conduct of the Electer towards the Emperor, in the late dispute between them; that he exprc's his Imperial Majesty will take measures to inflict on him a suitable punishment, and that, in the mean time, he, the First Consul, will march a few regiments into the neighbourhood of the electorate? This

mittee room in King street? And when it is recollected that on every jury in London there may be some member of this society, can a fair and unbiassed verdict be given by bim, at whose instigation, perhaps, the criminal at the bar was prosecuted, and by whose commands the evidence upon which he is accused has been given? Are not the accusers and the judges virtually the same; and can just decisions be expected from a tribunal thus constituted?-These are questions involving matters of importance; and it would be well for those magistrates who are members of this association to inquire how far the duties of their two characters are compatible:-Upon this branch of the subject I should have wished to say much; and, indeed, upon the subject, generally, much remains to be said, but I have already engrossed so much of your sheet, that I must defer all further remarks, until some future opportunity.I ain, Sir, &c. &c.

ANTI-PURITAN. Westminster, Jan. 25, 1804.

SUMMARY OF POLITICS.

AMERICA. The latest advices from the United States seem to assure us, that the Americans will not gain possession of New Orleans without force; but, there is but little probability of the Spaniards being able to resist them. The Floridas are, too, to be obtained by the Americans, either by purchase, or by conquest; and then all the observations which were made respecting the danger, which would arise to England from France having the command of the gulph stream, will apply to the possession of the Floridas by the Americans, on whose back Lord Hawkesbury thought he was placing the French, and by which means he said the United States would be attached more closely to Great Britain!" Fine young man!" as the stock-jobbers called him! This fine young man is, it is much to be feared, destined to see the last of the British monarchy.

AUSTRIA AND BAVARIA.-It is stated, from a source of great respectability, that Mr. Otto, French minister at Munich, has officially declared to the Elector, that the First Consul is very much displeased at the

uneasiness at Vienna than at Munich. What object the Consul has in view is not known; and, indeed, it is more than probable, that he has seized on this opportunity merely to remind the states of Germany that they are his vassals; a litle stir that he has inade amongst them, just to examine their chains and keep them from rusting.

RUSSIA.-More stories are afloat relative to the interference of this power for the restoration of peace. Such reports are absurd. It is not the interest of Russia to interfere, until we are reduced so low as to be ready to yield Malta, upon the terms which France required us to yield it, previous to the war, When that time comes, and it may not be far distant, Russia will afford us her good offers; and, if we should not destroy ourselves before, we may, perhaps, obtain peace, after having added another hundred millions to the national deb;, without obtaining the least earthly good, and with having undeniably proved, that we are unable to contend against France.

SPAIN. It is said, that we are about to declare war against this nation, but it is also said, that we are, on the contrary, endeavouring to obtain its mediation for peace. In short, the public can know nothing of this matter; but, from the rise in the funds, one might naturally expect, that some project

for

As

peace was on foot. The objection to it will not be found with the ministers, who know not how to get on an inch further in war, and who, if they think it likely to prevent a formidable opposition in parliament, will most assuredly make peace, it they can. to terms, they know well, that they need not embarrass themselves; for, as they have already experienced, there are none that even Buonaparté can dictate, which the base stockjobbers and those who speak for them will not approve of. The mediation of Spain !!! But, why not? The last negotiation was begun by His Majesty's principal Secretary of State soliciting an interview with a Cominissary of Prisoners. Why not the mediation of Spain? What are we better than Spain ? We do not, indeed. yet pay tribute directly; but, we do it indirectly, and that too, in larger sums than Spain has ever paid. We are, and long have been, sinking under the yoke without perceiving it; and, indeed,

their ignorance of our situation is the only circumstance that can apologize for the contempt, with which we treat those whom we call the debased and abject powers of the continent;" contempt which is, by those powers, most amply repaid us, notwithstanding we have to boast of not having yet been conquered by France.

