of the Admiralty is reported to have explained the matter very intelligibly, so as to shut out all further difficulty upon it: he informed us that the Cats were in one yard, the Rats in another. Your papers, Sir, are so full of importance, that I am thankful to you for the least possible space to promulgate my opinions; but I hope you will indulge me with one other remark. -Lobserve you frequently calling the warfaction prints, especially the Times, to account for their most immoderate abuse of the present Ruler of France as they style him, and I must allow that their abuse is most low, disgusting, and disgraceful to the country by which they are permitted, or perhaps prompted, to deal it out. You call them the miscreant hirelings of the press. Now, whether they are really so or not, I do not take upon me to say; but this I am sure of, that if they were hired by the Emperor himself, they could not take more effectual means to unite and support his influence over the whole people of France; and the strong hold these hirelings have given him, is to him worth any premium he could bestow upon them.-If the war, which they so strenuously call for, should take place, they have fortified him, beyond all other possible means, to withstand it. From what motives they do all this, I shall not inquire, but I am positive as to the effect.-Yours truly, May 1, 1815. PHILO. PETITION OF THE LIVERY OF LONDON. The petition of this numerous and respectable body against the threatened war with France, was read at length in the House of Commons on the night of its rejection; but I do not find that it has been published in any of our newspapers. I observe that the Courier did not even publish the resolutions passed at the Common Hall, though all the other hireling papers did. Is this to be held a proof of the superiority of our liberty of the press over that of France, of which the Courier is constantly vaunting? Is it in suppressing the reasons against the war, and in publishing those for the war, that this boasted liberty consists? The Editor of the Moniteur has given notice, that he will publish every declaration of foreign powers, however hostile to France, or to the Emperor, whenever they please to transmit them. This looks something like liberty of the press: but with our base and corrupted newspapers, nothing must be admitted into their columns that savours in the least of censure of public measures; while a place is always readily given to every thing, no matter how false and contemptible, that may any way detract from the character of the people and govera ment of France. Whenever an exception from this rule occurs, it is interest alone that causes the insertion. The suppression of the Petition of the Livery of London, is not, however, in the present case, so much to be regretted, because in the resolutions of the Common Hall we have essentially the substance of what it may be supposed to have been. These resolutions I have given below; with a report of the speeches, which I have taken from the Morning Herald; not because I consider this the Test report that might have been given; but because it is the fullest of any that has appeared. I have likewise subjoined a list of the minorities in the House of Commons who voted for receiving the Petition, and also in support of Mr. Whitbread's motion for peace with Napoleon, Of all the critical periods during the two and twenty years' struggle with France, none of them was so pregnant with consequences so favourable, or so prejudicial, to the cause of general freedom, as the period in which we now live. It is of the utmost consequence, therefore, that those who have hitherto borne the weight of carrying or the war, and must again bear the burden of the new contest, should not only have their eyes opened to the true state of matters, but that they should be acquainted with the names of those Members of Parliament, who have endeavoured to stem the torrent which threatens to overwhelm Europe. The Common Hall was held on Thursday the 27th ult. The Lord Mayor, after the requisition had been read, addressed the Livery, and intimated, that as far as his authority would go, he should endeayour to procure each speaker silence and orderly attention. Mr. Waithman then stood forward, and said, he had never appeared before the Livery on a more important subject than that he had to propose to them. He did not appear for the purpose of discussing any particular form of government, or the rights of individuals, but it was to recognize the great basis of the Constitution. Twenty years ago, he said, he addressed them on the same question, namely, on the principle of engaging in war without just cause of war. Whatever might be said in other quarters, he could venture to say, the citizens of London did not see the cause of war. The principle he should endeavour to inculcate was, that all interference with the domestic affairs of any other country ought to be disclaimed, because it was on that principle the British Constitution, proceeding from the glorious revolution, was established. Mr. Waithman then adverted to the treaty of Vienna, and expressed his coucern