"should be taken away and the Bourbon "line be re-established, in what a situation "would America stand, after having thus "joined openly to espouse the cause "of the present government?

No; in every point of view Mr. Livingston's conduct must be regarded as indiscreet, improper and unwarranted by "precedent. For ourselves we see in this "business a deep laid snare of policy, into "which the American minister has blun"dered headlong.-We confess we think "he would have shewn more diplomatic "skill had he, like Mr. Faucher, drawn

himself out of the affair by some com"mon place remarks.' Whether his "actions are to be attributed to the go"vernment he represents and his conduct "to be identified with it,' is a question "we leave to be settled between him and "Mr. Jefferson."--In the same print of the 1st of June is the following pas age: "Diplomatic Correspondence.-We now "furnish our readers with the letters of "some of the other ministers for whom Ci"tizen Talleyrand set his gull trap. They follow this article in their order.-The "first, from the ambassador of the Italian "Republic is precisely such an one as "might have been expected from the representative of a conquered, abject re"public, over which the First Consul holds

66

debasement of the coin, how could they have prevented a refusal to take it in exchange for valuable commodities? "The public "offices began the refusal." He acknowledges that the shillings were, at last, made of metal no better than pewter; and I am sure he will not pretend, that this sort of coin could have continued much longer to purchase bread. There might, as to some little matter of regulation, have been blame due to the government; but no regulation of theirs could have retarded the event of stoppage of circulation for the space of three days. The degradation of the coin, or rather bits of metal, had gone as far as it could go. It had arrived at its utmost point; and the decrees of Robespierre would not have supported it a week longer.- In like manner I think that, by all the writers upon Irish currency, the Irish bank directors have been handled much too severely. The depreciation of their paper is, by every body, traced as far back as the measure of bank-restric tion. It was the minister and he Parliament of England who proposed and accomplished that measure; and, if any bank directors are blameable, it is the bank directors on this side of the water; those bank directors who first asked for the restriction, and not those who did not ask for it. That men should ask to be restrained from paying their promisory notes when presented was natural enough: no man, especially one who has had notes presented to him that he was unable to pay, can have the conscience to blame them; but, if we do not blame persons of this description in England, it seems very unfair to deal so hard with their brethren of Ireland, and to represent them, as some persons have, as being very little better than swindlers upon a broad scale. I very much doubt, and I should like to be better inform

IRISH CURRENCY.In referring the reader to a very interesting paper upon the currency of Ireland, in the following sheet, page 137, I cannot refrain from declaring my disagreement with the writer, as to the blame which he imputes, in this respect, to the persons composing the administration in that country, to whom, most assuredly, no part of the blame can fairly be attributed. Does he think, that any set of ministers, however well they might "understand the principles of good government," could have prevented the depreciation of the Bank of Ireland paper? If not, how could they have prevented the debasement of the coin? And, if they could not have prevented the

pany, in either country, does really derive any profit from the restriction, notwithstanding all that has been said about their large dividends. I may be mistaken, and I speak with great diffidence upon the subject; but, I have seen nothing to satisfy me, that banking is now a better trade than it was previous to the restriction. There is now no❤ thing solid in it: it is become a game at hazard and I sincerely believe, that, what is got with one hand is lost with the other. If my conjectures, for they are mere conjectures, have any foundation, men ought to reflect before they promulgate opinions that may, at a time not far distant, chance to be very de structive to the persons against whom those opinions may finally operate. We should be

