as it had not been gained by treaties, or by the right of conquest.The heat continues to be very violent.--The people of Poland are in motion on all sides. The White Eagle is hoisted every where. Priests, nobles, peasants, women, all call for the independence of their nation. The peasants are extremely jealous of the happiness of the peasants of the Grand Duchy, who are free; for, whatever may be said to the contrary, liberty is considered by the Lithuanians as the greatest blessing. The peasants express themselves with a vivacity of elocution, which would not seem to belong to the climates of the North, and all embrace with transport, the hope that the result of the struggle will be the re-establishment of their liberty. The peasants of the Grand Duchy have gained by their liberty, not that they are richer, but that the proprietors are obliged to be moderate, just, and humane; because otherwise the peasants would quit their lands in order to seek better proprietors. Thus the noble loses nothing; he is only obliged to be just, and the peasant gains much. It must be an agreeable gratification for the heart of the Emperor, to witness, in crossing the Grand Duchy, the transports of joy and gratitude which the blessing of liberty, granted to four millions of men, has excited.

The

shall be confided to a Sub-Prefect.-VII. There shall be in the city of Wilna a Mayor, four Assistants, and a Municipal Council, composed of twelve Members. This Administration shall be charged with the management of the property of the city, with the superintendence of the Charitable Establishments, and with the Municipal Police.-VIII. A national guard, consisting of two battalions, shall be formed at Wilna. Each battalion shall have six companies. This national guard shall be organized in the following manner :-ETATMAJOR. One Commandant, two Chiefs a Battalion, two Adjutant-Majors, one Quarter-Master, two Adjutant Sub-Officers, one Drum-Major, three Master Artificers, one Surgeon-Major, one Assistant Surgeon, eight Musicians (22).-COMPANIES. One Captain, one Lieutenant, one Sub-Lieutenant, one Sergeant-Major, four Sergeants, one Corporal Quarter-master, four Corporals, two Drummers, and 100 soldiers, making, in each Company, 119. strength of the two battalions 1450.-IX. There shall be in each of the Governments of Wilna, Grodno, Minsk, and Bialistock, a corps of gendarmerie, commanded by a Colonel, having under his orders, those of the Governments of Wilna and Minsk, two Chiefs of squadrons; those of the Governments of Grodno and Bialistock, one Chief of a squadron. There shall be a company of gendarmerie in each district. Each Company shall be composed of one Captain Commandant, one Second Captain, one First Lieutenant, two Second Lieutenants, one principal Quarter-master, four Quartermasters, sixteen Brigadiers, eighty volunORDER OF THE DAY.-Article I. There teer gens d'armes, and one trumpeter, total shall be a Provisional Government of Li- 107.-X. The Colonel of gendarmerie thuania, composed of seven Members and shall reside at the chief seat of the Governa Secretary General.-II. The Commission ment. The residence of the officers, and of the Provisional Government of Lithuania the stationing of the brigades, shall be deshall be charged with the administration of termined by the Provisional Commission of the finances, with the care of the means of the Government of Lithuania.-XI. The subsistence, with the organization of the officers, sub-officers, and volunteers of the troops of the country, with the formation gendarmerie shall be taken from the genof the national guards, and of the gens-tlemen proprietors of the district: no one d'armie.-III. There shall be an Imperial can be exempted. They shall be appointCommissioner with the Commissioner of ed, viz. the officers by the Provisional the Provisional Government of Lithuania. Commission of the Government of Lithua-IV. Each of the Governments of Wilna, nia: the sub-officers and volunteers by the Grodno, Minsk, and Bialistock shall be ad- Administrative Commission of the Governministered by a Commission of three Mem-ments of Wilna, Grodno, Minsk, and Biabers, with an Intendant presiding.-V. listock.-XII. The Polish uniform shall be These Administrative Commissions shall that of the gendarmerie.-XIII. The genbe under the orders of the Provisional Com- darmerie shall perform the service of the mission of the Government of Lithuania.- police; it shall support the public authoriVI. The Administration of each District ty; and shall arrest traitors, marauders,

-Six regiments of infantry are just ordered to be raised by a new levy in Lithuania, and four regiments of cavalry have been offered by the nobility.

