on a Greek author, and thus spoiled the labours of a whole fortnight. This was too much for the mild follower of Zeno. The inkstand was expelled at the head of the terrified Abigail, with philosophic rage; and on my innocently requesting her to conclude the chapter on anger, she gave a practical illustration of her system, by furiously dispatching the treatise full in my face.-Perfectly satisfied with lady philosophers, I next offered myself to a devotee; trusting that christianity would teach a milder behaviour. Here I was dragged to the conventicle, every Lord's-day, three times at least; besides attending conferences, night meetings, &c. on the week day; and if I had not indulged a little mistimed scepticism, I might have been united to the most devout lady in Christendom: but happening to doubt of Serpent-logicians, and Ass-orators, I was dismissed as an infidel whom, for the glory of God, it would be well to roast into the faith.-So an

were Bachelors; and if they were in-
tended as examples for our imitation,
surely we ought to hesitate on so impor-
tant a point. That great apostle of the
gentiles, St. Paul, not only discounte-
nanced matrimony by his practice, but
expressly recommended a life of celibacy,
as a virtue; and with such authority, all
parliamentary arguments vanish like
smoke. That the ladies should not coin-
cide with the wholesome advice-giving,
and woman-silencing apostle, is no ways
extraordinary; but that Mr. Vansittart-,
the zealous supporter of the Bible So,
ciety, should, by the tax in questions
set aside the authority of St. Paul, ie
truly surprising. Notwithstanding the
seeming proofs of bis piety, unless he
withdraw this most unchristian tax, we
shall be led to judge, that he has allow-
ed his gallantry to get the better of his
christianity.
Yours, &c.

AN OLD BACHELOR.

xious was I to become a Penedict, that I Lincolnshire, March, 12th. 1815.

CORN LAWS.

next became the humble suppliant of my own housemaid; a tall, stout, mahogany faced damsel, whom I believe I SIR.-I wish to argue the subject on should have taken for better or for worse: reasonable grounds, and as there is so but indiscreetly offending her on the much noise about the Corn Bill, I trust much dreaded washing day, the enraged you will give place to these few observaAmazon, with ponderous fist, so ob- tions. Before the war, bread was 6d. the: scured my perception, that I was ever quartern loaf; and pray what makes it after blind to her qualifications.-Having dear now? Have we not the same porbad sufficient experience of the motion of land to grow corn on, as we had derns, as a last resource, I poured forth before the war? Nay, I will answer, a my passion to a rich old Spinster, whem considerable deal mere, by the immense I was near leading to the altar, when the inclosure of waste land which, I may grim tyrant death intruded, and snatched say, has been taken from the poor, and her away from the enamoured swain. given to the rich. They have deprived I could willingly have engaged with some them of the land, and now they have the other antique, but with the mournful impudence to say, that they will not grow event before me, of the instability of life corn on it, unless yon give them what in the aged, I was fearful of too soon price they choose to ask. Have we not being left in a widowed state. Grown equally as good farmers as we had before grey in a life of fruitless importunity, the war; and is not the land ás producbad reconciled myself to my fate, with ive? What then is the reason they can} hi'osophical fortitude, when lo! the not grow as much corn now, as they did Minister opened his budget, and thus before the war? It is because of the prevented me an indulgence so necessary enormous load of taxes with which we to my declining years.-IfI be thought are oppressed. I consider all the noise to have failed in proving the oppres-now making by the supporters of the corn sion of the tax, by my history, I shall appeal to ripture, trusting that every good christian will coincide with my ar guments. To search for names who have add a lustre to that of Bachelor, would be an endless task: suffice it to ay, that Jesus Christ, and his disciple:

bill, as nought but a big-bear to frighten usa faise alarm-an invention to authorise the establishment of a despotism injurious to the liberties and happiness of the people. The fact is, the warwhoop faction have got rid of the proIperts-tax, and have already laid it upon

