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COBBETT'S WEEKLY POLITICAL REGISTER.

VOL. XXVII. No. 13.] LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1815. [ Price 11.

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PEACE! PEACE!

To LORD CASTLEREAGH. MY LORD,

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put down James Madison, and " DELIVERED THE WORLD of the existence of that EXAMPLE of the success of DEMOCRATIC REBELLION.” “ No peace with Madison," was their cry. Kill! kill! keep killing, till he is put down, in like manner as Napoleon is put down! This was their incessant cry. And, in a short time after Napoleon was exiled

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The grand event, which has just taken place in France, and which is so well calculated to convince all mankind of the folly as well, as the injustice, of using fo-to the Isle of Elba, these literary Cossacks reign force for the purpose of dictating published a paragraph, which they into a great nation who they shall have serted in the report of the debates in the for their rulers, or what shall be the form House of Commons, as the report of the of their Government; this grand event, speech of SIR JOSEPH YORKE, then instead of producing such conviction in and now one of the Lords of the Admi the minds of those persons connected ralty, in the following words; to wit.with the London Newspapers, Maga-SiR J. YORKE observed, that although zines and Reviews, who are called Cos" one great enemy of this country, Bonasuch writers; so far from producing such parte, had been deposed, there was conviction in their minds; this grand "another gentleman whose DEPOSITIevent seems to have made them more "ON was also necessary to our interest; eager than ever for interference in the" he meant Mr. President Madison; domestic affairs of France; and, while and with a view to THAT DEPOSI the cries of our countrymen at New Or-“ TION, a considerable naval force must leans are yet vibrating on our cars, these" men are endeavouring to urge you and yourcolleagues on to the sending of thou sands upon thousands more of our men, and to expend hundreds of millions more of our money, in order to overset a Government which the French nation love, and to compel them to submit to one which they hate, or, at least, despise, from the bottom of their hearts, and with au unanimity absolutely unparalleled.

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be kept up, especially in the Atlantic. "But as to his honorable friend's opini on respecting the reduction of the Navy, he wished it to be considere "that a number of shipping were em"ployed in conveying French prisoners "to France, and bringing home our own "countrymen. So much for the occupation of our navy on the home station.--But from the Mediterranean for instance, several three deckers were orMy Lord, if my advice had been fol- "dered home, and he could swear that lowed, we should have had no American" no practical exertion would be remitted War; the 20 or 30,000 men and the 50 to reduce the expence of our Naval 60 millions of money, which that un- "Department." fotunate war has cost us, and which bave only, as it turns out, created an American Navy, and exalted the Repubkc amongst the nations of the world, would all have been saved. The literary Cossacks of London, were, I verily be lieve, the chief cause of that war. They nrged you and your colleagues on to the destruction of the American FORM OF GOVERNMENT. Napoleon being, as they thought, down, never to rise again, they urged you to make war, till you had

With what shame! with what sorrow, would these writers, if they had not lost all sense of shame, and all feeling for their country, now look back on their conduct at the time to which I am referring! Instead, however, of feeling shame for that conduct, they are now acting the same part over again; they are now reviving all their old calumnies against the Emperor Napoleon; they are abusing the French army and the French people; they are bestowing on them appellations almost

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too infamous to be repeated; and they
are calling upon you and your colleagues
to make a war of extermination upon tha
people, unless they will receive and adop
the ruler and the Government appointed,
or pointed out, by England. These men
called Mr. Madison a TRAITOR and
REBEL; and they are now calling Na
poleon a TRAITOR and a REBEL.
They called the Americans slaves, vil
lains, thieves; and these appellations
with many others, not excepting cowards,
they are now bestowing on the French
people. They now see that you and
your colleagues have found it necessary"
ot make a treaty of peace and amity with
Mr. Madison, whom they called a traitor
and a rebel; but, these men are of that
description of fools to whom experience
cannot teach wisdom, and they are now
repeating their cry, no peace with Napo-
leon: no peace till the Bourbons are
again on the throne of France; war with
the French until they adopt a ruler in
whom we have confidence.