Acts relative to the Organization of

Lithuania.

and deserters of whatever army.-XIV. | 30th of June, our city has had quartered Our Order of the Day of the of last upon it, 7 Marshals, 73 Generals, 416 OfJune shall be published in each Govern- ficers on the Staff, 3,642 Officers, 89,613 ment, and there shall consequently be esta- Sub-officers and privates, and 10,902 horses. blished in each a Military Commission.— XV. The Major-General shall appoint a General or Superior Officer, either French or Polish, of the troops of the line to the command in each Government. He shall have under his orders the national guards, the gendarmerie, and the troops of the country. (Signed) NAPOLEON. Imperial Head-quarters, Wilna, July 1, 1812.

[Then follow a number of other Orders of the Day, of the same date, appointing the several Members of the Provisional Commissioners of Government, &c.]

Warsaw, July 7.-His Highness, Prince Poniatowski, General in Chief of the Fifth Corps of the Grand Army, has addressed to the Poles, who are under his command, the following Order of the Day:

Berlin, July 14.-On the 11th of this month, his Highness the Prince of Orange set out for Vogelsdorf, on his way to Breslau. According to the most recent intelligence from the army, the few Swiss regiments were stationed in the environs of Marienwerder, a short distance from Dantzic.-In the place where the Dwina and the Niemen approach nearest to each other, that is to say, from Dunaburg to Kowno, the distance of these two rivers asunder is twenty German miles.

His

Wilna, July 11.-Extract from the Lithu anian Courier. Proclamation of the Provisional Committee to the Lithuanians. CITIZENS-For the space of twenty years a foreign Government has communicated its orders to us in language with which we are Head-quarters, Baygodo, July 6. unacquainted. Listen now to the voice of SOLDIERS-In communicating to you your brothers; listen to the voice of Poles the Proclamation of his Majesty the Empe- addressing you in the Polish language. ReFor of the French, I am convinced of the turn thanks to Providence, which evidently sentiments with which you will reply to manifests its beneficent designs towards his appeal, and that you will readily per- you, through Napoleon the Great. ceive that a new field is opening to you, in coming, like that of the Sun, before which which you will cover yourselves with glory. the ice dissolves, has dissipated every obAlready in two wars you have had an op- stacle, and his benign accents, while they portunity of recognizing the restorer of your awake the joy of hope in our bosoms, fill us country, and of laying the foundation of the with sentiments of the most ardent grati glory of the Polish army. I have no doubt tude.-By the Order of the Day of the 4th that, forming as you do in the present war, of July, by which a Provisional Governin the grand army, a corps, which this ment has been constituted, we are enabled powerful Protector has himself denomi- to call upon you to partake our sentiments. nated the Army of Poland, and which is to Can there be any more reasonable ground decide the fate of many millions of Poles, for exultation than the hope of seeing our your countrymen, you will then prove your-country once more take her rank amongst selves worthy of the French, in conjunction with whom we fight, as well as of those projectors which have, during so long a period, formed the object of our wishes, and which now begin to be put in execution for

us.

We ought, then, to redouble our efforts. Let no fatigues, no privations, enfeeble the warlike spirit which we have inherited. We shall once more prove to the whole world that the sacred name of country renders its real children invincible.

Posen, July 11.--Different corps of troops are continually passing through our city on their way to the Grand Army. Yesterday the Saxon regiment of "low" infantry arrived here; one part of it was quartered in the city, and the rest in the villages in the environs. Within the last three months, from the 1st of April to the

the nations?--You shall be witnesses of our solicitude to assuage your evils, and lessen, as much as possible, the calamities of war. The sacrifices we shall call on you to make will be but slight, when put in comparison with the benefits we shall procure you. Having promised thus much, we declare that we have been installed as a Provisional Government, and we invite all our fellowcitizens to enter upon the necessary relations with us.

Signed by the Members of the Commission.

The Provisional Commissioners of the Government of the Duchy of Lithuania to the Clergy of the Diocese of Wilna.

The principles of the religion of the Lithuanian people are well known. They have been well inculcated by a wise and

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As illustrated in the Prosecution and Punishment of

WILLIAM COBBETT.

