient part of the inheritance and of the rights of his august royal family.-When the emperor of the French shall have satisfied, in every point, the just claim of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent of Portugal, and shall have relinquished the dictatorial and imperious tone in which he lords it over oppressed Europe, and when he shall have restored to the crown of Portugal all he has invaded, in the midst of peace, and without the least provocation, his royal highness will avail himself of the earliest opportunity to renew the connexion which has always subsisted between the two countries, and which ought to exist between nations, which will never be divided but by the principles of an inordinate ambition, which, according to the experience of ages, have also proved destructive to the welfare and tranquillity of all nations by which they were adopted. ITALY. In pursuance of the circular address from the government to all the prelates of Tuscany, the archbishop of Florence transmitted to all the clergy within his diocese a pastoral Letter, of which the following is a passage:-As some of those who are subject to our authority, forgetful of the most sacred duties of a Christian, have dared to take the liberty of censuring the government, we admonish you, both in public and private, to hold the sovereign in respect and honour, and by your example and instructions to encourage the faithful to obedience. Remember that the holy Apostle Paul calls kings the servants of God; and the kings, of whom the Apostle speaks, were no other than heathens and adversaries to the cause of Christ. The true Christian is the enemy of no man, much less of the Emperor, for he is aware that his majesty holds his appointment from God, and that he must love and honour him, and offer up his prayers for his preservasion. COBBETT'S Parliamentary Debates. The Tenth Volume of the above Work, comprising the period from the Opening of the Session on the 21st of January to the 8th of April, is ready for delivery. The Eleventh Volume, which will close the Debates of the Session, is in considerable forwardness. The Appendix will contain the Annual Financial Accounts, together with other valuable Documents connected with the Proceedings in Parliament during I the Session. Printed by Cox and Baylis, Great Queen Street; published by R. Bagshaw, Brydges Street, Covent Garden, where former Numbers may be had: sold also by J. Budd, Crown and Mitre, Pall-Mall. VOL. XIV. No. 8.] LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 1808. [PRICE 10D. 257] "Damns with faint praise....... SUMMARY OF POLITICS. DUKE OF YORK.Of all the subjects, which, for some time past, have engaged the attention of the public, no one has excited an interest so general and, to all ap pearance, so deep, as the talked-of appointment of the Duke of York to take command of the army destined to act in Spain and Portugal. Not to the inns, the coffeehouses, the marts, the malls, and the settled gossiping shops has the conversation upon this subject been confined. It has entered into all private circles; it has been a standing dish at the dinner and tea-table; men stop each other in the streets to talk about the Duke of York's going to Spain; the eager Londoner stops, even in his way to the 'Change, to ask whether it be really true, that the Duke of York is going to Spain; nay, in the very church-porches of the country, among the smock-frocked politicians, whose conversations, as to public matters, seldom went beyond the assessed taxes, you see half a score faces thrust almost to the point of contact, in order to know "for zartin if the Duke of Yark be " a gooen to be zent to Spain." I have often wondered how this last-mentioned de. scription of persons came to hear of the Duke of York; that is to say, how they came to know, that there was such a person in the world. Not one out of a thousand of them knows that there is such a man as Mr. Canning or Mr. Perceval. They all are familiarly acquainted with the name of Lord Nelson. This I can account for; but, I really cannot account for the perfect knowledge which they appear to have of "the "Duke of Yark," as they call him. The fact is, however, that, in spite of whatever efforts some persons may have made to keep the deeds of the Duke hidden from the world, to put, as it were, his light under a bushel, he is, at this moment, not a bit less famous than Lord Nelson himself, and has, or the fault shall not be mine, as fair a chance of immortality. Such being the case, the discussion relative to the talked-of appointment ought not to be slovened over. We ought, before we quit it, to come to something like a conclusion, so that we may carry with us a settled opinion, which may -POPE. [258 be of great use to be applied hereafter in the way of precedent. In my last sheet, I quoted an article of the Morning Chronicle, and made some remarks