4 sequence of those principles which he has so happily defeated !??- he way, and the only way, consistent with any principle of reason or of justice, to estimate the mcasures, and, of course, the wisdom, of a minister, is to take the two ends of his administration, and make a comparaison of ti o state of the national Affairs, internal and external, at the two epochs. Let us try Mr. Pitt by this rule. As to the prosperity and confort of the people, he found the poetrates of England and Wales (when the average price of the quartern loaf was about 7d) amounting annually to 2,167,7451. ster saffered to plead the " difficulty of the "times," in which he has had to act? Forbid it justice! Forbid it common sense! Let us not, by admitting this plea, stamp our character for ever with the mark of cullibility!- He has hitherto," the hireling tells us, "steered the vessel of *** state safely through the tempest, and wil, we doubt not, convey her, ultimately, "into the port in safety.". It is a wonder they do not drop this unlucky simile. Lord Belgrave, that fine promising young "friend" Lerd Belgrave assured us, rather more than three years and a quarter ago, that the great man, his " Right Honourableling: he brought this amount in 1803 (the "friend," had, even then, conveyed her, actually conveyed her and anchored her in safety, "in, her native port," where she was riding triumphant !" And so said. that other famous young friend," Mr. Canning, in his Birth-day Ode, every stanza of which concluded with the health of the "pilot that weathered the storm." My readers will do me the justice to recollect, that I then besought them not to regard the storm as over; that there was only a treacherous calm; and that the storm would soon revive, a storm not to be weathered by a Pitt.But, it seems, we are now to be told, that there were two things to combat in the French revolution; its principles and its power. "Having first to contend with the 66 66 principles of France, he has now to con"tend with her arms. The former he has "defeated." Defeated by him! Good God! by him. What has he ever done to defeat them? It is Buonaparte who has defeated them, in the only respect in which they have been defeated. But, in what way were they dangerous? In the means which they afforded of extending the influence, the domination; the power, the arms of France. It was in this light that Mr. Burke always regarded them as dangerous to England, and in which he, in his writings (particularly his papers presented to the cabinet, and now published in the VIIth volume of his works) always described them as dangerous to her : so that, Mr. Pitt's way of defeating the principles of France has rendered them productive, in the fullest extent, of the very conse quence that was apprehended from their success! "He has now to contend with her “arms:" Yes, and not with her arms such as he found them; not with her arms such as they were before he was our minister; not with her arms such as they were before he began a war upon her principles; but her arms such as they have becone, strengthened as they have been during his administration, formidable as they have grown in con Discounts, average price of the quartern-loaf being about 10d.) to 5,348,2051. and the number of paupers to about twelve hundred thousand. As to the credit of the nation, he found an abundant currency of gold and silver, and he has procured to be passed an act, making paper-money, as to all practical purposes, a legal tender; having, during the progress, swelled the annual sum raised upon us to pay the interest of the national debt, from 9 inillions to more, than 27 millions. As to our external afairs; he found our ancient rival, and, whenever at war, our enemy, shut up within her long acknowledged fimits; he found a balance of power in Europe quite efficient to the purpose of keeping her so; he found her with extrausted resources, with distracted councils, with a feeble and almost tottering government. What she is noe, what she has become during the time that he has had the purse and the sword of England at his absolute command, I leave to be felt by the ence-swelling but now-palpitating hearts of the Grocer's Company. And, shall we still be told, that he is a great man?" In what part of his cha'racter or his measures; in which of his acts, or of their consequences, are we to look for wherewithal to justify this appellation? "He is a great speech-maker." Certainly he is; and a friend of mine, upon the ground of this admission, proves him to be a great man; as thus: "A talker's a man; Mr. Pitt "is a great talker; ergo, Mr. Pitt is a great man." But, the Pittites take a still shorter course, contenting themselves with the intuitive proposition, that he has kept his place for 20 years. With those, who, like Boyd and Benfield, will, doubtless, want no other proof of greatness, Mr. Fitt will still pass for a great man;" but, those who estimate the mind and the merits of a statesman according