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ESSAYS AND LETTERS
on
VARIOUS
POLITICAL SUBJECTS.
BY JAMES WORKMAN, ESQv
Counsellor at Law.
The second American Edition,
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY I. RILEY.
1809.
N/WA5H^^15^
'^' ■ JiiJrf. ^ i M ''^ ^^^
<s
0' ■
District of 7 ^^ T> E IT REMEMBERED, That on the
JVenv-York, j ' O fir§t day of June, in the thirty -third
year of the Independence of the United States of America,
Isaac Riley, of the said District, hath deposited in this
Office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as
proprietor, in the words following-, to wit—
" Essays and Letters on various Political Subjects. By
James Workman, Esq. Coutisellor at Lana. The Second
American Edition."
In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the Uni-
ted States, entitled ** An Act for the encouragement of
learning by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books,
to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the
\imes therein mentioned ;" and also to an Act supplemen-
tary to an Act entitled *' An Act for the encouragement of
learning by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books,
to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during- the
times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof
to the Arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching Histori-
cal and other Prints."
CHARLES CLINTON,
Clerk of the District of New-York.
ADVERTISEMENT.
OF the following Tracts, the first Edition
of the Argument against continuing the War,
was published in London, on the 25th of
May, 1795 ; and the first Edition of the Let-
ter to the Duke of Portland, came out in
that City, in the month of January, 1797.
The remaining pieces were first published
in America.
Gould & Van Winkle, Printers.
AN ARGUMENT
AGAINST
;ONTINUING THE WAR FOR THE SUBVERSIO:^
OF THE
FRENCH GOVERNMENT.
JBY JAJMES WORKMAJ^, ESQ.
Of the Middle Temple.
THE affairs of Europe are now in a more critical state
than they have been at any time within the period of mo-
dern history. Never, since the irruptions of the Gothic
nations, was there a conflict maintained with so much fury,
or attended with such desolation, as distinguish the pre-
sent war ; and if we except the religious contests that dis<.
tracted Europe during the dark ages, no other struggle
has occasioned so many dissentions in society, and so much,
of that spirit of intolerance which destroys the happiness
of social life. The calamities which we have already felt
from the war are few in comparison with those that may
be reasonably apprehended, if liis majesty's ministers per-
sist in their present measures ; for the object of the war,
as avowed by them at different times, and jii various lan-
guage, does not permit us to hope that it can be complete-
ly terminated until one of the belligerent parties be con-
quered or destroj'ed. The objects of most of our former
wars have been dominion, glory, or commercial advantage,
arid the evils attending them were generally a dreadful
slaughter of men, and a great waste of treasure ; but th.^
A
national existence was never in danger. To view the pre-
sent conflict with the same indifference with which it was
not uncommon to reg-ard the prog'ress of those wars, would
be in us the most stupid folly. It nearly concerns every
man who is eng-ag-ed in a contest that cannot end but in
the destruction of his enemy or himself, to consider on
which side the chance of safety lies ; and it is strongiy
the duty of every Englishman to pause before he puts in
hazard every thing dear and valuable to him : he should
calculate the worth of the object, and the probability of
his attaining it, for which he risks the safety of those
laws that secure to him so many blessings, and the exist-
ence of that grand fabric of wealth and power which it has
required so many ages of the painful and adventurous in-
dustry of his ancestors to rear, and so many hard struggles
of their valour to defend.
Our commerce never afforded so ricli a prey, and we
have never of late years contended with an enemy from
whom we could make fewer reprisals than from the French
republic. More ships have been taken from us in the
years 1793 and 1794 than we lost during the whole of the
last or of the preceding war. Our commerce has also been
greatly injured by the poverty of our foreign markets,
owing to the general commotion, and the increased ex-
penses of foreign states, which have taken from their sub-
jects the superfluity that enabled them to purchase our
commodities. Every state in Europe has been impoverish-
ed by standing armies, and by the operation of the fund-
ing System. This appears from the extraordinary number
of bankruptcies that have happened on the continent since
the war.
By the war, the markets of France, Holland, and a great
part of Germany and Spain, are lost to us entirely ; and
the value of the inhabitants of those countries \yith which.
we may stiil trade, is greatly diminished to us In a com-
meixial view. Taxes, and the destruction of property,
wlierever they take place, are injurious to a commercial
people, who are candidates for as much of the property of
every country as the inhabitants will spend. Every tax,
every waste of an estate in Portugal, Spain, or Italy, di-
minishes the customers of Eng-land, and will be felt by the
merchants of Leeds and Birming-ham. The misfortunes of
every part of the v/orld are injurious to the commerce of
this island, which is therefore interested not only to avoid
war, on account of its own losses and expenditure, but even
by friendly mediation to dissuade other countries from
contending with each other, that they may not waste in
war that property, of which great part would come into
©ur possession if they remained at peace — Eng-land being
the greatest commercial covmtry in the world, is the ba-
rometer of its prosperity ; and every great calamity that
happens, in whatever part of the world, will affect us in
proportion to the extent of our commerce.
Many parts of the British empire are so circumstanced,
that government cannot reasonably expect much assist-
ance from them in the moment of danger. In Scotland and
Ireland great discontents have lately prevailed. If the
grievances of the Roman Catholics in the sister kingdom
are not speedily redressed, a separation may be the con-
sequence, which would be a death blow to the British em-
pire. Ireland supplies the navy with provisions, and the
army and navy with men ; she has given during this war,
more than 150,000 soldiers and sailors to his majesty's
service. When this immense resource is lost, recruits
must be found among tradesmen and manufacturers ; but
if they are taken from th^ir employments, our regular
8
means of supporting government will be greatly diminish-
ed. Were the ports of the Irish channel in the possession
of the enemy, our homeward bound merchant ships would
require the protection of strong convoys, or be obliged to
risk the dangers of the north passage, and perhaps of
Butch privateers.
Our affairs in the East Indies are not so unfavourable.
It remains, however, to be known, what part the Dutch
settlements will take. We have in India an inveterate ene-
my, who would not fail to seize the least advantage that
our distresses, or the power of the French, might afford
him, in hopes of retrieving his reputation and his domi-
nions.
The resources of this country are represented to be in a
flourishing condition. Our commerce is certainly, not-
withstanding all losses and impediments, rich and exten-
sive ; our manufactures are numerous, and superior in ge-
neral to those of the same kind in other countries ; but the
produce of the soil is at present insufficient to support the
inhabitants. It could not, therefore, contribute to extra-
ordinary expenses. The resources of commerce are pre-
carious ; they are diminished in a much greater degree by
war than those afforded by agriculture ; and the loss of
one battle at sea might destroy them, or (what would have
the same effect for a considerable time on the operations
of government) the confidence of the public in their great-
ness and stability.
The resources of France are not inferior to the heroism
of her people. There is not a prince in Europe whose
authority is equal to that of the National Convention : in
every thing that relates to the defence of the country, it
exercises an unlimited power ; and however it has been
distracted by its own factions, it has never been abated in
the energy of its operations ag-ainst the common enemj'-.
In the midst of tumults and military preparations, the
utmost attention is paid to ag-riculture, and to all the sci-
ences that can contribute to improve the art of war. In
short, the whole labour of the country, beyond what is suf-
ficient to support the inhabitants, is either directly or in-
directly in the service of the government.
To keep this mig'hty machine in motion evidently re-
quires vast pecuniary resources ; these consist of gold
and silver to the amount of about 20 millions sterlina: ;
and of paper currency, supported chiefly by the confiscated
lands
When ministers speak of the French finances, they avail
themselves of a misrepresentation in which it is extraor-
dinary they are not always detected. They expatiate on
the great depreciation of the asslgnats, yet when they
state to parliament any expenditure of France, they repre-
sent it (in British money) as if the assignats were at par,
and exult at the seeming extravagance which is the ne-
cessary effect of the depreciation. For instance, when as-
signats are fifty per cent, below par, it is evident that one
million sterling would go as far in France as two millions
in assignats. Lord ]Mornington and Mr. Pitt, would then
declare that the credit of the republic was in a most ruin-
ous situation, their paper m.oney being worth no more
than half the nominal value. If they noticed some article
of expense, which had cost the French, suppose forty-
eight millions oflivres, or two millions of pounds, (no more
in effect than one million sterling, according to the gi-
a2
10
ven depreciation,) they wouldassert that it was impos-
sible that a government which expended two millions
sterling on such an. occasion, could continue the war ano-
ther campaign. And they would then boast of our own
extravagance as economy and mioderation. When they
wish to represent the French republic on the verge of
bankruptcy and ruin, they state sometimes with exaggera-
tion, and sometimes wuth fidelity, the depreciation of the
assignats. When they wish to represent France as bur-
dened with enormous debts, and carrying on the war at
an expense which it is not possible for any nation to bear
long, they take the assignats at par, and state the debts and
expenses in sterling money. If these gentlemen make use
of the depreciation of the assignats as an argument against
the credit and stability of the French government, they
ought, in fairness, to state their debts and expenditure ac-
cording to that depreciation. If, on the other hand, they
state those debts and expenses without making any abate-
ment on account of the depreciation, they ought to give
the French government credit for having their assignats
at par.
Though this latter mode would allow them a credit
which they do not possess, the advantage in men's opi-
nions would be overbalanced by the imputation of extra-
vag-ance. The debts and expenses of France being incur-
Ted in depreciated paper money, ought to be estimated
according to its real value ; and it will then appear that
they are not so enormous as ministers represent.
The report of Cambon, made on the 22d of January,
1795, states, that France has expended in four years and
an half two hundred and twenty -two millions sterling in
assignats more than would have been expended if the old
11
""government had continued, and that there had been no war.-
At whatever rate these assig-nats were issvied5(most of them
no doubt greatly under par,) they must now be vakied ac-
cording' to the present depreciation. Mr. Pitt and Cam-
bon agree in stating that assignats now lose eighty -five per
cent. ; that is, that one hundred livres in assignats are
worth no more than fifteen livres in silver ; at this rate the
two hundred and twenty two millions are no more in fact
than about thirty -three millions of our m.oney. The whole
expenditure of I'rance during the war, has been two hun-
dred and sixty millions sterling, the paper currency being
supposed at par. But by the depreciation of eighty-five
per cent, this sum is reduced to something less than forty
millions sterling. The whole expenditure of the month
from September 22 to October 22, 1794, was two hun-
dred and forty-three millions five hundred and eighteen
thousand seven hundred and thirty livres, upwards of ten
millions sterling, and the depreciation of assignats at this
time, was about seventy -five per cent. These ten millions
were therefore equivalent to no more than two millions
and an half Taking this sum as the average actual ex-
penditure of the different months of the year 1795, the ex-
penditure for that year will amount to thirty millions ster-
ling. The receipts from the same month were forty-three
millions fifty -eight thousand five hundred and seven of li-
vres, about twenty-one millions sterling per annum ; and
at the above rate of depreciation upwards of four millions
sterling. The deficiency of the debt for one year will,
therefore, be no more than twenty-six millions of our m.o-
ney ; no extravagant sum considering the greatness of the
military operations of the French. If from the v/hole sum
expended by the enemy during the war, be deducted the
financial advantages w hich he will not fail to draw from the
multitude of his coaquesta, particularly the conquest of
12
Holland, we shall have no reason to flatted ourselves with
hopes of the speedy ruin of his finances.
The whole amount of the assigriats in circulation at the
beginning of the year was six thousand five hundred mil-
lions of livres, about forty-two anillions sterling-, at the'
present discount. Therefore forty -two millions sterling in
money or in property of any kind would now pay the whole
of the floating debt of France, provided that the holders of
assignats Vvxre obliged to accept of payment for them at
this depreciPvtion.
