by interposing his authority, of shewing his invariable good-will to America. The usual course would have been, to complain to his Majesty, and desire redress. His Majesty, however, always disposed to pay attention to the wishes of friendly states, has directed the return of Mr. Jackson, although Mr. Jackson has given the most positive assurances that it was not his purpose to give any offence, and although his Majesty has not thought it right to mark with any expression of his displeasure the conduct of Mr. Jackson, whose integrity, zeal and abilities have long been distinguished, and who appears on this occasion to have committed no intentional offence. His Majesty has directed a person properly qualified to carry on the ordinary intercourse between the two governments, and, as a farther proof of his friendly disposition, he is ready to receive, with sentiments of undiminished amity, any communication the Government of the United States may deem beneficial to the mutual interests of both countries. The correspondence with the French government is of a very different complexion indeed. The letters of Mr. Armstrong to Mr. Smith shew that his applications to the French government were treated with extraordinary neglect, and the consideration of them postponed on the most frivolous pretences. The unceremonious manner in which Bonaparte is disposed to treat America, is well exemplified by the following extract from one of these letters; it is dated April 16, 1810. "The John Adams being yet detained, I am able to inform you, that on the 11th instant the Emperor directed the sale of all the American vessels taken in the ports of Spain; and that the money arising therefrom should be placed in his private chest. He has also refused to give up the Hero" (a vessel employed by the American Government to bring the interest of the American funds to the continent), " and has ordered that the case be brought before the council of prizes, where condemnation necessarily awaits it." On its being announced to Mr. Armstrong that the Emperor had decided that the American property seized in the ports of Spain should be sold, but that the money arising therefrom should remain in depôt, he addressed a letter to the Duke of Cadore, in which he remonstrates, though in sufficiently measured terms, against this gross violation of public faith. The ground on which this measure is defended is, that the American Government had issued a decree excluding French ships from their ports, and forbidding Ame rican ships to trade to France. Mr. Armstrong maintains that America had a perfect right to pass such a law, which was a regulation merely municipal, for the purpose of protecting her own citizens from injury and insult; and he asks, can this be re garded as a legitimate cause of reprisal on the part of a power who makes it the first duty of a nation to defend their sovereignty, and who even denationalizes the ships of those who will not subscribe to this opinion? It having been alleged that the United States had no cause of complaint against France, Mr. Armstrong enters upon a detail of the numerous and aggravated injuries they had had to sustain; and then remarks, with more spirit than we have been ac customed to witness in communications with the French Government, "Surely, if it is the duty of the United States to resent the theoretical usurpations of the British Orders in Council, it cannot be less their duty to complain of the daily and practical outrages on the part of France!" Much more is said on this subject, to shew the iniquity, on the part of France, of the measure she has adopted and avowed, of seizing, with a view to retaliation, all American vessels within her reach, not only in French ports, but in all ports under the influence of France. But we presume that neither argument nor remonstrance will turn Bonaparte from his purpose. The property has found its way into his strong box; nor will all the cloquence of Mr. Armstrong be able to extract it. Another letter from that gentleman to the Duke of Cadore states the fact," that a number of American, ships, coming directly from the United States to the port of Naples, under a promise of protection from his Majesty the King, have notwithstanding been seized, and their cargoes sold for the benefit of the fisc. Nor does the injury stop here. Though thus deprived of all means of subsistence themselves, the cap! tains have been obliged to subsist the crews (amounting nearly to 500 men), and are now menaced with a farther exaction for port charges. This, in the strong language of the sufferers, is literally to strip them naked, and then demand from them the expense of doing so." Even this monstrous transaction provokes no strong language on the part of the ambassador. He requests, through the intervention of the Duke of Cadore, such correction of the evil as humanity and justice may conspire to dictate, and begs that at least means may be afforded the crews of returning to their own country!! GREAT BRITAIN. MR. COBBETT. We briefly alluded in our last number to the conviction of this gentleman, as the author of a seditious libel. We will now resume the subject, and state a few particulars of the trial. A mutiny had broken out among the local militia