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liance on these promises, and persuaded that I should be met by his imperial majesty, I arrived at this city; and on the same day that I arrived, verbal propositions were made to some of my attendants, quite different from those which had been before suggested, which neither my honour, my conscience, nor my duty would permit me to concur in, since the Cortes had sworn me to be their prince and lord;

nor were

they consistent with what I had lately sworn, when I accepted the crown that your majesty abdicated in my favour.-I cannot comprehend how any letters of mine could have come into the possession of the emperor which prove my hatred against France, since I have given so many proofs of my friendship towards him, and have written nothing to indicate such a disposition. A copy of the protest had been lately shewn me, which your majesty made to the emperor, in the nullity of the abdication; and yet, when I arrived in this city, and asked you respecting it, you told me distinctly, that the abdication was voluntary, although not intended to be permanent. I asked you at the same time, why you did not apprize me of this before it was executed, and your majesty answered, that you did not choose it; from which may be inferred, that there was no violence used, at least not by me it could not be known that your majesty intended to resume the reins of government on the contrary, you told me, that you neither would reign, nor return into Spain.-In the letter that I had the honour to put into the hands of your majesty on this account, I signified my disposition to renounce the crown in your faYour, when the Cortes should be convened; and if not convened, when the council and deputies of the kingdom should be assembled; not because I thought this was necessary to give effect to the renunciation, but because I thought it convenient to avoid injurious novelties, which frequently occasion divisions and contentions, and to have every thing attended to which respected your majesty's diguity, my own honour, and the tranquillity of the realm.-If your majesty should not choose to reign in person, I will govern in your royal name, or in my own; for nobody but myself can represent your person, possessing as I do, in my own favour, the decision of the laws, and the will of the people; nor can any other person have so much interest in their prosperity.To your majesty, I repeat again, that in such

circumstances, and under such conditions, I am ready to accompany your majesty to Spain, there to make my abdication in the form expressed. In respect to what your majesty has said of not wishing to return to Spain, with tears in my eyes I implore you, by all that is most sacred in heaven and earth, that in case you do not choose to reascend the throne, you will not leave a country so long known to you, in which you may choose a situation best suited to your injured health, and where you may enjoy greater comforts and tranquillity of mind than in any other.- Finally, I beg your ma jesty most affectionately, that you will se riously consider your situation, and that you will reflect on the evil of excluding our dy nasty for ever from the throne of Spain, and substituting in its room the imperial family of France. This step we cannot take with. out the express consent of all the individuals who have, or may have. a right to the crown; much less without an equally ev pressed consent of the Spanish people a-sembled in Cortes in a place of security; and besides, being now in a foreign country, t would be impossible that we could persuade any one that we acted freely; and this sideration alone would annul whatever might do, and might produce the most consequences. Before I conclude this lett, your majesty will permit me to say, that counsellors, whom your majesty calls per fidious, have never advised me to derogate from the love, respect, and honour that! have always professed to your majesty, whose valuable life I pray God to preserve to a happy and good old age.—I cast myself at your majesty's royal feet, your most du tiful son, FERDINAND.-Bayonne, May 4,

1808.

No. X.-Letter from the King to his Father
Charles IV.

Venerable Father and Lord-I deposited
in the royal hands of your majesty on the
1st current, the renunciation of the crown
in your favour. I have believed it to be
obligatory upon me to modify the renuncia
tion by such conditions as were agreeable to
the respect due to your majesty, to the tran-
quillity of my dominions, and to the pre-
servation of my honour and character. It
is not without great astonishment, that !
have seen indignation produced in the royal
mind of your majesty, by modifications die-
tated by prudence, and called for by the
love that I bear to my subjects.
(To be continued.)

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. Eudd, Crown and Mitre, Pall-Mill.

VOL. XIV. No. 19.] LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1808. [Price 100,

It is the duty of every body of men, who hereafter shall address or petition the king for inquiry into the causes of the Convention, to support the City of London. 705]

TO THE FREEHOLDERS AND INHABITANTS OF HAMPSHIRE,

GENTLEMEN,

Well! we have had our meeting, and I am confident, that, though my wishes did not entirely prevail, our example will have a good effect from one end of the kingdom to the other.

From the circumstance of there being three gentlemen from London, present at the meeting, for the express purpose of taking down and publishing an account of the proceedings, a circumstance at which no one was more surprized than myself, for, I really thought that we were held in too much contempt to be thought worthy of any thing like general attention; from this circumstance, (very pleasing to me, I must coness) I conclude, that nearly the whole of what was said and done at the meeting of esterday will have been published in the aily newspapers, before that which I am Slow writing can possibly issue from the press. If this be the case, the report, as so published, will be inserted in this sheet, end, therefore, proceeding upon the opinion that the intended publication will take place, I shall here confine myself to such observaions as naturally grow out of the proceedngs at the Shire Hall, and as appear to me ikely to be useful.

