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always be a sufficient security against abuse of every kind. It was the principle of the British constitution to separate every thing odious from the crown, and to adorn it with the heavenly attributes of mercy and the power of relief. It was an inconsistency with this principle that he wished to remove, by giving to the officers of the army the same measure of justice enjoyed by the rest of the community. It was by the army that the crown was supported and the people protected, and why shonld the army be in a worse situation than any other part of the people in the essential point of justice? The army had now grown to such an extent, with a disposition still further to augment it, that even in point of mere numerical consideration, it was a large portion of the people. And in the present critical and dangerous situation of the country, when our safety depended so much on the zeal and energy of the oficers of the army, ought they to be left in circumstances in which they might be whispered out of their rank and situation, into poverty, disgrace, and ruin, and a thousand calamities worse than any law could inflict, by the arts of a dark malignant assassin, who would not dare to meet them in the open light of genuine British justice? Courts martial afforded ample means to punish every description of offence, and when it was considered that these courts were not like juries, bound to be unanimous in their sentence, and how many descriptions of offences could be included under the very extensive and sweeping charge of ungentleman-like conduct, so often censured and punished by them, he was sure no latitude of impunity could be apprehended, by giving every accused person the opportunity of stating his case before such a tribunal. He moved a clause accordingly."

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"The Secretary at War complimented the honourable baronet on the moderation which he had displayed; but objected to the clause because he had laid no grouud for it. He urged the bad consequences of changes in the military system without the strongest Teasons for it; and the necessity that the army should be dependent on the crown. was so necessary that even if it were not the the case at present, he should have proposed it now for the first time. He would wish, if it were possible, that the military should have the advantage of the common law; but it was inconsistent with the constitution and discipline of the army. The history of the world proved the necessity of strict discipline in an army, and for this it must look it a head. The instances in which the

power alluded to had been exercised were of late extremely rare; but the best eeffcts resulted from the existence of the power. Every part of the prerogative pushed to extremes would produce abuses-such as in the making of peace or war. But this was no reason for diminishing that prerogative. An army independent of the sovereign was contrary to common sense. Such an encroachment on the prerogative would subvert the constitution. He allowed that in former times officers had been deprived of their regiments for voting against ministers. But there were no instances of this abuse in modern times. He therefore gave his decided negative to the proposi tion."

"Lord Folkestone adverted to the extraordinary manner in which the honourable secretary had answered the arguments of the honourable baronet on his side. He had complimented him first for not stating past abuses, and then objected to the clause, because no grounds had been laid for it. The honourable secretary very well knew that there were instances of the most cruel oppression that might be stated. But the honourable baronet below only looked to the future, and had laid irrestible grounds for his proposition. He had stated his ob ject to be to protect the officers and the crown itself from doing what was known to have been done, and from the secret whispers of slander and malice. His lordship, however, expressed his hope, that the honourable baronet would withdraw his clause, and bring the subject forward in a separate bill, for so grave and important a matter required the most serious deliberation and the fullest discussion. The ho nourable baronet he allowed could not, however, be liable to the charge of precipi tation from the other side. The noble lord opposite had brought forward his clause in a manner equally sudden; and as the ho uourable secretary had expressed so strongly his aversion to changes, he, no doubt, would give his vote against the change proposed by the noble lord near him. earnestly requested the honourable baronet to withdraw his clause for the present, as he should regret extremely to be obliged to give it his negative."

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Colonel Duckett opposed the clause, on account that it would be making the army judges in its own cause; and also, as it proposed to refuse, for the first time, the plac ing confidence in the crown, when we had a sovereign who of all others had best deserved it."

General Fitzpatrick said, that when be

had proposed any change in the constitution of the army, he had always stated reasons which appeared to him to make it a matter of necessity. The military laws were naturally regarded in that house with a strong prejudice; and those who were particularly attached to the principles of the constitu tion, applied arguments to these laws which were not at all suited to the nature of the case. They were a necessary evil, and ought not to be interfered with. The honourable baronet had been complimented for his moderation, in not going into past abuses; but he was bound to make out the strongest case before a change of this kind could be for a moment contemplated. The proposition, therefore, had his decided negative.".

