The Statesman. — London, England, 1810-10-01 00:00:00

f, 4 1r • ' L( LORD MILTON. LETTER VII. . 44 Divilmulatios is but a faint kind of policy or wisdom; for " it askctb a wrote; wit and a Arnie heart to know when " to tell the Meth sad to do it; therefore it i, the weaker " sort of po.ititiaas that ore the greatf►t dasemblers. Cer " taiuly the ablest men that ever were, have all had an openness and trankoesa of detail% ) and a name of Tr:. " Wady and veracity." Bacon. TO THE EDITOR OF THE STATESMAN. Sta,—lt was remarkably prudent in my Lord PILTON, at the Cullen' dinner, entirely to decline entering into the merits Of the que:tions which arose, during the last Session of Parliament. It would, Indecd, have been a novel and curious circumstance to bear a man who had beep returned by the people of Yorkshire, on the express ground of his being an active inquirer into abuses, a decided enemy to all sorts of corrupt pructicesland influence, and a firm friend to civil and religious liberty, defending Mr. PERCES' A L'S and Lord CASTLEREAGH'S trucking for swag, and boldly declaring that the People of Eng land were as well represented as they could be— that he was for no innovations, uo changes--that they were neither necessary nor practicable, and that thihgs were all going on vastly well—and all this too in the very midst of his Constituents. This would indeed have evinced a very extraordinary share of assuranceond I exteeilingly admire his Lordship's modest dexterity in avoiding the subject ; but I should bays admired it yet more if he had totally omitted any explanation of his messing when he promised to bo " an active inquirer into abuses and a rooter out of corruption." Ile says he only endeavoured to convey his determination to oppose and punish corruption, when it was brought to light. Well done, my Lord Mivrott ! What a rich salvo 'is this for a Statesman's conscience! And so, my Lord, to save yourself the unpleasant task of op posing and punishing corrupt practices at all, you are resolved they never shall be brought to light, for you would not permit Mr. M A DDOCKS to bring forward his proofs of th, m, although he offered to substantiate all his statements at the bar of the House. But if you are thus determined to suppress a!! iiiquiry, I shall be glad to know how we. are to gel hold of tlies^ said practices which your Lord. ship appears to be so very anxious to punish. But, m► 1,00, how does all this square with yoUr lan guage at Li eds ? Yuu not only engaged to punish these arts of corruption when brought to light, but you promised to be an active inquirer into them, and yet, in the very outset of your political career, you pertinaciously oppose all inquiry whatever, and tra:np!e with contempt upon every measure that leads to it. No, my Lord, you cannot, as you say, by this miserable shoat's, 46 successfully de. fend yourself"— and we arc ungrateful enough not to thank you for your generosity in giving us the • advantage of a literal interpretation of your words. Your words, my Lord, can and will only admit of one interpretation, and that has been given to them, has been unalterably, irrevocably fixed upon them by every man of sense and feeling in the country. Is your Lordship so infatuated as to suppose that your speech at Shctfield, on the 6th of fieptember, can be accepted as an apology for your political conduct Cau you really bring yourself to believe that this great County can be so egregiously gulled ? Alas, my Lord do nut let the applauscs and flatter.. jug of a set of drunken parasites overpower you► good sense, and thus cheat you into self.complaceney. The warm applause, the honest affection of the People of Yorkshire, arc but ill.exchanged for the claps, and shouts, and beastly vociferatious of a few guzzlosg Cutlers, with senses stupified by venison, and brains drowned iu port; wretches whose hands and tongues arc really for the aervice of any man who is wilting to fill their mouths and drench their stomachs. If your Lordship delights in this sort of popularity, I most heartily congratulate you on your success. I now come to a part of his Lordship's speech which assumes one of the most extraordinary dog mas in politics, that ever burst from a wild and dis. tempered imagination. One can hardly believe they are reading the words of a British Senator in the following passage, which is literally