the shoulders of the mercantile people. | back parlour and the piano; the men Should this bill pass through the house for having changed the smock-frock, and of their " noble-mindednesses," the bur- carters whip, for the military cut, superthen, with the head and all, will be too fine coat, lined with silk, his Wellington heavy for the shoulders. But supposing boots, his jemmy rattan, and bit of blood. the landholder was formerly necessitated Dumplins too are forsaken for dainties; to raise his tenant's rent, to enable him and it is reckoned among the number of to pay the Government demand of 101. the farmer's high crimes and misdemeanper cent. property-tax, the landholder ours, that they feed no longer on ox was not even then the loser, as it all came cheek and beef legs. I request you my out of the loaf. Now that that demand brother farmers to note this. You are is over, let the landholder take off the to be clothed with the smock-frock, go 101. per cent. which he put on his tenant, in high shoes and hob nails, feed on the and let Government reduce the most op- offal of your produce, send all your poulpressive part of the farmer's taxes. This try, eggs, butter, cream, &c. to market, would be the most equitable way of en- that the appetite of those who have burcouraging the growth of corn, and giving thened you with excessive taxation may us bread at a moderate price. If we be pampered at a cheap rate, fare sumpmusth ave taxes, let us have them on any tuously every day, roll along the street thing else but the loaf. By these means, n splendid equipages, and mock and and these only, we will be enabled to pro- | deride the clownish awkwardness which, eure a foreign market for our manufac- in their prejudiced eyes, is necessary to tures, without which there is no chance the selling of cheap corn. It may perof reducing the price of bread, and of haps be thought illiberal to accuse Årisrestoring England to its former prospe- tides of wilfully settting one class of the rity. Although I like your reasoning in community against another. I must, general, Mr. Cobbett, I wish to know therefore, impute the false description how we are likely, (if passive obedience he has given, to a complete ignorance of be the order of the day) to get redress the mode and habits of life of so respectin the event of their "noble minded- able a class of the community as the "nesses" rejecting the voice of the peo- generality of British farmers. It is not ple in their petition against the obnoxious unlikely he may have been entertained corn bill. If the only constitutional mode by the military fop he has pourtrayed; of petitioning should be rejected, and and if such characters are to be found the intimidating force of an army of sol- amongst farmers, Aristides should have diers be resorted to, I should like you to been charitable enough to have acknowpoint out the remedy, as I am at a loss ledged the real cause of their creation to imagine one. I am, &c. and existence, which he must know to March 15, 1815. have arisen out of the late wicked, unjust, and unnecessary war. If he had on this subject reasoned with his accustomed acuteness, he must have known that none put on the military habit with more reluctance than the farmer; that he was induced to become a volunteer by the influence of government, thro' the medium of the magistrate and his landlord, by whom he was in many instances, threatened with notice to quit his farm if he did not comply with the military requisition. His family, too, were often invited to the festive board, to join the merry dance;and if the female part imitated the dress and manners of their new associates, the colonel's and the squire's lady; if they were tempted to learn the martial air, and the jocund song on the piano, can this possibly be assigned by any sound reason as the true cause why

W. P. R.

DEFENCE OF THE FARMERS. Mr. COBBETT-Amongst the various opinions which have lately appeared ou the subject of Corn Laws, scarcely any have been free from an admixture of illiberal abuse of the farmers of England, and some of your correspondents have fallen into that vulgar error, for so I must be allowed to consider it; and my sirprise is much encreased to find your otherwise sensible correspondent Aristides turned accuser of the farmers in your Register of the 25th ult. Amongst some plausible reasons for the high price of corn, he assigns the principle one to be the high and luxuriant living of the farmer, whose family he describes as having forsaken the dairy and the churn, for the

3

they cannot sell their corn cheap? Corn
has not risen in price more than the oak
tree, the deal board, or the tallow can
dle, and till it can be proved that the
increased price of these articles is owing
to the luxuriant living of the timber mer-
chant, the carpenter, and the tallow
chandler, the advance in the price of
corn cannot be attributed to the extrava-shaking and gnashing of teeth.
gant living of the farmer. But, Sir, I
deny the fact that the generality of the
farmers, or their wives and daughters,
are what Aristides has described them
to be; or that their situation is improved
by an increase of either their luxuries or
comforts. More than a century ago that
facetious poet Pryor described the situa-
tion of faimers (not as living on ox cheek
or beef legs but) as living hospitably, and
being surrounded with plenty:
Large oxen in the field were lowing,

this convenience is looked for in vain.
It is replaced, in some instances, with
the humblest buggy, but more frequently
with the taxed cart; and the appearance
of the farmer now, when compared with
his grand-father, is that of a pauper being
passed home to his parish; he now rides
to market or to worship, gingling and

Good grain was sown, good fruit was growing;
Of last year's corn in barns good store,
Fat turkies gobbling at the door;
How strong the beer, how good the meat,
How loud they laugh'd, how much they eat.

