The Sun.
London, England, 1814-08-11 00:00:00

THE SUN REVIEW.

(No. XL)
•
Rigi# and Practire of Impressment, as contern7
ir?2- Great 13rilain.' anti America, considered,--,
MURItAY, Albetnarlt,street, pp. 63.

(Concluded from our Paper of Tuesday.)

A number of other Strong facts are adduced'in
illustration of these points, that the ,existence of-
Britain depends on the exercises of the right con-
tested by America, that America can suffer._ my
material damage from it, and that her Gw.:ern-
hient employed the worst means to give Britain
tanse to be most positive in the assertion of. her
'undoubted and indispensible pri ilc e. .The k-
viency and moderation of Great Britain are also
lucidly explained and clearly demonstrated, and
the pamphlet proceeds thus: - •
What then, I must now ask,' a the amount
of the injury done to America„:. compared-.with
that done- by her to Great Britain'i A few Ame-
ricans, certainly not a thousand, prQbably not five,
hundred; perhaps not half this number, .atith'e end
of a twenty-years' war,- are found in the British
Navy, and are found there, only because AMerica
bad rendered unworthy of trust and credit her
own protections ; while, on the other band, 20,000
of these same protections, forged, prostituted,
and sold, have been distributed to British- sea-
Men, and have for so many years, and to so
great an exte-nt,. diminished the national force,
and itrnaired the belligerent power of Great
Britain.
Guise of war, between the two countries, I
must, perhaps, admit that there Was ; but it was
a.war to he declared by Great Britain against
America, for having carried on, • under her legal
and official forms, a system of fraudulent and ma-
lignant hostility against our means of wealth in
peace,- and of defence in war.
".But is there any law of nations or of nature
snore clear than that the ultima ratio, the bloody
redress of war, should not be resorted to • except
in cares where not Only a nation is injured or in-
stilted, hut that she 'is injured or insulted to an
intolerable or at least a serious degree ? Are the
lives of _thousands, and the property and quiet of
millions, to be risked by every little collision
which may take place between the individuals-be-
longing to different nations ? More seamen have'
already sunk in the ocean ; more soldiers have
died in the field, in two years of this war of Mr.
Madison's, than ever, even on his own statements,
were impressed from American into British ships.
Thousands of brave men are dead--thousands
have carried back to a comfot tless home, -wounds,
diseases, and decrepitude —thousands languish
in prison---because Mr. Madison pretends that- a
few hundred Americans were detained in the
British navy, whose release he might -have ob-
tained, by merely furnishing certificates of their
birth.
_

' I admit that if the nitional honour of Ame-
rica were infringed ;—if we claimed ti right to im-
press one single Americau ;—that insult, that in-
jury,' would be a just cause of war. But there is
no such case ; we assert no such right—we dis-
clai,n it. If the-fact ever happens, we say it is a
and we profess ourselves ready to offer
the earliest reparation by the . immedigc release
of the individual. The whole question of exclu-
sive-right- otter. her O«'11 citizens is conceded .to
America : 'the question of tact only remains ; is
the indiviital a British subject or not ? and this is
a-question which Mr. Madison thinks is best dis-
cussed by staining the ocean with. human blood,
'and strewing the e;lows, of Canada with-the bones
of his invading-armies,..
" Dist Mr.-Madison will say that the question
is not merely one of fact ; that it is, wheiber
per:rm. who, born in England, see!is.a new coun-
INT is Amel ica,. shall be torn f.oas the arms of

adoved mother,. -and forced hack. to the country
of ids anthi4thy ?
•: •To this I answer '(in.addition to what I have

_ .
-already said, in--,my first. pages on this subject),
-first; that this question was never alleged -as the
6111;..' of war. It does not appear that the facts
of such a •..cAse were ever proved. There is no
.starement of any distinct complaint of a Haul-
talized subject of America being impressed into
the service of the country of his birth. The case
may frequently have happened, but it never has
been fdrinally stated ; and I defy Mr. Mailiotrto
'cite such a case as a cause of the war.
" Mr: Madison would therelnre persuade us
that he is at war for an -abstract prineiple•; and
what a principle ? One which, except his own
„pamphleteers- or ministersi no num ever before un-
conditionally advanced.:—an abstract • principle,
too, which, if conceded to him, would not better-
ids case or remove his-great grievance ; for not
One nut of a hundred British seamen in the Ame-
rican service arc, even according to her own law,
duly naturalized- in America ; and all that should
not be legally naturalized would, even on Mr.
Madison's own principle, be still liable to the
British impress..
" But this abstract principle, does it concern
the honour or the interests of the United States ?
Unless -it be honour to harbour deserters, and to
encourage rerregadoes—unless it be profitable. to
,unhinge society by doctrines of an ambulatory al-
legiance, with which a man may move from place
to plice, whenever, and as often as he pleases—
it concerns neither one nor the other.
"--Ilow then ? Was Air. Madison so mad or so
..wicked as to lavish the life of -man on so worth:-
les,s an object I must answer-this by a reference
to the first sentences of this pamphlet.--Ile was
not so mad or so wicked—because this was not
the ground of his war ; but, not daring to avow
Lis trine motives,
he is obliged to suWittitc a pre-
tence; and it is his misfortune, not his fault, that
the pretence is not more plausible. •
Long as we have extended our review of this
satisfactory ntoduction, we cannot take our leave
of it vythont one quotation more, with which we
close our e\tmcts, and strenuously :recommend
to every class of
...British
the perusal of the work
readers.- ' '
- it will then, perh4s,flle finally asked me, Is
there no remedy for this;grievance ? To which I
reply, that, if Great Britain, the most injured
party, is eesntrut with the state of the case as it