Whatever inconveniences the French government may
feel from the depreciation of their paper currency, the
French nation will at the end of the war be easily liberated
by the depreciation, from the load of debt which might
oppress them for a century, if contracted in the ordinary
manner. It cannot be supposed that all the holders of
assignats will be paid at par. To reimburse them in this
manner v/ould be impossible ; and if it were possible, it
would be unjust. The greater number of the holders of
assignats will have received them at a depreciated value,
and they cannot expect to be paid by the state more than
they have given for them. If upon the establishment of
peace, all the assignats were to be redeemed by the nation
at par, a multitude of persons, instead of bearing their just
portion of the public burden, would derive enormous wealth
out of the public calamity ; and thus the people would for
ages be oppressed, to support a host of speculators in idle-
ness and luxury.
It must be acknovsiedged that the advantages gained in
this manner by the state have been purchased by the suf-
ferings and losses of many individuals ; but these losses
13
must have been sustained. Two hundred and sixty mil-
lions sterling (nominally) have been expended during the
war ; some of this money was issued at par, and a great
deal of it much below that rate. Suppose on an average
of the whole, that the real sum expended was two hun-
dred millions, which has now by the depreciation fallen to
forty millions ; the holders of assignats, that is, the na-
tion, have lost by the depreciation one hundred and sixty
millions sterling. But it was necessary to raise the sum
©f two hundred millions to support the v/ar and the revo-
lution ; and this sum (unless for the creation of the paper
money) must have been either raised by enormous taxes,
or borrowed at an exorbitant rate of interest, proportioned
to the various fortunes of the republic. To have raised
the whole sum by taxes, would have been a greater griev-
ance to the people than what they have suffered by the de-
preciation, on account of the difficulty and expense of col-
lecting large taxes. It is therefore better for the French,
by the difference of this difficulty and expense, to sink
one hundred and sixty millions by depreciation, than to
pay that sum by ordinary taxation. It is also better for
them that they have sunk at once one hundred and sixty
millions by depreciation, than that they should have fund-
ed and paid an enormous interest for that sum ; for though
in the latter case they might not have paid so much, even
including the expense of collection, they would still have
had to discharge the capital, which would have remained
after the war a heavy burden upon themselves and their
posterity.
This depreciation may itself be called an extraordinary
lax. The cost of collecting it is trifling, being only the
expense of the fabrication of assignats. Whatever it pro-
duces comes without farther diminution into the publiq
14
treasury : and the burden of it is in proportion to the
quantity of assignats that each person possesses.
This tax falls most heavily upon bankers, rich men, and
all those who have a fixed revenue arising* out of lands, or
any other species of property ; that is, upon the persons
who ought to be heavily taxed, when heavy taxes are un-
avoidable. The depreciation is less felt by tradesmen,,
manufacturers, and all who live by the wages of labour,
and the sale of the produce of the earth ; for labour and
the produce of the earth will always bring their j ust price,
provided there are no maximum laws. The industrious
classes are therefore less burdened than any other, by the
tax of depreciation.
Mr. Pitt has asserted, I think incorrectly, that the sys-
tem of moderation lately adopted in^ France is injurious to
the credit of the assignats, and that Robespierre's maxi-
mum laws supported by means of terror, gave additional
value to them, and consequently additional energy to his
ferocious government. By these laws, the government
supported itself, not from the contributions of the whole
nation, but by robbing individuals. When the French
government issue assignats at the market price the tax of
the depreciation is paid by the whole people, and the indi-
viduals who have dealings with the government pay no
more of this tax than their just share. But if the govern-
ment issue their assignats at par, the depreciation being
at the time, suppose fifty per cent, and force an individual
to sell his corn or his ship, and to take in return these as-
signats at a par price, the individual is robbed of one half
his property, besides paying as well as others his quota
towards the public taxes. By the maximum laws, farmers,
tradesmen, la,bourers, manufacturers, in short, £^11 the useful
15
and industrious classes, were robbed to support the rich
and unproductive, of so much as the maximum prices of
their labour and produce fell short of the true prices.
This difference often amounted to half the value of the
commodity.
Persons of fortune, whose incomes through the opera-
tion of the maximum laws, were not affected by the depre-
ciation, paid little or no part of that tax, which fell alto-
gether upon the poor and industrious. Thus the true or-
der of taxation was reversed. Those who were taxed
lig-htly ought to have been taxed heavily, and those who
were taxed heavily, ought to have been taxed as lightly
as the exigencies of the public would admit. The maxi-
mum laws heaped favors upon the rich, and plundered the
poor. They paid court to those who are seldom danger-
ous to government, while they oppressed and irritated a
numerous and licentious class, who had the power, and
had often shown they did not want the inclination to re-
dress their grievances by insurrection. The maximum
laws so far from giving energy and stability to the govern-
ment of Robespierre, were among the principle causes of
iiis destruction. To support this. part of his dreadful sys-
tem required perpetual executions, for which he was ab-
horred, and at length abandoned by the people.
The maximum laws were as injurious to the true credit
of the paper currency, for whose support they were enact-
ed, as to the safety of the government. Like the old laws,
which inflicted heavy penalties for taking interest for mo-
ney, they defeated their own purpose. They attached
chiefly upon the necessaries of life, or in the French phrase,
upon articles of the first necessity ; but thoug-h they afnxed
the highest prices that could be demanded hv them (prices
16
greatly below the true value) they did not in many instan-
ces oblige the owners to sell them, and,the owners w^ould
naturally wish to keep them from the market as long* as
possible. But as tlie maximum laws were enacted in
times of scarcity, there was always a great demand for the
maximum articles. The demand for food on the one hand,
and the eager desire of gain on the other, would cause the
law of the maximum to be disregarded, notwithstanding
the heavy penalties it imposed. Enormous prices would
be given to the seller of provisions ; for he would require
not only a just equivalent for his commodities ; that is,
the price they would bring, if no maximum law existed,
but he must be handsomely paid for the great risk he in-
curred by an illegal transaction. Assignats would in this
manner be depreciated by the laws intended to support
them.
One of the causes that give credit and currency tt3 the
assignats is the demand for them as instruments of com-
merce, but for this purpose they must be allowed to find
their true value. They must not, by obtaining from the
legislature a forced ci-edit, become the instruments of
public robbery and private injustice. When the diifer-
ence between the maximum prices and the just prices be-
comes very great, as it soon must, in consequence of the
increasing quantity of paper money, all affairs of commerce
will be transacted either without regard to the maximum
law by means of the assignats, which must be depreciated
by such. transactions, or by barter or by specie, by which
the demand for the assignats, as a medium of traffick, and
consequently their value, will be diminished.
It is not crueltv and terror, but justice and moderation
Jthat will syipport the finances of France. When the go-
17
vernment Is just, the people will have confidence which is
the only real support of every factitious currency. Had
the system of terror and the maximum laws been continue
ed, their influence would have been as ruinous to the pa-
per money as to every thing else within their reach. They
injured the sale of the national domains ; for what man
would give a large price for land, when he might be law-
fully plundered of its produce : They nearly destroyed
many branches of commerce and manufacture for who
would engage in either when forbid on pain of death to
make any profit of his capital, and when all unprohibited
traffick was but mitigated robbery ?
The depreciation of the assignats, great as it has been,
is not so detrimental to the French government as his ma-
jesty's ministers suppose. The assignats were made for
two purposes : To serve as an instrument of commerce,
and as a medium by which the government were enabled to
command a portion of the produce and industry of the
country. With respect to commerce, it is not of so much
consequence that the assignats should bear a high value,
as a certain value ; for that which is to represent the value
of all things shotdd be the least liable to vary. The revo-
lutions in the government, and the events of the war, cau-
sed a fluctuation in the price of assignats that did much in-
jury to trade ; but the government, who were always
struggling for their existence, did not give themselves
much uneasiness about the embarrassments of merchants.
With respect to the government, the depreciation was not
so severely felt.
The circumstances that give strength to a paper cur-
rency like the assignats, are the public opinion of the sta-
•bility of the government, the pledges offered in exchange
B
18
fbr them, the debts and the taxes which may be paid by
them, and the demand for them as instruments of com-
merce. The people of France have never been in les3
dread of a counter revolution than at present. The great-
er part of the territory of the republic is the pledge of the
assigTiats ; and with regard to the sale of that part of it
which has not been disposed of, it signifies little whether
one livre in silver will purchase two, or twenty livres in
assignats ; the land will sell for its real value. What
would bring one livre when they are at par, would sell for
two, when the depreciation is fifty per cent. When the
state is obliged, from the depreciation of its currency, to
pay double (nominally) for the services of its citizens, it
receives from them a proportionable price for whatever it
sells to them. If the national property is considerable
enough to defray all the public expenses, the government
can suffer little from the depreciation of its currency.
The same observations hold with respect to taxes. If
the assignats fall gradually to one half, or one fourth of
their nominal value, the taxes may be nominally doubled
or quadrupled, without imposing any additional burden
upon the people. The principal effect the depreciation
would then produce, would be the emission of a greater
quantity of paper, or a change in the denomination of the
notes.
The case in which the government cannot be injured by
depreciation, is when the quantity in value of the paper
money issued is not greater than the value received in
taxes, and in payment for national property.
If the depreciation be great and rapid, and if the quan-
tity emitted be enormously greater than that which is de-
19
stroyed by taxes and otlier means, the French government
will be much embarrassed. That they will soon be in this
situation appears highly probable. Their immense ar-
mies — ^the myriads whom they employ in pro viding them—
the gigantic scale of all their operations — ^their extrava-
gance in many instances — and in some, their embezzle-
ment of the public money, have required such an emission
of assignats, that even the immense resources of France
have been insufficient to keep them down. Were we con-
tending with a state that relied upon regular resources,
we might consider this circumstance an advantage ; but
since our object is the destruction of a government to
which the people seem enthusiastically attached, and for
whose support they are ready to make every sacrifice, no
financial difficulties will subdue them while men and
money can be by any means obtained. If the depreciation
of the assignats should become so great as to make them
of little or no value, there are many expedients to which
the government, who have never been scrupulous on such
occasions, may have recourse. The state lands have
been already sold, but the purchasers did not pay imme-
diately. In general, the price was divided into twelve
parts, to be paid at twelve annual instalments. The prin-
cipal sales took place since the year 1792. The conven-
tion have therefore yet to receive several instalments upon
this immense property, which will withdraw from circula-
tion a great mass of assignats, and will therefore increase
the value of the remainder. But as these lands were sold
for a specific sum, the subsequent depreciation of the cur-
rency makes the sale injurious to the nation ; that which
was a fair price when asssignats bore a high value, maybe
at this time too small by one half. If the convention is
embarrassed, the purchasers may be told, that the spirit
of the contract must be observed, and that they must add
20
to future payments, such a sum, beyond that which was
agreed upon, as will compensate for the depreciation since
lithe sale.
If the purchasers dislike this arrangement, the assig-
Jiats already paid by them will probably be returned with
interest, and an allowance for the depreciation, and the
lands be put up to auction anew. Should even this expe-
dient be insufficient, the French g-overnment may have re-
course to the measure which they adopted on the 14th of
Becember, 1793, that no assig-uat above a certain value
should be received at the treasury, after a certain time.
