"present, nor could be for a moment con sent, that after a beneficent reign of near"ly half a century, such an attack should "be made upon the pterogative and influence softa beloved and revered monarch; LORD HOLLAND said, as the poble vis4 count had began his speech by stating that there was only one point in the "speech of his noble friend (the earl of "Lauderdale), in which he agreed, so he "would observe, that there was only one "point in the speech of the noble viscount ~"in which he had the good fortune to agree, and that was, that his majesty's minis*ters ought to have been present to have declared their sentiments in a manly man*her upon this bill. As to the charge "madel by the noble viscount, of the ab sence of the members of the late admi"nistration, be could assure their lord ships, that, had there been the least expectation that this bill would be oppo "sed, there would have been a full attend"ance of those noble lords, with whom he 66 had the honour to act. But when it was recol"lected that only four-and-twenty hours no"tice had been given of any intention to op"pose this bill (he did not mean to throw any imputation upon the noble lord who had commenced this debate), there was not much ground for surprise at the thin at"tendance. He thought it, however, of "so much importance that this bill should be debated in a full house, that he in *tended to move to adjourn the debate till "to morrow, in order to give an opportu "nity for that full attendance, which the importance of the subject demanded. "After the bill had been nearly a month "before the house, without appearing to "meet with any objection, he was astonish"ed that it should now be attempted to be "debated in a thin house, and at so late a "period of the session. His noble friends interested in this bill, which he contended it was, and he begged leave"to say that he thought the noble viscount "in denying the existence of this públic feeling was mistaken. He was convinced that if ministers thought that the rejection of this measure would not be an unpopular measure, they would find themselves miserably mistaken. He denied that the bill was an encroachment upon the just "prerogative of the crown, on the contrary, "the granting in reversion was an encroach ર ment "subject he would put the case, which subje upon that prerogative, and upon this "though an extreme one, would shew the "tendency of the argument, amely, that "of all the offices being granted in reversion, it would necessarily follow, that the successor to the crown would find himself deprived of all influence. Reversions, besides, had a tendency to render the offices themselves sinecures, and sinecures were again granted in reversion: then reversions begat sinecures, and sinecures begat reversions. It might be true that, by the operation of this bill in itself, nothing would be saved; but when it was considered as the first step to other measures, it must be viewed i to other very "ent light; and although there might be considerable exaggeration as to the saving which it was possible to effect, yet, at the present moment, every sixpence and every halfpenny ought to be saved, in order to lighten, as much as possible, the burdens of the people. There might, perhaps, be a popular delusion upon this subject; but even that was an argument, cat a crisis like the present, for agreeing to "this bill. He did not conceive, however, "that a bill of so much importance should “be decided upon in so thin a house, and " he should therefore move, that the debate "be adjourned till to-morrow,boniq dɔna "The EARL OF LAUDERDALE again re**ferred to his majesty's speech at the close "of the last session, his majesty's speech at "the opening of the present session, and to "the votes of the house of commons, con-. "taining the Resolution on which the pre sent bill was founded; and contended "that his majesty's speeches contained a full approval of this measure. had not attended, because they thought "there was no intention of opposing the "bill; he was convinced they would attend "if the consideration of the bill was post"poned till to morrow. He entirely agreed "with his noble friend (earl Grosvenor), "that this bill was only to be considered as "the forerunner of important measures of reform and economy in the public expendi" "ture of the country. When it was in contemplation to abolish or to regulate offices, it' was natural as the first step to be "taken, to prevent those offices being granted in reversion, because if they were "it was obvious that for a considerable time "no regulation could be applied to them. "It was therefore that the public feeling 66 LORD VISCOUNT MELVILLE again con"tended that his majesty's speeches only "contained an approval of the general.bb "ject of the Committed of Financeblnew "The EARL OF SELKIRK approved of the "bill, upon the principle that it was to be considered as the forerunner of other great “ and important measures) I 02 Amped ɔvad vodě indi (993 boy : nob » Form And with this they would hate deceived thousands upon thousands of wellmeaning mens du panas & Trave LORD BORINGDON expressed his regret at differing from many noble lords with whom he usually acted; but when he considered that this bill had been sup-Ford Melville compared the place holders ported by, ministers, had passed the other house, and had been received with nearly an unanimous consent, added to the circumstances of the present moment, he felt it his duty to vote for it, After this, the noble Lords divided, as it is called, nine noble Lords voting for Lord Holland's motion, and sixteen noble Lords against it; so that the bill, by a subsequent division, was