impost, the Tax upon Income. Your Petitioners do, therefore, again most forcibly entreat that your Honourable House will, on this occasion, suffer the voice of justice and humanity to prevail, and that in the discharge of your Parlia and Ireland, you will withhold the grant of any subsidy or loan to any foreign power, or any sup ply of money or men, asked by the Executive at home, until such demand shall have been clearly proved to be necessary for the upholding of our country's honour-for the defence of our acknowledged rights, or the maintenance of our national independence. And your Petitioners will ever pray. THE NECESSITY OF WAR WITH FRANCE. purpose than that of controlling a great nation|racter of Parliament, incompatible with every in the choice of its ruler-a system of policy, idea of representative Government, and portendwhich your Petitioners humbly conceive, is, in ing imminent danger to the future liberties and direct opposition to principles recognised by our happiness of Englishmen. Apprehensions we excellent Constitution at the Revolution of 1688, cannot but experience, when contemplating the and publicly avowed by the Prince Regent, viz. marked disregard of public opinion recently ma "that the Crown is held only in trust for the nifested by your Honourable House on the quesbenefit of the people," and calculated, in their tion of the Corn Laws, and the attempt now opinion, to subvert public liberty, destroy na-making to revive that odious and inquisitorial tional independence, degrade civilized society, and establish in Europe, once more, the darkness of the middle ages, and the tyranny of feudal laws. And further, that your Petitioners looking to your Honourable House as the depositary of their liberties, and the guardians of their proper-mentary duties as the Commons of Great Britain ties, do most earnestly entreat your Honourable Honse to withhold such supplies of money and men, as may be demanded by the Executive, for the purpose of carrying on this premeditated war, until it has been satisfactorily shewn, that all at tempts to arrange honourable terms with the Emperor Napoleon are impracticable and unavailing: and your Petitioners are further induced to dwell upon this point, from a conviction that no positive good is likely to arise to this country, nor any permaneut repose to Europe, from an attempt to impose a Government on the French people by Mr. Cobbett-The return of Napoleon force of arms. Nor can your Petitioners refrain to France has imparted fresh vigour to from calling the attention of your Honourable your pen in defence of peace, and, what House to the direful calamities which have you are pleased to call, the principles of flowed in upon the inhabitants of these kingdoms civil, political, and religious freedom. from the late sanguinary and expensive wars, Fearful of your influence over the public undertaken upon the same unjust and chimerical mind, and anxious to see unanimity preprinciples as that now projected, and which, in vail in this country, respecting the war its effects upon this country, has pauperised its with France, I venture to address you on labouring classes, loosened the foundation of pub- the subject, relying on your candour for lic credit, annihilated its manufacturing conse-its insertion in your Register. We canquence, increased its taxation to an insurmount- not, Sir, make peace with Napoleon.-—~ able degree, and swelled the national debt to an We are a religious nation.-Bibles and amount that threatens the stability of our politi-missions to the Heathen is the cry amongst cal institutions; whilst its consequences to this us. We are making the most extraordi town and neighbourhood, in a local point of view,nary efforts to proselytize the world to our holy and peaceable religion.-Bonaare now severely felt in the diminution of their trade, the alarming increase of poor rates, and parte is an unbeliever! What fellowship the vast accumulation of misery in every shape, hath light with darkness? What part hath by which they are surrounded, in the midst of a he who believeth with an infidel? What! population destitute of employment, and goaded shall we, who have so much regard for the to despair, by the apparent hopeless state of their souls of Hindoos and Africans have no condition: it does, therefore, appear to your concern for those of our French neighPetitioners, that under such circumstances, for hours? Shall we suffer an infidel to reign the Government to enter again upon hostilities, over them?-But if we have no regard for (uuless for the acquirement of great national them, let us at least take care of ourselves. objects, commensurate in advantage with the France is a very near neighbour: she pubsacrifice made for their attainment,) would dis- lishes what she pleases respecting religion. play a contempt for the sufferings of the people, Alas! let us fear the contagion of her ina violation of public justice, an indifference to fidel principles more than ever, and let us the voice of humanity, inconsistent with the cha war against Napoleon their patron, till we have placed once again on his throne the religious Louis the 18th. What are the sacrifices of a million of lives, and two or three hundred millions of treasure, compared with the blessed comforts of religion?