The constitutionalist — Exeter, N.H., 1810-12-03 00:00:00, page 2

jquainted with the personal charac
ter of the man destined for my new
Sovereign- —for my future Lord and
Master.
" Alas! Sire, in the catalogue of
Bonaparte,s exploits, not a single vir
tue is discovered, that can extenuate his
very numerous atrocities. —Alas! Sire,
Ihe was already an assassin when I was
I only a child; and every year of my
I advancementto womanhood records his
fresh and shocking perpetrations.
Has he not publickly boasted, in 1793,
of having waded in the gore of the (by
him) butchered Toulonese? and do not
his official reports of 1795 exist, in
I which he gloried in the massacre of
thousands of men,women and children,
in the streets of Paris ? Did he not, dur
-1 ing 1796 and 1797, according to his
own bulletins,destroy by fire and sword
many thousand peaceable Italians,of all
ages and both sexes, merely because
1 they would not listen to the hypocritic.
al rant of liberty and equality, and re-
I mounce &ir faith and their allegiance:
than expected. Men arealike inall ages.
Americans are not more easily duped
cere; they are to your Majesty, whose
will shall be a ready law to 'me in eve
ry thing where my conscience does not
'reproach my submission and where
dishonor (pardon Sire, if I err) would
by the perfidious arts of demagogues,
than were the Grecians of old. The
lights of history and experience are
given in vain. We are treading the
same path which republicans trod,
thousands of years ago; and are hasten
ing to the same goal. While ther
is however even the least hope remaine
ing, that any of the deluded will take
warning and open their eyes, warnings
ought to be given ; every proper occa
sion should be improved for bringing
them to their senses.
& coaxing the people, intend to be paid
for it out of the people's pprse. 'Tis a
sign they have selfish ends to answer,
that they are knaves in grain. And
if the people were wise they would
beware of those who fawn upon them
and pretend to be in love with than;
they would consider them as cheats,
and thrust them into the back ground,
and would bring forward modest merit.
This however is rather to be desired
Bonaparte in Search of Wife.
A letter from Petersburg (says the
London Courier of Sept. 12) possi
lively affirms, that as far back as Oct.
1808, during the interview with Al
exander, at Erfurth, Bonaparte asked,
and was promised in marriage, a Rus
sian Grand Duchess. It was not un
til entreaties, and even menaces, had
failed to obtain the assent of the Prin
cess, that he turned his views to the
House of Austria. Several letters
have passed between the Imperial
Brother and Sister on this subject;
one of these (we understand the last)
we lay before our readers, in the lan
guage verbatim, in which it has been
transmitted.
a sister. Yet however, Sire, his van
ity is interested to conceal a refusal,
which he will neither forget nor for
give; but your Majesty may gain time
to prepare sufficient means of resist
ance to the future vengeance of his vi
olence and disappointment.
"Sire, to shew my determination is
not the rash act of a fickle & thought
less girl, I am under the necessity of
tresspassing on your Majesty's good
ness a little time longer.
Through the blood-stained annals
of modern Europe, from the private
history of Napolean Bonaparte, I have
tried to become more intimately ac-
As Iman who carries his religion
in his hand and ostentatiously exhibits
it to show, gives reason for jealousy
that he has none at heart ; so in pol
itics, they who arc perpetually angling
for popularity, who are the trumpeters
of their own patriotism, aud instead
of going into the sheepfold at the door,
clamber over the wall, give a sure in
dex of the interior of their minds.
< One way they look, another way they steer?
They have their knavish designs up
on the people, toward whom they pre
tend such yearnings: 'tis not thejiock
they care for, but thejteece.
All history shows us that the greatest
demagogues, both in ancient and mod
ern times, have generally turned out
to be the greatest rogues. Men who
give up their time to flattering,courting
not be the consequence of obedience.
I remember too well the lustre of my
descent; ever to give posterity a cause
of judging me unworthy of my ancest
ry. As the wife of a Napolean, I re
peat, Sire, my trembling heart would
break before I reached the limits of his
usurped dominions. His wounded pride
would then seize with avidity such a
catastrophe to embroil France with
Russia, in accusing your Majesty as
the author of the natural weakness of
LETTER.
