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the principal witnesses called by Councillor Brougham" to bear testimony before the House of Commons, of the fatal effects of the Orders in Council-On the cross examination, by by the House, of this important person, he was obliged to confess that he was "the agent, or, if you please, the clerk of Guest and Co." that he had signed the requisition for the meeting at the London Tavern, in the name of his employers, without their knowledge; but, that he had very cautiously subscribed the petition with his own. "When a member of the house (Mr. Croker) naturally enough, one should think, wished to inquire by what right, or in what character, this clerk had put himself so forward before the house and the country as a merchant, the whole party took alarm; Mr. Citizen Baring, my Lord Temple, and even Mr. Bragge Bathurst (Mr. Vansittart sat just behind him) thought such an inquiry unnecessary and even injurious: "Palmer," they alledged, had signed the petition, and that should content the house.' Mr. Croker and Mr. Pole Carew, thought that" in forming an estimate of the weight and respectability of a petition, the weight and respectability of the petitioners were no bad ingredients, and that in considering what regard was due to evidence, it was not quite superfluous to be satisfied of the veracity, experience, and character of the witness." Then came Sir John Newport, referring to the petition, and discovering that it was entitled the petition of merchants, manufacturers, and others, and that though it might appear that this clerk was neither merchant or manufactu rer, it could not be denied that he was one of the others!!! Oh rare Sir John! So anxious, however, were the party to uphold Mr. Palmer, that undeterred by Sir John's defence, they divided the house, and on the house deciding that the inquiry should proceed, they were put to the open shame of having one of their chief requisitors, petitioners and witnesses, proved to be to more than a clerk, who sometimes signed one name, sometimes another, and whose connexion with America was neither more or less than that the house at whose desks he wrote were concerned in the American trade, and that he himself had some little mat ters of money due to him from persons of that country!!!! -Now, Sir, one little word as to the Manchester Petition, I observe that out of the 25 or 30 signatures, there are 7 in the name of Phillips; I observe also, that one of the witnesses is called Phillips; I should be glad to know, whether there are 7 separate firms of the name of Phillips in Manchester; or, whether one

firm, instead of signing Phillips and Sons (or whatever its title may be) has split itself into 7 signatures, judiciously intermixed with the other names:this is a piece of candour which one might well expect from the fellow labourer of Palmer, alias Guest and Co. Merchant, alias Agent, alias Clerk, alias something or other -Before I conclude, allow me to furnish you with an epitome of the evidence already collected at the bar of the house, which I trust will have the same effect in the country that it had there.→→→→ Q. What has occasioned the interruption of our trade with America ?—The Orders in Council.-Q. Do you not attribute this interruption partly to the non-importation act, to the non ratification of the treaty, and to the American embargo A. I attribute it to the Orders în Council —Q. Does the dif ficulty of importing into America arise from their non importation act, which prohibits that trade, or from our Orders in Council which permit it?-A. From the Orders in Council.-Q. Is the non-exportation of Américan produce from their own ports, at tributable to their embargo which prevents the sailing of ships, or to our Orders in Council that permit it?-A. To the Orders in Council-Q. How do you account for the non payment of American bills, which (if intended to be paid) should have been provided for 2 or 3 months before the Or ders in Council were made?A. By the Orders in Council- Absurd, Mr. Cob bett, as this appears, I venture to assure you, it is no caricature; when the evidence comes to be published, you will find, that however dilated, glossed, or perplexed, it may be, it will in essentials, tally exactly with the foregoing abridgment. I shall ex pect, by and bye, to bear it asserted, and proved by merchants, manufacturers and others, that the appearance of the Comet, the battle of Friedland, Lord Lauderdale's Parisian duress, the capitulation of Rosetta and the discontents in Ireland, are all chargeable on the infamous, impolitic, and ruinous Orders in Council.-I am, Sir, &c. -M. M.- March 21, 1806.

