VOL. XXII. No. 8.] LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1812. 225] [Price Is. [226 under our ancient sovereigns; that, in short, we owe nothing to German discipline or German dress, or to any person, any thing German. As to the consequences of this victory, they will not, I am very much afraid, be so beneficial to the nation as many persons seem to expect. The wise way to act would be to take advantage of it for the purpose of proposing peace, for which the occasion is now extremely fa vourable, especially if the news from Sweden and Russia be true. If Napoleon be pressed hard; if he be, as it is said he is, in a perilous situation in the North of Europe; if this be really the case, it seems natural to conclude, that this is the moment to propose to treat, seeing that (as we are told). his armies in Spain cannot long hold their ground. By a treaty, begun at this mo ment, we might possibly render Spain in Russia; but, I am of opinion, that, if we pursue the war in the hope of doing more than this; if we pursue the war in the hope of effecting what is still called "the SUMMARY OF POLITICS. BATTLE OF SALAMANCA.Battles are characterized by their results, and as this battle has ended in the capture of 7,000 prisoners, and those prisoners Frenchmen too, it may, with truth, be said, that, upon this occasion, we have gained a victory; a real victory; something for Englishmen to be proud of; something to make them forget, for a while, at least, the campaigns of Dunkirk and the Helder, at the latter of which places the Duke of York agreed to surrender many thousands of Frenchmen then in England, as the price of being permitted to embark his own army. Now, however, we have something, at last, on the other side; we have now a victory to sing. Our numbers in the battle were certainly very greatly superior to those of the enemy, and, even according to our own ac-dependent of France, and might also save counts, we had, in many respects, the advantage over him; but, we have gained a victory; our army has beaten a French army in the field; and our commander has beaten a French Marshal, one of those men" deliverance of Europe," we shall have, who have had the subduing of the continent of Europe. This being the case, there is, on this occasion, justifiable cause for firing the Park and Tower guns. There is a fair ground for rejoicings. It is not now a shame to hear people boasting a little. Such boasts are excusable, especially after the fate of so many expeditions against the French. The details of the victory will be found below in the Gazette, which I insert; and details they are very honourable to our army and full of glory to their country. They show (if, indeed, that had been wanted) that Englishmen still inherit the courage, for which their forefathers were renowned; and they show, as Major Cartwright says, that to defend England, English arms only are wanted. They show, that we stand in need of no foreign aid to protect us against the French. This, however, was not a point doubtful with me before. I have always scouted the notion, that we have recently become a match for the French, man to man. I have always contended, that our army is not now either more brave or more steady than it was by and by, to lament our conduct in the H wards; but, the risk is too great to run; and, therefore, I am for proposing terms of peace now.There are, I know, persons in this country who never wish to see any peace with Napoleon; and who would rather see the people of England die from misery than see him formally acknowledged as an Emperor and King. I trust, how ever, that this malignant and foolish way of thinking will not prevail; for, if it does, woe be unto this nation. -When men talk of the "deliverance of Europe," they do not, one would suppose, know what they mean. They would begin, I dare say, by the deliverance of France; and, what folly must fill the mind of that man, who supposes, that the people of France would exchange their present, for their former, government! What folly, what profound ignorance, must possess the man who imagines, that the people of France sigh for an opportunity of returning to their former state; and, that is the state (I beg the reader to observe) to which the deliverers of Europe wish to restore them. their resolution to enjoy, and to enable their children to enjoy, the rights of man; the moment they did this, that very moment did those in this country, who had formerly taken such pains to paint their misery and slavery, begin to tell us, that the French were very well off, and that they were fools or knaves, if not both at once, to attempt to make a revolution, which these persons now represented to us as a most horrible thing, though heretofore they had been teaching us to boast of and to commemorate the revolution in England. -All this the people of France remember; and, though I have been here speaking of the acts of our deceivers, the people of France can make no distinction; and they do remember, they will remember, they must remember, that, before their revolution, this nation reproached them as being slaves, and that they had scarcely declared that they would no longer be slaves, when this nation joined in a war against them along with those sovereigns whose armies were headed by the Duke of Brunswick. -These things the people of France can never forget. They must bear them in mind, because they are so notorious, and are in their very nature of so much import Now, then, either what our Clergy and Politicians, that is to say, the Church and the State; either what they taught us to believe about the former misery and slavery of the French people was true or it was not. If the latter, let them account for their conduct; if the former, what is to be said of those who replace the French people in their former situation? Either the speeches of our members of par -The people of France are not so stupid as to be ignorant of the motives of these Deliverers; the people of France remember, that, before their revolution, when they lived under the house of Bourbon, itance. was the fashion with English writers, English painters, English Statesmen and Legislators, to treat them as slaves, as acknowledged slaves; that we used to exhibit them as poor fribbles, as meagre, half-starved, ragged, bare-boned wretches; that we used to hold them up to the world as frogeaters, as lappers of soup meagre; that we used to be continually comparing their abject subjection to their priests with our free-liament; the writings of our poets, our dom in religious matters; that we used to represent their ecclesiastics as eating up