If pushed still further, they might make a similar decree
with regard to the whole currency ; the effect of which
Would be, that all national property sold in the mean time
would bring an immense nominal price, and the finances
would be completely liberated. If the convention were dri-
ven to the utmost extremity, they might declare all the as-
signats already in circulation, waste paper, make a new
emission, and open anew account; such measures would in-
deed amount to downright robbery ; but they are not the less
likely to be adopted by the convention. The distress and
complaints that would ensue would be soon overcome by
the energy of the government, and the enthusiasm of the
people. If we may judge from experience, there is no evil
which the French nation will not endure, no sacrifice which
they will not make, rather than submit to the re -establish-
ment of their former government.
If we contended with France, as formerly, only for wealth
and dominion, the embarrassments of her finances might
terminate the war in our favour ; but we fight to subvert
the system of her government, and we have ample proof
that we cannot succeed without subduing the coimtry.
21
We have also proof that its inhabitants will make every
exertion, rather than submit to a conqueror. When, there-
fore, it is proposed, to examine how long" they are able to
hold out, and continue the war, we should lay aside com-
mon financial considerations, and inquire how long- the
whole produce and industry of the country would be suffi-
cient to support the people, and their armies. The assig-
nats are the only medium for transferring the surplus pro-
duce and industry into the hands of government. What-
ever derangements there may be in tliis currency, neither
produce nor industry will be destroyed by them. The
governm.ent will soon find means of commanding both;
and they never will abandon the struggle while France
yields food and clothes enough for her inhabitants, and arms
and ammunition enough for that part of them destined t©
oppose her enemies.
That her whole produce will be sufficient for those pur-
poses, for any length of time to which the war can be pro-
longed, is probable. It has been found sufficient hitherto,
without having been called for with that rigour with which
it would be exacted in the extremity of distress. Though
the government have accumulated a great debt, they have
not borrowed from any foreign state, which they must have
done, if more than the v/hole produce of France had been
consumed. On the contrary, they are said to have lavished
immense sums in certain countries.
II is very improbable that the produce of France, for the
next eight or ten years, will fall short of what it has been
of late, or even in the most flourishing period of the mo-
narchy. Her agricxiltural wealth was always superior to
*hat which arose from her manufactures and commerce.
It is the reverse iiv England. Oup commerce, and our
B 2
manufactures, which in a great measure depend upon our
commerce, form the chief part of our wealth. The com-
mercial and manufacturing- interests of France have suf-
fered extremely by the war ; but the agriculture of that
country has been improved ; every encouragement is given
to it by the legislature. New modes of cultivation are
pointed out, machines invented to facilitate labour, the
public roads improved, canals formed, and those im-
mense portions of the earth that under the old govern-
ment were rendered useless by pride and ostentation, are
now made profitable to the state. To give efficacy to
these improvements, commissioners with full authority
are sent into every part of France ; and the result has
been, notwithstanding the oppression of the maximum
laws, and the destruction occasioned in many depart-
ments by revolt, that her soil has never yielded more
abiuidant harvests than since the revolution.
Let us therefore banish the delusive hope of conquering
France by her financial difficulties. Admit that we have
treasure without end ; France is equally rich in the fer-
tility of her soil, and the enthusiasm of her people. We
shall never be able to weary her from maintaining her
rights, as an independent nation, while she has men to
fight, and food to suppoi't them ; and if her enthusiasm
remains (as it certainly will, while the war for the re-
storation of her former government lasts) her natural re-
sources will enable her to continue hostilities, even on the
present gigantic scale of operations, for five, for twenty, or
a hundred years.
Let it even be supposed, that the success of the two
next campaigns, should fully gratify the hopes of the most
sanguine ; that the enemy should be dxiven from Germa-
23
ny, Holland, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, and that
the allies should be agam in possession of Valenciennes,
Conde, Landreeies, and Quesnoy ; we should not then be
nearer the attainment of the grand object of the coalition
. than at present. New assig-nats would be created — fresh
soldiers would fly to the frontiers — renovated enthusiasm
would urg-e them to battle — and the armies of the allies
mig-ht, as usual, either be cut to pieces, or forced to save
themselves by flight.
We have as little to hope from the assistance of the roy-
alists of France, as from the state of her pecuniary resour--
ees. When this party were in their utmost strength, we
were unable to derive any benefit from their co-operation ;
they have been since broken by numerous defeats. The
effect of the decree of amnesty upon those who escaped is
well known ; and it is not to be expected, from the speci-
men they have had of the temper of the French govern-
ment, that they will again encounter its fury.
The expectatian of counter revolutionary insurrections
in Paris, we have found to be delusive. The objects of all
the revolutions and insurrections that have happened m
different parts of the republic, (La Vendee alone except-
ed,) were essentially different from that which his majes-
ty's ministers have avowed : In general, each revolution
has removed the government farther from monarchy than
the preceding. Such was the force of the popular aver-
sion to royalism, that whenever a party could fix the impu-
tation of it upon its adversaries, it destroyed their credit.
History teaches us that the object of our pursuit is fruit-
less. Wars made against opinions have only served to give
them strength. There is hardly an instance of a popular
24
revolution being* tolerable successful in the beginning-, and
afterwards frustrated by foreign force ; but the history
of the world is full of examples of insignificant states,
which by the astonishing energy of political enthusiasm,
have vanquished all the forces of the greatest monarchies,
Rome, when she banished the Tarquins and became a re-
public, was assailed by all the kings of Italy ; whom she
repulsed and finally conquered.* Every one knows the
* The conduct of the Romans at this period bears a strong
resemblance to that of the French since the revolution. When
Tarquin -was banished^ Collatinus, the husband of the violated
XdUcretiay -tvas chosen one of the Consuh in preference to Vale-
rius, not on account of superior Tdrtue or talents, but because
he was imagined to have a keener hatred against the family of
the tyrant.— In France the JBrissotin and Rolandist parties
lost all credit -with the people by attempting to save the life of
Louis the XVI.
The ambassadors of Tarquin tvere refused an audience by
the senate — an oath tvas taken never to submit to him, but to
maintain the liberty of Rome by force of arms. Brutus ordered
ttuo of his 01071 sons to be put to death, for conspiring to restore
him ; a mtdtitude of other conspirators shared the same fate.
Collatinus tvas deprived of the consular dignity, for attempting
to save the lives of his nephews, tvho tvere acquainted tvith the
eonspiracy, and he tvas banished from the city, because he tvas
related to the tyrant. The people tvere allowed to plunder the
goods belongi7ig to the king, and his palace tvas levelled tvith
the ground. His cause tvas aftertoards espoused by the Latins,
end by P or senna, the most potverfid prince in Italy y tvhQ be-
&e^e4 Home tvith an immense army.
QS
g-lorious and successful struggle made by the inhabitants
of Switzerland against the whole power of the house of
Austria, for twenty years ; and by Holland daring thrice
that period against the Spanish monarchy, although these
During" the siege, the Romans -were affiicted tvith a pesti-
lence, and distracted by the number of the king^s fy^iends, tvho
xvere yet in the city, and xvhom they -were obliged to terrify by
frequent executions. They xvere also harrassed at the same
time by a Tuscan ariny.—I*orsenna, admiring the heroism of
the Romans and seeing the folly of attempting to subdue them,
"was at length induced to abandon the cause of the feto exiles
toho had assured him that the assistance of their friends in
Rome, and the -weakness of the other party, ivoidd enable him
to restore Tarquin -without much difficulty. Jifter this event,
Tarquin -was assisted by other states, xoho -were soon compelled
to make peace iipon such terras as the Romans pleased to dic-
■ tate. At last, after a contest of three years he found all hope
of effecting a counter revolution vain, and retxirned to the city
ofTusculum, -where he lived fourteen years -with his tixife in a
private ihanner. See Plutarch in Poplicolatn, Dionysius Hal.
Lib. 5. — Livy, Lib. 2. E^itropius, Lib. 1. Florus fcap. 9.5} in
his nervous and elegant abridgement of the history of those
times, makes use of the folio-wing remarkable expressions :——-
' ' " Populus Romanus ad vindicandum libertatis ac piidiciti<e
decus, quodam quasi instinctu deorum concitatus, regem repente
destituit, bona diripit, agrum JUarti suo consecrat, imperium
in eosdejn libertatis suce vindices transfert, inutato tamen jure
€t nomine. — Tantumque libertatis novae gaudium incesserat, lit
vix mutati status fidem caperent ; alterumque ex consulibus,
tantum ob nomenet genus regium, facibus abrogatis, urbe dim~
mlttereut. Itaque substitutus Valerius Poplicola ex summo
studio annixus est ad augendam liberi populi majestatem,-^
26
states were fsLf inferior, in ordinary resources, to those
which attempted to oppress them. The league of Cam-
bray, formed for the destruction of the republic of Venice,
was in the end almost as unsuccessful as the confederacy of
Pilnitz. The hisiories of ancient Greece and modern Italy
afford many instances of a similar nature.
I have hitherto confined myself to a consideration of the
improbability of the success of our offensive operations,
and I have admitted, for the sake of the argximent, that
our resources are inexhaustible, our allies faithful, and
our people obedient. I have presumed that the enemy will
be driven from all his conquests, and that our armies, in
the next or some subsequent campaign, will be as victo-
lious as when they conquered the chief fortresses of the
northern frontier of France. With all these supposed ad-
vantages, that we shall fail in subduing that country is, I
think, beyond a doubt ; and, unless the principle of the
war is changed, we may perhaps be obliged to defend our-
selves upon our own ground.
One country, till this time deemed invincible, has alrea-
dy fallen in the contest. The United Provinces, which re-
Jlt ne specie arcis ofenderet eminentes cedes suas in plana sub-
misit. — Liber jam hinc populus Romanus, prima adverses ex-
feros arma pro libertate corripuii ,' mox profinibus; deinde
pro sociis ; turn gloria et imperio, lacessantibus assidue usque
quaque Jinitimis.— Omnibus portis in hostem- incurrerat : do-
iiec quasi contagione quadam per singulos itum est et proximis
qidbusque correptis^ totam Italiam sub se redegerunt. — Some,
at the time of dethroning Tarquin^ toas less potverful, compared
•with the rest of Italy, than France is nnv, compared toith the
rest c{f Europe,
m
sisted Spain for upwards of half a century, and all the
power of Louis XIV. when all Europe trembled at hia
name, have been unable to sustain the fury of the enemy.
The defeat may be owing to a diminution of the martial
spirit of the Dutch, or to the gradual encroachment of their
government, which left them nothing worth defending.
That which renders France at this time so dangerous to
the rest of Europe, is the enthusiasm of her people. It is
not the wild phrensy of barbarians, (though such a phrensy
has been equal to the conquest of the greatest part of the
world,) but an enthusiasm perfectly disciplined and obe-
dient. While a despotic power impels and restrains it at
pleasure, every art contributes to regulate its fury.
The victories obtained by the French during the last
campaign, are only to be paralleled in the history of those
countries, which, impelled by the cravings of hunger, or
the madness of fanaticism, have suddenly conquered all
the nations around them. The enemy during that cam-
paign captured one hundi'ed and fourty-four towns and ci-
ties, and among them some of the strongest fortresses in
Europe, won six decisive pitched battles, took two thou-
sand eight hundred and three pieces of cannon, and obli-
ged sixty thousand of the best troops in Europe to surren-
der as prisoners of war. With the additional strength and
spirits acquired by these victories, and by the conquest of
the United Provinces in the present year, it is not impro-
bable that France will be able, in the course of one or two
campaigns more, (if the war be unfortunately continued so
long,) to force Spain, the Italian powers, and Austria, to
make peace as Prussia has done ; or, if they hold out, to
subdue them completely, or reduce their power so far, as
to leave her at liberty to attack this country, without ap-
prehension of being disturbed or diverted.
