dure restraint as a pain, but not as a pe- been long most unjustly detained; but nalty. I staid long enough to be certain I judged it better to endeavour to that my persecutors were conscious of their injustice; and to feel that my submission to their unmerited inflictions was Josing the dignity of resignation, and sinking into the ignominious endurance of an insult. "Gentlemen; if it had not been for the commotion excited by that obnoxious, injurious, and arbitrary measure, the Corn Bill, which began to evince itself on the day of my departure from prison, (which was on the anniversary of my escape from similar oppression at Malta four years before,) I should have lost no time in proceeding to the House of Commons: bat conjecturing that the spirit of disturbance might derive some encouragemeat from my unexpected appearance at that time, and having no inclination to promote tumalt, I resolved to defer my appearanceat that House, and, if possible, to conceal my departure from the Prison, until the order of the Metropolis should be restored. I had, however, been out but a few days when I received intimation that a Committee of the House of Commons appointed to enquire into the state of the Prison, had discovered that I was absent. Conceiving that they would communicate the circumstance, and anxions to obviate any false impressions as to my motives and intentions, I immediately addressed the following Letter to the Speaker, which I fully expected he would have read to the House: London, March, 9, 1815. "Sir: I respectfully request that you will state to the Honourable the House of Commons, that I should immediately and personally have communicated to them my departure from the custody of Lord Ellenborough, by whom I have conceal my absence, and to defer my appearance in the House until the public agitation excited by the Corn Bill, should subside. And I have further to request that you will also communicate to the House that it is my intention on an early day to present myself for the purpose of taking my seat, and moving an Inquiry into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough.-I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, COCHRANE." "Gentlemen: If the Right Honourable the Speaker had thought proper to comply with my request; if he had read my Letter to the House, as he afterwards read that which he received from the Marshal of the King's Bench, relative to my apprehension; the scandalous reports which appeared in the hireling Journals, attributing my conduct to criminal or contemplative motives, could not have been invented or propagated. "I did not go to the House of Commons to complain about losses or sufferings; about fine or imprisonment; or of property to the amount of ten times the fine, of which I have been cheated by this malicious Prosecution. I did not go to the House to complain of the mockery of having been heard in my defence, and answered by a reference to that Decision from which that Defence was an Appeal. I did not go there to complain of those who expelled me from my Profession: for if I could have stooped to the Enemies of my Coun try at home, I might still have been instrumental in humbling its Enemies abroad. I did not go to the House to complain, generally, of the Advisers of the Crown: but I went there to complain of the conduct of him Printed and Published by G, HOUSTON: No. 192, Strand; where dl Communications addressed to the Editor, are requested to be forwarded. VOL. XXVII. No. 16.] LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1815. [Price 1s. 481 TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. [482 "want to force the French to put down On the approaching War against France." their present chief." That is to say, The last war against France swelled the annual taxes on account of the National Debt from 9 millions of pounds to 41 millions of pounds; it caused, besides this, 600 millions of pounds to be raised, during the war, in other taxes; it has reduced us to such a state, that, even in peace, loans were become necessary, besides taxes almost as heavy as in time of war. Such, in short, in a pecuniary view, were the effects of that war, that the government found it expedient to resort to a Corn-Bill, in order to raise and keep up the price of the first necessary of life, that the Owners and Tillers of the soil might be able to pay the taxes which that government wanted to pay the interest of the Debt and to maintain the military establishments. we, modest people! do not wish, God forbid! to interfere in the internal affairs of France; we do not wish to force a chief upon her; but, she having a chief whom we do not like, we will make war upon her, until she put him away. That is all! Our modesty will not let us go an inch further. These facts being undeniable, have we not reason to dread the consequences of ther war against France? Ought we to run head-long into such a war? I have, in my four last Numbers, strenuously laboured to prevent this calamity; but, I now really begin to fear, that the wishes of the enemies of peace and freedom may finally prevail. The Income or Property Tax is again to be brought forward, and, if the news-papers be correct, on the same principle as before. The Alien Act is again to be proposed, if we are to rely upon the same