**

[352

In order that my countrymen and that the two sureties in the sum of 1,000 pounds each; world may not be deceived, duped, and cheated that the whole of this sentence has been execnted upon this subject, I, WILLIAM COBBETT, upon me, that I have been imprisoned the two of Botley, in Hampshire, put upon record years, have paid the thousand pounds TO THE the following facts; to wit: That, on the 24th KING, and have given the bail, Timothy Brown June, 1809, the following article was pub- and Peter Walker, Esqrs. being my sureties; lished in a London news-paper, called the that the Attorney General was Sir Vicary Gibbs, COURIER: The Mutiny amongst the LO- the Judge who sat at the trial Lord Ellenborough, "CAL MILITIA, which broke out at Ely, was the four Judges who sat at passing sentence Ellen"fortunately suppressed on Wednesday by the borough, Grose, Le Blanc, and Bailey; and that "arrival of four squadrons of the GERMAN the jurors were, Thomas Rhodes of Hampstead "LEGION CAVALRY from Bury, under the Road, John Davis of Southampton Place, James "command of General Auckland. Five of the Ellis of Tottenham Court Road, John Richards "ringleaders were tried by a Court-Martial, and of Bayswater, Thomas Marsham of Baker Street, "sentenced to receive 500 lashes each, part of which Robert Heathcote of High Street Marylebone, "punishment they received on Wednesday, and John Maud of York Place Marylebone, George a part was remitted. A stoppage for their knup- Bagster of Church Terrace Pancras, Thomas "sacks was the ground of the complaint that ex- Taylor of Red Lion Square, David Deane of St. "cited this mutinous spirit, which occasioned John Street, William Palmer of Upper Street "the men to surround their officers, and demand Islington, Henry Favre of Pall Mall; that the "what they deemed their arrears. The first Prime Ministers during the time were Spencer "division of the German Legion halted yesterday Perceval, until he was shot by John Bellingham, "at Newmarket on their return to Bury."- and after that Robert B. Jenkinson, Earl of LiThat, on the 1st July, 1809, I published, in the verpool; that the prosecution and sentence took Political Register, an article censuring, in the place in the reign of King George the Third, and strongest terms, these proceedings; that, for so that, he having become insane during my impridoing, the Attorney General prosecuted, as sedi-sonment, the 1,000 pounds was paid to his son, tious libellers, and by Ex-Officio Information, the Prince Regent, in his behalf; that, during my me, and also my printer, my publisher, and one imprisonment, I wrote and published 364 Essays of the principal retailers of the Political Register; and Letters upon political subjects; that, during that I was brought to trial on the 15th June, the same time, I was visited by persons from 197 1810, and was, by a Special Jury, that is to say, cities and towns, many of them as a sort of depuby 12 men out of 48 appointed by the Master of ties from Societies or Clubs; that, at the expirathe Crown Office, found guilty; that, on the tion of my imprisonment, on the 9th of July, 1812, 20th of the same month, I was compelled to give a great dinner was given in London for the purbail for my appearance to receive judgment; pose of receiving me, at which dinner upwards of and that, as I came up from Botley (to which 600 persons were present, and at which Sir place I had returned to my family and my farm Francis Burdett presided; that dinners and other on the evening of the 15th), a Tipstaff went parties were held on the same occasion in many down from London in order to seize me, per- other places in England; that, on my way home, sonally; that, on the 9th of July, 1810, I, toge- I was received at Altón, the first town in Hampther with my printer, publisher, and the news-shire, with the ringing of the Church bells; that man, were brought into the Court of King's Bench to receive judgment; that the three former were sentenced to be imprisoned for some months in the King's Bench prison; that I was sentenced to be imprisoned for two years in Newgate, the great receptacle for malefactors, and the front of which is the scene of numerous hangings in the course of every year; that the part of the prison in which I was sentenced to be confined is sometimes inhabited by felons, that felons were actually in it at the time I entered it; that one man was taken out of it to be transported in about 48 hours after I was put into the same yard with him; and that it is the place of confinement for men guilty of unnatural crimes, of whom there are four in it at this time; that, besides this imprisonment, I was sentenced to pay a thousand pounds TO THE KING, and to give security for my good behaviour for seven years, myself in the sum of 3,000 pounds, and