DOLLARS. I mean, at this time, merely to remind my readers, that the intrinsic sterling value of the Spanish dollar is 4s. 6d. After the stoppage of the bank, in 1797, the dollar rose to 4s. 9d. and now it has risen to 5s.

Some of the sapient advo

cates of the funding system insist, that this rise in the value of the dollar argues an increase in the stability of the bank! Good souls! it were a cruelty to undeceive them, or one might ask, whether, if dollars are of just the same weight and metal as formerly, and if a ten pound note, which used to buy 44 dollars, will now buy only 40 dollars; ore might ask whether, if this be so, it is not a sign that the bank notes have depreciated; but, as was before observed, it would be an act of cruelty to undeceive the good souls, whose happiness, like that of the lamb or the calf, consists in their total ignorance of the fate that awaits them. "Pleased to the "last, they crop the flow'ry food,". .. I will not add the remaining part of the sentence, lest the haunters of the 'Change should think that I have knowledge of some conspiracy against their corporeal existence, which most surely is not the case.

VOLUNTEER SYSTEM.-With the words, which form the motto to the present number, Mr. Windham concluded his exhortations to the parliament on this interesting subject. How the ministers, after all the abuse, which they and their underlings have heaped upon him; after all their gibes and taunts and reproaches and misrepresentations and calumnies and insults; how, after all these, the ministers will be able to look him in the face, it is hard to conceive. Yet they will look him in the face, and boldly too; for, as Mr. Secretary Yorke so truly and so modestly observed, in the debate of the 9th of December last, though there may

be

many excellent opposition speeches, there "will be, to set off against them, many "good ministerial votes." Nay, it is not altogether impossible but they may, upon the strength of these their votes, become the assailants, and, instead of allowing that their volunteer system was an unwise measure, insist, that, like the peace of Amiens, it was admirable in itself, till it was spoiled by the incessant attacks of Mr. Windham, who, in both instances, first predicted evil conse

quences and then produced them, and whose foresight has, therefore, no more merit than that of the incendiary, who foretold the burning of the house which he afterwards set on fire. In preferring a charge like this, it will, indeed, remain for them to apologize for their not having perceived the intention of Mr. Wine han, or, perceiving, not having prevented its success; but, this difficulty, too, they will get over by their standing justification, to wit, a dead majority of votes.-This majority will not, however, prevent the evils of the system from daily and hourly augmenting. The disputes in the several corps of volunteers increase in violence as well as number. Instances of mutiny occur continually. A regiment not far from the metropolis, which consists of eight divisions, each division having a committee, has lately formed a general committee, which committee has drawn up and promulgated some very harsh resolutions respecting their offi cers. At Yarmouth the newspapers tell us, that the corps is thrown all into confusion by the measures of the commanding officer having been opposed by the committee. In a county, in the North, a whole corps are stated to have laid down their arms, because they were not permitted to take the right of the line on a brigading day, one of Mr. Pitt's favourite brigading days! Mr. Pitt never had heard of Volunteer committees, till Mr. Windham mentioned them. Colonel Long, who is "a More Accurate Observer," can tell him a good deal about them; and can furnish him with some as pretty instances of the discipline of his shop keeper army as he can possibly wish to be put in possession of. In the midst of all this, and while the magistrates and parish officers are, in many places, disputing about the allowances to be made to the wives and children of volunteers, who consent to go from home, the public prints are treating us with a speech of Robert Sparrow, Esq. chairman of the quarter sessions of the county of Stafford, who is said to have threatened with an indictment for a misdemeanor all those farmers and gentlemen, who " throw any obstacle "in the way of the defence of the country," by refusing to permit their servants to go a volunteering, or by refusing to keep or to live volunteers! This is, surely, an invention for the purpose of hoaxing Mr. Colonel Erskine, who so learnedly accused Mr. Windham of uttering against the volunteer system, words, which, if used out of the House of Commons would amount to a misdemeanor; and in Robert Sparrow, Esq. every one must recognize Falstaff's Robert Shallow, Esq. who had formerly lived in Lin