Many other
authorities might be
quoted within the compass of a farmer's
reading, to prove their situation to have
been that of plenty and comfort, and
that they could entertain their friends
with true hospitality; nay even jovially,
without incurring the reproach of making
corn dear. Who can enter a farm house
in the present day, without seeing in
the corner cupboard the punch bowl of
his grand-father, which, when in his
possession was often replenished to wel-
come the coming guest and cheer the
weary traveller; but is now only an arti-
cle of old china to be wiped of its dust,
and set up as an ornament of ancient
times. The untaxed ale, which cheered
the countenance, and made glad the
heart of man, is now no more. It, alas!
is obliged to give way to a thinner liquor,
more endangering the visitor with the
gripes than the gout. Leaving, however,
the description of the poets, and calling
in aid personal recollection, I could
state instances of farmer's keepingcomfort-
able carriages, principally employed for
carrying their families to worship, giving
them a jaunt to the market, or conveying
them to a family party at cliristmas; but
tho' I am now acquainted with a hundred
times as many farmers as I was then,

But why are these comforts filed? It cannot be unknown to Aristides, that they are laid aside to answer the demands of the tax-gatherer, who threatens to swallow up all our comforts, and deprive us of all our conveniences, to enrich those who are partakers and dividers of the spoil. I am told that farmers drink, and get drunk too. So does the parson, the lawyer, the senator, and the statesman. But are we, on that account, to accuse the whole of those classes with this nauseous vice, and charge them with all the mischief and calamity that awaits this once happy country? Such a mode of reasoning would be accounted illiberal and inconclusive. It must be equally so if the whole body of farmers are to be judged by the indiscretion of a few fops and sots. It should also be taken into eonsideration, Who have turned farmers? It must be allowed, before the character of the English farmer is truly appreciated, that all retired merchants, military gentlemen out of employ, disappointed and unsuccessful speculators, with the remnants of their, broken fortunes, must be struck from the list; then I may safely aver that the farmers of England have not abated one jot or tittle in the habits of industry, economy, or frugality, or increased in luxuries. It must likewise be granted, that farmers of enterprise, who have made large fortunes, cannot be considered a fair sample of the generality of farmers. If they have got too rich by turning the desert into a garden, tho' they may in common with other successful classes of society, live luxuriantly, 1 cannot see how they have made corn dear by growing abundance where none grew before. It is a fact universally admitted, that where several farms have been laid together, cultivation has improved and the quantum of corn much increased; a sufficient proof that this cannot contribute to raise the price of corn.

Having combated these false notions of your correspondent, and others of like

opinion, may I be allowed to state what | let the pen of Aristides be directed I conceive to be the real cause of creating against the common enemy taxation and a necessity for making corn dear. It corruption, those co-partners in mischief must be attributed by every considerate and misery. Then may we be brought mind to increased rents and overwhelm- back to the enjoyment of the blessings ing taxation. All our political econom- of our ancient constitution and the conists have ascribed the progressive rise in stable's staff, instead of a large military the various articles of life to these causes; force, and an embroidered militia in time but there is no occasion for quotations; of peace. While economy and retrenchwe can cast a sum in addition or subtrac- ment are recommended to the farmer, tion: multiplication is brought to our we will kindly return the good advice, recollection by a increase of evils; and and recommend it to government also as the result of our little arithmetic may be the only efficient remedy for our aggrasolved by a simple question in the rule of vated evils. Yes, while we are curtailing three. If an advance in rent and taxes comfort after comfort, convenience after has increased our expences fourfold, convenience, we advise those above us what price must corn be at to enable us to share in the like privations; and while to hold our farms and retain our situa- our laborers are bearing with patience tions? The answer is obvious. It is a reduction of 2d. or 3d. in the shilling, also clear, that if a large abatement on account of the reduced price of proof rent cannot be obtained, a considera- | visions, let us demand also that the serble diminution of taxation, and a total vants of the state should be reduced in riddance of the tythe system, so mous- the same rate. I could easily point out trons, so oppressive and vexatious, there what a load of taxation the good people will be no alternative but emigration or a of England might be relieved of from jail. It is equally evident, that there are this just and well-founded claim being not only one but many countries where, adopted, from the prince on the throne in mercy to mankind, tythes are abo- thro' every department of the state and lished, rents one fourth of the rents of every servant in office; but I shall leave England, taxes comparatively none; and this to abler pens, and as my chief obaltho' it is our wish and our pleasure to ject was to defend the farmers from those raise corn in abundance, and sell it cheap ill-founded and precipitate charges of exto the good people of England, we cannot travagance and luxury which have been perforin impossibilities. If we are taxed brought against them, arising no doubt and teazed out and obliged to abandon from gross misconception, I shall conour native soil, we must cross the chan- clude with subscribing myself their denel in such numbers that it might puz-voted friend and servant. złe a long headed chancellor to raise his revenues from those who remain. The landlords also will find it difficult to obtain tenants for their farms. As to the Corn Bill now proceeding in Parliament, and which excites such dreadful agitation, I am free to declare that a large portion of farmers do not wish it to pass, because they consider it to be instrumental in advancing the price of their labour, keeping up rents, and perpetuating taxes, which ought to be repealed. They are truly alarmed at a peace establishment of nineteen millions a year, and believe with you, Sir, that there is no necessity for such an expenditure; that this excessive taxation is the rich pasture on which corruption feeds, fattens and grows insolent. Why then inflame the public mind against the farmer? Why not, to use a farmer's expression, lay The saddle on the right house? Rather

America Triumphant.

