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THE FARMERS.

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willing aid to corruption to keep her 'in her seat; and now, forsooth, you pout and whine like way-ward Children.

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free government. All must participate "in the benefits of society, otherwise "the bond of association loses its legiti

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"the line.--In six months after a peace, "France may have fifty sail of the line, "well manned, and an army of half a "million of men, commanded by a great -A person of no small abilities, yet "military genius. One victory may espousing the canse of the Corn Bill, again give him possession of Vienna." uses the following most excellent remark, -The event here anticipated has actu- which, as it suits the cause of the people ally happened. Napoleon has regained, much better than the one in the service by the peace, all his best troops, the of which it is enlisted, you will permit greatest part of his best officers, and allme here to quote.-The writer says his seamen. He possesses more than fifty and says justly, that,' Equal prosail of the line, and he has at his com- "tection is the right of all under a mand half a million of armed men. If then the allied powers should provoke him to hostilities, let them beware that one victory does not again give him" mate force, as in Asia, where a tyrannic "possession of Vienna." "partiality makes favoured Casts, and treats others as if, they were not "of the human species; or, to use the "words of the poet, Nature's basMR. COBBETT.-A letter, under the tards not her sons." Such favour signature of Aristides, has, it seems, "and affection may do in Asiatic gogiven offence to sundry of your Corres-"vernments, but not in England".-pondents, who seem impressed with If this argument be just, let the ministhe idea of his being hostile to farmers in general, whereas the contrary is the case; for while deprecating the now pending Corn Bill, as an arbitrary, partial, and unjust measure, no man entertains more allection, respect, and, I may say, veneration for the plain, rough, honest true old English Farmer, than Aristides; neither does any one more ardently wish, or would more earnestly endeavour, (overwhelmed as the nation is with Lords, Baronets, Knights, and Nabobs,) the renovation and multiplication of the an cient British Yeomanry.-But monopolizers of land, speculators and vile imitators of the luxuries of a court, cannot meet the approbation of a well wisher to his country; the more especially when, to enable themselves to continue such, they wish to put every mouth in that Country under tribute. Honest indignation in the cause of the poor, may then be allowed to burst forth.

Aristides agrees with the bulk, and better part of the nation, that Corruption and Taxation have gone hand in hand for a number of years; but wherefore good people of England do you now cry out against them?----You were in use to discourage, by all the means in your power, those who sought to rid you of the oppression; nay you lent your

ters explain upon what foundation they' proceed with regard to the Corn Bill; for certainly the land-bolders and farmers form but a comparatively small part of the community. The manufacturers exceed them greatly in number. Besides these, there is a multitude who belong to neither of the above classes-Yet all are to be oppressed, that the farmer may be enabled to pay a rackrent to the land-holder, and therefore the land-holder seated in power, most unfeelingly lays it on. Having, in the above quotation, mentioned Asia, give me leave, Mr Cobbett, to ask some little information as to a transaction mentioned to have happened there some years ago. I mean a monopoly of rice, said to have caused the death of several millions of persons, who may be presu med to have been neither laud-holders nor farmers, but of nearly a similar description with our manufacturers and labouring poor. Perhaps the corn bill may be meant as an experiment (upon a smaller scale), to take place here, according to an idea held by an author of the fashionable world, that there may at times be political wisdom in diminishing the population; and for that perhaps could be found no better expedient than the CORN BILL. ARISTIDES.

Primed and Published by G. HoUSION: No. 19%, Strand; where all Communications addressed to Editor are requested to be forwarded.

VOL. XXVII. No. 14.] LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1815. [ Price 1s.

417

TO LOUIS.

ON THE REAL CAUSES OF HIS LATE EXPULSION, AND ON THE FUTURE PROSPECTS OF HIMSELF AND FA

MILY.

SIR,-While I feel, in common with mest of my countrymen, compassion for you, under the present circumstances, I think it right to address you my thoughts on the real causes of your late expulsion from France, and on the prosFeets which now present themselves to yourse and family. To do this I think myser the more fully entitled, as the advice, which I offered you upon your restoration was not followed, and, as it now appears, the acting in opposition to that advice has furnished the grounds of numerous accusations against you and your Government. It appears to me very clear, that the House of Bourbon never can reign again in France. A war, in which all the rest of Europe, with the purse of England emptied into their hands, should league against France, might produce great revolutions in that country; but, I am convinced, that it is wholly impossible for any combination of power, or of events, to make your House again for any length of time, the sovereigns of France. The reasons for this opinion will become apparent when I have described what I deem to have been the real causes of your late expulsion.

