who refuse to treat upon a basis similar to " forfeited its honour, it had forfeited its that which was offered to our Government" existence. Not such the opinions of our -We now come only a few months ago. "adversaries, who think that peace purto a part of Mr. Canning's speech, which," chased at that price is preferable to war though a sad hodge-podge, demands a good carried on with such sacrifices as we are. deal of attention, as being a fair specimen" making."Let us take this passage in of the sophistry and falsehood by which the its regular order.—Mr. Canning propeople are deluded into an approbation of fesses to feel for the miseries of those who the continuation of the war against France. suffer so severely from the war; but, it is They" (meaning his antagonists at easy to profess; and, until he gives up the the election) describe," he said, "in receipt of the sums he receives as a sinecure "glowing colours what are the sufferings placeman, together with all that he has re"of war, and they fain would persuade us ceived from that source, I do not choose to "that those who, in spite of our sufferings, give him much credit for feeling for the He may ask as "exhort us to persevere, are insensible to sufferings of the people. "the miseries of our fellow creatures. long as he pleases, "what man with a "War had its miseries in the stagnation of "heart can look at these sufferings without "commerce, and in the privation of many" being affected;" but, while he continues "domestic comforts; who was the man to pocket a part of the taxes which produce "that had a heart to look at them without these sufferings, I shall be disposed to set "being affected. But he wished his ad- down questions like this to the account of " has its "versaries would deal fairly. War, he hypocrisy." War," he says, "observed, was full of difficulty and dan- " consolations;" but, as he does not tell us 66 ger; yet it had its consolations too; but to whom, we must suppose him to mean, to "how happens it that those Gentlemen in- those who thrive by the war; for, as to "vert the glass when they look at the vic- consolation arising from the miseries of the ❝tories of our enemies; as they are pre- people of France, that, I believe, is of a "sented to our view, we hear no particu- sort to be felt by nobody, or, at least, by "lars of the miseries and privations to nobody but the most malignant of the sons "which they subject the inhabitants of and daughters of corruption.Let us, "France; but on the other hand, when however, inquire into the fact as far as he -He says, he "they looked at our exploits, they turned descends to particulars."the diminishing side of the glass, and would ask, whether the MOTHER in "France, when delivered of a male child, "presented a magnified view of our mise"ries. But I would ask them whether the "does not look forward to the 19th year, "mother in France, when delivered of a "when he is to be torn to pitiless destruc"male child, did not look forward to the "lion; and whether agriculture is not "19th year, when he was to be torn to piti-languishing there for want of a male po"less destruction? He would ask them, "whether agriculture was not languishing "for want of male population? The sub"jects of the conqueror are consoled by The gentleman is, however, glory, but let us be mindful of their un"happiness; and in a war from which we here, a very barefaced plagiarist. Not "cannot extricate ourselves, let the perse- stored with sufficient falsehoods of his own, ❝verance which England has already so he has robbed the Courier news-paper of a "successfully exerted, be continued. If part, at least, of what he has, in this place, peace could be obtained, God forbid that spouted off upon his friends at Liverpool. "it should not be so! but is peace to be The trick of putting his propositions into "enjoyed with the security of peace? It the shape of questions must not screen him "must be so enjoyed, or it would only sub- from the charge of uttering falsehood. He stitute e a temporary repose, to be follow-does, in fact, here mean to give the weight "ed by a more dreadful and destructive of assertion to what those questions point It had been said, and said wisely, at; he means that his hearers should under❝ too, that character had its inconveniences, stand, Ist. That the mothers in France, when delivered of male children, are made "that a man of reputation dared not do a *base action, though it might be advan- miserable by the reflection, that, when ❝tageous, and to extend that remark from they attain the age of 19 years, they will be individuals to national character, it might torn from them, as soldiers, to pililess de "be safely asserted that, when a nation struction; and, 2d. That agriculture lan

6 war.

