wrong in itself, because, being subject to passion like other men, he might knock a person down; but, that he can do nothing which shall subject him to the operation of the criminal law. In any other sense, the words are an absurdity. They would suppose the King to have neither will nor judg ment of his own; to be a mere state puppet, whose situation might be filled by an ideot or a log of wood. To that sort of courtesy, which imputes to the ministers all that one disapproves of in the language and conduct of the King, there is no objection; but, to carry this so far as to call upon the people to avenge the King on account of what he, from his own lips, has uttered, is really an insult upon the understanding of the public, and would be practised by no one, whose views were not much more of a party than of a public nature. BERKSHIRE has come to a resolution to follow the example of the City of London, and, as I fear the instances will be rare, after the rebuke which the city received, I shall, as far as I am able, perpetuate the memory of these instances. The following is an account of the proceedings in Berkshire :-" READING, Oct. 18.-Pursuant to a requisition signed by a number of the freeholders of our county, and an order issued in consequence thereof by the high sheriff, a most numerous and respectable meeting of the nobility, clergy and freeholders, was this day held in the town-hall, for the pur

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pose of taking into their consideration the "terms of the late Convention in Portugal, "which has been acceded to by the British

general officers commanding in that coun try, and for expressing to his majesty "their sentiments on the occasion.

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After

the usual form of opening the court, it was moved and seconded, "That an "humble and dutiful address be presented to his majesty, praying that he may be graciously pleased to order that an inquiry should be instituted with respect to the cause of the late disgraceful Conven❝tion in Portugal, and also beseeching his

majesty that he may be graciously pleased "to order that such steps may be taken, as "will ensure the punishment of the guilty

person or persons in that disgraceful trans"action, however high his rank in society may be."-The motion was made by "G. MITFORD, Esq. and seconded by C. DICKINSON, Esq. It was opposed by Mr. "NARES one of the British Critic parsons, "the other being the famous Mr. Beloe, "who was, sometime ago, at the British "Museum. Mr. Nares was seconded by a "Mr. COBHAM.-The opposition rested

same time, called for inquiry as to who

may be the guilty person, and expressing "the anxious hope of the freeholders; that. "exemplary punishment may follow this

trial and conviction. With respect to the.

second point which had been advanced "by some of the opposers of the motion, it "had been so repeatedly urged, and refuted "in the most able manner, that it was "thought hardly worth a comment; it was. a fact which was notorious to every Eng"lishman who ever consulted a page of "bis own history, that, however correct "the motives of the gentlemen who op

generally known, that at the periods of our history which excited the universal, "admiration of the world, the constitutional language of Britons was held to be this---. "that every subject, however humble his "station in life might be, had by the peculiarly inestimable blessings of the Bri"tish constitution, a most unquestionable right, and that, in fact, it was his boun"den duty, to approach the throne, on any "great public emergency, by which the "national character, interest, or honour,

rally creditable to Sir Henry Mildmay, who though in a very bad state of health, did, I believe, attend the meeting in person. The inhabitants at large, of the city and suburbs of Winchester, have also sent an Address, of which a copy is here inserted. I have heard, too, that the names, signed to this address, were, many of them, such as might have been expected to be withheld, upon such an occasion. Really, if Winchester acts thus, there may be something like soul yet left in this county. The account is as follows, and it is with unfeigned satisfaction that, I put it upon record.— "On Monday se'nnight the corporation of "Winchester held a meeting, at the Guild

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hall, for the purpose of considering the propriety of addressing his majesty on the "convention lately entered into by the of "ficers commanding his Majesty's forces "in Portugal, H. C. P. Mildmay, esq. the mayor, in the chair. An address was proposed by Mr. Alderman Earle, and "seconded by Mr. Alderman Silver, and "unanimously agreed to, praying his Majesty to institute an inquiry into their conduct. Sir R. Gamon, bart, and H. C P. "Mildmay, esq. the representatives of this

city, were desired to present the same, "attended by Mr. Alderman Earle. Aud "on Thursday following, a meeting of the "inhabitants at large of the city and su"burbs of Winchester was held at the same place (by permission of the mayor) for "the like purpose; when Dr. Littlehales was unanimously called to the chair, and "the following address was proposed by W. F. Bury, esq. and seconded by J, Woolls, esq. and unanimously agreed to:

TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT

"MAJESTY.—May it please your Majesty, "We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, inhabitants of the city and "suburbs of Winchester, beg leave to approach the throne to express our sincere "attachment to your royal person and family, and being sensible that your Majesty's true glory is inseparable from that "of your people, we humbly presume to pray that your Majesty will be pleased to order a full, free, and effective inquiry "to be made into the causes and circum"stances of the convention of Portugal - a "convention which has caused general mor

presume to anticipate conviction, if, upon mature investigation, is shall be found "that your commanders were compelled by insurmountable obstacles to conclude "such a treaty, justice demands that they "should be reinstated in the good opinion "of their country; but, on the other hand, "if they were actuated by any thing less than imperious necessity, we are fully persuaded, from the interest which your majesty must ever feel in the fair fame "and honour of your kingdom, that they "will experience such marks of your royal displeasure as may prove a severe example "to others, and deter them from tarnishing "in the cabinet, the glory acquired in the “Field."———This Address is very good indeed. There is none of that spaniel-lke huaility in it that we see in the London Adress. The people do not seem to speak as if they were approaching the throne of a life-and-death sovereign. Upon reading the London Address, one cannot help figuring to one's self a parcel of crouching creatures with knees knocking together and teeth clattering in their head, as if waiting the crash of a roof or the falt of a thunderbolt. No man living would suppose, that they were the descendants of the men, who obtained the Bill of Rights and the Act of Sellis ment. I hear that the county is to har meeting; but, whether the answer t city will put a stop to this, is more the shall pretend to determine,- ESSEXS about to meet, and I am happy to perceive, that Mr. BURGOYNE is taking an active part, for, it I am to judge from what he has writ ten and published, he is as sensible and sound a man as any in the kingdom, though, as to some particular points, I differ from hum in opinion. That county has been, as to representation in parliament, a nullity, for many years. The two factions, as they did in Westminster, have, to save trouble and expence, made an amicable arrangement, by which they name each a member, the chief persons in the county have a good dinner, once in six years, toast the British Constitution, and the people have just as much to say in the matter, as the good people of Russia or Turkey or Germany have in choosing their representatives. Aye, here is the source; here is the real cause of all our failures abroad and of all our misery at home. There should be no Address, or Petition, upon this occasion, uncoupled with a declaration as to this fertile cause of mischief. It is idle to talk about reformation any where else, till a reformation take place here.As somewhat con nected with this subject of the Convention,

of imposture that has appeared in print for many years, but I have not time; and, besides, nothing should be mixed with this discussion relative to the Convention. It is what is doing and to be done here, here, here at home, that ought to engage our great care and attention. What care I about Ferdinand and Joseph. I am not to have my wits drawn away by this tub to the whale.Little room as I have, however, I cannot help pointing out to the attention of the reader, a pamphlet, just published, under the following title: "An Appeal to "the Public and a farewell Address to the "Army, by BREVET MAJOR HOGAN, who

resigned his commission, in consequence of "the treatment he experienced from the "Duke of York, and of the system that

prevails in the army, RESPECTING PRO"MOTIONS." This, I scruple not to say, is the most interesting publication that has appeared in England for many years. It should be read by every individual in the nation. Oh, what a story does this gentleman tell! What a picture does he exhibit! What facts does he unfold! If this produce no effect upon the public, why, then, we are so base and rascally a crew, that it is no matter what becomes of us. We are unworthy of the name of men, beneath the beasts that perish. Botley, 20th Oct. 1808.

and are

CONVENTION IN PORTUGAL. SIR;-When I addressed you on the 19th ult. under the then recent impression which the Conventions in Portugal had made upon me, I noticed every circumstance of them that seemed to call for animadversion. I have since attended to the public discussions on this important subject, and in particular to those very judicious and dispassionate observations which have appeared under your name. I have there seen my own opinions confirmed and strengthened by an able developement of topics on which I had only briefly commented; I have derived additional information from the exposition of several incidental points connected with the main question; and I have, in general, observed, with a satisfaction which is to me the source of much hope and sanguine expectation for the public weal, the periodical and political writers of the United Kingdom (with one solitary and despicable exception) zealously employing their pens and presses, in holding up to universal indignation, the transactions of our commanders in Portugal, in calling for justice upon the guilty, and in thus rescuing the British nation from the "deep damnation" of conniv

ing at what, until some great act of national justice has taken place, must be considered as fixing a most hateful stain upon the national character.-But, Mr. Cobbett, I have. looked in vain amongst all the writers on our present subject for any thing amounting to a pretence of justification of the Conventions;

still less have I been able to find what could be called a plausible excuse for the persons implicated in the conclusion of them. The exception above alluded to is the Morning Post, the only print that has endeavoured to screen one of the actors in this drama from public indignation by the means (equally discreditable to the principal and his agent) of transferring the blame to an absent and a weaker party. This print has, however, so perpetually shifted its ground of argu ment; has so often stated facts and revoked them; has had so often recourse to insinua. tion and misrepresentation where plain and direct language would not suit its purpose; and has now taken such undue advantage of the hacknied device of forging letters from the fleet and army in Portugal;-that it is im possible to say how it would now state the case of its patron if called upon to make a short summary of his apology. We are moreover, entitled to entertain this doub from the conduct of the Morning Post since, as well as before, Sir A. Wellesley's re from Portugal. That event has afforded the public no more satisfactory ground than it already possessed for thinking well of the Conventions. In fact, nothing has been said by Sir A. Wellesley or his friends, since his arrival in England, to justify his conduct: they have abandoned their original ground, the famous Protest and Sir Arthur's passive agency; and they have substituted nothing in lieu thereof; so that Sir Arthur stands. at this moment, arraigned for misconduct before the British public, and not a plea, nor any thing that deserves the name of argument, is offered in his defence. It may be said that his great mind disdains to answer what he calls the petty captious bickerings of the vulgar; that he reserves his justification for the grand military inquisition that will hereafter set at the Horse Guards. Be it so; but, if this contempt of public opinion be really the motive of his silence, his friends have strangely mistaken his character in the many awkward attempts that they have made in his favour. It has been said that Sir A arrived in England quite ignorant of the impression made amongst us by his proceedings, and thinking that he had accom plished an amazing feat in getting the French out of Portugal by means of his Conventions. I very much doubt this. I believe, on the