The motion was withdrawn, in order to be brought forward again in a separate bill. I have long wished to see this question brought before parliament. I wanted to hear what they would say to it; and particularly what the Wigs would say, those fine old boys, those "champions of our rights," as a correspondent in my last (whom I shall answer in my next) calls them. General Fitzpatrick spoke for the whole, I suppose; and now, I should think, that the friends of Sir Francis Burdett may set their minds at rest as to the support that he is to receive from the Whigs. I have before observed upon the alteration, which the increased state of the army has made in regard to the prerogative in question, When the whole of the peace establishment was not above ten thousand men, there was no danger in the prerogative; but, now, when the number of commissioned officers is more than ten thousand; when one can scarcely walk a hundred yards, in any street of any town, without rubbing against an officer of the army; when no small part of the members of both houses of parliament are officers of the army; and when there is scarcely a family of any note in the whole kingdom that has not some relation an of-. ficer in the army, surely such a prerogative must be very dangerous. England is now, a military country; it is so professed to be by the ministry and the parliament; and, if this be so, and if the king has the absolute power of dispossessing, at his pleasure, and without reason assigned, every officer of the army of his means of existence as well as of his character, of what sort, I ask, is the government of England ?-Colonel Duckett's observation, that the proposition refused to place confidence in "a sovereign, who, of

all others best deserved it," was, to be sare, of great weight. Yes, without doubt,

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no sovereign ever deserved confidence so well as his Majesty. That is a settled point. But, the worst of it is, that there will always be men to say the same thing of every future sovereign, as there have been to say it of the past. Pore has a passage, the words of which I forget, but the substance of which is, that the character whom he is describing, always thought the king of the time being the best; and, when one king died, could scarce be vext, so wise and gracious was the next. But, the qualities of the king had nothing at all to do with the matter. Sir Francis Burdett professed to wish for nothing more than to guard the officers of the army for the future; and, surely, to leave the fortunes, the character, and the happiness of so considerable a part of the nation at the sole mercy of the mili tary adviser of the king is not very agreeable to the spirit of those laws, which make up what is called the constitution of England. I earnestly hope, that this subject will undergo an ample discussion. It is of infinitely greater importance to the people of England, than all the questions about commerce and the law of nations, which have cost the honourable members so many hard nights work during the present session, and which have caused the printing of more papers than any man living could read in a year, though he went over them with the volubility of a law-stationer's clerk.

PORTUGUESE MERCHANTS.

-I lose not

a moment in endeavouring to put the public upon its guard against an attempt, which, according to a paragraph in the Courier, of the 15th instant, this description of persons are preparing to make upon the taxes. It is there stated, that they have had a meeting at the London Tavern, and have appointed a committee to wait upon the Secretary of State, in order to obtain indeninification for their losses, in their precipitate flight from Lisbon.- This is intolerable. What! are we to be taxed to pay for the losses, which they have incurred in trade? Do we suffer a bookseller, or a printer, to come to us for losses, which he may have sustained by fire?

As well night we indemnify the farmer for his losses by the sheep-rot or the turnip-fly.- Why did they not insure? If they could not do that, why did they not come away sooner? They had plenty of notice.In short,this is as impudent as the application of the adventurers to Buenos Ayres, and worse of it cannot be said Upon one condition I would grant them indeinnification. I would make each individual give an account of his profits, since he began trade with Portugal. Those profits

he should then pay into the exchequer. I would then give him as much as he could have earned, in the capacity of a labouring man, from the time he began to trade with Portugal until the present time, deducting the sum necessary for his support as a labour. ing man, during that space. If he had made no profits, I would advance him out of the taxes, the amount of 12 shillings a week for a year, or, which would be much better, perhaps, send him, at once, to the parish, if he were unable to work. -What insufferable, what outrageous impudence! A set of men leave their own country, go to another to carry on a lucrative trade, continue in that trade for years, and, at last, when they can stay no longer, when they can derive no longer any profits from a trade, for the support of which their country has dearly paid in armaments and subsidies, home they come and demand indemnification for the loss they have sustained, in consequence of having remained to the last moment !

The American Merchant, whose letter came too late to be noticed, without great inconvenience, shall see his letter and my answer, in the next number. In the mean while, I think, he will regard it but fair to give me his name, in consequence of the base imputation contained in the last paragraph of his letter. Whether he send his name or not, however, his letter shall be inserted.

Bolley, 17th. March, 1808.

COBBETT'S

Parliamentary Debates.

The Third number of Vol. X. is ready for delivery. Complete sets from the com mencement in the year 1803, may be had of R. Bagshaw, Brydges Street, CoventGarden, and of J. Budd, Pall Mall.

