on timber. In the first place. it would have the effect of raising the price of Irish timber; and secondly, it would in effect be a declaration of hostility against America: at this time much to be regretted. He paid his tribute of applause to the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Perceval), for the assistance which he had rendered to Ireland on the present occasion, which he took as the commencement of further benefits, which would ultimately be beneficial to the empire at large by conciliating that country. At the same time he could not avoid observing, that the ministers ever since the union were totally pledged to Ireland, they had entered into a compact to protect that country, which compact had invariably been broken. Mr. Foster assured the honourable gentleman that he never had said that the export of live cattle was advantageous to Ireland. He was disposed to withdraw any of his taxes if the honourable gentleman would substitute better in their stead. After some observations in explanation from sir J. Newport, Mr. Shaw, and Mr. Foster, the resolutions were severally read and agreed to. The house resumed, and the report was ordered to be received to-morrow. An Inquiry into the state of our relations with France. O foolish Israel! never warned by ill, DRYDEN. IN the first number of this work, we examined in detail the history of our relations with the French government, from the date of the enactment, until that of the pretended revocation, of the Berlin and Milan decrees. Agreeably to our original design, the same subject should have been pursued chronologically, and discussed at large, in our second and third Numbers. Such, moreover, as we are informed, was the expectation of the public, to whose favour we are extensively indebted, and whose wishes we are, on this and every other account earnestly disposed to gratify. In resuming this topic, we should not, however, think it necessary to assign the reasons of the intermission which has occurred, did they not form a very natural and suitable introduction, to the opinions and arguments we mean presently to urge. The chief cause, then, of the silence we have maintained, in relation to the proceedings of our government, during the last session of congress, was, -literally and truly, the supreme and we may say, paralizing disgust which they occasioned;the deep and overwhelming sense of shame, with which they inspired us as citizens of the American commonwealth. Contempt and indignation, however strong and stimulating, are not always of force to obtain utterance, when accompanied by VOLA IH 2 B lively feelings of humiliation and sorrow. The mind involuntarily shrinks within itself, and recoils from the task, of narrating or stigmatizing baseness and folly, in the disgrace of which it is condemned to share. In the month of April last we took up the pen, fully resolved to review the transactions of the house of representatives, and the course taken by the administration, during the term above mentioned; but in contemplating narrowly this tissue of tragical absurdities, so strong was the nausea which it excited, that we were utterly unable to proceed. The more faithful the picture, -the more complete the disclosure, which might have resulted from the successful accomplishment of our undertaking, the more distressing would have been our sensations. That which was said of a general of antiquity, reluctantly victorious over the troops of an ungrateful country, might be applied to a patriotic writer, in a case like the present, Et dolet iratas tam valuisse manus. We have always entertained the opinion, that it is far from • being the duty of a good citizen, in ordinary circumstances, to emblazon the follies, or to publish even the vices of his government. There are temporary weaknesses, -occasional obliquities, transgressions on the part of the state, which should be considered by him in the light of family-secrets, and which it is scarcely less than treasonable wantonly to reveal. To proclaim officiously, from motives of personal resentment, or with a view to personal advantage, what tends to degrade the national character, is worse than mere indiscretion, and the very opposite of public virtue. It is, likewise, for the most part bad policy in the satirist; for the general good of the community is the particular interest of every individual, and the national disgrace suffered more or less in solidum, by all the members of the republic. These considerations had their full weight with us, when we undertook, in our first volume, to expose the dishonourable pusillanimity of our administration, in their deportment towards France, and conspired with the sentiments of disgust of which we have spoken, to occasion the subsequent suspension of our labours with respect to the same point. We experienced in the outset, what we still feel;-the bitterest reluctance at joining openly in that harsh sentence of reprobation, which we think every impartial and reflecting man, both at home and abroad, must inwardly pronounce, on the character and conduct of those, to whom we have confided the public weal. But, if the doctrine stated in the preceding paragraph be sound, and worthy of attention, there is another applicable to