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tional monarchy; or a republic, constituted according to the theory of liberty, and which will be the true organ of the public will. All nations cannot, with safety, leave to the people the choice of their representatives; and when a nation has to apprehend the effects of assembling the people; when the advantages which it expects are less than the inconveniencies which it foresees; such a nation, which cannot find protection under a republican form of government, has recourse to the principles of a good and prudent monarch, Under the present constitution of Holland, the Grand Pensionary has more power than the King has in England: he has even more than the Emperor has in France; or than any Sovereign has in any country; and, what is without example in a republic, their high mightinesses, or the representatives and legislative bodies, have been nominated by the Grand Pensionary. The defect of this constitution cannot escape the observation of the sagacious. They cannot be called a tepublic, where the representative and legislative bodies are not nominated by the electors and if there be any fear of the electors, it will be best to renounce at once the republican form of government. A governA government, which neither having the advantages of a republic, nor a monarchy, combines all the inconveniencies of both, should not be absolutely proscribed. Such being the situation of Holland, she must be a gainer by any change that she must make in her constitution. If the landholders, the merchants, the enlightened men, are of opinion that they can have a representation made by the choice of the people without distinction of classes or religion, they will create a system much more proper than the present one. If that be not their opinion, and that they think it necessary to have recourse to a constitutional nonarchy, they will do that which will be more advantageous to their country than the preservation of their existing constitution can be. It is their duty to examine their situation, to judge of the circumstances in which they are placed, and to choose between the two systems that which is best suited to them, and the most likely to estalish, on a solid foundation, the public prosperity and liberty.-Bavaria had taken possession of the Margraviate of Auspach, and has ceded to France the Duchy of Berg which, united with that of Cleves, is settled upon Prince Joachim, the Grand Admiral of the Empire. Wesel is a strong fortress on our frontiers. The Duchy of Cleves gives us an advantageous point of contact with Holland; and France, for the future will only find on the right bank of the Rhine,

princes who are allied by blood to the Imperial Family.-General Oudinot has taken possession of the counties of Neufchatel and Valengin. He found those countries loaded with English merchandize, heaped there by the merchants of Switzerland, and principally by those of Basle. Of these the French army had taken to the amount of many millions; all the banks of the Lake of Neufchatel were covered with English manufactures. This circumstance justifies all the prohibitory measures which may be taken with regard to Switzerland. That country is little more, at this moment, than a warehouse for English goods. When it shall be cleared of these manufactures, we shall perhaps have the means of giving a new check to our enemy. Is it possible that the Landamman was not struck with the danger to which he exposed the country? Who will protect Basle from a visit from the French army? Does this magistrate, who sees smuggling carried on by wholesale under his eyes, suppose that he is not responsible? If the French consider these depots of prohibited goods so publicly made, and to such great extent, a real act of hostility; if the French government multiplies prohibitory laws between Switzerland, France, and Italy, will not the Landamman be the cause of it? And will not all the complaints that the Swiss may make be unjust and ill-founded? Da!matia is occupied by the French army. It is separated from the mouth of the Cataro by the republic of Ragusa: the country is mountainous, and the roads are bad. The French troops had arrived at Ragusa, when the fort of Castel Nuovo was delivered to 300 Russians by General Brady, who commanded 2000 Austrians. This general, whose ancestors were English, has been wanting in respect to France, and has betrayed his master. Upon receiving this information, Marshal Berthier gave orders that Brannau, which defends the frontiers of the Inn, and which was to have been given up on the 1st of April, should not be restored, and that it should be again garrisoned. The division of the grand army, which was on its way to France, has halted. The prisoners of war, that were to have been sent back to Germany, have been detained, until further orders, in the places at which they were.This outrage offered by Russia to the Austrian flag and arms, is the more inconceiveable, because the Russians are at Corfu, draw their provisions from the ports of Trieste and Fiume, a free communication with which has not been prohibited. The Court of Vienna has ordered, that General Brady should be arrested and tried. It has ex