thereon. I shall now quote another, which is in the form of a letter to the editor, affecting to defend the Duke of York and to praise him; but, it is but too evidently such praise, and made use of for such a purpose, as are described in the words of my motto. The letter is long and very dull, but I wish to have it upon record, that, if the subject should ever be started again, we may refer to the sort of statement and reasoning made use of at this time. The reader will perceive, that the letter purports to be a commentary upon a printed address to the Cabinet ministers, in which address those ministers are, it seems, censured for not sending the Duke of York to Spain in defiance of what it acknowledges to be the public opinion, but which it calls " ро"pular prejudice."" I have not seen "the printed Address to the Cabinet Mi"nisters mentioned in your paper of this "day, and I sincerely hope and trust it has, "not fallen under the view of his Royal Highness the Duke of York. It must give "the gallant mind extreme pain to find, that some despicable parasite has endeavoured 66 66 may check that full tide of confidence," or wrong. What is meant by the people "without which no soldier should go into "in this country ninety-nine times out of "battle. Of this his Royal Highness is a hundred, when they approach at all no doubt convinced, and therefore he has, "towards unanimity, is right. In the "it is said, personally declined pursuing un present instance, it is notorious that miobject which, perhaps, was once near his "nisters and people, ins and outs, are fully heart. Neither his Majesty himself, nor agreed in opinion; and they are all to be any of his royal offspring, have ever leen set right by an anonymous writer! But "deemed deficient in that courage which though he prove all that he attempts to "has always characterised the House of prove, what does it amount to? That his Brunswick, and is most becoming the royal highness has the negative merit of rank they hold in this free country. But "not being the cause of certain disasters on various occasions it has been thought "which have befallen the armies under his necessary to restrain their natural inclina- "command. Observe, that the secretary tion, and to reserve the display of their "at war may say the same of the Ferrol personal bravery to times of still greater expedition; but this would be but a bad "national hazard. No one can forget the "plea for sending him to Spain, perhaps to "warmth with which the heir apparent not "Ferrol itself, to animate the patriots by his presence. Ouserve, that General "Waitelocke (who, by the bye, canted "about the newspapers too), not only " long since solicited an ostensible com"mand in the army, destined to repel "invasion; nor the steadiness with "which his demand was resisted. I be"leve every man in the United Kingdom "honoared the prince for entertaining such a wish: many, who did so, certainly ap proved of its disappointment. The case "is exactly the same with the Duke; but "his royal highness will, no doubt, submit "with diguity to a necessity which he can not but lament, remembering the old "Fabian maxim, Famæ etiam jactura fa"cienda est pro patria.-If this be so, what "words are sufficient to express a just indig"nation against the wretched scribbler, " whoever he be, who with the hope of recommending himself to the favour of "the commander in chief, dares at once to insult the judgment, and to endanger the safety of a whole nation. Let him beware of public execration, and wisely "continue to shroud his name in the obsen might say, but did say the same of the "defeat at Buenos Aires; but it will be "hardly recommended, on such a ground, "to give him a command in Spain. It is "thus this writer degrades his royal high"ness by advancing, as arguments in his "favour, what would equally apply to, at "least have been equally urged by, some of "the worst officers in the army But it was necessary for him to do much more. "It was necessary to shew not only that his "royal highness's military talents possessed "the greatest positive excellence; but that they so far outweighed those of any other general in his majesty's service, and car"ried with them so inevitable a certainty of success, as to counterpoise every prejudice arising from his former ill-fortune, to stand in the place of the enthusiasm of "his whole army, and to render it a crime "in. ministers to trust their own weak and "limited judgment in opposition to such consummate wisdom. Now, as his royal highness's good sense would revolt at a "flattery so gross, so no man who has a "character to lose would dare to insult the " is an absurdity to suppose; and if such a "wish has been expressed by any of the "patriots, or of their deputies (which I do not believe), it has certainly been drawn "from them by the falsest misrepresenta"tion. Wishing all due credit to be given "to his royal highness's brave and patriotic "sentiments on the one hand, and all pro per weight to be allowed to the great con"siderations of policy, which, on the "other, preclude the possibility of his appointment, I trust that the question "will remain finally at rest, and that the "address will be treated with the contempt. "which it deserves. I am, Sir, &c. “CANDIDUS.”