on finding the name of a British Minister affixed to it-all interference with the affairs of France could not be too much deprecated. When this country thought proper to drive King James from the throne, and to establish the present family, what would Englishmen have said had foreign nations interfered? The pre: sent family was established by the revo lution, and what foreigner dared interfere with our form of government. It was curious to see among the Powers signing the treaty, the Ministers of Austria, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, and Sweden. Some of these had not only restored the Inqui sition, but had sanctioned the separation of Norway from Denmark, Genoa from its ancient constitution, and Saxony from its legitimate monarch. Such persons were unfit to reform other States; they wanted reformation at home. Mr. Waithman reminded the Livery that they had petitioned against the Property Tax and the Corn Bill; and though their prayers had not been heard, it was most essential they should petition Parliament against the war. He condemned the conduct of the Allies in putting Bonaparte out of the pale of the law. They had no right, he said, to proscribe any individual; such a power belonged only to the Supreme Being. [Here a most violent clamour ensued; a great number of persons hissed and interrupted Mr. Waithman, exclaiming Off, off! No friends of Bonaparte! &c.] The Lord Mayor then came forward, and silence being obtained, said the Livery would recollect that he was sworn to preserve the peace and public tranquillity, and he was determined to maintain it. As the meeting had been called for a quiet discussion of the subject, they would doubtless give the Speakers on both sides the question an equal chance of being heard. If they did not observe order he should be under the necessity of putting an end to the Common Hall. Mr. Waith man then resumed his arguments against the war, and having condemned the re newal of the Property Tax, and all the war arrangements, concluded amidst loud uproar and interruption, by moving the following resolutions, which embodied nearly the whole of his speech. Resolved, That this Common Hall, having recently witnessed the marked disregard shewn to the Petitions from this city, and those of the uation at large, are the more strongly confirmed in the conviction of the corrupt state of the representation, and the total want of sympathy in opiDion and feeling between the House of Commons and the people. That these considerations would, under circum stances of less importance, have deterred us from the exercise of a right which appears to have been rendered nugatory; but hopeless as we fear it is again to address that Hon. House, yet, at a crisis so momentous-when a determination appears to have been so strongly manifested by the Ministers of the Crown again to plunge this devoted country into the horrors of war-we feel it to be an imperious duty to our country, ourselves, and posterity, to use every constitutional means towards averting from the uation the overwhelming calamities with which it is menaced. to interfere in our internal concerns, we cannot but consider any attempt to dictate to France, or to any other country, the form or mode of its Goverument--the person who shall or shall not be at the head of such Government, or in any way to interfere in its internal policy and regulations, as highly impolitic, and manifestly unjust, and deprecate all attempts to involve this country in a war for such an object-a war against those principles, which this nation has ever maintained and acted upon. 'Torn by the miseries and calamities of the late devastating war; still tasting the bitter fruits of that protracted conflict; and no means having been adopted to lessen our national burthens, by those necessary retrenchments in the national expenditure so earnestly and so repeatedly called for by the people; but, on the contrary, an Act has been passed, restricting the importation of corn, by which a tax is virtually imposed of several millions per annum upon food, and entailing upon us in times of peace one of the greatest evils produced by the war. Before, therefore, we are plunged into another war, and in support of such principles, we might ask what has been gaiued by the immense sacrifices we have already made? and, contemplating the disastrous consequences of a failure in this new contest, the people have a right to demand what advantages are proposed even in the event of its success, or at least to be satisfied that hostilities are unavoidable, and that every means of fair and honourable negociation have been exerted, and had proved ineffectual. That the Livery of London have seen, with feelings of abhorrence, the Declarations and Trea ties of the Allied Powers, and to which are af fixed the names of British Ministers, wherein are avowed and promulgated the monstrous and unheard-of principles, that the breach of a Convention by a Sovereign "destroys the only legal "title on which his existence depended-places That to enter into such a contest in the present "him without the pale of civil and social relations state