-What is the general distress of our country compared with the pleasure of fighting the monster Bonaparte?" Do not call this stale and stupid reasoning. France is now much in the situation she was when Europe began her first most just and necessary war against her; and the same arguments which were then used by the allied powers in their justification, may be now employed in defence of their intended invasion of that country. There was a time, it is true, when that system of religion which Louis the 18th sought to revive in France, was reviled by us. Weridiculed the credulity of the French people and their devotion to their priests. But now we find this religion is so intimately connected with the principles of social order, that it has become our bounden duty to uphold it (at least on the Continent) with all our might and power. We for merly prayed for the downfall of," that man of sin, the Pope;" now, we rejoice at his restoration! We formerly called the Jesuits the "Devil's own gang;" now, better informed, we have discovered they highly respectable and enlightened body of Christians!!" The destruction of the Inquisition was long and ardently wished by us; now, better acquainted with the principles of social order, we are perfectly satisfied with its revival!!! There are many political reasons why we cannot make peace with Bonaparte. He professes to have returned to" the principles of 1789." Should this be the case, "the French people will be really represented in the legislature:" they will be more free than they ever were before, and the numerous advantages arising from their revolution will be secured to them. What fellowship can such a state of things in France have with ours in England? There can be no agreement between them: this must be obvious to every one; I need not, therefore, enlarge on this subject. There was a time, indeed, when it was thought the people of England had the greatest concern in the making of laws; that taxation and representation should go hand in hand; but now the admirable maxims of the late Bishop Horsely, of are a 66 immortal memory, that the people have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them, nor with the taxes but to pay them, are become much more fashionable. It is not long ago we contended that people had a right to choose their own rulers and forms of government: now, "the social system" of the late glorious Congress, that people are the property of kings, is most warmly approved and supported! Formerly an assassin was thought the most detestable of wretches; now a handbill is posted up in the streets of London offering £2000 for the murder of Napoleon! Now, then, Sir,you see plainly why our ministers cannot make peace with the French Emperor. You perceive it is you and your party who have remained stationary, while the rest of us have improved in religious, moral, and political knowledge! Peace and liberty is the cry of those detestable and irreligious rebels the French. War, taxation, and Louis the 18th be WAR WITH FRANCE. SIR,-A nation must learn to cease warring against the liberties of another country before it can learn to defend its own. I trust that adversity is destined to perfect the character of Bonaparte, and the liberties and long glory of France.→ His twenty day's tranquil progress through innumerable perils of every kind, calm and benign, with his small band of friends, over a space arduous for a single traveller, in the same time, from the gulph of St. Juan to the metropolis and throne of France, has no parallel in history, and throws all, even his victories, into shade! It is delightful indeed to see Carnot at the head of the administration of the interior, that great mind, prompt, firm, open and independent at all times, which plied not when myriads stooped, but remained erect and unmoved. Philosophy, true politics, liberty, peace, order, and humanity, must all rejoice in this decisive appointment, and on the suppression of the Censorship of the Fress, and the dissolution of the Pseudo-Senate and degraded Chamber of Deputies, who would submit to deliberate, as it was called, on a change of government, without any authority from the people, and with an host of invading and besieging strangers at their gates. The characteristic and magnanimous instance of intrusting captured Vienna to her own troops; to which I would add his generous dismissal of the armies of Austria and Prussia; and the King and Emperor themselves-35,000 men completely in his power, speaks the man the general, the liberal statesman: his attention to this day of the wounded Austrian officers-his love, founded on knowledge and true approbation, of the arts and sciences-his remembrance of the widow of Rousseau, when neglected and in indigence-his power during his late astonishing enterprize over the best feelings of the human heart, which no man ever has to such an extent, unless those feelings have first possession of his own-all these contradict the disgusting and horrible portraits by which our abandoned papers have endeavoured to feed and enflame eternal war.