our case, of much higher moment, and the prevailing influence of which, has enabled us to overcome every obstacle, to that unrestrained expression of our opinions and feelings, in which we shall hereafter indulge. Under such a government as this of the United States, it may happen, that the majority of the rulers are in fact "men without honour, without energy "and without just notions of policy;" uniformly the sport of the blindest prejudices, and incurably deficient in political wisdom; that impelled by the worst passions, they have brought the state to the verge of irretrievable ruin; that no hope of safety remains for it but in their exclusion from office, and a total revolution of system; that the most efficacious means of accomplishing this object, is to paint in vivid colors, to the people, the conduct of those who employ the power vested in them, only to the disgrace of the American name, and to the destruction of the public interests. In a conjuncture like the one here supposed, all delicacy is fastidious, and un-. seasonable. Every consideration of tenderness must be waived. A true friend of the country, whose pursuits admit of the effort, will proceed to urge the abuses prevailing in the administration of the public affairs, with all the energy of enlightened attachment, and all the vehemence of honest indignation. Whatever temporary loss of reputation, the nation may then suffer, by a full exposition of the demerits of her rulers, is chargeable upon them alone. While we were rendered, from the cause we have assigned, almost incapable of resuming in our two last numbers, the subject of our foreign relations, we felt indeed, no great anxiety to enter upon it at so early a period. It appeared to us even advisable to postpone the discussion, until the gross imposture of the revocation of the anti-commercial decrees, had made itself fully apparent even to the most credulous. We were confident, that this must be the case, at no very distant era, and that the predictions on the subject contained in our first Number, would be completely verified in the sequel. Our readers may recollect that we represented this measure of Bonaparte in the twofold character, of a device to relieve the immediate necessities of his exchequer, une piece de circonstance, and of a snare to entangle the United States in his atrocious league against Great Britain. We asserted that notwithstanding the counterfeit repeal, the spirit of trade would not be suffered to revive on the continent of Europe;-that its movements would be but little quick ened, and that our merchants would reap no solid advantage, whatever might be the alacrity or simplicity with which their government received the mock embraces of the tyrant.* We know not, indeed, who it is of the description of attentive and sagacious observers, that does not see in the present condition of affairs, a complete confirmation of all that we have heretofore advanced on this subject. The reverse, however, is still maintained among us, from the obstinacy of party-feelings in some, the treacherous spirit of faction in others, and the force of credulity with many, who are so far the dupes either of their own eager wishes, or of bold assertions, as to be insensible to the testimony of experience. We would nevertheless, willingly have remained silent somewhat longer, knowing that every succeeding day would bring additional evidence in favour of our opinions. We still cherished, moreover, a faint hope that our administration, who had to employ a familiar metaphor of Bolingbroke-swallowed the bait with so much avidity, would not continue voluntarily to hang upon the hook, after they discovered the nature, and began to feel the evils, of the deceрtion practised upon them. But we are left without option, by the near approach of that portentous catastrophe which, as we originally stated, the letter of the duke of Cadore was, by his master, especially intended, and from the congenial policy of our administration, directly calculated to produce. When we undertook to explain the true spirit of the transaction, we foretold the uses to which it would be applied, by the demagogues of the predominant party, and the fatal consequence to which it might lead. The activity of the evil has, however, outstripped our calculation; and the zeal exerted by our Executive, of whose dispositions we never had a doubt, -in seconding the designs of Bonaparte, has proved to be more ardent and speedily efficacious, than we could readily have imagined. We are brought perhaps to the verge of a war with Great Britain, or rather,-to name the heaviest of the calamities which can fall upon us, -to that of a close alliance with France. It is impossible to look back without shame and indignation, upon the means by which we have been hurried to this awful extremity, or to look forward without horror and dismay to the evils with which we are menaced. This prospect it is, which forces us to an immediate attempt, if it be not now too late, to divert the people of this country, from a career of certain destruction. The mode in which we shall interpose our humble powers for the attainment of this end will be, to discuss again the question of the repeal of the *P. 72. 1 vol. A. Review. |