tries, the rate of exchange, on any given sum against Ireland, could never mu h exceed the price of the freight and insura vee upon. that sum in guineas from Ireland hither. Whenever it did, guineas would be sent over in place of bills, until the level was restored. To return, Sir, to the subject, whence I have briefly digressed. Mr. Corry has no doubt told the truth; but, I suspect, not the whole trath. I confess I feel a curiosity to ask, and the public have a right to know, in what mode the officers of the Irish Treasury are paid when in Ire1 ad. Some of these gentlemen reside thre pretty constantly, none of them are detained here by parliamentary or official duty the whole year round. In what shape do the former receive their whole salaries, and the latter such portions of it as grow due in that part of the year which they condescend to pass in Ireland? I am informed, and as, atter the avowal of Mr. Corry any thing is credible, can readily believe, that, as in England, these Treasury officers pay themselves at par, so, in Ireland, they pay themselves in guineas. Their profit in the latter case is still greater than in the former, since guineas in Ireland bear, as you observe, a premium of more than 12 per cent. It may be asked, how are these guineas obtained ? I think I can guess. There existed in Ireland, a little time back, a depót of specie, collected and preserved by the government for the payment of the troops in case of invasion or rebellion. Has this fund remained sacred and untouched? If still in existence, has it not been diminished? Have not these Treasury gentlemen found means to dip into it a whisker first, and then a claw?" If they deny this, they are bound to hew where they find guineas, while the rst of the commun ty must be contented with paper. The alternative is still more scandalous, since then the government must

ually purchase guineas at 2s. 41, a piece pemium, in order to pay these men, who, o all humility, style themselves the servants of the public and the crown. They are, indeed, a privileged race, all other men's incomes bear the burden of taxes. The situation of other men is made to sympathize with that of the country. In this respect we all have neighbour's fare. Not so these placemen. Their salaries, and emoluments are untouched, and amidst the general decay and consumption of every other species of property," flourish in immortal youth." I well remember when Mr. Pitt's income

was In on the salaries of the commissioners of Lastoms and Excise were imme

diately raised from 10001. to 12001. a year, in other words, the public was taxed to pay their taxes, and they enjoyed a greater income than before. Now, when a most intolerable tax, in the shape of exchange, is imposed upon the proprietors of Ireland, "pray bear it patiently my good friends," cries Mr. Corry, "the subject is delicate, is intricate, requires candour and temper. Thus does this, pampered steed with " unwrung withers" preach to us poor galled jades." All the time he is helping himself to his salary at par, secretly, while he could, but now by open confession in the face of Parliament and the public. So, in Ireland, when the public is oppressed by the arbitrary issue and depreciation of private paper, and compelled to transact their business without gold, silver, or copper, the optimist Lords of The Irish Treasury assure them, that all is for the best, and that metallic money, as Robespierre termed it, is all a joke, in the moment that they are filling their pockets with the useless and expensive encumbrance" of guineas. I should be glad to think with you, Mr. Cobbett, that this practice will undergo a parliamentary inquiry. Hitherto, the House of Commons, in not condemning, have approved of it. If the public are not awakened to it, through the medium of the press, ail will go much too smoothly with these Treasury Lords, who are their own paymasters and own accountants. Certain I am, that had the Irish Parliament, which was vilified only that it might be the more easily destroyed, continued still the guardian of the Irish purse, the persons in question would not have dared to pay themselves at par, while the exchange is at 19 per cent. I will not trespass on your time by pursuing this subject any farther, at present; but, unless it is taken up by abler pens than mine, will certainly resume it whenever you have a column to spare. Should the practice I complain of be neither punished nor reformed, the people of Ireland will do be ter to throw themselves on, the mercy of Mr. Corry and his colleagues, aud thankfully accept what part of the revenue they may choose to spare, than to place any reliance on the wisdom or virtue, either of the imperial, administration or the imperial Parliament; but this, I confidently hope, will not be the case; I hope and trost Parliament will interfere.I am, Sir, HIBERNICUS.

yours,

P. S. One question I had forgotten to ask of Mr. Corry, which, perhaps, as usual, he prefers answering in private. He enjoys a patent office in Ireland, Surveyor of Ho

nours, I think, or some such name, does he not pay himself the salary of this office also at par?