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First, Gentlemen, I hope you will, with je, be delighted at the now established fact, Jalat, at a numerous and respectable meeting f our county, called and marshalled by oblemen and Baronets, the leaders of a arty lately powerful enough to carry the o members for the county; that, at such meeting, there have appeared one half, at past, of the persons present, ready to supproposition, coming from one, who either has nor wishes to have, pretensions any rank other than that of Yeoman; nd who came before that meeting unApported by any interest other than that hich grew out of the principles he had toclaimed: at this fact, Gentlemen, I am vinced you will, with me, feel pleasure d pride. As to the effect with regard to selt Lam completely indifferent.

It was

no consequence who was the person. hether the proposition came from a tall or

-1706 a short lump of clay; a lump of fresh or pale, of fair or dark, colour; or whether it was called Cobbett or by any other name; this was of no consequence. It was the principle, the vital principle that was of importance. That principle did completely triumph, and in that triumph I see, and I hope you see, a prospect of better days; a prospect of days when this county will not be trampled under foot by men, and particularly one man, who have nothing but what they have derived from the public purse, nothing but what has been squeezed out or the fruits of our labour.

Having spoken of party, I think it necessary to say, that I saw no reason whatever to impute party motives, upon this occasion, either to the Earl of Northesk, or to any of the gentlemen who appeared with his lordship; but, on the contrary, it ap peared to me, that they were over-anxious to avoid every thing that might have the ap pearance of proceeding from party motives. The truth is, that, as things stand at present, there would, in a casz ike this, be nothing done, were not those to move, who belong to a party. If, as is the case, the whole, or nearly the whole, of the opulent men in a county be notoriously of one pažy or the other, those of the opposition party must call for a meeting, in a case like the present, or, it is evident, that there can be no meeting at all. And, therefore, though 1 did not approve of the Address moved, and finally carried, by Lord Northesk and his friends, they are fairly entitled to my gratitude, and, I think, to the gratitude of the county at large.

The two Addresses will appear in their proper place in the Report, which will be hereunto subjoined; and, Gentlemen, I beg you carefully to compare them with each other, and, when you have so done, let each man put it to his bwn heart, whether the one, which I had the honour to propose to the meeting, is not that of which he most approves; whether the principles there asserted and the sentiments there expressed, are not the principles and the sentiments that he would (all selfish views aside) wish to see universally prevail. There was one object, upon which I was

very intent; namely, that of giving support to the City of London; and, Gentlemen, though the Address and Petition proposed by me was, at last, not formally carrie the point of decision was. so nice, that I hope Mr. Waithman and those who have so nobly supported him will consider, that this county, at least, has done its duty. The Address proposed by Lord Northesk was, I myself believed, carried at last; but, it was not until after many persons, who came from a distance and who were anxious to get home, had retired under the full persuasion, that the decision had taken place in favour of the Address and Petition proposed by me. I dwell upon this point solely for the purpose of showing the City of London what honourable support they had in Hampshire; and, for the same purpose, I add, that, at the reading of those parts of my Address and Petition, which were literally copied from the City Resolution of the 27th of October, the meeting gave particular marks of applause; while (and I challenge a denial of the fact) not one single mark of applause was given, hirdly a sound or a movement or a look of satisfaction was perceived, at the reading of the cold and courtly Address which contended for the preference. No, Gentlemen, this Address did not speak the language of your hearts. It did not convey to the throne an expression of the feelings of a people sensible that they have made sacrifices unparalleled, and that those sacrifices have only furnished the means of purchasing national dishonour; the feelings of a people disappointed and insulted; the feelings of a people, who, for their liberality and longenduring patience; have been paid with new burthens and with unprecedented scorn. No: this Address did not express those feelings; and, my decided opinion is, that, when the noble lord and the gentlemen, who proposed and supported it, shall have taken time to re-peruse and re-consider, they will feel great sorrow, not, I hope, unmixed with some degree of shame, that, for the sake of an Address such as this, they rejected that which was proposed by me, and which, as they could not fail to perceive, had the hearts of all, while theirs had only the voices of a part, of the meeting.