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In the Proclamation to the French people, which you issued in England in

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that it was not; but, it is impossible to blame the people of France for having believed that which every man in England believed, and especially when overt acts of a nature so striking, and so humiliating to France, accompanied this memorable declaration. You bad ex pressed your resolution to owe your res toration solely to the people of France; and the people of France saw you escorted from the Prince Regent's palace to Dover by English Guards; they saw you conveyed across the Channel in an Eng lish ship commanded by an English Prince; they saw you received on French ground and conducted to Paris by German and Prussian soldiers, subsidized by England; they saw Paris filled with those troops; they saw those troops.remain there until Napoleon was landed on the rock of Elba, and until you-bad new-organized the army and the civil authorities of France; they in short, saw you put upon the throne by foreign armies, and they heard England, who had been the constant enemy of France under all her forms of Government, held up as entitled to all the merit of having accomplished this event.

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Was it likely; was it possible, that a nation like the French should not burn with desire to wipe away this broad, this staring stain on its character? To see the English regiments of horse traverse almost the whole of France, when they might have been embarked very nearly at the spot where the war had closed: to see the studied parade of English

the early part of 1814, you said, that you" conquerors," as they were called, in the

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were resolved to owe your restoration streets of Paris; to be told, as they solely to the people of France. But, you were through our news-papers, that you were hardly arrived in France, when it had, at the request of our Government, was stated in the Moniteur and in the forcibly detained American armed ships English news-papers, that you had, under in the ports of France, and that you had, your own hand, declared to the Prince by special command, prevented Freuch Regent of England, that you owed your men from sailing to America, dest they Crown to him; and the substance, if not should enter into the service of that coup copies, of the letter, containing this de-try: to see and hear these things must claration, were published in these same have added greatly to the mortification *papers. I do not pretend to say, that and resentment of the French people, Akis was the fact I would fain believe who, always remarkable for their love of

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military glory, would under such circum stances, naturally be ready to burst forth against your authority upon the first fair occasion.

the ancient rules with regard to the Sunday; rules never, perhaps, very wise, and now hostile to the habits of the whole of the generation whom they were Yet, if you had returned unaccom- to affect. This measure of itself was panied by the ancient Noblesse, and the sufficient to produce a shock. It would Clergy, things might possibly have settled naturally create a belief, that all was to down into something like content. But, be attempted to be restored, as far as loaded with a numerous class of persons, religion was concerned. Nine tenths of all on the tiptoe of expectation; all expect the active men in France are, perhaps, ing employments and honours; all eager to no more Catholics than I am, having, be restored, as well as yourself, to power with their mothers' milk, imbibed a disand to wealth; and, all having, which like, and even a hatred, of that Church you had not, to contend with rivals for and its clergy. The effect of such meathat power and that wealth, and with sures must be to fill them with disconrivals, too, whom they found in posses- tent, alarm, and resentmentment; for sion; loaded with this almost numberless every man living soon hates whatever class, who, to say the truth, had claims makes him uneasy. If measures of this as fair as your own to a restoration, it kind, which I can allow to have been required wisdom and energy that do not adopted by you from motives of real fall to the lot of mankind to prevent piety, were calculated to revive all, the those heart-burnings which arose from apprehensions of religious persecution, this cause, and the effects of which we the re-burial of the late king and queen's now so clearly trace, not in speculation, remains marked out not a few of the but in decisive facts. A man bereft of greatest men in the country for regicides, power or profit, always becomes a bitter The funeral service upon that occasion; enemy of him who has displaced him. the annual humiliation appointed; the But if such changes become pretty gene- language of the noblesse, the clergy, the ral throughout a whole country: if a sert Royalist pamphleteers, the official jour of proscription be set on foot; and espe- nal, clearly showed, that there was, in cially if the grounds of that proscription the end, to be neither oblivion nor for be such as almost every man in the com-giveness for what was called the munity will naturally see level,in some degree, against him and even against his children; it is manifest that a convulsion can be prevented by the bayonet alone. And, if the danger; if the suffering, extend itself to the military as well as to all other persons in power, who can expect that any thing short of a great, an overwhelming, foreign force, constantly present in the country, will be able to support the ruler on his throne ?