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR,-In the last number of your Register you have given the pub ic a detail of the ineffectual measures hitherto adopted by the British Creditors to recover their property invested in the French funds, under the faith of treaties, and in a just confidence they would be observed; and you have added some remarks altogether injurious to their conduct on that occasion. You do not indeed state, nor can you prove, that in this transaction they have acted, either in violation of the laws of their own country, or in contradiction to the rights and usages of foreign nations. In the wide and extensive relations of commercial intercourse now subsisting throughout the civilized world, is it matter of surprise or reproach that many individuals of all countries should be led to deposit a portion of their wealth in the hands of foreign merchants, or in foreign banks and foreign funds? So far from it, the deposit has ever been held sacred, and the character of the proprietor has never till now, been impeached. Do the English reprobate the conduct or patriotic principles of those foreigners, Dutch, Swedes, Danes, Russians. or French, who place their money, with whatever view they may have done it, in the British funds? On what principle, then, are the British Creditors in foreign funds thus held up to public scorn, as if they were jew-like speculators," and enemies to their country? The demands of health and convenience, the cultivation of science and the arts, the relations of trade and com

the French as a pledge for the security of the British property. But it is adding insult to injury to affix injurious epithets to the most innocent transactions, and calumniate the characters of those whose property might at this moment have swelled the British capital, and added to the revenue, had it not been lost to the claimants and to the country, by the pusillanimity of the British ministers. Relying on your wonted impartiality to print this, or to reconsider the subject.I remain yours, &c. one of y

subscribers, and *

A BRITISH CREDITOR. February 25, 1804.

EARL ST. VINCENT.

SIR,-I have often read with great pleasure your Political Register, and if the following can add weight to the subjects you have already so ably discussed, it is much at your service.-In your Register of the 9th of last July, there was a remark, that Earl St.Vincent did not send a naval force in time to block up Toulon, and prevent the sailing of the French armament under Buonaparte; who very deliberately took Malta, and from thence proceeded, without molestation, to Egypt. To what shall we attribute this error !! Was it to the want of prevoyance in the British admiral? A great commander certainly ought not to be deficient in a quality so essentially requisite in a general. The recapture of Malta, and the conquest of Egypt cost many millions sterling to this country. Let us suppose Malta had not been taken by Buonaparté, nor the French army been landed in Egypt. Is it probable that Buonapar.é the determined enemy of this

lic and p.ivate, carry Englishmen and their families to the Continent, and detain them there connexions arise in consequence, and call for the lodgment of money, either on public or private security, as suits the exigency or the convenience of the parties. And it is notorious that no small portion of the wealth derived from our possessions in the East has at various times (so difficult is its passage to Europe) passed through the channel of France, and found its way into the funds of that nation first, and ultimately into those of this. As a private creditor in the French funds I have suffered materially from the injustice of the French, joined to the tame acquiescence of our own govern ment in not vindicating the cause of the British claimants pending the treaty of Amiens, when they ought to have retained.

France? If peace had been made with other rulers, would the present war have existed? To whom are we indebted for all these accumulated evils? Are we to become for ever a military people? All armed and with military ideas of subordination to defend the shores of the united kingdom? This is not ideal, because if reports are well founded (and which is not here meant to be ASSERTED as true) the storehouses of the dock yards will be as empty, and the ships of war in a worse state than they were when Sir Edward Hawke was first Lord of the Admiralty and at that time, Admiral Sir George Rodney (afterwards Lord Rodney) demanded a

:

* See remarks on this letter in the Summary of Politics, p. 298.

