POLITICAL REGISTER-Right of Search. 6711 Admiral, or Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for the time being, in order that we, being apprized of such proceeding, may forthwith direct the necessary steps to be taken for obtaining redress from the Government to which such foreign ship of war shall belong, for the injury done to us by the unwarranted detention of our natural-born subjects in the service of a foreign State :And whereas it has further been represented unto us, that divers mariners and seafaring men, our natural born subjects, have been induced to accept letters of naturalization, or certificates of citizenship, from foreign states, and have been taught to believe that, by such letters or certificates, they are discharged from that duty of allegiance which, as our natural-born subjects, they owe to us; now we do hereby warn all such mariners, seafaring men, and others, our natural-born subjects, that no such letters of naturalization, or certificates of citizenship, do, or can, in any manner, divest our natural-born subjects of the allegiance, or in any degree alter the duty which they owe to us, their lawful Sovereign. But, in consideration of the error into which such mariners and seafaring men as aforesaid may have been led, we do hereby publish and declare our free pardon to all such our subjects, who, repenting of the delusion under which they have acted, shall immediately, upon ledge of this our Royal Proclamation, withdraw themselves from foreign services, and return to their allegiance, to us; and we do declare that all such our subjects, who shall continue in the service of the foreign states, in disregard and contempt of this our Royal Proclamation, will not only incur our just displeasure, but are liable to be proceeded against for such contempt, and shall be proceeded against accordingly; and we do hereby declare, that if any such masters of ships, pilots, mariners, seamen, shipwrights, or other seafaring men, being our naturalborn subjects, shall be taken in any foreign service by the Algerines, or other Barbary powers, and carried into slavery, they shall not be reclaimed by us as subjects of Great Britain. And we do further notify, that ail such our subjects as aforesaid, who have voluntarily entered, or shall enter, or voluntarily continue to serve on board of any ships of war belonging to any foreign State at enmity with us, are, and will be guilty of high treason; and we do by this our Royal Proclamation, declare, that they shall be punished with the utmost severity of the w-Given at our Court at the Queen's know [672 Palace, the 16th day of October, 1807, and in the 47th year of our reign.-GOD SAVE THE KING. COBBETT'S Parliamentary Debates. The Ninth Volume of the Parliamentary Debates, comprising the period from the 5th of March to the close of the First Session of the Fourth Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on the 14th of August, 1807, is ready for delivery. In the Appendix to this Volume will be found the First and Second Reports of the Committee of Finance, the Report on the Commercial State of the West Indies, and the Annual Accounts relative to the Finance and Commerce of Great Britain and of Ireland-documents which are not to be met with in any other work extant. Com plete sets from the coinmencement in 1803, may be had of the Publishers, and also of Mr. Archer, Bookseller, Dublin. COBBETT'S Parliamentary History OF ENGLAND, Which, in the compass of Sixteen Volumes, royal octavo, double columns, will contain a full and accurate Report of all the recorded Proceedings, and of all the Speeches, in both Houses of Parliament,from the earliest times to the year 1803, when the publication of "Cobbett's Par liamentary Debates" commenced. Vol. III. comprising the period from the Battle of Edge-bill in 1642 to the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, will be ready for delivery in December next. * * *The magnitude of the Paramentary History, the great labour and expense attending it, and the comparatively small number of copies, which, to avoid serious risk, it has been thought advisable to print, ren der it necessary, thus early, to adopt precautions calculated to prevent any broken sets remaining on hand at the conclusion of the work. A copy, therefore, of this Notification will be attached to, or delivered with, each copy of the THIRD Volume, and no person can be permitted to purchase the FOURTH Volume, unless he produce to the publisher the said Notification; which, and which only, will be considered as a sa. tisfactory proof of his having purchased the former Volumes. Printed by Cox and Baylis, No. 75, Great Queen Street, and published by R. Bagshaw, Brydges Street Covent Garden, where former Numbers may be had; sold also by J. Budd, Crown and Miue, Pall Mall VOL. XII. No. 18.] LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1807. [PRICE 10D. "But, amidst this exultation, I must confess, that I am continually haunted with fears, that, by-and-by, "all of a sudden, we shall find that this vigour is a momentary flash, and that, at bottom, these minislike all the former, for many years past, will be ready to give up the rights of their country, if they "should! find it necessary to the preservation of their places."