manded by the most active and vigilant officers, being stationed so as to be able to fetch Boulogne, or wherever the rendezvous may be in a few hours, with the wint from any point of the compass, which may be effected by stationing part above and part below channel, that the safety of this country will probably depend. The victory of Trafalgar was over-rated by those who judged of its consequence by the ideas of the last century; it has been under-rated by those who looked to the restoration of Europe; it is invaluable according to the present political aspect, as it sets a large part of our naval force free for our immediate protection. Great Britain possesses within itself the means of setting the power of France great as it is at defiance, if those means were well composed, animated, and directed; but, I think no man who has the most superficial knowledge of mili-tary affairs, but must be satisfied, that before we can be placed in a state of security, the greatest part of our military force must be entirely new modelled! That is not the work of irday, nor of a year, but of years of great attention and perseverance; fill that is effected we mast chiefly depend for our defence upon our navy; that navy is superior in every respect to any that the world has yet seen; and, if properly employed, may save us till a solid foundation is laid to preserve these islands to witness another revolution of Europe. Aspiring and successful as France now is, if time and leisure from more pressing occupations are allowed, I expect to be able to shew rational ground for thinking that her dominion is not one of those mighty empires that overshadows the world for ages, but that it originates in corruption, and carnies within itself the principles of its own fall and dissolution. And that if a part of Europe can be saved from its first convulsive shocks, civilisation and regular. government may yet revive. We have the means of defence; if we exert them we have yet no reason to despond; but if they who have undertaken, and whom we have permitted to assume the direction of thera, will not make a proper use of them, let them not deplore the fatality of the times If whining and cant were of any avail they might be reserved for those who have long foreseen the possibility of the approaching crisis, who have without success laboured to prevail upon them to prepare for it; and who, by the supineness and infatuation of others, are in danger of being delivered, almost bound and gagged, into the hands of the enemy.al

EFFECT OF THE FUNDS. SIR,The baneful effects produced in

the country by that system of corruption, which upholds and characterizes the administration of William Pitt; which it has been the uniform object of your valuable publication to expose; and which has never by any one been so ably exposed as by your self, are so forcibly illustrated in this neighbourbood, that I should, sometimes, be disposed to suspect you of drawitig your pictures from what is daily passing before my eyes, did I not know, as well from the testimony of others, as from my own observation, that the same dire change has gradually been effected throughout the kingdom. The place, where I reside, Sit, is a small town within 30 miles of the metropolis, equally famous for the salubrity of its air, and the beauty of its scenery. It had formerly to boast, among its inhabitants and in its vicinity, several families of distinction, who spent the greater part of the year upon their estates, maintaining in unsullied purity the venerable names of their ancestors, and endearing themselves to their neighbours, to their dependants, and to posterity, by the exercise of every generous virtue, and by the diffusion of a benign influence upon all who had the happiness to live within their sphere. In those days" a hospitality, in which there

was no luxury, and a liberality, in which "there was no ostentation," (to adopt the language of an eminent writer on political economy) formed a striking feature in the character of an English gentleman. He lived not merely for himself, but for the common benefit of mankind. The honest mechanic could look to him for patronage, and the industrious peasant for protection. Nor were their just claims ever disregarded. But, alas! Mr. Cobbett, our genuine English gentry; the

A

* præsidium et dalce degus" of the nation, are become almost extinct. In this place only one of our ancient families remains. The rest, swept away by an overwheltuing torrent of taxes, have been succeeded by a race of loan-jobbers, nabobs, and placemen of various descriptions; a new-fangled species of gentry, in every res pect the reverse of their illustrious predecessors. I will not occupy your time of your paper with a detail of all the numerous evils, to which this sad revolution has given birth. Its latent poison diffuses itself through every class of the community: Not the aristocra cy only, whose mansions they invade, andwhose rank they affect, but the middling. and lower orders, likewise, feel an essential change in their condition. In the place of their former benefactors, they have now to contemplate a new race of men, attached to

them by none of those ties, which have hitherto created so lively an interest in all their concerns, and such a parental solicitude for their welfare; a race of men, who, born only for themselves, and destitute of every benevolent feeling, exact from them unqualified submission to their views of aggrandizement, to their schemes of interest, and to their range of pleasures. To these objects, indeed, every office, with which they are invested; how sacred soever the trust; how great soever the responsibility, is made subservient. Are they magistrates? Not the impartial administration of justice; not the faithful execution of salutary laws; not the friendly arbitration of groundless quarrels; not the defence of oppressed poverty, nor the vindication of injured innocence; none of these important prerogatives of their office, for which good men have been wont to undertake it, are suffered for a moment to stand in competition with the extension of their influence, the establishment of their power, and above all, the opportunity which it sometimes affords them of avenging themselves upon those, who have, at any time, dared to resist their sway. Are they commissioners of taxes? an office for which their talents peculiarly designate them What a powerful engine of corruption does it become in their hands! How uniformly do they devote the inquisitorial authority, with which it arms them, to the gratification of insolent curiosity, private pique, or party malice! Are they trustees of charities? With what shameless effrontery do we see them prostituting the beneficence of the founders to the accomplishment of their own venal purposes, and defrauding the poor of those rewards of virtuous exertion, which the piety of former times had consecrated to their use, to bestow them upon their sycophants and dependants! But, the abuses, introduced by this new order of gentry, into every department of our provincial polity,