*** All Communications for the above Work, if sent to the Publishers in due time,, will be carefully attended to.

AMERICAN MERCHANTS' PETITION.' Dated 10th March, 1808 The petition of the undersigned merchants, manufac turers and others, of the city of London, interested in the trade with the United States of America, humbly sheweth-That your petitioners contemplate with the greatest anxiety and apprehension the alarming con sequences with which they are threatened from certain orders in council, purporting to be issued "for the protection of the trade and navigation of Great Britain; but on which, they are induced, after mature consideration,

to believe that they must be productive of the most ruinous effects. Your petitioners are duly sensible of the necessity of making every sacrifice of personal interests, to promote the strength and resources of the country in the present extraordinary crisis of public affairs; and if the total change introduced into the whole commercial system of this country, and of the world, by the or ders of council, could be conducive to, so desirable an object; your petitioners, great as their losses must be, would submit without a murmur; but understanding that these orders are principally, if not wholly, recommended by an opinion, that they will prove beneficial to the commercial interests of this coun try, they feel it to be their duty, humbly to represent their conviction, that this opinion is founded in error; and that if the prayer of their petition be granted, they shall be able to prove, that they must be productive of the most fatal consequences to the interests, not only of your petitioners, but of the commerce and manufactures of the empire at large. Your petitioners will abstain from enforcing, by any details, their apprehension, that these measures are likely to interrupt our peace with the United States of America; our intercourse with which, at all times valuable, is infinitely more.so since we are excluded from the continent of Europe. To this only remaining branch of our foreign intercourse, we must now look for a demand for our manufactures, for many of the most important materials for their support; and for supplies of provisions and naval stores, necessary for our subsistence and defence.-Your petitioners feel assured that they will be able to prove to the satisfaction of your hon. house, that the neutrality of America has been the means of circulating to a large amount, arti cles of the produce and manufactures of this country, in the dominions of our numerous enemies, to which we have no direct access. —That the annual value of British manufac tures exported to the United States, exceeds ten millions sterling; and that as our con sumption of the produce of that country falls far short of that amount, the only means of paying us must arise from the consump tion of the produce of America in other countries, which the operation of the ders in council ուստա ust, interrupt, and in most instances totally destroy-hat the people of America, even if they remain at peace with us, must by a want of demand for their produce, and by the general distress our measures must occasion, be disabled from paying their debts to this country, which may fairly be estimated to amount to the

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Claims on American Debtors (Vol. X. p. 149, 297). I am doubtful whether to attribute this reported Speech to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or to the errors of the reporter, but which soever it may be, the tendency of the passage I shall notice is a fit subject for reprehension, whether we consider the charge against the Boar of Commis sioners, or the false statement respecting the conduct of the merchants --The observations to which I refer, as reported in the Morning Post of the 11th of Feb, arose out of the subject of the arrangement with the Bank, and are as follows: "But the Com"mittee was in error in including in this "£475,000 part of £600,000 placed in "the Bank, in virtue of an arrangement "with the United States of America. "Though the claimants on this fund may "not have been as prompt in coming for "ward with demands as Lefore, it was in "the power of the trustees to vest the money "in Exchequer Bills, for the benefit of the "claimants, whenever they should come "forward."It will be necessary, Mr. Cobbett, that I trace the origin of the Claim we have, not upon the Board of Commissioners alone, but upon the nation, to repel this attack upon our want of promptitude, and that, I therefore travel to the commencement of the revolutionary war with America. It is not my intention to swell my present letter beyond the limits actually necessary in the recital of our wrongs in the communication of the unprecedented treatment we have received, by far worse than that extended to very outcasts of society. I shall briefly touch upon our situation from the year 1775 to the peace in 1783, and as briefly state the sufferings we have undergone from 1783 to the present time. At the time of the commencement of the war in 1775, the American colonies stood indebted to the British merchants £4,000,000 ste:

enormous sum of 12 millions sterling: That the "neutrality of America, so far from being injurious to the other commercial interests of Great Britain, has promoted materially their prosperity :-That the produce of our colonies in the West Indies, of our empire in the East, and of our fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, has frequently found a foreign market by this means; and -That by the destruction of the neutrality of the only remaining neutral state, all possibility of intercourse with the rest of the world being removed, trade cannot possibly be benefited, but must necessarily be aunihilated. Your petitioners feeling as they do most sensibly with their fellow subjects, the pressure of a war in which their commerce has principally been aimed at by the enemy, would scorn to plead their distress in recommendation of measures inconsistent with the honour and substantial interests of their country; but they humbly rely upon the wisdom of the legislature that this distress shall not be increased by our own errors, and they confidently believe, that, if they are permitted to illustrate by evidence the facts they are here to state, and to cxplain many others which they shall here refrain from enumerating, they cannot fail to establish the conviction with which they are so strongly impressed ;-That the orders of council are founded on the most mistaken opinions of the commercial interests of the empire, and must be particularly fatal to those of your petitioners.Your petitioners therefore pray, that they may be heard by themselves or council at the bar of this hon. house, and be permitted to produce evidence in support of the allegations of their petition; or that this hon. house will examine into the nature and extent of their grievances in any mode which may appear advisable, with a view of affording such relief as this hon. house in its wis dom may think proper.-And your peti-ling and upwards, which were withheld tioners will ever pray.

CLAIMANTS ON AMERICA.

