the yoke of Buonapartean servitude, and Britain is hailed as her friend. Austria has no real enmity to Britain; nor do we think, though intercourse between the two courts is publicly interrupted, that it is really closed. Russia is our enemy still, to far as the frosts will suffer her; we suspect that her frosts will, this year, continue all the summer. Denmark perseveres in the combat; but her fever of opposition may remit as well as that of others. Events may stagger the subserviency of these governments to the purposes of Buonaparte. They cannot long remain ignorant of his tricks, or unoffended by them. Turkey has discovered them: and will probably say as much. If Russia had no designs on Turkey, she might easily heal her breach with Britain. Not the least inimical state to Britain, even while not professedly her enemy, is AMERICA. This state continues her embargo. That many of her citizens endeavour to elude it, by shipping their goods from obscure and unuatchable places on their extensive coast on the occan is true: some escape; others are caught and punished. In the west, the embargo is little more than a name. The general voice and concurrence of the concerned, to oppose it, is louder than the voice of the executive to maintain it. But, the particular purposes of the embargo have not been answered: the British West Indies have received tolerably adequate supplies of flour from other parts: and now the Spanish island of Cuba may do that openly, which it, with other Spanish colonies has long done privately: it may send Hour, &c. in perfect security, to the British islands, while the French islands will be deprived of such supplies. America should not send any to them; the Spanish dominions will not. America thought Europe could not do with out supplies that she was used to furnish: that thought has been proved fallacious. A number of respectable British merchants, indeed, were sufferers; and with them, their dependent connections and tradesmen, manufacturers, &c.: but, the bulk of the nations was more frightened than hurt: more vexed, than really injured. In the meantiine, two symptons of unusual debility have appeared in America: the first is, the Resolution of the American Bank against paying dividends due in Europe. (Circular Letter.) At a meeting of the President and Directors of the Bank of the United States, on the 13th May, 1808, the following Report was approved, viz.-The committee appointed to consider what measures ought in their opinion, to be pursued by the directors of this bank, respecting the stockholders of the United States' funded debt, who reside in Europe, and have empowered this bank to remit the dividends received on their account, respectfully submit the following resolution: That the cashier of this bank be, and he hereby is, directed to inform the stockholders of the United States' funded debt, who reside in Europe, and have empowered the bank to remit, for their account and risk, the dividends received thereon, that during the present embargo, and the general deranged state of commerce, it will not be possible to purchase bills of exchange, except at an unusually high price, which must necessarily subject those stockholders 10 a very heavy loss: that, under circumstances so much to be regretted, it is the desire of the directors of this bank, that the said stockholders would, as soon as possible, give positive directions to the cashier, either to continue his purchase of bills, if any can be obtained, at their current price, and to remit, them as usual, to their agents, or to have the amount of their dividends remain to their credit on the books of the United states, unless they should prefer their being received and deposited for their account at this bank. (Attested) D. LENNOX, President G. SIMPSON, Cashier." The second mark of American debility is, the necessity of recurrence to a court of chancery to stop pending executions for debt: as considerably more than double the property that was in question when these debts were contracted, must now be sold to effect payment in cash. 'No man, therefore, can recover cash payments: how then shall he make good those, for which he stands pledged in his own concerns? It is probable, that this circumstance may come under our notice again, with illustrative particulars, hereafter. The cessation of American commerce has restored thousands of British sailors to their national flag: and so many of American sailors, even, have offered their services, that the British officers decline accepting them. The following article is copied from the American Norfolk. Ledger : "It has been insisted that Buonaparte's decrees went to exclude us from all commerce; for which reason the embargo is a wise measure. At this moment we have before us an official document, which will enable our readers to perceive how much we have given up, which it was in our power to have enjoyed; the decrees of Buonaparte's paper blockades to the contrary notwithstanding. doubtful. From the official documents alluded We shall divide this statement into certain and to, it appears that we exported from the 30th of September, 1806, to the 30th September, 1807, to the places where Buonaparte's power does not extend, as follows: 2005 Sweden.... West Indies Domestic. Foreign., receive from the United States upwards of twenty38,587 eight millions of dollars of domestic produce." 