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to the amount of two thousand pounds a year. Will the House of Commons make inquiry into these matters? Will they ascertain, whether Sir Arthur Wellesley, whether the man who signed the Convention of Cintra; whether this man was, at that time, and had been, for months before, receiving pay, at the rate of six thousand pounds a year, as chief secretary of state in Ireland? Will they inquire into these interesting matters? Are these things right? Will any sy cophant, however base he may be, say that these things ought to be tolerated? To be "loyal" must a man hold his tongue upon matters of this sort? Is it to shew one's love of the country and of the constitution, to wink at these crying abuses? And, lastly, does the existence of such abuses tend to I strengthen, or to overthrow, our excellent form of kingly government?There is one general remark to add upon the proceed ings of the Court of Inquiry; and that is this: that all the persons, hitherto examined, are, more or less, parties concerned. They should, consistently with reason, be called upon for nothing but official returns, or other documents; not, at least, in the present stage of the business. What are their opinions to us? They will hardly say, that they think they have done wrong. They will hardly give such evidence as is calculated to throw blame upon themselves. We are proceeding as if upon an implied acknowledgement, that an English army can never, in any possible case, do amiss. But, the fact is, that whole armies have frequently done amiss. Whole battalions, at least, have been disgraced, and, in some cases, have had their colours, and the facings of their coats, taken from them. I do not say, that the army in Portugal, or any corps of it, is under a shade; but, I do say, that we have nothing to do, in the way of evidence, with the opinions of any of the generals employed upon that service. It is impossible, that such an Inquiry can prove satisfactory to any man, who really wishes for satisfaction. There may be men, who will feign that they are satisfied, that all is well, though they hear of the "Duc "d'Abrantes" having again taken possession of his Dukedom; but, the nation at large never will, and ever can, and never ought to be satisfied, with any thing short of a fair, open, legal, and rigorous investigation into the causes, which have produced such disastrous effects. Parliament will, indeed, have full power to take the matter up; and, if all other modes of legal inves tigation are refused us by the ministers, we shall look to that with great anxiety. The mind of the nation never was more decidedly

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made up as to any point whatever. impossible to shake it. The present proceedings have only strengthened the opinions already formed. There is no man, who looks with even the smallest degree of interest to the proceedings at Chelsea; and, if no other mode of Inquiry be instituted, fresh applications to the throne will certainly be made.

SPAIN. -There appears to be some reason to fear, that Napoleon is in but too fair a way of finally accomplishing his accursed purposes, with regard to the Spaniards. I was, but a few weeks ago, reproached by a correspondent for having, at first, expressed my fears, that the Spaniards would be subdued: I wish, with all my heart, that this ground of reproach, if it be one, may hold good to the end. I would much rather be regarded as a fool for the rest of my life, than that tyranny, in any shape, should, in a nation like Spain, triumph for a single day.- -The Morning Chronicle has an article complaining of the conduct of the GENERAL JUNTA in Spain; and, though one does not like to begin to blame, at a moment when the blamed party appears to be experiencing a reverse of fortune, it must be acknowledged, that, as far as we can judge at this distance from the scene, and with means of information so imperfect, there is, as the Chronicle observes, but too much reason to look back with regret to the Junta of Seville. -The General Junta may be composed of wise and good men ; but, it does not breathe the spirit of the Junta of Seville. It does, perhaps, contain' more of rank than the Junta just named: but more rank and title will, I should think, do, in such circumstances, little, or nothing.

-The General Junta appear to have directed their attention chiefly to the keeping of the people quiet; to the maintaining of "order and tranquillity;" to the repressing of all violences, proceeding from popular commotion. But, with their leave, this is not the way to oppose Buonaparte and his daring legions. The object of the Junta is, doubtless, to nip, in time, the bud of insurrection; lest, in, the end, the people, proceeding from one step to another, overturn the whole system of the government, in church as well as in state, as was the case in France. But, the question is, is Buonaparte to be resisted by any means other than those of a general insurrection; a general lettingloose of the people? I think, that he is not; and that the nobles of Spain have to choose, whether they, will see king Jo seph upon the throne, or see the people left to act as they please. There. wanted, in

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Spain, a renovation of character; an entirely new spirit excited; new talents called forth fron obscurity. Therefore, if the nobles have assembled in a Junta, and are endeavouring to keep the people quiet; to preserve order and tranquillity," they, in my view of the matter, are taking precisely the wrong course. It is, in that case, little more than the old government, administered by deputy, under which, it is my decided opinion, that, sooner or later, Spain must fall.