to the effect which his opinions, his declarations, and his measures produce upen the country he has to govern; those who reflect upon the professions and the conduct of 66 HALE AREEREM 31 Mr. Pitt with regard to the questions of parliamentary reform, and of negro slavery: those who heard his loud and repeated promises to put an end to the wars and the plunder in India, to reduce the debts of the company, and to make that company assist in defraying the annual expenses of the mother-country : those who heard him vaunt of his discovery for reducing the national debt, and congratulate himself, that, while other rainisters had been distinguished by the burdens they had laid upon the people, it would be his glory to be distinguished by the removing of those burdens: those who compare the satisfaction which he expressed at the prospect of having his name inscribed on the proud column raised to national credit, with the law which he has since introduced and procured to be passed for making banknotes a legal tender: those who redect on the consequences of his conduct with regard to the partition of Poland: those who now take a review of his measures during the Lite war with France, not forgetting his repeated assurances to the parliament, that the enemy was upon the brink, nay, in the very gulph of bankruptcy, and must, of course, soon yield for the want of resources to carry on the war: those who recollect his false, his wild calculations, his extravagant exultation (repeated in a pamphlet issted from the Treasury itself and bearing the name of his Official Secretary) upon the subject of the Income-Tax, which he termed the solid system of finance: those who, in the same year, heard him vow, that he never would make peace with France, without obtaining, as a preliminary, a full and adequate security for the future, not only for Engiand but for all and every one of the states upon the continent of Europe; and heard him, at the same time, declare, that he could carry on the war, for any length of time, without the creation of new debt: those who saw him, in less than three years after this, create new debt to the amount of 73 millions erling, and, within the same space, advise, defend, and extol, a peace completing the total overthrow of the balance of Europe, and leaving no small part of its formeriy-independent states in absolute subjugation to France, while he consoled the nation with the efficient balance which, in India conquests and the establishment of the Republic of the Seven Islands, he had provided against the acquisitions of France: those who saw hin, in the year 1801, retiring from the cabinet upon the openly avowed ground, that he could not in honour and in conscience remain unless permitted to propose to the parliament the measure of what was called Ch | tholic mancipation, and who have since seen him, having first returned to his former phce, and all the circumstances continuing the same, not only refuse to support or countenance, but oppose that very measure: those who have had the patience to follow him through his volunteering dinners and reviews, have seen him 'mounted in his cars, and have read (in his own prints) the description of his cheering huzzas, while his right worthy comrade was engaged in the war of catamarans: those who now see combined fleets, and ports friendly to the enemy, created by his war of "precaution :" those who have viewed him in the Reports of the Naval Commissioners, and in the parliamentary proceedings consequent thereupon, and have compared the facts now brought to light, with his former opinions, professions, and boasts: those who have thus observed, and thus reflectd, will be at no loss justly to estimate the character and merits of Mr. Pitt; and, if they love their country, they will, I am persuaded, turn, with indignation, from the assertion of this hired writer, that, let whatever charges will take place," the people will dema A, that Mr. Pitt shall have a principal share in the ministry." Such persons will clearly perceive, that all the dangers, to which the country is now exposed, have proceeded from the bad measures of Mr. Pitt; and, as the most favourable to him, and the least likely to be unjust, they will impute those measures to his deficiency in that sort of wisdom which is necessary to the conception and execution of measures calculated to promote the true and permanent interests of a state. They will have perceived, that, even in the department which he has made his chief study, in which he seems to have aimed at excellence; and, as to his skill in which he has received so much applause, he has, upon every material point, every point requiring profundity of thought, been conspicuous for nothing but his errors. His ex pertness at estimating a tax; his dexterity at defending his impositions of all sorts; his art in enlisting all the selfish feelings on his side, in laying fear under contribution, and in opening the hand of avarice; these he