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private audience of his present Majesty, and delivered to the King, the true state of his navy. In consequence, his Majesty dismissed Sir Edward Hawke, and appointed the Earl of Sandwich first Lord, of the Admiralty. Strange to relate!!! the navy was in such a ruined condition, that Lord Sandwich (though some years at the head of the Board) had but just completely re-establi hed our marine before the last American war commenced. Thus Sir George Rodney's timely interference saved this kingdom from perdition. Let us hope some great man (before it is too late) will a certain the state of the navy, and reader a similar benefit to his King and country. 24 Feb. 1804. J. O.

PUBLIC PAPERS. Declaration, given in to the Dict of Ratisbon, by the two Comitial Ministers of the Court of Vienna, on the 30th of January, 1804

The numerous infringements which, since the occupation of the countries assigned as indemnities, have been made by several States of the Empire, in the rights and the immediacy of the Equestrian Order and its members, have for a long time excited the attention of Germany. - His Inperial Majesty, as supreme Chief of the Empire, and agreeably to the obligation under which he lies to maintain the decrees of the Diet, as well as order and tranquillity, has already endeavoured, as is well known, by paternal exhortations, to put a stop to measures contrary to the state of possession, and to the laws which have been pursued in regard to the Equestrian Order and its membrs, and to re-establish things on their legal footing. These efforts of his Imperial Majesty have not produced that effect which he hid a right to expect. The infringements, on the contrary, have become more general and more oppressive, and the consequences in the interior of the empire has been events which must necessarily endanger the public tranquillity, and bring on absolute oppression of the Equestrian Order; the existence and rights of which are, however, equal to those of all the states of the empire, and have been secured, as well as the constitution itself, by the Peace of Westphalia, by the old and new decrees of the diet, and particularly by the last decree of the empire-At the request of the General Directory of the Equestrian Order in the Aulic Council of the Empire, as a constitutional authority, there was issued, on the 23d of January, by this supreme tribunal, a conservatorium, tor the protection of the Equestrian Order against all encroach

ments, which might in future be attempted, and for the re-establishment of that Order in the state in which it was before the occupation of the countries assigned as indemnities. The execution of this sentence is referred to the Elector, the Arch-Chancellor; the Electors of Saxony and Baden, and to his Imperial Majesty himself in his quality of Aichduke of Austria, with the clause, each individually, and all collectively.His Japerial Majesty, in his quality as a state of the Empire, is animated with a sincere desire of contributing, according to his strength, to the maintenance of justice in the Empire, as well as of the public safety and tranquility, and of the security of the German constitution, and he enjoins his ministers to make a declaration on this subject to the General Diet.

Declaration of his Prussian Majesty.

His Majesty, the King of Prussia, has observed with attention and interest the events which have taken place for some time past in several parts of the Empire and in the. heart of Germany, in regard to the possessions of the members of the Equestrian Order. It would have been of great advantage if in the recess of the Deputation of the, Empire it had been possible to establish a regulation, or fixed rule for ensuring the future relations of the Equestrian Order, in a mauner so as to reconcile a regard for the rights of all with the new situation of things, the new wants, and the real good of the Empire--If the Ecclesiastical States secularised have passed into the hands of new possessors, not only with the rights really exercised, but also with their pretensions; and if these governments formerly ecclesiastic according to their nature and organisation, and according to the interest, merely personal, of their Ecclesiastical Sovereigns, can have seen with indifference the efforts of the Equestrian Order to extend its territorial independence, and its immediacy, the new pos-essors as sovereign and hereditary luies, may have brought with them new interests, and may have considered things under a different point of view. They must and ought to have found themselves differently obliged to claim rights, which might be considered as real and ancient integrant parts of their share of the indemnity-rights which could not be weakened but by negligence and by encroachments made at a former period. Aroused by such an event, the other possessors of the ancient lay countries, where similar relations, equally hurtful to their rights and to their administration existed, have begun to bring forward their pretensions. Hence it has happened that