pressed its dissatisfaction to Russia. It will cause Castel Nuovo, and the mouths of the Cataro, to be delivered up to France, without having occasion to reply, by arms, to this act of hostility.-The Russians have evacuated Hanover, and returned home. The army which the Emperor Alexander commanded has also returned to Russia. After all the losses which it sustained, it is very natural that it should repair them by recruiting. A part of the troops, which were at Corfu, have returned to the Bosphorus with General Lascy. A considerable part of those that were in Poland, are marching towards Choczim and the Crimea. The illusion, with respect to the Russian armies, is no more. The French army which, in two months, dissipated the third coalition, was then only on the peace establishment: at the end of the three months, which have since elapsed, it finds itself on the war establishment. It has nothing to fear from all the forces of Europe; but no person will be able to form a fourth coalition. England knows full well, that it would be money thrown away. She reflects with terror, that the first coalition, which lasted five years, made France mistress of Holland, Belgium, the Rhine, and all the Cisalpine country; that the second coalition, which only lasted two years, gave to France Piedmont and Switzerland; that the third, which only lasted three months, gave her Venice, Naples, and Genoa; that the least she could expect from a fourth coalition, would be Trieste and Fiume, and the eternal exclusion of the English from all the ports of Europe. Russia, recovered from the vain illusion by which she was deceived, well knows what thirty millions of people, scattered over an immense territory, and under the necessity of opposing the Persians, Turks, and Tartars, can do against forty millions of Frenchmen united on the same platform, brave, active and intelligent, and more capable of conquering Russia, than the Russians are of conquering France.-English, Russian, and Sardinian Envoys, and a knot of malcontents from all the countries in the world, had fixed on Rome as the center of their machinations. The Emperor required that they should be driven from thence; and that a sovereign, placed in his empire, should do nothing contrary to the safety of the armies of Naples and Italy. The first care of an army should always be, not to allow itself to be surrounded, either by spies or those who encourage desertion. This de

mand gave rise to many consistories, when the persons who were the objects of it did justice to themselves, and all evacuated Rome. The kingdom of Naples is entirely conquered. The French troops are at Reggio, at Otranto, and at Taranto. Only a small body of the Neapolitan troops could embark and reach Sicily. That island is defended by 4,500 English. The presence of such enemies is an additional inducement for the French to go there. Gaeta, an insignificant fortress, with a garrison of 1.600 men, is besieged.-The victory of Austerlitz has produced as much sensation at Constantinople as at Paris. The exultation there was sincere and universal. The government of the Porte is neither ignorant nor sold. There may, at Constantinople, be some traitors, but they are not numerous; whilst, on the contrary, the multiplied measures of Russia for sapping the foundation of this vast empire, has not escaped the notice of the real Ottomans. They are not ignorant that the protection of France can alone be sufficient for the Porte; and that France is the only power interested in protecting her. The vicinity of the French, in Dalmatia, has inspired them with the liveliest joy. The Emperor Napoleon has been acknowledged Emperor. The Porte knows very well, that its treaty with Russia was extorted; and that it is rather a treaty between a despotic prince and his vassal, than between Sovereign and Sovereign; that it is not the French who have excited the Greeks and Servians to insurrection; whose ships of war are anchored before Constantinople; and who are continually creating commotions in the Morea. This new attitude of the Porte has produced much uneasiness at St. Petersburgh; and if the Porte shall be roused to acts of energy against Russia, there will not be found, between those two powers, the great difference that may be supposed. The Mussulman is brave; and were he directed and assisted, he would triumph over the Muscovite militia. It is not probable that the Porte will wish to go to war; but she has a right to preserve her independence, and to wish for protection against the insults of Mr. Italinsky, every proceeding of whom, when he communicates with the Divan, is only calculated to excite hatred and inignation." [We iutend to collect in this way, every month, information of what is passing; and to throw some light into the labyrinth of false reports, by which the lawful speculations of fair and honest merchants may be injured.]