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THE RUINED AMERICAN MERCHANT. SIR, I deem it to be incumbent upon me to address you again, much sooner than it was my intention when I sent you my letter of the 29th of February, and which yon have inserted in page 441 of the present vo lume of your Register, in consequence of an act of parliament having recently, and since my former letter to you been passed, respecting one of the many grievous complaints f have been compelled to make respecting.the

balance of money remaining in the hands of the cashier of the bank, to the credit of the Commissioners on American Claims. It is necessary that I do so for two reasons.—— First, Because it is not generally known to my brother claimants that such an act has passed, or that it was in the contemplation of government at length to pass such, or that it was intended to employ the balance for the benefit of the claimants; and, in truth, Mr. Coobett, it was a subject altogether not redected upon, until the appearance of your Register of the 29th of February, even by government. But, why so much secrecy in racing the bill through the House of Com mans? Is it absolutely necessary to do good by stealth? Why not have publicly communicated to those unfortunate men, who are the subject of the act of parliament, the intention of government, and have boldly beard their opinion upon, and objections, if such they had, to the wording of the proposed act. The bill was raced through the house without comment beyond the aye and no of the Speaker; no notice whatever taken of its provisions by the watchful guardians of our liberties and property, and was suffered to pass into an act sub silentio, and so far as the knowledge of the merchants interested in the subject may extend, it would remain a dead letter without your insertion of the fact. The other reason is, because my complaint of the sacrifice made of us and our interests by government, in not originally authorising the money paid by the United States to be placed out at interest, and providing prospectively for our benefit in consequence of the sacrifice made of us in conceding our claims upon America, amounting to £5,000,000 for £600,000, is partially done away, and it is proper that I acknowledge the act of government in this respect having in my former letter referred to the money remaining in the bank unemployed, and expressly stated the propriety of parlia ment placing it out at interest, and of which -there should not have been the doubt of a moment Largely interested as I am, even I should have remained equally ignorant with my brother claimants of the fact of the act of parliament having passed, had not the act been stated to be in the daily papers, an act for the relief of the American loyalists; this directed my attention to ascertain why government should still year after year keep in pay, and extend its protecting power to that body, of men, many of whom have been more than amply remunerated for losses, while others of them sought indemnity for imaginary losses; and again others paid for the loss of property and professions, who

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when the war with America broke out, were infants" mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;" paid out of the daily labour of British industry, and rioting their annual pensions paid by the British government to them as British subjects at this day in their dear native land America, and laughing at the gullibility of John Bull, that there persons might possibly be intended to be again and again remunerated, while we, the merchants faithful to our native soil Britain, were starving on hopes which we had indulged for 33 years, and to attain which, the age of an antedeluvian would not be sufficient to insure; naturally awakened me to the reflection upon our severe and unprecedented lot. What ever tends to our interest and benefit, or, on the contrary, whatever may be enacted even to our prejudice, and to add to our protracted days of misery, should be openly and boldly. communicated to us; and, therefore, as the secret publicity, if I may be allowed the expression with which this act is ushered into the printing press of Messrs. Eyre and Stra han, precludes the knowledge of this addi tion to our laws among my brother claimants, I adopt this mode of communicating the fact for their information. The act, Mr. Cobbett, was passed on the 21st of March, and it declares (in support of my assertion of the accumulating years that may yet be expended) that a considerable time may yet elapse before all the claims of persons entitled to receive any compensation out of the said, sum of £600,000 are adjudged, and it may be expedient that such part of the balance of the said sum of money remaining in the hands of the cashier of the said governor and company undistributed, as to the said commissioners shall seem fit, should in the mean time be vested in Exchequer Bills." which it enacts, that it shall be lawful for the commissioners to withdraw such part of the balance of the £600,000 as to them shall seem fit, and invest the same in Exchequer Bills., Vague and unsatisfactory as is the act which imperatively compels nothing, still the delegation of a power to make interest of the money is a shade better than was its former situation locked up in the bank; but it may still remain there if it is not deemed erpedient to withdraw it from its strong hold, and unless the commissioners shall hold it to be fit to add interest to principal. I approve not, Mr. Cobbett, of milk and water laws similar to this; if it is deemed a good to adopt that which the act certainly enables men to do in the exercise of their discretion, or under the influence of caprice compel them to do it, leave it not to indefinite anthority. If it is fit and expedient to give the power to