sources of information. In short, if the accounts of proceedings in Parliament be true, we shall very soon be thrown back to the state of 1813 as to expence, and to 1793 as to principle of action. In order that you may clearly see what is the light, in which the French government view the matter, I shall subjoin to this address the Official Documents published in France, relative to it. In these you will find the answer, which France gives to all her enemies. Here you will find a clear description of the grounds, on which she rests. The first document contains an answer to the charges against her and her chief; the second contains the reasons for her preparing for her defence. To these documents I have prefixed the memorable Declaration of the Allies, dated at Vienna on the 13th of March. This was the first stone hurled at the French nation. A careful perusal, and an occasional reference, to these Docu ments, will keep fresh in the memory of every man the REAL CAUSES of the war, if war should now take place. The Borough-faction, who are now crying out for war through the columns of our vile news-papers, tell us, that we cannot live in safety, while Napoleon is at the head of the government of France. This has, under all changes, been their cry for the last 22 years. We could not live at peace with the National Assembly. We could have no peace and safety with the Convention. We could not have peace In my late Numbers I have, I think, and safety with the Corsuls. We could very clearly shown, that, if we now make have no peace and safety with the Emwar upon France, it will be out of the peror before; no, nor can we have it power of any human being to dispute the with him now. The BOURBONS: these fact; that the war, on our part, is a war are the people, with whom alone our of aggression, and of aggression, too, of Borough-faction think they can enjoy the most odious and intolerable kind, sex-peace. We must, therefore, depose Napo ing that even its openly professed object leon: yes, as we deposed Mr. MADISCO must be to force a government, or a chief, The peace of Europe and the world; d upon France. It is said: "No: we only especially our own safety, require, tha Q told, this deposition. But, just so we were and social relations; and that as an enetold in the case of Mr. Madison. "Nomy and disturber of the tranquillity of the "peace! No peace! No peace with JAMES world he has rendered himself liable to "MADISON!" was the cry of this faction. public vengeance. They declare at the Down with him! Send Duke Wellington! same time, that firmly resolved to mainKill! kill! kill! Keep killing; keep bom-tain entire the Treaty of Paris of the barding; keep burning; keep on till James 30th May, 1814, and the dispositions sancMadison be deposed; 'till that "rebel tioned by that Treaty, and those which and traitor;" 'till that "mischievous ex- they have resolved on, or shall hereafter "ample of the success of democratic re- resolve on, to complete and to consolidate "bellion be destroyed." They said our it, they will employ all their means, and work was but half done, 'till this was ac- will unite all their efforts; that the genecomplished; and, they have become al- ral peace, the object of the wishes of Eumost mad since their scheme was defeated. rope, and the constant purpose of their Well, then, Englishmen, can you be- labours, may not again be troubled; and lieve, that these same men; that this same to guarantee against every attempt which wicked faction, wish to put down Napo-shall threaten to replunge the world into leon for the love of freedom? Was it for the love of freedom that they wished to depose Mr. Madison? Can you believe, that it is from the fear of our safety being put in danger by Napoleon? Was it from the fear of our safety being endangered by Mr. Madison that they wished to depose him? Do you think, that they were afraid, that Mr. Madison would over-run Europe with his armies? Alas! do you not see what is their real fear? Do you not see, that it is liberty; that it is free government; that it is the rights of mankind, which they wish to see deposed? Some patriot said: "where liberty is, there is my country." If this faction were to speak out honestly, they would say: "where liberty is, there is our Hell." the disorders and miseries of revolutions. And although entirely persuaded that all France, rallying round its legitimate Sovereign, will immediately annihilate this last attempt of a criminal and impotent delirium; all the Sovereigns of Europe animated by the same sentiments, and guided by the same principles, declare that if, contrary to all calculations, there should result from this event any real danger, they will be ready to give to the King of France, and to the French nation, or to any other Government that shall be attacked, as soon as they shall be called upon, all the assistance requisite to restore public tran quillity, and to make a common cause against all those who should undertake to compromise it. The present Declaration inserted in the Register of the Congress assembled at Vienna, on the 13th March, 1815, shall be made public. Done The Powers who have signed the Treaty and attested by the Plenipotentiaries of the of Paris, assembled at the Congress at Vi-High Powers who signed the Treaty of enna, being informed of the escape of Na- Paris, Vienna, 13th March, 1815. POLEON BONAPARTE, and of his entrance Austria-Prince Metternich, Baron Wisinto France with an armed force, owe it senberg. to their own dignity and the interest of social order, to make a solemn declara-France.