The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-02-11 00:00:00

'!'IIE gTATAISMAN.

h,,,,•a, The separation was affecting, and accom.
.pd with mutual expressions of esteem and re.
rd. His Excellency will pass some weeks with his
family at Hanover, end then proceed to his new
oination, the command of the Southern Army of
tbegreat Monarch to whom, with the other high Al-
lies, we are indebted for our better fortune.

‘VOVEK, JAN. 30.—We hear there is to be a grand
review here next month.
vi nu nor, Fre. 3.—Exchange on London 31, 3,

two mouths.

The conditions which the Citastcera.on of the Ex-
colore has thought proper to annex to his consent
to the abolition of the Property Tax, in the face of
the almost unanimously expressed wishes of the
~popte of this country, must not be passed over with
slight notice— they are of a nature to suggest a
variety of important reflections. So the dropping of
most grievous and justly unpopular measure is to
depend on the ratification of the American Treaty,
or the finding and tolerating of an adequate substi-
sate. Thongh we are now at peace with all the
worW, thanks to good fortune, which has had more
hand in producing this change than good, ppliey.L.no
mention is made of lessening, by the proper and most
obvious means, the enormous expenditure to which a
stateof warfare and a combination of impolitic mea.
sures have exposed ns. • But how well fortified ought
those Ministers to be in the justice and expediency of
the steps they have been pursuing, to stand justified in
the eyes of a thinking nation in making such de-
r•tarations, in the present state of things, and such
'wands upon the patience and liberality of an ex-
hausted people ! The consideration of this modest
answer to the reques• of the people of England must
necessarily place tie measures which gave rise to this
unfertonate dilemma in which the country is placed,
and their authors, at the bar of public judgment.
So, because Ministers, the very men who have the
effrontery to make such declarations, may have added
420 millions, or doable that sum, to the burdens of
the country by their foolish conduct of the Ameri-
mn war, their aptitude in finding causes of quarrel
with out best friends at a time when we had sufficient
expensive work of the kind upon our hands, and
their dexterity in prolonging the contention after
the original causes of the war had ceased—we are
told by these lavishers of the national treasure, these
immolators of the national honour at the shrine of
ride and prejudice, that the enormous burdens
which the country has been subjected to by their
mode of administering our affairs must he continued
until, at least, it is seen whether the Treaty which
they have been compelled to sign shall be ratified by
the Power which they have so long despised—a
Treaty declaratory, by its natere,•of the abandon-
ment of all their professed objects. We Weald ra-
ther indulge in anticipations of peace, and the still
poasible return of prosperity, than in unplessing
retrospects; bat we deem it necessary to say,
LI justification of our assertions, that the policy
pnrsued by the Government of this country
throughout the whole of the unhappy differences
which haie subsisted between Great Britain and the
roiled States has been, as is proved by its conse-
quences, of the most erroneous and infatuated sort.
Who can deny that the natural and habitual par-
tialities of America have ever been •in favour of this
country, in spite of the insults and injuries she has
long been receiving from us ?-13ut the policy of
France towards the same people, though united only
in ideas of liberty, was of another sort. France
had neither the wish nor the power to injure Ame-
i:ea, even when she deemed it necessary to put on a
s..ow of vigorous hostility -- Iler Milan and
Ilerlirt Decrees only hurt America through us,—
t:trough our readiness to follow the example of a
cenetry whose acts and principles we were condemn-
ieg. 'I he French Decrees were only heard—the Eng-
lish were felt, by theinjury they inflicted on England
herself as well as on America. After the aggressions
commit'ett under our Orders in Council, America
had no alternative but going to war in good earnest.
She prepared for the contest, but we did not, though
we had laid ,he foundations of the most rancorous hos.
tility. These obnoxious Orders being admitted to
bare been the immediate cause of the war, and their
effects evidently ruinous, there can be little doubt
that pone might have been preserved if they had
never been enacted, and that much good would have
resulted to both countries had they been recalled a
year earlier than they were. It seems, therefore, a
fair inference, that the blame of continuing the war,
with all its attendant miseries, rests on our Ministers.
Pacific overtures should have been made the moment
these Orders were actually withdrawn. Such offers
'mould trot have been more discreditable to us at that
tine than at a subsequent period, when our armies
were defeated, and our flag was confessing a superior
in the enemy we were in the constant habit of de-
tiding. Instead of this, the causa bclli underwent
a change from general principles to the defence of
abuses %hick could not admit of any serious dispute.
It is admitted that the right of impressment, which is
vested in the Sovereign, and entitles him to annul
end disregard all the contracts entered into by our
ivxn merchantmen, with persons using She sea, en-
tiles him just as clearly to disregard any similar
14,4:lemma into which such persons may have en-
-1"'od with foreign merchants, and to enforce their
Irnmetliete service in his navy, in virtue of the
I'4 'mount sad precedent obligation which they
iatt-a;ted by engaging iu that profession.—