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dresses you, who has an equal opinion of all party men, and who never did belong, and never will, to any party, believing that the instant a man sets his foot in office his senti ments change, and his principle, if he ever had any, becomes subservient to his inte. Yet, I must except out of my general reason two men, the late Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt, the former, if ever there was a man who had the welfare of his country at heart, even to the sacrifice of every personal consi deration, was justly entitled to the distinetion; and Mr. Pit also, for his determined perseverance in the measures which he deemed beneficial to his country RUIN, ED OLD AMERICAN MERCHANT ~April 7,

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withdraw this money from the bank, why not make it incumbent upon the holders of this money to appropriate it to useful purposes in the way of gain, for the benefit of The much injured and insulted claimants, and let not the possibility remain of this money continuing for the next seven years, as it has several years hitherto up to the time of passing the act, wholly unemployed (at least not employed for the benefit of the neglected sufferers) at an annual loss of £30,000. As government have at length thought proper to declare that interest may be made of this money in future, and have by the act now passed, decided upon the impropriety of the conduct of those men who composed the administration at the time the original act was passed individually, the same men who now hold the reins of government, and who neglected to make inte- SIR, As a constant reader of your Re rest of the money heretofore, it would have gister, I have observed with much satisfac been well if they had not deemed it proper tion, that however our opinions on some to confess their negligence or wilful misconfew political occasions may have differed, I duct, at least to have struck out some means have always seen reason to applaud your of indemnification for the loss sustained by manly assertions of the principles of truth, us upon the £600,000, during the years it however unpalatable to some classes; and has been suffered to remain an incumbrance above all, you are intitled to the esteem of "in the hands of the cashier of the bank. every honest man, for your endeavours to £30,000 a year, will in 7 years' amount to check those moral evils which have of late £210,000, a sum more than equal to one- increased to an alarming height. This to third of the amount of the price of the you have done without any methodistical composition money, the price of our sacri- cant, which some persons neither wiser por fice by that very able and experienced nego- better than their neighbours, think it for ciator Lord Hawkesbury, who with that their advantage to adopt. Without further happy liberality for which he justly ranks preface then, and in the full confidence, if eminently high, stipulated only for £600.000 ny sentiments appear, just, that they will to discharge £5,000,000, when Mr. Rufus aneeta portion of your attentions I will King was empowered by America, to agree proceed to point out the approaching return to the payment of £1,200,000, this high trait of an intolerable evil, in various ways, which in the character of that nobleman, certainly our forefathers saw cause to exert themselves entitles him to the thanks of the virtuous tein abolishing. I allude to the nuisance of publican, and, from the time of the accept- vails, or rather extortions, the meaning of ance of the composition, insolvent American which appears to me to be comprised in the debtors, at and the gracious smiles of King Cong, folly of the master and the exactions of the as you stile the dear ally of France. It is to domestic; and which in these times have be recollected too, that this concession was taken a tresh current, by she infamous conmade by men who severely retort upon the nivance of persons in trade, Some circum"proposed concessions of the Fox administra- stances which have come before my eyes, tion to America, a concession far exceeding, appear to me of a nature so contaminating (0 I mean in principle (for what is the conces- these classes of people, that I should (though sion of £5,000,000 to the mind of men ac- but an humble one) acquit myself, very ill customed to the amount of the national debt, as an individual, if I did not endeavour to one hundred, times that sum), any conces-1.apply the remedy, by an exposure of the dissions granted or about to be granted by the late administration, of which Mr. Fox formed a part. However, which soever par ty actually made the greatest concessions is not material to us, now, our rights having somehow or other been frittered away by -one party or the other, and by which, is of no consequence to the person who now ad