the produce of the land, while the people eat little more than the reptiles; that we used to reproach them as the basest of slaves, . because they submitted to Lettres de Cachet and to the horrid cruelties of the Bastile. historians, our moralists, and our divines; the works of our painters and statuaries; either all these are false; either they are all full of lies and calumny against the French nation and the old French government, or, the French were a most miserable and degraded people, and their go-All this the people of France remem- vernment an execrable tyranny. Let the ber; and, they remember, too, that the Deliverers" choose, therefore; let them moment they promulgated their resolution acknowledge, that the people of France and no longer to submit to these indignities; the old French government were calumnithe moment they proclaimed to the worldated for the purpose of cheating the people their resolution no longer to be robbed of of England into a belief that they were the fruit of their labour, and to feed upon better off than their neighbours, and also frogs and soup meagre, while their masters for the purpose of making them despise the fed upon the meat, and bread, and butter, French, and be the more ready to enter and all the fat of the land; the moment into wars against them; let the "Deliverthey proclaimed their resolution not to be "ers" acknowledge this, or, let them find any longer exposed to arbitrary imprison-out a justification for the war which Engment; the moment, in short, they declared land waged against the French revolution. At any rate, the "Deliverers" may the Lettres de Cachet, which, in English, be well assured, that all this is well under- means literally, letters under seal, but stood in France; and, that, therefore, in which were, in fact, orders secretly issued order to begin the work of delivery, the by the government for the seizing of any former opinions and assertions of English persons, and sending them to a solitary priwriters and orators must be satisfactorily son, there to be kept during pleasure. There explained. But, it is said, that there is was no warrant, no magistrate, no oath, no a medium: though the people of France be confronting with the accuser; but any man, not so well off as they were under their old at any moment, might be seized and imgovernment, there is no necessity for carry-mured for life; might be dragged from the ing them back to their former state.- -I bosom of his family, and thrown into a know that assertions like these are made, dungeon to die raving mad, or to pine out a and, as it is possible, that they may have miserable existence. And, there were produced an impression where such an im-times when these horrible lettres de cachet pression might lead to mischievous consequences, I will avail myself of this opportunity, which is a very suitable one, for examining these propositions, and for inquiring into the probability of prevailing upon the people of France to be deliver"ed" from their present state. -The first proposition is, then, that the people of France are now worse off than they were under their old government.This is a proposition so void of truth; it is such a flagrant, such an impudent, falsehood, that one, at first sight, is astonished to hear it advanced; but, when one cousiders the numerous pens that are employed in England, constantly employed in the work of promulgating notions disadvantageous to all change in government; when one considers the means that are made use of to encourage, support, and circulate the productions of these prostituted pens, one's wonder at the effect is changed into indignation at the cause. -The deceiving of the people of England does not, however, alter the real state of the case; and we will now see how that stands. We will take a few instances of those blessings, to the enjoyment of which the "Deliverers" would willingly restore the people of France; and, when we have so done, we shall the better be able to judge of the likelihood of the people of France wishing to be delivered. We will not talk about political rights and privileges, but will confine ourselves to things touching the purse and the persons of the people; and see what degree of security either enjoyed under the old government of France.In treating of the blessings of the old government of France, any man must be at a loss where to begin. Those blessings were so numerous as well as so great, and there were so many of them that seemed to vie with each other in magnitude, that, really, the list presents a great difficulty as to giving a preference; how-salt. ever, I will begin with that prime blessing, were to be purchased of the government, with blanks for the names of the persons to be imprisoned, to be filled up at the pleasure of the purchaser, who thus, by mere dint of money, became the master of the liberty and life of any one whom he wished to ruin.— -Here was a blessing! A blessing which the French do not now enjoy, but which they would have enjoyed to this day, if their revolution had not taken place, or, if a counter-revolution had taken place. But, say the "Deliverers," Napoleon's government makes use of lettres de cachet; or, at least, of something equally arbitrary. The "Deliverers" do not deal in proofs. They do not attempt to produce proof of any thing they assert, and, therefore, we might suffer their assertion in this respect to pass for what it is, in itself, worth. But, I take upon me to deny it. I say it is false; and I say that no person can be sent to prison in France without an oath made against him before sworn magistrates, and without proof of guill sufficient to satisfy the mind of at least five magistrates. And I say, that, beyond the space of three months, no man can be kept imprisoned without a trial; and that no man can be imprisoned, for any cause, without being brought to trial within the space of three months.- -If I am asked how I know this, my answer is, that I know it in the same way that I know our own laws. I know it by reading the laws of France; I know it by reading the Criminal Code of Napoleon, which has been promulgated through all France and all Europe. This is the way I know it; and, knowing it, I am not easily to be persuaded, that the people of France feel very eager to be delivered from this Code, in order to be restored to that of the blessings of lettres de cachet and the Bastile.