taken from the Iris Neu spaper. In allusion to his rooting out the seeds of corruption his Lordship says, " I must keep to myself the right of forming my own judg. ment what those seeds are, and where they are to be found ; for no one will go so far, as not only to claim the right of putting a literal construction upon figurative expressions, but even of pointing out the object to which those expressions may by such lite. ral construction be made to refer; this can be the province of him only by whom the words were ut. tered." litre is a preCious business, fir. Eorront Su his Lordship not only claims the right of tortur ing and twisting words which arc as plain to coo►. mon understandings as the nose upon a man's face, Into figurative and equivocal expressions calculated to suit his own purposes ; but totally excluding his Constituents from both the right and capacity of understanding his promises, he erects himself into a Judge of all the points and bearings to which they r e fer ; and when these Constituents censure him fur not acting up to his engagements, he bolts upon them with a sweeping defence, which at once settles every thing. He tells them that ' he did not intend what he said; but even admitting hi• meaning to be literal, it hit no relation at oh to the objects to which they ~~ Ti apply it.' The English of all this is, that whet they call corruption he may, if he pleases, call purity ; and what they think a vicious and imperfect state of representation, he may choose to consider as the most virtuous any efacieut i,ystein upon the face of the earth ; so that by this novel and ingenious 1 branch of logic, which his Lordship has so happily 'hit open for ,defeuding his Conduct, a candidate may 'have as much popularity at as ekctimaas the vilest hunter after public applause can swaklow.-- He has only to talk the greatest nonsense *to 'the , people which his fertile imagination fan devise, and to 511 their heads with abundance of fine promises, and when the day of reckoning comes he may balance all his accounts at once, ill saying, " Gentlemen, it is true, that, when you elected me your representative, I did enter into a few solemn engagements; but, I can assure you, that you have entirely mistaken my words and Men. tions, which, indeed, no man can possibly explain but myself. To determine upon these is beyond your capacities, completely out of your province, quite incompatible with your situation in life, and utterly useless, seeing that I have a right to be the sole judge, not only of the moaning of my own words, but of all those objects and interests to which they can relate." Well, Mr. EDITOR, what think you of this ncw.faugled doctrine of my Lord MILTON'S ? To be sure, if this sort of stuff is called reasoning, and the people are convinced by it, why then, let us be perfectly easy. It is of no use shortening the duration of parliaments and extending the elective franchise, seeing that we should have about as much influence over our representatives as a bur. row of rabbits, and that these said representatives of ours would be no more accountable for their conduct to their constituents than to the grand Turk. I do marvel much, Sir, that a man of Lord MILTON'S sober mind and excellent education, can talk such arrant nonsense. It was my inten tion to have entered at considerable length into this part of his Lordship's speech ; but it has been done with so much ability by the Editor of the B'hejlield Iris, in his paper of the 11th September, that any further observations on my part would be superfleous ; indeed I could do little more than re. peat his excellent reasoning. Mr. MONTGOMERY'S argument is so clear, so simple, so judicious, so irresistibly convincing, so abs'olutely unanswerable, that I verily believe there is not one man in the county of York who can sit down a convert to the doctrine of this new school, after having read his admirable essay. It ought to be pri:►ted in every newspaper, and read by everyman in the kingdom. Give it circulation, and I have no fear of the result. Surely, after this, no Member of the Honourable House will attetnpt to set up a proposition so replete wits► absurdity, so utterly subversive of the rights of the people, and so contrary to common sense. And now, my Lord MILTON, accept a parting word from one of your constituents: When you offered your services to the county of York, you presented yourself to our imaginations, young, noble, generous; of lofty mind, of superior educa tion, of unblemished character ; professing yourself .an enthusiastic admirer and advocate of civil and religious freedom; a determined enemy to corrup. 