Printed by Cox and Baylis, No. 75, Great Queen Street, and published by R Bagshaw, Bow Street, Covent Garden, where former Numbers may be had; sold also by J. Budd Crown and Mitre, Pal-Malt.

VOL. IX. No. 21.]

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1806.

[PRICE 10D. "The dangers principally to be apprehended from regal government, relate to the two articles, taxation "and punishment. In every form of government, from which the people are excluded, it is the interest of "the governors to get as much as they can. Wisely, therefore, hath the British constitution guarded the "safety of the people, in this respect; for, every law, which, by the remotest construction, may be deem"ed to levy money upon the property of the subject, must originate, that is, must be first assented to, "in the House of Commons; and the application also of the public supplies, is watched with the same "circumspection as the assessment, many taxes being annua', the produce of others appropriated to "specific services, and the expenditure of all of them being accounted for in the House of Commons."Moral and Political Philosophy; Book VI. Chap. VII.

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*** Agreeably to the notification, given in the preceding Number, I was preparing to publish, in this Number, the Intended Dispatch of the Court of Directors; but, when I came to look through the collection of documents, in which it has been published by the Court of Directors, I found, that it could not, consistent with that justice and fairness, with which I always have acted, be published by me, unaccompanied with the other documents, and I found that the whole would occupy a space so large as to exclude from the Register all other matter whatsoever for two, if not for.three, weeks; and, therefore, important as I think this particular subject, I could not, at this time, bring myself to resolvenpon such exclusion. A few weeks hence, perhaps, when the interesting points now in agitation before parliament shall have been decided, or, at least, settled for the time, an opportunity for the insertion will offer.

TO THE ELECTORS OF HONITON.

LETTER I.

GENTLEMEN,Upon the principle that example is more powerful than precept, and that, to the producing of virtuous actions nothing is more conducive than the bestowing of just praise on those who have virtuously acted, it was, perhaps, my duty, in common with that of other public writers, to have, before now, recorded, commended, and honoured, your discernment and public-spirit, as exemplified in your choice of MR. ROBSON as a member in the present parliament, and in the truly disinterested and constitutional manner in which that choice was made. But, Gentlemen, an opportunity now offers for our discharging this duty in a manner which will compensate for the delay; because our eulogium upon your conduct now comes forth accompanied with proofs the most satisfactory of its beneficial effects.

Having witnessed the enormous abuses lately, by inquiry, brought to light, with re

Y

-PALEY:

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gard to the expenditure of the public-money, and having traced that inquiry back to the repeated, though then unsupported, exertions of MR. ROBSON; having perceived, that, but too many of those persons, into whose hands devolved the finishing of what he so well began, were actuated by motives very different from his; having seen, that those persons were ready to accede to, nay themselves to propose, a bill of indemnity for Mr. Pitt, who himself had connived at a gross violation of the law, in lending £40,000 of the public money, without interest, to two members of the then parliament; and, finally, having seen these very same persons, these pursuers of abuses under the adminis tration of Mr. Pitt, propose to vote away, and actually vote away, £40,000 of the public money to pay the debts of that Mr. Pitt, and that, too, upon the ground, as by them explicitly stated, of his "public merits :" having all this before your eyes, you naturally looked back to MR. ROBSON, the man with whom the inquiry originated, and who had had no participation in the compromises, the inconsistencies, and the abandonment of principle exhibited in the subsequent proceedings thereon. You saw, ir MR. ROBSON, no sycophant, either of the court or the populace; no seeker for place, either by cringing at a levee or by hollow professions to the people; you saw, in him, no warrior against the Treasury Bench, no stickler against the free use of the King's prerogative in appointing his servants, but a determined enemy of corruption and of all abuses, through those servants committed, and, provided these were prevented, caring very little who those servants might be; in short, you saw, in MR. ROESON, a plain, honest, aud independent man, wanting nothing from the public, either for himself or his relations, having the good of his country warmly at heart, and having industry and resolution sufficient to bring his wishes into action. Such were the reasons for which you chose him to be your representative in parliament;

and, it is the bounden duty of all those of your fellow subjects, who have the means in their hands, to acknowledge to you publicly, and to proclaim to the world, that experience has already proved, that your reasons were well-founded, that you have not been deceived, and that, in the effect as well as in the motive, you have a just claim to the praise and the gratitude of your country.

representatives the right of inquiring how the money has been expended? And, how is such an inquiry ever to begin, unless some. one man begins it? And, can you possibly conceive any good reason for checking any inquiry into the expenditure of the public money, from whatever quarter the first motion for such inquiry may come?