thrown out. to Admirals and Generals, who have merited me toms inwards.... !!...). £1,900 a year. Lord Hawkesbury, Warden of the 9015 Cinque Ports.. na.... Coro 4,100, Earl of Chichester, Surveyor Gen, of customs.. Earl of Guildford, Comptroller of cus toms ..... Lord Stawell, Surveyor of Petty cus toms 1,400 £1,300 1,200 1,900 Duke of Manchester, Collector of Granted in reversion to Lord Frederick Montague." The above are custom-house officers for thing is this commerce! But, more of that the port of London alone. What a noble wm. H. Cooper hereafter. Let us proceed with our list: Lone of the auditors Į £2,100 It will not be necessary, Gentlemen, to say much to you upon this subject You will have perceived, that, out of about three hundred noble Lords, there were only 25 no ble Lords present upon this occasion. The Morning Chronicle has given a list of the places, which are held by the noble Lords, who voted against this bill, but I shall give no such list, nor any list at all of the majo rity or the minority; for, as to motives, I believe every noble Lord of them is ani mated by such as are equally pure and upright, however the said noble Lords may, under existing circumstances," entertain, or act upon, sentiments widely different. It is, however, worthy of notice, that the fear of depriving the successor of the king of all influence from the granting of places, was openly avowed; and, I have heard, that this anwas the principal, if not the only motive, from which the late ministers introduced the bill, though, it must be observed, that this does not very well agree with the idea of economy, as connected with the bill for preVenting grants in reversion: The truth is, that, if economy had been the object, the bill would have been of a different descrip stion. It would have enacted, that such and such places, when the present holderlied, -chould be abolished, and the expences of them put an end to. This would have been doing something; but, if we are to be taxed to pay the holders of these places, what is it to you or me, whether the holders sof them are appointed by the present king, ior by his successor? Loud Holland, after Lord Grosvenor,qaregarded the bill as the forerunners of a series of reforms Such reformisy would have been. I imaginel of but viver dittiça services to ashey would, in dɗacts have been injurious for while they would have afforded us moreál relief, they would have served to amusedgnorant ped-ow The fees of these are not stated beruma sople, and would have afforded desytophtois amit sidste role fifth stemraw 11 of office) grounds whereon to defend their dored at about £3066o aa1ƒà§1ƒ3 ** patrons. Here, would they have, said, filost een ofthe others at about don't you see, that they have begun to re£20,000 a year; and, as one and Frederick Grey Cooper et Gen Fox, Paymaster of widows wo To fall to the survivor. had survived his brother, Gen. Fox, Receiver of issues, &c. 90 and the Hon. G. James Fox for Lord Alen Mr. Perceval's brother) -300 18,940 George Rose, Clerk of the Parliaments 3,790: El Bathurst of the salary 2351 POLITICAL REGISTER -place was granted in reversion, It fell, when Lord Thurlow died, to a ton of Lord Auckland, 11the name of whichison is War ort of and InFEaEdenanje of eidem sie youtu Thomas Steele King's Remembran cer lide £870 Duke of St. Alban's, Master of the 16 59 This is giantsinsperponity, that is to say, for rad poen. bra I take these from an account laid before the Honourable House in Letter to the [236 called " omnipotent" that the parliament: which has been described as having a right to do every thing, which it is able to do, every thing which is not naturally impossi ble; that this parliament has no right to take from any man the present or reversionary: enjoyment of one of these places! This was the doctrine of the man, whom, for so many years, you elected as one of your representatives! And, what is still more provoking, not the Scotch list immedia02, I have for the loss of whom you are called upon to at band, or I would give you some account of the places and reversions of the Dundases and Melvilles. This little specimen will, however, d afford you the means of judging as to how far the holders of the places, which we have been talking of, ought to be compared with Admirals and Generals, who have rendered important services to their country. Since the bill was thrown out by the noble Lords, the Hon. House of Commons have come to a resolution to address the king not to grant any places in reversion, until six weeks after the commencement of the next session of parliament. It is pity the two houses should have any disagreement; it would be quite useless; it would answer no purpose; but, I am satisfied, that whatever seeming disagreement there might be between them, we, the people, should remain convinced, that they were both animated by motives equally pure and upright." I have observed, that cases may arise, when it is just and proper to entail rewards upon the families of others than soldiers or seamen; but these cases t be rare for, ses inust let it be remembered, that, in the civil offices, the salaries, are very great compared to the pay of the officers in the army and the navy. In these latter services, too, a whole life is devoted, besides, the first purchase of the commission. In fact, the cases are altogether different, and will bear no comparison. Having thus endeavoured clearly to lay before you the nature of the offres in question, and the tendency of the bill which has been, thrown out by the noble Lords, I shall leave you to ruminate upon the matter, and to, come to such a conclusion as your good sense, shall