very cautious how we excite a popular prejudice against any set of men; and I am sure the writers to whom I allude would lament that their labours should have any such tendency.To ascribe the degradation of the paper to the measure of bank-restriction. [It mortifies one so to abuse the use of words, but habit will sanction any thing!] cannot be avoided; but, I do think that I perceive an uncommon, and, to me, an unaccountable, solicitude to avoid any topic that may lead to the cause of that restriction." You hear persons enough say, that the restriction was absolutely necessary at the time; but there they stop, saying not a word about the cause of the necessity. Some people have, indeed, talked about the rate of the exchange being, at that time, so much against England, that, if the bank had not been restrained from paying its notes in specie, all the hard money would have been drained out of the country. But, has the restriction kept the money in the country? And if so where is it? Lord Hawkesbury, to be sure, bas lately told us, that there are, and that ther must be, about forty millions of guineas now in the kingdom Can we not bring him before a justice of the peace and make him prove his words? Well; but as to the rate of exchange, that objection to paying in specie continued after the conclusion of the peace, when Mr. Addington, in presenting a bill for a renewal of the restriction law for a short space, for only a few months, and liable to be repealed during the session, told the House of Commons, that the cause of his proposing the renewal was the unfavourable state of the exchange with the -continent. The same reason was stated for a further renewal in the next session, till war arrived most opportunely and relieved his hearers from these tantalizing propositions and promises, by affording him a pretext for demanding a confirmation of the suspension till six months after the conclusion of a definitive treaty of peace with France. But, what will Mr. Addington, our late financier, say in answer to Mr. Foster, who states, and who proves, and that too in the most satisfactory manner, that the restriction is the cause of the unfavourable exchange, and that the exchange never can be favourable again, till the restriction is taken off, and, of course, till bank notes are, at the will of the holder, convertible into specie?No: the rate of the exchange was the effect, and not the cause, from the very beginning of the decline of the paper. The progress, traced backwards, I take to be this: the scarcity of coin has been produced by the depreciation,

of the paper; the depreciation of the paper by the excess of its quantity; that excess latterly, in a great degree, by the measure of bank restriction; and that measure by the increase of taxes together with the frequency of loans and advances growing out of the connexion between the Exchequer and the bank. If I am wrong in these opinions. I shall thank any body that will take the pains to put me right; but, until I hear something more conclusive than I have yet heard, I must beg leave to enter my protest against any clamour, in however soft accents it may be begun, against the directors of the bank either of England or Ireland, and more especially against the latter.

INTERNAL STATE OF JAMAICA.-This subject will be found very ably treated in the succeeding sheet, page 133; and I only wish to observe here, that there will, upon examination, appear to be a perfect agreement, substantially, in all the papers which have been published in the Register, relative to this important colony. In the enumeration of those papers, at the bottom of page 83, I forgot to mention a very valuable one, which will be found in vol IV, page 589. It is entitled, "Statements and observations "on the sugar-trade between Great Britain " and her Old West India colonies, printed

"for the use of the members of the assem"bly of Jamaica." This paper should be carefully perused by all those who wish to obtain a competent degree of knowledge upon the subject of the present complaints of the Jamaica planters, whom my corres pondent in page 133 describes, and, I believe, truly describes, as being in the very abyss of bankrupcy. The state of this island and its trade must, and that at no very distant day, become a subject of legislative inquiry, or, the remissness of the parliament must be great indeed. It should be recol lected, that, with Jamaica, we lose our all in the West Indies; for, it is well known to naval men, that, in the ports of no other island can our fleet rendezvous in time of war, especially for the purpose of re-fitting; and, indeed, on every account, Jamaica is of so much importance, the rest of the islands are with respect to her so much like satel lites, that they must follow her fate, be it what it may. The question, therefore, is nothing short of this: shall we, or shall we not, retain any colonies in the West Indies?

