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VOL. XXII. No. 13.]

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPT. 26, 1812.

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"I implore your Royal Highness to resist the advice of those, who would fain make you be "lieve, that we ought to insist upon these impressments. I implore your Royal Highness to reflect "on the manifold miseries that may arise from this cause; and to be pleased to bear in mind, that, "to yield hereafter, to yield upon force or menace, will be disgrace; whereas, to yield now, would "indicate a sentiment of justice."- -POL. REGISTER, 20th June, 1812. Vol. XXI. p. 789.

385]

Sir,

TO THE

PRINCE REGENT,

ON THE DISPUTE WITH AMERICA..

Letter IX.

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America appears to be, in substance, this: that the American Government has received intelligence of the repeal of our Orders in Council, but, that it is by no means satisfied therewith, and means to demand a redress of all its alleged grievances, before it lays down its arms. In confirmation of When I closed the eighth Letter to your this, the following paragraph has been Royal Highness upon this subject, it was quoted from a paper deemed the demi-offimy intention to forbear any further remon- cial paper of the American Government: strance with you thereon, and to leave time "The Orders in Council of the British to be the teacher. But, the intelligence," Government are now no longer a question arrived from America since the date of that" with the United States. The question of Letter, has made me depart from that in- " peace now requires only a proper and a tention, and has induced me to make one" vigorous use of the ample means which. more effort to convince you, that, without" the Government is possessed of, to render further measures in the way of conciliation," it speedy, decisive, and glorious. Peace, peace with America is not likely to be re- "when it comes, must bring with it more stored. than the confession of British outrage by

" British, like the first tyrants of the Swiss, "must no longer expect a free people to bow down, and worship the symbols of British usurpation."

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The very day on which my last Letter" the retraction of its avowed tyranny. It was printing (Friday last), was marked by" is not a mere cessation to do wrong that the promulgation of tidings from America," can now produce a peace; wrongs done that the Congress had revoked the declara-" must be redressed; and a guarantee must tion of war, and that the American Gene-" be given in the face of the world, for the ral in Canada had entered into an Armistice" restoration of our enslaved citizens, and for 30 days; and that both these had taken "the respect due to our flag, which, like place in consequence of the revocation of" the soil we inherit, must in future secure our Orders in Council. A few hours were "all that sails under it. The rights of sufficient to dissipate these falsehoods, fa-neutrals must be recognized; and the bricated, no doubt, for the purpose of deceiving the people of this "most thinking" country. The deception would last, in all human probability, for only a few days; but, at the end of those days, a new falsehood would be invented, and the old one lost in that. This falsehood, however, does not appear to have lived even 48 hours; for, the very next day after its promulgation brought forth the contradiction; brought forth the complete proof of a fabrication. Surely, Sir, the people of America must despise us! They must despise, or, at least, pity, a nation who are made the sport of such vile literary impostors; base hirelings, who prostitute the press to all the purposes hostile to truth and freedom.

The authentic intelligence received from

Did I not tell you so, Sir, in my very last Letter? Did I not say, that America would now demand "indemnity for the "past and security for the future" I wished to guard your Royal Highness against deception, and I, for that purpose, entered into an argument to show, that we ought not to expect America to make peace with us upon our having barely ceased to commit what she asserted to be a violation of her rights. I told your Royal Highness, that she, for more than one reason, must demand something more than a mere cessa. lion to do what she declared to be a wrong.

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In short, if I had been informed, when I " rican Government, and supported by the wrote my last Letter, of what I now know," American Legislature, we see not the I could not have written otherwise than I" slightest prospect of a speedy termination "of hostilities." then did.

I, therefore, have, I think, some claim to attention from your Royal Highness, especially as I have all along told you, that the repeal of our Orders would not, alone, be sufficient. When the repeal took place, upon the death of Perceval, and when Mr. Ponsonby and Mr. Brougham were reported to be making pledges to support a war against America, if that repeal did not satisfy her; at that time; at that important moment, when conciliation might have been rendered complete; even then, without a moment's delay, I told your Royal Highness, that the repeal of the Orders would not, of itself, be enough, and, as will be seen by the passage taken for my Motto, I most earnestly besought you to put a stop, of your own accord, to the impressment of persons on board of American ships. If this had been done, Sir; if this measure, so strongly recommended by me, had been adopted then, we should now have seen our ports crowded with American ships to take away our manufactures, instead of hearing of hundreds of American privateers cruizing against our commerce.

The COURIER and TIMES news-papers, two of the most corrupt in England, make certain remarks upon the paragraph which I have quoted from the American demi-official print; and, as these remarks einbrace assertions and notions that are false, it is necessary, or, at least, it may be useful, to put the matters of which they treat in a fair light.