dictate. I cannot help, however, requesting you to bear in mind, that I have nda proved to you, that Mr. Fox was a sive spinesman all his life long and Parliament, that the pro such places was as ey act of parliament, y house or land! In anent, which, as respect purposes, has been weep! Nay, upon ground of In my next letter, which will probably be inserted in the same sheet with this, I propose to address you upon a subject of a very different nature. In the mean while, I remain, Gentlemen, . for The subject, upon which I have now to address you, is, the dispute between England and the American States, of which, a doubtless, all of you have heard much; but,b as it is probable, that many of you have hot!: the leisure to examine very minutely inta the origin and grounds of the dispute, or to g reflect maturely upon the consequences, to which it may lead trust you will not think I it impertinent in me to offer you such observations as occur to me, relating to a matter with respect to which the people ought to be well-informed. As It has long been a complaint, on the part a of England, that the American ships, in all parts of the world, serve as a place offere fuge for deserters from the British navyot We claim a right to take our deserters whereever we find them, upon the seas; and this! right, though not, in my opinion, rigorously enough, we have exercised We claim also a right to take our seamen, whether deserters: or not, from on board the ships of any other nation, when we find such ships at seal hav ipg, as, I hope, we shall maintain, a right of dominion over the sea as far as we may judge it necessary to exercise that dominion for the preservation of our independence as a people. The Americans, in order to evade these our claims, have fallen upon a device quite novel in the affairs of nations. They have enacted, that any man, be he born where he may, becomes a citizen of the United States from the moment that he gets what they call a certificate of citizenship from some one or other of their magistrates; and, having asserted this to be the law of nations, they represent as an outrage our taking of our men in spite of these miserable bits of paper. Endless disputes have arisen from this source ; and, when we consider how difficult it is, in some cases, to dis tinguish between an American and an Englishman, we cannot wonder at such dis putes; but, as I shall endeavour to prove to you, the right of searching cannot, on our part, be given up without giving up that su periority at sea, which alone can give us, under any set of rulers at home, even a chance of remaining an independent people. A The immediate cause of quarrel, how ever, is of a nature somewhat different. ship of war, of ours, lying near Norfolk, in Virginia, had occasion to send some of her men on shore. These men desert. The officers are forbidden, by the civil authority, to take them. Some of them enter on board an American 44 gun frigate, called the Chesapeak. Admiral Berkeley, our chief naval commander upon the station, gives his several captains an order to demand the men from the Chesapeak, as soon as she shall be out at sea, and, if refused, to search for them by force. The Leopard, a 50 gun ship, commanded by Captain Humphreys, makes the demand. It is refused by Captain Barron, the American commander. Some shots of mare menace are fired a-head by the Leopard; these are returned in battle by the Chesapeak, this brings a broadside from the Leopard, which the Chesapeak returns with some shots badly fired; but, a second broadside from the Leopard brings down the American flag; the frigate is searched, the men are taken out, the Leopard keeps the sensand the Chesapeak, with several men killed and wounded, returns to port. The American President, issues a proclamation forbidding our ships of war all communica tion with the land (which is, observe, a yiolation fof our treaty with America) and in this proclamation be asserts, that the men. claimed by us had been proved to be Americans and ubt British subjects. of 166 1 Thus the matter stands at present The English-skating party in America raging with fury against us, evidently not so much on account of any injustice on our part, as on account of the severe rebuke which their ar rogance has received in its being made known to the world, that, after all their boasting, they are unable to stand a moment against British ships of war. At first they asserted, that the Chesapeak was quite unprepared for action; that her cables were lying across her guns; that her decks were covered with stores; and that her powder was out to dry, having some. how or other, got damp. All this was quite incredible; but, the Americans themselves, in their rage against poor Captain Barron, have told the truth. They have now said, that every thing was in perfect readiness for action, and that the guns were loaded, before the Chesapeak left the port. The fact is, that it was want of skill and discipline, and want of the confidence, which those give, which prevented Captain Barron from making such resistance as a British commander, under similar circumstances, would have made The commander of a British vessel, so acting, would have been shot; but, it does not follow, that Captain Barron, though a great boaster, was a coward, and, if the truth were known, I dare say it would appear, that, with such a crew, no man could have fought the ship for ten minutes. Having thus, Gentlemen, given you a brief history of the dispute, I shall now offer you my observations upon it, which, I think, cannot be done so well in any other way as in answering an article, which has been published in an excellent