- -POLITICAL REGISTER, Sept 19, 1807, page 426... ters, 673] SUMMARY OF POLITICS. AMERICAN STATES.As the King's Proclamation, lately issued, relates, as to its object, solely to the American States, it will be best to contique this title to the articles, wherein that famous document is treated ofSome remarks were, in the preceding number, offered upon the proclamation; but, after those remarks were written the demi-official defence of it has appeared in the Courier news-paper, which defence I shall, long as it is, first insert; because, not only is it fair to communicate to my readers what has been said on the side opposite to that which I take, but, it is useful to have such papers upon record, without which they could not, at any future period, be referred to. "As a difference to "of opinion seems to prevail with respect "to the late Proclamation issued by Go"vernment, it appears to be necessary "submit to the public the following obser"vations.In the first place, however, "it may not be improper to bestow a word or two upon those who have stopped to "criticise particular expressions in the Pro"clamation, and to whom the detection of "an inelegance of expression seems to have "afforded peculiar satisfaction. The words ""make to stay," which have shocked the ears of those delicate critics, will be found "in all the Proclamations which have been published for the last century. "They "are the words of our fathers, and the "children have not forgotten them." It 66 may serve too to abate the anger of these "critics to shew that the paragraph relative "to the Algerines has been invariably used "in all proclamations for recalling seamen "for the last 100 years. And surely it is not now so absurd a clause as it was dur 66 [674 knew the characters of their countrymen "they knew that the idea of bondage was worse than death; and that to hold out the probability of slavery without re "demption, was to present to the mind of "an Englishman a picture of intolerable misery. The late Proclamation has "been viewed as a concession to America, as an adjustment of the diferences with "America, as a sacrifice of the national "honor and security. We were informed yesterday, and with pleasure we heard it, "that the mercantile interest, conceiving "it to be a concession to America, were "displeased with it. With pleasure we "heard it, because it served to strengthen "us in the opinion we have ever maintain"ed, that the patriotism of the monied in"terest has not, as some simpletons have "told us, decreased in the ratio of the in us into concessions upon the question of "the search of their merchant ships. That "is their sore and tender point-they. "would, we have no doubt, abandon their objections to our searching their ships of war, or indeed give us up their ships of war, if we would consent to let their ""merchantmen pass unvisited and un"searched. But let us see how the ques Ꮓ 1 disputes would arise, and the principle "would be the fruitful source of acrimony, "vexation, and probably of War. We "have thus put the case, and shewed the "distinction between merchantmen and "ships of war. During the last century, nay, from the commencement of the "reign of King William, the instructions "to search ships of war were omitted. "Which of the two modes of proceeding "were to be followed-the former or the "latter the latter it may be said being "nearer our own times, was more likely to "be congenial to the present state of the "world (We beg here that we may not "be supposed to have abandoned our opi"nion with respect to the search of the Chesapeake it was a case sui generis"it stands by itself: there was great pre"vious provocation on the part of the Ame"ricans a daring defiance of our power"an overbearing insolence, accompanied "with declarations which we know to be false; the men had been paraded under our very poses and carried off in triumph on board the American). There are some, "who, in representing the proclamation as "a concession, seem to wish to have it un"derstood that ministers had ordered Ad"miral Berkeley to enforce the search of "American ships of war, but that, finding "the effect it had produced, they had since "revoked the order. The fact is, that it formed no part of Admiral Berkeley's orders or instructions-that it was his own act. But why, it may be asked, did "ministers bring forward the prohibition to " - operation, of the principle of our insisting "upon the right of searching ships of war "of neutral nations without allowing them "a reciprocal right. Let us put the case the other way, and suppose that we negociated upon the principle of allowing "the right of search of ships of war to be "reciprocal. We desire to visit and search "for British seamen, about six or eight "frigates, the whole of the American Navy; and to accomplish that desire, we are to allow the Americans to search our nine hundred sail, a sixth of which are shipssion of their determination to search mer"of the line! Are we to suffer an Ame"rican frigate to overhaul a British ship of " the line? We see the indignant countenances of our readers, at the bare suggestion of such an idea. How were mi"nisters to act then if they claimed the right for us, without allowing it to be reciprocal, they could not have in all places, at all times, a force that should "be so superior as to prevent the Americans from enforcing the search against us. Hence disputes and hostile proceedings "would certainly and perhaps not unfre " " search neutral ships of war so prominent"ly now? In the first place let it be re"collected that they accompanied that pro"hibition, with as prominent an expres chant ships. They wished, no doubt, to give notice to the American government, that they should make all questions relative "to the enticing or receiving British seamen "on board American ships of war, ques"tions as between government and govern "ment-that, according to the degree in which that system was adopted, they "would make it either the cause of re"monstrance, perhaps even of reprisal if "necessary, or even should the system be pertinaceously persisted in, of war.