almost at the same time several of the most distinguished States of the Empire, such as the Elector of Bavaria, the Prince of Fulda, the Elector of Hesse, the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, the Duke of Saxe Meinungen, and other Princes, have all tended to the same object. These Princes have formed claims to the villages and lands of the Equestrian Order lying within their territory, or situated on their frontiers, both because these possessions formerly made an integrant part of their countries, and because they are still in relation with the latter by their geographical position, by the feodal law, by the duties and rights of jurisdiction, and other connexions, which as ancient sources, must still be considered as indications of sovereignty. They have consequently thought themselves authorised to replace under their Sovereignty these places and lands, and to cause to be announced by patents the possession they have taken of them, and to secure a part of them by sending thither military detachments. Hitherto no uniform and certain principles have been established or followed; and not only have contesta tions arisen among the sovereigns and persons of the Equestrian Order, who have been exposed to encroachments; but dif ferences have broken out between one sovereign and another, in regard to the limits of their respective territorial jurisdictions. A juridical examination and instruction in regard to this object having been in sufficient, because the organization of the circles is not yet completed; the question is to know, whether or in what manner the tribunals of the empire ought to interfere in this affair? The whole Germanic Body participates in the regret excited by this state of things, and by the anarchical crisis which threatens, in so great a number of places, the property and subjects of the empire. If every one is convinced that this crisis cannot be of long duration, but that measures ought speedily to be taken to put an end to it, it is the more indispensably necessary to think of the means of accomplishing this end: the affair has become too important and too general to be discussed by the tribunals of the empire.

(To be continued.)

FOREIGN OFFICIAL PAPER. SPEECH of the MINISTER OF THE INTEPIOR to the LEGISLATIVE Bopy of the French Republic, at the opening of their Session on the Gtb of January, 1804.

CITIZENS LEGISLATORS—But a few months have elapsed since your separation, and you are summoned again to resume the exercise of the august functions which the

-This

constitution has delegated to you.sessions of the Legislative Body will be marked by new benefits to the people; the government which has matured in medita tion that series of salutary and protecting laws, which establish and consecrate the freedom of persons, the bases of transactions, the guarantee of property, will submit them to your wisdom.You will not see without admiration, that the government, in the, midst of the immense preparations which the war has rendered necessary, has not adjourned a single useful expense, has not suspended a single enterprise begun, has not withdrawn a single idea of amelioration. It has been able by its genius and providence to connect all the benefits of peace with the important cares of war.We do not see, in any part of the Republic, those agitations which announce apprehensions, or presage reverses; we hear no where those stormy discussions which characterise distrust, or conceal sinistrous projects; every thing is calm around us-every thing is happy--and every thing is tranquil!Our courageous youth range themselves with ardour under the standards of the country; the farmer, the merchant, the manufacturer, press round the government to offer it their harvest, their gold, their produce: and the French people, proud of their government, confident in their means, and happy in their institutions, express but one sentiment-love for the August Head of the Stare. Free from fear, from agitation, from disquietude, the French people repose in him the care of their des tiny.

SUMMARY OF POLITICS.

ANGLO-GALLIC CREDITORS.-By referring to page 293, the reader will find a letter to the Editor, upon the subject of the claim, set up by certain persons calling themselves" British Creditors in the French funds." This letter appears to have been drawn forth by the remarks, which were made in page 240, which, upon being referred to, will be found to have originated from a printed paper, called "A Statement of Facts," which statement had been sent round to members of Parliament, and other persons whose opinions were likely to have weight in parliamentary proceedings. The object of the paper, especially when thus circulated, was too obvious to be mistaken; and, as this object appeared to be such as ought not to be accomplished, such arguments were used as were thought likely to contribute towards preventing that accomplishment; bur, let those who have read the remarks determine, whether the charge of “ calum