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It is not cautiousness that is now wanted in Spain. It is vigour; it is activity; it is great daring; it is enthusiasm. Anger, resentment, revenge; every feeling that leads to violence. These are wanted in Spain. With these Buonaparte may be resisted; but, without them, it seems to me that he cannot.There is one decree, or edict, of this General Junta, from which, if it be authentic, it is impossible not to forebode great evil. I men that, whereby they attempt to put a stop to what they call the licentiousness of the press." If the press assault only Buonaparte and his friends, it is evident that it cannot be too unshackled. Why attempt to check it, unless it be feared, that it will produce what is thought to be mischief, in Spain? And, if, so soon, the Junta itself be afraid of the press, the reader will easily suppose, that much of a change is not in contemplation, a fact which, the moment it is discovered by the people, will admonish them not to be very lavish of their blood. I must confess, that this little circumstance, this decree, for which the Junta will be, I dare say, greatly applauded by many, has, in my mind, excited very serious fears for the Spanish cause; because, if authentic, it argues a distrust of the people, and an opinion, on the part of the Junta, that the country is to be defended by the old ordinary means; than which, I am convinced, the result will prove nothing in the world to be more erroneous. -As to the check, or the defeat, for such I fear it is, that General Blake has received, I think nothing at all of it. How many such defeats did the French experience, at the out-set of their revolutionary war? They rose more powerful after each defeat. It is true, that there is some little difference between the assailants of the Spaniards and those of the revolutionary French. Yet, this I do not value, if the Spaniards have a spirit like that of the French; if they are animated by motives like those by which the French were animated. I cannot help thinking, that it was very unwise in us to send an envoy to the king of Spain. This was, in fact. one way of pointing out to the people

of Spain the object, which we thought they should have in view, and for the effecting of which we would give our aid. I am afraid, that this tended to damp the rising spirit of the people. There are persons, I know, who, rather than see the French resisted by a patriotic insurrection, would see Joseph Buonaparte in safe possession of the throne. This is a fact, which has been all along evident enough, and which was, long ago, dwelt upon by me. But, such persons must be very unwise, very short-sighted; for, in the end, all the evils, which they may apprehend from the success of a patriotic insurrection, must come, and come switter too, through another channel.As to our armies, in Spain, they really appear to be in a rather unsatisfactory state," at present. They are, however, under experi enced commanders; and, let what will be their fate, they will have done their best to assist the cause. It is impossible, that either ministers or commanders can foresee every thing something must be left to luck; and, therefore, if the expedition should fail, under G: nerals MOORE and BAIRD, I should not, from the bare circumstance of failure, be disposed to blame the ministers.-In the two Morning Chronicles of Tuesday and Wednesday last, there appeared some very spirited and able articles upon the conducof the ministers, with regard to the wat Spain and Portugal. They are well worth reading; but, I do not agree with the writer, that it was so easy a matter to know precisely what ought to be done, at the time when the expeditions were first sent out. Let the ministers have all the blame that i their due, but no more. It is the fashion, because it accords so well with party motives, never to blame the commanders, but always to blame the ministers. This is not only unjust in itself, but it has a very mis chievous tendency, as to the conduct of those commanders, who, be that conduct what it may, are sure to meet with, at least, an indirect defence, from one party or the other. It is not so in the French service, where the commander is looked to, and no body but the commander. There is nobody found to accuse the war-minister of not sending him to the right point, or of not supplying him with horses or provisions. The fact is, we have nothing but the parade of military service.. We have no really military notions; for, if we had, we never should endure complaints against the minis try for having "exposed a general to diffi cully and danger," the existence of which are always implied when men talk of war.