possesses in an admirable degree, and to these he owes the admiration, with which he is always spoken of by those who have spent their lives behind the counter. But, in the science of political economy, whẩ are these? At most, they render a mat, amongst real statesmen, what a punster is among poets. Of all his errors respecting the French revolution, none was greater, or inore fatal in its consequences, than that re lative to the financial resources of France; and, we now find, that he erred, too, and in spite of good advice. The warning, the predictions, or Mr. Fox we cannot blame him for having viewed with an eye of distrust; but, the same apology cannot be made for him with regard to the advice of Mr. Burke, who, in a memorial submitted to himself privately, in 1791; even at the very onset, warned him, earnestly besought him, not to place any reliance on what was looked forward to as the effects of a national bankruptcy in France.* He was not only told, that no circumstance of that sort would have any effect as to the progress of the revolution, or that extension of French power and dominion, to which the revolution naturally tended; but, the reasons upon which the opinion was founded, were amply laid before him. Still, however, did he declaim upon the poverty, the approaching bankruptcy, of France; and, by the aid of his worthy fellow-labourer, Sir Francis D'Ivernois (a man of exactly the same size of mind), succeeded, in persuading the parliament, year after year, that they had only to make one more effort, to draw their purses once nere, in order to bring the enemy to their feet. To me, who used to read the English papers in America, it really appeared that the stupid citizens of London were in expectation of seeing Carnot and Barras brought up before the Commissioners in Guildhall. Here we have a striking proof of the difference between the mind of Mr. Burke and that of Ix. Pilt, and of the vast superiority of the former over the latter. If Mr. Burke had been the minister of England at the epoch referred to, no reliance would have been placed upon a bankruptcy in France; no false hope would have been entertained; the people would have been amnsed with no delision; they would have seen the enemy and the nature of the contest in their true light; and, they would have made exertions proportioned thereunto, or they would have demanded peace. By either course their security might ultimately have been provided for; but, by following neither, by taking no decisive part; by inspiring all the parties on cur side with distrust, and by acting with just vigour enough to call forth the energies, and to furnish a pretezi for the sgressions, of the enemy, consequences that we now see and feel were produced. It is not, then, in the difficulty of the times, but, in the want of wisdom, or, in some other want still more important, it the minister, that we the *See Burke's werks, Vol. VI. p. 47. [396 are to look for the cause of the dangers, to which we are now exposed; and, I trust, that, for all these dangers and for whatever that the reader will be of opinion with me, calamities may result from them, Mr. Pitt to the nation a complete responsi Owes bility. INVASION. "Why, so, being gone, "I am a man again!" And so is the Editor of the Morning Post, who now talks as big first account of the catamaran expedition. as he did last year, when he published the -The public, and the "fasionable world,” for whose particular use the Morning Post is published, will recollect, that it is only about three weeks, since that paper assured its readers, that the ministers had received "certain information, that the Corsican Usurper" (for so now they call their old force; and, it will not be forgotten, perhaps, friend) was coming with a most formidable lieving what the ministers so confidently that the public were cautioned against be, believed. It now appears, that that caution vading England, Buonaparté seems to have was not without reason; for, instead of inbeen, even at that moment, preparing for an invasion of the dominions of Austria. hireling papers; and, it is necessary to lay Great, however, is the exultation of the before the reader some few of the pastages, wherein they express it, in order to point for, if Buonaparté should, in a few months out to him what he has to guard against; return to his projects of invasion, and find us in the state which these exultations are calculated to produce, the danger will be much greater than it ever yet has been. " "is now," says the Morning Post of the 6th instant, known for certein, that Buo naparté has suddenly raised his camps at Boulogne and its neighbourhood; that "the 112,000 men which he was so lately "reviewing, previous to their embarkation "for the invasion of our shores, he is now, 66 marching to meet or to attack the Aus"trians, and to seize the more favourable "chance that offers of victory, before they can effectually co-operate with Russia. This, no doubt, was the