The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-02-03 00:00:00

• TO THE r MTOR OF 'rlip. STATESMAN.
[CONTINUED FROM OUR P %PER OF J.%N. 40.1
We are told that SOCRATES, contending for the ess
cellence of true philosophy, made use of the follow.
ing expressions—" Many carry the Th)rsus, but
few are truly inspired with the spirit of BACCHUS."
Now the spirit of BACCHUS here alluded to, appears
to have been something not very different from the
spirit of Christianity, at least in the opinion or
Cctsr ems of A lexandrin, from whose tin., by the learn-
ed LE CLERC, 1 glit.lo. CLEMENS liligli a person of
great erudition and piety; and bad been instructed
in Christianity by one who ha I persooally known
some of the Apostles. This holy father was of opie
nion, that the same Goo who gave philosophy to the
Greeks bad also given the Law and the Prophets to
the Ilebrews, and Christianity to modern times; and
that the end of all these inspirations, for such he
esteemed them, wns the same, namely, to make men
just and pious. On this excellent and liberal doc-
trine I shr.ll take leave to observe, that as there were
many among the Cheeks who carried the Thymus,
and jet were strangers to te true spirit of philo-
sophy, so were there among the llebi en s many pita•
risaical observers of the law, nod so likewise has
there been among the moderns many false Prophets,
who have come in cheeps' clothing. but inwardly
were ravenous noises. Such indeed were Ore
lA4g'y of spesniri+lle ages, who really appear to tiiiiis
i !larded the sanction of religion to rot try
I iAr, &Ca* it was the passion oV tile' test main 4*a age to indulge themselves in those stresses. Of
' all national misfortune's one of the great* is-a time.:
serving, obsequious-Clergy ; for as the ghtie from an
; ignusfatuutismotedangeroustoa tririellerthan also..
lots darknessoo the causa'of And-Christ is beat pro.
'noted, not by .those who would openly espouse it,
hot by corrupt. Churchmen, who, bearing the en-
-I.lagns of the religion of peace, treacherously lead
I men to war and bloodshed. Surely it were better to
put an extinguisher at once upon the light of tic
.I•Gospel, than to use it for the purpose of alluring
men to do that which the Gospel itself forbids.
It was my intention, when I first took up this
highly important subject, to dedicate a Letter to the
1 matter of Impressment of Seamen ; but I afterwards
• thought it best to argue generally against the prior.
ciple of Maritime Rights, because if that is once ad-
mitted it would be nonsense to say a word more
upon the subject. If it is once conceded that might
confers right, the nation that is strongest at sea hate
a right to do whatever they please there. They may
take men or merchandise—may impose a tribute on
every ship that they rencounter, and if they will not
ransom themselves, they may burn ship end crew
and cargo all together ; or if the captors find it more
to their interest, they may take out the crew and
carry them to some other country and sell them as
slaves. Once the principle of force is admitted as a
sanction to human actions, it is impossible to set
any limits to injustice and oppression ; or, to speak
more properly, there is no such thing in that case
as oppression or injustice-, nit then power- would be
1 .
!justice, as it see s. to have. been considered in the
difieligti ' ',......au5i...-:',4:0-....,..... uer., ••• , ,

If imistake not, it has been asserted by JEAN
JAQUES ROUSSE%U, that all animals derive great sa..
; tisfaction from the exercise of their physical powers.
I Now, that this should be the case with respect to
i irrational animals is natural enough, such satisfac-
-1 tion being with them the stimulus to action. It
' constitutes what men call instinct. Hut it is not na..
i
i tural that an animal, whose chief excellence consists
lin the exercise of his rational faculties, and who is
I endowed with the high perception of virtue, should
take greater delight in the exercise of force than its
the sentiment of justice ; such a preference is the mark
of a savage state, where men are but a small degree
Iremoved from brutes ; whilpt, on the other hand.
i the preponderance of justice over force is a mark of
man being in a state of considerable advancement to.
wards the perfection of his nature.
It was, as we have seen, the epinine of SAINT
CLEMENT, that philosophy was sent by GOD to teach
the Greeks justice and piety, for they are sister vir-
tues, and indeed inseparable; and he tells us,
that the Law and the Prophets were sent to the
Jews for the same purpose ;—this also was, he
thought, an emanation from the Deity, the fountain►
of all justice. Now, what said the Mosaic Law with
respect to the act of force exercised on the person of
a man ? It says, peremptorily, that 44 whosoever
stealeth a man shall surely be put to death." This
law appeared to ALFRED so very just, that he copied
it into his laws, although it is well known how mild
the Saxon laws were in general, and the abhorrence
that ALFRED had to the punishment of death in par-
ticular. I observe, that in the pieces extracted from
the American Papers, and given in CobbeWs Regis-
ter, that the arbitrary impressment of American sea-
men is called man-stealing ; and, to confess the
truth, I cannot say that the expression is misapplied.
If the forcible seizure of the bodies of men who had
attestations about them, proving that they were Ame.
rican citizens, was not man-stealing, pray, Mr.
EDITOR, what is? Shall it be said that this odious
offence can only be committed upon black men and
not upon white? ‘Ve have long been stealers of
blacks : the African Slave Trade was carried on for
ages upon that principle. Neither the Mosaic Law
nor the venerable institutions of ALFRED, though
they are still the common law of England, nor the
precepts of Christianity, nor that philosophy which
taught the Greeks justice—no consideration what-
' ever, in short, was powerfulenough to deter us from
practising man-stealing for ages on tie coast of Afri-
ca, e here, I believe, it is even still practised. 'There
we set up force against justice ; and, like the noble
banditti of the middle ages, stimulated by the sa.
tank principles of avarice, made the powers of dark-
ness t,iumphant over the kingdom of I e'ee. But. as
to America, what must that Government be that
would sit tamely by and see its free citizens treated
after such a fashion as this? What claim would such
a Government have to the support aid the esteem 'of
a free nation ? Let us not wonder, then, that the
American nation would not submit to Le treated like
the nations of Africa ; let us not wonder (hates re-
luctant recourse to arms was supported and approved
by the whole people. We, however, had other no-
tions ; we thought the Americans would have desert-

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-.7•pappag •
MARITIME? RICiIiTS.
LETTER Y.

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