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convene his Parliament, for the purpose of instituting an Inquiry and Investigation before that Constitutional Tribunal. liament is said to be the voice of the People; by some persons it may be objected that it is not precisely so at this moment, and though the public expectations and anxious wish for truth, and nothing but the truth, might be disappointed equally, even by such a reference, yet the people at large would certainly have no right to complain, as they could only blame themselves for having elected such Representatives, as could sacrifice their Country's glory and honour, either from fear of avowing constitutional principles, or with a view of promoting their own private intérest, or party spirit.- Həving thus entered my decided protest against the Resolutions passed at the Meeting which did take place, I shall now say a word or two upon the Address intended to have been proposed, the object of which was. to request his Majesty to summon his Parliament, and to bring the discussion of the unfortunate Convention before that, the only Constitutional Court.-I earnestly request you to examine with attention the words of that Address. No attack is made upon the character of any set of men. No attempt is made to prejudge any Commander. No allusion is made to any individual.-1 defy the most zealous or scrutinizing prerogative stickler, to point out any part of that Address, which is wanting either in loyalty, or attachment to the Sovereign. It is, on the contrary, couched in terms of the most proper respect towards his Majesty; at the same time, that, in temperate but dignified language, it asserts the right of the subject, and expresses boldly, that just sense of the disgrace, which has fallen upon the national character, by an event as unaccountable, as it was unexpected. The Address implies distinctly an imputation of blame somewhere, and solicits a Parliamentary Inquiry into the causes of an evil of such magnitude.

I shall now take my leave of you, with only requesting that you will compare carefully and without prejudice the intended Address, with those Resolutions, which were carried at the Meeting. Let every man appeal fairly to his own heart, whether the Address intended to have been proposed, is not more adapted to his own private sentiments, more consonant to the public opinion, and more congenial to the feelings of every Englishman, who professes an honest, though not parasitical loyalty to his King, and an attachment invincible to the laws and Constitution of his Country.-1 entreat you to make this comparison in order to convince

yourselves, that the Address alluded to, breathies NO spirit, which is not most truly and strictly honourable to the feelings of subjects of a great empire, and that I may stand acquitted before my Brother Freeholders, of having been actuated by any other motives, than such as glow in the breast of every true and free-born Briton. I am proud of participating in such sentiments, and have the honour to be, "In this matter, as in all others in which" not only the "Independence and Honour of the County "of Stafford" but of "the Kingdom at large, are concerned,"-Brother Freeholders,-Your devoted and faithful Servant, -ANSON. Bath, Nov. 15th, 1808.

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OFFICIAL PAPERS. BUENOS AYRES.- Proclamation by Don Santiago Liniers y Bremond, Viceroy, Governor, and Provincial Captain-General of the Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, &c. Dated Buenos Ayres, Aug. 15,1808. (Concluded from p. 864.)

I communicate this by special couriers, to all the heads of provinces on this continent, that by adopting one uniform system, they may make the greater efforts to facilitate the succours necessary to preserve the glory acquired by a city, which from its local situation, and its energy, has been, and will continue to be, the impregnable bulwark of South America. But I cannot conclude without impressing upon you, and yourselves cannot but know it, that no force is comparable to union of opinion and feeling, nor any means more effective to preserve you invincible than reciprocal confidence between you and the constituted authorities, who, attentive only to the public interest and benefit, will see with dissatisfaction and abhorrence every thing that opposes or separates itself from the general prosperity.-SANTIAGO NIERS.-Buenos Ayres, Aug. 11, 1808.