28
In this situation she might spare from her armed my-
riads tliree hundred thousand men for the invasion of these
islands.
To prevent expeditions of this nature, our chief reliance
is upon our navy, and it is certainly our best defence ; but
it is far from being certain that we shall always maintain
our present superiority by sea. The French are said to be
making immense naval preparations : The conquest of
Holland puts in their power a, number of ships of war, a
quantity of naval stores, and what is of more consequence,
thirty thousand excellent seamen. It is not easy to calcu-
late the advantages tha-t France may derive from this asr
sistance. Holland was once able to dispute the sovereignty
of the sea with England and France united. Since that
time, however, she has been enfeebled by age, luxury, and
servitude, but her seamen are still numerous and excellent.
This class of men, whose employment inures them to hard-
ships and danger, are not liable to the effeminacy that
grows up along with the wealth of a commercial state.
If an attempt is made upon this island before Spain is
subdued, we have not much assistance to expect from her
navy. She will be employed in opposing the French by
land. But if she is conquered before we are invaded, tlie
activity of the enemy will not suffer her fleet to remain idle.
To cover an invasion it is not necessary that the enemy
should have a great naval superiority. Their object might
be accomplished, if their fleet were strong enough to keep
ours engaged until they disabled it, or until their troops
were landed. Ireland might be invaded from Port L'Orient,
and Scotland from Holland, with certain v, inds that would
not permit our fleet in Plymouth or Portsmouth to disturb
29
the invaders. Their usual audacity might make them con-
fident of success, and careless of the means of retreat.
The courage and loyalty of the British empire would, I
am confident, defeat any attempt of this kind. It would
subject us nevertheless to many calamities.
I do not urge this consideration to make us distrust our
own strength or anticipate improbable evil, but that we
should be prepared for every possible event. In times of
public difficulty, nothing is so pernicious as flattering mis-
representation ; and the worst enemy of this island could
not do it a greater injury than to persuade its inhabitants
that it cannot be invaded. That the invaders would be
speedily destroyed or captured, provided all due prepara-
tions are made for their reception, I consider cc^rtain ; but
it is as certain, that their attempt would be attended with
enormous mischief. All commerce would cease. The
high fever of the public mind would give fresh irritation
to political parties. Each would load its adversaries with
invective, and accuse them of being the authors of the pub- /'
lie calamity; and their disputes, as in other countries,
might lead to massacres and insurrection. This picture
may appear too highly coloured : But let it be recollected,
that it is not more horrible than that which France exhi-
bited when invaded by the allies. It may be asked, cannot
we too overcome all difficulties, and triumph over every
danger ? We can, we ought, and I am persuaded we should.
But is not the probability, that the continuance of the war
may bring upon us so much misery, an irrefragable argu-
ment for immediate peace ?
Many who admit that peace with the French govern-
ment is a desirable object, are of opinion that it cannot
C
30
fee obtained with honour, as they think there cannot be
found among the enemy fit persons to treat with.
Few will deny that the g-overnment of France have suf-
ficient power to entitle them to negotiate. If this point be
doubted, the king- of Spain, the king of Sardinia, the king
of Prussia, the emperor of Germany, and the stadtholder,
can give testimony in their favour. The exertions of au-
thority displayed by them have astonished the most abso-
lute despots. But that government which can command
such efforts of their subjects, can, by a moderate exertion
of authority, cause a cessation of effort. They who have
power to maintain hostility, which is a state of action and
danger, can easily maintain peace, which is a state of com-
parative inactivity and repose.
The sacrifices and exertions of the French people to sup-
port the war, must render them desirous of peace. The
convention depend upon their will for their own power
and safety, and it is not to be presumed that they would
y continue hostilities if a fair opportunity offered for resto-
ring peace. With what pretence could that convention
refuse to make peace with this country, when their prin-
cipal accusation against twenty -two of their own col-
leagues, whom they put to death, was for declaring war
against us ? They may also have strong personal motives
for wishing for a general peace. They have already, no
doubt, (they at least who are in the reigning committees,)
appropriated a portion of the public wealth to their own
use, and they know by experience that as long as the war
lasts the public mind will be subject to violent agitations,
some of which may deprive them of their wealth and their
lives. Peace would produce a calm that might give them
a better chance of security, wid enable them to retire un-
oticed.
31
They have been accused of entertaining' a rancourous
and inveterate animosity against the people of England.
The design imputed to them of subverting our constitu-
tion, and establishing their own republican system in its
stead, proved rather their folly than their enmity : for
they who desire to bestow upon us what they consider the
greatest of all blessings, and for the preservation of which
they sacrifice every thing that mankind deem valuable,
ought not to excite in our breasts any violent indignation
on account of the meditated bounty. It is true, that the
tone of the convention has not been always favourable to
us. They have, on some occasions, chiefly when they have
been exasperated by losses and defeat, uttered execrations
against the whole country ; but since the overthrow of
Robespierre they have resumed the language of modera-
tion. The cruel decree for refusing quarter to English sol-
diers has been unanimously repealed, and several of our
countrymen have been liberated from confinement. We
ought to avail ourselves of these symptoms of returning
friendship, for it would be highly dangerous to infer that
the French will always be pacifically inclined, and that we
may continue hostilities against them for one or more cam-
paigns, without any other loss than the blood, treasure,
and happiness wasted in the mean time. A certain degree
of success may incline an enemy to peace, but if the suc-
cess be so great that his adversary is unable to oppose him,
he will listen to nothing short of unconditional submission.
When the French took Maestrict the stadtholder thought
that as they were in possession of a part of his dominions,
the time was unfit for neg'otiation. General Pichegru was
of the same opinion when he had taken Nimeguen, Gor-
gum and Utrecht ; he would not even deign to admit of
capitulation. There is a pride and insolence in human na-
ture that indispose men from accepting by treaty what
32
they can command by conquest, and allowing" as a right
what they can grant, with the reputation of generosity,
as a favour.
Although the hardships of the v/ar may have made
France desirous of peace at this time, they may not always
have the same effect. When the sufferings of men rise to
a certain height, they feel a savage gratification in submit-
ting' to any calamities to gratify their revenge.
It will be highly dangerous to the peace of Europe if
the war continues long enough to confirm in military pas-
sions and habits the myriads who compose the armies of
of France. The enthusiasm that urges them, the applau-
ses they receive, and the hope of eminence and wealth,
will give them a distaste to all useful civil occupations.
Victories and conquests will inflame their military phrensy.
If we continue the war imtil all the commercial capitals of
France are broken, the military profession will be the only
road to opulence, honour, or popularity in that country.
Agriculture is considered there as an humble pursuit ; be-
sides, the soil requires so little labour, that a small portion
of the inhabitants are sufficient for its cultivation. If these
causes should make the military character so far predomi-
nate in France, that war should be pursued by the majority
of her citizens as a profession or amusement, I fear that
most of the natiens of Europe would at last be obliged to
yield to her prowess.
The allied armies, it may be said, will also acquire those
fixed and fervid military passions. Admitting the fact,
(v/hich from various causes may be greatly doubted,) it
brings little consolation ; for the French would maintain,
cvt^ris paribus, their present, superiority.
33
How long the war must be continued before Frailer
grows into a decided military republic, having no passion
but war, no ambition but for conquest, it is not possible to
calculate. Every day of hostilities, every merchant ship
that we take from her, every town that we destroy, every
source of her commerce that we may dry up, will serve to
accelerate that terrible event.
Among- the other reasons assigned for continuing the
war, his majesty's ministers object to acknowledge the
French republic, as the convention require. To make
this recognization, it is said, would be to admit the un-
lawfulness of every government in Europe, and to sign
the deposition even of our own king, and the annihilation
of our parliament. As applied to England, this objection
is not just, whatever it may be in regard to some other
countries. Our government has received from the revo-
lution of 1688, a popular sanction ; it still emanates in.
some measure from the people, and is modified and con-
trouled, if not directed by persons whom they appoint. 1
cannot therefore see how the fullest admission of the
rights of any other people would disclaim the principles
of our own constitution.
But if the title which the French republic assumes were
in the higliest degree ridiculous, and even inconsistent
v/ith the rights of other states, we ought not to quarrel
about it, if the precedents of former times have any autho-
^it3^ With what propriety can his majesty refuse to ac-
knowledge the new title of France, on the ground that it
impeaches his own right to govern these kingdoms, when
his majesty assumes a title which destroys, not by impli-
cation, but directly, the right of any one but himself to go-
vern France ?
c2
34
Another objection to treat for peace at this time is, that
we coiild not, considering the events of the last campaign,
expect favourable terms. This point is not certain; for,
until we make the experiment by negotiation, we cannot
tell what terms the enemy would offer. Whatever they
might be, the present posture of affairs does not promise
that we shall obtain better by continuing the war. It is
not indeed likely, that France will abandon all the con-
quests she has won. The fair and obvious criterion of ad-
justing terms of peace is the relative strength of the belli-
gerent parties at the time of negotiation, and it must be
thence considered what would be the probable consequen-
ces of continuing hostilities.
But it is said that a treaty which would leave France in
possession of Holland and Flanders would be the death
warrant of England. Let us examine this assertion.
The time is not remote since we contended against Hol-
land, France, Spain and another power possessing more
energy and resources than Portugal and the Italian states ;
and yet the existence of the nation was not in danger. All
these countries made use only of their ordinary resources ;
and if the combination had been aided by as many more
coimtries of equal power (in the same circumstances) we
should have defended ourselves successfully against them
all.
The enthusiasm that now animates France and renders
ber so terrible must soon subside, unless constantly sup-
ported by some violent impulse. If peace were establish-
ed, no impulse capable of sustaining such an enthusiasm
would remain. Commerce, manufactures, and the elegant
arts would be cultivated, and France would soon lose her
35
present fui'ious spirit, and gradually become a regular and
flourishing" commonwealth. She might at all times, un-
doubtedly, display the military vigour that belongs to free
states ; but she would be infinitely less formidable than at
present. It is not likely that she would ever have another
cause of war capable of inspiring so much enthusiasm as
that which she now maintains. In no other cause would
any people submit to the violent exei'tions of authority
which the French government have sometimes made. We
should therefore have nothing to apprehend, from a peace
which would leave the French in possession of their prin-
cipal conquests. But if the war continues, its original
cause will keep up the enthusiasm which puts almost every
thing in danger.
What has not Europe to fear when the immense mass of
resources now possessed by France is impelled by that
terrible energy, which when exerted upon resources com-
paratively small, was sufficient to defeat the assaults of all
the great military powers ?
Mr. Pitt, speaking of the consequences of a fresh rupture
with France, which he asserts would follow close upon the
heels of a peace negotiated at this time, predicts what, if
I mistake not, is diametrically the reverse of what would
actually happen. He addressed the House of Commons in
these words : ** You would have put an end to the machine
which is with so much difficulty set in motion, and which
can scarcely at the end of two years be raised to the pitch
necessary to try the national strength ; a pitch to which it
would be almost impossible to raise it again in the same
space. On the other hand, the enemy would find it as im-
possible to disband their troops, as, with respect to youv
fbrces, you would find it necessary. They would again W
36
prepared to start with the same gigantic resources, de-
riving fresh confidence from the disposition you had shown
to peace, and new vigour fr-om the interval which had
been afforded to hostilities.'*
I conceive that France would be precisely in the situa-
tion which Mr. Pitt foretels of England. She would find
it impossible to raise her national strength, in the space of
two years, to its present greatness. Her resources have
proceeded from extraordinary causes, have been exacted
with extraordinary rigor, and applied with extraordinary
energy. Can it be supposed that the government of
France have power to infiame the whole nation with
enthusiasm at pleasure ; or to pvit in requisition all the
men capable of bearing arms, and seize three-fourths
of all the landed property ? These are the resources which
have enabled France to perform such wonders. On the
other hand, England has made use of none but regular re-
sources such as the ordinary authority of government is
sufficient to command. These the war has undoubtedly
impoverished, but the interval of a few years of peace
"would restore them, and we should be prepared to start
with a great regular force against a wearied and impove-
rished enemy.
