The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-04-18 00:00:00

IEsNIANst

To rat EDITOR or,rtc STATESMAN.

Slit,—Lord Meelrma; in asserting, in conjunc-
tion with his no less able colleague, Lord LIVER.
root., that the whole fleet of Great Britain could not
blockade Obi, showed a thorough • ignorance of
naval Wain, and gave a flat contradiction to the
doctrines and measures of their respective parents.
When the father of the former was man of all work
to Lord NORTEt in the iniquitous war against Ame-
ricas' be inslined'on blockading an entire sea-coast of
ONIt THOUSAND leagues, with a view of stirr-
ing the Americans into unconditional submission ;
and from thence Mr. HENRY DOW/ Is, who was more
indebted to an abuse of the prerogative than to merit'
for the Peerage conferred on him, obtained the nick-
name of "STARVATION." When that very in-
defatigable Gentleman, who, in our interregnum,
was also on the stand ready to be hired by those who
coeid beg pay him, became a man of all work to
Mr. PITT, the notable scheme of starvation, though
it failed in America, was resorted to, and in 1793
and 1794, famine was compel France to a retro.
grads motion from liberty to slavery ; and Mr. DUN-
DAS endeavoured, and with equal success, to starve.
the French, is he had before attempted to starve the
Americans into an unconditional submission to our
usurped authority. Mr. CHARLES J ENKinson, the
no lest indaatigible father of Lord LIVERPOOL was a
party to the blockades in both instances, and with this
freshens our memory, their sons gravely assure us that
the whole naval force of England cannot blockade
an Wand 36 miles in circumference ! If this is not
only insulting Parliament, but the common sense of
mankind, I really do not know the meaning of the
word. If Ministers, however, did not feel them-
selves culpable, why refuse to produce Papers which 'I
would prove either their guilt or innocence? The
very refusal is a tacit acknowledgment of the former,
and sheltered as they are by a majority, which gives
no additional lustre to the House of Peers, the na.',
tion can have but one opinion respecting the deli&
gleficy of. Ministers!
Their defence is as poor as poverty, and want of
intellect, as well as went of principle, could have
made it. They tell us, or rather that very amiable
and moral Gentleman, Lord CASTLEREAGH, informs
us that he arrived too late at Paris to PREVENT the ar-
rangement that had been made with the Emperor of
FRANCE at Fontaiubleau. This implies that he
would have prevented it, had be come sooner to his
post, but be has not explained to us the cause of his
delay. Perhaps his Lordship was unwilling to re.
noance the luxury of drinking Burgundy in per.
fection at Dijon, the capital of the province that
produces that delicious beverage.—but holding the
purse which fed their Royal and Imperial Majesties,
their Secretaries and Generals, he surely had that
kind of controul or coercion over them, which wealth
gives to less ostensible hands over the inferior
classes of society,—and a menace well timed, artfully
insinuated, in a manner well known to his Lordship,
frank in appearance but ambiguous in meaning,
yielding, yet resisting neither one thing nor the other,
and suited to his Lordship's general diplomacy, might
have proenred for our Foreign Secretary, Ambassador,
sad Gacituosirswhal besides, that..ecoramanding po.
sitlon which the representatives of the British nation
was entitled to, and would certainly have obtained,
although he reached Paris " unfortunately too late,"
If the abilities of his Lordship had been in any
degree equal to the trust reposed in him. But this
is not all. This Lord, and the First Lord of the
Treasury, and the First Lord of the Admiralty, all
of them claiming first rate penetration, acknowledge
that Elba was granted in FULL sovereignty to the
Emperor of FRANCE.—That he was allowed a
ship of war, with permission to go whereever he
pleased, except with an armed force to France
—or to any other country with hostile inten-
tions; hut having no right to coerce him by
land, nor to place his Imperial Majesty under " a
naval police" by sea, as that wonderfully able and
very modest Gentleman"`, srho presides over our
naval department, calls it. Ministers ought not to
be responsible for the escape of the Emperor—:cer-
thinly not. All treaties might to lee held sacred ;
but if no coercion was to be exercised as a matter of
acknowledged right, nor meant to be employed in
violltion of (Le puNie faith, how comes it that a
tnitit.tty olliccr, of the sank of Colonel, was station-
ed at Elba, and a Vice-Consul appointed, certainly
as unnecessary as it has proved :5 ie:eless expellee to
the country? If, to come back to the new-tangled
phrase of the Secretary and the First Lord of the
Admiralty; " no police" was to be employed at sea,
how are we to account for the authority which Admi-
ral HALLOWELL presumed he had to seize the Emperor,
if he attempted to kali the Island allotted to him hi
FULL SOVEREIGNTY? Really, Sir,'-it is an
ahuse of your patience, and a waste of time to dwell
upon such puerilities, and expose such gross iucapa-
city
to the derision of the world. . I
That the men to whom the honour and interests of;
the country are confided, should commit such puerin
lities lon nothing in it to surprise us—the astonish,'
menu is that the nation should submit to. it.
Portiou,n.strare, April 14. REGULUS.