-The Suffolk Chronicle would not insert my letter in which I endeavoured to obtain a REQUISITION to the HIGH SHERIFF, to call, as early as possible, a County Meeting, to consider of a Petition to prevent our being made a party to a war for the purpose of interfering with the internal government of France, after the clearest and fullest manifestation of the national will. CAPEL LOFT. REPORT ON THE RETALIATING SYSTEM, &c. The following is a report made by a committee of the senate, on the subject of the pretences whereon our late enemy justified his devastations of private property and of public buildings, unconnected with the purposes of war. As great pains have been taken by the factious prints to discolour the facts on this subject, with a view to palliate the atrocities committed at Washington and elsewhere by the British forces, in violation of the usages of war and the dictates of humanity, it is satisfactory to receive a statement of facts on this head from the highest authority, and in an unquestionable shape. These facts, it will be seen, contradict the aspersions which have been unnaturally cast by some of our own citizens on their country's honour, with the view solely to support pretensions of our then enemy, which are now decisively proven to have been wholly groundless. Nat. Intel. In Senate, March 3, 1815. The Committee on foreign relations, to whom was referred the message of the President of the United States on the 26th of September last, respecting the unauthorised mode of warfare adopted by the enemy, on the plea of retaliation, report, that, although the war has happily terminated, they deem it important to rescue the American government from unworthy imputations with which it has been assailed during its progress. They have, therefore, endeavoured to ascertain whether the destruction of York, in Upper Canada, and the other cases assumed by our late enemy, as authorising a departure from the settled rules of civilized warfare, were of a character to justify or extenuate their conduct. The result of the inquiries of the Committee, manifesting to the world, that the plea which has been advanced for the destruction of the American capital, and the plunder of private property, is without foundation, will be found in the communications of the secretaries of the departments of war and navy, and of General Dearborn, commander of the American forces in the attack on York, herewith submitted. Department of State, Feb. 28, 1815. SIR-I have had the honour to receive your letter, requesting, on behalf of the committee of foreign relations, any information which this department possesses, relative to the misconduct that has been imputed to the American troops in Upper Canada during the late war, and in reply, I have the honour to state, that the charges appear to be confined to three. 1st, The alleged burning of York; 2d, the burning of Newark, and 3d, the burning of the Indian villages usually called the Moravian towns. 1st. The burning of York, or any of its public edifices or of any of its private houses, has never been presented to the view of the American government by its own officers, as matter of information; and it never was exhibited by the British government, or any of its officers, as matter of complaint; until it was asserted in the address of the governor in chief to the provincial parliament of Canada, on the 24th of January, 1815," that as a just retribution, the proud capitol at Washington, has experienced a similar fate to that inflicted by an American force on the seat of government in Upper Canada." This assertion, having led to an inquiry, I am enabled, from official documents, and general information, to state the following facts of the case, for the information of the committee. The town of York, in Upper Canada, was taken by the American army under the command of General Dearborn, on the 27th of April, 1813, and it was evacuated on the succeeding 1st of May; although it was again visited for a day, by an American squadron under the command of Commodore Chauncey, on the 4th of August. At the time of the capture, the British troops on their retreat set fire to their magazine, and great injury was done by the explosion, to property as well as to persons within the range of its effects. At the time of the capture, as well as at the time of Commodore Chauncey's visit, the public stores were seized, and the public store houses were destroyed; but the destruction of public edifices for civil uses, or of private property, was not only unauthorised, but positively forbidden by the American commanders; and it is un-tish government undertook itself, to redress derstood that no private house was destroyed by the American troops. It has recently, however, appeared, that a public building, of little value, called the Parliament House (not the Government House) in which it is said that an American scalp was found, as a part of the decoration of the speaker's chair, had been burnt; whether it was so, and if it was, whether it was an accidental consequence of the confusion in which the explosion of the magazine involved the town, or the unauthorised act of some exasperated individual, has not been ascertained. The silence of the military and civil officers of the provincial government of Canada, seem to indicate that the transaction was not deemed, when it, occurred, a cause, either for retaliation or reproach. ----2d. The burning of Newark, adjacent to fort George, occurred on the 10th December, 1813.—The act was vindicated by the American general, as necessary to his military operations; but as soon as the American government heard of it, instructions, dated the 6th of January, 1814, were given by the department of war, to major general Wilkinson, "to disavow the conduct of the officer who committed it, and to transmit to governor Provost a copy of the order, under colour of which that officer had acted." This disavowal was accordingly communicated, and on the 10th Feb. 1814, governor Provost answered, " that it had been with great satisfaction he had received the assurance, that the perpetration of the burning of the town of Newark, was both unauthorised by the American government, and abhorrent to every American feeling; that if any outrages had ensued the wanton and unjustifiable destruction of Newark, passing the bounds of just retaliation, they were to be attributed to the