" Sire—l implore the generosity,
the humanity of the most just of Prin
cess, of the most beloved of Brothers,
and (permit me to add) of the dear-
est of friends. —These epithets are sin-
Were not the shores of the Mediterra
nean and the banks of the Nile inunda
ted by him, perfidiously, with the in
nocent blood of trusty allies? Who
can be ignorant that in 1799 he both
poisoned his own wounded soldiers in
Syria, and slaughtered some thousands
of disarmed prisoners near Jaffa ? Hav
ing by fraud usurped the supreme pow
er in France, did he not; during 1800
and 1801,after artfully alluring,treach
erously imprison and cruelly dispatch
numbers of the loyal inhabitants of La
Vendee ? Did he not, during 1802 and
and 1803, treat with similar barbarity
his former accomplices the Jacobins
and Republicans? Was it not in 1804
that he shot D'Enghein, strangled a
Pichegru, and recompensed with the
guillotine the heroic loyalty of a
Georges? murders, which [ have heard
your Majesty so often reprobate with
words, and lament with tears of pity
and indignation. Was not, in 1805,
humble and obscure Palm shot by his
order? Did he not in 1806, inhuman
ly deny a Duke of Brunswick, a grave,
and sacrilegiously violate the tomb of
Frederick the Great, thus equally in
sulting the dying and the dead ? Was
it not during 1807 that hundreds of
German and Swiss patriots, captured
on the banks of the Elbe, the Rhine
and the Danube, bled by his orders on
the banks of the Seine, or perished
miserably in pestilential Madagascar?
Did he not in 1808, debase, seduce,
betray and arrest, the Royal Bourbons
of Spain ?
While he thus, in a publick capacity,
has violated all laws human and divine,
has he ever ceased to be a most unkind
domestic tyrant? Have not the moth
er who gave him birth, and the wife
to whom he owes his advancement,
been equally subject to the most indeli
cateand brutal ill treatment? Notwith
standing the vices of the wife(with which
he was well acquainted before marriage)
ought not he to have respected the fa
vours of his benefactress ? As he nertr
can hope to reap the same benefit from
an union with a Russian Princess, can
she expect to moderate his rage, to al
ter his perversity, or to escape the fury
of his unmanly passions ? Would it,
besides, be no disgrace to the house of
Holstein, were she to succeed the prof
ligate mistress of a regicide in the em
braces of a low sansculotte terrorist ?
Can any faith be placed in the promis.
es of him whose life is a bold defiance
to the Supreme Being, & evinces a sov
ereign contempt of moral man? Can
any dependence be had on the words
of an unprincipled despot, who has by
turns professed himself a demagogue,
a leveller, a jacobin, a republican, an
atheist, a deist, a mussuiman, and a
Christian? Will he, who mocks a Di
vinity, hesitate to trample upon the
most just claims of a woman ?
" But excuse, Sire, the warm effu
sions, of a provoked innocent mind,
that has not yet learnt to disguise
what it feels. Though not supersti
tious, I am inched to consider as om
inous, the very offer of an imperial as
sassin to marry the daughter and grand
daughter of assassinated Emperors. If
wrong, condescend, Site, to ascribe my
conduct to its real cause—to an alarm
ed virtue, that never will, on any con
sideration, prostrate itself before any
guilty favourite of an unjust fortune.
CATHARINE.
" St. Petersburg, Jan. 25, 1809."
The following address to the citizens
of Rome was issued by Lucien Bona
parte, and privately distributed two
days after he sailed ; but was immedi
ately suppressed by an official order.
" To the Roman Citizens.
"In the bosom of retirement,occupi
ed with no other cares than those of
contributing to the happiness of my
family and my neighbors, and tasting
on Rome's classic territory all that
pure refined bliss which a mind imbu-'
ed with a love of the arts can enjoy, I
was assailed by the ruthless hand of
despotism, rendered still more heavy
by its being that of a brother ; still
more galling, as he owes his life and
honors to my intrepidity.