Quæque ipse miserrima vidi," would fill a volume of no ordinary size. Yet, Sir, these are the men, who arrogate to themselves every virtue, and monopolize morality, as they do every thing else! These are the men, whose names make so prominent a figure in our patriotic contributions; these the patriots, who enlist with so much ardour in our volunteer corps. But, surely, Mr. Cobbett, that patriotism is of a very problematical nature, which is assumed only upon occasions and for purposes of ostentation! I am no enemy to patriotic contributions, though you have convinced me, that the patronage, created by the fund at Lloyd's, would fow more constitutionally in a differ

ent channel. Nor do I condemn volunteer associations, for I am not sufficiently acquainted with military affairs to judge of their utility, and I have, at the same time, reason to believe, that many have joined them from motives of the purest patriotism. All I assert is this, is that because a man is a subscriber to the Lloyd's find, or has enrolled his name in a volunteer corps, he is not, therefore, necessarily a patriot, in direct opposition to every principle, by which he is actuated in the whole teilor of his life. I cannot admit that men, who thrive upon the miseries of the nation, have any legitimate claim to the title. I am aware, however, that I risk the once obsolete, though recently revived, imputation of jacobinism, in avowing this opinion. But, let me ask, whether, if at this day there be any jacobins among us, they are not (I will not say to be found among, but) entirely composed of those men, whose system has such an obvious tendency to depreciate our national character, and extinguish our national spirit. Believe me, Sir, I am unwilling to despond, or to create despondency;" but when, in spite of all our disasters, and the degrading alternative, to which we are reduced, I see selfishness in some form or other; nay, in the very guise of patriotism itself, still maintain its destructive empire in the land, I blush to own myself an Englishman. I tremble for the fate of my country."De

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tenda est "Carthago" has for some time past been the prevailing maxim in France. May we not, like the Carthagenians, continue besotted by the fancied security, which our commercial system has engendered, till, like them, we fail an easy prey to the enemy. If, in these times of alarm and peril, any apology be thought necessary for adverting to the fruitful cause of our calamities, and the real source of our danger. If the hackneyed charges, of exciting disaffection at home, and affording encouragement to the enemy to invade our shores, be yet advanced with pertinacious audacity by the minister and his adherents, against all who as sail their profligate and destructive system, I reply in the words of a celebrated female writer; herself one of those adherents. **So "to expose the weakness of the land, Eas to

suggest the necessity of internal improvement, and to point out the means of ef“fectual defence, is not treachery but pa

triotism." -I am, Sir, your constant reader, and obedient servant. C. B.Jan. 24, 1806, Bebe gay sit bag TS

FATE OF THE FUNDS.

Surely, Mr. Cobbett, you do not mean

14

soberly to tell us, that the extinction of the funds without remunerating the proprietors is an act of justice; or to defend reasonably a system so pregnant with anarchy and con fusion. The expediency of the measure, I have nothing to do with, only quarrel with its injustice. To take the property of another, without his consent, has heretofore been deemed a robbery, and consequently a crime punishable by the laws of every civilized state, How then can old opinions be so far justly set at nought, that a legal instrument shall be, executed, for at once overturning the justest law of our constitution and substituting for it, the most unjust, oppressive, and cruel act, that revolutionary terrorists ever decreed? Are you not aware that the stock-holder has implicitly depended upon the faith of the parliament, and that he has always considered this property as guaranteed upon the land? Are you not aware, that should your plan be adopted, he would be obliged to seek a habitation on any man's estate that suited his fancy and that if he was not strong enough himself, that he would call for the assistance of others in his own situation, and that vi et armis, they would settle themselves wherever they found a land-holder unequal to oppose them? Consider, Mr. Cobbett, what consequences this would lead to view the troops of the stock-holders in martial array, attacking the property of the land-holder, and systemati cally plundering him, because themselves had been plundered; and where lies the difference of the robbery? the latter rob against the law, whilst the former have been served so by the law. Robbed by the law!!! To what a state must your principle have reduced us, when the law shall be thus guilty, and I defy any one to prove that taking a man's property from him in this way, is any thing but a down-right robberey. That it is his property (though you say he never saw or felt it) their cannot be the shadow of a doubt, has he not given a valuable consideration for it ?. can he not sell it does he not receive so much a year from the nation for what it cost him? has not parliament yearly provided for this? I say it has by this alone acknowledged him as a creditor, and recognised his right, his property in it, and so far. r has given him sufficient grounds relying upon its faith; the fastands for British parliament hitherto considered sacred, and which has never before been at tempted to be polluted. The danger of a civil war and the very idea of parliamentary dishonesty, if viewed even at a distance, would terrify us, but if to be brought immediately before us, what must be our feelings?

