Star.
London, England, 1811-12-26 00:00:00

MALTA SEPTEMBER 21, 1811.

A LETTER TO A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT IN THE
COUNTY OF DENIM
SlR—After 4 sojourn on the Continent for about
five years, I had at last the rood fortune of extricating
myself from numberless dangers and difficulties, and
took accordingly my passage at.N iples in an Ameri-
can vessel bound to Malta—from which place I have
the pleasure to address you.
• As my private concerns will probably detain me
for some time in this island, and consequently my 'I
arrival in England may perhaps be postponed for'
some months, I do not hesitate availing myself of
the first opportunity to write to you ; and, in the
mean-time, to inform you of some facts which daily
happen in this part of the world, and which I must
look upon as in the highest degree detrimental to the
honour of our country.
I am a private individual, and have been travelling
only for my pleasure, which you are not ignorant of;
and as an Englishman, 1 think myself entitled to the
right of representing to our distinguished characters
at home, the many abuses which occur continually
in our foreign possessions, and which will inevitably
disgrace our national character, if not speedily re-
moved and abolished.
The abuses I allude to, Sit, are attributed to the
great number of privateers, apparently English (at
least carrying the British flag), but in great part
really belonging to foreigners, or to a set of adven-
turers, under the name of mercenary Englishmen,
who are base enough to sell the honour of our coun-
try for a despicable sum of money, and to depredate
the property of our countrymen, in order to share it
with some foreigner, and very often to enrich with it
an enemy.—ln short, Sir, I wish to allude to the equi-
vocal tenor of many licences granted to American
and other merchants, who are well-disposed towards
the English, but who, being totally unacquainted
'with the severe laws of our Admiralty courts, have
unfortunately lost their property, owing to a mere de-
ficiency of form, which in justice ought to have been
.explained to them at the time such licences were
granted.
I allude also to the shameful correspondence held
by many of the proprietors (whose names I can men-
tion) of privateers, under the name of English, with
those on the Continent, by which means they get in-
formation of every ship that is about to sail from one
port to another, and render its attestation unavoid-
able. The captured ship is generally plundered, and
the passengers ill treated, by a set of rapacious vaga.
bonds of all nations, who carry the vessel into some
port to which it was not bound, where in all proba-
bility its condemnation follows (owing to some trifling
omission), when the captors sell and share the con-
demned property for the mutual benefit of them arid
their informers. The owner of the vessel and cargo
then makes an appeal to our Admiralty court at Lon-
don, where the cause is perhaps decided in his favour.
'He ten calls upon the captors to refund the money,
which is probably less than the original cost ; and the
only satisfaction he obtains is, that they are become
bankrupts, and have absconded.
I do not mean to enlarge upon politics—but our
Government are little aware of the useful intelligence
conveyed to Bonaparte by means of these dastardly
privateers.
These are facts, Sir, of which I am well informed, I
and which cannot but diminish the high opinion
foreigners entertain of English honour and loyalty.
These abuses are so striking and so frequent, that,
not only strangers, but some respectable British mer-
chants themselves, established in this Island, feel the
necessity for the vindication of our national honour,
as well as for the benefit of trade in general, of apply-
ing the most efficacious remedy for their total re-
moval.
I have often heard many unfortunate foreign mer-
chants, at the Exchange and other public places, most
bitterly complain of their having been totally ruined
in consequence of the unlimited confidence they have
placed in British licences. "We thought (said they)
of securing our property from French rapacity, by
conveying it to a place under the English protection:
but in extricating ourselves from the-paws of the
Tiger, we have fallen into those of the Lion. We
have been bereft (continued they) of all our pro-
petty by that very nation we were ever used to look
upon as the most loyal and most generous on earth—
We are now plunged into the horrors of distress,
owing to the smallest and most insignificant defi-
ciency of form ; but, if the danger of overlooking
these forms is of so great a consequence as to cause
the ruin of many innocent individuals, why were we
not informed of it at the time we iiurelsarell those li-
cences ? Why are those licences couched in such
equivocal words, as to be liable of a double and con-
tradictory interpretation ?"—ls this the nation which
boasts so much of her high sense of honour, libera-
lity, and justice ?
What, in the name of humanity, must be the
feelings of a liberal minded Briton, on hearing such
just reproaches from those very persons who fell vic-
tims to the honour and integrity they placed in our
nation !—These reproaches pierced me to the very
soul, and urged me without loss of time to trouble
you with these few lines.
have pointed out to you the evil ; let our Repro.
sentatives become aware of the necessity of diminish.
ing not aboliihing entirely) the number of privateers,
and our Government of couching all licences in the
most clear and unequivocal words, so as not to be
liable to a double interpretation. Let our Govern-
ment, instead of issuing letters of marque in favour
of individuals of an equivocal character, employ rather
some young officers of our navy, who will prefer
being appointed to the command of small armed ves-
sels (of which we have numbers) in order to protect
the trade of our countrymen and neutrals, to the idle
life many of them are condemned to lead in tier dif-
ferent sea-port c.
On the Continent I became acquainted with many
respectable merchants, who, under the apprehension
of falling into the hands of" the privateers, keep at a
distance from our ports, and 'who would, in spite of
all Bonaparte's peremptory decrees, carry on with
our possessions a commerce mutually beneficial.—
Commerce, the glory of England, in spite of Bona-
parte, would flourish, and our national character,
which has of late suffered so much in the eves of
foreign nations, which ought to ke our first and most
political object in these criticallkimes, would be re-
established on the most solid basis. 1 am, Sir, your
'obedient bumble servant, s. o.