pentine River, the crawling worshippers
of Whiskers and of Jack-Loots: I am aware,
my Lord, how difficult it must be for
hese persons, comprising no very small
part of those who call themselves the
UPPER ORDERS, now to lock each
other in the face. I am well aware of the
fire that must burn in their bosoms, and
I pity them accordingly. I am aware,
too, of the situation of those pubic men,
who, since the exile of Napoleon, have
expressed "their sorrow, that those great
"statesmen, Burke, Fitt, and Perceval,
were not alive to witness, and to par-
ticipate in the general joy at the tri-
"umph of their principles." I am aware
of the situation of those (amongst whom
is the Chancellor of the Exchequer)
who have so recently eulogized the In-
come, or Property Tax, upon the ground
of the complete triumph which it had
enabled us to obtain over Napoleon, and
of the fair prospect which it had given
us of a long and prosperous peace. I am,
above all, aware of the feelings of your
self, my Lord, who have acted so high a
part in the exiling of Napeleon, who
have been so loudly cheered on that ac-
count; who, after detailing the grand
views and proceedings of the different
powers at the Congress of Vienna, told
the House of Commons, on MONDAY,
the 20th of this month of March, that
our great and enormous sacrifices had

There is something so unjust in this
proposition: something so savage in the
very idea of making war for such a pur-
pose: something so arrogant, so impu-
dent, so insolent, that, were it not for
the impotence of the persons who make it,
it could not fail to fill every Frenchman's
breast with indignation inexpressible.
Nevertheless, having seen the effect of
the writing of these men as to the Ame-purchased a fair prespect of happy tran
rican War; having seen how completely
they succeeded in causing the people of
England to believe, that it was just and
wise to make war for the purpose of
deposing MR. MADISON, there is reason
to fear, that their present labours will
not be wholly ineffectual: that, indeed,
it is possible, that they may again suc-
ceed in their mischievous objects; and,
therefore, I shall endeavour to shew,
that the war, which they recommend,
would be unjust and hateful in its ob-
jects, and, in its consequences, likely to
be fatal to our country.

quillity for us and for Europe, for twenty years to come: and who learnt, on the NEXT WEDNESDAY, that Napoleon was again at the head of the French nation, Louis le Désire, havings already reached Abbeville on his way out of France! I am well aware of the existence and of the powerful effect of all these feelings: but, still I do not abandon the hope, that the disappointment, the mor tification, the shame, the blind rage of the herd of Napoleon's haters will not be able to induce you and your colleagues to listen to the dictates of passion instead of those of icason, and to plunge your country into a new and fatal war..

I am aware, my Lord, of the mortification which is now felt in England: 1 am aware of the acuteness of the sting: There are too objects very distinct, for I see how difficult it must be for the re- which the literary Cossacks are calling Djgicers of April last, the wearers of lau- for war: the first is, to put down and and white cockades, the roasters of destroy Napoleon and to compel the saluters (female as well as French people to submit to the Pour Old Blucher" and the "Gallant bons: the second is, to secure Belgium io e votaries at the Temple in the new king of the Netherlands, who, en Park, the heroes of the Ser-only on the 10th of this present month,

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ALEPY

took upon himself, formally, the sovereignty of the Belgian provinces. I an against war for either of these objects. I think, that, for neither of them, nor for both together, we ought to go to war; and, I now proceed to state the reasous upon which that opinion is founded.

they opposed him. This step enraged the people; they soon after put the king and queen to death, They marched against the Duke of Brunswick and his Germans; beat them, and began that series of conquests, which have made France so famous and so much feared in the world, it is well known, that divers changes in the internal government of France had taken place previously to the time when Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor of that country. It is also well known, that he was exiled in April 1814; and, that, while the Capital of France was occupied by an army of Austrians, Prussians and Russians, subsidized by us, the eldest brother of the late king of France was brought to Paris from England, put upon the throne, and made ruler of France instead of Napoleon.