at Ely, on account of the stoppage of a part of their allowance for knapsacks. They surrounded their officers, and clamourously demanded the sum that had been deducted. The mutiny was suppressed by the arrival of some squadrons of the German Legion. Five of the ringleaders were tried, and sentenced to receive five hundred lashes each. A part of this punishment was inflicted, and a part remitted. how the inhabitants looked one another in the face, while this scene was exhibiting in their town. I should like to have been able to see their faces, and to hear their observations to each other at the time. This occur, rence at home will, one would hope, teach the loyal a little caution in speaking of the means which Napoleon employs (or, rather, which they say he employs) in order to get together, and to discipline, his Conscripts. There is scarcely any one of these loyal persons, who has not, at various times, cited the hand. cuflings, and other means of force, said to be used in drawing out the young men of France; there is scarcely any one of the loyal, whe has not cited these means as a proof, a com plete proof, that the people of France hate Napoleon and his government, assist with reluctance in his wars, and would fain see another revolution. I hope, I say, that the loyal will, hereafter, be more cautious in drawing such conclusions, now that they see that our gallant defenders' not only require physical restraint, in certain cases, but even a little blood from their backs, and that, too, with the aid and assistance of German troops. Át any rate, every time they do in future burst out into execrations against the French, for suffering themselves to be chained together and forced at the point of the bayonet to do military duty, I shall just re-publish the pas sage which I have taken for a motto to the present sheet.' Lord Ellenborough, in his charge to the Jury, commented at considerable length on the passage now quoted. He observed, that every individual had a right to suggest alterations in laws, provided the suggestion were An account of the above transaction, extracted from the Courier, was placed as a motto to one of the numbers of Mr. Cobbett's Weekly Register, that of the 1st July, 1809; on which he proceeded thus to comment. "See the motto, English reader; see the motto; and then do pray recollect all that has been said about the way in which Bonaparte raises his soldiers. Well done, Lord Castlereagh: this is just what was thought your plan would produše. Well said, Mr. Huskisson: it was not without reason you dwelt on the great utility of foreign troops, whom Mr. Wardle thought of no utility at all. Poor gentleman! he little imagined how a great genius might find employment for such troops. He little imagined that they might be made the means of compelling Englishmen to submit to that sort of discipline which is so conducive to the producing in them a disposition to defend their country at the risk of their lives. Let Mr. War-made in temperate and qualified terras. He dle look to my motto, and then say whether may address himself to the sober reason the German soldiers are of no use. Fire of his country, and endeavour, through the hundred lashes cach! Aye, that is right! people, to impress the parliament with the flog them! flog them! flog them! They de- necessity of their being changed. If such a serve it, and a great deal more. They deserve discussion were brought before a Jury, no a flogging at every meal-time. Lash them Judge would ever recommend it to them to daily, lash them duly." "What, shall the construe it a libel. The intention, as indicated rascals dare to mutiny, and that too when by the language employed, was always the the German Legion is so near at hand! Lash thing to be looked at. Otherwise a defendthem, lash them, lash them! They deserve ant might always say, "My mind was init. O yes; they merit a double-tailed cat. nocent, but my pen slipped: the libel was Base dogs! What, mutiny for the sake of unguarded; acquit me." But here, he said, the price of a knapsack! Lash them! Flog it was not one random expression, but a conthem! Base rascals! Mutiny for the price tinuity of the same thought and expression, of a goat's skin; and then, upon the ap- that was to be complained of; and from which pearance of the German soldiers, they take no purpose but one could be inferred. It was a flogging as quietly as so many trunks of calculated to generate distrust in the army. trees! I do not know what sort of a place. It tended to loosen all the links and ties of Ely is; but I really should like to know military subordination: and, under all the circumstances, the intention to do so must be inferred. He plainly reproached the mutineers for submitting to be punished with arms in their hands, and the people of Ely for suffering the punishment to be inflicted. What be said respecting Bonaparte had the same tendenty; that is, to injure the military service, and to hold up the government and constitution to contempt. "You will judge," said his Lordship to the Jury, "whether the words are such as might escape from a wellmeaning man through haste, or whether they are the words of a man who wished to dissolve the union of the military, on which at all times, but