contrary, that he well knew, before he left Portugal, how those acts had been received, not only by the nation at large but also by his majesty's government; and that his coming over, without being recalled, was owing to the advice of his friends here, who, in conformity to the old adage that "the "absent are always in the wrong," thought that he would do well to come and make good his own story, leaving his superior officers to the chance of what their friends might be able to do for them. It is at the same time but justice to Sir A. to observe, that the circumstance of his plan of defence by recrimination being abandoned, does look as if he were unwilling to sanction so base a proceeding, though he has brought his officious defenders into a scrape very common to injudicious friends,that of being betrayed into meanness which their very patron is ashamed of and obliged to disavow. At all events, if it should be true that Sir Arthur came away from Portugal in the belief that he had acted meritoriously, and had only to receive on his arrival the plaudits of a grateful country, he could not have been long in England without being undeceived. The very boatmen who landed his baggage, the porter who strapped it on his carriage, must have stared reproof in his face; the looks of every creature he met would apprise him of his fallen estate. When he reached town, he must have learned from his friends the many atrocious ca Jumnies (as they would call them) that had issued against him from the press since the Conventions were known; or even if, through delicacy, his friends should not have told him all. the first file of newspapers that he laid his hand upon would shew him how much lee-way he had to make up in the public opinion. Is it then probable, Sir, that under these circumstances any man even of ordinary ambition, and although you do admit him in some sort to despise the vulgar bias of the public mind, should be so far indifferent to his fame, as to neglect any means he night possess of giving a favourable turn to his case? In short, Sir, had Sir A. Wellesley had any thing that could make in his favour, that would be sufficient, I will not say to stop, but even to suspend for a moment, or to slacken the cur rent that now so strongly runs against him, do you think that he would have withheld it? I am convinced that he would not; and I there fore infer, that he has nothing of this nature to advance. What, then, you will say, must become of him when, in the hour of public trial, which hour (I differ from you Mr. Cobbett in thinking) must come, he

shall be called upon for his public defence and justification ?-Having told you what I believe that he has not done, only because he could not do it, I will tell you what I as firmly believe will happen upon the occasion to which I look forward.-Whenever a public inquiry into this business takes place, you may depend upon it that we shall be told that the nation has been labouring under a most strange and unaccountable mistake; for that, instead of a calamity, which they seem (poor, silly, ignorant people!) to think has befallen them, they have received a great and signal benefit from the very person on whom they are now calling for judgment. Ia what that benefit will be made to consist might indeed be difficult to guess, were it not that we have been already told, that the ridding Portugal at any rate of the French army was to be considered as such. This, then, is the greatnational advantage, that we Englishmen have derived from the immense expence of an armament, such as was never before sent out of British ports, and from the gallantry of our soldiers displayed in two signal defeats of the enemy. Yes, Sir, this, we shall be told, was the main end and object of the expedition; this has been accomplished, and therefore we ought to be satisfied. To give plausibility to this story, you see that Jinot's "whole army" is already magnified from 14,000, which were all he could muster at Vimeira, to 25 or even 27,000, which are to be conveyed in our transports from Lisbon to Rochefort; but you very well know too, that if tonnage has really been demanded for this number of men, they will consist of any thing but combatants: probably sick, wounded, civilians, and a very large proportion of renegado Portuguese. Nevertheless shall we be told, that these noted Conventions have driven out of Portugal the whole 25,000 men, just as Lord Castlereagh gravely informed us last year that Lord Cathcart had achieved the conquest of Zealand, when there were 35,000 Danes in arms to oppose him, though every drummer in our army knew, that, excepting the garririsons of Copenhagen and Cronberg, amounting altogether to 6,000 men, there was not, at the time of the capitulation, nor, for many days previous to it, a single man in arms in the whole island; and that there had at no time been one regular battalion without the walls of the above-mentioned towns ?—That this deliverance of Portugal was not available for the farther operations of the war; that it did not set a man of ours at liberty to assist the Spaniards, but on the contrary deprived our army of the transports in which it might have been conveyed near the scene