Hitt, on the other hand, it is no less plain that we
hrive no right, or shadow of right, to touch the per.
son or a native American, and that the impressment
of a single citizen of that country is an atrocious
and intoterabie violation a his most sacred rights,'
against which his Government is bound to protect
him, and which it would he deserting its first lad
moat imperious duties if it did not resent and resist.
Now, the plea of America has been, that the right
of search and impressment at sea cannot, in the !
nature of things, be exercised without occasionally ,
mistaking native Americans for English, even if :
there was any disposition to avoid such mistakes ;
and she has complained, still complains, and will do

so until this matter is adjusted, that there is no such
disposition on the part of the British Naval Com-
manders, but in many instances an insolent and ar-
bitrary resolution to make up a complement of men,
without any regard to the most regular evidence of
citizenship. In defence of such practices, and to
establish them as put of our Maritime Code (for
America has admitted our right of claiming our own
seamen) the war gas carried on—its fierceness and
barbarity augmenting as circumstances gave us the
power to inicease our vengeance. Our navy was
td smittithate the pigmy fleets of America,-and to levy
contributions along all her shores,w bile the veruiread_
and terror of ear hostility was expected to shake her
unseasoned Government to pieces,—in all likelihood
(humane project !) to cause a civil war, and, per-
haps, the return of the revolted colonies to the Mo-
ther Country. Such were our expectations; how
have they been realised by events ? To tell it
must harrow up the feelings of every English
breast; we have been worsted in most of our naval
encounters, and baffled in most of our enterprises
by land. Our immense and costly marine, which was
to blockade every port of the Western Continent,
has been chaced from the Ocean by half a dozen fri-
g
i gates; we have lost in the engagements that have
taken place, at least three times more men than
our opponents, and their, privateers still swarm un-
checked round all our settlements, and even on our
European coasts, making prizes of our vessels in the
sight of our merchants.
In proof of the triumphant growth of the A.
rican naval power, and the loss and humiliation of our
own, as well as the extent of the disasters which have
befallen the shipping interests of this country, by
the shameful neglect and gross mismanagement of our
protecting arm, we need only refer our Readers to
the most important Report of the Secretary of the
i American Navy, given in this Paper; a document
deserving of the most serious attention. Let Go-1
vernment look at it—it is a mirror in which the
effects of their policy, or rather impolicy,will be seen
in images of the most convincing cast. The Secretary
asserts " that the American navy is not excelled is
any thing that tonstitutes efficiency, perfect equip.
meat, and general good qualities"—an assertion that
will generally be admitted to be true; and the de.
feats of the British system, " which have been the
• theme of reprehension and criticism for many years,"
I too treeisiest are pointed out in a way that can leave I
no doubt, if we had no other evidence of the lament-
ables administration of our once formidable navy.—
" Oat of 538 ships, &c. in the British navy, now
• at sea, there are only sixty-nine which are in reality
superior in the discharge of metal or force of blows,
but inferior in sailing, to some of the American
frigates; and that there are but eighteen, which,
unless in smooth water, are equal to contend with
the United States, leaving 451, out of 538, which
are admitted to be incompetent to engage, single
handed, with an American frigate ! !"
If this be really the comparative state of our pre-
, ponderance over America, it is fortunate that any
method has been found to put a stop to the trial of
strength between the countries. But let us attend a
little more to the causes which have produced this
exhibition of the latent energies of America. As
soon as we testified our desire or need of peace, for
it cannot he doubted that the appearance of our
having to maintain the cause of Europe on European
ground, created a real necessity on our part for peace,
America immediately acceded to the proposal for
negotiation. Bat what was the conduct of our Mi-
nisters, even under these circumstances ? The only
doubt and difficulty was, whether America would
abandon her pretensions, and whether we would
consent to such modifications of our practice, as to

lay a ground for immediate pacification. Before the
Commissioners met, however, all these difficulties
seemed to be providentially removed, fur peace was
restored to Europe; and with the state of belligerent
vanished all the grievances and all the pretensions
of neutral. So well had the American Government
judged of European affairs, that her Commissioners
were instructed, i►► case of the cessation of hosti-
lities in this quarter, to allow all the the points of dis-
pute growing out of the war to die a natural death
with it. But England would not consent to this—
she had advantages to obtain which she had not in
contemplation when she herself suggested the nego-
tiations. What these advantages were in idea, and
what they have turned out to be in reality, we need
riot minutely explain. The demand for a cession of
territory, solemnly ceded and secured to America
by the Treaty of 1783, and some indefinable stipu-
lations about Indians, dignified by the name of
our Allies, afforded a pretext for the continuance
of hostilitieq, and the lavishing of the blood and
treasure of this country, till we had nearly lost every
thing on the Western Continent, and Great Britain
was plunged in disgrace and financial into at borne.

7With what face can Lord CASTLEREAGH oppose
the unprincipled conduct of Prussia, or any other
Continental State, which seeks to aggrandise itself
by inratitegOliat tOrltery of another on the plea of
weakuesi,..44l* 'necessity of security, when
our conilnet In regard to America !was exactly
this emit ? We were the weakest, it seems,
of the:. two powers in America, and there-
fore we will take by force what is neces-
sary to put us on a footing with our neighbour.—
Pretexts like these, pretexts indeed of a much higher
nature, have never been wanting to justify the most
pernicious and' most dangerous of all human
crimes—the undertaking of a war of conquest,
and the invasion of national rights ; " nor
is there," as is justly' remarked by an elo.
quent writer of the present day, " any other
meaning in the general principle of maintaining the
independence of all civilized governments, than that
no pretext—nay, no proof of increased security and
general advantage--shall be admitted as an Apology
for tile invasion of one State by another, or the
forcilde dismemberment of an atom of her indisputed
territory. It is upon this principle that civilized so-
ciety depends fur its very existence. It is by this
sitrttirthirthe strong are restrained, and the weak
protected Worn oppression—by this and by this only,
that the substance or the names of public principle or
occasional peace have ever been heard of among
mankind."