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ease. Formerly, when, the odious custom of vails existed, wages were not above oneseventh of the sums: now generally paid. But to those low wages an inhospitabla right was annexed, of exacting presents from those who partook of the cheer of the mas ter's board. This practice after a time came to such a pitch, that a dinner at a gentleman's

price, where the butler or housekeeper is to partake of his profits, without sharing his la bours, or experiencing his risks and possible losses. This may be exemplified in the discourses of an eminent coal merchant and horse dealer, the former assuring me he had lost several customers, from resisting the shameful exaction of servants; who when they were noteceded to, burnt and destroyed the best coals below, and sent nothing but the refuse to the parlour and the dining room.-The latter asserted that the high de mands for horses, arose chiefly from the fees required by servants, who without a share of the booty, would abuse their horses, and get

house cost as much or more than a tavern bill for one fellow brought a glove, another ahat, a third a stick, a fourth a great coat, "and a fifth, if nothing else were left, would not hesitate to snatch the handkerchief, if it' invitingly shewed a corner, from the unwit-ting stranger's pocket, purely for the disinterested satisfaction of returning it. This practice having become quite, intolerable, come spirited gentlemen in spite of incendiary threats, and blood thirsty anonymous, -Jetters, did call meetings in their counties, and by general consent abolished the evil; Fand by way of remuneration raised their servant's wages, to their present high rate, which with the addition of board and lodg-their customers away by various pretences; ing is more than equal to the pay of a subaltern officer in his Majesty's forces-whose life or limb may be every day required in the service of his country. This evit which appears to the master to be abolished, is to niy certain knowledge again creeping in to some of the great houses of the nobility unI known to theiredospitable owners.

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and he further assured me, that he had lost the disposal of a pair of carriage horses the day before, by refusing to add on to the amount demanded, the trifling sum of o one fifth to be transferred by his means from the pocket of the master to that of the coachmanAgain, it is not uncommon where a liberal hospitality exists, for the head servant to keep a sort of open table for any rascally aquaintance who may have forfeited his place or his character, or by the economy of the master have been placed upon board wages. For my part, I call such acts far worse than picking pockets; as it is blackened by breaches of trust and honesty; for, it is of little consequence which we are pilfered of, money or money's worth. If more instances were wanting to prove the necessity of crushing these criminal and growing evils; many might be adduced, but that enough I think has been said to create disgust at the conduct of the pampered menial; and to excite a determination in the higher classes, to resist and repress such mal-practices; as a duty even to their servants, v. bo from luxury and progressive acts of roguery and rapine, too frequently terminate existence by a criminal and disgraceful death on the gallows, or through the lenity of their prosecutors have their sentences mitigated, by being banished from their country as felons and malefactors. I cannot, however, quit this subject without attaching blame, and a very great share of it, to the absuid fashions of the day. For now a woman who condescends to regulate the household affairs of her husband's family, becomes absolutely a butt for satire and ridicule, to the ill-judging, but more numerous part of her sex, which it has been but too truly said is the severest test of truths Nor are the masters of families to be spared from severe animadversion for taking, as is too constantly done, servants of indifferent characters, and in sope instances without any characters whata Wo.. ... we, oli oi sorangeupon out

friends (however esteemed) choosing to incur the risk of being thought meddling or Lofficious in the domestic affairs of another; and this fact being too cer ain to my own knowledge, I think it my duty to give it publicity.Not content, however, with such means of filling their pockets, they are as with one accord, endeavouring to create a still more odious species of exaction, as in fact, it involves at breach both of trust and honesty, and the difficulty of discovery emboldens them so far, that it is the theme of discourse at their clubs, their hops, and their **Occasional orgies after their unsuspecting masters have retired to rest, or are absent from home. When the period for the adjustments of the annual family accounts ar10 rives, in too inany instances, the upper servants make their demands for a per centage thereon; and, disgusting as it may seem, there are many tradesmen villainous enough to hold out baits for custom by a competi→ valon, vint the extravagant amount of their -bribes Nay, Sir, the fact is scarcely atrempted to be concealed, of which an inO stance occurred in my own family, an upper servant having given me warning forsooth, because Impresonted to pay my own bills; of stating or father mis-stating to me, that by -alist becoming thes medium of payment, I noshould suffer no loss, and he would obtain a nconsiderable advantage y an assertion so selfsevidently absurd, that noubne but amere 143drivelling videor could for one moment gives dedasi. For, can common sense suffer -ascone to believe that an honest tradesman can smafford to sell goods to the master at a fair

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ever, an evil so great in its consequences, that it ought to be made actionable at common law, and punished as severely as a servant would be for obtaining a false character. -To you, Sir, whose time is now so usefully dedicated to the service of the public, some apology might seem necessary, were not the subject of my letter one of so much importance to the public. For I trust you will agree with me, that devising the means of repressing crimes is a duty we all owe in our several stations.- -T. S.