stands, Aitieric4, the IMO iniuttd pdfty,
on a balance tif erott aril loss; to be satisfied.—
But, on the part of Great Britain,.l-shou!d hot
be inclined to be quite satisfied with trietely re-
turning to the fortuer state of things.
" Before' the war, the Ckilleetor's certificates
and certified lists of the crews were admitted as
sufficient protections. One-third of these Were
either fraudtilently granted, or, at least, fraudu-
lently used.,--4 would have this amended.

" Before the war, America was in the constant,
and, ani sorry to say, allowed habit of Com 4
plaining of British violence and injustice ; when,
in fact, she was unjust, and Britain - was riatient:
—1 would have this amended.

• " Before the war, - traitors and-deserters from
Great .Britain were received as ‘velcome friendS in
Anwrica, without any other recommendation than
their treason- and desertion.-1 would hare this
amended.. • . ; . -

" Before the war, and since, America bas set
up a new-fangled system of public law, -Vie ob-
jeet of which is less to benefit herself than to de-
grade and , injure Great Britain. ---1 would have
this amended.

In amending these errors, we should find
that,we had also corrected the grieVance of which
,:America complains—the impressment of her citi-
zens. If she will abandon her attempts to change,
•in siiite:cif. God and .:Nature, British traitors and
-des'erfers into honest American citizens, and if
she will ensure protections; which her laws
.may give pi:het-native snhjects;•from the trawl and
negligenceof officer•, Great Britain will
engage to restiect these doctonents. •
• "It is not for
,Great Britain to prescribe fo
America how she shall effect this purpose. It is
a 'subject of internal legislation with which we
have nothing to do ; but, as I have slated in a
former part of this paper•, whenever measures are,
taken that make it impossible, or improbable,
that British seamen shoi-ni be on hoard American
vessels, the tight of search would be used 'with
proportictuable caution, every impressment front
an American ship might be made a subject of dis'-
tinct discussion, and the impressment. of -a bona
fide American citizen should be amply compen-
sated. , But, before we can arrive at any such state
of affairs, America must renounce (and this we
have a right to demand, her new-tangled public
law ; she must accede to the established' code of,
civilized nations. 1 say we hare a right, nay,
are under an obligatiOn, to demand' this, as a
preliminary step. It is not a condition, it is
not a concession ; it is an indispensable basis;
for, without an acknowledgment of public law,
where shall we find ground on which to erect a
treaty ? where a foundation for the Temple of
Concord ?

es I think, therefore, that, according to the
homely, but prudent, admonition of " beginning
with the beginning," not a syllable of discussion
shiauld be utttered between the British and Ame-
rican Commissioners, until some hope is af-
forded of such discussion coming to an amicable
conclusion, by the admission of the latter, (as
the basis of all ulterior proceedings,) of the inter-
national law as it is at present received in Europe,
and particularly of that part of it which establishes
the doctrine of natural allegiance.
" I have, in ,what I have written, abstained,
as far as possible, from alluding to any othei
topics or discussion with America than those con=
nected with the subject of Impressment ; but I
need hardly say that they are many and weighty,
and that the American Government has much to
answer for to Great Britain, to Russia., to France,
and to mankind, with regard to its shameful par-
tiality to Buotiaparte. But these subjects are not
uiy besiness ; and. I only refer to them thus ge-
nerally, lest I should be supposed (if these,obser-
vations should obtain any notice) to admit, that,
though the question of Impressment is the only
cause of complaint which survives to America,
that it• is the only point of discussion on which
Great Britain has a right to expect from her an-
tagonist indemnity for the past, and security for
the future."

POLICE.