Star.
London, England, 1810-06-16 00:00:00

LOCAL MILITIA AND GERMAN LEGION.

See the motto, English reader ! See the motto, and then do
pray recollect all that has been said about the way in which Bo-
naparte raises his soldiers.—Well done, I.ord Castlereagh! This'
is just what it was thought your plan would produce. Well said,
Mr. Huskisson ! It really was not without reason that you dwelt,
with so much earnestness, upon the great utility of the Foreign
Troops, whom Mr. Wardle appeared to think of no utility at all.
Poor Gentleman! he little imagined how a great genius might
find useful employment for such troops. He little imagined that
they might be made the means of compelling Englishmen to sub-
mit to that sort of diocitlixt' which is so conducive to the produc-
ing in them a disposition to defend the country, at the risk of their
lives. Let Mr. Wardle look at my motto, and then say, whether
the German soldiers are of as ace.—Five hundred Mika each I
Aye, that is right ! Flog them ; flog them; Bog them !—They
deserve it, and a great deal more. They deserve a fl.seging at
every meal-time. " Lash them daily, lash them duly." What,
shall the rascals dart to Nudity, and that too when the German
Legion Is so near at hand! Lash them, lash them, lash them.
!hey deserve it. 0, yes; they merit a double-tailed cat. BUS
dogs! What, mutiny for the sake of the tries V.& laatecui
Lash them ! Flog them ! Base rascals! Mutiny for the price of
a goat's skin; and then, upon the appearance of the &MPS Sei-

dias, they take a flogging as quietly as so many trunks of trees !
I do not know what sort of a place Ely is; but I really should
like to know how the inhabitants looked one another in the face,
while this scene was exhibiting in their town. I should like to
have been able to see their faces, and to hear their obsee.
vations to each other at the time. This occurrence at home will,
one would hope, teach the loyal a little caution in speaking of the
means which Napbleon employs (or, rather, which they say be
employs) in order to get together and to discipline his Conscripts.
There Is scarcely any one of these loyal persons, wl.o has not, et
various times, cited the hand-el:nit, and other means of force,
said to be used in drawing out the young men of France; there
• is scarcely one of the loyal, who has not cited these means as a
proof, a complete proof, that the people of France hare Napoksa
. aid Ail Gruaransrat, assist with reductive: in his et ars, and would f ia
see another revolution. I hope, I say, that the loyal will, hereafter,
be more cautious in drawing such conclusions now that they see,
• that our" gallant defenders," not only require physical restraint
in certain cases, hut even a little blood drawn from their backs,
and that too, with the aid and assistance of Gertaan troops. Yes,
I hope the loyal will be a little more upon their guard in drawing
I conclusions against Napoleon's popularky. At any rate, every
' time they do, in future,burst out in execrations against the Fren.
for suffering themselves to be" chained together and forced, al
the point of the bayonet, to do military duty," I shall just repub•
lish die passage, which I have taken for a motto to the present
sheet. I have heard of some other pretty little things of the sort;
but, I rather choose to take my instance (and a very complete one
it is) from a public p int, notoriously under the sway of the Min.stry.
The Jury would observe, with how much reproach
Mr. Cobbett mentioned the word ,4 loyal." He would
not suffer it to be believed. that Napoleon would use
such means to raise an army. He not only rendered
it a vehicle of attack on this country, but as a de-
fence of the Emperor of France, he would not per-
mit the country to b?lieve the tyranny of Bonaparte.
So that the author meant to represent that the
treatment of Ministers, was as tyrannical as the
chaining together the Conscripts of France. The
attorney-General charged against him, that he im.
puted tyranny, cruelty, and injustice against the
Government of the Country ; that he held out to
them that the punishment was undeserved, end held
them up to public scorn, for having been base-minded
enough to submit to punidumat He had compared

this treatment to that of the conscripts by Napotras.
They bad mutinied, which rendered it necessary to
call in assistance; aad they were punished by a re,
gear court-martial, and this be compared to the
ranny of Bonaparte. Against the Genaatt LetZ
this was as cruel and unjust, as unmerited. HeVa
up those who wee punished, to ridicule, as men
who, if they had spirit, would not have submitted,
and the German Legion as fit for ao other service.--
It would not have been the part of a loyal subject to
animadvert on these foreigners, against whom node.
merit could be imputed, except it were that they hal
preferred the service of their legitimate monarch to
' that of Bonaparte. The aka of the libel was to
give to all men a distaste to that service, into which
some must enter, and to persuade people that the ty-
ranny of the measure of the local rnilicia was greatrr
than that of Bonaparte. For these reasons he fik
himself called upon to bring the publication before 11
Jury. Whatever the author had W alledge, he would
be patiently heard. He had considered the papa
attentively, and could give it no character but that
which he had described it to be.
I Mr. Thomas Harvey called to prove the libel.
Mr. Cobbett declared himself to be the sole prop:.
etor and author of the paper. He adrkitt4 alto,
that the paper was purchased at Mr. Budd's.
Mr. Lukin called to prove, that there were trorop:
! in service called the German Legion.
Mr. Cobbett admitted that fact.