|

a respectable company met me and gave me a dinner at Winchester; that I was drawn from more than the distance of a mile into Botley by the people; that, upon my arrival in the village, I found all the people assembled to receive me; that I concluded the day by explaining to them the cause of my imprisonment, and by giving them clear notions respecting the flogging of the Local Militia-men at Ely, and respecting the employment of German Troops; and, finally, which is more than a compensation for my losses and all my sufferings, I am in perfect health and strength, and, though I must, for the sake of six children, feel the diminution that has been made in my property (thinking it right in me to decline the offer of a subscription), I have the consolation to see growing up three sous, upon whose hearts, I trust, all these facts will be engraven.

Botley, July 23, 1812.

WM. COBBETT.

Published by R. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent-Garden.
LONDON: Printed by J. M'Creery, Black-Horse-Court, Fleet-street.

VOL. XXII. No. 12.]

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPT. 19, 1812.

[Price 18.

"If I were asked what ought to be done to prevent war with America, I should say: first repeal "the Orders in Council; but, I am far from supposing, that that measure alone would be suffi❝cient. Indeed, it seems to me, that the impressment of American seamen must be abandoned." -Pol. Register, Vol. XXI. page 200. Feb. 15, 1812.

353]

Sir,

TO THE

PRINCE REGENT,

ON THE DISPUTE WITH AMERICA.

Letter VIII.

During the time that I was imprisoned for two years in Newgate for writing about the flogging of the Local Militia, in the town of Ely, and about the enployment of German Troops upon that occasion, I addressed to your Royal Highness several Letters, the object of which was to prevent this country from being plunged into war with America. I took great pleasure in offering to you advice, which I thought would be beneficial to my country; and, of course, I have experienced great sorrow at seeing that that advice has not been followed, and that, in consequence of its rejection, we are now actually in a state of war with our brethren across the Atlantic.

peo

[354

war; and that such war would, in all bability, be very calamitous to England.

pro

While I was telling you this, your late minister, Perceval, was laughing at the idea of America going to war; and his opinion was upheld by all the venal scribes in the kingdom; that is to say, by nineteen twentieths, perhaps, of all those who write in news-papers, and other political works. That we really are at war with America, however, the following document clearly proves. The American Congress declared war in due form; they passed an Act making war against your Royal Sire and his people; their government issued Letters of Marque and Reprisals; but, still our hirelings said that there was no war. The following proclamation, however, issued by an American General from his head-quarters in Canada, which province he has invaded, puts the fact of war beyond all doubt.

"By William Hull, Brigadier-General and "Commander in Chief of the North Western Army of the United States.

66

Those corrupters and blinders of the ple, the hired writers, do yet attempt to make their readers believe, that we are not at war with the Republic of America. "A PROCLAMATION. They it is, who have hastened, if not ac- "Inhabitants of Canada!-After thirty tually produced this war; for, they it was," years of peace and prosperity, the United who reviled the American President, and" States have been driven to arms. The who caused it to be believed here, that he" injuries and aggressions, the insults and and the Congress dared not go to war." indignities of Great Britain, have once What pains, alas! have I taken to convince" more left them no alternative but manly your Royal Highness of the folly and false-resistance or unconditional submission. hood of these opinions! Though my mind "The army under my command has invadwas busied with the means of raising the "ed your country, and the standard of thousand pounds fine to pay TO THE" Union now waves over the territory of KING (and which you have received from "Canada. To the peaceable, unoffending me in his behalf), I let slip no occasion to "inhabitants, it brings neither danger nor caution you against believing these repre- "difficulty. I come to find enemies, not sentations. I told you (and you might as "to make them. I come to protect, not to well have believed me), that the American" injure them.Separated by an im people were something; that they had a say 66 mense, ocean and an extensive wilderness in the measures of government; that they" from Great Britain, you have no particiwould not suffer themselves to be plunged "pation in her councils, no interests in her into war for the gain of a set of lazy and "conduct; you have felt her tyranny, you rapacious fellows; but that, if their coun- "have seen her injustice; but I do not ask try's good demanded it, they would go to you to avenge the one or redress the M