at interest, or upon the legislature, for not having attended to their interest in authorising such investment, particularly so, as the person who is reported by the Morning Post to have made the observation, is the very person who brought the bill into parliament. That the board are not to blame for the money remaining wrapped up in a napkin, as I have heretofore mentioned, I shall make appear perfectly clear. The eleventh section of the act of parliament, which was passed on the 22d of April, 1803, enacts that the three several installments of £200,000" shall, as soon after the payment thereof respectively in America, as the same can be done, be remitted to, and paid into the hands of the cashier of the governor and company of the Bank of England, to the account of, and with the privity, and in the names of, the commissioners appointed under this act, and shall be and remain in the names of the commissioners for the time being under this act, to be paid to the several and respective persons entitled thereto under the order of the said commissioners, or any two of them, pursuant to the provisions of this act." Not one word of authority is delegated to the board to invest the money in Exchequer Bills or otherwise, for the benefit of the concern throughout the act; and, consequently, this money might remain in the bank until doomsday, if it could be possible that a board armed with the powers they have by this act, could, in the exercise and in the plenitude of hose powers, refrain from deciding upon the cases before them. I will not, as the Morning Post has done, charge the board with acting improperly, in attributing to them power which they are not armed with, or with an improper exercise of the authority they have delegated to them; because, I have been assured that the present commissioners are men of character and ability, qualified in every respect for their arduous duties, and are not insensible to the situation their starving petitioners are, and have been for many years placed in, and are disposed to extend to each claimant his individual share of justice; but, I may without impropriety suppose in the present state of mankind, that it is not impossible others not of equal character and ability, and to whom the harsh treatment we have experienced, and the rigourous measures we have endured may not be known or attended to, may in less time than a century be placed in their stations; and that while those men may be fattening upon the otium cum dignitate, some trivial imperfection or other in our respective cases may be held to be of sufficient importance to delay a decision upon them be Difcounts. 4

yond the period of the present century. This may be the case, and of this I do complain as of an event not improbable, as I am informed not one of the present board has youth on his side. Still, however, it might be some consolation for a man of my age and infirmities, to reflect that my great grandson's great grandson might be the better remunerated for my present miserable expectations, if I knew that the money paid into the Bank was laid out in Exchequer Bills, and consequently, accumulating in amount, the simple interest of which in the course of a century, taking the amount as it is now stated to be £475,000, would produce £2,375,000 in the aggregate £2,850.000, though very far short of our claims, still it would be some addition to our confined hopes; but, as it would be a further consolation to know that the greater the resulting benefits accruing, the larger would be our rateable proportion. I have to suggest the adoption of the same rule which is pursued in the City of London, where we mercantile men do not in our practical proceedings content ourselves with a calculation of simple interest profits. Certainly not, for as we receive our money we send it out again into the world, and as this is strictly correct and atter ded with the reflection that we can calculate upon the advantage of compound interest, which in the time I have mentioned would amount to a very considerable sum, the overplus in the present case, after paying our descendants of the sixth generation handsomely, might be made subservient to the general purposes of the nation. But how can the attempt to put this into practice be made? Where rests the power to make even simple interest of this composition money, Mr. Cobbett, for the act of parliament authorises no such thing; and it seems therefore, necessary that a new act be passed for the express purpose. The present board have some limits to what they shall not de, though from a very minute examination of the act, I cannot discover any rule of con duct positively restricting them to what they shall beneficially do. Let the obloquy remain where it should, in the administration that agreed to sacrifice us for £600,000 and having sacrificed us for that sum, still further added to it by not attending to the be nefits which would arise, and in some measure compensate us for the first sacrifice, by directing that scanty pittance to be placed out at interest until the sixth generation of commissioners to meet upon our cases might deem it proper to decide them. The present board, Sir, have no more interest in the application of the monies than you have;

they are the mere tunnel as it were, through which our silvery flood of dollars is to drip into our hands, when it has been purified at the smelting house; for, I consider every day's delay as operating to exude out of us £82. 3s. 10d. simple interest during every 24 hours, the principal sum remaining as a dead and unprofitable concern in the Bank of England cashier's hands, under the act of parliament, totally unemployed. Mr. Cobbett, the good hard dollars hourly losing the polish, such at least is to be collected from the act of parliament, was the intention of the legislature. The board though armed as they are with some very great powers, are notwithstanding not armed with powers for cur prospective interest; this however, is not their fault, but the crime of those who originally sacrificed us; and the Morning Post must, therefore, be incorrect, in attributing the expressions it has done to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the very man who prepared the bill, and moved it in the house, and who must have known how an act of parliament operates, expressly declaring that the money shall remain with the cashier of the Bank, until paid over to the claimants; but, though our individual interest has been neglected, yet, surely, it would have been well that the legislature had not wholly overlooked that which cončerns the national interest. If our prospective interest was beneath their notice, that of the nation is presumed not to be so. Why, not have directed that the annual interest of the £600,000 should be appropriated to the current expences of the office of the board. The et cæteras of public offices are not introduced into the national establishment without expence, and £30,000, the yearly interest of the £600,000, would have at feast contributed to the discharge of claims upon government for the expence of the of fice, instead of becoming a permanent charge upon our taxes, as I much fear it will, for the end of the concern is far removed for any definite period. We have now entered into the seventh year of the existence of the American clainr office, few claims have been decided, and small indeed has been the rateable pittance which has been doled out to a very few of us, after a patient endurance of sufferings for 33 years, and no prospect whatever presents itself of a final Cessation of our miseries, unless the faint spark of life remaining in us should expire, and with that event put an end to all reflection upon our cares-In my former correspondence, I observed, that much appeared to be done, before we received the scanty portion of our sacrifice, notwithstanding