Nor w^ould they find it impossible to disband their troops :
If they have power to make peace, andrestrain their armies
from committing hostilities, they must have the power to
disband them. Will not the same authority which it was
said dragged them from their families be sufficient to brin^
them back again, and restore them to tranquillity and
peace ? The enemy would find it impossible not to disband
their troops, because they could not pay them without le-
Tying such enormous contributions as no free people wouH
in such a case endure.
37
With regard to the disposition of the captured colonies
of France, I doubt whether it would be wise to retain those
whose advantages are purely commercial. They mig-ht be
the cause of a future war, the more dangerous, as it would
appear to have some connection with the present.
They who dread the power of the enemy, ought not to
wish for the destruction of their commerce. France, pos-
sessed of flourishing colonies, an extensive commerce,
would be vulnerable in every part of the world, and there=
fore cautious of putting her wealth in danger by unneces-
sary wars ; but without colonies or commerce, she could
at all times disturb the world with impunity. Without
commerce, and its train of luxuries, the national character
.of the French will become stern and ferocious ; there will
be nothing left of sufficient influence to soften their man-
ners, and counteract their dangerous military spirit. Com-
merce, it is said, is a nursery of seamen ; but privateers
and men of war, when in service, supply a much greater
number. Algiers, without commerce, has seamen enough
to annoy any nation in the world. Commerce and manu-
factures employ a multitude of persons more advantage-
ously than war : Commercial and manufacturing states,
cannot, therefore, without exertions of tyranny, rarely to
be attempted, furnish such immense armies as other states
of equal population. States of the former kind will draw
a great part of their military resources from their com-
merce, and will therefore endeavour to extend it. But the
more extensive it is, it requires the greater protection in
w^ar, and thus a^great part of the public force is diverted
from oifensive operations.
In commercial countries there is always a powerful in-
terest, both in property and numbers, for preserving peace ;
38
and though this interest has been frequently, and some-
times justly disregarded, it will always have great weight
where the government is popular.
The truth of these positions has been repeatedly proved.
When Holland made the powers of Europe and India trem-
ble, her commerce was less considerable than at subse-
quent periods, when her political influence was despised.
Denmark now- flourishes in agriculture and commerce, and
contains as many inhabitants as it did nine centuries ago ;
yet it is classed among the inferior states ; but at that
time, when it possessed no commerce, and was only a nur-
sery of warriors, it was the scourge of Europe. To des-
troy the commerce of France, is to force upon France the
character of Algiers, or to furnish Algiers with the resour-
ces of France ; it is to give justness to the comparison
which our enemies, in their pride and audacity, are so fond
ef making between themselves and the Romans, and be-
tween England and Carthage.
It is asserted, that a peace made Vv^ith the present govern-
ment of France would not be permanent; that we could
not expect from such a peace any cordial intercourse, any
\iseful commerce, any desirable friendship ; that it would
be a peace with an enraged enemy, in which there could
exist no confidence on either side, and that it would ne-
cessarily give rise to a state of jealousy, suspicion, and
constant armament.
This argument, admitting the statement on which it is
founded to be j ust, may be urged by the enemy as well as
ourselves, and therefore it would authorise eternal hostili-
ty between us. But it is not easy to conceive that any ar-
jg^ment can be morally good which would justify two na-
39
tions in contending till one or both of them should be de-
stroyed.
The French would probably respect a treaty of peace>
liecause it would be their interest to avoid war. It will be
a long time before they recover what they have lost in this
contention ; and the sacrifices they have made, will, when
they think coolly and dispassionately, make them very
willing to engage in further struggles.
The frequent changes in the administration of the
government of France, should not prevent negotiation.
Such changes take place in monarchical governments,
where the prince or the minister with whom we treat one
day, may die, or be dismissed the next. During the first
years of the present reign, the changes of his majesty's
ministers were almost as frequent as those in France since
the revolution, and the different administrations favoured
different systems of foreign politics.
The party that now govern the French republic, have
continued in power more than nine months : — How much
longer must they triumph, before they can be denominated
a stable government ? Are we to inflict upon ourselves the
miseries of war, until their characters become pure and
their authority permanent ? If this be the resolution, the
public misery may be eternal.
It seems extraordinary that England should fear the
establishment of a government, which other countries of
inferior power behold with indifference. It would be more
wise and honourable to acknowledge the French govern-
ment, just as they are at this time, than to be forced t©
make the recognition hereafter by disasters and defeat.
40
If the present war is distinguished by some unusual cala-
mities, an immediate peace would be attended with many-
peculiar advantages. Li commerce we should be left with-
out a rival, since most of the great commercial capitals of
France and Holland, our only former competitors, have
been broken by the war. It will require great exertions of
industry, and many years of peace, before these capitals
can be restored. In the United States of America, the
price of labour is so high, and the agricultural system ne-
cessarily so predominant, that they cannot for half a cen-
tury be formidable rivals to us in manufactures, or in mari-
time trade. An immediate peace would give us the car-
rying trade of all Europe. France alone, if the commer-
cial treaty were revived, would be an ample market for
all our staple commodities. The republic of America,
whose prosperity in a commercial view, is the prosperity
of Great-Britain, is now our richest market, and we could
supply it more largely and beneficially, when freight and
insurance were reduced in price. If the convulsions of the
war have impoverished our customers in many parts of
the world, the loss would be compensated by our being
unrivalled in their markets. To possess the whole of a
certain portion of commerce, may be more advantageous
than to share v/ith others a much greater one. But if we
continue the war for a long time, our trading capitals may
be broken or dispersed, like those of Holland, Flanders,
and France. When taxes become extraordinarily burthen-
some, our merchants and manufacturers w ill endeavour to
remove to some country, where they may enjoy their
wealth in more security, and employ it to greater advan-
tage. If the war should continue till it produces these ef-
fects, it may not then be in the power of peace to restore
our commerce. Capital is seldom withdrawn from one
country to another, unless great advantages are promised
41
by the removal ; and it will require a stronger impulse t©
bring- it back, than that which removed it originally. When
a splendid commerce once departs from a nation, it seldom
rises to its former opulence and grandeur ; as the fortunes
of Pavia, Venice, Genoa and Antwerp, fully demonstrate.
Natural advantages are not so much the source and spring
of commerce, as great pecuniary capitals, which have al-
ways an mclination to withdraw from countries afflicted
by war and internal disturbances, and to seek refuge in
the bosom of peace and liberty.
Peace would calm those political dissections, which
have so dreadfully disturbed society.
The question of the establishment of the French repub-
lic has been their chief cause, and when this question wae j
forever closed, they would yield to those moderate disputes
respecting- principles and parties on which there never can
be an uniformity of opinion, as long as men have different
understandings, interests, prejudices, and passions.
The greatest evils of the French revolution have been
the private feuds and the intolerant spirit it has engen-
dered. "When these predominate, friendship is forgotten,
honour violated ; and perfidy, treachery, and even murder
are committed, not only with impunity, but with applause,
if the victim be politically obnoxious ; the public sense of
rig-ht becomes vitiated ; the milder virtues, which are the
most estimable and the most viseful, are disregarded, and
they will cease to be practised as they cease to be ad-
mired.
One of Mr. Pitt's objections to a peace, by which the
French republic should be acknowledged, is, tliat it would
D
42
introduce jacobinism amongst us, and overturn our consti-
tution. But how are these events connected ? What have
ve to dread from the example of the French ? Nothing,
surely, from what has happened. All the events of the
French revolution tend to confirm the admirers of our
constitution in their political opinions.
If the object of continuing- the v/ar, be to prevent the in-
sinuation of jacobin principles into this country, how much
more effectual would peace be to that end ; how much bet-
ter an answer to them the actual comforts and improving
condition of the people, than even the most brilliant suc-
cesses abroad, which might lessen those comforts and de-
teriorate that condition.
It is also said that if peace is made before a counter-re-
volution is effected in France, the Christian religion is
lost. No Christian can be of this opinion ; for upon the
authority on which the religion itself is founded, he is told
that Providence is pledged for its eternal preservation.
But what additional force, what new arguments have the
enemies of Christianity acquired by the French revolution ?
Will the declamations of Robespierre, or the disgusting
blasphemy of Dupont, have more effect in shaking the cre-
dit of revelation, than the logic of Hume, the satire of Vol-
taire, or the eloquence of Rousseau ?
Can the jacobin infidels boast such purity of morals as
to compensate for their deficiency of argument ? Will the
example of their conduct convert those on whom their de-
clamations have no effect ? Is there any thing so fascina-
ting in their delations, perfidies, massacres and proscrip-
tions, as to make men renounce the religion to which they
43
have hitherto zealously adhered, in spite of all the indug-
try and ability that have assailed it ?
■ >
Every one in the kingdom would be immediately and
largely benefited by peace. It would immediately increase
the value of every species of property, and the price of
every kind of labour.
Indeed, as to the propriety of making peace (if a secure
and honourable one were by any means attainable) at this
time, there cannot be two opinions among unbiassed men.
The enemy declare they are desirous of peace ; the neutral-
ity of Prussia takes away all hope of recovering Holland ;
Austria, the Italian powers and Spain are on the eve of
withdrawing from the contest, and leaving us to sustain
unaided, the whole force and fury of France ; Ireland is
convulsed ; our colonies in the West-Indies are distracted
by the attacks of the enemy and by insurrections ; even
Great-Britain is threatened by famine ; tumults of the
most dangerous kind have already happened in different
parts of the country in consequence of the high price of
provisions. Are these the circumstances in which it is
prudent for England to contend ad intemecionem, with such
a power as the republic of France ?
It is high time for the people to awake from their le-
thargy, and endeavour by an immediate exertion of their
constitutional rights to save their country from impending
ruin. Their opinion expressed in remonstrances to their
representatives in parliament, and in humble petitions to
the throne, would be respected, and would in the end be
effectual.
44
Perhaps there is no 3nan in the country who, from his
talents, experience, eloquence, popularity and fortitude,
might be more advantag-eously employed in the adminis-
tration of her affairs, than Mr Fox His well known frank,
open and determined character, and the energy belonging-
to his liberal principles of government, would incline (or
would soon compel) the enemy to offer just and honour-
able terms of peace.
FINIS.
A LETTER
TO
THE DUKE OF PORTLAND,
BEING
AJM ANSWER TO THE TWO LETTERS
OF THE
RIGHT HONORABLE EDMUND BURKE^
AGAINST
TBEATIJVG FOB PEACE
WITH THE
FRENCH REPUBLIC.
£t/ James TForkinan, Esq-
My Lord,
THOSE who are the least disposed to admit
the justice of an author's prejudice in favour of the sub-
ject he has chosen, will not be so hardy as to deny the im-
portance of that which I am now about to discuss, when
its difficulties occupy the talents of the most able, and its
consequences fill the minds of the most courageous with
anxiety. It was in the auspicious moment when a neg-o-
tiation was undertaken, to extinguish the flames of war
which have so long and so violently raged throughout the
world, that a writer whose ability is hardly surpassed by
his zeal, endeavours to light them up with fiercer fury
than they have yet displayed, and to feed them with such
fuel that no one now living could expect to see the end of
their devouring progress.