As to the first of these proposed objects of war, the case is this. For more than a century, the French people had been objects of contempt with the people of England, because the former patiently submitted to arbitrary and oppressive government, ecclesiastical as well as civil. I appeal, not to our songs and theatrical pieces (though no bad criterion), nor to our paintings and prints; but, to the most approved historical, political, and moral writings in our language, and to the speeches in both Houses of Parliament. I appeal to these for proof of the fact; that, up to the year 1789, the English nation held the French nation in contempt on account of their patient sub-government of France. At the out-set, mission to an arbitrary king, who could the French expected us to be the first imprison or exile any of them at pleasure, people on earth to congratulate them and to a cormorant priesthood, who, in on their newly-acquired freedom, and a great degree, devoured the fruit of men's the very last in the world to find fault labour. In short, it is notorious, that, with them for over-stepping the real previous to the year 1739, Frenchman bounds of liberty. They soon found and Slave and even Coward were, in the their mistake; for, Mr. Burke, whose minds of Englishmen, almost synonymous profound wisdom the Chancellor of the terms. In 1789, the French nation began Exchequer has, within a few weeks, so to make a change, or revolution, in their highly extolled, attacked the French peoGovernment, and expressed their deter-ple, in speeches in Parliament and in mination to have perfect freedom. Be- pamphlets, so early as 1791, two years tween the beginning of this year and the before the king was put to death. Mr. summer of 1791, many schemes of Go-Burke called upon England and all vernotent were proposed: aud, at last, other powers of Europe to make war one was agreed on and formally accepted upon the French people; and, Mr. Burke, by the king. But, in spite of the king's soon after this, had a pension granted acceptance, his BROTHERS, Louis le him of 3,000 pounds sterling a year. Desire, and the Comte d'Artois, together with the other Princes of the family,went out of France, and, from places on the borders of that kingdom, issued their protests against the King's acceptance of the Constitution. In these protests they declared their resolution to overset the constitution by force of arms if they could, and if force should be necessary. At length, in 1792, the Emperor of Germany and the King of Prussia marched an army into France, under the late Duke of Brunswick, who issued a proclamation, stating it to be his intention to" restore "the King of France to his legitimate "power," and threatening to inflict on the people the most terrible punishments if

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Now, then, my lord, let us take a view
of our conduct, through this series of
years, as far as relates to the internal

When France was invaded in 1792, and a great emigration took place from that country, the emigrant nobies and priests were received in no country with so much kindness as in England; and, it is notorions, that we paid them pensions from that time to the time of their death, or their return last year. It is equally notorious, that we have employed many of these emigrants, as officers, or soldiers, in our wars against France.

When we began our first war,in 1793,we professed to have no desire to interfere in the internal government of France. We complained of her disorganizing princi ples, which, we said, threatened the overthrow of a regular governments

and, that, therefore, our war against her was a war of self-defence. Of late years, our tone has been wholly changed. We no longer talk of the disorganizing principles of the French. On the contrary, we have, of late years, represented them as living under a most horrible despotism. We have been constantly talking of the iron sceptre of Napoleon, and pitying the poor wretches who lived under it. It was not against the French people, we said, that we were making war: but against the tyrant," as we called him, who had loaded them with chains, and to free the poor creatures from which chains was one of the benign objects for which we and our allies, the Russiaus and Germans marched into France.

people of France, whom we represent as suffering all sorts of oppression under him. We represent the conscripts dragged in chains to his armies; we represent the land as become fruitless for the want of tillage; we represent the disconsolate fathers and mothers rending the skies with execration on the murderer of their beloved children; we represent the country as being full of Bastiles and these filled with prisoners like the dungeons of the Inquisition. These representations the far greater part of the people of Eng land really believe; and they rejoice at his fall and his exile. Well, le voilà exilé! It is done. He is exiled. The Bourbons are restored. We are immediately told, that all France is happy; that the government of Louis le Desiré is a

on, liberty and happiness are restored to a people, so long oppressed. The Bourbons have the government in their hands for a year; they pass laws, make a new constitution, grant rewards, appoint officers, reorganize the army, garrison all the towns, have all the treasure and all the

How stands the case, then? Up to the year 1788 inclusive we despise the peo-" paternal" government; that law, religi ple of France, because they are slaves, under the reign of the Bourbons. When they throw off the authority of the Bourbons, we call them anarchists and rebels. When they choose an Emperor, we again call them slaves: and when we succeed at last by the aid of an immense army of Russians and Germans, in put-power of that vast and popolous country, ting the Bourbons on the throne again, we say, that we have restored them to liberty. Now, my Lord, if I were to grant this latter assertion to be true, I should not be less disposed to object to a war for the second restoration of the Potbons: because the French people themselves are the best judges of the sort of ruler that they shall have, and because it is now impossible to deny, that their choice is in favour of Napoleon.