was gravely assured by one of your corre spondents, that all the leading points wer decided upon by the Board in Philadelphia, and that it was now only necessary to apply those points to the different cases, and decide upon them. Mr. Cobbett, 7 years have nearly elapsed, and comparatively speaking, we have gained not a shadow of our rights, and for what we have gained we have been. compelled to submit iu the first instance to the acceptance of 2s. 44. in the pound composition, when even government acknow ledges that twenty shillings is our due, because policy required the state to offer us, the mercantile part of the nation, as an expiatory sacrifice for having dared to demand the fulfilment of the 4th article of the treaty of peace by the Americans. I should hope that government will ultimately see the propriety of making up the difference to us, which I hold it to be bound to do on the principles of common justice, as it was deemed adviseable to concede, our property to America without our consent, and to take from us our right to sue our debtors, which we were euabled to do before the convention, or to look to the government of America for redress, if justice was withheld from us by the American judiciary.--Men may flippantly talk of concessions to America, but let every one bring the matter home to his own breast. It is easy to contend for the concession of the rights of others; but, I should wish much to know, if those men who at this time strenuously and vociferously advocate the cause of concessions to America by this nation, are willing themselves to concede what may immediately effect their individual interests. What is the concern of every one is the concern of no one; and we may, therefore, concede as a nation all our just rights, without a direct sacrifice being made of the interest of the individual; this is what those men contend for, but who would vehemently oppose a surrender of their individual interests, though the nation should require it to be done in the manner we have submitted to the surrender. But whatever is yielded to America, "whatever' concession may be determined upon by this country, I am fully satisfied it will only be considered by America as arising from apprehension; and that America emboldened by our wavering conduct, will never desert ber system of extorting concession as long as this country has any thing left to concede.I have ever found such to be the conduct of individuals of that country; and, I have no doubt, that the collective body retains the, virtues of the component parts. My present letter has branched out into greater space

can

than I expected it would, when I first took up the pen; but, the subject, an inexhaustible one it is, must be my excuse with you, and momentous it is equally to its inexhaustion. Mercantile men who pride themselves on their self importance, and the consequence they consider themselves with respect to the nation at large, may fairly con clude from my observations on the treatment we have experienced, from the neglect with which we have been treated, and from the sacrifice which has been made of us by go vernment, what value is set upon our rank in the common scale: to have suspended us by dozens would have been mercy to us, compared with the treatment we have experienced. The value government puts upon the rank and character of mercantile inen in the state, and their beneficial exertions towards the increase of commerce may be rea. dily estimated. You, Mr. Cobbett, and Mr. Spence have been insisting that we well do without commerce. One consideration in support of the doctrine you have brought forward into public view, and contended for, you have left to me to furnish you with, that even the government of this country acts as if commerce was unnecessary, from the sacrifice of those who carry it on; and which government assuredly would not do if it was beneficial; certainly, the best method of completely putting an end to commerce, is to sacrifice those at the shrine of the new morality," which contends for the adoption of nothing but what concerns oneself; a like sacrificing the merchant by whom commerce has been brought to an unprecedented heighth, and the manufactures of the country, which through his means have been raised to a pre-eminence unexampled. Thus to extinguish our importance, is to shew in what view the commerce of the country is held, duly appreciating its value. and insignificance. If the remnant of life now remaining to me, and ny faculties will permit, I may again trouble you for a space in your Register, for some remarks upon the different decisions by the board under the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, and the board under the convention, now sitting in London, shewing the various proceedings which have taken place when the American debtor was a party, and now that the American debtor is no longer a party, with the objections which have been brought against our claims, which even the American agent for the debtor never contended for, though it was their interest to lessen our demands as much as possible, a difference I cannot account for; for what was declared to be law by the board in America, it does

seem to me should be held to be law by the board here; particularly as the present board consists of the identical individuals who composed the majority of the board in America, where they had to contend with men by no means deficient in skill, though possibly not possessing superior ability to the members of the present board, who, I presume, were on that recommendation selected for their office, and appointed to the consideration of the claims of-A RUINED OLD AMERICAN MERCHANT.-Feb. 29,1808.

IRELAND.