48
That his arguments against negotiation for peace with
France, maintained with all his wojited strength of reasoning,
illustrated from the richest stores of his almost unbound-
ed knowledge, and adorned with all the splendour of his
unfaded imagination, may make a deep impression upon
the country, is reasonably to be apprehended : to pre-
vent or to remove such a misfortune is the object of
this letter, which does not, in my opinion, require to be
prefaced with much apolog3^ The greatness of the dan-
ger in which our country might be placed, affords an ex-
cuse for the humblest endeavour to avert it ; and the pos-
sibility of suggesting a hint which may be useful m the con-
duct of any of her important affairs, is a full justification,
of him who publishes his observations on so high a national
concern as that which I have undertaken to investigate.
The substance of Mr. Burke's Letters is nearly contain-
ed in the follov.dng propositions :
1st. That his majesty's ministers should not have recog-
nised the government of the French republic, because the
true and lawful French nation is not now represented by
it, nor to be found within the limits of geographical France,
but in the foreign countries in which her lawful represent-
tives are exiled ;
2d. That we should not recognise that republic, because
she is of a wicked, infamous and abominable character.
od. That if we make peace witii her, our religion, pro-
perty, constitution, and laws, and the whole system of go-
vernment, usages, morals and manners, now established
in Europe, will be speedily destroyed.
4th. That we and all the nations of Europe ought there-
fore, to continue the war until the republican government
49
.)t' France and the whole system on which it depends, he
subverted ; that we should oppose to it for this purpose a
force, bearing some analogy and resemblance to the force
and spirit which that system exerts, and that our resources
are still great and abundant.
I shall examine those propositions separately and in the
order in which I have arranged them.
The distinction made by Mr. Burke between the sup-
posed moral nation of France, consisting of her exiled
prince and her expelled nobility, clerg-y and gentry, and
that supposed unlawful French nation which now exists
within the territories of France, and is represented by the
present French government, may afford one subject of dis-
pute on the right meaning of words, and another on the
conduct which the governments of Europe should observe
with respect to those rival nations. Which of the two
ought to be called with propriety the French nation, is a
question rather verbal than political, and therefore impro-
per to be examined in a work professing only political dis-
cussion ; but which of the two his majesty should recog-
nise and negotiate with for the advantage of his subjects,
is a question on vt^hich Mr. Burke's opinion seems refutable
with as mTich certainty as can be expected in any political
demonstration.
When two governments negotiate a treaty, they in fact
do no more than make a law to bind their respective sub-
jects. With whom then, as the representative of the
French people, is his majesty, for the benefit of his sub-
jects, to negotiate in order to ascertain boundaries, to de-
termine disputed rights, to regulate commercial inter-
ceurse, but with the persons who have the power to make
50
laws for the French people, and to compel tliem to the ob-
servance of the stipulated restrictions and regulations I
To negotiate with persons who have no power to legis-
late, would be absurd and even ridiculous ; and to recog-
nise as a national authority any persons who have no power
to negotiate, would be a mere ceremony, which, whatever
pleasure it might afford, to the corresponding parties, could
be of no advantage to the subjects of him who made the
recognition.
Mr. Burke may, therefore, use the words French nation
in whatever sense his ingenuity or his affections may sug-
gest. But the French nation with which the governments
of Europe have any business to negotiate, is that people
which now inhabits geographical France. With the mem-
bers of the former and now exiled corporate body of France,
his majesty's subjects have no intercourse or connexion
that reqviires any other regulations than such as may be
obtained by negotiating with the governments of the coun-
tries in which the unhappy exiles reside.
To illustrate his opinion, Mr. Burke supposes a dreadful
calamity. He supposes all the royal family murdered, and
all the persons of worth, w^isdom and respectability that
England contains imprisoned, plundered, exiled or assas-
sinated by a faction of robbers. Is it, he demands, to this
faction he is to look for his country ? Would not the exiles
alone be his government and his fellow citizens ? Would
iiot their places of refuge be his temporary country ?
Would not all his duties and all his af?'ections be there and
there only ? What should he think if the potentates of Eu-
rope, being geographers instead of kings, recognised this
geometrical measurement as tlie honourable member of
Europe called England ?
51
This case forms no exception to the principle I have ven-
tured to lay down. Without impugning it, in the least,
Mr. Burke's questions may be satisfactorily answered.
With his usual dexterity in the management of argu-
ments and analogies he presumes that the duties of a Bri-
tish citizen and a foreign prince, with regard to a British
government, may be strictly and exactly the same. But
this cannot happen. A government, with regard to the
citizen, is or ought to be a just and moral power. A go-
vernment with regard to a foreign potentate is a physical
power, which, acting within its proper range, is indepen-
dent of him by the laws of public right, and which it is his
duty to regard chiefly as it may affect the conditions of
his subjects. In Mr. Burke's supposed case the affections
and duties of every good citizen would certainly be with
the exiles and the rest of his oppressed countrymen, and
he should make every possible effort to deliver them from
tyranny and to punish their tyrants. But the good citizen
and the wise sovereign would have different duties to ob-
serve. The one is bound to consider in the first place the
rights and the happiness of his commonwealth ; the other
the welfare of his kingdom. The one acts entirely for the
benefit of his countrymen, the other chiefly for the safety
and prosperity of his subjects. The one should neither
obey nor recognise any public authority, (unless obliged
by necessity,) except the rightful one ; but should endea-
vour by all possible means to subvert any government
founded on the violation of his country's rights ; the other
should recognise every government whatever, and should,
if possible, avoid going to war with any power, however
vile and infamous, that could destroy the happiness of his
people.
52
I do not deny that this potentate would have a right tt^
deliver us from the tyranny of the robbers. God forbid
I should maintain such a selfish and ungenerous doctrine,
as that human beings can ever be bound by their duty to
behold tamely the wrongs of any of their fellow creatures,
or that any people have not a full right to rescue any other
from a galling bondage. Our affections should not be
wholly absorbed by our country ; they ought to be extend-
ed to the whole human race.
But this right of one government to interfere by force
on behalf of the oppressed subjects of another, can only be
acknowledged with severe restrictions, and must not be
exercised but with the greatest prudence. It would other-
wise occasion endless wars, and defeat its own generous
purposes. The oppression that may be thus lawfully re-
mioved must be obvious, flagrant and g-alling. We have no
right to redress any grievances in a foreign country that
are not severely felt and loudly complained of ; for no right
can exist that would allow any one nation in the world to
disturb at its pleasure the peace of all the others. He who
would achieve the emancipation of an enslaved people
should be morally certain that he is able to perform what
he wishes to undertake : If he fails in the attempt, he may
not only ruin Ms ov.^n subjects, but by enraging the tyrants,
he will certainly make the condition of their victims more
deplorable. He should also be well assured, that the
changes which he intends to introduce will be not only
good in themselves, but agreeable to the objects of his
generous interference. Indeed, his right extends no further
than to deliver them from their oppressors. He ma}'- re-
commend m.easures ; but if he enforces any, against the in-
clination of the country for which they are designed, he
vitiates ail his proceedings from the beginning. His con-
53
duct shows that he was not actuated by benevolence, but
ambition. He is to be regarded not as a deliverer, but as
a conqueror. The transition from one of these characters
to the other, is so easy and natural, and has happened so
very often, that a wise citizen will endure much before he
seeks deliverance from a foreign power. Had your grace
lived in England during the tyranny of the fanatics, I think
you would not have called upon the czar of Moscovy for
redress.
Applying these principles to the solution of Mr. Burke's
questions ; any potentate of Europe would have a full right
to restore to us our liberties by force, if he were called
upon by the voice or the feelings of the country. But he
would not be morally bound to interfere thus in our con-
cerns, if it were probable or even possible, that his inter-
ference might ruin liis kingdom. He would owe a duty
indeed to our enslaved countrjnnen, but a much higher
duty to his own subjects. .
Suppose the situation of England was what Mr. Burke
has imagined, and that your grace was at the same time a
minister, directing the councils of any foreign power ; of
the kingdom of Portugal for instance, or the republic of the
United States of America. — Would you refuse to recognise
the English usurpers, if you knew that the refusal would
instigate them to cut up your commerce ; to plunder your
merchants ; to destroy your colonies ; and perhaps to send
out a navy that might lay Lisbon or Philadelphia in ashes I
In these circumstances you certainly ought not to refuse.
You would have no right to sport with the high charge en-
trusted to your keeping, nor to bring ruin on your country
for any class of persons, however deserving and unfortu-
nate.
E
54
But the question of war or peace is not implicated in this
question of recognition. We ought to recognise and cor-
respond with the government of a state which is our ene-
my, on the same principle of mutual advantage that would
induce us to negotiate with that state, if it were our friend.
Correspondence between governments may diminish the
calamities of their subjects in war almost as much as it
can augment their prosperity in peace. In the prosecution
of hostilities, how detrimental would it be to the bellige-
rent parties if conventions, which imply recognition, and
which cannot take place without correspondence, were not
entered into concerning the observance of capitulations,
the exchange or ra,nsom of prisoners, the care of the wound-
ed, and the signals of defiance and submission ? With
whom, on the part of the warriors opposed to us, can we
negotiate these conventions ? With those only whom those
warriors obey-
If, therefore, it were even right to continue the war with
France for the subversion of her government, we should
yet acknowledge as a nation, the people, however wicked
or deluded, that we are fighting with, and recognise as
the representative of that nation, the government, however
infamous, which it obeys. Our recognition would not re-
tard for one moment the attainment of our object, if it were
attainable ; and whether attainable or not, the recognition,
without occasioning any evil, would be productive of many
advantages to us, which we could not otherwise possess.
" Mere locality," says Mr. Burke, "does not constitute
*' a body politic. Had Cade and his gang got possession
** of London, they would not have been the lord mayor, al-
** dermen, and common council."— True ; they would not
leave been the lord mayor, aldermen, and common counci!,
55
any more than the directory, the legislative councils, and
the existing- tribunals of France are the king, the states-
general, and the ancient parliaments. But yet had Cade
maintained possession of London, in spite of all the exer-
tions of the government, and had destroyed or plundered
all those who attempted to expel him, it would have been
great folly in the citizens of Venice or Florence, whose
affairs might require them to come to our metropolis,
to have refused to call him lord Mortimer, or by any
other title he might have thought proper to assume.
By making this recognition they would have been able
to prosecute their affairs without interruption ; and by-
refusing it they might not only have deprived them-
selves of commercial advantages, but would have subjected
themselves to the depredations of his lordship's gang ; al-
though their refusal to acknowledge his title could not have
had the smallest tendency to mitigate the evil, or abridge
the period of his usurpation.*
The second proposition deducible from Mr. Burke's let-
ters, is, " That his majesty's ministers should not recog-
* Second part of Henry VI. Scene VL
Enter Jack Cade.
Cade. J^ow is Mortimer lord of this city .—And noio hence-
foi^cvard it shall be treason for any that calls me other than
lord Mortimer.
Enter a Soldier, running.
Soldier. Jack Cade.' Jack Cade!
Cade. Knock him doiun there, f They kill him. J
Smith. If this fellotv be ivise, he'll neve, call you Jaqk
Cade any more ,• / think he hath a very fair teaming:
56
nise the French republic, because she is of a ^vicked, in-
famous, and abominable character."