pulation " -Now, reader, here are two questions, which I will answer fully; and, I am persuaded, to your satisfaction, though, perhaps, not much to that of Mr. Canning.

consider the effect of dividing large estates into small parcels, and making such an amazing augmentation in the number of land proprietors, all cultivating their own soil; when we consider that from 2 to 300,000 bishops, priests, monks, and nuns, who could not marry, and who possessed a good third part of the land and other property of the kingdom, have made way for multitudes of fathers, mothers, and children, now fed by the produce of that same land; when we consider these things, it is impossible not to conclude, that the popula

-guishes in France for the want of men, the drain of men by the war having been so great. This second assertion was made by the Editor of the Courier in the month of April last, and of that Editor, Mr. Canning is, in this instance, at least, no more than an imitator. I exposed the falsehood then, and shall now do little more than repeat what I then said. When I have so done, I shall return to the first assertion, and give my reasons for believing, that the first is as false as the second.-We come now to a fact, which, one 'would have supposed, that even no hire-tion of France herself, if we were to go no ling would have had the assurance to state. further, is greatly increased. But, let us It is this: that, in consequence of the suppose it to have remained stationary, and drain of men, occasioned by the war, the to be still what it was before the revoluland in France, is chiefly cultivated by tion; that is to say, that it still amounts to women! Mark this fact, reader! "The no more than 26 millions of people. This land is chiefly cultivated by women;" being the case, France furnishes I man in and, says the hireling, this is "a fact upon arms out of every 324 of her people." which our readers may rely!"—This And now, then let us see what this kingis worthy of particular notice, as being a dom, this " United Kingdom of Great Bristriking specimen of the imposture of these "tain and Ireland:" this kingdom with a hired writers and of the credulity of this long name, and which has, in the bombast nation, the great mass of whom appear of the news-papers, an "Imperial Parlianever to think for themselves, and to pos- "ment;" let us see what this kingdom sess none of the capacity necessary for the furnishes of men in arms: because, if we detection of falsehood. Let us try this find that it furnishes more in proportion fact by the test of reason; this famous fact, than France does, and if we see that the upon which the readers of the Courier are cultivation of the land has not fallen upon told "they may rely." The assertor pro- the women in this kingdom, we shall then duces no proof of it. He does not pretend have pretty good proof of the falsehood of of it. teh of of to have been in France himself; nor does what the Courier asserts with respect to he produce any evidence, not even the evi- the present employment of the women in dence of fabricated letters or dispatches. France. The population of this kingWell, then, he has no grounds for his asser- dom, including emigrants, blacks, lascars, tion, and I might dismiss it at once as and Germans, together with all the birds false; but, considering that its object and of passage for ever coming into and going tendency are to deceive the people as to the out of it; including all these, our populareal state of France, and to encourage them tion may, perhaps, be swelled up to nearly to approve of a continuance of the war with 15 millions. Now, according to the army a view to produce the downfall of Buona- estimates of last year, we had in the Reguparté, I will offer a few further remarks lar Army, including the embodied Militia, upon the subject. The war, we are 382 thousand men; and, in the navy, 145 told, has so drained France of men, that thousand, making, together, 527,000 men. the land is now chiefly cultivated by wo- In some of our boasting accounts, published men. Now, reader, please to attend to a in the news-papers, they have been called few facts. Napoleon, agreeably to the re- 640,000 men. But 527,000 we paid for. port laid before the Senate last year, has Some few thousands more, indeed; but, 800,000 men in arms. We are now to let us be within compass. Now, then, we consider what is the population out of shall find, that this kingdom (would it had which this number of men is taken and a short name!); we shall find that this kept up. The population of France alone, kingdom furnishes 1 man in arms out of before the revolution, was 26 millions. every 28 of its people; we shall find, that Every one knows, that population keeps while the Emperor of France calls for one pace with food; and, when we consider the man out of 32 of his subjects, our king immense wastes, parks, pleasure grounds, calls for one man out of 28 of his subjects; &c. that have, during the last 20 years, we shall find, that the drain of men is been brought into cultivation; when we one seventh greater upon our popula

