T

per reporters at Winchester for the pur- | received it from the gentleman, who had

it from me, and who, at my request, got
it back from London on Tuesday last. I
have before given the substance of the
Petition : 1 here give it word for word :-
"To the Honourable the House of Com-
"mons of the United Kingdom of
"Great Britain and Ireland, in Par
"liament assembled, the Petition of
"the Freeholders, Landholders, and
"other Inhabitants of the County of
Southampton, paying Taxes;
"SHEWETH, That the Taxes, usually
"denominated War Taxes, and which by
"law expire in a short time, cannot be
" pretended to be necessary any longer,
"since the nation is now, happily, at
peace.

pose of reporting the proceedings on
Sir John Murray's Triak About an hour
before the County Meeting took place,
one of these gentlemen came to meat, the
Inn where. I had put ap, to ask me, whe-
ther I should have any papers, or memo-
randums, which might assist in making
the report of the proceedings more com-
plete, as he thought it would be impor-
tant to obtain such papers; to which I
answered, that, if I should have any such,
he should have them, (and as I know
him) I observed, that I should be glad
to see them in his hands. After the
Meeting was over, the same gentleman
came to me, while I was at dinner, to
apply for a copy of the Petition which
I had presented, in order that it might
be forwarded for insertion, with the rest
of the proceedings, in the Morning Chro-
nicle, the Morning Herald, the Morning
Post, and the British Press. I told him,
that I had no copy; but, at his request,
and upon his engaging to forward it for
insertion, I sent to the Deputy Sherift,
obtained the original and had it delivered
to him. Before I left Winchester, I saw
the same gentleman again, Mr. HUNT
of Andover and Mr. HINXMAN of Chil-" ficient for the maintaining of the credit

ling being present. This gentleman then
informed us that the PETITION was
sent off to be inserted in the Report, we
being anxious, that it should appear in print
if any thing of ours did appear; because our
principles and wishes would then defy
misrepresentation, But, upon being in-
formed by him, that the four papers be-
fore-mentioned had COALESCED as to re-
ports from Winchester, and that each
had one fourth of the report sent to it, and,
after setting up, sent its part to each of.
the other three papers. Mr. HUNT asked,
which of the papers my part and the peti-
tion was sent to. He was told, to the
Morning Chronicle: "Then," said he,
"it will never appear. That part hits
Perry's fartion too hard for him to print
it."
was of a different opinion; but
Mr. HENT knew his man better than 1
did. Perry did suppress the PETITION,
and suppresadit too from the other three
papers as well artis out I have the au-
thority of the gentleman, who received
the Petition from me, to assert, that it

54

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s sent to the Chronicle Office along with Lue report; and that it was "marked "in;" that is to say, made part of the rePort itseif. To-day (Thursday) I have

"That these Taxes, especially ther "Taxes on Property, Beer, and Malt, are grievously oppressive, and have pro"duced distress, misery, and degradation throughout the whole of the middle " and lower classes of the people, who "smart under them to an insupportable degree.

"

"

"That the Taxes, which will remain, "after all the War Taxes shall have beer "taken off, will be much more than suf

" and honour of the nation; provided that
"a syster of economy and peaceful go-
"verument be adopted instead of the
enormous expenditure, and the all-per-
vading military establishment, which
now exist, and which latter, though
wholly unknown to our forefathers, now
seem to threaten to swallow up all the
" ancient civilpowers and distinctions of
"the country.

"

"That it is, in the opinion of your "Petitioners, owing chiefly to the laws, "passed during the war, against perso"nal liberty, the freedom of the press and "of public discussion, that the above " evils have been so long endured..

"Therefore your Petitioners pray, that you will repeal all the laws, passed dur "ing the war, against personal liberty; "the freedom of the press and of publie "discussion, that you will not revive or

renew any of the Taxes, called War "Taxes, and that you will not authorise "the raising of any other Taxes in their "stead. And your Petitioners, &c."

Such, reader, was the paper, which Mr. PERRY suppressed, though he found it incorpora ed into areport, sent to his office, and though it had been obtained from me

!

