The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1809-10-24
LETTER I.
81 r

LII l. Elk i.
SIR, 80, =.
When every eye in the ration. at the
end of 10 years of war; which has given rise
to the income tax which has caused a part
of every mans estate to he alienated, under
the name of Redemption Of Land Tax.
which has banished guipeas from the land,
and made bank notes legal tender-which
has seen the Habeas Corpus, or Personal
Safety Act for many years suspended which
has drained the kingdom of it's youth and its
visor, leaving the next generation to be the
offspring of decrepitude, deformity and i'm
becility; which has thus cntailed upon TIRE
nation ugliness and weakness, and disease
and which. while it has robbed the land of
thousands upon thousands of the best of its
laborers, in order to convert them into de-
tenders OF Sicily, and other foreign countries
has introduced thousands and thousands of
foreigners to defend the same land AT such
time, when every eye in the nation, is anx.
tously fixed upon the great. and, in all pro.
liability, the last attempt about to be made
againt the enemy, 1t appears to me. that 1t
may be useful publicly to state certain facts,
relating to the mode of carrying war of
such wcarIsome length and such desolating
consequence and that this statement may
from its manner, lose none of its Intrinsic
Importance, ! for the seond time in M life,
presume to address myself directly to Your
Majesty, taking care that. in this instance,
no keeper of official papers shall, as in re
cent one, have it in his power to garblc, or
to suppress any part of that which write.
IS That your Majesty is not well informed
as to the great and interesting matters upon
which am addressing YOU ], without the
smallest hesitation, conclude first, because
the measures OF your servants, thro' whom
yonr information must come, are in no wise
calculated for the real state of things; and,
secondly, because surprising those servants
to possess both talents and zeal sufficient fer
all the purposes of their respective stations,
their time has from the moment they enter
ed those Offices, been almost wholly engross
by endeayofs to defend themselves. and
TO annoy anddegrade their own political e
nemies ano y0y majesty's late servants. AS
men may be bhdrd by too much light, so a
people may be Apt in error, NAV be deceiv
sd and ruined, bAthe means of the press.
which, unperverteN is so well calculated to
ensure the eonstantSriumph of truth !; and
nave for my part, y doubt, that with all
our parade of publicly with all our osten
tation of unreserve, ,hSe is, in the whole
world, no people who, Incorporation TO their
magnitude, under stand s&ittie of their NH
lie affairs as is understoo&by the neonie of
,shis kingdom Were not tSs the case Sir
It would be impossible that Ae.nemv should
be in his present Furnishing nate, with res
pect 20 his internal and otAr resources
while England possesses such Means of cut.
ting off those resources.
The general opinion in this cotStrv is that
France is in a miserable state-Aat the neo
pie are starving and that as to\ommlrce
there is no more of it going on he dom
MONS of Napoleon than upon any or the
5slets in the Thames, about WinAsr or
Hampton Court. This too. conclude = he
the opinion of your majesty because /
before Observed, your information as to sub
matters, must be derived from you, servant
and those servants prove, by their express
declarations as, well as by their conduct
rhat such is then, view of the situation Of the
empire of France. As TO whether the sub
1ects of Napoleon like Or dislike his govern
ment. or whether they be better or worse Of
now than they were under their foIme err sove
regis /; these ave questions which we cal
discuss 20 no profit, because we possess n,
facts wherein to reason--but with regard I,
the commerce of France, and that srt O
commerce which is the only valuable one,
possess from the best possible source, ouitt
sufhCieDCy of facts to shew, that upon tina,
subject at least, this has been the most de
ceived of nations, and your majesty the most
deceived of sovereiens
The SORT OF CONNIE rec to which 7 allude
Z Is what we liz England, call the coastinq
trade but in the dnmnions of Napoleon
or countries under his sway, it is to be
considered as something much more impor
tart than it is with us. There is no doubt
that the trade between London and the coal
Mines is of million times more yaIue "a
England than all her foreign commerce put
together but if we cast our eye over the
map of Europe, we shall see, that the coast
ing trade of Napoleon embraces climates ::
and that maritime communication be
tween his several countries must De. M, on
ly OF vast benefit to him. but in some cases
necessary to the existence of the people -.
Some ct these countries must supply ii. n
Tiers with corn. Without the oil and the
wine, and the silks, and the cotton. these
Countries might exist but the southern
could not, in many cases possibly exist with.
out the DeCesSaTies Of life from the north
and Of carrying ON this commerce there are
no means other than those OF a maritime ma
ture.
The extent Of this commerce, in the do.
minions OF Napoleon, is scarcely TO be ere
dited by those who are not acquainted ,vith
the facts. Along the coast Of Naples. TINS.
cany, Genoa and Piedmont from the sou,b
ern provinces OF France and Marseilles. thru,
Cette, and the grand canal of Louis XIV
To Bordeaux, and thence song the Atlantic
coast of France, the whole Of the coast of
Holland. & into the Elbe in short. from the
Baltic TO the southern point of Italy. an the
countries are connected by chain of com
mercial intercourse as complete, perhaps
aS,efer existed IL the world, and as advar