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der" of the late king and queen. Aud, thus another list of proscription was promulgated, written in characters of blood.

But, if it had been possible for you to remain, upon the throne amidst the hostility excited against you by all these causes, your power must have been destroyed, and yourself dethroned, by the attacks upon property, which were made in so open a manner. The notion which the presses in this country are so very While these changes were at work, anxious to inculate is, that your over producing hostility in every part of the throw is to be attributed solely to the country, the priesthood seem not to have army, who, we are told, governs the peo been idle. I am not blaming them for ple of France, and forces upon them their endeavours to bring back the peo-whatever laws and government it pleases. ple to their former sentiments. They We are told, in one column of these might deem it their duty. But, as was papers, that Napoleon is unable to collect to be expected, they proceeded with very a large army: that he has been compelled little caution. The people, who had, to lower his tone because he wants an arin general, long set aside the old way my; that he has expressed his willingness of thinking along with the tythes and the to abide by the Treaty of Paris because he convents. Both Treat jealousy and wants an army; that he has abolished hoisted at every the Slave Trade, which you would not the sides of abolish, because he wants an army; that u scorned to he pays his court to the people and proe-established mises them liberty of the press and tree

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representative government because he wants an army: and, strange to say, in the opposite column, we are very gravely assured,a sa matter of fact taken for granted, that it is the army and the army alone, who has brought him back toFrance, and put him upon your throne, against the will of thirty millions of people! It really seems, that delusion is never to cease. It really seems, that, upon that subject, men are to continue in wilful blindness unto the end, unless their eyes be torn open by some dreadful convulsioh or calamity.

Before your restoration, it was generally believed in England, that Napoleon's government was so oppressive, and that the people of France were so miserable under it, that they only wanted an opportunity to cast off his yoke and to hoist the White Flag, We have been assured and we have very generally believed, that your reign was a paternal reign; that it was a continued series of benefits to the people of France; that you had restored them to morality, religion, liberty, peace, and happiness; that, in short, your government produced effects precisely the contrary of the effects produced by his government. Yet, at the end of eleven months, he comes back with only six hundred men, and, instead of finding a people armed to arrest his progress, he rides on, almost without a guard, to the gates of Paris, over a tract of 500 miles, through many populous and fortified towns, without seeing a single arm raised against him, and, indeed, amidst the shouts of a people, who hail him as a Deliverer. While, on the other hand, you, who are in possession of all the powers and treasures of that great country; are supported by the two Chambers of the Legislature: are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of armed men, leave your palace and quit the soil of France, without being able to discover a single individual to draw a sword or to speak a word in your defence. Nay, the very guard of hired foreigners: even the Swiss oldiers, against surrounding your person with whom the fate of your unfortunate brother was not a sufficient warning; even these wretched men, who let them selves out to fight for hire, are quietly disbanded and banished out of the reach of popular resentment, by a decree of Napoleon published at Lyons. Can it be believed by any body on earth, except

the credulous part of the English nation that such a revolution could have taken place without the consent and approbation, nay, against the will of thirty millions of people full of spirit and military notions?

It is notorious, that the eleven months of your reign was employed by the wri ters and haranguers of France to extol your government, and to traduce the government and character of Napoleon. It is notorious, that, while the press was free for men like Chateaubriand and Cretelle, whose employment was to blacken Napoleon and to applaud you, it was closed against those who dared to think of taking the other side. -It is notorious that you established a Censorship after having pledged yourself to maintain the Liberty of the Press. It is notorious that many persons were already in prison for long terms for what were deemed libels. Yet, with this most powcrful instrument in your hands, you were wholly unable, with the treasures of the country at your command, to gain over to you any part of the people in number sufficient to make their voice heard. Is it possible, then, for us to be made believe, that the people of France did not, from the bottom of their hearts prefer the government of Napoleon to that of the Bourbons? They talk to us of the army, of conspiracies, of frater nities, & I know not what; but, how could any, or all of these preventthe people France from falling upon Napoleon on his way to Paris, or at thegates of Paris?