Admitting", for the argument, that she is of that charac-
ter, the inference of Mr. Burke will not follow ; because
Iiis majesty, according to the practice of his predecessors,
and of most of the potentates of Europe, has long recog-
nised the government of what Mr. Burke calls the republic
of Algiers ; a government as wicked and abominable as can
well exist, and composed of as infamous materials as can
enter into the composition of any public body whatever.
But Mr, Burke maintains that the analog-ical argument
drawn from Algiers is not conclusive ; for, although he is
willing to admit that it has a constitution similar to what
he calls the present tumultuous military tyranny of France,
and that the Alg-erine community resembles the commu-
nity of France, yet he fears great danger from the recog-
nition of the French republic, and little or none from the
recognition of Algiers. Algiers, he observes, is not near
us, not powerful, not infectious ; and as it is an old crea-
tion, we have good data to calculate the whole of the mis-
cliief to be apprehended from it.
To determine whether a government of an abominable
character, should be recogniised, we must be guided by
considerations either of national honour or national inte-
rest. If the question relative to the recognisation of the
French republic, is upon the point of honour, the prece-
dent of Algiers seems to be of sufficient authority. If it
be a stain upon our national dignity, that we recognise and
iiegotiate with infamous governments, the stain is of the
same kind whatever power they may possess, and in What-
ever part ©f thft world they may b» situated. It can €tr-
57
tainly be no extenuation of the disgrace that may be incut-
red by corresponding with infamy, that it resides at some
hundred miles distance, or that it has preserved for a great
length of time the consistency of its flagitious character.
Considering the recognition of Algiers only as a measure
of prudence, the argument drawn from its analogy is irre-
fragable.
It is not the recognition, but the refusal to recognise a
state that can be attended with danger. Why is it prudent
for ministers to negotiate with the Algerine government I
Because they obtain from it a forbearance of piracy. But
if for this reason we recognise the robbers of Algiers, who
can prosecute their depredations with but a few miserably-
armed vessels, and who, with their whole force could not
conquer the weakest of our colonies ; would it not be down-
right madness to refuse to recognise the robbers of Frances
(if indeed the French government merit that name) who
can prosecute their depredations on our property with
fifty ships of the line, and six times that number of stout
frigates and privateers of their own, and with as many
more ships of war which they have either forced or per-
suaded their friends to arm against us ; who would proba-
bly capture a thousand of our merchantmen in the same
time that the Algerine ruffians could take a score ; who,
with much short of their whole force, could conquer ot
destroy our most flourishing colonies, and who, in their
audacity, do even meditate the conquest of the empire
itself? Would it be prudent to avoid a wasp and encounter
:t tyger ? To sooth the anger of a mischievous dwarf, an4
rouse the rage of a ferocious giant ?
Viewing the present and the former state of the powers
itf Europe, do we find that any one of them has lost by rC-
E 2
58
cognising', or gained by refusing to recognise the French
republic ? Not the late sovereign of Russia, certainly, for
she might have possessed herself of Poland with the same
facility, and perhaps with better grace and more consist-
ency of character, had she maintained the most friendly
correspondence with the robber and exterminator Robes-
pierre. Has Denmark, or America, or Prussia, or Hanover
lost any thing by recognising the French commonwealth 3
Has the late king of Sardinia, or the duke of Wurtemburgh,
or any other potentate of Europe, gained any thing by re-
fusing to negotiate with that state ?
The wish of Mr. Burke that we should not acknowledge
the present rulers of France, appears to proceed in part,
from a most pure and noble motive. He supposes them to
be guilty of every crime, turpitude, and oppression to-
wards their subjects, whose deliverance from what he calls
the vilest and severest tyranny that ever scourged the
earth, with the pimishment of their tyrants, are among
the great objects which he hopes to accomplish by conti-
nuing the war. But from many events of universal notorie-
ty, it must appear as ridiculous as impolitic to continue
the war any longer in order to punish the government of
France for oppressing her people. They have not only not
solicited us to deliver them from any oppression, but they
iiave themselves punished most severely all who have at-
tempted to interfere in their concerns. Supposing then the
tyi'anny of the present rulers of France to be as odious and
oppressive as Mr. Burke's information induces him to be-
lieve, their subjects highly deserve whatever they may
suffer, for having treated with such rude ingratitude all
the armies which the allies have ever sent for their delive-
rance. Let us, therefore, no longer punish ourselves, nor
even subject ourselves to the slightest inconvenience to
€ioancipa\.e tiiem, and let no oppression that may be ex>
59
ercised on persons who are so willing' to endure it, retard
for one moment the re-establishment of the tranquillity of
Europe.
In proving the propriety of recognising" the most infa'
mous g'overnments, I have performed much more than my
case required. Desirous of completely refuiing,Mr. Burke's
arguments, I have hitherto admitted the principal facts on
which he founds them. But I have admitted a great deal
too much. The present government of France is far from
being of the infamous character which Mr. Burke de-
scribes.
To have negotiated with such infernal monsters as He-
bert, Marat, Chaumette, and Robespierre, might, in the
opinion of many, have been unsafe and dishonorable. But
this admitted, it would nevertheless have been unwise and
even dishonorable to have refused to negotiate with the
members of the directory ; because it would be unjust to
class these men, insolent and presumptuous as they are,
with the execrable ruffians, whose sanguinary domination
so long- afflicted the world. Some, indeed, of her present
rulers were of the number of those ruffians ; but they have
in some measure expiated their guilt. Tallien, for in-
stance, was foremost among those v/ho hurled Robespierre
from his throne of terror, and established, what in compari-
son with his rule, is the reign of humanity and mercy.
But whatever number of the old may have place in the
composition of the new government, there is certainly a very
great difference between its spirit and character, and the
spirit and character of its predecessor. Do we now hear '
of any thing to remind us of those massacres which can-
not be reraembered without horror, except the punishment
of the perpetrators ? Do the present rulers of France maiji'
60
tain themselves by proscriptions, exiles, and confiscations
without number ? Do they now carry fire and sword through
La Vendee ? Have they not faithfully observed the condi-
tions of their agreements with tke brave inhabitants of that
desolated territory ? Are they not entitled to a portion of
our regard for restoring liberty to such of our countrjTiien
as the perfidious and pusillanimous tyrant, without right
•r expediency, had consigned to his dungeons, for mitiga-
ting the captivity of those whose imprisonment was una-
voidable from the fortune and the taws of war, and for deli-
vering from death the myriads of their own nation, whose
blood was soon to have diminished the fears, or gi'atified
the vengeance of their oppressors ?
In almost every respect the chiefs of the new govern-
Hient are diametvically opposite to the jacobin* faction.
They encourage with a zeal that the worst of their enemies
must esteem laudable, the improvement of the arts and
sciences ; not those only which administer to the art of
war, but ail which can either augment the mass of useful
knov/ledge or afford delig'ht. Their projected establish--
ments for the education of youth, merit universal attention
* Throughout this -worh the tvord jacobin is used, and
perhaps correctly, in the sense in tvhich it is nott>, and has been
for upwards of txvo years understood in the phice ivhere the
term originated. I define jacobinism to be the system of poH^
tics adopted by the Jacobin Club of Paris, from the year 1793
to the time of its destruction, and acted upon in various pla'
€es, by Le Bon, Freron, Collot d^Herbois, Carrier, J^larat,
mnd Robespierre. By jacobinism, I mean that system which
drenched Frunce -mth Mood, and intindated it mth tears /
61
and Imitation. Their manners, still more than tlieir mo-
rals, are remote from jacobin usage. They have laid aside
that barbarous grossness of language which was once es--
teemed an essential in the accomplishment of a repviblican.
The squalid and sordid apparel heretofore displayed with
such ludicrious and grotesque vanity is no longer in the
mode of Paris. The ministers and senators of the French
republic have long thought that there is no necessary con-
nexion, and indeed nothing congenial, between dirt and
patriotism ; between rags and liberty. Were your lord-
ship now to visit Paris in a diplomatic capacity, you would
hear of none but former atrocities ; you would not see one
person brought to the guillotine (or as the exterminators
facetiously expressed it, " peeping through the little na-
tional window,") for the promulgation of opinions ; you
would be led into apartments as splendid as any in Burling-
ton house, and you would be introduced to a gentleman
proscribed probity, virtue, and true philosophy ; almost anni'
hilated cojnmsrce, arts, and sciences ; corrupted morcd priU'
ciple in its source ; delegated the po-wer of life and death to
the most vile aiid ferocious of men ; erected 50,000 bastiles,
and filled them tdth pretended conspirators ; massacred age
on its bed of pain / ?nurdered infancy in the mother's ■womb ;
violated chastity in the moment of death ,• changed the Bhone
and the Loire to rivers of blood ; Vaucluse to a fountain of
tears ; J^antes to a sepidchre ; Paris, Arras, Bordeaux, and
Strasbourg to slaughter houses ; and France to one vast theatre
of pillage and murder. When, therefore, I speak of Jaco-
binism, I cannot cdlude to any thifig English. There is no-
thing in England even like it. Instead of 80,000 JaeoklM^
I de not believe the- Qountm emUains «?ie>
62
wearing as handsome robes as your own, who would speak
to you with politeness. Whatever might be the lofty and
unreasonable demands of the directory, they would not be
made in the style of the Pere Duchesne. You would be
respected as the representative of a sovereign power, and
you would find among the members of the French govern-
ment, some men of splendid talents and extensive reputa-
tion, whose acquaintance.it would not disgrace any persoii
in Europe to cultivate^
Xot one of the objections which have been urged
against treating for peace with France diuing the despo-
tism of the jacobin oligarchy, will apply in her present
circumstances. The actual government of that country
has given, during upwards of two years past, as good proof
©f its stability as ought to be required in any times, parti-
cularly in such times of change and uncertainty as these.
It adheres steadily to one system j and has assumed a re-
spectable, although a haughty, character. It utters no
gross invectives against any kings, or any forms of govern-
ment ; it has abandoned the destructive design of impo-
sing its own political system upon all other nations, and is
as inveterately the enemy of jacobin principles as any ca-
binet in Europe.
Although the negotiations for peace are unfortunately
broken off, the formal recognition of the French govern-
ment may be attended with considerable advantage to us.
We have not merely acknowledged it, as we might have
done, although we at the same time prepared for its de-
struction ; we have recognised the system on which it is
founded. We have given our solemn sanction to the French
revolution ; and have, by that measure, renounced the tn-
63
iquitous purpose of continuing' the war, for the restoration
of the monarchy, which that revokition overthrew. The
French government being- thus scarcely established, the
tremendous enthusiasm which arose out of the attempts to
subvert it, will be damped, if not destroyed. This main
spring of the martial prosperity and glory of the French
republic, derived all its strength from the dangers that
threatened her existence, and cannot retain its pristine
force after the formal recognition of her legitimacy, by all
her enemies. She can now continue the war for no other
Qbjects than extension of territory and of commerce ; ob-
jects that a whole people can never be made to pursue with
the same enthusiasm, which they would display in defence
of their favorite government, and their national indepen-
dence. This recognition may not only abate the enthusi-
asm of France, but rouse and animate the whole English
nation. The same causes that occasioned in France those
mig-hty exertions that have no parallel in the history of the
world, would operate, I trust, in Great-Britain, with equal
power. If it should ever appear that our enemies prose-
cute the war for the purpose of destroying our indepen-
dence or of subverting any establishment that we wish to
maintain, or imposing upon us any system or establishment
that we abominate, 1 trust there would spring up amongst
us a national enthusiasm, of such fervour and energy, as to
justify the expectation, that our exertions would even sur-
pass the hitherto unexampled exertions of the enemy.