Upon the subject of the vast sums received out of the public money by Mr. Garnier of Wickham, as salary and profits of ¿pothecary General to the Army, though as the Committee of the House of Commons state, he resides in the country and meddles not with the business; upon this subject I think it right to state, that, as we were leaving the

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Hall, a gentleman, upon whose word I rely with confidence, assured me, that Mr. Gurnier wished anxiously for peace. It is very hard for one man to know the heart of ano ther; but, considering the character of my informant, I believe the fact; that is to say, I believe, that, in this particular case, sen timents of humanity prevail over interest. I do not state this merely as an argumentative admission I really believe the fact. But, Gentlemen, what has this singular and accidental fact to do with what I had the honour to submit to you upon the subject? I made no assertion as to Mr. Garnier's feelings. It was a conclusion, which I drew from undeni able premises. I stated the fact, that the amount of this gentleman's revenue was in proportion to the magnitude of the army and to the number of wounds in that way; that, therefore, it was natural to suppesa, that such a person must wish for a long con tinuation of the war; and, I am not at all afraid to leave this argument in the hands ci the public. I told the meeting, that it w in my power to give a very long list of per sons so situated, my object being to expl the mystery why so many people had be found, in some piaces, to oppose an app tion for inquiry into a transaction so dr calculated to lengthen the duration of the war; to give such list there was not list, I was obliged to confine myself to a p cular instance; and that of Mr. Garne was selected, 1st, because it was a striking one; 2nd, because it was a case which de ved additional interest from our knowl of the person; and 3rd, because there th no doubt of some of his friends being pr sent to say whatever could be said in answer. I should, in print, have pointed out this flagrant case, long ago; but, locally, M Garnier was a very near neighbour; I felt reluctant to make so near a neighb a subject in the Register. There was, 18 deed, no solid reason for this; but, thought, that some persons might think t I took advantage of my great means of poo licity to assail my neigi.bour. Sometime other a sense of public duty would have overcome this consideration; but, havi an opportunity to state the fact, in a mee of the county, where I was pretty cer would be, and where I saw, mary the friends and relations of Mr. Ganie, that opportunity was not to be neglectå

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-Now, Gentlemen, though we be lieve, that, contrary to the conclusio that. I drew, Mr. Garnier does wish peace, I beg leave to remind you, that M Garnier and his family, who are not few in number nor weak in means, hay

as I am credibly informed, always voted, upon all occasions, for the ministry of the day. This I know, that, while Lord Grenville and his colleagues were in power, the Garnier family supported, and that too with great zeal, Messrs. Herbert and Thistlethwaite, and that, when the dissolution took place upon the turning out of that ministry, the Garnier family as zealously supported Sir Henry Mildmay and Mr. Chute, against whom they had used such strenuous exertions only about eight or nine months before. The fact is, Gentlemen, and you must see it clearly, that persons so situated must obey whomsoever is minister; for, though, as in this case, the place may not be liable to be actually taken away; yet, where the amount is not precisely fixed, the minister has it in his power to render it, by one means or another, worth little or nothing; and, in all cases where a man has to account he is wholly in the power of the minister, though his accounts should be fair and correct, the latter having so many means of embarrassing and worrying and persecuting him. So that, you see, the loss of the money is not the only, nor is it the least evil. The money is lost to us in the first place, aal, next, it makes part of our countrymen join the minister in support of his imposing heavier burdeas on us, or as at the present time, in an endeavour to stifle the voice of the people. Let us trace this a little more minutely. Mr. Garnier receives, as you have seen,, twelve thousand pounds a year out of the taxes, raised upon the nation. These twelve thousand pounds a year must, unless they be buried under ground, or Jocked up in a chest, pro lace a proportionate influence. The depositing and employing and expending them creates an influence amongst all descriptions of persons: bankers, stewards, farmers, timber merchants, tradesmen of all sorts This influence is at all times exercised in behalf of the minister of the day; and, therefore it inevitably follows, that the greatness of the power of the mainistry of the day, is in exact proportion to the amount of what we pay in taxes; or, in other words, that, from the moment that the public treasure becomes a source of inAnence at elections and other public meetings, taxation and absolute power grow up together like the bark and wood,

wanting persons to charge me with disloyalty, because I wish the Portugal generals to be tried, and because I object to Mr. Garnier's receiving twelve thousand a year out of the taxes for doing nothing. It has, Gentlemen, been the constant practice of those, who live upon the public money, to answer their accusers, not by showing, or attempting to show, that they merited the money they received out of the taxes, but by charges of disloyalty. Tell one of them that he wallows in luxury at the expence of a hardworking and half-starved people: his answer is, that you wish to overturn the government; for, you will always perceive, that, with this tribe, government and impunity for public plundering means the same thing. Just as if you must necessarily be a traitor, because your temper will not permit you to see your money taken away, without inquiring a little what is done with it! But, Gentlemen, when an opportunity serves, let us take care that no answer of this sort shall have its intended effect; let us not waste our breath in retuting the charge of high treason, but continue to urge our accusation, reserving our own defence till a defence has been made by those whom we shall accuse. Talk as long as we will, here is the root of the evil. The public money, the money paid by the people in taxes, do, and will, 'till a constitutional reform take place, operate in a way to deprive the people of their spirit, and, of course, of their rights. But, Gentlemen, because to effect this reform is difficult; because we do not, at once, clearly perceive the grounds of a hope of accop.pii-bing it, let us not, therefore, say, that the thing is out of our power. Every thing almost, from which any advantage, publie or private, is to arise, appears difficult at first; but, when once we heartily set about it, the difficulties, however great and numerous, soon appear less both in number and in magnitude. What we want is public virtue. Possessed of that, every thing, which reason bids as wish to attain, would be soon in our power. But, that is indispensable. Men must come with their hands ciean and their minds perfectly independent; that is to say, perfectly free from selfish views, or they will do nothing good. We age seduced into degradation; and a great additional mortification, is, that we are se luced with our own money. We are the slaves of that gold, which we ourselves have earned with the sweat of our brow. Gentlemen, my sincere opinion is, that nothing can preserve this country from becoming a conquex of France, but a con