— "Every one must see that however govern "board merchant ships, they cannot be ig quently arise. If they claimed the rightments may be ignorant of what passes on "and allowed it to be reciprocal, they would, for the sake of searching six or eight frigates, yield up the whole Bri-But tish navy to an American search."it is represented as a concession to America as a new system upon which we are to act. During and before the 17th century, the instructions to our officers were to search all ships, without making any ་་ norant, and are therefore responsible for "the conduct adopted by their ships of war, the names of the officers in which, and the quality and description of their crews, cannot be unknown to them. "Ministers no doubt wished also to separate the two points of searching ships of war "and merchantmen, and to mark in a "broad and distinguished manner their de "termination not to abandon the right of "searching American merchantmen which swarm on the seas, and are perhaps as 500 to 1 when compared with the num"ber of their ships of war.-They might "desire too to prove to the American go"vernment, that whatever might be their feelings or determination with respect to "the affair of the Chesapeake, not the "smallest idea of making any sacrifice or " modification of the right of searching "merchant ships, entered into those feel"ings or that determination. When per ¢་ sons talk of concessions to America, let "them recollect that part of the proclama❝tion which relates to letters of naturali"zation, or certificates of citizenship from foreign states, and which lays down the "principle, that no such letters or certifi"cates shall or can divest British seamen of "their allegiance to their lawful sovereign. "This is the first time, we believe, that "this principle has been broadly laid down "in any proclamation.And now with "respect to the idea that this proclamation "is to be considered as conceding so much to the Americans, that the differences may be considered as adjusted between "the two countries. Ministers certainly "did not intend this prohibition to search "ships of war as any concession-they no " doubt weighed the subject maturely, and *they felt that they could not allow a reci " procal right without making the balance "of advantage infinitely on the side of "America. It is not by any means to be "considered as an adjustment of the dif "ferences with America-if it were, if the "American ministers had thought it so, why have not long ago the negociations "been brought to an amicable conclusion "in this country? It were impertinent "for us to pretend to know any thing of the progress of the negociations or of the "state in which they are; but as ministers "were no doubt ready long since to have com"municated to Mr. Munro or Mr. Pinck"ney their determination not to claim or enforce the right of searching ships of * war, the negociation would have, 'ere "this, terminated, had America resolved to " content herself with that determination? "Besides, if the proclamation could be "considered as tantamount to an adjustment " of the differences between the two countries, why, it may be asked, is Mr. "Rose going on a special mission to Ameri"ca? Of the nature of that mission we cannot, of course, know any thing, but "surely it requires no great sagacity to dis cover that it must have some relation to "the points in dispute between the two "countries. That the Americans will not "hazard a contest we have always been of "opinion; but we do not think by any means that the proclamation is to be con"sidered as any adjustment of our dif"ferences with them."-In order to get the rubbish out of the way, and to clear the ground whereon to remark upon the contents of this article, as a defence of the proclamation, we will first dispatch the concluding part of it, wherein we are asked, why, if the proclamation is to be consi"dered as an adjustment of the differences "with America, Mr. Rose is now sent up on a special mission thither?" Aye, why, indeed, is he sent thither, whether the proclamation is to be considered as an adjustment of the differences, or not? But, this question should be put to old George Rose and the rest of the set. We, who shall have to pay so dearly for the travels of the reversionary Clerk of the Parliaments, cannot tell, or guess, what use to us the mission can be of; and, it is most grossly insolent to produce as a proof, that the proclamation is wise and vigorous, that we are to pay for sending a man to America to explain it to the government of that country. One of the faults, that has been complained of, is, that the proclamation, while it evades and shuffles and blusters and whines, settles nothing; and, in answer to this complaint, which is a very heavy one, we are bid to look at a proof of the truth complained of, and, in that proof, to behold a considerable and lasting addition to our taxes.Taking the defence, now, in its due order, the verbal criticism is the first point that attracts our notice. The use of the phrase "make to stay" is justified upon the ground of their having been made use of heretofore upon all similar occasions; and then the defender breaks out in a sublime and pathetic quotation: "They are the words of our fathers, "and the children have not forgotten them." What make to stay? Oh, the wonderful merit of having remembered that noble saying of our fathers, make to stay! Nay more, " stop and make to stay"! Oh! dear, glorious, and ever-memorable words, the blessed bequest of our gallant fathers!