Sooner let the country be ruined, but let its integrity survive; if we must perish, let us do so without reproach, that when the name of Britons shall hereafter be mentioned as having once been, that they were, with honour, and that though they might have still existed they refused the infamous means, of socrificing to their, necessities those of their children whom lust had prompted them to beget, and nature taught to cherish and defend, not destroy. Your argument of the stock-holder having himself foreseen and talked of this annihilation will apply against yourself. Would a man buy a house even, which he expected would sooner or later be taken from him? certainly not, how there tore can it be expected that he would purchase stock under this idea, when, so many other ways of laying out his money, could be resorted to? The advantage which you say the funds enjoy over other property could never be equal to this risk; and why do they enjoy this advantage, not surely because the public has contemplated the possi bility of their downfall; if it had done so, I will venture to assert, that the consequences would have been the very reverse of what they are. The faith which the public has in the honour and integrity of parliament has caused this property, which has arisen under its sanction and for its use to be nominally more valuable than any other, a certain proof that the contract betwixt the parliament as debtor and the public as creditor has been J always viewed in the light which point out to you, and that whilst it shall continge to be actuated by those principles of justice which have hitherto governed it, the public creditor need be in no fear of its resorting to a measure so criminal as the one you desire. The pretty story of the two widows has no point in it, for in a commercial country like this, every one is at liberty to turn their property to the best account, and few will agree with your position that because one has by enterprize and traffic realised a greater capital than another who started with equal chances, that the whole of that property should be sequestered for the good of the state, whilst the sluggard or prudent man (I care not which) shall be secured in the safe possession of his. Forbid it justice, forbid it policy !! trade, enterprize, and spirit, if taxed, in this way, would soon fly a country whose constitution was supported by such an Atlas, whose strength was oppression, security delusion, and policy injustice. I will not further intrude upon your time by entering more at large into the subject, but merely hope if you give this a place in your Weekly Register,

that those who implicitly rely upon your dogmas, and who consequently now droop despondingly at the picture you have drawn, may yet revive, and, placing that confidence in the British parliament which it deserves, firmly rely upon its rejection of a measure, the adoption of which would sully for ever its fair name, and remain, Sir, your obedient servant, CORNELIUS.- London, Feb. 1st, 1806.

PUBLIC PAPER.

ITALY AND FRANCE. Letter of his Majesty the Emperor Napoleon to the French Senate, dated Munich, Jan. 12, 1806.

Continental War. relative to our Princes of the blood, who in such case may then reign in France. We have thought it befitting our dignity, that Prince Eugene shall enjoy all the honours attached to our adoption, though they will give him no right but to the Crown of Italy alone; it being understood, that our adoption will in no case nor circumstance authorise either him or the descendants of Prince Eugene, to raise any claim to the Crown of France, the succession of which is irrevocably regulated by the constitutions of the Empire. The history of all ages informs us, that the uniformity of laws is essentially prejudicial to the strength and good organization of empires, when they extend beyond the limits allowed by the moral habits and geographical considerations. We reserve to ourselves the opportunity of publishing our ulterior dispositions, respecting the connexions which are to subsist after us, among all the Federative Estates of the French Empire. The various independent parties among them, having a common interest, must have a common tie.Our people of Italy will receive, with transports of joy, these new testimonies of our solicitude. They will perceive in them the guarantee of the happiness they enjoy, in the permanence of the Government of this young Prince, who, in an interval of stormy agitation, and particularly in the first moments, so difficult even for men of experience, has known how to govern by the affections, and to endear to them our laws.-He has never ceased to offer us a spectacle, which has strongly interested us. We have seen him in new situations, reducing those principles to practice, whsch we had studied to inculcate in his mind and in his heart, all the while he was under our inspection. When it was necessary to defend our people of Italy, he shewed himself equally worthy of imitating and renewing whatever we might have atchieved in the difficult art of war.-At the same moment that we have ordained that our fourth Constitutional Statute should be communicated to the three Colleges of Italy, it has appeared to us to be indispensible not to defer for an instant, the instruction necessary for the dispositions which establish the prosperity and duration of the Empire, in the love and the interest of the nations which compose it. We have thus been persuaded, that every thing that is to us a subject of happiness and joy cannot be indifferent to you, or to our people. (Signed) NAPOLEON. orto MARET.