" This infernal mandate was, that I
should repudiate an endeared wife, and
desert those children whom nature
identifies with my existence: that I
should ascend a throne created by the
the most horrible perfidy, and unite
my efforts to despoil and subjugate the
yet unconquered part of the globe.
" Citizens, I had no choice between
unconditional submission and immedi
ate flight. I did not hesitate.—The
Tiber,on whose banks I had vainly hop
ed to pass my slotted term of life, re
ceived me on her bosom,& she will waft
me, I trust, in safety to those prows,
which, dreadful when sought in hos
tility, become a sure place of refuge to
the destitute ond the oppressed.
" Citizens, farewell; my gratitude
is all I can leave behind. May yourl
chains sit light upon you ; or rather
may you soon cease to bear any,by the
interposition of that Omnipotent ven-
LONDON, OCT. 8, 1810.
geance, which sooner dr later punish
es usurpation,tyranny Ind oppression.
LUCIEN BONAPARTE."
CONSPIRACY IN PORTUGAL.
Letters from Lisbon, state that a
most alarming conspiracy had been
discovered there. A French Colonel
had been arrested, from whom was
learnt that 200 of the Portuguese No
blesse had entered into an agreement
to blow up all the arsenals and do oth
er mischief.—We understand their
scheme was entirely frustrated by their
being secretly arrested, and, by order
of Lord Wellington, to be banished to
the coast of Africa. They were to sail
in a vessel provided for the purpose,
for Africa, under convoy of a British
frigate.
The Plot.—The mystery of the late
conspiracy has been thus explained
Lord Wellington had intercepted a
correspondence carrying on between
the enemy and a party in Portugal in
imical to the English, in consequence
of which about 200 persons (princi
pally Nobility and persons in the
higher classes) had been ari ested in
Lisbon, and embarked on ship board.
It is also understood that a quantity of
concealed arms have been found. Re
port states that their plan was to cause
Lisbon to be set on fire in several plac
es at once, and in the confusion to
massacre all the English and their
friends, at the same time that Massena
was to make a general attack on Lord
Wellington's army. Besides those ar
rested in Lisbon, there had been a
number taken up in the interior.
In another letter we are told, the
plot included the blowing up of all the
powder in the English magazines, and
taking possession of the works in the
rear of the British army, with the view
of placing lord Wellington between
two fires, and depriving him of the
means of defence. The explosion of
the magazine at Almeida, is said to have
been a part of this plot.— Lon. paper.
A dutchman, while he smoak'd in fun,
Who, blockhead! thought t' obscure the sun;
Phoebus refus'd to hide his face,
But still the dutchman kept his place,
And persever'd like thee, 0 IFright!
Thou mad, thou silly jacobite—
What happen'd by the fungus?
Alas! like democratic^ skunk,
The dutchman merely caus'd a funk,
And grunting, grunting, smoak'd & snuff'd,
Till finally, 'tis said, he puff'd
A cartload of mundungus.
DR. CAUSTIC'S MINION
thinks that the " hue and cry" of the
democratick party against the " Essex
Junto," &c. even if they had more tal
ents to support them, would be una
vailing. The raillery of ignorance is
generally wicked and perishable.
" No truth so sacred, banter cannot hit,
" No fool so stupid, but he aims at wit."
An Ancient Anecdote —-from an old
Almanack.
Soon after the first settlement of this
country, a certain man in the Old Col
ony of Plymouth, not having the fear
of majesty before his eyes, and insti
gated by some slanderous spirit, wheth
er the Devil or Democracy, is not a
greed, was guilty of the sin of saying
that the Judges of the Inferior Court
of the Colony, were not Jit to carry
guts to a bears. On being informed
of this aspersion, their Honours, in
dignant at finding their talents rated so
low, ordered the offender coram nob.
to answer for it : and on full proof of
the charge, sentenced him to retract
In the course of this week, an old
man of about 80 years of age, has
been tried for the sixty-first time at
the Old Bailey, and this after having
been fifty seven times whipped, and
otherwise ignominiously punished, and
after being once condemned to death
the infliction of which was prevented
by a pardon. I question whether the
annals of criminal law can furnish a
parallel. The old man was condemn
ed again at this trial, so that he may
yet make the number of his convict
ions equal to the three score years and
ten.— Silliman's Travels.