The truth is, that there needed neither armies nor conspirators nor fraternities to overset your throne, the existence of which was opposed to the feelings, the habits, and to the immediate interest of the present inhabitants of France, who, besides the grounds of discontent, resent ment, and alarm before stated, proceeded, in this instance, upon the further and still stronger ground, that their property, their real property; that nearly the whole of the real property in France; that the preservation of all this, and of every part of it, was incompatible with the reign of the House of Bourbon, however great the wisdom and the virtues of the Princes of that House may be. I myself am of the same opinion. I was of that opinion when I wrote the answer to your Proclamation of January 1814. was not in reason, it was not in nature,

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previous to the revolution, the property of the Crown, the Noblesse, and the Church, the exceptions being so insignificant as to be almost unworthy of notice. We seem to have forgotten, that all the property of the crown: all the property of the Church, even to the very Churches and Church Yards in many cases; and a great part of the property of the Noblesse, was confiscated, and was sold to individuals. We seem to have forgotten, that the houses and land of the whole country thus came into the hands of new owners, and that the land was sold in such small parcels and under such circumstances so very advantageous to the purcha sers, that a great part of the labouring men became proprietors of land. We seelu to have forgotten, that the titles to these innumerable estates rest solely upon the legality of the sales and upon the due execution of the laws passed by the National Assemblies and by Napoleon and his Legislative Bodies. We seem to have forgotten, that to call the legality of these acts in question is to shake the titles of the whole of these proprietors.

that the Bourbons should be welcome guests in France, because their presence there menaced the whole nation with ruin. The people of England, many of whom are now for rushing headlong into a war for the purpose of again restoring you by force of arms, know though they appear determined not to know,any thing of this, the greatest of all the obstacles to the success of such a project. Nor is this so very wonderful, when there have been found the means of persuading you, that it was practible. The truth is, that, where powerful interests are opposed to reason, though the latter be clear as the noon-day Sun, the former generally prevail in deciding men's opinions. It is, therefore, not at all surprising, that the "Noblesse of France should still have beleived, that the people of that great country were to be brought, if not to submit to their former vassalage, at least, to yield up their estates. They will, I dare say, like the STUARTS, live along, generation after generation, in the indulgence of this ridiculous belief; but, I am persuaded, that it will soon be discovered by the people of England, and especially by the great holders of our Funded Debt, that their fortunes ought not to be expended in so foolish and so wicked an adventure.at seeing you begin dating your official When the powerful class, to whom I have last more particularly alluded, shall have brought to their aid in this discussion, not philanthrophy, not humanity, for, though natives of their bosoms, they are discarded in a question of war or peace with France; but, when they shall have brought to their aid that common sense, unclouded by passion, which is their guide in their private concerns, they will perceive that

another war for the purpose of placing the Bourbons upon the throne of France is an undertaking, which, as long as the possesion of property is desirable amongst men, can never succeed.

We have been so long accustomed to talk about Napoleon only as the obstacle to the restoration of your family; we have spent so many years in invective against him and his revolutionary predecessors in power, that, at last, we seem to have wholly overlooked what has been going on in the interior of France. We seem to have forgoten, and we may be well excused for it seeing that you and your advisers appear to have forgotten it also; we seem to have forgotten, that the whole of the houses aud lands of Frauce, were,

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If we had not compleatly forgotten all these things, we should not have been surprized, that the people were alarmed

acts in the NINETEENTH year of your reign, thereby clearly declaring by impli cation, that all the laws passed since the death of your brother were in fact, null and void, whenever you chose to declare them null and void. We should not have been surprized at the suspicions excited by the conduct of the Clergy, some of whom talked of refusing absolution to persons who had purchased Church property. We should not have been surprized at the general indignation arising from the dismissing of men from public employ ments because they or their relations held property formerly belonging to the Crown, the Church, or the Noblesse, or from the shutting out from the officers of the army all those against whom existed similar objections. We should not have been surprized at the general alarm and out-cry against the act for restoring, directly and as matter of right, to the Noblesse, all that part of this property not yet sold by the nation, and which struck, at once, at the root of all the titles of the property which bad beca sold. We should not not have been surprized at ... . . . in short, we should not have been at all sur

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