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OFFICIAL PAPERS.

AMERICAN STATES.-President Jefferson's Message to the Congress, dated February 3, 1808.

Having received an official communication of certain orders of the British government against maritime rights of neutrals, bearing date the 11th of November, 1807, I transmit them to Congress, as a further proof of the increasing dangers to our navigation and commerce, which led to the provident act of the present session, laying an embargo on our own vessels.

RUSSIA. Declaration against Sweden, Feb 10, 1808.

Justly indignant at the violence which England has displayed towards the King of Denmark, the Emperor of Russia, faithful to his character and to his system of unceas ing care for the interests of his Empire, notified to the King of Great Britain, that he could not remain insensible of so unjust and unexampled an aggression on a Sovereign connected with him by the ties of blood and friendship, and who was the most ancient Ally of Russia.His Imperial Majesty informed the King of Sweden of this determination by a note, dated the 24th of September last, presented to the Swedish Ambassador.—An article of the treaty concluded in 1783, between the Empress Catharine and Gustavus III. and another in the treaty of 1800, between the late Emperor Paul and the present King of Sweden, contain the reciprocal and stipulated agreement to maintain the principle, that the Baltic is a close Sea, with the guarantee of its coasts against all acts of hostility, violence or vexations whatever; and farther, to employ for this purpose all the means in the power of the respective contracting parties. His Imperial Majesty, referring to these treaties, considered himself not merely authorised, but bound, to call upon the King of Sweden for his co-operation against England. His Swedish Majes did not disavow the obliga tion impose apon him by the treaties refer

red to, but refused all co-operation "mitil-: the French troops should be removed from the coasts, and the ports of Germany opened to English ships. But the question here was the checking of those aggressions which England had commenced, and by which alb Europe was disturbed. The emperor demanded from the King of Sweden a co-ope! ration founded on treaties; but his Swedish Majesty answered by proposing to delay the execution of the treaty to another period; and by troubling himself with the care of opening the Dutch ports, for England. In a word, with rendering himself of service. to that England, 'against which measures of defence ought to have been taken. It would be difficult to find a more striking proof of partiality on the part of the King of Sweden towards Great Britain, than this which helle has here given. His Imperial Majesty, condo the 16th of November, caused a second note: 1 to be delivered, in which his Swedish Ma^{ jesty was informed of the rapture betweenɛd Russia and England. This note rentalsed in two months unanswered, and the answer which was transmitted on the 9th of January to his Majesty's Ministers, was to the same. parport as the former. The emperor is, however, far from regretting his moderation. He is, on the contrary, well pleased to recollect that he has employed every means that remained to him for bringing back his Swedish Majesty to the only system of policy." which is consistent with the interests of his States; but his Imperial Majesty owes it at least to his people, and to the security of his dominions, which is to a Sovereign the highest of all laws, no longer to leave the co-operation of Russia with Sweden a mate ter of doubt.-Informed that the Cabinet of St. James's, endeavouring to terrify Denmark into a concurrence with the interests of England threatened that Swedish troops should occupy Zealand, and that the posses›› sion of Norway should be guaranteed to the King of Sweden; assured also that his Swedish Majesty, while he left the Russian note unanswered, was secretly negociating a treaty at London, his Imperial Majesty perceived that the interests of his empire would be very ill secured were he to permit his neighbour, the King of Sweden, at them commencement of a war between Russia and England, to disguise his well-known sentiments of attachment to the latter power, under the appearance of a pretended neutrality. His Imperial Majesty, therefore; can-" not allow the relations of Sweden towards Russia to remain longer in a state of uncertainty. He cannot give his consent to such a neutrality. His Swedish Majesty's being

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