The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-05-19 00:00:00

AMERICA

HENRY'S MISSION.

[FROM TuE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCtIt, Tilt GOVERN-
V EttrimENT orriclAL JOURNAL.]

The Report of thy Committee of Foreign Rela-
tions on this st bject is now before our readers, to.
gether with the testimony of the Gentleman whom
we have heretofore stated to have been examined be-
fore that Committee. It appears that Mr. lleery's
character, to which objections have been offered by.
Mr. Foster and others, was not taken into consde--
ritiou ley the Committee, who conceived the docu-
ments to bear on their face such marks of authenti-
city as could not be resisted. It will be seen also, if
such ronl., ;nation he needed, that strong circum.
sr:mil,: proof is atforled by Count Crilion's' tests.
snotty in support of the statements of Mr. Henry,
who appears to have stood as high in England as in this
country, and was equally distinguished hi London as
in &Moulin both of which he frequented the best so.
ciety. We have seen it intimated, in certain Prints, that
Henry's disclosuresare unimportant, because no names
are given of those with wh6m he held correspondence
,during his mission in this country ; and we should not
be surprised to find this report adduced to prove that
there bas been no such intercourse. The Commit.
tee, it will be observed, have not taken any steps to
implicate any .persons in this country who may be
snproccd to have been concerned in this plot; but as

they have not implicated, neither have they exone-
rated, nny—and perhaps it was not within the strict
line of their duty to have done either the one or the
othor. hi relation to this point, we may be per-
vaittA to remark, flat we have been disposed to at.
tact, importance' to this disclosure, -not at all be-
cause it may incidentally impliCate some of our own
‘cilizens,'but as exposing the treacherou+ conduct of
a nation covertly seeking the destruction of the only
free Government on earth—es elucidating the real
,canse and motives of the policy observed by Great
Britain to us, taking into view her contemporaneous
proclamation, during 'the Embargo, admitting into

. her ports American vessels without clearances, &c.;
Canning's official sneers in his intercourse with our
Minister in London—Ershine's assurance of the sin-
__
- .verity of his Master's inclination to favour the inte-
rest's of this country, and maintain with us unceas-
Ang amity—the appeal from our Government, ad-
s dressed particularly to the people of the Eastern Sec-
tion of the Union, by the publication of Canning's
letters in Boston—and other circumstances which the
recollection of oar Readers will supply more readily
than our pen. When we review this tissue of de-
ception—when we tetlect on the conduct of Britain,
tendering in one hand the calumet of peace, whilst
the other held the poisoned chalks to our lips, we
emphatically feel that a nation, likes man,
May smile, and smile, and be a villain."
Thc disclosures made by Mr. Henry have hrcu held
up to ridicule as unimportant, and, with the same
grace as a froward child breaks out into a hysterical
laugh, to conceal thesorrow its little heart is too stub-
born to avow, we have seen some who have affected
to laugh at their contents. If this merriment be
. atfccted, it is childish and unworthy of men of sense
and character ; if not, it is worse. In the same
spirit in which Nero fiddled when Rome was. in
• flames, thoughtless men may smile at the approach
of the hydra of foreign influence which threatens to
devour them 1 as far be it from us to envy them, as
to participate in their amusement. This is not the
first time that ridicule has been resorted to where the
recoil of weightier weapons has been dreaded. But
• In this case, the arrow is so light and ill sped that it
glances from the object at which it is aimed, re-
bounding on those who use it—for what can be more
ridiculous than to manifest hatred for the agent in
this plot, in the same breath that the principal is de.
fended, or what snore absurd than the declaration,
that these documents are forgeries, and Henry him-

self unzcorthy of credit, at the same time that his
whole budget is ransacked, and this man's private
letters exposed to view, to exculpate from participa-
tion in his views those whom no one has censured as
concerned

A futile attempt is made to stifle the force of
—Henry's evidence, to screen from the public eye the
damning facts be exposes to view, by magnifying the
amount of the compensation said to have been made
by our Government to Mr. lleury for his disclosure.
Supposing all that is said to be true, how can that
pos.iibl, detract from the atrocity of the act disclos-
ed, ana which is tacitly confessed even by the British
Minister?--When a man is convicted of house.
breaking or murder, it his conviction less important
to society beeause,a reward was paid for bis detection
or apprehension ? On the same principle it is that
services such as Henry has rendered us are rewarded
by Governments. What honest industrious man,
that in the silent dead of night has found his house in
pastes, his property menaced with instant destruc.ll
tient
sand only saved by the interposition of Provi.
deuce, but would freely give a tithe of his weekly
.earnings for the discovery of the incendiary? Ue
know not what Henry has received for revealing to
our Government the incendiary agency for separating
this, Union ; but this we know, that those who hold
this Union cheap will think the secret purcluised at a
price too dear. Of one fact We venture confidently
to assure our readers; that whatever compensation
• Mr. Henry may have demanded from our Govern-
meta for the communication of his credentials, he j
might • from another quarter have commanded five '
times as muck for their suppression.
Although many may say, with the lion. Mr. I
Quincy, that the ['resident has done worthily in lay-
ing the affair before Congress, in our view he has
only performed an act of obvious and imperative
duty, imposed by the awful solemnity of his oath to
seprort the Constitution of the United States. If
the President knew of the exist ace of evidence of a
plot to sever the Union, to destroy the Constitution
he had sworn to support—was he not bound to ob.
taiu it ?—Wheat obtained, "mild he have faithfully
diieharged the duty confided to him if he had i.e.',
(rained from laying it before Congress ? If tots
ought he to have refrained from so doing from an
Appreheiision,of offending those who those to con.'
sitter themselves as implicated ? If he had concealed
It, hp had become an accomplice in the crime; by
.disclosing it, it is no fault of the President, however
• .It afar be a cause of regret, that the feelings of some
• respectable individtsals of keen sensibilities appear to
bisre been unintentionally wounded,

e'llg,

, ,

, ,