The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1809-01-13 00:00:00

OUT trade would be abandoned without a stru4gle,
or avast number of our vessels will be ►wept into
the Courts of the British Admiralty; enriching
'and rewarding the very poser that dares to oppress
us. The honour of our country likenise will he
deeply tarnished. Europe will have reason to re•
proach us with beiug K, mercenary u people, that
the slightest prospret of eluolinuent, the gam of a
miserable cent. here or these, is a solficieut italuct-
I meld for us to forego the most sacred tights.

The evil. of the present encroachments of ( ;mat
Britain are infinitely more oppressive to us, than
tlw tux of a few inmost mo colours, a r nn tea, to the
heroes of our revolution. But those evils have not
yet uttliiiieol their nolo% Sistomiseion would only
insure us a more exteu.ive and comptwated op-
pression. No man, who is accustomed to the his-
tory of British tyranii , will ever believe, that there
is in erey enough in the British Ailininistootion to
shield their sllticring and submissive victim. There
is nothing in the character of Americans ouch will
entitle them to greater respect, Omit those olio
have siidered in the green fields of Irelaud, or on
the photos of I The present aggressions
of ( ;n at Britain then being tolerated, not u vestige
of our fertile trade 4114 the ocean can be reusonably
expected to escape her insolene. Our ships, our
ex!)t.rto, all our native, us well 1414 imported produe-

our bronelies of tnide to her own 'oats or
6°4(.4 her eill'llly, may Nit under her power by
the provisions of subsequent onlers. All our
rights may perish, one, Art the other, under co-
lour of the same frivolous pretences which she hue
hitherto employed ; until, at length, no Aug might
be seen on the ocean, except the proud strip of
(Simi ISritatn, or the disgraced pendant of some
foreign power, dying tinder the purehesed protec-
tion of a British

The which she has urged for her pre-
sent aggressions Are just as ridiculon+in themselves,
AM these aggressions tare destructive of our rights.-
774e9 slew the real motive of this cotidtict, mid the
spirit which would hereafter guide the proveedings
of Great Britain. These pretexts are, that the
United States have acquiesced iu the moupations
of the Bei hi, Decree. Nothing is evidiaitly more
hollow tor hypocritical. Without even ktiowing of
the intentions; of the United States, .lar enacted her
Orders of loin:lry 7. Although the French De-
cree haul not been vitt in force against the neutral
rights of the Uttited States, she smarted her Orders
of November. Atul altliong-li the President has
Lntrly rvialertal her a proposition, which would have
removed ecru the senthlaaee of ail acquiescence in
the French Decrees, since their applientlon to the
United States, yet lout she rejected it it it la area-tie
contemns[. Ail the late productions oh' her t'aldnet
display the spirit by which she is nured. The
author of the Hints to Both Parties has strongly
eiijoiiird the pokey of retaining her Orders, teen
though France d 'd repeal her Decrees ; and of
potting forth all her maritime strength for the
uc-
qnisitioo of the supremacy of the seas. Such is the
teal object of her late aggressions. Her orders are
not so ittiteit intended to distress the resources of
her comity, as to accomplish the object whirl)
have previously esplain.4l ; to liii;bl the prosperity
of her own conotterce upon the ruins of the rights
of neutrals.
But Great Britain is not the only power that
has violated our rights and excites our resentment ;
—France too employs the same hollow pretests to
justify similar aggressions upon our rights. Her
measures are mote judicious than destruct Ye.—
With scarce a single ship on the ocean, France has
presumed to declare Great Britain iii a state of
blockade. She takes all our vessels mid cargoes
that are bound to the ports of her enemy, or that
have been visited by their cruisers, agreeably to the
aeltoowledged laws of nations. But though the
maritime power of France is almost a cypher—
though the tttttt tier of her cruisers is comparatively
small—vet is the number of American vessels that
mould be taken by her Decrees too considerable
not to require the utmost pre/caution.
Amidst these unexampled uggressions on the
part of Europe, what course, fellowscitimis, are we
to steer' Our rights are as deeply invaded as they
were before oar glorious revolution. But then we
had only OM nation to essoutmerr, and gloriotisly
dial our fathers sustain the onset. Now there are
two nations that have assailed and insulted us.—
No discriminating mind can make a selection of
the enemy oboist we could encounter, upon any.
'triumph: of justice, or with any expectation of
exiting the whole cation in the war. And to war
against a world in arms, would be a dangerous ex-
periment. In go into the war with both, on the
extol wino of indocile; one of them to offer us se-
ticfactory terms, migltt he fatal, because we can-
not atiticipte these terms. An allisLlCe, OffeWiiVe
31141 Ileit'lll4 Vf., is against nor interest.
To lie compelled to preserve MO unnatural and
execrable war, until the French are formal tea sur-
render to the Ili itisla a promontory of Africa. Or nil
lslaiel of the East Indies, would he the worst of
all infatuations.
lf, then, war cannot now he resorted to. to what
better .exprilient et.n wr ply than to the Ettiloirgo,
and the non-iotereritirse s, stem
Voss, fellow-couxtryineu of the East, will suffer
by it. But sou bare too much virtfieloo muds
orsolotion—tau watch of the hereditary spirit of
your brave fore-fathers. not to rally round the con-
stituted authorities of your country.
.1 FILICRIFAX.


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