The COURIER has this paragraph:"Here, then, is an open avowal, that no"thing will satisfy the American Govern"ment but the abandonment of the right of "search, and the acknowledgment of the "principle, that free ships make, free "goods. Perisk the idea of peace, if it is "only to be made on such terms. Yet this "the American Government calls an anxious desire to accommodate all dif""ferences upon the most reasonable con"ditions!!!"

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The TIMES says:----- "In this philippic, "redress is not only claimed for the supposed wrongs inflicted by this country, "but it is declared, that the "American ""flag must in future secure all that sails "under it." This is adopting, in its "fullest extent, the language of Buonaparte, "that"free ships make free goods.' If "that principle be maintained by the Ame

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Thus, then, these good hirelings are for war, rather than give up what they call the "right of search." They are hardly so stupid as not to know, that the Americans do not contend for our abandonment of the right of search, in the usual sense of those words; they must know, that, as far as to search ships at sea (or rather to visit them) has been sanctioned by the usage of nations, the Americans are ready to submit to it; but, Sir, this right of search is very different indeed from that of which these good hired writers are speaking.

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There is a right of search, or of visit, acknowledged by all the nations of Europe. When a nation is at war, she claims the right of visiting all neutral merchant ships at sea, in order to see that they do not assist her enemy by carrying warlike stores or troops for him; and, if she find them thus taking part with her enemy; if she find them thus transgressing the general usage of nations, she seizes them, as, indeed, she has just cause for doing, seeing that they are, in fact, engaged in the war against her. And, the right of visiting them, to see whether they be thus transgressing, has been, by us, called the right of search. We have contended for, and have, for some time past, been able to maintain, an extension of this right to the goods of an enemy found in a neutral ship; though it is to be observed, that our ally, Russia, and our ally, Sweden, as well as Denmark, and Holland, in all times, have contended against this right. But, what have these to do with the searching of which the Americans complain? They complain, not that we seize contraband of war on board their vessels; not that we confiscate ships or cargoes where there are enemy's troops or enemy's goods; but, that we stop their vessels upon the high seas, and that there we TAKE OUT OF THEM WHATEVER PERSONS WE PLEASE. This is what they complain of; and, the fact is perfectly notorious, that we have, in this way, taken many thousands of persons out of American ships, carrying on their trade quietly from one part of the world to another. It is notorious, that many of the persons thus seized were citizens and natives of America; that they have been taken on board of our ships of war; that they have been kept there for years; that they have been taken to all parts of the

world; that many of them have been wounded, many have lost their limbs, and many killed, in a service which they abhorred, being compelled to fight against those with whom they had no quarrel.

every American ship's crew who meet an English ship of war at sea are at the mercy of the commander of that ship of war! No more need be said; for no man likes to be at the mercy of another. The English There is no man of any consideration, Captain has, in this case, the power of who will attempt to say, that this is right. seizure, of imprisonment, of banishment, It must of necessity have created deep-root- and, indeed, what power has he not over ed ill-will against us in America, where the American crew? They may produce the sea-faring people are not a class of indi- proof of being natives of America, and viduals who have neither house nor home, then he is not authorized to seize them. and whose state is desperate. A vessel, in Aye! but he, alas is the sole and absoAmerica, is often mauned by people all lute judge of that proof, which he may living in the same village; and, the im-think bad, and then it may as well not be pressment, the banishment, the destruction produced. of one, must be felt by the whole, and by the whole of the neighbourhood also. Hence the heart-burnings in America against England. The confiscation of ships and cargoes, under the Orders in Council, together with the dreadful distress to the Captains and crews, produced great effect against us; but, great as it was, it fell short of the effect produced by the impressment of American seamen.

It has been said, that, if we give up the exercise of this power of impressment, our sailors will desert to the American ships. But, suppose the fact be so: What is that to America? It is not her fault. She does not force them out of our service. She does not compel them to desert. If they really do like her service better than ours, she cannot help that. We may as well complain of her for having such a country as our artisans and manufacturers prefer to their own, and, upon that ground, go and search her country for our deserted artisans and manufacturers, who emigrate to her shores in defiance of our laws. Really, Sir, I can see no just cause of complaint against her because our men desert to her ships. It is for us to keep our men, if we wish them not to go into her service; and not to complain of her for receiving

them.