:

under an express promise, that it would
appear. It was thus kept out of three
other papers, and kept from the Register
too, until after the Saturday's Register
was published. I do not blame the repor-
ters. They acted fairly and honourably
by the public? but, the conduct of Mr.
PERRY has been precisely the contrary.
It was due, not to me, but to truth, that
this petition should be published. It
had been rejected at the county Meeting;

but there was nearly one of the meet-
ing in its favour. It did, too, embrace
objects, which, one might have expected
a printer to feel peculiar interest in; but,
strange as it may seem at first sight, there
are, perhaps, no persons in England such
determined enemies of the real freedom of
the press and of free public discussion as
the proprietors of these paid-for-para-
graph newspapers.. They thrive by
falsehood; and, therefore, whatever has
a tendency to the triumph of truth, they
abhor. They resemble those
which fatten in a poisonous atmosphere.
-And these are the men, who
enlighten all Europe! These are the
men, whose publications are to wipe away
all stains from the English character!
These men are to perform this work,
who, in fact, have been the principal
cause of all our degradation both
home and abroad.

insects

the electors any bribery or corruption.This
being a fact, well known to all the world, I
cannot help wishing that a respectable
English gentleman had refrained from
the use of a phrase, fit to be applied only
to the head and members of governments
of a very different description.

TO MR. COЕВЕТТ.

SIR,-As you have gone to some length of animadversion upon an expression

which was stated, originally, in a Bath weekly paper, and have fallen upon me, at the Somerset Meeting, I trust to your candour that you will give equal publicity to this fact that in the same paper in the following week, an express denial appeared, "that any such expression "was made use of by me," either in speaking of the Americans, in the aggregate; or of their President and his party, of whom nevertheless I am ready to admit, that I did speak in terms of strong reprobation, without adopting terms so uncharitable and even absurd as those im

puted to me. are to

at

SIR JOHN. Cox HIPPESLY. I send, with great pleasure, the following letter for publication. I do not regularly see the Bath newspapers, and did not see the publication which is mentioned in the letter.-I am glad to perceive, that an English gentleman is anx

dient Servant,

I am, Sir, your very obe-
J.COX HIPPESLY.

STATE OF THE NATION.
MR. CORBETT. - It must be in the
recollection of your readers, how often
and how emphatically you have raised
your warning voice against the tremen-
dous war system, and war expenditure
of our once happy country. Your cal-
culating acuteness has been shewn in
nothing more strikingly than in the full
realization of the predictions which you
have, again and again, offered to the
consideration of our unthinking peo-
ple, on what would be the effects of a
protracted course of warfare to this coun-

ious to deny, that he made use of ex-try-a course of warfare as unique in

of

pressions, worthy only of such men as -the proprietors of the Times, the Courier, and the Chronicle; and, though I cannot blame him for expressing his reprobation the President and his Party," I wish he had not made use of that phrase, seeing that the President can have no party, which is not supported by a majority of the people; seeing that he has no power but what the people voluntarily put into his hands; that he is elected by the free voice ofa people, every man of whom who pays a tax has a vote; that he can neither make war or peace without the approbation of a Congress also chosen by a free people, and in which Congress there are no selling and buying of seats, nor amongst

its management, as awful in its ternination. It could not, Sir, have ever entered into your imagination, though always on the alert in political discernment, to have. conceived it possible for the councils of a nation to have obstinately pursued a scale of expenditure that could not be sustained by even the united resources of Europe at large:---Had this truly gigantie exertion been instituted for objects connected with rational liberty, and not for the re-establishment of despotic rule, the virtuous and the intelligent part of mankind might have been gratified by the generosity of the effort, though they must have deplored the incorrigible folly that had urged so unnatural an adventure.

It is almost inconceiveable, though an un- the disposal of the secret service money of deniable fact, that the people of these Government, can know any thing about.

realms, during these twenty years, have been witnessing the prodigious efforts made by their Government, to repress the growing power of France, at an immeasurable expence, as if the object could not be purchased at too high a rate, without adverting to the ways and means of meeting and enduring the ultimate burthen. The ruin at this country has been its paper credit. This Pandora's box of

-If the British Government, when it began its career of expending, when it required for the objects of the war unlimited millions, could have contrived to have bona fide provided, that all the na tions receiving its subsidies, and for whom the British sword was actually unsheathed, should for ever disclaim, and abandon, all right and title to manufac ture for themselves, and that they would

civil and political mischief, has unhappily be wholly dependent on commercial sup

But

overwhelmed our unthinking people • (thinking belongs no to them) with dismay and impending ruin. Well then? how does the land lay? The expences | that have been incurred, the interest of the heavy loans contracted, must be paid; peace has been obtained; Bonaparte has been deposed; and the Sovereigns of Europe are sitting in solemn judgment, on, what they would have to be, the future political arrangement of the world! Now, Sir, if these splendid reveries could be carried into effect as easily as they may be imagined, we might some day see them | realised. But how does the case stand? Why, the British Government has been all along foremost in the field of expence as well as in that of battle. It has tried all sides; over and over again, and has at leng, proved to a gaping and an astounded public, that though it has, eve: tually, as it were, gained all; though it has effected every object for which it began the contest, it has actually lost infinitely more than it has won; nay, that the very winnings themselves have turned out to be, (as you, Sir, have always held must be the case) its bitterest, its most irretrievable losings. In short, we have been at the expence, by all cou-ployment! In exchange for these wonted