THE STATE OF ST. DOMINGO, is as wretched, and the deeds committed upon the whites as bloody, as any negro-lover could possibly wish. The fact as stated in the account of the massacre, in page 153, of

Emperor will proceed to the Champ de Mars.-7. The national guards of every department of the Empire, will send to Paris a detachment of 16 men, with colours for each detachment, one half of which 'shall be fasileers or grenadiers, one-fourth officers, and one-fourth non-commissioned officers.-S. The maritime departments, squadrons, flotillas, and armed vessels of the Empire, shall send 50 detachments of 10 men, with a flag to each detachment.9. Every corps of horse, of all the different descriptions throughout the army, shall send a deputation of 10 men, the half of which shall be grenadiers,, fusileers, soldiers, dragoons, light horse, one-fourth officers, and one-fourth non-commissioned officers, with the colours, standard, or guidon.——10. The preceding article is applicable to the regiments of marine artillery.-11. The engineers shall send three deputations of 16 men each.-12. The 26 legions of the gens-d'armes shall each send a deputation of 4 men and a guidon. 13. The invalids of the Hotel at Paris, and those of Louvain and Avignon, shall send three deputations, whose composition shall be regulated according to the instruction of the War Minister. 14. All these deputations shall successively take the oath of fidelity and obedience to his Majesty the Emperor.15. The deputations of the national guards, those of the maritime circles, and such of the corps who have colours, guidons, or standards, shall afterwards receive from his Majesty, for their department or regiments, a pair of colours for each department, a flag for each detachment of marine, and a gui'don or standard for each battalion or squadron. 16. The colours of the departments shall remain in the most conspicuous place of the Hotel of the Prefectory, under the guard already settled for the Prefects. They shall never be taken from thence but by an officer named by the Emperor; and shall be unfurled and shewn to the people on all solemn occasions.-17. The flags shall be distributed among the maritime circles, and deposited at the Marine Hotel, under a guard of honour, in the principal place of the Seven Circles in which Antwerp is comprised, in order to be given to the squadrons, naval armies, flotillas, or other armaments and expeditions, accord-. ing to the orders of the Emperor.

On their return, these flags shall be carried to the Marine Hotel, where they shall be

kept in the Council Chamber, for some succeeding expedition. 18. The colours, standards, and guidons of the corps, shall be returned to each battalion or squadron. Those who, by the events of war, shall lose them, shall not receive others of the same kind, but by a direct order from his Majesty, after it has been proved that they were not lost by any fault of the regiment. Those who shall lose them from their own fault, shall not receive any others from the Emperor. (Signed)

NAPOLEON.

SCOTCH SMALL BOUNTY MEN.

SIR,Amid the variety of crude and imperfect projects which have been hitherto submitted to the attention of Parliament, it is pleasing to discern, in the abolition of the ballot, something like an approximation to a more rational plan of acting. Whether, in deed, we consider the balloting system on its own merits, or whether we view it with a reference to the other parts of our defence, whether we consider it theoretically or prac tically, we shall find that it is totally inade quate to its object, and most vexatiously op pressive; in short, that it combines all pos sible evil with as little good as the nature of things will allow. The army of reserve, to which it gave birth, is a measure which it would be difficult to describe in adequate terms of reprobation. It certainly did astonish the generality of thinking men, that a bill should pass the House of Commons, which imposed a direct tax chiefly on that class of the community who ought to be exempted from all direct taxation, and to be touched upon very lightly by any sort of inpost. This ill-contrived project did, however, meet with the support of Mr. Pitt, who seems not till very lately to have opened his eyes to the flagrant injustice and ruinous ef fects of the balloting system. Surely he might have known, had he been at any pains to explore those sources of information which are open to all mankind, that the army of reserve is composed chiefly of substitutes; and it did not certainly require very deep thought to discover, that a bill, by which the burden of defending the country was chiefly thrown upon the poor, was partial and unjust. All the information on which his new bill is grounded, and which has induced him to change his former sentiments, he might certainly have obtained at a much earlier period; and, it is peculiarly hard, that though