—For what purpose this very candid gentleman thought proper to repeat the word failures so often, and always in the plural number, to which, I suppose, he would, if our language had admitted of it, have added the masculine gender, in order to make them appear as big as possible; for what purpose he has so repeatedly referred to these failures; for what purpose he has introduced the affairs of Ferrol and Buenos Ayres; for what purpose he has, in as small a compass as the case would admit of, huddled together the names of Sir James Pulteney, General Whitelocke, and the Duke of York; for what purpose he has had recourse to such extraneous matter I shall not endeavour to discover, nor is it, indeed, of the smallest importance to the discussion, being, as far as I can perceive, not at all connected with the main, and the solely interesting, point; which is, how far it be consistent with sound policy, nay with plain common sense, to refuse, upon the ground stated by this writer, the request, which he assumes the Duke of York made to go to Spain, and yet to keep the very same Duke" in.reserve," to use a phrase of his own, to command the army at home, when, if that army should be wanted, the danger to England must be a thousand times as great as can be possibly apprehended from any failure, of whatever magnitude, in Spain. This is a point, in which every man, woman, and child must have an interest; and, it is this point, which I mean to discuss; or ra ther, I mean shortly to expose the folly, and, I must say it, the shocking baseness, of the writer, by whom the affirmative of the proposition has been attempted to be maintained. But, before I proceed a step further, let me guard against any misconstruction, or misapprehension, of my meaning. Observe, then, that I do not say, that the Duke of York has offered his services for Spain; on the contrary, I proceed expressly upon the total impossibility of his having made such an offer, because, as I stated in my last, it would be libellous in the most hateful, nay (excuse my warmth!) in the most hellish degree, to suppose, that he would, for one moment, comune to fill the office and receive the emoluments as Corinander-inChief at home, if, upon the score of his former failures (which is the reason alledged by this writer) his offer to take the chief command in Spain had been rejected by the ministers, for whatever cause that rejection might have proceeded. Mark me well, then; I do not admit that the Dake of York made the offer in question; and, if he did make it, I scout the idea of its having been rejected upon the score of former failures. Proceeding, then, upon a mere hypothesis, let us ask this very clever gentleman; this very loyal gentleman; this very patriotic gentleman of the Morning Chronicle, what are his reasons for thinking it sound policy for rejecting a general for foreign service, on account of his former failures; and, at the same time, keeping that general in the chief command at home? He tells us, that, whatever may be the real fact, with regard to the wisdom or courage of a general, the effect of prejudices against him cannot be obliterated from the minds of the soldiers, whose personal safety must, in so great a degree, depend upon his conduct; that it is, therefore, wise so to choose our generals, that no prejudice, no forebodings with respect to conduct, may check the full tide of confidence, with which soldiers ought to go into battle; that, therefore, it is necessary, to restrain the inclination, which generals, against whom there exists a prejudice, may feel for foreign commands, and to reserve the dis play of their personal bravery for times of "still greater national hazard.”—I will say, for this writer, that he deals not in the mysterious. His meaning is too plain to be mistaken. But, my good loyal gentleman; if you be not in jest; if you do not wish to be understood as speaking ironically; can you tell me why a want of confidence (for such you suppose to exist) should be less likely to arise in an army at home than in an army abroad? Why a want of confidence should be less likely to arise in times of great. national hazard at home, than in a foreign camp or field of battle? Is it, that the troops, who would be employed at home, would be composed of persons more accustomed to meet with difficulties; more accustomed to dispense with a want of confidence in the skill and courage of a chief; more likely to go boldly on, without thinking of their leader; more accustomed to set, comparatively, little value upon property and |