The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1808-07-29

see, that stir which way you viii vo;l are
surrounded on one side and another, with
such brittle, vet such valuable things, that
you may, by one touch OF the hcm OF your
garment. strike down, before you are aware
of it, objects of such enormous value
nanswer to all our arguments, and in or
der to quiet the fears that are maniestly
spreading over the country, we are told
that the operation of the Orders in Council
VIII put an end to the unnatural state of
things which the enemy has established up
on the continent, and will force open the
channels of trade now stopped up by him
III any thing in the possible consequences of
these measures cosld give your petitioners
4 shadow OF expectation that the ports of
The continent would be opened, and that
the direct trade with it would again be es-
tabiished. most unquessionably, as they
would have been the last to trouble YOU,
had any such hopes remained to them, so
they would<even leave your bar contented
and cheerful, if You could, by any proof or
argument, give a colour of truth to such
pleasing prospects. But when they look to
the history of the conquest of Europe, and
70 us present state, or view what is indeed
the same thing, the events ofthe French re-
volution, they can indulge in no such views.
After resisting so many violent shocks from
without, and so many commissions within
after passing through every sort Of revolu-
ton, all the varieties of situation, uniform
IN nothing except the constant increase of
Calamity, public and domestic; after having
suffered all this without attempting a COM
plant, or even breathing a murmur against
the tyrant of the hour; when faction was
raging in the west, and the enemy, not al
ways beaten in the east; after such scenes
as these, and such indictments to rebellion
utterly failed to create, during eighteen
years OF revolution, whisper that could be
heard from the people; say, after all this,
you desire us to expect that the scarcity of
sugar, or rise in the price of tobacco, or
the diihculty of procuring cotton, should
throw all France into flame, bring out the
seeds of lurking rebellion, draw forth the
population of our enemies in array against
their ruler, make them with one loud voice
demand the revocation of the Berlin decree,
and force the governor of France himself to
sue for peace. That such mighty things
should arise from such little causes, am far
from pronounCihg to be impossible but la
ment that have been quite unable to make
my clients agree with me, or, by any such
effects, to comfort them under the ruin of
their affairs, which they never cease pro-
wing to me by the dry details of their iedgers
and day-bookS, as often as | unfold to them
tie pleasing eSsss III ioii have been a.
luding; nor indeed can find any one to back
me i'll urging such consolation to them. The
petitioners have further been told by some
persons of airy fancy and loud talk, that by
this great act of self-denial Ga magnanim-
ty considerably cheaper to those who preach
It up, than to the poor petitioners who are
desired to practise it) we shall assuredly
make known IN the most remote corners OF
the earth (even in places where the form of
ship has never yet been seen#) the pow
er and the glories of the British. navy. 1t
seems that in pi oportion as sugars become
higher In price. or as the people on the CON
tinent find their coffee becoming roueher,
the gallant form of 4 vessel shall begin to
dawn on their untutored minds. Growing
by degrees more distinct, what ideas must
1t raise, as the sweets vanish! When at last
the coffee too disappears, and the peasant
wholly changes his breakfast of foreign lux
uries into one of milk or wine, then indeed
will he descry our whole fleets and navies,
and tremble at the name of England; and
thus shall the enslaved people of the CONT
nent speedily revolt against the woke of
France. This topic of consolation, sir, /
have also tried with my clients. But Ihave
oeeh again met with their plaguy account
books and dry details of profit and loss
hey tell me bluntly enough, {" All these
g tne fancies are nothing to US, if they DO
60 not give us back our American market,
g which has by the grand measures of Co
vcrnment been taken away. We ask back
" our traffic-our buying and seiling--our
4" livelihood. We are plain men mer-
4" chants, manufacturers, and workmen ; and
" we care not if one half of Europe never
p" heard of the British navy, nor knew there
" was such 2 thing as ship nay, nor knew
g there was such a country as England pro-
g vided that half were Consuming our pro-
4" duce and wearing our manufactures. Let
q" the British navy and name be as unknown
% i'll the heart Of Poland as it is in the de-
serts of Kamschatka but, for PHYS sake
4" give us back our trade, the sole means of
" our subsistence, the sole object Of our de-
" sires, the only thing our literal magma
I" lions ever dream about"
Sir, ] greatly fear that dull as it NAV be,
you must give these men some other answer
to their complaints than the lively and e!e-
giant ones which ! have been abiding to. l
strongly suspectyou must, in order to salts
fy the people, make out some case for the new
measures which shall be adapted to the grove
ling capacities Of the nine hundred and nine
ty-nine plain matter OF fact men who iDha-
bit the country, whatever Eighty things YOU
may hear from the thousandth wit. For IN
happily our customers on the Continent have
fallen under the dominion Of matter of fact
man, who works with stubborn tools, and
won't suffer bis vassais to rebel for the sake
OF point. he does not rule them by the
love Of smear aud ccTc. ard ;,i.a