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FRENCH EXPOSÉ.-Paris, Nov. 3-In the sitting of yesterday, his excellency the minister of the interior, accompanied by Messrs. de Segur and Corvetto, counsellors of state, pronounced the following speech on the situation of the French em pire :

-Gentlemen, you terminated your last session, leaving the empire happy, and its chief loaded with glory. The year has passed away, and a multitude of new circumstances have added to the good fortune of the country, and increased our hopes of future benefits. All that I have to state to you, gentlemen, is already known to you; and, for your full information, I have only

to retrace to your memory the principal events which have filled up the interval between your last and your present session, and to recal to you the additional advantages for which France is indebted to the wisdom and valour of her sovereign. I will speak to you first of the wants of nations; justice, public instruction, the arts and sciences, the numerous branches of internal administration, public worship, the finances, and our principal relations with the states of the Continent. The recital will bring us of course to this lamentable war, which we maintain against one single people. The glory of our nation wounds that people, our strength alarms them; the independence of our commerce and our industry disquiets them; every thing is again subjected to the fortune of war; but the days of justice are not far distant. [Here follows a long detail respecting the administration of justice, the principal amelioration of which consists in the establishment of the trial by jury, on the precise principles of the English law. The next head is that of public worship, which is followed by that of sciences and literature, public instruction, &c.-These articles being of great length, and less immediate importance, we reserve them for a future opportunity, and proceed to the heads which are most interesting to the English reader.]

Among the arts of indusry which have made progress in the course of this year, we must enumerate the manufactury of tin. In two of our manufactories they have attained a degree of perfection, no ways yielding to that of the English. A premium of encouragement has been given accordingly; and another is also destined to ulterior efforts in the same brancb.-The mechanics, in their endeavours of simplifying their looms, and introducing economy in their labours, have often also improved the quality of their stuffs. Those that are used in the weaving of cotton, have, for several years, been much multiplied; the spirit of invention has brought them to perfection. There is nothing now but what we can make, and very well. The weaving of the cotton has made as marked a progress as the spinning. These two kinds of industry are already adequate to the consumption of the empire, which is for ever liberated of the grievous taxation it has hitherto been under to the Indian manufacturers and to their oppressors. The machines best calculated for the manufacture of cloths, are already in wide circulation; they have lately been much encouraged by advances made to different manufacturers in the departments.-The Conservatory of arts and handicraft is daily

enriching by the requisition of new patterns, and is entitled to commendation for the information which the pupils receive, who frequent its school of drawing and descriptive geometry. Reforms have been made in the school at Chalons-sur-Marne.-The consultation chambers of the manufactures are hastening to present useful views, which will be taken advantage of. The institution of arbitrators, for the purpose of deciding with celerity variances that may arise between the workmen and their employers, render to industry services which have been set forth. Since your last session, gentlemen, several towns have demanded them, and there are already some established at Nimes, Aix-laChapelle, Avignon, Troies, Mulhausen, Se dan, and Thiers.

Commerce.-The political events have been unfavourable to commerce. It still was kept alive in the midst of the contentions that have deluged the Continent in blood, because those nations that were involved in the war preferred their neutrality—that right deemed, even in our times, inviolable. But the English legislation, already misled by the ambition of universal monopoly, has overthrown the ancient barrier of the law of nations, and trampled their independence under foot, substituting in the room of them a new maritime code. The ordinances of his Britannic majesty have realized these innovations: that of the 11th of Novembe, 1807, is particularly remarkable; it pronounces, by an universal blockade, the interdiction of all our ports, in subjecting the ships of neutral powers, friendly and even allied to Great Britain, to the visitation of its cruisers, to be conducted to British ports, and there to be taxed by an arbitrary inquisi tion.—The emperor, obliged to oppose just reprisals to this strange legislation, gave out the decree of the 23d of November, er daining the seizure and confiscation of the ships which, after having touched in Eng. gland, should enter the ports of France.From these measures, provoked by the Bri tish laws, the almost absolute cessation of the maritime relations, and many privations for the French merchants, manufacturers, and consumers, must have necessarily ensued. We all know with what resignation these privations were endured; we know that they are already become habitual, that they have awakened the genius of invention, and produced a thousand resources in substitution of the objects which we are in want of; w know, finally, that a great nation, essentially agricultural, can, by possessing in abundance all articles of utility, easily fore go those, which only form certain luxuries

