To the Editor of the Political Review. In the few lines which I am about to address to you, it is by no means my intention to take part in the controversy between your corresdondent J. S. and yourself: your readers have no doubt, already formed their opinion upon that subject. I mean to advert only to a curious paper, quoted by J. S. (Pol. Rev. p. 42) in support of his heavy charges against the conduct of the French Emperor, and the profligacy of his soldiers.

This paper, which your correspondent refers to in support of his bad opinion of the French, appeared in the Monthly Magazine* for December 1807, and is said to have been communicated by a person of the highest respectability, lately arrived from the continent. It informs the public of numberless atrocities committed by the French soldiers

* That a paper of this description should be the leading article of a number of the Monthly Magazine, is a striking and sorrowful proof of the great falling off, in that once intelligent and deservedly popular publication.

"It is well known, that the French soldiers have a standing permission, in an enemy's country, to take any provisions, or any money they can get at: hence, they have not the least idea, that, in plundering, they commit un act of injustice. After having ransacked a house, broken open every drawer, cupboard, &c. we are informed, they descend into the cellar, where their science," "* is exerted in the following manner.

"If any part of the ground appear uneven, it is dug up immediately; but when even that is not the case, they ascertain by the following experiment --whether the ground or flooring of the cellar has recently been dug up? They cast water upon different places, and observe whether it be absorbed in one place wheresoever quicker than another;

* On the excesses detailed in this paper, J. S. makes the following reflection. "Plunder is reduced to a system, and science made the instrument of villany." I conjecture J. S. was led to the use of these terms, in imitation of the writer from the North of Germany. Vide the words in Italic, in the above extract.

that happens they break up the ground, &c. &c." But the most curious trait in this most curious paper, is perhaps the following.

It would be unfair to say, that such scenes are approved of by all officers in the French army; the truth is, they cannot prevent them, but in their own rooms, and even there not without difficulty. Some of the French officers told the narrator, that in order to keep off depredation from the rooms inhabited by themselves, some of their number were obliged to stand before them all night, with their swords drawn !!"

Should any of the readers of the Political Review not be satisfied with these extracts, I would recom mend them to peruse the whole paper in the Monthly Magazine; and whatever degree of credit they may be inclined to attach to it, they cannot fail to be much amused. But I appeal to the plain sense of any man, who is not totally blinded by party prejudices, whether it is at all probable that such practices as the above can be prevalent among the officers and soldiers of those armies that have conquered or humbled the whole continent of Europe? And I also ask, what opinion can be entertained of that man's information and judgment, who refers to such a document in a serious argument? J. S. who dates from Newcastle, may never have conjectured, that the paper in question, might have been written by one who has never travelled, in his life, beyond Hackney or Hampton court! Had he resided long in, this far-famed metropolis, he would most likely have heard something of the tricks and contrivances of certain newspaper and other editors, that would have prevented his being imposed upon by a narrative so glaringly absurd and inconsistent.

If it will not be trespassing too much upon the limits of your work, I will make a short extract from VOL. III.

the debates of the house of Commons, as given in the National Intelligencer, February 29, &c. which I beg leave to contrast with the foregoing extracts from the Monthly Magazine.

"Mr. Whitbread explained, and adverted to a shocking instance of the conduct of some of the British soldiers at Copenhagen.

"Sir A. Wellesley said, that the orders of Lord Cathcart had been unfortunately such, as did not authorize him to punish the soldiers alluded

to.

"Mr. Whitbread said, they had been guilty of rapes, robbery, and murder, yet they had not been punished.”

From these charges (the truth of which cannot be questioned) I trust it will appear to J. S. that the French are not the only soldiers, that are guilty of atrocious conduct; and as a sort of amende honorable, for attempting to mislead your readers and keep alive prejudices (for his remarks evidently tend to encourage the opinion, that the French armies only, comparatively speaking, are accustomed to plunder, &c.) I hope he will inform us, in some future communication, whether he prefers the violent, atrocious, and wicked conduct of certain British soldiers at Copenhagen, (to say nothing of their conduct in South America, &c.) to the scientific, and systematic plundering of the French in the North of Germany.

This country has suffered, and is still suffering, so many evils, on account of the unfair, and I will say, unmanly, accusations, industriously circulated against the French nation, and which are evidently intended, to engender " perpetual hate," that I think it is the duty of every well wisher to his country, to use his endeavours, how feeble soever they may be, to stem the torrent of this base and wicked practice. I remain, &c. London, March 19.

W.

which he has been guilty; and in the opinion of all impartial men, the Emperor of France, will be as lawfully acquitted as the ministers of Great Britain.'

:

Were the generality of persons well informed, and had they leisure and ability to think for themselves, no harm could result from the lucubrations of such writers as Mr. Burdon: it would be impossible to impose upon their understandings by mere assertions, however dogmatically advanced the reverse of this, however is the case, and the ignorance of the people, is the wand of political jugglers. It is the duty, then, of every honest man, to combat error whenever it lies in his power, and to expose the weakness of those, who either wilfully, or ignorantly flatter the passions and prejudices of their fellow citizens; who publish sentiments injurious to the welfare of society. That Mr. Burdon is a weak man, and consequently unfit to instruct others, I will now endeavour to prove. In the paper already alluded to, he has made a violent attack upon the Editor of the "Political Review," for his reflections upon certain ravings of Mr. Cobbett; and behold! in the same breath, as it were, he thus pourtrays the talents and character of his favourite hero.

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For the character and sentiments "of Mr. Cobbett 1 entertain no very "violent respect and his public in"consistencies I never can reconcile to (6 my ideas of right and wrong."

Now I venture to assert, without fear of contradiction, that in these passages, the writer has most egregiously committed himself. On the subjects of war, commerce, education, and population, Mr. Cobbett is stated not to be simply but wilfully ignorant: he is stigmatized as possessing a depraved and illiberal mind; and in a part of Mr. Burdon's paper, he is said also to have a cold and hardened heart; and yet the same man who has drawn this character, professes the utmost possible esteem for the general talents of Mr. Cobbett !! Can a writer, so ignorant of subjects that include almost the whole system of political economy, possess talents to challenge our utmost esteem ? Can a man, who joined to so much ignorance, possesses a depraved mind, and a cold, hardened heart, be a fit instructor in politics and national morals ? Why, Mr. Editor, you have no where drawn a more hideous character of Cobbett, than his friend and admirer, Mr. Burdon has, undoubtedly without intending it. I could not possibly conjecture what the writer meant by general talents, till I stumbled upon another sentence, where the perspicacity, humour, and happy talent for irony, displayed by Cobbett, are duly panegyrised. Now it is well known to all the readers of the "Political Register," that many of the numbers are little better that a sink of filth and indecency; filled with the grossest baldry and are we from the above extract to infer, that it is this humourous vein of Cobbett, with which Mr. Burdon is so much taken; for on many of the most important topics, connected with the well being of a state, he has proclaimed him to be entirely ignorant. Mr. Cobbett adapts his language as well as his opinions to the taste of his readers it is his interest to do so;

"The sentiments of Mr Cobbett on population, commerce and clas"sical learning, I hold in the greatest contempt, as the result of WILFUL IGNORANCE!

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as the effusion of a depraved and "illiberal mind; but for his general

* Pol. Rev. for March, p. 164,195.