in their hands; and, at the end of the year Napoleon lands with eleven hundred mer, the people flock around him in every di rection, he proceeds along the great road 500 miles from Cannes to Paris, and though proclamations, decrees and orders, and promises of innenze rewards are poured forth against his life, not a single man does all France contain to hold up a hand against him! and, amidst the ac clamations of millions, he comes, withouť a sword to protect him, to resume kis it, indeed, Napoleon had landed with authority! Ah! my Lord, feel as we will; a numerous army: if, by any extraor-say what we will, this is the granddinary means, a considerable army had est, the most magnificent spectacle, that been prepared to join him on his land-ever presented itself for the contemplaing: if there bad existed an insurrection of the human mind. tion in the country previous to, er on Of all the triumphs that TRUTII ever his landing in either of these cases, obtained, this is the most signal. For there might have been doubt with eleven years almost all the presses of regard to the ce sentiments of the peo-England, and, indeed, of the greater part ple; but, the country is perfectly quiet; of Europe; half the presses of America; no rising, no disturbances, any where; the makers of barangues; the political the whole country is in the hands of preachers, were at work to cause it to Louis's officers, civil and military; and be believed, that Napoleon was the cruelNapoleon lands and rides on to the Capi- est tyrant that ever blackened the page. tal, not only without an army, but in as of history; and, since his fall, the calondefenceless & condition as if he had beennies which have been pound out on time a private gentleman coming home to ins by the presses and the speechmakers of estate. For eleven long years we repre England, Germany, and France, exceed, sent him as hated and detested by the perhaps, all that were ever uttered before

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since the art of printing was discovered. gistracy; no dominant church; no feudal The pencil has been brought into the aid tenures; no privileged orders; one Code of the pen, in order that those who could civil and criminal, to which all men are neither read nor hear, might imbibe alike subject; no borough elections. In against him hatred through their eyes. short, France has a republican governAnd, as if the exertions of the French ment with a Chief called an Emperor. partizans of the Bourbons were insufficient And, though that government is not yet, in that country, it has been inundated and never may be, precisely what it might with Englishmen and English women, be wished, it is likely to come as near to who looked upon it as a duty to their na- the standard of liberty as the character tive land to aid in the promulgation of and genius of the French people, and these calumnies. Yet, such had been the state of Society in France will his conduct towards the people of France, permit. This is, at least, my hope; and, that he had only to present himself if I am not disappointed, is there any one to their eyes to blow all these calumnies who will say, that the late event is not to to the winds. To give to him and to be hailed with joy? However stiff the TRUTH this triumph, there were want-republicans of France must be; however ed his exile and his return. Had these angry that their own plans of government not taken place, the deep impressions of are not adopted, they must be convinced, falsehood would never have been remov-that, if the Bourbons had remained, their ed. Until now, it has been deemed, in hopes would have been blasted for ever; England, almost a crime to express a and that, therefore, as long as the quesdoubt of his having been a monster of tion lies between the Bourbons and Natyranny, held in the utmost abhorrence poleon, it is their duty, upon their own by the people of France. Did TRUTH principles, to be for the latter. It must ever before gain such a triumph! give any friend of Freedom great satisfaction to see, that, in all the proclamations and decrees of Napoleon, and even in the address of the Imperial Guard, signed by M. DROUET, the great principle is always put forward, of the right of the people to choose their ruler, a principle to which if they adhere, the French will be a happy and free, as well as a great nation.

These events will soften, if not wholly do away, the enmity of only fair enemies, the Republicans of France. For it cannot now be pretended, that he does not reign by virtue of the peoples' consent and choice, signified in the freest and most unequivocal manner. The light, in which he now stands, is very different indeed from that in which he stood be- This event, so honourable to Napoleon, fore. He was chosen Emperor; but the is little less honourable to the people of choice was made, it was said, by persons France. They had all possible temptaappointed by himself: that he had all tions held out to them to oppose him, to the power and all the treasure of the take him, to kill him. Not a man; not a country in his hands at the time; and, in single man was found to yield to any of short, that his election was like some other these powerful temptations. Threats elections, the character of which are too were dealt out largely on the other hand. tender to be touched by a pen so rude as They were continually reminded of the mine. This was what was said before; great foreign armies ready to invade and this cannot be said now: for, if he France: they were told that the Prussian be not now fairly chosen by the people of army was advancing upon Thionville: France, never was man fairly chosen in that the Austrians were already at Turin: this world. In his proclamations he rests that 600,000 Russians, with the Cossacks his authority upon the will, the choice of at their head, were on their march; aud the people; he says he owes, and will lastly, that 70,000 English, with the Duke owe, that authority and his rank to them of Wellington for commander, were on and to them only. The Republicans, their way from Belgium. The people of therefore, cannot now have the same ob France seem to have heard of the ap jections to him which they had before.proach of all these armies with as little Besides, as I have more than once obser- concern as if they had been told of the ved, his government, though the Chief be approach of so many mice. They seein an Emperor, is essentially Republican. to have said: "Give us, only give us No titles bat such as are the reward of" Napoleon, and let the world come in services and talents; no hereditary ma- "anos against ss," And is it for us, my

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