-But, there were other words of our fathers," which this defender and his clients seem to think. may as well be pretty completely forgotten. Our fathers, for instance, contended, and maintained, that England had a real sovereignty of the sea; that the sea, round about her even to all the opposite shores, was her own; that she had a right to de 66 the proclamation. But, we are told, that there is no concession to the Americans; that we have not claimed the right of searching neutral ships of war; and that, therefore, we give nothing up now. Afterwards, indeed, it is acknowledged, that during and before the 17th century, we did claim and exercise this right; but that, we have aban¬ doned it since; and, that now," it was more proper to follow the practice of the age "nearest us, as more likely to be congenial "to the present state of the world." Away goes, then, in the twinkling of an eye, all the high talk about raising ourselves to the extraordinary circumstances of the times; about, resorting to our "ancient and indu"bitable rights upon the seas, which rights "had been suffered to be dormant, when 66. thereon whatever any one had to do upon | origin of this mean and shuffling defence of lands that were his exclusive property; amongst the rules for the exercising of her dominion thereon, one was, that her ships of war should, when they saw occasion, search the ships of war of neutral nations, for English seamen; and, when her ships of war did make such search, producing a complaint from neutral nations, the answer which our fathers" gave was, "such is and always has been our right, and, by God, we will maintain it." These, too, as will be seen by searching the records of the English admiralty, were the words of our fathers; and, I imagine, the reader will think them full as worthy of being remem-bered as the words "stop and make to stay," the simplicity of which, when hashed up with the modern half-poetry half-prose of the "Captain" of Eton, produces an effect somewhat like that which would arise upon seeing lord Erskine of Clackmannan in the ruff and beard of Sir Thomas More, or the Duke of York in the long-skirted coat and jack-boots of Buonaparte.-As to the declaration relative to those British seamen, who, after voluntarily entering into the service of foreign states, shall be captured and held in slavery by the kings of Africa, there is not, that I can perceive, any other objection to it than its splenetic appearance. It forms one, of a list of threats; which threats are all against the defenceless, while nothing is distinctly threatened against any party that can reasonably be supposed ever to possess the capacity of self-defence. This writer says, that he heard with pleasure, that the people in the city were displeased at the proclamation, as containing the expression of a sacrifice of our national rights; and, that his pleasure arose from the reflection, that this was a proof of the truth of what he before believed, namely, that thepatriotism of the monied interest had not, as some simpletons aver, decreased with the increase of wealth." Now, first, I disbelieve the fact. I do not believe, that what this writer calls the "monied interest," and from the dawn of which interest we may date the decline of England, were at all displeased with the proclamation; and, if they were, I should be inclined to attribute their displeasure to any thing but patriotism. The truth is, that they never think upon subjects of this sort but as the questions and measures affect themselves. They have had no feeling at all connected with the proclamation; and the contrary is merely supposed for the purpose of paying a compliment to them, which purpose, were there no concurrentestiy sufficiently shows the Of Europe was balanced as to power;" away. goes all this, at once, and we are now told, that the settled practice during the last hundred years is quite sufficient for all our purposes! Just the thing for the present state of the world!It is, however, false to say, that we ever till now abandoned the right. To search all neutral ships for British sailors has always formed part of the instructions to all our naval commanders. course, they formed part of Admiral Berkeley's instructions, and he did nothing with-. out due authority, except offering the Americans permission to search his ships. This right is now abandoned; and, at what time is it abandoned? Why, at the moment when the Americans have in force a proclamation depriving us of all the benefits which we enjoyed under our treaty of amity with them; at the moment when they are engaged in the commission of an hostile act against us; at a moment when they are doing us all the harm which it is, under any circumstances, in their power to do us; at a moment when they are excluding our ships of war from their ports, and receiving with open arms those of our enemy, while, on our side, we have taken no one step in the way of retaliation; at this moment it is, that our ministers come out with a proclamation, conceding the point upon which the hostile, proclamation of America solely arose, and making that concession the basis of negocia tion as to other points. And this they call vigour !Great stress is, however, laid upon the explicitly expressed determination not to recede from the right of searching merchant ships. That is to say, that they have not given up that which the Americans did not ask them to give up. There is, indeed, an insinuation in another defence of, this proclamation, that the Americans have |