That's aright! that's wright! I've heard of
one,
On seeing proposals in the Newbu
ryport Whig, for publishing a po
em, " The Pickeroniad," by Ralph
Risible, &c. &c.
EXETER,
MONDAY, December 3, 1810.
For the Constitutionalist.
Sic transit gloria (mundi)
Os democratick salmagundi.
OLD BAILEY.
IMPROMPTU
The French consuls have collected
large revenues upon our people, by
what are called certificates of origin.
They never have ceased the practise
from the time of the first introduction
of this scheme, for making us pay the
expense of the French establishments.
What must be the surprise therefore
of those, who are not willing to ac
knowledge the whole extent of the
perfidy of the government of France,
when they discovered that the exist
ence of these certfficates on board A
merican vessels, have been declared to
be a cause of suspicion, subjecting to
condemnation, upon the false affir
mation of the French government,
that the issuing of such certificates
has been long ago prohibited and dis
used ? American property has been ac
tually condemned for this cause. Should
the French government persist in dis
avowing the authority to issue such
papers, ought not its consuls to be pun
ished as extortioners and swindlers, by
nailing their ears to the'pillory ?— ibid.
What will be thought of the impar
tiality, prudence and discretion of Mr.
Madison, since the arrival of the Hor
net ? His proclamation is only a day
or two old, when by the turbulent and
unmanageable conduct of Bonaparte,
the imposture is exposed. Will he re
call it? We think he ought to resign
his office by the same act. The insin
cere and dangerous scheme of politicks
he had adopted, has become visible to
all but the wilfully blind. The nation
begins to feel indignant ; he stands up
on a precipice from which he will soon
be hurled by the general voice. Let
him retreat whilst he may, before the
sentiment of disapprobation increases
Ito rage and buries him in ruin. He is
I a lost statesmen, because he has been
now sincerely acknowledge my fault
therein and humbly request your par
don ; at the same time declaring my
full belief that you are Jit to carry guts
to a bear and promising never again to
be guilty of saying that you are not."
It is presumed that no one will be so
wicked as to suspect that this anecdote
has the least squinting towards any in
ferior Court now existing in these mod
ern times. When our rulers have such
a nice discernment of the qualifications
for office wherever they exist, and un
der whatever mass of rubbish they may
lie concealed ; when our citizens are so
enlightened that, (to quote with a lit
tle variation a vulgar saying of a coarse
old fellow in a neighbouring State) one
cannot kick over a dry cow****, but
up there will spring a man qualified,
in his own opinion at least, to be a
judge—and when they are disinterest
ed and patriotic enough to take their
turn, or any other man's turn, to serve
the sovereign people on the bench, or in
any other office to which a tolerable
share of honour or profit is attached,
any such application would be equally
illiberal and absurd. -Let no man
then presume to make it.
We intimated our opinion that
Commodore Porter, who distinguish
ed himself by an indefatigable vigilance
to break up the system of privateer
ing which has been so long and so dis
gracefully carried on from New-Or
leans, had been removed upon the de
mand of the French minister. We
never had any doubt of the fact; but
recent advices from France confirm the
surmise. It appears that Turreau
made such representations respecting
the detention of French privateers, as
threw his imperial sansculotte majesty
into a rage. The Hornet was order
ed to be seized, but precipitately es
caped. In all probability the Essex
frigate, which was so suddenly dispatch
ed with the ship-trap proclamation,
and the fabricated declaration of the
government paper, that it was prompt
ly issued the very day after the official
letter of Cadore was received, will fall
into the snare that the Hornet escaped
By the way, we connot help remark
ing, that the haste with which this fri
gate has been sent off, has deprived
the community of an interesting and
safe opportunity of correspondence,
which was their right, but which has
been denied them out of an overween
ing solicitude tp hasten the evidence of
executive compliance to the will of the
French monster.
his words, acknowledge bis fault, beg
their pardon, and promise not to repeat
the offence. With this sentence the
culprit complied in the following
words. " You inferior judges of this
inferior court, whereas I did, at such
a time, say of your honours, that you
were not jit to carry guts to a bear, I
Balt. Fed. Rep.