56,157 416,509 11,153 67,211 94,316 16,828,157 1,881,289 2,449.941 117,261 1,631.54 211,730 .... 8,273 11,665 5,322.276 208,611 Newfoundland, &c..... British American Colonies 1,192,582 146,176 Honduras, &c.... Ma leira.. Fayal and other Azores.. Cape de Verde.. 15,227 Brazil.... 4,784 263 131,221 1,788 82,701 630,861 AUSTRIA The Has been quiet since our last quiet, we mean, as to any external occurrence; but, 28,831 certainly, unquiet, so far as apprehensions and presentiments may agitate her. non-withdrawment of the French troops frota Poland, as stipulated in the peace made by France with Prussia, clearly manifests some 58,884 design latent in the mind of Buonaparte; and 163,944 this design can bode no good to Austria. 537,478 Their position is detrimental by anticipation, 62,194 to this power, as well as degrading to the 14,376 lowest degree, to Prussia. Austria might 44.413 not dislike to see Prussia humbled; but to 144 see her absolutely ruined, may be neither 1,581 The fact is, that politic nor generous. 34,884 Austria reaps less advantages with more ha❤ 118,258 zards, from the presence of the French power, 593.443 1,026,880 than she would do, if the country they occupy 5,266 were entirely under Prussian dominion. 92,928 Austria has certainly calculated her strength: 307,366 this is the first indication of any disposition to employ it. She has done more; she has 30,468,932 6,014,175 called on her population to rally round their Now it is to be observed, that in the prosecu- national colours, and to cherish the military tion of our commerce, as far as it extends to the ardour for which they are renowned. She has places above mentioned, and to the amount of levied a considerable corps of peasantry and upwards of 30 millions of dollars of our domestic produce (that is, our tobacco, cotton, corn, flour, artizans, with design to increase her strength flax, tar, turpentine, staves, &c.), we should expe- under this "Training Act," and professes to rience no interruption under the British orders of carry those precautions into effect, in a time of council; neither do the British orders in council peace, which are adapted for service-in affect our trade to the enemy's colonies. Those a time of war, Such is her language; that colonies stand so much in need of our supplies, it does not suppose a perpetual peace, is evithat in spite of all Buonaparte's decrees, they would dent. If we may believe report, both Austria have those supplies if they could get them, the and Russia are dissatisfied with French pro amount of which we find to be, from the same ceedings, and have taken the liberty to say as much. This liberty, say the sagacious politicians, implies offence; either taken, or given; or to be taken or given; to be suspected, or expected. But the extreme diffi culty of obtaining correct information, prevents our doing more than merely stating these inuendoes. Our general inference is, that the forced submission of the continental powers to the Corsican is felt by them, with accumulated weight, and is supported with increased indignation: others add, with extreme impatience. The novel circumstances of the change in the course of trade, of the Austrian dominions becoming the route of transit for goods passing westward, with the interest taken by Austria in what concerns the Papacy, are so many points deserving notice; but, at present, they are not within our decision. 13,471,646 13,807,890 We think it is evident that if Buonaparte were to continue in his present course, that the above colonies would revolt, unless they could procure supplies from this country; the superior marine of England would render it impossible to get supplies from the mother countries. The following result is presented that in defiance of Buonaparte's decrees, we have certain markets for upwards of thirty millions of our domestic, and nearly seven millions of our foreign exports; that we should have [highly] probable markets for upwards of six millions more of domestic, and thirteen millions of foreign produce, being upwards of six-eighths of all our domestic produce, about one third of all our foreign exports, without counting upon the almost impossibinity of Buonaparte being able wholly to exclude our commerce from the continent of Europe. -These views of this important subject merit attention. Great Britain and her present dominions have felt the inconveniences attending the presence of a formidable British force, stationed opposite to her shores, in the Sound. The communication with Norway, her province, must have been interrupted to her great disadvantage; and the closure of the Sound against vessels passing it, must have been felt in the diminution of the duties. She has lost her islands in the West Indies, St. Thomas