especially at this, the safety of the kingdom rests. If this latter be the case, the defendant will deservedly fall under the description of a seditious person. In cases like the present, the law requires me to state my opinion to the Jury. I do pronounce this to be a most infamous and seditious libel." The Jury, without retiring from the box, pronounced the defendant guilty. Mr. Cobbett, when brought up for judgment, said he did not intend to offer any thing in defence. On the 9th instant, the sentence of the Court was pronounced by Mr. Justice Grose, as follows: that Mr. Cobbett should pay a fine to the King of 1000l.; should be imprisoned for two years in Newgate; and at the end of that time should enter into recognizances to keep the peace for seven years, himself in 30004, and two sureties in 1000l. each. The printer, Mr. Hansard, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, and to enter into recognizances to keep the peace, himself in 4001. and two spreties in 2001. each. The publishers, Messrs. Budd and Bagshaw, were each sen tenced to two months' imprisonment. In addressing Mr. Cobbett, the Judge, among other things, observed, that he had been convicted of a most foul and wicked libel-a libel, the tendency of which was, to create dislike of their duty in the Local Militia of the country, and disgust to our service in the foreigners employed therein, and through them to bring disgrace on the Government, and to paralyze the energies of the State, and that at a season when an enemy the most ferocious was at the very moment threatening our shores; an enemy whose military government had laid prostrate the surrounding States, and who marked his way with spoliation and plunder; yet this was the enemy who was stated by the prisoner to use bis soldiers better than the soldiers of this country were used, and whose Government was compared with the Government of this squntry, and asserted by him to afford more comforts and protection to its soldiery than were afforded to the soldiers of this country. The malignancy of this poison was therefore considerably increased by the time and the season when it was spread throughout the nation. He neither did nor could exculpate himself in the eyes of the Jury, and they de cided upon him with proofs but too convincing of the foolness and wickedness of his guilt.If it could not be imputed to him that his objects were to distract the Govern ment, and to embarrass the State, then it could not be denied that objects, if not as dangerous, at least as base, could not be removed from his intentions, namely, that of writing libels for the degenerate purposes of base and unworthy lucre and profit. This, then, in itself, was an offence of the deepest dye, and such as the Court was imperiously called upon to visit with a heavy hand. It was much to be lamented that a man who has had the experience of the defendant, should, after all that passes in life so constantly before his eyes, grow worse, and as he increases in years, increase in malignity. It was also lamentable that the numerous examples made of libellers had no effect upon him; but, that knowing the fatal consequences of such conduct, he still perseveres in spreading the poison of most destructive malignancy through the nation. A check must be put to such mischief, the State must be governed, the army must be satisfied that their fellow citizens are satisfied with them, the foreigners in our service must not be traduced whilst they are labouring in common with the whole of our military system to support the dignity and protect the safety of the Empire, and the military system must not be moved to a disgust of the service in which they are employed.-For these reasons the Court holds itself called upon to exert its authority this day. SIR F. BURDETT. The trial of the actions brought by Sir F. Burdett against the Speaker, and others concerned in his imprisonment, is put off till November. In the mean time, he appears to be endeavouring to regain some of the popularity which he certainly has lost by the disappointment to which he subjected his adherents on his liberation from the Tower. He has been invited to dine with the elector of Westminster on the 31st of this month, In his reply to this invitation, after an assurance, somewhat out of place, that “at all times and in all places, whether their representative or not, he will always be found. ready to do them any reasonable service in Parliament or out," he concludes with facetiously remarking, that he hopes, “they will spend a pleasant day together, unless the Commander in Chief and a Secretary of State should draw out a numerous army, with a train of artillery, to declare war in our streets against roast beef.”