-The next blessing that I shall mention was the Gabelle, or tax upon All the taxes were oppressive in their mode of collection; and the insolence other blessing of the old government was and tyranny of the tax-officers were into- These amounted to about 8 or 9,000,000 of pounds sterling annually, in a country where provisions and all the necessaries of life were low in nominal value compared to what they were in England. These Tithes maintained about 3 or 400,000 Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Priests, Monks, Friars, Nuns; the far greater part of whom, being the sons and daughters of the nobility, lived only for the purpose of devouring the produce of the people's labour. This blessing no longer exists. ARE NO TITHES IN THERE FRANCE. Those who wish to have a priest, pay the said priest, and the Bishops have a moderate salary from the government. Every one is free to follow that mode of worship that he likes best. There are no religious tests in France. The Code Napoleon knows nothing at all of religious distinctions. All Frenchmen have the same rights, immunities and privileges. -Does the reader believe, then, that the people of France wish to be restored to the enjoyment of paying tithes? Does he believe, that they wish to be delivered from laws which leave every man to do as he likes as to matters of religion? Does the reader imagine, that the French farmer longs for the time to return when he shall again be called upon to give a tenth of his crops to the fat monks of some neighbouring convent? Yet, this is what the reader must believe before he can believe, that the people of France wish to be delivered from the sway of Napoleon and to be restored to that of the House of Bourbon. -The Game Laws was another blessing, to which, I suppose, the "Deliverers" would fain restore the people of France. -An- When we speak of Game, under the old government of France, we must figure to mill, bake their bread at his oven, press ourselves whole droves of wild boars, and their grapes at his wine-press, and pay a herds of deer, not confined by any wall or tax in all cases for so doing; besides endpaling, but rambling at will over the less duties and fines which they imposed whole country, to the destruction of the upon the people; besides these grievcrops in the fields and gardens. To touch ances, which the people experienced any of these, or any other sort of game, was, the hands of the feudal lords, the latter to the offender, a punishment little short of held courts of justice in their several death. To such an extent was the tyranny manors. In these courts litigation, for the of the government carried in this respect, sake of lucre to the lord, was endless, every that, in certain districts, called Capitaine- species of chicanery was favoured, the parries, the farmer, though he might be the ties were frequently ruined not only by: owner of the land, did not dare to weed or enormous expenses but by loss of time. In hoe his corn, nor to cut his upland hay or short, one is at a loss to say, under which his stubble before obtaining permission, the people suffered most, the royal, or the lest he should thereby disturb the par- clerical, or the feudal, tyranny; but, this tridges' nests. He did not dare steep his one may easily believe, that, all put to seed lest it should injure the game; nor did gether amounted to a state of suffering which he dare to manure his land with night soil, no human being ought to endure, and which lest the flavour of the birds should be in- no human being will endure a moment jured by their feeding on the corn pro- longer than the sword of power is held to duced by such manure.What will the his throat.The Jacobins; aye, reader, "Deliverers" say to the people of France, the abused Jacobins; the abused, the cas when they propose to them deliverance lumniated, Jacobins ; they swept away, they from the laws which have abolished such tore up by the roots, and scattered in the insolent tyranny as this? The Jacobins winds, this feudal tyranny in France. Naabolished all the Game laws, and made the poleon found it abolished by law; and that game the property of whomsoever occupied law he has carefully preserved and mainthe land. They made any man liable to a tained. There is now no feudal tyranny fine for trespass if he went on another in France. There are even no feudal rights man's ground, without his leave, to seek or tenures. There are no fines, no heriots, for, or to pursue, game; but, they abo- no exactions of the sort. The holders or lished all the exclusive rights of killing or occupiers of real property know now of no of eating game; and, as they left the law superior authority but the government. so Napoleon found it, and so he has wisely All real property is freehold and tithe free. kept it. Now, I ask the reader, whe--And is it from a state like this that it ther he believes it to be possible, that the people of France should wish to be delivered from the game laws, as they now stand under Napoleon. I ask him whether he can possibly suppose, that the people of France have any desire to be restored to their former blessed state with respect to wild boars, deer, and other game. Thousands of the people of France were annually dragged to the galleys for offences against these execrable game laws. And does the reader believe, that they wish to be restored to the blessing of being sent to the galleys for scarcely looking into a partridge's nest ?Great, however, as were the blessings which the people of France derived immediately from the government, they were, if possible, exceeded by those, which flowed to them from their feudal lords, who, living amongst them, in the several parishes, or villages, ground them to the very earth. These lords, besides numerous exactions, such as compelling the people to grind their corn at the lord's is proposed to deliver the land-owner and the land-occupier? Does the reader believe, that such persons will be very eager to be delivered back into the hands of the lords of manors and their courts of justice? Does the reader believe, that the people of France are such decided beasts as to prefer their former to their present state?-Mr. Arthur Young (from whose Travels principally I have taken my facts) in speak, ing of the outcry that was, raised against the country people in France on account of their violences at the outset of the French Revolution, has the following passage: "It is impossible to justify the excesses of the people on their taking up arms; they were certainly guilty of cruelties; it is idle to deny the facts, for they have been proved too clearly to admit of a doubt. But is it really the people to whom we are to impute the whole? Or to their oppressors, who had kept them so long in a state of bondage? He who chooses to be served by slaves, and by ill-treated slaves, |