'don and arbitrary power ; a foe to vice and folly in every shape and in every rank ; you gently stole into our hearts ; you lulled us into the repose of con fitleaee, by all the soft blandishments of promise, and all the magic flattering of hope. But the delightful vision has fled—we are broad awake. It is no dis grace to a generous and confiding people to be de ceived—but they can only be deceived once. Your Lordship has been weighed in the balance, and you arc found wanting. Yes, my Lord, it is all over— you will never more represent the county of York. Although the people were " out of their senses" at the last election, they will have abundance of time completely to regain them before the arrival of the neat. Do you not perceive, my Lord Alivratr, that " old things are passing away, and behold all things are becoming new!" Look at Germany, Hol. land, Sweden—the whole Continent ! Why are these once-flourishing states swallowed np in the vortex of French power? I will tell you, my Lord ! because they were governed by men whom they could not trust, in whorls they had no confi. deuce. They were oppressed, ill.treated, and in sulted, and they became careless in the defence of their country, and indifferent who were its rulers. What were the causes of that dreadful revolutionary torrent in France, which has burst its bounds and deluged the whole world ? Expensive wars, an ex. travagant Government, and long continued op pression of the people. Who then can contem plate, without shuddering, the precipice on which we stand ! IVith an expenditure of almost a hundred millions a year, a declining commerce, a hopeless war, with the most tremendous power that ever appeared in the world, wielded by talents almost more than human—glaring abuses permitted in almost every department of the State—a corrupt Representation —a weak and greedy Ministry—a dissatisfied People. .4.1), my Lord, let us pause—let us beware! Let men of stealth, of power, of rank and talents unite, and by a timely reform in the various branches of Govern. ment, satisfy the just expectations of the People, and , LONDON: MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1810. Letters were received on Saturday from Boston to the it3tl of August. By the same opportunity files of Boston Papers, and a few United States Gazettes have been received. The Palladian' of the 17th contains the project of a Constitution for Florida in 13 articles, with an exordium, stating the grounds and principles of the conduct of those by whom the Revolution has been promoted. This Constitution is said to have been well re. ceived in the neighbourhood of Baton Rouge. In New Filiciana, much the most populous, wealthy and important district in the province, we are in. formed, there is a considerable diversity of opinion. Some of the inhabitants favour the idea of an inde. pendent Government ; a strong party is yet in fa. your of FERDINAND VII. ; whilst the mass of the inhabitants are desirous of coming under the pro. tection of the United States. From St. Helena, Tanchipaho, and Christianue, we have not yet heard, but presume they would prefer the protec tion of the United States. The following are the principal articles of the Constitution : " One Governor, one Secretary, and three Counsellors of State, shall be immediately chosen by the people, who shall enter upon the duties of their respective offices ou the day of of this present year, 1810, after having, in the prearaisoferteh other, taken an oath faithfully to discharge the duties of their respective offices, and to exercise the powers herein granted to them to the best of their jedgeseat for the good of the people. " The Supreme Executive Power shall be vested in the Go vernor, who shall also be the Commander-in-Chief of all the military forte of the Commonwealth, and shall came the laws to be fir ithfully and impartially oxecoted ; he shall by and with the consent of the three Counsellors of State, or a majority of them, have power to appoint and commission all officers, civil and military, whose appointment is not herein otherwise pro vided, and to revoke the