tion than it is upon that of the French; struction.In the first place this is an and, as we know very well, that this exaggeration. It is a falsehood conveyed drain has not thrown upon the women in empty bombast. Mothers, when they the cultivation of the land in Eng- are delivered, think nothing about what is land, we must, if we would be thought to become of their children. But, the inrational men, conclude, that this story tention here is to deceive the people of about the cultivation of the land in France England as to the mode of raising soldiers by women is a falsehood; a sheer inven- in France, as well as to the proportion of tion for the purpose of deceiving the people young men taken from their homes to serve of this country, and of favouring the views as soldiers, and also to deceive them as to of those who delight in war, because it the nature of the service which those young enriches them and their families.- men are employed in.This is a sub"But," exclaims the reader, ". you have ject of great consequence; because, upon "forgotten!" Oh! no, I have not for the assumption, that the Conscription is gotten! I have not forgotten that Old intolerable in France, is built the concluFrance contains but a part of that popula- sion, that the people of France must hate tion, out of which Napoleon draws his the government of Napoleon, and must be 800,000 men; I have not forgotten, that ready to fall into any project for the delihe is king of Italy, that Holland and Bra- verance of their country from what is callbant and the Hans Towns and part of Ger- ed his tyranny; and on this is grounded many belong to his empire; and that he the further conclusion, that, if we do but not only draws troops from all these, but continue the war for a little longer, we from the more distant parts of Europe go- shall overset this formidable enemy. verned by sovereigns his allies. Oh! no; Now, then, let us see how the case stands. I have not forgotten that his empire con--First, it is false to say, that the mothers tains upwards of 40,000,000 of people, instead of 26,000,000; but I had a mind to shew how the comparison stood with France alone, in order to put this hireling the more completely to shame.- -Take, then, Napoleon's empire at 40,000,000 of people, which is far within bounds, and you will find, that he takes but one man in arms out of every 50 of his people; while our king takes one man in arms out of every 284 of his people! And yet, this hireling has the impudence to attempt to make us believe, that the drain of men in France has thrown the cultivation of the land upon the women! If scarcity and discontent be produced in France by a drain of one out of fifty, what must the drain of one of twenty-eight and a half produce? Thus does this hireling strike into the bowels of his own government, when he is aiming the blow at that of Napoleon. But, such is the desire to decry the government of France; so eager the desire to make the people here believe that the French are slaves, that the consequence of such efforts to our government are wholly overlooked. So much for this fact, upon which, he says, his readers may rely.We will now return to Mr. Canning's first assertion; namely, that the mothers, in France, when delivered of male children, are made miserable by the reflection, that, when they shall have attained the age of 19 years, they will be torn from them to pitiless de

are at all affected by what may happen to their children at the end of 19 years; second, the conscription cannot, as we have seen above, take but a comparatively small portion of the young men away; third, the mode of taking them to be general, must be impartial, and, of course, much less, infinitely less, galling than if the hardship fell upon the poor only; fourth, it is not to pitiless destruction that they are sent, but to war, and war attended with all the glory, renown, and advantage, that be. long to victory and conquest. Besides, reader, bear in mind these important facts,which even the assurance of Mr. Canning will not induce him to deny; namely, that, the private soldiers in the French army are treated with great respect by their officers; that they are permitted to share, under the name of plunder, very largely in the fruit of victory; and, above all, that, OUT OF THE RANKS ALL THE COMMISSIONED OFFICERS ARE TAKEN. Consider this, consider that Massena, Brune, Victor, Marmont, Soult, Suchet, were all private soldiers; consider, that, out of 16 Marshals of France, who are now Dukes and Princes, 14 were the sons of Farmers and Tradesmen; consider that all the regiments, all the rank, all the honours, all the emoluments of the service, which, indeed, constitute nine tenths of all the honours and emoluments of the empire, are enjoyed, and must be enjoyed, by men who are in the first