plies from England, then indeed, some prospect would be afforded of an extended trade, and of liquidating in time the abyss of debt into which the national property is so deeply sunk. Sir, this is not the case; it could not be the case. We have, therefore, been fighting the battles of others, and have most profligately and irretrievably sacrificed British interests to foreign and ruinous objects. That either the British agricu!turist, manufacturer, or artisan, should now have any chance of successful competition with the nations of Europe, is a vain expectation. -The miscries of an exhausting taxation are exhibited at all points. All classes of men severely feel the consequences resulting from a wasteful expenditure of public money, and, too late, begin to perceive that a defensive system of warfare was, and always will be, best adapted to the insulated situation and civic privileges of the British nation. The European war is at an end; that with America is also on the eve of closing; we are without a market for our agricultural produce, without a demand for our manufactured articles, and our artisans are for the best part without emceivable means and devices, of over advantages, we have the renown of having throwing the Emperor Napoleon, and extravagantly subsidised in turn most of delivering from his influence the of the different powers of Europe; of various nations of Enrope, who are now I sending a first rate Plenipotentiary to beginning to discover the advantage of these subsidised Potentates; of engaging in being at liberty to cultivate the soil; to treaties offensive and detensive with them: manufacture raw materials, and to traffic of at least amply sharing in the pleasin such a way as might best suit their res-ing task of remunerating the services, pective interests; and all this without ordinary and extraordinary, connected

either feeling or acknowledging any dependence on English commerce. All they seemed to require from England was money, and that, it must be confessed, they have had almost to the last guinea, and are probably further accredited for suns that none, but there conversant with

with the abrupt and strange termination of the late European war; and finally, though not least in either tinselled grandeur, or aristocratic fame, we may boast, as the legitimate offspring of these portentous times, Knights Grand Crosste, ditto Commanders, and ditto Companions,

1

in vast abundance, all animated with a chivalrous ardour for military glory that will at least render a disposition to war, if not its actual existence, the order of the day. How far this new batch and hot-bed scheme of military aristocracy, exclusively in the erection and patron

LORD COCHRANE-PERRY AND THE

WHIGS!

In the most conspicuous part of the Morning Chronicle, of yesterday, Mr. Perry inserted a string of resolutions, which that nest of iniquity, that vile crew at the Stock Exchange, have thought

age of the royal authority, can be re-proper to agree to, as a sort of set off to

garded as consistent with the constituti-
onal privileges of British freedom, no
one is more competent to judge than
yourself; and were the subject to fall
under your usually able discussion, it may
be justly, presumed, that it would be
salutarily operative in restraining the
inordinate, attempts, and, indeed, ra-
pid strides that have been mode,
making, and will hereafter be made, for
subjugating, this land of ancient freedom
to a military sway, not unlike that ex-ry has evidently been paid for inserting)

Lord Cochrane's unanswerable letter to
Lord Ellenborough. Nothing surely could
be more detestable than this! Even that
sink of corruption the Times, inserted
only a modest paragraph, noticing the.
meeting of the Sub-committee, and with-
out even naming Lord Cochrane; thus
shewing a degree of moderation towards
an oppressed opponent, which the Whigs,
and Perry their organ, had not decency
to evince. -These resolutions (which Per-

are

perienced by the Cossack tribes, of the Autocrat of all the Russias! It is high time for Britons to turn with aversion from the senseless, the enslaving mummery of court pageantry. Freemen should avoid them as hostile to independence, and, disdain them as utterly contemptible. The Americans, by their triumphant bravery, evince what a handful of men, determined to live and die under the sacred banner of freedom, can achieve. The issue of the contest they have had to sustain, is engraved on the heart of every friend of civil liberty in characters of indelible delight, and will be recorded in the historic page for her admiration, her solace, and the encouragement of posterity. American independence is as invulnerable and as immortal as the nature of human steadfastness can render it. A scheme of Government, founded on a correct estimation of civil and political rights, is at once natural, and practicable, and, as such, must be for ever entitled to an irresistible preference, in the feeling and judgment of those, who have the envied happiness of being born and bred under its auspices, The cause of civil fiberty has gained infinitely more, by the heart-cheering proofs that have been recently given of transatlantic patriotism and courage, than it either has lost, or can lose by the jargon, the foppery, or the servility of European politics.