—All this in a reply to a card of invitation to a tavern dinner! JOHN GALE JONES. This unfortunate man has scarcely been Ifberated from Newgate for one offence, when he is remanded to prison for another. On the 20th instant he was tried, in the Court of King's Bench, for a libel tending to defame Lord Castlereagh. The libel, as proved in court, was certainly a very gross one. It accused his Lordship, in a placard announc ing a question for debate at the British Forum, of a flagrant violation of the privileges of a British subject, in ordering a Mr. Finnerty away from Walcheren; and of a cowardly attack on the character of an innocent individual, from motives of revenge. It Jikewise charged him with being the mur derer of a man of the name of O., in Ireland; and pronounced his conduct in that instance to be deserving of universal abhorrence. It challenged him to come forward and plead his cause at the British Forum, before independent Englishmen, or to be for ever consigned to infamy: and he not appearing, it pronounced him, in a subsequent hand-bill, to have been found guilty of all that had been laid to his charge. At the same time it was the fact that the affair of Orr had happened before Lord Castlereagh was Chief Secretary of Ireland; and that the order for apprehending Finnerty was issued without his privity. Lord Ellenborough, in his charge to the Jury, observed, that a malignant spirit was It is the entire wish of my heart to give perfect freedom of thought and word, within the wise boundary of the laws. The press is free; but if the writer will abuse its freedom to the injury of others, he acts at his peril. Men will be malignant, and human life would be unsafe, and human happiness a name, if every man had the power of forcing his neighbour before the eye of the world, stripping him of the privacy which our laws still reverence, and throwing his fame and feelings at the mercy of the thousands who will rejoice to insult him because they have the power to give him pain." His Lordship concluded with pronouncing the publication in question a most malignant and pestilent libel. The Jury without hesitation found the defendant guilty. Mr. Finnerty, charged with writing a likel of similar purport in the Morning Chronicle, suffered judgment to go by default, ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. G. G; FRATERNICUS; and J. S. H; will be inserted. W. R.; A SUBSCRIBER ; J. M. S.; H. B. T.; HAUD INSONS; and C. W.; a LAICUS; T. S. came too late for the present number, but will be inserted in the next. We are not aware that the intentions of C. W. have been anticipated. The firet volume of Davy's System of Divinity has been returned to the publisher. EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPOND- people, flocked together to be pre ENCE OF THE FIRST PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES TO INDIA. THE (Continued from p. 407.) HE next extract I shall give is from a letter written by a gentleman at Copenhagen, communicatIng the substance of the accounts he had received from India. It is dated at Copenhagen, June 14, 1709. "The missionaries gain ground more and more among the Heathens in Malabar, and God hath opened to them a door to speak the mysteries of Christ." "Their congregation is increased at present to above one hundred souls, and they have hopes of a considerable addition in a little time. They tell us that the Malabarians did not only resort from every distant place, to hear the word preached in their own language, but had also many private conferences with the missionaries on the subject of the salvation of souls." " They give a further account that both Malabarians and Moors did very much frequent their sermons, but particularly their catechetical exercises. "Some time ago, one of the Missionaries taking a journey to a large town, called Nagapatnam, was every where kindly received by the Malabarians. In this place he made a stay of six days. Having contracted an acquaintance with some of the leading men thereabouts, he obtained that a solemn disputation might be set on foot, and held in the castle of that town. Abundance of Bramanes, Pantares and poets, and generally all the learned of the town, with a multitude of common CHRIST. OBSERY. No. 104. sent at that solemnity. It lasted from morning till one o'clock in the afternoon. The missionary began the act with a short oration in Malabarick, and then he levelled his discourse chiefly against the idolatrous worship so much in vogue among the heathens. But there was but one that would venture to give an an swer to what the missionary said; and he is generally looked upon as one of the greatest saints in that place. After the disputation was over, the missionary concluded again with a short monitory oration. This was answered by one of the eldest Bramanes, who at the same time did also return thanks, in the name of the whole company, and expressed withal a great satisfaction at the kind invitation offered them by the missionary. All this caused a great joy and commotion in the whole town. Soon after, when this gentleman was come home again, he sent a large letter to all the Bramanes and Pantares then present, and repeated to them in writing, what before was declared to them by word of mouth, being in good hopes, to see in time a happy product of the seed of the Gospel scattered then among the heathens in that town. "Many of the heathens" observe the missionaries," are convinced of the soundness of the doctrine we have all along proposed to them; but casting their eyes upon the profligate manners of those that pro fess it, they are at a stand, and do not know what to betake themselves to. They suppose that a good religion and a disorderly conversation, are things utterly inconsistent one 3 N |