Now, Gentlemen, previously to my submitting to you the report of the proceeding, in which MR. ROBSON has taken so considerable and so useful a part, and which, as you will see, related to the wasteful expenditure in the BARRACK-DEPARTMENT, it will be necessary to state to you, with somewhat more precision than they may as yet have reached you, the circumstances which led to it.

The disclosures, with regard to Lord Melville and Mr. Trotter, gave rise to public observation respecting the abuses in other departments; and, it was proposed, by the then Opposition, who are no w ministers, to move for the appointment of a Commission to inquire into the MILITARY BRANCH in general. Mr. Pitt, the then minister (whose debts, observe, we have since paid!), thought it would be better for himself to have the appointment of this Commission; and, accord

It is, Gentlemen, but a few weeks, since, as the consequence of your choice, as the consequence of your unshackled and constitutional exercise of that right, so valuable in itself, and once so dear and so much revered by Englishmen, that MR. ROBSON was returned tothe House of Commons; yet, as will appear from the report of a debate and proceeding which I propose here to lay before you, he has already done more than any member of this present parliament towards the correction of those abuses in the expenditure of the public money, which are now, by all men, except the mere slaves of corruption, acknowledged to exist, and which, there is no one to deny, do greatly contribute to the weight of those burdens that are weighing us to the earth. But, before we proceed to the particular subject thus placed before us, and even before we come to a statement of the circumstances which led to the proceedingly, he brought in a bill for the purpose, ing in question, it is not unnecessary that we advert, for a moment, to the doctrine of the constitution as touching the powers and duties of members of the House of Commons. The celebrated writer, from whom I have taken the motto to this paper, represents the power of the purse as the sole security for the liberties, properties, and the lives of the people; and, if this was always so, how much more necessary is it to cling to the doctrine now, when there is a regular army of 200,000 men in these kingdoms, about 30,000 of whom are foreigners? But, Gentlemen, what is this "power of the purse," and what is the use of talking about it; what is its use to you and me; how can we possibly derive any benefit from it, unless our representatives, I mean, any one of them, can bring before parliament proof, if it exist, of frauds in the expenditure of the public money? The House of Commons, PALEY tells us, is to watch over the expenditure of the public money; and this is the language of all those who have praised our constitution of government. They tell us, that we tax ourselves, and that we ourselves have a check and controul over the expenditure; and this they explain by saying, that we choose members of the House of Commons to act for us, and that whatever they do is done by

us.

Well, then, Gentlemen, have not our

and, in the month of June last, five men,
picked out by himself and OTHERS, were
appointed by law. To work this Commis-
sion went, beginning with the Barrack-De-
partment, and not, as one might have ex-
pected, with that of the office of COM-
MANDER IN CHIEF, that being, certain-
ly, the head department belonging to the ar-
my; but, upon reference to the act, I find,
that that particular office, was, for some rea-
son or other (a very sufficient one, no doubt),
not included; so that, there, even these
Commissioners, have no power of inquiry at

all.
But, at any rate, upon the Barrack-De-
partment they began; and, in the space of
nine months, the seven Commissioners and
their clerks, produced to the House of Com-
mons their first report, contained in 111
pages of loose print, being, in the whole,
about three times as much print as is con-
tained in this letter, which, on this 22d of
May, I am writing to you, and which must
be finished and printed by to-morrow night
at 12 o'clock! And, Gentlemen, what is
the subject matter of the report? Is it a state-
ment in result? No: it consists of the evi-
dence taken down, as well as of the observa-
tions thereon; and, it relates to one single
little point in the affairs of the Barrack-Of-
fice, namely, the arrears due from the Bar-
rack-Master General to the public; as to