of the country, with all our national funds “ —reuders him liable to public vengeance"-ard | mortgaged to their utmost bearing, and that withthat, consequently, "there can be neither peace out an effort at negociation: or to refuse to connor truce with him ;”—principles revolting to the clude a treaty with any power, under the prefeelings of civilized society-repugnant to the sumption that such treaty may, at some remote rights, liberties, and security of all States-and period, be broken, appears to us an act of insaevincing a combination, or rather a conspiracy,uity-putting to hazard not only the property and which, if once sanctioned, would lead to conse-happiness of families, but the very existence of quences the most dreadful and alarming, and for the British Empire, and tending to exclude for which there is no parallel in the history of the ever from the world the blessings of peace. world. That, recollecting the noble struggles which our ancestors have made for re-establishing and preserving their liberties-recollecting the frequent reformations they have made in the Go. verument that they have always maintained and exercised this right-and that the august family now upon the throne, derived the right to the Crown, not by hereditary claims, but upon the legitimate foundation of all authority, the choice of the people and indignantly disclaiming, as our ancestors have done, all right in Foreign Powers Were the impolicy of a new war upon such principles, aud under such circumstances, at all doubtful, or were Government at all to be benefited by the result of experience, we need but recal to recollection the memorable Manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick at the commencement of the late contest-a Manifesto which had the effect of arousing and uniting all the energies of the French nation, and gave that victorious impulse to her arms which endangered the liberties of Europe; we need but call to recollection, that during the progress of that war, notwithstanding the immense sacrifices of British blood, and wanton waste of British treasure, lavished in subsidizing Allies to fight in their own cause, we have not unfrequently seen those powers, who entered into the contest in alliance with this country, abandon that alliance, and joined in league with France, endeavouring to exclude us from the Continent of Europe. That, after all our sacrifices, and all our exertions, in the common cause, we failed to procure from one Sovereign that tribute to Humanity the Abolition of the Slave Trade; and beheld another Monarch commence his career by re-establishing the Inquisition, persecuting the best patriots of the country, and even prohibiting the introduction of British manufactures into his dominions. Resolved--That the said Petition be fairly transcribed, and sigued, by the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, two Aldermen, and twelve Livery. men, and presented to the Honourable House of Commons, by the Representatives of this City in Parliament. Resolved Unanimously-That the thanks of this Meeting be given to the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, for his readiness in calling this Common Hall, and for his strict impartiality in presiding over the debates of this day. Resolved-That the thanks of this Common Hall be given to Mr. Robert Waithman and Mr. Samuel Favel, for their zeal and ability shewn upon all occasions conducive to the public wel fare, and so conspicuously manifested this day. Mr. Favel condemned the Declaration That the Livery of London have ever been, of the Allies, the Property Tax, the Corn and now are, ready to support the honour, the Bill, and the policy on which the war character, and the interests of the British Empire, was to be renewed.-Mr. Perring proand to resist every act of aggression; but, seeing fessed himself unable to comprehend the all the consequences of the late war, looking at nature of resolutions which seemed to him the depressed state of the country, the burthens to wander far from the object in view; the and privations of the people, the financial diffi-language, however, of the requisition was culties, the uncertainty and hazards of war, seeing intelligible, and to that he would confine likewise that France has disclaimed all intention himself. If he understood the question, of interfering in the concerns of other nations, that she has declared her determination to adhere to the Treaty of Paris, that she has made pacific overtures to the different Allied Powers, has already abolished the Slave Trade, and given other indications of returning to principles of equity and moderation; and holding, as we do, all wars to be unjust, unless the injury sustained is clearly defined, and redress by negociation cannot be obtained; and more particularly holding in abhorrence all attempts to dictate to, or interfere with, other nations in their internal concerns, we cannot but protest against the renewal of hostilities, as neither founded in justice nor necessity. That it is with feelings of indignation we perceive his Majesty's Ministers have proposed the renewal of that most galling, oppressive, and