SIR; Catholic emancipation, and the abolition of tithes might perhaps prove auxiliary towards removing the return of the disorders, that have long afflicted Ireland, but their operation could only produce a temporary effect. It is true, that Catholic emancipation, by gratifying the pride of the Romish aristocracy, would occasion sincere efforts on their part, to excite among the lower orders of the Catholics a hearty resistance to French invasion, while the abolition of tithes would put their value into the tenant's pocket during his lease, and so far increase bis means of subsistence; it is evident, however, to common sense, that the adoption of such measures could produce no solid or permanent good, when we fairly consider the source from which all the evils spring; rack rents and non-resident landed proprietors, are most certainly the primary and sole cause of all the calamities, which have afflicted that unhappy land for the last century; an exuberant population, ill lodged, ill fed, and ill clothed, will be always ready to join the standard of sedition, for the propensity is in human nature.-To describe evils without prescribing a remedy, is useless, and to prescribe a remedy, when there is little hope of its being adopted is nugatory in spite, however, of such discouraging prospects, I will trespass upon you with my opinion. Political concessions the most liberal and extensive must prove wholly unavailing. Measures that directly come home to the root of the evil, can only prove efficient. Long have the landed proprietors of Ireland, been in the habit of extorting excessive rents from the oppressed occupiers, without any allowances or deductions for building or repairing their miserable habitations, or improving their land. The arrear to patriotism and humanity, on that score, is deep indeed, and I may venture to affirm that it will never be discharged without the vigorous and determined interposition of the legislature between peasantry and property. This I may be told would be dangerous and unconstitu

:

senatorial adventurers,

forersian demagogues, and inflammatory pamphleteers, to direct the storm against the state. Government, which had never provoked the insurrection, was bound, however, to put it down by military force; hence, being considered by the insurgents as allies to the landed tyrants, who were the original aggressors, both became the common object of democratical attack. The fact is, Government and the Irish peasantry are far distant from each other. I know of no point in which they are in direct contact, except in the tax on hearths, and even that small duty escapes the chimney of the solitary cottager, or the cottager with one hearth.-Whether the duty on whisky or tobacco be any real grieveance, I must submit to economists and moralists,-under a free constitution it is not easy to conceive how an agricultural peasantry can be oppressed by its government, I mean, where a just usage and a humane order of things, prevail; for, most assuredly, the quantum of rent should be regulated by the quantum of taxation to which the renter is subject, this is so obvious a truth, that it requires no illustration.-It is high time that the saddle were placed on the right horse,to this very hour there are many, even thinking people in England, who are persuaded that all those disorders that have af flicted and disgraced Ireland, have been occasioned by political misrule and persecu tion from government, whereas white boys, oak boys, and all the boys sprang from causes in which government had no more to do than the Emperor of China. Since the house of Hanover ascended the British throne, the people of Ireland have felt no impulse from their political rulers, by which their comforts or happiness were diminished or disturbed.-In England, all oppressions flow from Government, in Ireland they are inflicted by the rapacious hand of the landed interest.-Your most obedient servant, 26th Feb. 1808.. J. W.

an Hibernian member, with firm front, stait up in the Imperial Parliament, and harangue with patriotic ardour, on the calamities of his country; he boldly affirms, that if something be not immediately done for Ireland, that it will become a French colony: Agreed, but who is to do that something?why such men, as the very honourable gentleman on his legs,-let me ask him, who is to enable the miserable wretches on his estate to clothe, feed and lodge better, but he himself? would he wish to thrust his hand into the public purse to improve the condition of his tenants? agreed, let him do so, provided that he will replenish that purse when it is empty;-does he not put the whole rental of his estate into his pocket, undiminished by repairs, property-tax, allowances for improvements, or audit dinners, while an English landlord hardly receives three-fourths of his rent clear, and pays for every consumeable article an enormous price? In a word, there are no landed proprietors in Europe who owe so much to their country, as the gentlemen of Ireland; there is no country for which God has done so much, and man so little.-Let me exhort those gentlemen, before it be too late, to give up, (at least for seven years) the charms of Harrowgate, Margate, and all the gates and mouths, too, with precious Bath and voluptuous London, and reside in their own country, let them lower the rents of their little tenants, and encourage, not excise, their industry. Let them contribute to render the habitations of the peasantry decent and comfortable. Let them give bounties for order and cleanliness, and by frequent inspection see that the intention of such bounty be carried into effect; a mere fiat, will never do in a country where the people in many parts have never in fact, been completely civilized-the residence of the many would give peace and security to the whole. -Between cowardice and dissipation Ireland has been nearly deserted, so that the few gentlemen who have had virtue and fortitude to stand their ground in the country parts actually maintained posts of danger.-In point, I knew a gentleman, who, for two years, never went to bed until break of day, he and his family, even including his wife, were on duty every night, had other gentlemen acted with similar courage, vigilance, and perseverance as he did, the late rebellion never could have been so horribly powerful and tremendous as it was,-nay, it might have been prevented entirely -I know that it had been long the practice in Ireland, when the oppressed broke out into acts of outrage against their oppressors, for

BANK OF ENGLAND.

SIR,-Having lately conversed with several gentlemen on the subject of the late demand made by government on the Bank of England, for the loan of three millions, to be repaid by exchequer bills (not bearing interest) six months after the signing a definitive treaty of peace, and amongst the number were members of the imperial pailiament, I found them warmly to espouse the conduct of government on the occasion; and as the arguments generally made use of by them led to the same point, I conclude, that those who have defended the princi