tion, must be a serious obstacle to general circulation. So that this Work, though absolutely necessary to the lawyer and the professed politician, very curious, interestng and instructive, in itself, and, in a high degree, illustrative of the legal, political, and constitutional history of the country, is is to be met with in but very few private libraries, those of counsellors and solicitors not excepted. The mere reduction of size, from the unmanageable folio of former editions to that of the Royal Octavo, double page, which unites economy with convenience, will, in itself, be no inconsiderable improvement. But, the proposed edition will possess the following additional advantages: 1. The Series will commence more than two hundred years before the time of the earliest transaction noticed in the former editions. 2. Many very important Trials and curious matters, omitted in the former editions, though occurring within the period which those Editions embrace, will be supplied; and the Series will be continued down to the present time. 3. Many useless repetitions, ceremonials, &c. will be omitted, but every Trial will be scrupulously preserved: 4. Many unmeaning and uninstractive pleadings will be omitted; yer, all those, which are either curious in themselves, or upon which any question arose, will be carefully retained: 5. The different articles, relative to each case, will be placed together, so that the trouble of frequent references backwards and forwards, attending a perusal of the former editions, will be avoided; and, where references from one part of the work to another necessarily occur, the paging of the present work will alone be regarded, so that the confusion arising from the various pagings of the former editions will, in no case, arise to teaze and retard the reader : 6. The Trials, instead of being placed in the vexatious disorder of the former editions, will stand in one regular chronological succession, unless where a different arrangement shall be dictated by some special reason; as for instance, where more Trials than one concern the same party, or the same transaction; for, in such cases, it may sometimes be thought adviseable to break through the order of time, for the sake of exhibiting together all the particulars relating to the saine matter or the same person: 7. Brief historical notices of the conspicuous persons mentioned in the Work, or references to published accounts of them, will be occasionally inserted: 8. Where points of law arise, references will be made to those parts of the Law Digests, or Treatises on Criminal Law, in which the principles and cases,

relating to such points, are laid down, or collected: 9. In like manner, references will be made to my Parliamentary History for Parliamentary Proceedings connected with any Trial, and to other works calculated to elucidate any part of this Collection of Trials: 10. Some Trials before Courts of Martial, but those only of the greatest importance and most general interest, and illustrative of the history of the times, will be preserved in this Work: 11. To each Volume there will be prefixed a full and clear Table of Contents, and in the last Volume there will be a General Index to the whole Work, so complete that I hope it will be found to leave nothing of any importance difficult to be referred to.

It is computed, that the Eleven Volumes of the last edition of the State Trials will be comprized in Nine Volumes of the New Edition, and that the Additional Matter to bring the Work down to the present time, will make three Volumes more. The whole Work, therefore, will consist of Twelve very large Volumes. The paper and print will be, in every respect, similar to those of the Parliamentary History. In the mode of publication only there will be this difference; that, while the History is published in Volumes, the Trials will be published in Purts, one Part coming out on the first day of every month, in the same manner as the Magazines and other monthly publications ; and will, like those publications, be sold by all the Booksellers, Law-Stationers, and Newsmen in the kingdom. Three Parts will make a volume, and it will be optional with the Subscribers, to take the Parts separately, or quarterly to take the Volumes bound in boards, in a way exactly similar to that of the History.

For me to pretend to undertake, unassist ed, a Work of this sort, which, to execute well, requires the pen of a person not only possessed of great legal knowledge, but also well versed in the history of the law, would be great presumption. Without such assistance the Work was not to be thought of for a moment; and, I am convinced, that the very first Part will satisfy the reader, that it has not been undertaken without means of every kind sufficient to carry it on to a conclusion, in a manner worthy of matter so generally interesting and highly important. In the publication of the History, I relied upon the sound sense of the public, rather than upon the prevailing literary taste of the times; and from the suc cess of that Work, I am convinced that suc cess will attend this also. I am convinced, that there are readers, and readers enough,

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