and St. Croix; she has lost her seulements in the East Indies, Serampore and Tranquebar. Has she sayed Holstein, a country that she affected to fear the loss of? No: the French have over-run that province, and have displaced the Danish arms, in all public structures, and substituted those of France. Her islands have hitherto escaped French rapacity, because these savages have no ship ping; and this is all she has to boast, except the contempt of her military militia expressed by Bernadotte, to compensate her for all her losses, and to reward herenmity to Britain. She will feel the ruin of her cominerce longer than the advantages of French fraternity very much longer. FRANCE... would prove to be of incalculable importance. Thus were the most valuable springs of pros perity to a nation, the youth, drawn to great distances from their country, and the state was weakened by their absence, and their unpro fitable employment. France, it is true, seized Danish Holstein; but that peninsula was no adequate renumeration to France, for conscription after conscription, and for her diminished activity, in consequence of her political expeditions. France was suffering in her manufactures, for want of capital, for want of skill, and for want of hands: neither of these indispensables could be augmented by military incursions on neighbouring countries. The disease was only inflamed by whatever remedies (nostrums, surely, if ever there were such things as nostrums) Mousieur Le Medecin attempted to administer. All attempts to turn the current of trade by force failed, as might be expected. Buonaparte's seizure of neutral vessels was not the way to increase the number of his friends; and though some of those which he seized as Americans, might really be French bottoms and property, yet the mode in which he recovered them, had little in it pleasing to the common feelings of mankind. France gave America the choice of enmity with her, or with England: America adopted a proceeding which removed her from contact with both. France was irritated; but France could only avenge herself by a few confiscations. In the meanwhile, France was diminishing her trade daily: and what should have been the mean of subsistence to thousands of her population, decayed visibly, or was carried on by exertions, and at an expense, not likely to be continued. The internal state of France, then, is not, probably, tranquil or placid; expectation of better days must be the attitude of a great" part of her inhabitants: and what turn this expectation will take cannot be foreseep. France is a fine country, a plentiful country: its people are gay, thoughtless, inconsiderate: but when they do think of thinking, they manifest powers of high degrees; and, should this disposition unaccountably seize them, who will envy the situation of the emperor and king? The restless disposition of the French chief leads him from enterprize to enterprize, and the accomplishment of one is the signal for the commencement of another. We lately saw him exert his power in the subju. gation of Portugal. The Prince Regent eladed his grasp, notwithstanding the uncommou exertions of his troops; but the country remained, and sufficient plunder in it, to enable the French to keep their hands in exercise for a while. This, however, was a bagatelle to what was expected from Spain; and Spain, therefore, was regarded as the next in order to be plundered. But the Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) presented the prospect of something superior to mere tenporary plunder, and as the accession of this country to the party of Buonaparte was desirable, steps were taken to accomplish it. For this purpose France sent an army of at least 100,000 men beyond the Pyrennees: with some of her most popular generals: and the emperor and king, forsaking St. Cloud for a time, proceeded to Bayonne, the most southerly city of his dominions, the nearest to the principal passes into Spam, and the most convenient for superintending his proIs in the same feverish state it has long jected operations. Expectation stood on tip-experienced: suffering under a violent change toe throughout France, doting this period; in its constitution, and political body, the nor was any part of Europe unconcerned in very unsettledness of its condition, its uncer the event. France was, at the same time, tainty as to the future, must needs be irkcarrying on her designs in the north where some; to say nothing of the conscious indigthe foresight of the British ministry hadnation concealed in every thinking mind, at broken her plans, so far as maritime power was in question; and where the resolution of the king of Sweden presented obstacles to the execution of military projects, which, if they did no more than occasion a loss of time, GERMANY subjugation to France and French politics. Germany is suffering under the closure of the continen al ports: for by what other channels can she export her manufactures nor will she recover the demand to which she has been accustomed. Our own West India islands, for instance, have determined to use cotton goods for the clothing of their negroes instead of German hempen cloths. If this determipation should spread, (and what shall hinder, it?)