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çasion would have existed for laying such a Report before Parliament. It was now some years since the House had been in "the habit of voting large sums of money "for the erection of Barracks in various parts of the kingdom; but those votes "had, of late years, increased to an enormous extent. Last year it was 2,300,000!. "and for the present year it was 1,700,000). Having upon a former occasion, attempt"ed in vain to induce the House to go into some investigation, finding his former opinions justified by the Report now be"fore the House, and desirous once more to bring forward the subject to the notice "of parliament, it was natural for him to "look a little into the cause why this expenditure had so increased, and the more so after he had heard the plea of necessity which the ministers had set up as a reason for the heavy taxes they had recently imposed upon the people. He felt "it incumbent upon him, now that the "reins of government had passed into the " hands of other ministers, who, he sin"cerely trusted would offer no impediment

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which arrears I will, begging leave to digress for the purpose, give you a brief account. The report, thus made to the House of Com mons, states, that DELANCEY, the BarrackMaster General, by the means of incorrect statements, had drawn from the Treasury large sums which he ought not to have drawn; that GREENWOOD, an army agent, who was the Treasurer to the Barrack-Office, and who was also the private agent of De Lancy, did, in the years 1803 and 1804, transter £11,000 of the money drawn for the Barrack-Office, to De Lancy's private account, instead of applying it to meet demands upon the Barrack-Office; and that, upon the whole of his account, DELANCY stood indebted to the public (to say nothing of the large sum for interest) to the amount of 197,415. This report, which had cost nine months in making out, Mr. Robson had seen lie nearly two months longer upon the table of the House of Commons unnoticed by the ministers, when he obtained information relative to some flagrant abuses and peculation in the Barrack-Department in the Isle of Wight; and, upon obtaining this information, he, on the 16th instant, came into his place in the House, where, like an honest representative of the people, he moved for the production of the papers, which, in the following report of the debate of that day, you will find accurately descrioed.

"Mr. ROBSON rose to bring forward his "promised motion for the production of "certain documents relative to the Depart"ment of Barracks, with a view to insti"tute an inquiry into certain gross abuses " in that Department, through the wasteful expenditure of the public money. He "said it was now 4 years since he had ven"tured to obtrude himself upon the atten"tion of the House, by some observations, " and a motion, on the very subject which "it was now his purpose to offer to their * consideration; namely, the scandalous "abuses then existing in the Barrack De"partment; and he, on that occasion, i warned the House of the enormity of "those abuses, upon which he had not the "good fortune of being able to institute, at "that time, any inquiry; but which now "were palpably proved to have existed to "the full extent which he then asserted, by "the Report of the Military Commissioners

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to fair inquiry, to ascertain, if possible "what became of those enormous sums so "voted. At present it was h's intention to

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move for the production ofcertain papers "relative to the Barrack Department, for "the purpose of investigating some very re"cent transactions. Without entering into any detail on the subject in the present instance, he should proceed to name the papers for which he intended to me.

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They were short and their production "would neither be troublesome nor exp-n"sive, the first of which, and he would now "move for it, was "A List of the several "Barns rented by Government and used as "Barracks, in the Division of Sandown "Bay, in the Isle of Wight; specifying the "time when first taken, and also the week

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ly or annual rent thereon paid, respective"ly, from the time of their being so taken up to the 25th Dec. 1805, inclusive.""Mr. MARTIN seconded the motion."Lord HENRY PETTY said, that if the hon.

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gent. had done him the honour to make "the slightest communication to him of his "wishes or intentions upon the subject, he "believed he should have been able to have "satisfied the hon. gent that his motion "for papers and the purpose he had avow. ed, were rendered unnecessary, by ano"ther arrangement which had already taken place. As the hon. gent. had not thought proper so to do, he would beg leave to say now, that, although he saw no obje"tion whatever to the production of the

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