commissions of inferior Magistrates now in office, or hereafter commissioned by him, at pleasure. " The Legislative Power shall be vested in the three Coun sellors of State, or a majority of them; but as act or resolution passed by them shall have the force or authority of a law, with out being first approved by the Governor." -+- The letters by the Gottenburgh Mail delivered on Saturday acquaint us that the French have taken possession of Camniii, Teptow, Colberg, awl other Prussian ports in the Baltic, with a view to annihi. late all contraband trade in that neighbourhood. The probability of a war between ALEXANDER and NAPOLEON increases with every fresh arrival from the North ; it is mentioned with confidence, from Petershurgh, and it is more than hinted in letters from Holland, and even from France. From Got. tenburgh we are informed that a dispute has taken place between the French Ambassador, CAULIN. cou►►T S and the Russian Ministry, respecting three British ships which were allowed to discharge car. goes of colonial produce at Sackenhausen. An article from Berlin contains a melancholy proof of the deplorable effects of that system of commercial exclusion, which BoNarAnTe has im. posed upon the continental states. The trade be. tweets Russia and Prussia, which formerly employ. ed an immense tonnage of shipping, is now entirely carried on by land carriage, and that of the most miserable kind. A thousand of the vehicles de. scribed would not convey as much merchandise as a vessel of 300 tons. Six.and.twenty French licences were received in town on Saturday. It was at the same time re. ported, that a great alteration had taken place in the new duties, which had been considerably re. duced. Raw hides were especially mentioned, and that article rose in consequence. There was a meeting of the friends of Messrs. BAItINGS and the Merchants oO Saturday, to coo-• rider of taking, at the market price, all the Loan held by the late Mr. GOLDSMID. It was a holiday at the Stock Exchange, but some private bargains wire done at the following fluctuations : consols. °mama This day the business of the Funds was dune at the following prices : consols. Omit= Neither the City, nur the Tdreast77"."%lo• vexed from the cunsternatiun produce " d " b a y melancholy e fieodme tct:!t os Tr e n v John oo n h t s e hiswr . e l ieja f t: r rectts .it. d htbA r er n ikoes Mr . kilnddoocfb ol P yr Rf 4t 6. Sitar t;!,, restoeder a t % tp a r c hare been busy—for the same purpose ►R. JACKSON have been every where, a n d • In all pl ug s it to r r e e qu e i a r se es t v o er t y he even possible fur that now to be dune! it i t trkreeto men, o RANDALL JACKSON were in Indialenjoyl " i° city of a Recurtkr's ur Chief Justi ce scat a , Joni SINCLAIR and Mr. PERCEVAL w l ere a lb ' back to their respective occupations, o ne at agriculturist, and the other as a special City might have some respite, f o ra moment, tot what can be done to save credit horn gear and utter ruin. But the City is oird • one i f it t w a h k o e t i h io e ld adv o i p ce ini : n f s th s o int se ila e nat p d o g liy ec. of d T es he tr o C e i t t i y on li es hy been b the presumptive p t t i o v e a :44 , 7 ery of such men; and the first thing she has to d i , is to separate herself for ev er f rom t h em. The h. nourable and opulent merchants who are 'till i th may meet, and, at the first glance, wish to subr en s e to take the Omnium of the unfortunate the, who retired from that abomination of th e nod, the Stock Exchange, and life together—las may wish to take his stock at the market pri n ., to preserve the Funds from sinking into o s , thing ; but what are they to do with thirstork,l Will the public go, as they used to do, as intl. 