-how should the German manufactories revive? This is one instance: others are not unlikely to occur; though our knowledge of them is not equally distinct. That all the interests of Germany will be sacrificed to those of France, there can be no doubt: so far as deception can carry its purposes into effect, so far will Germany in whole, or the separate states, individually, be deceived. HOLLAND. This country is governed nominally by King Louis, really by Napoleon: the dictates of, the latter are thought to have been on very many occasions in direct contradiction to the sentiments of the former. In short, to do justice, report affirms that Louis wishes well to his subjects; and that his subjects give him credit for such wishes: this, we believe, is as far as Dutchmen willingly give credit to any man. The exploits of the Dutch army have been little blazoned of late: the losses of the Dutch navy, in the East Indies, and elsewhere, have been serious, and must be feit by that nation to the other colonies which Holland had lost, must now be added Curaçoa; and thus this country declines, piecemeal, as it were; til it will answer to the description of it given by Talleyrand to Lord Lauderdale : "a nation which would have nothing but debts, and from which the total deprivation of all commerce, would take away the possibility of paying them.". Compare Panorama Vol. I. p. 877. ITALY May be considered as comprising principally three divisions: 1. the north, or Etruria. This country has seen a Sovereign set over it, and ere a short lease had expired, notice to quit served on the occupier of the throne: the Queen has descended from her canopied exaltation, that her dominions might be incorporated with France. 2. The States of the Church. These have seen their venerated head and sovereign deprived of his dominion; and themselves transferred, without ceremony like a herd of cattle to the all-grasping Sovereignty of France. Against this the Pope has remonstrated, as may be seen in the present volume what could he do further? He has shewn quite as much spirit, as could be expected: probably much more than was desired from the head of the church. 3. The kingdom of Naples: an office of greater trouble than profit: deprived of Sicily the crown is too poor to be envied; the people are too lazy to be rouzed: too superstitious to be reformed too obstinate to be corrected; too snspicious to place confidence even in French professions, specious though they be; and too avengeful to be trusted by their rulers with the custody of themselves,-therefore the French retain the custody of them. Sicily is still in the hands of the English; and the king enjoys a pension of English money. POLAND Is likely to occasion contention; and we should not be surprized to see it become the aware that Buonaparte has not fulfilled his theatre of interesting events. The Poles are promisses to them: and so are some other powers as well as the Poles. This country has now no export for its grain, its timber, or other productions. It has no extensive manufactures: will not winter pinch its inhabitants? PORTUGAL. the orders of Junot the French general This kingdom has been sealed up under (created, by his master, Duke of Abrantes :) as a confiscation: the regular, orderly, progressive, and pleasant system of pillage, perfection by the French, after long study, which has been brought to the most exquisite and extensive practice, after experiments inhas been applied to the property of Porngal. numerable, and improvements incredible, The property of the state belonged of course to the power that administered the state; nothing could be so clear a "first of the church might principle:"-the property surely be resumed by those whose consent silver vessels, the saints, the ornaments, were had never been obtained by the donors; the dollars formerly; why should they not be come dollars again? "Hey, Presto!-See what beautiful pieces! Add them to my col lection." The property of individuals was due undoubtedly to the poor soldiers who had taken the trouble to toil, through so many wearisome days' marches to communicate the blessings of liberty: hungry, they must be fed; and naked, they must be clothed; the individual who should raise his voice against such obvious and indispensable acts of simple and natural retribution must be a bad hearted man; he is unworthy of life! Fiat justitia. As to goods found by the way side, without owner,-all waifs and strays belong to the lord of the manor; this is warranted by custom and usage, time out of mind: and who is lord of the manor of Portugal, but the representative of the emperor and king? In short, by prohibitions from carrying on trade, and by permissions to carry on trade; by seizures of shipping, and by releases of shipping; by proclamations against quitting the metropolis without leave, and by permissions obtained by divers good and weighty causes us thereunto moving," Junot is understood to have picked up a pretty penny. Yet there is a story in circulation of his having treated with humanity one merchant who attempted to escape, and who frankly acknowledged that despair was the motive that actuated him. "I could not bear, ** said he," to behold my wife and children pining away daily through want, before my eyes: I prefer being shot: now shoot me!" Junot answered: "Let the contents of this purse, administer to your present relief: and, before that is exhausted, I will place you in a permanent situation."