The libel was then again read.
Mr. COSIIICTT then addressing the Court, *aid, he
should take up as little time as possible, doing so
himself as much justice as lie thought he deserved.—
' But the hard wordcaccumulated, sad thundering ac.
cusations that had been used, would not mislead the
Jury. Sir William Hall, Attorney General in the
time of William 111. bad said, u In Spain the Inqui-
sition clothed persons in lan knito:, that they Duet
be rendered hideous by being thus dressed up." He
I wished the Jury to put on his words no meaning but
that which he had, and he trusted that they would
acquit him. That the Attorney General was not in.
fallible, was sufficiently proved by the charge that
lately had been made against a person of the same .
profession, who was even accused of wishing the
King dead—but the Jury did not, by their verdict,
shew that they believed the Attorney General. In
the whole world there was not a man who had beta
more calumniated than himself ( Mr. Cobbett), and,
in the propagation of that calumny, he certainly
believe his Majesty's Ministers to be implicated.—
This was a question of intention, and, if they could
believe him guilty of what was imputed to him, they
must think him capable of any thing. Even in the
very streets he was calumniated by placards. By ene
person, who had a pension of 4100 per annum, and
which Lord SiJmouth had struck off, a calumny was
asserted at the foot of a caricature, of a most °nut-
geous nature. [Here Mr. Cobbett read it.] Oa
seeing this, in which it was asserted, that be had, in
1793, received £4OOO tor circulating a pamphlet
against Reform--feeling himself thus charged, he had
written to Lord Sidmouth, from whom he bad mem- .

led a most candid answer.- [Here Mr. Cobbett read
a letter from Lord Sidmooth, contradicting the as.
persion.] Mr. Cobbett then adverted to a former
prosecution in the Court of King's Bench, in which
he had been prosecuted for the publication of a libel
written by a Judge, who, however, sow enjoyed a
pension, and which, by the liaerallty of Mr. Perceval,
was increased £BOO per annum. He then adverted
to a prosecution against him for a libel in America,
on the trial for which it appeared, that the Spanish
Minister had contrived a plot to poison his Majesty's
troops in America. Having suffered in his fortune
in that cause so severely fur his King and country,
that very case had been ripped np, and brought
against him on a former occasion by the Attorney.
General. Mr. Cobbett then continued to read the
calumny published against him in the caricature
history of his life, and continued, by observing that,
in his private life, he had folfilled every duty within
his power. It had happened that Lord Craven,
wanting to make a road tor the conveyance of can.
non in Hampshire, on inquiry into the means of
!making it, every one said, go to Mr. Cobbett. Thus
he was not suspected of disloyalty, and had been
! engaged last Session in carrying the Bill for that pm-
,
pose through both Houses of Parliament. lie would
now endeavour to refute the charge that had been
specifically brought against him. The charge was,
that he maliciously intended to excite disaffec-
, tion, &c. The information stated him to do that,
!being an ill-disposed seditious person, and in hatred
of his Majesty and his Government—that is, that he
meant to do an injury to his country. But if they
found him guilty, it must be on the principle that such
were his intentions. He begged their particular am-
; tion to this ; for, in the intention, consisted the whole
of this case. Mr. Cobbett then adverted to what the
Attorney General said at the openiwk in which be
was in error; for that he had long been ready to come
before the Court. He therefore denied, distinctly,
that he had availed himself of any advantage to delay
the trial for one hour. So far from it, his interest
rendered it desirable that it should not be deferred,
for a person with a family of children just old enough
to be alarmed, and with a wife in a situation that in•
creased his embarrassment and distress, could not be
supposed to have any motive for evading justice.--
The Attorney General had dwelt on the word loyal ;
it might have been supposed, that he had too much
discretion to make use of that word as a term of re-
proach. The Jury, if they had read his paper, must
know it. The Attorney-General must know it.—
There were persons who had set up prCensions
to exclusive loyalty--such men, for irevance, 25
Mr. Bowles, Mr. Hunt, and Mr. Villiers, elm,
the moment that any measure cf retrenchment was
proposed, immediately open with a cry of disaffec-
tion. Every one must know his meaning to be by
that word an ironical application to those hypocrites+
who affecting loyalty are any thing else. Another
set of people :ailed themselves King's friends,
who
every body must know it to be his opinion that they
are not the King's friends. The Attrraey Genera
knew the whole paragraph to be satirical—a criticism
on Lord Castlereagh's Bill, the mischid from which
he had been very forward in anticipating. But,
Oh ! says Lord Castlereagh, you cannot mean me,
you must mean the King—" speaking of iloggiegi
it cannot mean me." Why, by and by, if a Mi-
nister were pelted in the street with mutt, w!
should be told the mud was thrown at the King,
Ord not s the Minister. Sir William nay".