'ideals into the market, and say—give are your Omniniu, and your other stock, for my mo sey, which I want to put into the funds? Who dare hope that? And who, not hoping that, will oh s any body's Osmium, or other funds, at thopreont market price? There are Merchants in the City who would make many sacrifices, to save the couo. try from the scene of ruin which is pouring i s impetuously upon it. But they cannot give their owu throats to the butchering knife to taro others. They will meet, but not to step into gap, where inevitable ruin must otentbela them too! They will meet, to consider of ow l , if any be left, of averting part of the fury of a s coming storm ! They will feel, that so groat nation as England has been, has still, even in ho declension, Rome principle of life and energy left, that may bring her back even from the gates of death ! They will seek for the vital spark, sad guard and cherish it I This, it is to be bopet, is what the City will do; and then a whole nation will have cause to be grateful to her, notwithstanding the many errors she has heretofore and recently committed. We would fain reason with the City, to invite her to save herself, and save a nation. She may do it ; she has the power; for her voice will now be listened to, if not by Ministers, yet by that Arid Person who can annihilate Ministers with a breath, and will do so when he is duly informed of fluor baleful, their throne-destroying character. Nsit. CUANTS of LONDON, hearken not to that Arek. Charlatan, the Scotch Baronet ! Ile is thrusting a circular letter upon the Members of the two Ifouaes of Parliament, with his pamphlet, calculated only to destroy you, and your remaining commerce.— Let him do so! and let our sagacious Legislator: do what they list ! But, do you keep MAO( from hie, and his counsels lie does not understand pkir c i) o ri n u c e e i r i n )i s es ; a o n f d e y om oo hmereaer,e t 0 0 0nl s y ee t t o hat lo h o e k at is, the ol all advisers, the most mischiorous. Your ots g o o n o ly d h s e e n a s r e k e w n ili to te t i hi a y t. ou G wl o iat to to th d e o, th if ron yo e a n n i: l h mc a , nd wi r i e a s t p c e m e n tfu sa l re Pe y ti o t t i i on ! — N fo o r peace! — That laPthi restored.l tal earnest a r nir , sona: sa balances,r:: d no , without " no r r ysieocvhuernwr wilt intsoy soon ECONOMY bring backaa w d i ty: your !monied ABUNDANCE of the PRECIOUS METAL!. Ad 'like well-informed Merchants on this great °to stun, and hereafter enjoy the gratitude of you r country, sad the cheerful greetings of the who le world ! The CUANCELLOit of the ExcuEQuta arrived in town on Saturday from haling, on account of the transactions which occasioned the unfortunate old of Mr. Goldsmid. Two of the partners of the unhappy Geutleman attended at the Treasury in the morning, fur the purpose of assisting in the 616. dation of the affairs which led to the melancholy event. In the course of Saturday morning several mi. neut merchants and bankers, viz. Mr. auras:cc- Mr. NORMAN, Mr. BARNETT, Mr. KENSINGTO. &c. had a meeting at .Mr. GoLusurn's Office, is Capel-court, and afterwards several of them woe sent for by Mr. PEKCZTAL, to Downing street. It is very absurdly stated, in some of the Papers of yesterday, that this was to devise the means of tat' ing up Mr. GOLDSMID'S part of the Loan at tbs present market price. We may expect, however, that a communication will be made to the Stuck El• change this morning. Major-General Sir MONTAGU BUROOTNI, Bart' is removed from the Staff of the S. W. District, to that of the Mediterranean, and is succeeded by Major. General Adam!. c o ot Ueneral MALCOLM, I.ltOAmbasuador to t he - of Persia_, it is said, is about to leave India. Two Companies (of the Itoyai Artillery , ono ' P P th o l e yf t e du o i n' u a :t la h . a i , nd w p i t o t a t ic hl t s t a L ie j :rti gt° h u a r s :r N 4. bog •eme "% n u ' s t e p a g p !rid . k_ef°l4(l l 7° nrd High Admiral of Portugal, by the Pitt" l '' GEAT. - ' • p►eveat the possibility of that which no good man can think of without hurror. These are no common times. Events arc probably approaching which will un. nerve the firmest mind and shatter the stoutest heart. Tread back your steps, my Lord ! Emancipate yourself from the disgusting, the degrading shac kles of rotten-borough influence. Think justly— act nobly.—Dare to be all you aro capable of be. eonziog—Dare to be the man of the people—and erect a monument in the hearts of your countrymen stronger than brass and more durable than marble, a monument worthy the heir of the illustrious noise of Wentworth. S beirt ei d, Sept. 20, 1810. CARLOS. TO CORRESPONDENTS. We have this day received anntherp►ivate Letter from Amiens Jourris,and shall be happy to receive his further commu nications intended for the public eye. PRICY. OV STOCKS Tilts DA V AT ON li O'CLOCK. S per Cent. Red. (slut.) ° 1 SperCent.Coai. 64 si 41 4k (thlium 81 dis. At s twat. MlNib. Due. 3 1 O Duns 1 O t Lisbon O Gottenburib 0 THE STATESMAN. I