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stitutional reform of the abuses, which now notoriously exist, and some of which I had the honour to point out to the meeting yesterday. The manner, in which the meeting received my statement; the hearty welcome which was given to sound principles and home truths, expressed in direct and plain terms, encourages me to hope, that the breasts and minds of my countrymen will, as those of their fathers were, yet be found to be the seat of courage and of sense; and, that the day is much less distant than the corruptors and the corrupted imagine, when a proper exertion of these will produce its natural effects.

I remain,

Gentlemen,
Your friend

Winchester, 3d Nov. 1908.

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WM. COBBETT.

HAMPSHIRE MEETING.

THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA.

On Wednesday, the 2d instant, purenant to a public requisition, the High Sheriff, George Hanbury Mitchell, Esq. convened a Meeting of the nobility, gentry, freeholders, and inhabitants of the county of Southampton, at the Castle of Winchester, for the purpose of taking into their consideration the propriety of addressing his majesty upon the subject of the Convention of Cintra. The meeting was numerous and highly respecta ble. The High Sheriff having taken the chair,

Lord NORTHESK presented himself to the attention of the meeting, for the purpose of proposing a Resolution. He hoped that on subject involving deeply the character and interests of the country, it would not be deemed a presumption in him to offer to their consideration a motion, expressive of the wishes of the county of Hants, to request a full Inquiry into the causes which led to that disgraceful event, the Convention of Cintra. After these prefatory remarks, his lordship proposed the following Resolution : Resolved, That an humble and dutiful "Address and Petition be presented to his majesty, expressing our grief and regret at "the Convention lately entered into by the "commanders of his majesty's forces in Portugal, and the commander of the French army in Lisbon, proying his majesty to institute such full, public, and effectual Inquiry into this transaction, as will lead "to the discovery of all those causes which produced an event so injurious to the honour of this country, and the interest of "its allies."

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Mr. COBBETT then rosé and spoke to the

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following effect:-" Mr. High Sheriff; so far from disapproving of any part of the Resolution which has just now been read, I have to state, that I heartily approve of every word of it. I have, however, a proposition to submit to the meeting, which I hope, although coming from a person of so little consequence as myself, will meet with the approbation of this meeting. It will embrace the object of this Resolution, while it will go farther, but yet, I hope, not too far. As to the merits or demerits of the Conven tion, I think that is a question pretty nearly set at rest; for I have never heard from the lips of any of those who are hostile to a Pe tition or Address to his Majesty for on Inquiry, any argument in justification of that Convention. It has been urged, that any petition for inquiry is unnecessary. Who told us so? From whence is his majesty to receive such a request but from his people? We are told that he has already given an answer to the Petition of the citizens of London, informing them that a due inquiry will be instituted. He has not given at such answer to us, the inhabitants of Hamp shire-(hear! hear! hear!) When the

tell us that we ought not to present a Pe tion, because the city of London has ceived an Answer (of which I shall hereaftet speak more in detail), they do not tell m that that Auswer was satisfactory. So far from it, we know that the Common Council have expressly declared that it is not satisfactory, but that it was an ungracious Answer, and, as such, it is entered upon their Journals. Therefore, if we have received an Answer through the city of London, it is au unsatisfactory answer-(Applauses). So that if the Answer to the city of London be adduced as a reason against our proceeding, we have the authority of that city itself, for considering that Answer unsatisfactory—(Ap plauses). This, Gentlemen, is almost the first time of my addressing a public assembly; and I only intend to present to you a few plsin facts, such as my neighbours ought to knowneighbours, whom I am proud to acknowledge, and from whose public spirit I enter:ain considerable hopes, notwithstanding the treat ment they have heretofore experienced--notwithstanding the time and nianner in which they have been trodden down (Applauses); We know, Gentlemen, that Sir Archer Wellesley, one of the commanders upon the occasion which has called us together, is also one of his Majesty's ministers; and we pre told, that which it is very natural to suspect, that those ministers are anxious to screqu him. In speaking of the conduct of minis ters upon this occasion, and particularly of

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