SIR,An aspersion upon the character of the merchants having Clainis under the Convention with America, which appeared in the Morning Post of the 11th of Feb. in the Report of a Speech which that paper has given as the Speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, renders it necessary that the public should be undeceived, and which I shall attempt, as well as endeavour to do justice to myself, in common with my brother claimants, notwithstanding my increased age and infirmities, since I last addressed some obser vations to you on the subject of the Board of

from them during the war, and which it was expected would not be readily discharged upon the cessation of hostilities, and the consequent peace. This conclusion is evident from the stipulation the administration of this country in 1783, when the treaty of peace was agitated, deemed it proper to irsist upon, and which was adopted, viz. the 4th article in these words, It is agre d "that creditors on either side, shall meet "with no lawful impediment to the recovery of the full value in sterling money, " of all bonâ fide debts heretofore contract"ed;" and which not only included debts due at the commencement of hostilities in 1775, but also those which had been incur

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red up to the day on which the treaty of peace was made. The right upon our part to insist upon the Americans paying those debts which certain laws of the respective local legislatures of each state in which individuals stood indebted to Britain, interdicted during one period of the war, was acknowledged, and our privilege to sue for recovery of our demands was considered to be revived, and not a doubt remained among the principal part of my brother merchants, but that justice would be impartially, regularly, and without delay administered to us; so much were they impressed with this idea, that the committee of merchants in London, created for the purpose of superintending the interests of their constituents trading to America, expressed their extreme satisfaction at the stipulated provisions of the fourth article of the treaty of peace; but hastily and rashly, indeed publicly declared their full conviction, that the American courts of judicature would instantly dispense even handed justice to the British creditors. That men inured to difficulties, wants, and deprivations, and accustomed to the frequent exercise of evasions and subterfuges, as the American debtors had submitted to during 8 years miseries of war, would instantlychange their acquired habits to pursue the path of honour and honesty, was, I think, rather more than could be believed by the most cre dulous of the committee. This committee, however, expressed their conviction of the future correct proceedings of the American debtors, and in which sentiment they were joined by the Glasgow merchants, who went even further in their expressions of satisfac tion at the stipulations of the 4th article of the treaty of peace, and their belief of the correct proceedings which would take place under it in the American courts, and declared that every thing has been procured for them which could have been expected, when all circumstances are dispassionately considered;" and even one of our legislators suffered himself to be equally deceived into a similar belief with his constituents; I mean the Lord Advocate, who in the debates upon the provisional articles of the treaty of peace, after adopting their sentiments with considerable stage effect, drew a letter from his pocket, when on the floor of the House of Commons, (I was present at the time) and observed, I have a letter from the merchants of Glasgow, requesting me to return thanks to ministers for the care they have taken of their interests in the negotiation, for that some had been paid, some secured, and some were in hopes of being paid the debts due by America to them." Sir, not a

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single attempt was ventured upon by the legislature or judiciary of America, or the lo cal government of the respective states, to carry into effect the stipulations of the 4th article of the treaty of peace, for several years after the peace; nor were the doors of the courts of law opened to the reception of cases of claims on the part of British creditors, in pursuance of the provisions of that article, although the Lord Advocate declared the communication from his constituents to be highly favourable. Yet, I know, and I am sure, that the merchants of Glasgow had reason to agree with me soon after his decla ration, that the debts paid "were merely balances of a few shillings, and even that those were only paid for the purpose of decoying the merchants into ill placed confidence of their minutely exact conduct, and to induce them to ship fresh cargoes of goods, impressed as they would be with the scrupulous exactness of their old debtors, as well as that the "securities" taken were of no more avail than the original debts, because whatever objections there might be to the accounts current, would follow the bond, and it is going too far to contend, that the mere act of giving a bond is of equal impor tance with the actual payment of a debt; although I know full well that such doctrine has been always the creed of American debtors, who when pressed by their British creditors for payment, invariably have observed, "I will pay you with my bond," and deem the payment of the debt to be made from the moment the bond is given. This sort of payment, however, is not of the nature that would pass current upon the Exchange of London, to enforce which would take just as much time as would the original debt, unaccompanied with the solemnity of wax and printed paper, and still liable to every objection that might be made to the accounts current, for the balance of which the band might have been taken. In one part alone of the Lord Advocate's observations I agree, for not only did some of the Glasgow merchants hope that the Americans would be made to pay their debts, but, I believe, nearly the whole of us; the events which occurred, however, put an end to all expectations, whatever our wishes might have been.During the war a law was passed in America, compelling British creditors, factors, and agents to leave the colonies of America, and innumerable other impediments were also created, to prevent a British creditor from recovering his debts. One particularly in 1777, sequestering British property, and which impediments were at length completed by the total interdiction

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