It is a practice wholly unknown in the world before. We have never, that I have heard of, attempted to exercise such a power against any nation but America. It is true, that all our officers who may visit her ships may not conduct themselves in a manner such as she has complained of; but, it is not less true, that they are left entirely to their own discretion. They are, it is true, not authorized to take Americans out of American ships; but, then, it is left to them, and must be left wholly to them, to decide who are, and who are not, Ameri

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This is the view to take of the matter, Sir. The corrupt press of London may, and will, bewilder the minds of the people by talking about our right of search, and the like; but, the plain fact is this; that, in consequence of this authority given to our ships of war to take persons out of American ships at sea, the crew of every American merchant ship that went to sea, or even from one port to another in America, were at the absolute mercy of the commander of the first English ship of war that happened to meet them. Suppose the case, Sir, of an American captain sailing out of the Delaware for the East Indies with his complement of men, being twenty, all his neighbours, met by an Euglish sloop of war; suppose him to have six of his men, taken out in spite of all his assurances of their being native Americans; suppose him left to pursue his voyage with only 14 hands; suppose the six seized men to be taken off to the West Indies; suppose two or three to die of the yellow fever; another to be killed; another lose an arm; and the sixth released by the intervention of the American Consul in London. Suppose this case, Sir, and you will suppose what may have happened. It was possible for such cases to happen, and that was enough; but, it was a thing which admitted of being rendered impossible. It is sufficient to say, that, in consequence of the exercise of this power, no American could, in a merchant ship, sail the sea in safety. He never was, for one single hour, secure against captivity and banishment. To a people so situated war must be a relief. The American seaman will prefer war, because if captured in war, the laws of war protect him and feed him as a prisoner ; whereas he was before liable, not only to be seized and carried from his calling and country, but, at the same time, compelled to act as a seaman on board of our ships;

compelled to labour and to risk his life in all surprized to see the American demiour service, where it might be his lot to official print announce, that compensation assist in serving others of his own country- for the past and security for the future men as he himself had been served. would be required. "It is not," says the Sir, when you take a dispassionate view writer, "a mere cessation to do wrong of this matter, I am quite sure, that the" that can now produce a peace: wrong justice of your mind will decide you in fa-" done must be redressed, and a guarantee vour of an abandonment, a frank abandon-" must be given in the face of the world.” ment, of the exercise of this power, which Yes, Sir, just as in my case, who, after is, I am satisfied, without a precedent in imprisonment and fine was compelled, bethe usage of nations, and which, under the fore I was released, to enter into bonds, present circumstances, can do nothing to- to give a guarantee, as the republican wards the safety of the country. writer calls it. Indeed, Sir, the history of the world is full of cases in support of this doctrine of the Americans. When your Royal Brother invaded Holland, it was not sufficient that he ceased to penetrate into the country; for, when he got. back to the Helder, though he had then entirely ceased to be an invader, and appears to have very properly confined his wishes to the safe bringing-off of his army, the Republican generals, Brune (the "Printer's boy of Limosin") and Daendels, insisted upon his stipulating for the surrender to France and Holland of eight thousand of their seamen, who were then prisoners of war in England; this they insisted upon, "as the price of permission

to the British troops, with whom the Duke of York had invaded Holland, to "re-embark on board their transports "without molestation."

If this point were once settled, it appears to me, that much difficulty would not remain. But, as I had before the honour to state to your Royal Highness, it is not to be supposed, that war is to cease the moment we cease to do wrong to America. I have not taken upon me to say, whether our Orders in Council were a wrong, or not; but, by the repeal, we seem to have acknowledged that they were. If, then, they were a wrong, the cessation of them cannot be considered as sufficient to induce America to put up the sword at once, and without any further ceremony. When I published what was called a Libel, in the year 1809, that is to say, when I published an expression of my feelings at what" had then been described as having taken place, at the town of Ely (where the Bank has since broken), with respect to the Local Militia and the German Legion; when I had made that publication I ceased; I made only one of that sort; yet, Sir, was I, at the distance of a year after the publica-" tion, sentenced to be imprisoned for two years, and to pay a thousand pounds fine to your royal Sire, and which thousand pounds I have paid to you, in his behalf. So you Sir, that, after one has done a thing, or has been doing a thing, it is not always sufficient to cease to do it; the ceasing to do that which is deemed wrong, is not always regarded as sufficient to appease, or disarm, the offended party. The last part of my punishment, the payment of the fine to you, in behalf of your royal Sire, was inflicted at more than three years' distance from the time of my writing about the Local Militia and the German Legion. There may, perhaps, in the law of nations, be an exception from the general principles in cases where a kingly government commits an offence, or alleged offence, against a republic; but, in my small reading, I have, I must confess, never met with any such exception.

see,

Therefore, I, for my part, was not at

This was a compensation for injury, not done, but attempted. If the Royal commander had said, "I have stopped; I have ceased; I am going away; what more do you want?" If he had thus addressed the republican generals, they would have thought him cracked in the brain. His Royal Highness knew a great deal better. He took the effectual way of giving his opponents satisfaction, and thus he was enabled to bring off his army without molestation.

