The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-03-22 00:00:00

AMERICA.

110VSE OF

WkIHINGTON, rzu. 2
SENTATWEs.

Mr. moved the Order of the Day, upon a
Bill to prevent the importation of certain persons,
whose admission is prohibited by certain laws of the
State Government.

The House went into a Committee upon the Bill.
A discussion of considerable length arose ; from
which it appeared, that great enormities had been
praaised by the French Governors in the West-
Indies, in procuring their disorderly blacks to be
smuggled through the Southern States, and by that
means very much endangering the lives of the in-
habitants, and the tranquillity of the Union. The
Committee arose without going through the Bill,
and obtained leave to sit again.
The GRAND SEIGNIOR presented Lord ELGIN
with a sabre richly set with diamonds, of the value
of 100,000 piastres. All the persons of his retinue,
from the First Secretary to the lowest domestic,
likewise received presents, most of them of great va-
lue. A short time before his departure, the GRAND
SEIGNIOR sent on board his ship several chests full
of Oriental and Turkish rarities, intended partly for
the King of ENGLAND, and partly for Lord ELGIN.
The value of all these presents is estimated at 600,000
piastres:
Sir .1 A MES CR AUPORo has lately sold his beauti-
ful estate in Bedfordshire, and has taken an elegant
house in Dover-street.
It is said, that seventeen sail of the line are get-
ting ready with all possible expedition in the inner
road of Brest. On Monday las. there was a requi-
sition at Cherbourg for men, and the officers were
sending them off in waggons from that and the
neighbouring places for Brest, with the greatest expe-
dition. We have no doubt that similar aaivity pre.
vails in the ports of Rochfurt, L'Orient, and indeed
in all the French ports.
Our letters from Dover, received yesterday, con-
tradi6l the report which prevailed on Saturday, and
to which we gave no credit, of an Embargo having
been laid on all British vessels in the ports of
France. Such a measure was apprehended, by the
masters of some small trading vessels, which in-
duced them precipitately to quit the French ports ;
but it certainly has not yet been carried into effea,
if it ever as as intended.
On Saturday came on at Coventry the eletion of
a Member to serve in Parliament for that city, id
the room of NATO. JEFFERYS, Esq. declared not
duly decd by a Committee of the House of Com.
mons. At the close of the poll the numbers stood
as follows :-
Pk:fER MooRE, Eq. P;) G. F. STRATTON, Eq. 36
We have already presented our readers with twd
accounts of the memorable and extraordinary con-
versation whicl. took place between the Fi est
CoN-
st I. of France and Lord Warr woicra at the
drawing-room of Madame BONAPARTE on the
Leh inst. As every thing that relates to a circum-
stance so new and unprecedented in the annals of
diplomacy must appear curious and interesting, we
think it proper to add the following statement of
the.proceeding, which has been transmitted to us by
a French Gentleman high in the confidence of the'
Consular Government :
" The Ft asT CONSUL being present at the Draw.
ing-room of Madame BONAPARTE, which took
place on the (22d Ventose), 13th March,
.and hav-
ing found Lord Wurrwoa Tit and M. de Malcosr
standing together, said to them, We have fought
for fifteen years, and it seems is a storm ga-
thering at London, which may produce another
• war
.of fifteen years more.—The KING of EN G-
LAND has said in his Message to the Parliament,
that France had prepared offensive armaments ;
he has been mistaken ; there is not in the ports of
ante any considerable force, they having all set
out for St. Domingo. He.aaid there existed some
differences between the two Cabinets ; I do not
' know of any. It is true that his Majesty has
• engaged by treaty, that England should evacu-
' ate Malts —lt is possible to till the French people,
but not to intimidate them!'
" At the conclusion of the Drawing-room, the
ENGLISII MINISTRIL being near the door, the CON.
sin. said to him, The Duchess of DORSET has
'passed the most unpleasant season at Path ; I most
ardently wish she may pass the pleasant one also ;
6 but if it it true that we are to have war, the re-
' sponsibility, both in the sight of God and man,
• will be on the•ae who shall refuse to execute the
Treaty

ii

. •

PARIS,

I,!..rnyfrotri Rochell 6, that on the sth instant
the frigate Themis sailed tram thrat,road or Lisbon,
having on board General Lasnes, our Ambassador
to the Evart of Portugal.
The Tribunate yesterday adopted, by a majority
of vt.icest 54 to 3, the 4th tide of the civil code,
,which relates to the absent. Adjourned to the I Gds.
French Fuads-5 per cent. 58 581 H 591/ 60.
MARCH 15.
Our trade With the Levant is beginning to revive ;
but the greatest difficulty is felt for want of capita:.
The English, who are much more fortunate in their
commercial speculations, have established a kind of
company at Smyrna, and have adopted such wise re.
gulations, that they have greatly the advanuge over
us.