secret policy that "dictated all his panegyrics on peace, and "all his commentaries on the calamities of 66 war; while, under the affected menace "of an invasion of England, he was aecumulating the means of prosecuting his conquests, and extending his domination over the Continent. It must, however, "be no slight alarm that compels him to suspend or abandon a project, with the "accomplishment of which he has so long "fired the passions, and familiarised the " hopes of his army. He must also feel no "small degree of shame and humiliation, “not unmingled with regret, at relinquishing even the outward shew of an enterprise of which he was so boastful, which he "foolishly imagined struck such terror into the minds of Englishsen, that they could "attend to nothing but defensive measures, and the security of their homes.”-----On the 7th the subject is continued thus: "Dispatches were yesterday received at the Admiralty from Lord Keith, which con"tain an ample confirmation of the intelligence given in our kast, relative to the breaking up of the camps on the French "coast, and the march of the troops towards "the Rhine. We are further informed, that “the flotilla to convey these troops to the invasion of Britain, is to be forthwith dismantled, and that considerable progress has already been made in this work of undoing what was done with so much ostentation of power, and so much in"solence of menace. Like the vast preparations of Caligula for the conquest of Germany, the mighty threats of Buonaparte for the subjugation of Britain, are "thus turned to his scorn. The design of invasion, which, not long since, mini"sters knew to be seriously entertained, appears now to be, at least for a time, completely abandoned. Upon this subject we shall take an early opportunity of offering some remarks; contenting ourselves, for the present, with the brief "reraark, that the enemy having declined the combat they provoked, is to them “a virtual defeat while to us it is in effect equal to a cictory.Having no longar 200,000 disciplined seldiers placed in a position from which they might your in * upon us, in a few hours of favourable ་་ ་ coincidence, and watching for the op"portunity; having the advantage of eting with allies, capable of engaging, "and we trust, defeating the greater part of the vast armies that were to be pour“ed down upon us, horde after herde, "till we should be consumed, even by the destruction of continued victories, "if we should be fortunate enough to gain them; we have now to congratulate our"selves that the time is arrived, when we can, with effect, act on the offensive, and alarm the threatner with invasion in our turn. We can now - spare "thirty or forty thousand men to attack the enemy in any quarter where such an enterprise may appear to promise most "effect and advantage."The most effactual way, perhaps, of cautioning some readers against confiding in the opinions (if they can be called opinions) of babblers like this, will be to quote, word for word, what he wrote and published on the 5th of October last, just as the news of the Pitt and Dundas expedition arrived in London. "The result of this expedi"tion, planned with as much secrecy as 66 judgment, and executed with the most un"paralleled bravery, will prove both to foreign "boasters and factious Britons, that this "is a country which cannot be insulted or "menaced with impunity. The enemy "threatened us. Let them look to their own shores. Their innumerable flotilla "was to land their invincible army in this country, which was to prove a rich and easy conquest; it was to bear the for"tune and destiny of France to our coust, Where is now this boasted flotilla ?, What is the present state of the for"tune and destiny of France, which were "so pompously committed to it? All that was accessible of it is destroyed. Sea, 66 66 fire, and air, have witnessed and con"tributed to its destruction. What is be"come of that part which is not destroyed ? "It skulks in its harbours, and even doubts "whether its skulking ensures it safety? This is a most fortunate thing "for the country."---Reader, put not your trust in such writers: their business, their trade, is to amuse, to deceivoyou; by turns to alarm and to cheer you, they are paid for it. Believe them not. I conjure you, upon any subject, but particu. larly upon the subject of invasion., Observe, they now tell you, that they are certain that Buonaparté is not coming; and this they do with just as much confidence, and, apparently, with the same expectation of being. believed, that they, only twenty days ago, told you they were certain that he wous corsing! And, I earnestly beg you not to regard the scheme of invasion as " Abone doned." No: do not think that we have gained a victory" over the flotilla. Join with me, rather, in regretting that Bucnaparté has discovered so effectual a mode of annoying us by the means of a force, which, at a moment's warning, he can direct against the powers of the