The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-04-30 00:00:00

TOULON FLEET.

We have not bee). aide to asceLtain whether the
dispatches from Sir EDWARD PELLEW, received yester-
day by Government, contain any tieing respecting the
sailing of the Tonton fleet. But several letters, of a
late date, from Paris, positively state, that this fleet
had actually put to sea full of troops. Nothing, how.
ever, is• said as to its destination.

- We cannot forbear pointing out to the public, that
the whole of the individuals, who attended the Meet-
ing in the London Tavern, on Friday last, for the
purpose of Petitioning against a free trade to India
and China being granted to the out-ports, are per-
sons who have a substantial interest, not only in the
continuances of the Company's Monopoly, but that it
should be confined to the port of London. In these'
circumstance, and influenced by such motives, it is
,impossible to regard their propos:xi application to
Parliament, in anyfother light than ad effort to retain
in substance the vast po eats which they at present
enjoy iu this unjust traffic, while the shadow!
merely is left to the out-ports of the nation.—
•We hesitate not to say, if this Petition is favour-
ably
receiied that all the ad-')
vantages which the public promised themselves by I
the establishment of a free trade, will he rendered
nugatory ; for it is no difficult matter to perceive,
that, if the trade is confined to the port of London, *4
the East India Company will take care that it shall
be affected, by restrictions of a nature that must Fen.
der it utterly unprofitable to those vessels, not be- I
longing to themselves, which may embark in this
traffic. • The very circumstance of these men de- 1
mantling that the trade shall be confined to one port,
shots that something is intended prejudicial -to the
general interests of the country ; that a monopoly,
equally prejudicial to the fair trader as that sanc-
tioned by the Company's Charter, is attempted to be
established in its stead. If the East India and China
trades are not to be extended to all the ports in the
kingdom, and that without limitation or restriction,
it seems a matter of little consequence, whethet the
Charter, as it stands at present, is to be renewed or
not. To do it away, and confer on the 'Merchants
of London an-exclusive import trade, would only
be transferring the monopoly *from the hands of one
set of avaricious men to that of attother„ while the na-
tion would gain nothing by the transfer. We lately put
some serious questions to 'the East India. Company,
respecting the manner of conducting their Seminaries
for the education of youth, established in this aoun-
try, which we were of opinion required td be Wis.,

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too well founded. We trust, however, they will bo
able to obviate the following additional queries:
Are not all their seminaries for youth in England
as well as their other establishments, vile and aim',
minable jobs, badly contrived for any purpose but.
that of putting money into some of their Oslo pockets'
Do they vainly imagine, that by making a show of
preparing young officers and writtire for defending
, .
our Asiatic territories, and collecting the revenue
there, they can deceive or inveigle either Parliament
or the public into an approbation of the renewal of
their Charter ? Ought not these, worse than useless,
establishments to be abolished ? Art not the public
examinations at them, particularly at what they hats
the assurance to call their military seminary,. mere
scenes of mummery ? Of the number of Cadets
that have been sent out to theY.ast Indies, as O.
cers of Artillery, is there even one among them that
has received any instruction on artillery subjects '—
Does their examiner, though he be an Officer of Ar.
tillery himself, in reality know much more of the
proper application of the various species of mil-
name and ammunition to military purposes, than
a poit {stinted by the cotter of a street ? Du
he seen any real service ? and ' w)ity has he not
been obliged to go, in his turn, oh actual service,
instead of being indulged with the privilege of loung.
ing and loitering at home, and spending upwards of
twenty years in uselessly ascertaining the longitudes
and latitudes of inked steeples, and churches, io.
stead of the soundings and exact bearings of the dif.
ferent points, bays, and headlands, round this island
and Ireland ? Does he not receive from the Jobbing
Directors 3651. per annum, for performing about
one week's duty? What can more strongly mark or
demonstrate their ignorance and stupidity, than their
investing a man with so important an office, who is
totally unacquainted with both theory and practice
of the engineer profession; who, when examined
for a commission at Woolwich, though the examina.
tiona at that Academy were then very trifling pad
superficial, was remanded to his studies for want of
proficiency ; and, when he passed at last, was not
regarded as a proper subject for his Majesty's corps
of Engineers, but was put into the Artillery, with
the power of selecting and setting apart such of their
Cadets as he thinks proper for their own corps of En-
gineers ; and thus taking it out of the hands of their
own Committee in the East, by whom it use,l to
be exercised, to put it into those of a person who
has never been instructed In even the first rudiments
iof a liberal education ? It may, however, be ose
„of the sage maxims of this highly enlightened Cont.
pany, that the less a man knows of a.- subject, the
I better qualified he is for makiue ethemacittain'ed
I trial it. Does not he, in examining their Cadets,
' publicly select five or six of 'them that he has found,
Iby private examinations, to be much better qualified
than the rest ? And does not he even ask these the
very questions in the course they are taught, in-
' stead of analogous ones, that are not to be found in
it ? And do not these commonly furnish passports
for twice or thrice their own number, that are not
examined publicly at all ? Have not several of
them, through collusive management, got commis•
sious, and gone out to the East Indies, without
being examined either publicly or privately; whilst
optrti,cierosutsiwyliroe j
?betmterighqtuanioifit
L
l have been examined ? Does not the
,Examiner arti-
culate
so indistinctly, that if the candidates did not
know, before-hand, the questions he is to put to
them, they would not understand one half of what
1 he says ? Did he, at their last public examination, in
Otocrteopbe
ae rt, Lit 1
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0,
mr e qm
ouni r e. p
laancye trhaitn,
es i
n morethe of of
them than
course
they
Care taught? And did he mot, at the preceding one)
manifest a wonderful degree of caprice, and, with
who has
i oaths,. tear some .of the young Gentlemen's plans ? i
Is net die poor, vulgar,gnorant man,

of their military semisary, .ia.l4 constant
teaching the boys plane trigonometry,
before they are taught any part of plane geometry?
And, as plane trigonometry naturally arises out of
plane geometry, of which it Is a branch, can any
thing be more.absurd ? Is not it owing to this stupid
practice, that the Cadets leave their seminary with-
I understanding the trigonometrical canon ?
Have not the young Gentlemen,"at their seminary,
been frequently prevented from attending Divile
Service, as well as sothe bratichps of their in-
struction, for want of shoes to their fctt, and Pan-
taloons to -cover their nakedness ?—Did the Direc-
tors establish it by way of extravagance, and do
they starve it by way of economy 1-1-low are the
Cadets taken- care of at it when. sick ? Are t:.l
not frequently under the necessity of sendh.g cite-
where for nourishment ?—Was it by way of extra-
vegance or economy, that the summer before tat • n'Y
had platforms laid of a great expence in the fieiti
Addiscombe House, strong and large enough for the
heaviest mortars in our service, though they were in-
tended for Royals, or of mortars only, and they
have no larger ones there to put on them? Have net
these platforms lain there ever since, exposed to the
weather, without being once made use of ?
The conduct of the Courier, respecting the charge
of the American Government against our Ministers,
completely demonstrates that they dare not 'Apace