weekly paper, called the Independent Whig, which article I shall first insert for your perusal, premising only, that I presume that you love. your country better than any other country, and that because the grubs and muck-worms : injure your corn, you would not, for that reason, let down the fences and invite the hogs and the cattle to trample it under foot, or devour it : "We, who profess to have no political "attachments but what emanate from the "true spirit of liberty and a love of truth, "cannot forbear expressing the surprize which we feit upon reading in Mr. Cob "bett's Register of Saturday, the 1st of Aug, under the head "American States, an avowal on the part of that writer, that he was very sorry to hear Mr. Perceval say in the House of Commons what seems led to indicate a decided disposition to yield; "and to add that, if they do yield, if they follow the advice of the Morning Chronicle, our navy will not be long-lived "We have neither leisure nor room in our present number to enter into this dicusssion with Mr. Cobbett, but, as in our 3 last number we in a manner under the *head Summary of Politics, maintained nearly the same ground upon this subject, which we consider was soundly and properly conveyed through the Morning Chronicle of Tuesday week last, (much as we generally execrate that Journal, we "must agree with it in truth,) we deem ourselves bound at least to enter our decided protest both against the propriety of the rebuke thus conveyed in this para"graph by Mrs Cobbett, and the general principle he contends for. We unequivocally declare, that, in our judgments, nothing can authorise such conduct as that which is reported to have been the "conduct of the commander of the Leopard, but a spirit of usurpation, and a gross despotic stride of power. Equity revolts against such a species of tyranny "being assumed by any single state over that of any other; and, as to the law of "nations, no such power has been ever conceded. With respect to the argu. ment, attempted by Mr. Cobbett, “that, "if we permit the Americans to inveigle ❝ and detain our seamen, we cannot have a navy; the Americans would in fact re*cruit for France, and England would be "beaten by our own seamen." The absur S "Mr. Cobbett has heaped upon the people of America, in rica, in saying, the Americans "are like the worst set of women; they will set up a terrible outcry, they will beat Adm. Berkeley in lungs; but, if we keep a firm foot, they will soon listen to reason:" or the remainder of his coarse lin"yective applied to Captain Barron and his frigate, whom he elegantly and classically "terms a swaggering blade, &c.; swe consider it quite sufficient, unless we are farther called upon, to mark this kind of Janguage with the expression of our decided contempt, whether we read it in Mr. Cobbett's Register or Mr. Perry's "Chronicle. We deprecate the propriety “་ of reflections upon the courage of a peo"ple, whose bravery, when struggling for "their rights and independence, has already "been proved invincible; and as to the right of insulting their flag with impunity, and "forcibly to demand the privilege of searching their ships of war, even under the certainty of their containing British seamen, we insist upon it to be a right unsupported by any principle of equity, and that can only be maintained in 'argument by the same species of violence that it has been attempted to be enforced by the com"mander of the Leopard, viz. by a thundering assertion or a thundering broad"side. If these are the principles of liberty Mr. Cobbett would teach the British peo ple, he must excuse us from becoming his disciples. Our ideas of liberty are to tolerate that in others, we claim as a right ourselves, and to repel every species of assumption of power not founded in equity and justice as derogalory to humanity and inimical to the natural rights of civilized society. As he one British seaman will be found on board "an inerican, we believe, FIFTY AME" "RICANS ( say nothing of Swedes, every "Danes, Portuguese, and almosh board "other country) are to be found on board **British ships of war j andry. if this great tenacity is really necessity for the maintenance of the diguity of England, why, we would ask Mr. Cobbett, may not. every power that is left in Europe, and which remains neuter, feel the same lena"city and claim the same privilege? We "cannot, in EQUITY, see the distinction; 68 therefore, we repel the doctrine-With respect to the insinuation about the British seamen, we consider it an outrageous imputation upon their LOYALTY that nothing can justify; and, if symptoms of an evil so tremendous were ever to occur, "the remedy would always be in the hands ཝ of the ministry, seasonably to remonStrate, but not with the fire of broadsides. "We will not here attempt a refutation of "what we conceive the unmerited abuse to Captain Barron. He seems to have done only his duty, and, under the circumstances in which he was placed, to have acted with exemplary moderation and humanity; how far the epithet of swag"gering blade, therefore, justly applies to him, it remains for the calmer reasoningpowers of Mr. Cobbett to substantiate. We like not coarse and harsh epithets at any time, still less when there does hot exist any thing in the shape of provocation to justify them. National prejudices are at all times unbecoming the true friend of liberty; he looks to principles and not to men, and scorns to justify the perpetration of that by one government helwould condemn the practice of in anothery Ame"ricans, Frenchmen; and all other countries, have an equal right to liberty with En"glishúner;" and "it is high time depotism |