Jan. 29, 1815. A THINKING BRITON.

state over and over again, the-haeknied evidence of the hackney coachman, and. the hackney post-boy, on the subject of the colour of De Berenger's coat; which evidence has been completely falsified, in the most incontestible manner, Lord Cochrane has already so ably and so effectually. vindicated himself, that it would be supererrogation in me to say a syllable on this subject. It is the detestable conduct of Perry and the Whigs, in becoming the. trumpet of the Stock Exchange Committee, that I wish the public not to overlook. Lord Cochrane has been ever the steady opposer of places, pensions, and corruption in all its branches, Nothing: more is wanted to explain the deadly. hatred of Perry and the Whigs.

TALLEYRAND [in a memoir read at the National Institution of Paris concerning the commercial relations of the United States of America with Great Britain in the year 1794] says "That RELIGIOUS "TOLERATION in its fullest extent, is one " of the most powerful Guarantees of "social tranquillity: for where Liberty "of Conscience is respected every other cannot fail to be so," A sentiment like this from aman who stands unrivalled for his knowledge in Political Science ought to have some weight. How opposite are the opinions of this enlightened

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statesman, this second Machiavel, to the blind mistaken notions of those stupid kings, who would fain attempt to produce harmony among their subjects by endeavouring to enforce their adherence to one particular set of Tenets. How absurd is it to suppose we can make people of different educations, and capacities ever think alike; that we can enable persons whose understandings are unequal to comprehend every thing with the same facility, and to render men of various ages and constitutions, capable of seeing with the same ease and perspicuity through the same pair of spectacles. If Kings and Priests were the architects of the human brain, they might with some justice dictate its operations; but since our faculties are produced by NATURE, directed by NECESSITY, and uncontrolled by their fat; and since they have no more government over their own minds than they have over ours, it is the most arrogant presumption, the most ridiculous folly, and the most diabolical tyranny, to persecute us for our opinions, Do not our ideas of any subject depend entirely on the manner in which it is represented to us, or the state of our understanding to receive the impression? Are not all our notions the effect either of our education, or the circumstances and situations in which we have been placed? Who then can command opinion, or constrain belief? Where is the merit or the crime either of BELIEF or DISBELIEF, since neither of them are in our power, but dependent entirely upon the state of our intellects on the quality of the evidence offered to our senses? How weak and childish too, is the plan of promoting social tranquillity by force and persecution? Is it not palpable that clemency and moderation are much more calculated to produce harmony, loyalty, and peace, than threats and imprisonment? The Emperor Charles the 5th was an ambitious tyrant, and a persecuting bigot, who caused a system of faith to be prepared for Germany, and marched at the head of his armies against those cities which refused to receive it. When grown old, he gave up the idle pomp of a court, the trumpery appendages of royalty, and the false glory of a Warrior, * to spend his last days in the monastery with contempt; and, by depriving those

1

a very celebrated artist of that age. He spent much time in the construction of clocks and watches, of which he kept a great number in constant motion, but found to his mortification, after various trials, that he could not bring any two of them to equal time. This circumstance, it is said, caused him to reflect with wonder and with shame, on his own weakness in having wasted so much labor, and been guilty of such barbarities, in the more futile speculation of compelling his subjects to think exactly alike, concerning the inscrutable mysteries and ineffable beatitudes of our Holy Religion. If the genius of luxury and sloth, of folly and vanity, of prise, robbery, slaughter, and ambition, can ever spare the tyrants of the present day a few moments to turn over the page of History, in order to review the lives of former despots, what a lesson must the foregoing relation afford them. But it seems that government is the only science that is not susered to be improved by experience; for we find, notwithstanding the many useful precepts that may be deduced from the annals of the world, and the fate of nations, that power and profit to themselves, instead of peace and prosperity to the people, are still the ruling principles of most monarchical and aristocratical governments. It is for this reason that they all take to themselves a State Religion for their handmaid, in the same manner that a man takes a wife to assist him in his domestic concerns. They find it a powerful auxiliary to arbitrary sway, in as much as the priesthood of the state religion, though fattening upon the industry of the people, are mediately or immediately, dependent upon them for their appointments; consequently they become convenient tools in their hands to keep the public mind in acquired ignorance; and, as we have seen in former times, to preach up non-resistance, passive obedience, the divine rights of Kings, the sacred obligation of paying tythes, or any set of opinions, that may suit the Government or their own interests. A state-religion, by monopolizing all consequence, per. fection, and privilege to itself, naturally creates an envious distinction in society; causes its members to look upon others of St. Justus, in Plazencia. One of his of their civil rights whose conscience pastimes in this solitude was mechanics, will not permit them to come within its Lin which he was assisted by Tarrians, pale, necessarily foments jealousy and