-Prince Talleyrand, the Duke of DECLARATION OF THE ALLIES. Dalberg, Latour du Pin, Count Alexis Great Britain.-Wellington, Clancarty, tion of the sentiments which this event has excited in them. By thus breaking the convention which has established him in the island of Elba, Bonaparte destroys the only legal title on which his existence depended-by appearing again in France Portugal.-Count Pamelia SaldankuLobs. with projects of confusion and disorder, Prussia.-Prince Hardenberg, he has deprived himself of the protection of the law, and has manifested to the uni-Russia.-Count erse, that there can be neither peace nor te with him. The Powers consequently Humboldt. Buron Rasumowsky, Count Staeckelberg, Count Nesselrode deed re, that Napoleon Bonaparte has Spain.-P. Gomez Labrador. nts. 4 ANSWER OF THE FRENCH GO- and as a Sovereign Prince by all the Powers, VERNMENT. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF PRESIDENTS was no more than any one triable by the Congress of Vienna. An oblivion of those principles, which it is impossible to ascribe to Plenipotentiaries who weigh the rights of nations with deliberation and prudence, has in it nothing astonishing when it is dis played by some French ministers, whose consciences reproach them with more than one act of treason, in whom fear has produced rage, and whom remorse deprives of reason. Such persons might have risked the fabrication, the publication of a document like the pretended declaration of the 13th of March, in the hope of stopping the progress of Napoleon, and mis OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE, APRIL 2. In consequence of the remit which has been made to it, the Committee, composed of Presidents of Sections of the Council of State, has examined the Declaration of the 13th of March, the report of the Minister of General Police, and the documents thereto subjoined. The Declaration is in a form so unusual, conceived in terms so strange, expresses ideas so anti-social, that the Committee was ready to consider it as one of those forgeries by which despicable men seek to mislead the people, and pro-leading the French people as to the true duce a change in public opinion. But the principles of foreign powers. But such verification of legal minutes drawn up at men are not qualified, like the latter, to Metz and of the examinations of couriers, judge of the merit of a nation which they has left no ground for doubt that the trans- have misconceived, betrayed, delivered up mission of this declaration was made by to the arms of foreigners. That nation, the Members of the French Legation at brave and generous, revolts against every Vienna, and it must, therefore, be regard-thing bearing the character of baseness and ed as adopted and signed by them. It was oppression; its affections become enthuin this first point of view that the Com-siastic when their object is threatened or mittee thought it their duty to examine, in the first instance, this production, which is without precedent in the annals of diplomacy, and in which Frenchmen, men invested with a public character the most respectable, begin by a sort of placing without the law, or, to speak more precisely, by an incitement to the assassination of the Emperor Napoleon. We say with the Minister of Police that this Declaration is the work of the French Plenipotentiaries; because those of Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England, could not have signed a dead which the Sovereigns and the nations to which they belong will hasten to disavow. For in the first place these Plenipotentiaries, most of whom co-operated in the treaty of Paris, know that Na-judge the rights of the Allied Princes, and poleon was there recognised as retaining the title of Emperor, and as Sovereign of the isle of Elba: they would have designated him by these titles, nor would have departed, either in substance or form, from the respectful notice which they impose. They would have felt that, according to the law of nations, the Prince least powerful from the extent or population of his States, enjoys, in regard to his political and civil character, the rights belonging to every Sovereign Prince equally with the most powerful Monarch; and Napoleon, recognized under the title of Emperor, attacked by a great injustice; and the assassination to which the declaration of the 13th of March incites, will find an aim for its execution neither among the 25 mil. lions of Frenchmen, the majority of whom followed, guarded, protected Napoleon from the Mediterranean to the capital, nor among the 18 millions of Italians, the G millions of Belgians and Rhenish, nor the numerous nations of Germany, who, at this solemn crisis, have not pronounced his name but with respectful recollections; nor amidst the indignant, English nation, whose honourable sentiments disavow the language which has been audaciously put into the mouths of Sovereigns. The nations of Europe are enlightened; they those of the Bourbons. They know that the convention of Fontainbleau