hateful Inquisition, the Tax upon Income, an Inquisition which had, in consequence of the universal execration it excited, been recently and reluctantly abandoned, and which we had hoped could never have been again renewed, at least during the existence of that generation who remembered its oppressions. That a Petition be presented to the House of Commons, praying them to interpose their authority to stop a weak, rash, and infatuated Administration in their mad and frightful career, and to adopt such measures as may best preserve the peace and promote the prosperity of the nation. it was to decide whether the country as much resources were ample to maintain any con- rulers and laws by which they were to be test in which our honour and real interests governed. Louis XVIII. was were felt to be at stake, he was well con- the legitimate heir to the Crown of Engvinced (loud cheering); but it was neces-land as France, being in some degree resary that there should be an unanimity on lated to the Stuarts. He contended, amidst the point, which did not appear to exist loud groans, hissing, and interruption,, on the present subject. Mr. Perring con- which continued some time, that war was sidered that there was but one safe course unjust and impolitic.—Mr. Thompson, anto pursue which was to be prepared: other vehement orator, supported the Refor whatever other Gentlemen might solutions, and eulogized his friend Mr. think, he suspected Bonaparte, notwith- Waithman. Mr. S. Dixon opposed the standing all his professions of moderation, sentiments averse to war. The advocates and he should as soon expect the Ethio- of Bonaparte were so deluded by their pian to change his skin or the leopard his idol, that they lost all recollection that he spots, as that Bonaparte would prove was a man who had never kept one engagedifferent from what the last twenty years ment in his life. He was a man who had had shewn him to be. He gave his assent violated every oath, every declaration he to the proposed Resolutions so far as they had made. Would any man among them went to prevent the country being preci- make a contract with a person who had pitated into a war, of the policy of which broken his faith as Bonaparte had? He he confessed himself doubtful.--Mr. Hunt, expressed a hope that the Livery of Lonof Bristol, gave his decided support to the don would not disgrace themselves by Resolutions, and contended with uncom- agreeing to the resolutions, which would mon assurance, that there was no pretence prove a precious morsel for Bonaparte for war. French messengers had proved and his friends. He protested against the that the intentions of France were peace- resolutions. A most violent clamour able; they were ready to abide by the again rendered the appearance of the Chief peace of Paris; although it was forced Magistrate necessary. The Lord Mayor on them, they were willing to continue having again restored order, Mr. Dixon at peace on those terms. It was his concluded by recommending the Livery opinion, if the war was renewed, that it to oppose a proceeding established on would be a war of unjust aggression. It theory and abstract reasoning. Mr. was a war to set the Bourbons on the Flower (a printer) entered a long train of throne. Some years ago a crusade was objections to the conduct of the Allied undertaken by the Powers of Europe Sovereigns. The Emperor of Austria. against the rights of man, and if the peo- had been as much the enemy of his counple went to war now it would be for the try as Bonaparte, and by breaking his same object. He denied that Louis the treaties, had shewn himself actuated by Eighteenth was the legitimate King of the same policy as his son-in-law. HavFrance. He was descended from Hugh ing contended that the French had the Capet, who forfeited the throne; the peo- right of making their own rules and rulers, ple having decreed that the Bourbons he gave his support to the resolutions. should cease to reign, none of that House Mr. Waithman made a reply. The resocould be called legitimate heirs to the lutions were then read and agreed to by crown. The people had not only the a large majority of hands. It was next right of dethroning kings, but of taking off agreed, that the resolutions should be emtheir heads, if they despised the laws. The bodied in a Petition to be presented to the people of England not only took off the House of Commons by the City Members. head of Charles the First, but drove the Mr. Waithman then moved the Thanks Stuarts from the throne. The Sovereigns of the Mecting to the Lord Mayor, for of England had since held their govern- his readiness in granting the Meeting, &c.; ment by law. They were legitimate sove- and the same being unanimously carried, reigns, but if they were to disobey the the Lord Mayor returned thanks. laws of the people they govern, and were Hunt then moved the Thanks of the Meetdeprived by the nation of their rights, they ing to Mr. Waithman, for the able manwould cease to be legitimate. The people ner in which he had conducted the busihad the sole and absolute right of electing ness of the day. Mr. Thompson seconded Mr. |