66

coln's Inn, and who, as the reader will remember was famous for talking about the new levies, and was by no means backward in talking about himself. But, really, if there be, in Staffordshire, a leading magistrate of the name of Robert Sparrow, to make use of his name in this way was certainly going beyond the licence of the press; for, there can be no doubt, that a man who should seriously utter the threat above mentioned, would be much fitter for Bedlam than for the Bench.-Citizen Colonel Tierney's third company have published another set of resolutions; in which they give a positive contradiction to the no less positive assertion made by that gallant and right honourable man, that he had "told his corps that they were not, in future to elect their officers.' They, at the same time, express no intention of giving up this their "elective fran"chise;" but, they are, for the good of the country, ready to pardon the harsh treatment they have received. There has since been a quarrel between Mr. Tierney's associate Lieut. Colonel and one of the captains; and, we are informed, that the men of the company, to which the captain belongs, have had a meeting upon the subject, have taken their captain's conduct into consideration, and have determined, by an "unani. mous vote," that the captain had behaved well, through the whole of the transaction!

Mr. Dowley, whose goods were distrained and sold for the payment of fines, has marched into Westminster Hall, there, under the command of that able field officer Colonel Erskine, to fight against the magistrates of Southwark, headed by the Attorney General. What a glorious prospect for the law! Who would have thought, that the parliament, by one short act, could have created, instantly, 370,000 litigants, in Great-Britain alone! What immense sums will thus be brought into the Stamp-Office! What a great and unexpected addition will thus be made to those "magnificent receipts," on which Lord Auckland dwelt with such rapture! And how would Mr. Windham be baffled, if the minister were, at last, openly to avow, and to boast of, the success of the volunteer institution, not as a military system, but as "a solid system of finance !". At Chester, a regimental court of inquiry has been held, on the royal volunteers of that city; and, the ministers have advertised, in the London Gazette, a reward of tool. for discovering the persons who broke open the jail and effected the rescue, at Chester, on the 28th of December last! So, so! This

is the turn it is to take, at last! An advertisement to discover who it was that broke open the jail and rescued the impressed volunteer and carried him through the streets of the city! This is the way the matter is to be stifled, is it? The Addingtons and Hawkesburies will smile. Let them: ic were cruel to disturb mirth which is likely to be of so short a duration. It must not be supposed, that, from my having mentioned the above circumstances, I am inclined to take part against the volunteers, for whom, I repeat, that I have, personally, very great respect. Where, indeed, is the probability, that I should dislike or contemn 370,000 of my own countrymen, amongst whom are almost all the persons, to whom I am most attached, as well by friendship as by interest? What reason can there be, then, for my personally disliking this numerous body of men, from no one of whom, as far as I know, did I ever receive an injury or an insult! No; my objection is not to the volunteers themselves, but to the system, by which their means, their time, their talents, their zeal, and their courage, are prevented from being of any use to their country or themselves. As to the dispute between the government and the volunteers, I am decidedly with the latter. I never could find the law, on which the opinion of the AttorneyGeneral was founded; and, I am not a little pleased to find, that, after all the abuse, which has been bestowed on me by the slaves of the ministry, those slaves have now adopted my opinion. As to the right of electing officers, there can be little doubt, that there are some cases, in which the offers. of service included a positive stipulation for the exercise of this right. This was a fact, of which I was not before aware. But, now that I am in possession of it, I hesitate not to say, that, to attempt to enforce a regulation contrary to such stipulation, would be a shameful breach of national faith. The Attorney General, in the debate of the 12th of December, in replying to what Mr. Wind-. ham had said about the making of officers, observed, that "generally speaking, men of "rank and character were the object of "CHOICE with the volunteer corps;" words which he could hardly have made use of, if he had not regarded all the volunteers as having a right to choose their own officer. And with re pect to committees, upon looking into the acts, I find that volunteer committees and meetings and votings are fully sanctioned by law, though Mr. Pitt and the ministers affected to be utterly astonished at the existence o

any such things; and the "right bonourable" Mr. Hiley Addington went so far as to declare, that he would scorn to belong to a corps that had a committee !