Here, then, Sir, are two instances of the soundness of the American doctrine; that a mere cessation of an offensive act is not, as a matter of course, deemed a satisfaction to the party offended, Nay, in my case, that was single; it was committed in a moment; it at once ceased; there was no remonstrance; no expostulation; the single act was seized hold of, and my printer and publisher and one of the newsmen, though they did not attempt to defend their conduct, but confessed their crime, declared on oath that they were wholly unconscious that they were publishing a libel and humbly sued for mercy;

to us.

though they did all this, yet they were all | Spain is, in fact, most fearful to America imprisoned. when it is most promising in appearances She will never rest contented while there is a chance of our having any influence in Spanish South America." Of Napoleon she is not afraid in that quarter. He has no fleet to endanger her commerce; and, besides, her present exertions against us may, perhaps, secure her his assent to her wishes on that flank of her territories.

As to our internal situation she is well aware of it. The army in Canada is not better known to her than the army in the

Upon what principle, then, I ask, can these corrupt writers imagine, that America is to be satisfied with the mere repeal of our Orders in Council; that is to say, with a mere cessation of the acts offensive to her? Upon what ground is it that the country, in which the proceedings against me took place, can expect this at her hands? I do not say, that we were doing her wrong; I do not take upon me to decide that question. If we were not doing her wrong, however, why did we repeal?" disturbed counties." Mr. Madison is If we were not doing her wrong, why did we yield at her menaces? If we were not doing her wrong, we should not have given way; and, if we were doing her wrong, we should have gone further; for, upon the principles on which I was punished, and on which the sans-culotte generals insisted upon your Royal Brother's giving up of 8,000 prisoners of war then in England; upon those principles a mere cessation to do what gives offence is not considered as a sufficient atonement to the offended party.

very well acquainted with the causes of our disturbances; he has read before now all the evidence taken at the bar of parliament; he has seen it proved that the people of England are suffering greatly from the nonimportation of their goods into America ; he is well aware of the wants of our army in Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean; and he knows that a war with his country must soon plunge us into the greatest dis

tress.

It is with a knowledge of all these that The President of the United States has Mr. Madison enters on the war; and, unseen himself ridiculed and most grossly der such circumstances, it appears to me abused in our venal news papers, who, impossible that he should listen to any amongst other qualities not more to be ad- terms of peace not including ample indememired, have ascribed to him that of cow-nity for the past. The American prints ardice. Such language does not tend to harmony; and, though (thank God!) Mr. Madison cannot, by his obstinacy, or to indulge any old grudge, plunge his country into a war; yet, he certainly has the power to render the way to peace more difficult. I must, however, do him the justice to say, that I do not believe him capable of imitating, for one single moment, those detestable miscreants, whom history has but too frequently exhibited in the act of rendering millions miserable for the purpose of gratifying some stupid, some idiot like, some hog-like, passion. But, without being under any such influence, and without supposing any very strong prejudice against England in the minds of the people of America, there are, I fear, reasons enough to induce Mr. Madison to be in no haste to listen to terms of peace.

"

America has long felt the power of England; she has long been compelled to endure that which she detested; she is covered with scars of our inflicting; and she will not forget all this now that she has arms in her hands. I have before pointed to your Royal Highness of what importance it is to her that we should have nothing to do in the affairs of Spain. The war in

seem to insist upon a guarantee for the release of the American Seamen whom we have impressed. This, I should hope, there would be no objection to; and, indeed, I hope, that your Royal Highness's ministers will now, at the eleventh hour, do every thing in their power to procure us the restoration of honourable peace; I hope that England is not doomed to wage war against every man in the world who is in the enjoyment of real liberty. I know, Sir, that there are, in England, men who abhor the American government and people, and who would, if they had the power, exterminate them both, merely because the one guarantees and the other enjoys freedom. Such men will never be happy while they see a free man in the world; but, their malice will not be gratified; they will, though it blast their eye-sight, still see the Americans free. Such men always speak of America with disdain; they affect to consider her as nothing; they seem to think that no ceremony is necessary with her; that even when she has declared war, and has actually begun war, she is bound to leave off merely upon our ceasing to do her wrong, if wrong it be. Such men would, of course, think it

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