influence of irritated passions, on the part of the unfortunate sufferers by that event, which, in a state of active warfare, it had not been possible altogether to restrain, and that it was as little congenial to the disposition of his majesty's government, at it was to that of the government of the United States, deliberately to adopt any plan of policy, which had for its object the devastation of private property." But the disavowal of the American government was not the only expiation of the unauthorized offence committed by its officer; for the Bri the wrong. A few days after the burning of Newark the British and Indian troops crossed the Niagara for this purpose; they' surprized and seized fort Niagara; they burnt the villages of Lewistown, Manchester, Tuscarora, Buffalo, and Black Rock, desolating the whole of the Niagara frontier, and dispersing the inhabitants, in the extremity of the winter. Sir George Prevost himself appears to have been satisfied with the vengeance that had been inflicted; and, in his proclamation of the 12th of January, 1814, he expressly declared,, that for the burning of Newark," the opportunity of punishment had occurred; that a full measure of retaliation had taken place, and that it was not his intention to` pursue further a system of warfare, so revolting to his own feelings, and so little, congenial to the British character, unless the future measures of the enemy should compel him again to resort to it." With of Off York, U. C. April, 20, 1813. From the same to the same, dated his answer to Major-General Wilkinson, | Extract of a letter from Commodore Isaac which has been already noticed, he trans- Chauncey, to the Secretary of the Navy, mitted a copy of the proclamation, "as dated expressive of the determination as to his future line of conduct," and added, "that he was happy to learn, that there was no probability, that any measures, on the part of the American government, would oblige him to depart from it."-3d. The places usually called the Moravian towns, were mere collections of Indian huts and cabins, on the river Retrench or Thames, not probably worth, in the whole, one thousand dollars. The Indians who inhabit them, among whom were some notoriously hostile to the United States, had made incursions the most cruel into their territory. When, therefore, the American army under General Harrison invaded Canada on the 1813, the huts and cabins of the hostile Indians were destroyed. But this species of warfare has been invariably pursued by every nation engaged in war with the Indians of the American Continent. However it may be regretted on the score of humanity, it appears to be the necessary means of averting the still greater calamities of savage hostility; and it is believed, that the occurrence would never have been made the subject of a charge against the American troops, if the fact had not been misrepresented or misunderstood. Many people at home, and most people abroad, have been led to suppose, that the Moravian towns were the peaceable settlements of a religious sect of Christians, and not the abode of a hostile tribe of savages.I have the honour to be, &c. "In the evening of the 30th ult. we weighed and stood for York, arrived and anchored in that harbour, at about 3, P. M. on the 31st; ran the schooners into the and soldiers, under the command of Col. upper harbour, landed the marines Scott, without opposition; found several hundred barrels of flour and provisions in the public storehouses, five pieces of cannon, eleven boats, and a quantity of shot, either destroyed or brought away. On shells, and other stores; all which was the 1st inst. after having received on board all that the vessels could take, I directed the barracks and public store houses to be burned; we then re-embarked the men, and proceeded to this place, where we arrived yesterday.” Letter from General Henry Dearborn to the Hon. Joseph B. Varnum, a member of the Senate. Boston, October 17, 1814. DEAR SIR.-In reply to your letter of the 11th instant. I assure you in the most explicit manner, that no public or private buildings were burned or destroyed by the troops under my command, at York, JAS. MONROE.in Upper Canada, excepting two block To the Hon. Wm, W. Bibb. Chairman of the Committee on foreign relations. Navy Department, February 18, 1815. STR-In compliance with the request of the committee of the senate, communicated to by me by your note of the 14th, current, I have the honor to transmit to you, herewith, extracts from the letters of commodore Chauncey to the secretary of the navy, on the subject of destroying the public storehouses and stores at York, in Upper Canada, and which is all the information in this department on that subject. I have the honour to be, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, B. W. CROWLINSHIELD. Hon. Wm. W. Bibb, Chairman of a Committee of the Senate. ing to the navy yard.—I placed a strong houses, and one or two sheds belongguard in the town with positive orders to prevent any plunder or depredation on the inhabitants; and when leaving the place, a letter was received from rior court, in which he expressed his Judge Scott, chief justice of the supe thanks for the humane treatment the inhabitants had experienced from our troops, and for my particular attention to the safety of their persons and property. A frigate, on the stocks, and a large storehouse, containing their naval stores, were set on fire by the enemy, subsequent to their offer of surrendering the troops and public property. Several of the most valuable public buildings, con |