continent; and, I may, surely, desire you to recollect, that, I have frequently stated, that part of the plan of Buonaparié was, by the maritime camps, if I may use the expression, to keep an army in preparation for a continental war, and this you will find laid down as part of his plan, in a French essay upon the subject, part of which will be found in the supe plement to the first volume of this work. Nothing, therefore, is so foolish; nothing so empty; nothing at once so contemptible and so dangerous as these boasts about victorics over the flotilla. [In the next number I shall endeavour to pay the arrears due to the Pitt and Dundas faction. They are hard at work, both in Scotland and in England. Their instruments, of all sorts, are in motion. But, let us hope, that there will be found industry on our side sufficient to counteract their efforts. -The dinner at Edinburgh will merit particular attention.] Botley, Thursday, t 12th Sept. 1805. PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE CAPTURE AND SIR,-I am commanded by my Lo.ds Commissioners of the Admiralty to transmit to you herewith the enclosed copy of a letter From M. Riviere, of the Office of the French Minister of Marine, to the Commissioners of Transports, relative to the capituJation of tire enemy's forces at the Island of St. Domingo, and to request you will lay the same before Lord Camden, -for his lordship's information and directions thereupon. I am, &c.-WM. MARSDEN. Translation of a Letter from M. Riviere to the Commissioners of Transports, dated Paris, 12th June, 1804, GENTLEMEN,The Minister of the Department of Marine and Colonies being informed that the crews of different vessels, as well as the several garrisons which evacuated the Cape in the Island of St. Domingo (in virtue of the capitulation made on board the filgate La Surveillante, the 30th of Nov., 1603), are detained prisoners in England, his Exc. has ordered me to claim, in his name, on the grounds hereinafter stated, the return to France of these crews and garrisons, in conformity to the 24 arti-1 cle of the said convention. It is conceived in these terms “The garrison of the Cape, einbarked on board of the different vessels, and the crews' of these vessels shall be prisoners of war, "and sent to Europe as soon as possible, upon their parole, not to serve up til exchanged," &c. It is readily to be conceived that the spirit of this article, would, for greater exactness, require the word France to be substituted for that of Europe."Bat it would be an offence towards the English national character to suppose that its government could take advantage of a mere defect of precision in the choice of words, to infringe a capitulation, of which the very spirit is so explicitly developed by the very conditions which they who capitufated have subscribed.-In effect, if the intent and spirit of the capitulation had not been, that the garrisons and crews, 'who thereby constituted themselves prisoners of war, should be sent to France the soonest possible, instead of being detained in England, it is evident that their conveyance to Europe would not have been shackled by the condition of giving their parole not to serve before being exchanged. No doubt but the military men on both sides, as well those whom the events of war forced to abandon the post which they had to defend, as those to whorn they were forced to yield it up, frankly and fairly understood the spirit of the conditions which they signed, without a grammatical arrangement of the phraseology. And they never supposed that any discussion about mere words would afterwards arise upon a matter so thoroughly established by the essential condition of Art. H.-His Exc. is therciore led by his own innate equity to think, that if the British govt. believes itself authorised to retain the troops and sailors who capitulated at the Cape, that belief can only be owing to its not having sufficiently Exed its attention on this second article of the capitulation, and especially on these expressions, which form so very essential a part thereof, viz. "and shall be sent to Europe on their parole not to serve antil exchanged,' -His Exc. orders me to request you to lay these important observations before the Lords of the Admiralty; and he likes to cherish the belief, that the very line of conduct he himself would pursue, in a similar case, namely, to conform to the manifest spirit of the capitulation, will turn out to be that which their lordships will not hesitate to adopt in this. His Exc. observes, that the misfortunes of war are sufficiently grave in themselves, without those persons, who called by their places to such extensive influence over the lot of humanity, descending to aggravate them by resorting to evasions and quibbles unworthy their public character. It is come round to his Exc's ears, that certain persons in England have supposed, that prisoners of war, sent back to France.upon parole, have been diere employed before |