niating" the Anglo-Gallic creditors be well or ill founded.- -Previous to the short reply, which it is intended to make to the letter in question, it may not be amiss to ob serve, that, since the accession of the "wellmeaning" Doctor and his associates, an entirely new set of ideas, with respect to the liberty of writing and of speaking, appears to have sprung up. Formerly, those who wrote and spoke upon public matters, felt themselves under no other restraint than that which was imposed by truth and decency; but, now, to censure, or to criticise, however truly and decently, is to " calumniate," if it bears hard upon the person or per ons, whose conduct, or object, is censured, or criticised; so that, in few words, the doctrine now is, that the greater fool or knave a man is, the greater is the calumny in stating what tends to discover his folly or his koavery. The Anglo-Gallic creditors were not accused of knavery; they were accused of no "crime;" their characters" were not attacked; they are, indeed, described as "jew-like speculators," but, that they were speculators they will not deny, and whether the epithet jew-like was "injurious" and "calumnious," or not, will be easily determined, when we recollect, that the debts, for which they now claim indemnification, arise. for the far greater part, from the purchase of assignats and other stale paper at an average of more than two-thirds below par. Besides, what was the security of the paper so purchased? What was the security, written on the paper itself? Was it the treaty of 1786? Or was it the "National "Domains" of France? Was the thing purchased a fair and legitimate object of trade? Was it a thing honestly come by; or was it a sort of stolen goods? In short, did it not consist, principally, of the plun-dered property of the Church and the Crown, and of that of those persons who remained faithful to them? Well, then, let the speculators go and seek the security, upon which they advanced their money: let them seek the "National Domains;" but, let them not come to the English Parliament, let them not hope to wring from the people of England a compensation for the losses they have, in such a traffic, sustained.They say, they have been guilty of nothing "contrary to the laws of their country, or to the rights and usages of foreign nations." So much the better for them; but, it is no better for us. We do not complain of them. That is to say, the complaint did not begin with us. We only say, that they are wrong in applying to us for money on this account; and we en

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deavour to show, that we owe them none. -They ask, somewhat exultingly: "Do "the Englishmen reprobate the conduct," or patriotic principles, of those foreign"ers, Dutch, Swedes, Danes, Russians, or "French, who place their money in the "British funds?" The answer is: Englishmen certainly do reprobate their conduct, and hold them in the utmost contempt; but, whether this be the case or not, what has it to do with the making of compensation, out of the public purse, to those who have lost their money by such speculations? The question to be asked is, did any government in Europe, or will any government in Europe, compensate its subjects for the money they have lost, or may lose, in the English funds?—— We are told, that "the demands of health and convenience, the cultivation of science "and the arts, and the relations of trade "and commerce, carry Englishmen and "their families abroad, in consequence of " which connexions arise, and cali for the lodgment of money either on public or private security, as suits the convenience "of the parties." That is to say, that certain Englishmen, either for their own pleasure or their own profit, deposit their money abroad. How far it is laudable, and ought to be allowed, for people of any country to reside abroad, and draw their incomes after them, may be a question; but, that persons, who, for their own convenience, pleasure, or gain, lodge their wealth abroad, should, when that wealth is lost, have a right to demand compensation from their countrymen, on whom they have turned their backs, from whom they have with-held all share in their enjoyments, is a proposition too prepostious to be for a moment entertained.- -The French funds are represented as a channel, through which British property finds its way from India to England. They may be such a channel; but, while it is utterly impossible to conceive what this circumstance has to do with the present question, there can be no difficulty in stating, that, as far as such a channel is necessary, India is an injury to England.The writer of the letter, on which these remarks are made, complains of scornful language, forgetting, like a true "well"meaning man," that he and his associates have, in their printed paper, stamped the charge of " charge of "presumption" upon all those, who have dared, or who shall dare, to ques tion the wisdom of the minister, who made the treaty of 1786. Men do not like to be bullied thus. There are persons in the world who doubt of the wisdom of Mr.