Senators,-The Organic Senatus Consultum, of the 18th Florcal, or the year 12 (8th May, 1804), has provided for every thing respecting the hereditary succession of the Imperial Crown in France.-The first Constitutional Statute of our Kingdom of Italy, dated March 19, 1805, has fixed the inheritance of that Crown on our descendants, in a direct and legitimate line, whether natural, or by adoption.*-The dangers to which we have been exposed in the midst of the war, and which were exaggerated to our people of Italy those to which we may still be exposed in combating the enemies who yet remain to France, still excite very sensible alarins. The people of Italy do not enjoy the security, offered them by the liberality and the moderation of our laws, because the future is to them nncertain-We have considered it as one of our present duties to put a period to these alarms. We have in consequence determined to adopt as our son, Prince Eugene, Arch-Chancellor of our Empire, and Viceroy of our kingdom of Italy. We have called him, next to ourselves and our natural and legitimate children, to the throne of Italy; and we have decreed, that in default of our direct descendants, legitimate or natural, or those of Prince Eugene, our son, the Crown of Italy shall devolve to the son, or the nearest

* Art. II. The Crown of Italy is hereditary in the direct and legitimate line, whether natural or adopted, from male to male, to the perpetual exclusion of females and their descendants, still providing that the right of adoption cannot be extended to any one who is not a Citizen of the French Empire, or the Kingdom of Italy.-Constitutional Statute of the Kingdom of Italy of the 19th March, 1905.

VOL. IX. No. 7.]

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193]

SUMMARY OF POLITICS.

NEW MINISTRY. (Continued from p. 176.) The appointment of Lord Ellenborough to a seat in the cabinet is, as it has been represented, certainly a measure the propriety of which, is, to say the least of it, very questionable. Merely as a cabinet minister, if we could forget his other high situation, I, for my part, should have no ob-. jection to Lord Ellenborough; for, though there have been differences of opinion, as to political matters, in which he took some' part; yet, he has, from the beginning, shown himself a steady friend to the inquiries into abuses, and, in the memorable case of the Duke of Athol, when so many other lords, for reasons best known to themselves, chose to remain silent, the Lord Chief Justice manfully stood forward in the cause of the people and of honour. The enemy of peculators and of jobbers, be he who he may, is, politically speaking, my friend; and, therefore, I should with great pleasure see Lord Ellenborough in the cabinet, were he not a judge; but, being a judge, his appointment to a seat in the cabinet is assuredly not very consistent, and, indeed, not at all consistent, with that great principle of our constitution, that the executive powers of the state should be ever kept entirely distinct from those of the judiciary. This has, by all the celebrated writers upon our constitution, been considered not merely as a great principle, but as the main principle; and, a strict adherence to it has always been regarded as essential, nay, as absolutely necessary, to the real liberty of the subject, which, after all, being truly defined, consists in freedom from oppression, and, whoever will trace this freedom will find a security for it no where but in the courts of justice. As the means of obviating the possibility of all danger upon this score, it has been suggested, that, when the cabinet shall have, if, unfortunately, they should have, to discuss questions relating to prosecutions, or actions, that may, in consequence of such discussions, be brought before him, in his capacity of judge, he may keep away from the cabinet

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But, is it possible that any one should not perceive the futility of this? Suppose a case of libel, for instance. The Lord Chief Justice would not attend for the purpose of giving his sanction to the prosecution; but, if the libel should have arisen from a general censure upon the ministry in a body, or upon any measure of the ministry, would not the Lord Chief Justice be, to all intents and perposes a party? And, would it not be contrary to every principle of our laws and our constitution to make a man a judge in his own case? Nor, is it only in cases of libel that the danger must appear to every one: there. are those of rioting for certain purposes; of sedition; of treason; and, in short, of all kinds connected at all with a disapprobation of, or an opposition to, the measures of the administration. Our ideas of a court of justice are, that there we are to be heard before persons, not only of wisdom and of perfect integrity, but of impartiality as perfect. And, for the security of this impartiality; for the prevention of the operation of the frailties of juman nature against us, we expect to find perfect independence; a perfect absence of temptation, from any selfish feeling, to do us injustice. And, I ask, is it probable, nay is it possible, that, in a case of libel levelled at the whole of a ministry, a member of thất ministry can come to the trial with a mind like a sheet of blank paper? For these rezsons, and, as to the cases that may occur, many of other descriptions might be mentioned; for these reasons, and not for any reason of a party or a political complexion, it is to be desired, and, indeed, hoped, that some means of arranging the cabinet, without including the Lord Chief Justice, may le found out and adopted. Such an arrangement must, foo, be desired by the Lord Chief Justice himself even more, one would think, than by any other person; for, God knows, the multiplicity of penal statutes has rendered his office of judge so laborious as fo leave him very little time for attendance at cabinet councils, and no time at all for that inquiry and reflexion, which are uecesary to bring to such a council a mind so matured as