ST. DOMINGO.-The French troops in St. Domingo, consisting, it is stated, of 5,000 men, have surrendered to the British squadron, and have been conveyed to Jamaica, together with their general, Rochambeau. Four French frigates, 2 corvettes, and 18 merchantment were captured, at the same time, in the harbour of Cape François, at which place the troops surrendered -Now

comes the dreadful black empire!" Will Mr. Addington and Lord Castlereagh boast of this event? Yes; they will. The assurance of your modest well-meaning men is never to be disconcerted.

INTELLIGENCE.

FOREIGN. It has been reported, upon the authority of some letiers from Vienna, of a recent date, that a disturbance had broken out in Constantinople, caused by the co-operation of a body of rebels from Romelia, with a party of the disaffected in the capital: the janissaries, however, remained faithful to their allegiance, and, after considerable slaughter, succeeded in driving the insurgents from the city; but, it is said, that they are still hovering in the neighbourhood.

-The Grand Seignior, embarrassed by the disturbances at home, and convinced of the difficulty, if not the impossibility of reducing Egypt to submission, has, it appears, dispatched orders for the surrender of Alexandria, and for the evacuation of that country; and has made overtures to the Beys, for the restoration of the ancient state of things.The dispute between the Emperor of Germany and the Elector of Bavaria has not yet been comprised, although many members of the Equestrian order of Franconia, have submitted, and taken the oath to the Elector: and during this suspense, the Austrian army, under Prince Lichtenstein remains upon the frontiers of Bavaria.-The preponderance of the Catholic interest, in the College of Princes, is not settled; but, it seems, that the Elector of Bavaria has agreed to support it, on condition that be, as well as the Emperor, shall receive an accession of influence.On the 31st of December, Buonaparté left Paris, on a visit to the coast; and, after having inspected the preparations at Boulogne, and the adjacent places, with great minuteness, he returned to the capital on the 6th of

| January; on which day, the session of the Legislative Body was opened by a speech from the Minister of the Interior, in which he boasts of the great improvements carrying on in the country, notwithstanding the im mense preparations for war, and of the prosperity, the happiness, and the tranquillity of the republic.-Batavia is represented to be in a deplorable condition, in consequence of the great pecuniary exactions made upon the monied part of the community, for the support of the armies which are stationed throughout the country, and in consequence of the daily requisitions made among the lower classes, for men and boats to be employed in the expedition against England.

-News had been lately received from St. Domingo, by the way of America, stating," that Cape François had been evacuated by the French, and that the event had been celebrated, with great rejoicings, among the negroes; that at the different ports of which they had taken possession, commerce had begun to revive, and that at Fort Jeremie, particularly, trade was carried on with great spirit.-Peace has, certainly been restored, between the United States and the Emperor of Morocco, without any stipulation for the payment of any tribute whatever. During the negotiation, the American squadron was moored off Tangiers, where the Emperor was with a very large body of troops, and the commodore threatened to destroy the town, unless the terms he offered were ac→ cepted.

DOMESTIC.-Late Dublin papers stated that Dwyer the noted chief, had undergone several long examinations previous to his being sent out of the country; that the rebel general, Clarke, who was wounded in attempting to make his escape, had died; and that Mernagh, another famous leader, had surrendered himself prisoner.The people of the Shetland Islands are suffering under a severe famine, in consequence of the failure of their crops of last year, and the scanty produce of their fisheries; indeed, so great and so universal is said to be the scarcity which prevails, that unless some assistance be obtained, one-half of the inhabitants will be in danger of perishing for

want.

The articles which have been transmitted for the Register, and which it is in tended to insert, will certainly be found in the next sheet.