place private soldiers; consider, too, that there is one commissioned officer to about every twenty privates; and then you will, I am persuaded, agree with me, that each conscript puts his services into a pretty good lottery.—Mr. Canning forgot these things; or he was too ignorant of the affairs of France to know any thing of them; or, which is full as likely, he wished to put a false picture before the people of England.If, indeed, all the commissions, all the honours, all the emoluments of the service were swallowed up by the sons of the rich, and if nothing but hard-should, in that case, be resolved to act ships and the knocking out of brains were left for the sons of the poor; if promotion did. not proceed from the ranks; then should be ready to believe, that the conscription in France must of necessity create great discontents; but, where the chance of promotion is so fair; where the lottery is so rich and the blanks so few, I am not to be made believe, that the conscription, though still a heavy burden, is viewed with any thing approaching to feelings of horror.- It is to be observed, besides, that the genius of the French people is military; that it always was so; that to become even a private soldier always raised a man in the scale of public estimation; that to have served was, in all times, a matter of boasting in France, and a settled title to a larger share of respect than the party would otherwise have put in a claim to.-These" are considerations which escape us in this country, and this is the reason why we hear so many persons, otherwise well-informed, expressing their astonishment at the zeal and fidelity of the French soldiers and at the submission of the people to the laws of the conscription. -We will now leave Mr. Canning to condole with the lying-in mothers in France, while we observe upon the false and malignant conclusion of the passage last quoted, where" he says, that we, who are for treating for peace, are willing to purchase it at the expense of the honour of our country."" He does not pretend to produce any proof of this assertion, which is, indeed, no more than a repetition of the old stale calumny, which has been in use by him and his like for the last twenty years. But, he lays it down as an axiom, that we cannot have peace with the security of peace." This he does not attempt to prove, and it" is also an old battered assertion. He af- 66 was ever a statesman of whom it might terwards observes, that we cannot be safe" be presumed, that in conducting his alone; that our lot is cast with that of the country into war he was led by a sense civilized world, by which he, doubtless," of irresistible necessity, it must have

means the old governments of Europe, including the Inquisition of Spain, which, as our own news-papers informed us, was re-established at Madrid in a few days after our army got possession of the place, And, is our lot cast with the Inquisition; are we to stand or fall with that; and are those to be denominated enemies of their country, who refuse to act upon such a notion? My opinion is, that, if our resources were well and honestly managed, we, alone, might set the world at defiance, if the world, which is not to be believed,

unjustly towards us; and, therefore, I would have treated with Napoleon upon the basis of his last proposition. If we adopt Mr. Canning's notion, which, disguise it however he may, is that of a necessity of continuing the contest till we have restored the old governments of Europe, our case is, indeed, desperate.We have now done with the first speech of Mr. Canning at this dinner; but, there was a second, made upon the arrival of the Boroughreeve of Manchester, accompanied by certain persons of that town, who begged to be permitted to partake of the honours of the sitting, and one of whom, it would seem, gave, as a toast, "the im"mortal memory of the Rt. Hon. WIL"LIAM PITT;" whereupon, it is reported, Mr. Canning rose and said, " That it was expected of them who were present that they should return thanks for any honour conferred on their absent "friends. It might be pardonable in him "if he expressed his acknowledgment for