" But the mob of Lisbon was arm
ed, and determined to show that it was
so. Every night at least one French
man, or one expected to be so, was
discovered and dragged to prison, where
generally his dead body only arrived.
I myself was witness to an Englishman
being murdered in this manner, and
strove in vain to save his life. An
Englishman! yon exclaim. Yes, read
er, an Englishman. It was on sun
day evening, and I was proceeding up
the principal street, when, having ad
vanced a little beyond the head quar
ters of the English general, I heard
the shoutings of a great mob. They
drew nearer, and I presently found my
self enveloped in a furious crowd, drag
ging along a poor wretch in the En
glish dress his countenance disfigured
with blood, and hardly able to stagger
along, from the blows which he had
received. I demanded bis crime.—
They told me he was a Frenchman:
but an English officer who was in the
crowd exclaimed, that it was his ser
vant, and endeavoured to reason with
some who appeared as leaders of the
mob. At this intelligence I made
my utmost efforts to get near the un
fortunate man, and just arrived in
time to seize with both my hands a
" It is only necessary once to see
these or similar levies, to be impressed
with the folly of attempting to defend
a country with them against a regular
force. In a town ora pass they may
be of great service; but in the pres
ent state of military science, a state
which trusts to them in any great degree
for her safety, when the hour of danger
approaches, will inevitably be lost.
The sure and hard test of good troops
is the bayonet: How, then, can it be
expected that new levies of citizens
should stand this test, at the very first
time of their seeing an enemy?—and
stand it they must, seeing that they
have no other arms but those of hand
to hand, a pike, or a halberd, or a
sword.
'Terms for John Bull. —We have
never believed until very lately that
our democratic administration would
be able to bring John Ball to terms—
but now we are convinced that Great-
Britairt must come down upon her
marrow bones before the first of Feb
ruary next, and crave that mercy from
us which she has never shewn to oth
ers. Thatshe will come to our terms,
however humiliating, there cannot be
a doubt. What these terms will be,
it is difficult to determine: But we have
collected from the administration pa
pers, the following, as the most mate
rial conditions on which she may es
cape from the dreadful fate that seem,
to await her :—
PORTUGUESE DISCIPLINE.
What sort of foes the Portuguse are,
who have seen no war till now during
the present generation, the following
passages from a late traveller may serve
to show :
The "streets, the squares, the quays'
(of Lisbon,) were lined with ranks of
volunteers, whose arms, equipments &
movements were most various and
whimsical. T^e greater proportion
carried pikes ; some were armed with
fowling pieces, some with bayonets
screwed on poles, some with small
swords, with daggers, with pistols, or
with a single pistol. Here and there
in the ranks were seen halberds and
pikes of curious and ancient workman
ship, which had probably been wield
ed in the wars of the 15th century, and
after lying in dust and darkness, were
now dragged forth to light. The assort
ment of the men was as various as their
arms. —The tall and short, the lean
and the corpulent, the old the strip
ling, stood side by side. At the word
of command, some turned to the right
and others to the left, some parts of
the line advanced, while others remain
ed stationary. In short, every thing
was ridiculous, except their cause, and
that was most sacred.
" Cry havoc ! and let slip the dogs of war !"
Alb. Balance.
6. Call one of Bonaparte's distin
guished generals (or one of his broth
ers) to sway her sceptre, and compel
the present dynasty to retire to pri
vate life!
Such are the terms, as prescribed in
the democratic papers ; and if Great
Britain does not comply with them,
before the Ist of February, then we
are to
4. Acknowledge the principle that
free ships make free goods—
5. Render Ireland independent—•
and,
1. She must repeal her orders in
council—
2. Relinquish her right of block
ade—
3. Abandon her practise of impress
ing seamen—
feeble, timid, prevaricating, and be
cause private ambition has buried his
talents and smothered his patriotism,
if ever he had any.—ibid.
Extract from Semple's Journey in
1809.