--He did so, honourably. Portugal is likely to be the scene of brilliant exploits: but the Portuguese must be rouzed by example; animated by association, and spurred on by emulation. British troops might do much and in all probability, when French reinforcements cannot reach Junot, he may be glad to prefer submission to a regular army, rather than to an infuriated populace. The Russian fleet, in the Tagus, is safe at anchor; in what other respects it is safe, those on board it do not know. through the Black Sea, lies her way to Constantinople; and through the straits of the Bosphorus, of Constantinople, and the Dardanelles lies her way to the Mediterraneity and through the Mediterranean she can communicate with the ocean. If ever Russia should effect this establishment she will be by much too powerful for Austria; and Austria ought not to forget that these provinces never belonged to the frozen Muscovite,” but to herself. Austria might desire an enlargement of her territories by the accession of Turkey in Europe: it is not her true policy to forward the views of Russia upon that empire. Russia, however, having contracted obligations at Tilsit, proceeded to put them into activity by an attack on Sweden: during the severities of winter she overrun Swedish Finland; but her loss in men (if human life is to be counted for any thing by politicians), exceeded the value of her acquisitions. She had, indeed, the malignant gratification of doing injuries to her enemy, though without doing any good to herself. The probability is, that she will not retain her conquests: and that when she comes to strike a balance between her losses and her gains, an upright arithmetician would find the former to be the greater amount. The commercial interest of Russia is suffering very severely: when Russia thinks proper to make a peace, she will find the demand for her commodities diminished to a degree that will surprize her; and some of her most valuable articles will be greatly sunk in importance. If Alexander himself be easy under Gallic intrusion, and vigilance, which report says he is not, his courtiers cannot but be sufficiently uneasy: nor can all the bribes of Buonaparte, ror all the gold to be found in the clefts of the rocks of Finland, make them amends for the loss of that steady export which trade maintained. The true interest of Russia is peace: her expences drain her, beyond what she can spare; and a secession from her bondage to France, would restore, and secure many of her former, and her natural advantages. For an instance of the French ambassador's strict watch on the Emperor Alexander, Vide Panora Vol IV. p. 816. To that incident ought to have been added, that Caulincourt faid his hand on the emperor's shoulder while he spoke to him could a bound-bailiff have more? In entering into the maze of politics that was proposed by Buonaparte to the Russian emperor at Tilsit, this country has deviated from that honest line of politics which would have been at once her dignity, and her interest. Russia has long cast a most envious eye on those provinces of Turkey that adjoin the Black Sea, and command the Archipelago. The reason is, Nature has confined with limits too narrow to answer the purposes of ambition, the naval operations of this power in the Baltic. Frozen up half the year, the fleets of Russia cannot stir from their harbours, till they are released from their icy bondage by the heats of summer; being obliged also to quite the Baltic by one narrow passage, they are liable to two inconveniences: 1. their enemies know perfectly well where to find them, and at what time: they have no alternative: 2. If they hazard an action, no matter whether they be victorious or not, the time necessary in which to repair their dama-done ges loses the season for enterprize, and winter closes the campaign. Against this appointment of nature, art affords no resources: but if Russia could secure a port or ports in the south, which, being never frozen up, would allow of exertions at all times, then would "the internal powers of her empire be capable of display on a grand and permanent scale. Russia, therefore, will never forget that SPAIN Has attracted the eyes of all the world by events of which her country has been the scene. We have more than once confessed that the veil which concealed the motives for these events in their early stages, and especially those that influenced the Prince of Asturias in his conduct towards his father, is too thick and heary for us to remove. Po |