66

the honour they had done to the me"mory of Mr. Pitt, and in doing which "they had not the sense of Liverpool only, "but of England; not of England only, but of Europe, of posterity, and of the "world. He said, he had always been true to his principles. But there had been instances where his principles had "been misunderstood, but he knew that in this place they had always found able "advocates.-There was one point on "which, in the course of the recent con

test, his memory had been called in question, and his principles misrepre"sented-that he was the advocate and au "thor of war. If there lived a statesman in the world whose interests, individually, were founded in peace,-if there

ever

"been in the foundation of his firm judg- it is not quite enough to say, that" it still ment, and laid on the same basis with "lives in our breasts unimpaired." It is "that of the prosperity of his country. in our purses; in our purses, good Clerk "When posterity should look back upon of the Hanaper; it is there that a system "the memory of that great man, they would of finance ought to be unimpaired; but, "discriminate two different eras in his you deal so much in rhetorical figures, life. The one on his succession to the that, perhaps, by breasts you may mean government of the country, he found the purses, as the things nearest to the hearts "state dilapidated, and its resources ener- of your hearers. If so, your assertion was "vated by an ill-conducted war. He laid merely false, it being perfectly notorious, "the foundation of that SOLID SYSTEM that the system, so far from being solid, "of which it was enough to say that it was the most hollow and deceitful that "lived in our breasts unimpaired, and was invented by man, and that it has pro"had endured amid the storms which had duced and is producing all the ruinous "assailed it since that time. Whether it effects that were anticipated from its adop "were the fault of Mr. Pitt or not the tion.Indeed, a man must be possessed fault (he meant of his judgment, and of a surprising stock of impudence to be "which would afford a fair test of histo- able to stand up in the midst of some hun"rical controversy,) whether he began dreds of persons, and applaud the system "the war which has continued with little of Pitt for its solidity, at a time when the "intermission to the present time-whe- paper money, created by that system, is "ther that were his fault or not, it had so depreciated as to require acts of parlia "been by his plans that the country had ment and severe penalties to prevent it been enabled to continue it. But he did from being openly exchanged at a great "not think even without his councils war discount against the legal coin of the king"could have been deferred. A second dom. The late parliament did, indeed, "era of his political life began at the pe- declare by solemn resolution, that the "riod, when from the centre of Europe Bank paper was equal in value to gold and "burst forth that volcanic eruption of de- silver coin in the estimation of the people, "solating principles, which threatened to and they, in a few weeks afterwards, pass"overwhelm the civilized world: these ed an act, making it a misdemeanor in principles, he observed, he had success- any one to exchange the paper against coin "fully resisted. After some further re- at a discount! These two proceedings "marks he observed, that he trusted that will immortalize that parliament; but, for "into whatever hands the Government of an individual, outside of the walls of St. this great country should be committed, Stephen, to have the impudence to assert, they would ever keep his example before that the paper system is unimpaired, "their eyes; and that they would learn when the regular Price Currents tell us, "from his example, exertion abroad." that Guinea Gold will sell for Five pounds Any thing more empty, more com-eight shillings an ounce, in paper, while pletely devoid of sense than this latter- it is well known, that it will sell for no birth harangue, I do not remember to have more than Three pounds seventeen shillings met with even in the reports of the debates and ten pence halfpenny, in the legal coin in the Honourable House.- -The reader of the kingdom; for a man, unprotected will perceive, that, even in the face of by privilege, to insult, in this outrageous this crew of war-mongers, Mr. Ganning manner, the understanding of his hearers did not think it proper to attempt a justi- would surpass belief, if we did not know, fication of the beginning of the late war that those hearers were amongst the most against France. Yet, that must be jus- stupid as well as the most servile and base tified, or the memory of Pitt must stand of mankind.- -Pitt's plans, we are here blasted in the sight of posterity.- -But, told, have enabled us to continue the contest. he was, it seems, the author of "a That is to say, they have enabled our go"SOLID SYSTEM, of which it was vernment to carry on the war by the means "ENOUGH to say, that it lived in our of loans, taxation, and bank notes. Real"BREASTS unimpaired, and had en- ly, to hear this man of froth, one would "dured amidst the storms that had as-imagine, that it was good for a nation to "sailed it since that time."- What did be exhausted; for its paper to become dehe mean? What system? I suppose, preciated; for its gold and silver to quit that the system he alludes to must be the the land. Continue the contest! So much funding system; and, if so, Mr. Canning, the worse. It would have been good if