was a treaty among Sovereigns; its violation, the entrance of Napoleon on the French territory, like every infraction of a diplomatic act, like every hostile invasion, could only lead to an ordinary war, the result of which can only be, in respect of persons, that of being conqueror or conquered, free, or a prisoner of war; in respect of possessions, that of being either preserved or lost, increased or diminished; and that every thought, every threat, every attempt against the life of a Prince at war with wife from the husband, the son from the father, and that during distressing circumstances, when the firmest soul has need of looking for consolation and support to the bosom of its family, and douscstic affections. another, is a thing unheard of in the history of nations and the cabinets of Europe. In the violence, the rage, the oblivion of principles which characterise the Declaration of the 13th of March, we recognise the envoys of the same Prince, the Secondly-The safety of Napoleon, of his imorgans of the same Councils, which, by perial family, and of their attendants, was guathe Ordinance of the 9th of March, also ranteed (14th article of treaty), by all the placed Napoleon without the law, also in- | Powers; and bands of assassins have been orvited against him the poniards of assassins, ganised in France under the eyes of the French and promised a reward to the bringer of Government, and even by its orders, as will his head. What, however, did Napoleon soon be proved by the solemn process against do? He did honour by his confidence to the Sieur Demoutbreuil, for the purpose of atthe men of all nations, insulted by the in-tacking the Emperor and his brothers and their famous mission to which it was wished to wives: in default of the success which was exinvite them; he shewed himself moderate, pected from this first branch of the plot, a comgenerous, the protector even of those who motion had been planned at Orgon, on the had devoted him to death. When he spoke Emperor's road, to attempt an attack on his to General Excelmans, marching towards life by the hands of some brigands: they sent as the column which closely followed Louis governor to Corsica an assassin of George's, the Stanislas Xavier; to Count D'Erlon, Sieur Brulart, raised purposely to the rank of who had to receive him at Lille; to General Marshal-de-Camp, known in Britany, in Anjou, Clausel, who went to Bordeaux, where in Normandy, in La Vendee, in all England, by was the Duchess D'Angouleme; to Gene- the blood which he had shed, that he might preral Grouchy, dispatched to put a period pare and make sure the crime and in fact seve to the civil dissensions excited by the Dukeral isolated assassins attempted, in the Isle of D'Angouleme everywhere, in short, or- Elba, to gain by the murder of Napoleon the ders were given by the Emperor that per-guiity and disgraceful salary which was promised sons should be protected and sheltered from every attack, every danger, every violence, while on the French territory, and when they quitted it. Nations aud posterity will judge on which side, at this great conjuncture, has been respect for the rights of the people and of sovereigns, for the laws of war, the principles of civi-solute spoliation, under the delusive pretext of lization, the maxims of laws, civil and religious. They will decide between Napoleon and the House of Bourbon. to them. Thirdly-The Duchies of Parma and Pla centia were given in full property to MariaLouisa for herself, her son, and her descendants; and after long refusals to put her in possession, they gave the finish to their injustice by an ab. a change without valuation, without proportion, without sovereignty, without consent: and do. cuments existing in the Foreign-office, which have been submitted to us, prove that it was on the solicitations, at the instance, and by the intrigues of the Prince of Benevent, that Maria Louisa and her son have been plundered. If, after having examined the pretended Declaration of the Congress under this first view, it is discussed in its relations to diplomatic conventions, and to the treaty of Fontainbleau of the 11th of April, 1814, Fourthly-There should have been given to the ratified by the French government, it will Prince Eugene, adopted son of the Emperor, be found that its violation is only imputa- who has done honour to France, which gave ble to the very persons who reproach Na-him birth, and who has conquered the affection poleon therewith. The treaty of Fontain- of Italy, which adopted him, a suitable estab bleau has been violated by the Allied lishment out of France, and he has obtained noPowers, and the House of Bourbon, in thing. what regards the Emperor Napoleon and his family, in what regards the interests and the rights of the French nation. First-The Empress Maria-Louisa and her son ought to have obtained passports, and au escort do repair to the Emperor; and far from executing this promise, they separated violently the Fifthly-The Emperor had (art. 9, of the treaty) stipulated in favour of the heroes of the army, for the preservation of their endowments on the Monte Napoleone: he had reserved on the extraordinary domains, and on the funds of the civil list, means of recompensing his servants, of paying the soldiers who attached themselves |