the pernicious effects of bad measures, are felt and acknowledged by all, yet they must continue in force until it shall please our statesmen to awaken from their dreams. In order, therefore, to anticipate the slow progress of Mr. Pitt's experience, by which he seems disposed ultimately to profit, however slowly it operates on his mind, I shall trouble you with a few observations on a regulation respecting the volunteers, which seems to have derived its origin from his influence, and which appears to me to be both inadequate to its object, expensive to government, and most vexatious to private industry. I allude to that clause in the volunteer act, by which all volunteers, by entering on "per"manent duty" for three weeks, are entitled to a bounty of one guinea besides their pay, and the same allowances to their wives and children as are made to those of the miJitia. You pointed out the inconveniencies of this measure when it was first proposed. But those inconveniencies are infinitely aggravated in those parts of the country where the rate of wages is low. In Scotland, where the weekly rate of wages is from nine to ten shillings, and where by volunteering for three weeks, men may gain from sixteen to twenty-five shillings per week, the temptation is irresistible. Accordingly, in several parts of this country this measure has been executed with unmitigated rigour. The volunteers of Dundee, Ferfar, Montrose, and Arbroath have been respectively interchanged. They were ordered to march with only the previous warning of three days, and so strictly was their order enforced, that no exceptions were granted even in cases of the most peculiar and pressing necessity. Every species of industry was most completely at a stand; even in manufactures of perishable commodities, the same severity overbore all considerations of private loss. The shortness of the warning rendered it quite impossible to ward off the blow by any expedient, or even in the smallest degree to alleviate the evil; if a longer time had been allowed, the exertions of private ingenuity might have devised some palliative; persons concerned might have been enabled to make proper arrangements with a view to the expected event, and when it did take place, to have managed the wretched remains of their industry with the best possible effect. But conducted as this plan has been, it is peculiarly calculated to bring ruin upon individuals. The positive loss to individuals in the towns which I have mentioned, cannot be estimated at less than £5000, a heavy tax, even if it had been raised by a general and impartial --assessment, but, beyond all

Supplement to No. 4,

comparison more weighty, when, to the partiality with which it presses upon a particu-. lar class of individuals, is added all the variety of mischief, all the random destruction which must result from the execution of this incopsiderate project. We are told that this eventful crisis calls for heavy sacrifices, and renders it necessary to impose heavy burdens. But, I would be glad to know how we are to bear heavy burdens if we are deprived of the means of subsistence, and certainly if this experiment be frequently repeated, it will tend more effectually than. the heaviest taxes to ruin the pecuniary resources of the country, and to dry up the. very source of revenue. Surely the advan-, tages resulting from this plan ought to have, been demonstrated in a very satisfactory manner before it had been adopted. But, so, far from thinking that any benefit can be de-. rived from it, in any respect equal to the evil with which it is attended, I do not even think that it is worth the bounty and perma-. nent pay allowed by government. There are, in the first place, to be deducted from the 21 days, three Sundays on which the. troops are not drilled; two to march to their respective stations, and two to return; allow for rainy weather four days, in all, eleven days to be deducted from the twenty-one, which leaves a remainder of ten days. Allowing, therefore, the perfection of military. discipline to consist in that mechanical pres cision, in which the volunteers are chiefly. instructed, if they are allowed to remain at home, and drilled in the same manner as at the places to which they are marched; if they perform the same evolutions, and bestow the same attention, I cannot help think→ ing that the same effects will result; with this difference, that in the one case, in the intervals between drilling, and in bad wea ther, they might employ themselves in their ordinary occupations; whereas, in the other, they loiter about in idleness, and are liable to be corrupted by all those vices of which idleness is a powerful predisposing cause. But if, as you observe, and i think you perfectly correct, the essence of the military character consists in a rooted habit of obe dience to command, and not in a punctilious attention to contemptible minutia, the scheme of permanent duty is of all others the most puerile and ridiculous. To create dispositions and to fix habits in mankind requires a long and laborious process; it is indeed, the nature of all moral habitudes, even after the seminal principles have been strewed in the mind, to grow to maturity by very slow. degrees; they require the most patient attention, and they must be fostered

Vol. VI.-Price 10d.