R. F.

Tuose vile slaves of corruption, what now will

they say,

Who assurd us, the Yankees would all run away,
Soon as ever they came within sight of our men,
And that England would make them her subjects

again.

One would think, they believed these American

elves,

Were compos'd of such dastardly stuff as themselves,
They forgot, that their bosoms beat high in the

cause

Of true LIBERTY, JUSTICE, RELIGION, and Laws,
And that one common spirit pervaded the land.
To resist the Aggressions, Injustice had plann’d.
Alas! had our Rulers wise measures observ'd,
Had they ne'er from a just line of policy swerv'd;

Had they treated as men, whom they treated with canal on which they had effected their

scorn;

The beams of our glory had never been shorn;
We should never have suffered disgrace or defeat,
Nor from those we despis'd been obliged to retreat.
From what height of power has England been

kurl'd,

By th' example these Yankees have shewn to the world;

What a blow to our greatness, how humbled our
pride,

To be beaten by those we so often defied;
The trident of Neptune, our glory and boast,
By injustice, and weakness, for ever is lost,
Could our forefathers know, could they rise from
their graves,

And behold that their sons can

submit to be

slaves; That the country, for which so much blood has been

shed,

Is now govern'd by those whom Corruption has

bred;

With what feelings indignant their bosoms would glow,

disembarkation. In my encampment every thing was ready for action, when, early on the morning of the 8th, the enemy, after throwing a heavy shower of bombs and Congreve rockets, advanced their columus on my right and left, to storm my entrenchments. I cannot speak sufficiently in praise of the firmness and deliberation with which my whole line received their approach-more could not be expected from veterans inured to war. For an hour the fire of the small arms was incessant and severe as can be imagined. The artillery, too, directed by officers who displayed equal skill and courage, did great execution. Yet the columns of the enemy continued to advance with a firmness which reflects upon them the greatest credit. Twice the column which approached me on my left was repulsed, by the troops of General Carroll, those of Gen. Coffee, and a division of Kentucky militia,and twice they formed again and renewed the assault. At length, however, cut to pieces, they fled in confusion from the field, leaving it covered with their dead and wounded. The loss which the enemy sustained on this occasion, cannot be estimated at less than 1500 in killed, wounded and prisoners. Upwards of 300 have already been delivered over for burial; and my men are still engaged in picking them up within my lines and carrying them to the point where the enemy are to receive them. This is in addition to the dead and wounded whom the enemy have been enabled to carry from the field during and since the action, and to those who have since died of the wounds they received. We have taken about 500 prisoners, upwards of 300 of whom are wounded, and a great General Jackson's Account of the Ope- exceeded and I believe has not amountpart of them mortally. My loss has not

With what grief they would see we were fallen so

low.

And are we so fallen, so regardless of shame,
As to tamely submit to the loss of our fame?
Is the spirit of Britons become so depress'd?
Are those sentiments lost, our forefathers possess'd?
Shall we never awake, 'till our ruin is seal'd?
Can the wounds of our Country never be heal'd?
Oh! let us avert, whilst we're able, the storin,
And abolish Corruption, by peaceful REFORM;
Let the voice of the people be rais'd through the

land,

And our Rulers must grant what we firmly demand;
Let us tell them the Rights that to Britons are due,
That the Many no more will be slaves to the Few.

AMERICAN DOCUMENTS.

rations at New Orleans.

Copy of a Letter from Major-General Jackson to the Secretary of War dated Camp, four miles below Orleans, 9th

Jan. 1815.

ed to 70 killed and as many wounded. The entire destruction of the enemy's army was now inevitable, had it not been for an unfortunate occurrence which at this moment took place on the other side of the river. Simultaneously with his advance upon my lines he had thrown SIR-During the days of the 6th, and over in his boats à force to the other 7th, the enemy had been actively employ-side of the river. These having landed, ed in making preparations for an attack on my lines. With infinite labour they had succeeded, on the night of the 7th, in getting their boats across the lake to the river by widening and deepening the

were hardy enough to advance against the works of Gen. Morgan; and, what is strange and difficult to account for, at the very moment when their entire discomfiture was looked for with a confi