As the.following article is the first that has yet
been hazarded by any of the French Journals, in
allusion to the topics now under discussion between
the two Governments, we have inserted it at full
length, that our readers may be enabled to make
their own observations upon it.

The peace of Europe is the work of the French
Government. After so dreadful a War, that peace
was unquestionably the most signal service that his
ever been rendered to humanity ; most unquestion-
ably the times we live id will, in that respect, an-
ticipate the judgment of history and the admiration
of posterity. It required no vulgar dexterity to
win over Paul I. from his long and cruel prejudices,
and to detach him from a coalition, to which he '
must have been the more ardently devoted, as he
was powerfully influeared by chivalrous seutiments
of honour and glory. That was the first step to-
wards the execution of a plan, a plan equally bold •
and great, to compress, as it were, between France
and great,
the Belligerent Powers, in order to com-
pel them to make peace, and to hasten the execu-
tion of the treaties. This conception, which has
already proved so happy by its results, is, more-
over, the strongest guarantee that has ever been
given to Europe of a solid and durable peace.
England had contrived twice to cajole us. Per-
haps Lord Cornwallis would have exhibited a repe-
tition of the part which has been played by Lord
Malmesbury ; but the circle of Popilias was traced
out, the treaty was concluded. A Message from
the King of England to the House of Commons
has overcast with clouds that peace which has so
anxiously been looked for ; a peace which was as
urgently wanted by his subjects as by the other na-
tions of Europe :--and what does this Message con-
tain ?
It were improper to speak of what concerns
the chiefs of nations otherwise than with respeet ;
besides, were even what emanates from their au-
thority, absurd and ridiculous, the consequences of
it are always so important, especially under cir-
cumstances like the present, that nothing like levity
or pleasantry should be indulged in.
" The King of England thinks it necessary to ac-
quaint the House of Commons, that as very consi-
derable military preparations are carrying on in the
ports of France and Holland, he has judged it expe-
dient to adopt additional measures of precaution tor
the security of his dominions," &c. &c.
We cannot well conceal from ourselves the state
in which our Navy, as well as that of Holland, was
placed at the conclusion of the war. A Nation
should be provided with a military farce propor-
tioned to the extent of its territory, to its possessions,
to its commercial relations, and to the forces that
may be opposed to it.
'lire first died of the solicitude of Government
should consequently be the restoration of our ma-
rine. Surely the English could not imagine that,
in consequence of treaties, it could limit the number
of our ships, and replace a Commissary in the port of •
Dunkirk—those times are no more. Why then ma-
nifest such anxiout alarms with resped to a Govern-
ment, that solicited by the most earnest wishes, that
negociated by every possible means, and that en-
forced by all its influence and authority, that peace
which had become so necessary to all Europe, which
was wasted away by the calamities of a war no less
frantic in it; objet than furious in its prosecution.
But, in order to place the merit of this message
in a stronger light, it needs only to be translated
in other words. What would be said of the French
Government, if it had sent to the Legislative Body
a message as follows : Government thinks it ne-
cessary to acquaint the Legislative Body, that as
the English Government do not burn at least
the halt of their ships ; that as a certain degree
of a.hvity is observable in the English ports,
arsenals, and dock-yards ; that as they do not
fulfil treaties, &c. &c. Government has judged
it expedient to adopt new measures of precaution
for the safety of the state."
There undoubtedly is no difference between call-
ing for the reduction of an existing force, and pre-
tending to prevent the creation ct a necessary one :
but there would be still another difference with re-
sped to those Governments who would hold that lan-
guage, viz. France might ground it on motives
that would not well be suited to the English Go-
vernment ; for we might still continue to repeat—it
is we who have insisted on, and who have made the
peace; it is you who were anxious for war: it
therefore, you who may, and who ought, to excite
suspicions.
England is labouring under an enormous debt,
and Would fain charge the interest upon us, and the
reimbursement of the capital, by means of a Com-
mercial Treaty, arranged suitably to its own fancy.
It is perhaps a mere turn of good nature to attempt
to make dupes of us. It appears to us, however,
that if Europe has no reason for looking upon us as
cowards, neither has she very many grounds for sup-
posing us to be ideots. After having conquered
with arms in our hands, after having conduced
negotiations with an equal degree of wisdom,
foresight, firmness, and greetness of soul, it
were necessary to suppose that a Government who
had accomplished all these great thln2-,s, mdst have
very suddenly degenerated, to allow themselves to
be induced indlredly to defray the expences of the
war that has been waged against us, and to furnish
the means of recommencing it.
There is a term at which governments, lilt indt-
viduals, must at length do justice to each other, and
consent to get disentangled by their own means
from the emharrassnients, however great they may
be, into which they have voluntarily thrown them-
selves, unless they be prepared to expose themselves
to a situation still more perilous and porrlexing.—
I journal did Conrurcel ere.

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