If we followed the advice of Mr. Burke, never to ac-
knowledge the French republic, we could never prose-
cute the war against her with enthusiasm, nor would her
zeal against us ever be diminished. The spirit of the peo-
ple of England would be deadened by the opinion, that
their blood and treasure were wasted to gratify the obsti-
64-
Rate pride of his majesty's ministers ; and the spirit of the
people of France would be buoyed up to its highest pitch
by the consideration which their rulers might fairly, and
no doubt would continually press, that our refusal to ac-
knowledge their government was indisputable evidence o
a project for its subversion.
The mode in which we have recognised the French re-
public appears to Mr. Burke imprudent, and not justified
by any example. *' I doubt," says he, ** upon mere tem-
** porary considerations of prudence whether it (the for-
" mal recognition of that state) was perfectly advisable.
" It is not within the rules of dexterous conduct to make
*' an acknowledgment of a contested title in your enemy,
** before you are morally certain that your recognition will
" secure his friendship. Otherwise it is a measvu'e worse
*' than thrown away. It adds infinitely to the strength and
*' consequently to the demands of the adverse party. He
" has gained a fundamental point without an equivalent.'*
In the unconditional recognition of the French republic,
we were perfectly authorised by the example of the Ame-
rican war. The United States of America were recogni-
sed in the first instance and without stipulation, condition,
or equivalent by a minister whom Mr. Burke then support-
ed.* But the unconditional acknovv^ledgment now in ques-
* Thefolloxcing passage is extracted from a speech of J\Ir.
Burke'' s, as it appeared in Debretfs Reports of one of tJie
debates of the house of commons on our aclawwJedgment of the
United States of America,
65
tion, is certainly a measure of much clearer propriety, in
recognising our late colonies as sovereign states, his ma-
jesty relinquished an undoubted claim of his own, and at-
tributed to them a title to sovereign power, which, accor-
ding to the established law of nations, this recognition was
necessary to render complete. Previous to it, the formal
aeknowledgment of the American states by any other pow-
er would have amounted to a declaration of hostilities
against his majesty. In recognising the French republic
his majesty has relinquished no claim of his own, nor has
he attributed to that state any title, rank, or authority
which would not have been complete and acknowledged by
other powers without his recognition. How has it added
to the strength or to the demands of the enemy ? It has
" There were three opinions in this country on the great and
** important question of American independence ; they might
** each of them appear reasonable and upright ; he would not
** pretend to decide upon either of them. The first of the
" three loas that independence to America under any considc
** rations or conditions roas a real misfortune to this nation,
** This idea might prevail -with some men of every description
** in that house ; and he ivas sorry that it consisted of those of
** all descriptions. He should not pretend to refute it. The next
** was, that independence ought not to be graiited to America
*' -without an equivalent of some nature or other as the price
*' of peace, or for something beneficial to this country. The
** last toas, that it should be given up xoithout any considera"
** tion of any sort, that the recognition of if by this country
" should be free and unlimited. Amongst the last class was
" himself and his friend!'^
Vide Bebretfs Pari Reg. Vol IX. page 79 ^ 80;
F
66
indeed given him an assurance that we cease to war against
his national rights and his liberty ; but it has given nothing
more. It has added, not to his, but to our strength. It
will place us in any future negotiation on higher, because
on juster groimds. We had no more right to demand from
the enemy an equivalent for our late recognition than he
had to demand of the absolute princes, our allies, a com-
pensation for recognising their rights when he repealed his
decrees. of fraternity. Are we sure the directory would
not have smiled in derision if they had been seriously ask-
ed by our ambassador how much they would give his ma-
jesty as an equivalent for his recognition ? As an equiva-
lent, they might have said, for acknowledging the exist-
ence of a state that had made almost all her enemies trem-
ble for their own.
Between independent nations, the only sort of equiva-
lent that can be reasonably expected for the acknowledg-
ment of one title is, the acknowledgment of some other.
If two states quarrel, and each refuses to recognise the
title which the other has assumed, it might not be con-
sistent with the dignity of either of them to yield this
point to the adversary, without being first assured of re-
ceiving from him a similar concession. If the rulers of
France had refused to acknowledge the king of Great-Bri-
tain, ministers would have been blameable in recognising
them as a lawful government without demanding at the
same time the formal acknowledgment of his majesty*s au-
thority. But as they have never denied it, there was no-
thing that we could have justly demanded from them in
return.
The next proposition to be examined is, " that if we
make peace with the French republic ; our religion, pro-
67
perty, constitution, and laws, and the whole system of
government, usages, morals and manners now established
in Europe will be speedily destroyed."
It IS extraordinary that the apprehensions which weise
at one time entertained from the revolutionary principle,
should still remain in any man's mind undiminished, since
they have not been justified by a single event. Not one
revolution has been effected in the world, by the mere
force or fascination of French principles. The insurrec-
tion in Poland had little connexion with them, audit is no-
torious that the change of government which has taken
place in the Netherlands, the United Provinces, Savoy,
and in some parts of Germany and Italy, was effected
chiefly, if not altogether, by the armies of France. Even
the revolution in Geneva, is much less imputable to
French doctrines than to French power and French gold.
All these were found insufficient, during the jacobin reign,
to produce a subversion of established authority in the
feeble republics of Genoa and Venice. But surely the dan-
ger that was not then fatal to Venice or Genoa, can never
be formidable to the British empire.
Mr. Burke is apprehensive for the safety of the chris-
tian religion, because France, as he asserts, is governed
by fanatical atheists, who have made " atheism by esta-
blishment," one of the bases of the French republic.
Atheism cannot justly be said to be established by any
state, miless it is professed by its representative in some
solemn declaration. To neglect acknowledging the exist-
ence of God, is not to establish atheism. T e word esta-
feiishment implies some positive regulation. Far from ha-
ving made atheisai one of their establishments, the le^isia-
68
tors of tlje French republic have recognised the existence
and providence of the Supreme Bemg-, in their most
solemn act. The very first paragraph of the first and
most important chapter of their constitution, the declara-
tion of rig-hts and duties, is dedicated to this acknowledg-
ment. It is made in the following words : " The French
people proclaim, in the presence of the supreme being,
the following declaration of the rights and duties of man
and of a citizen." In addition to this solemn recognition
of the fundamental principle of religion, the same decla-
ration asserts, that ** no man is a good man if he is not
frankly and reUgiously an observer of the laws :" and what
is still more decisive, the 354th article of the constitution
provides that " no man can be hindered from exercising the
form of -worship that he has chosen, whilst he conforms to
the laws." Thus the French legislators have established
^vth^ismj by making a solemn acknowledgment of the ex-
istence and providence of the deity, the preliminary to
their constitutional law ; and by securing in the most irre-
vocable provision they had the power to make, the right
of every man to adore that Being, in whatever mode, and
with whatever ceremonies his conscience may approve. If
atheism is established in the French republic it is also es-
tablished in the commonwealth of America. No particu-
lar form of worship is maintained in either of those states
Jit the public expense.
Were atheism actually made one of the bases of the
French republic, we should justly regard her with horror,
and account the ignorance, ingratitude and mental abase-
ment of her legislators as degrading to human nature.
Their conduct would be too detestable to be contagious.
Of all vicious opinions, atheism contains the least infec-
tion. It holds out no temptations : it presents no object
69
for hope, the universal passion : it is a melancholy subter-
fug-e from fear. There are few who would not fiy for
refuge into the arms of the vilest and grossest superstition
rather than encounter the terrors of annihilatiton by em-
bracing the atheist's creed.
It is unfortunate for the credit of Mr. Burke that he ac-
cuses the revolutionists of crimes which are incompatible
with each other. He not only refuses to allow that they
possess any virtue, but he will not admit that they are free
from any vice. Those whom in one place he reproaches
with atheism^ with denying the existence of God, he ac-
cuses in another of being " rebels to Qodt' of perfectly
abhorring the author of their being, of hating him with
all their heart, with all their mind, with all their soul,
with all their strength; of having a delight, as they are
not able to revenge themselves on God, in vicariously de-
facing, degrading, torturing and tearing in pieces his image
in man. Such accusations are not only unworthy of the
enlightened philosop'her Edmund Burke, but they would
be too extravagant and disgusting to be made by John.
Bunyan or Rowland Hill,
It cannot be pleasing to the sincere Christian to hear
how Mr. Burke explains his apprehensions for the fate of
Christianity. " Example," says he, " is the school of man-
*' kind, and they will learn at no other. This war is . war
** against that example. It is not a war for Louis XVIIT.
" or even for the property, virtue, fidelity of France : It is
** a war for George HI. for Francis II. and for all the dig-
** nity, property, honom*, virtue and religion of England,
** of Germany and of all nations." Is then, the Christian
religion like all the superstitions that now exist among the
barbarous states, and those that were prevalent in the an^
f2
70 —
cient world, learnt only from example ; believed only be-
cause others believe, and publicly embraced only because
it is established ? Is it so feeble, and so entirely dependant
upon human circumstances, that it can be overthrown by
any example whatever ? If it were destitute of the divine
protection, its very nature, as an intellectual system, would
secure it from being- destroyed by force or by mere exam-
ple. It is a religien of opinions, doctrines, and precepts :
It teaches rights and duties ; it arrests and keeps posses-
sion of the mind by hope and terror : Its temples are the
heart and the understanding* : It therefore cannot be mor-
tally assaulted (admitting it to be a mere human system)
except with intellectual weapons. The religions of anti-
quity had no solid foundation in the mind : They were
therefore capable of being destroyed by force. When the
temples and priests of an heathen deity were destroyed,
the v/orship, consisting entirely of ceremonies, to the per-
formance of which temples and priests were requisite,
must soon have ceased, and the votaries have been com-
pelled to find another object of idolatry. It was on this
account that the ancient superstitions were so easily anci
so completely exterminated. But the religion of Christ
was never yet destroyed in any country where it had once
firmly taken root ; where it had ever been generally known,
and embraced as a system of opinions, and not as a system
of external rites. In spite of the sword, and oppressive
tribute ; of insolence, and contumely ; of imprisonments,
robberies, banishments, slavery and death ; in a word, in
apite of the whole force and the example of the Mahometan
governments of Asia, exerted during a long period with
fanatical fury and perseverance, for the destruction of this
religion, it is still, and during all that period, has been the
popular faith in most of the countries subject to the Maho-
metan sway ; and it would bave now been equally preva*
71
lent in China, Japan, and other eastern nations, if it had
been introduced among them in its true intellectual shape,
and not as a collection of ceremonies, which physical power
could always destroy. Can we reasonably apprehend that
the mere example of France will operate more powerfully
on the minds of bold and obstinate Eng-lishmen, than force
and example, fire and sword, tribute and ig-nominy, have
ever done upon the minds of the feeble, timid, and enslaved
Asiatics ?
If any formidable attack can be made against Christian-
ity, it must be made with argument, or with something
that resembles argument. During the last and the present
centuries, such attacks were often made, especially in
France, where thej'^ were more successful than in any other
part of Europe ; and where they were undoubtedly assist-
ed by the revolution. But in England and most of the other
countries of Christendom, the church is now militant in
the same posture in which she would have stood if the
French revolution had not happened. No one whose faith
deserves consideration and concern, or whose opinions can
have an extensive influence over other men's minds, will
form his judgment concerning any religion from what may
happen in France, or in any other country, but from its
merit as a moral system, and from the evidence on which
it founds its claim to a divine original.
The property of this country has as little to dread as her
religion, from the infection of French principles, or the
influence of French example. Many and unjust confisca-
tions were made within our view, before the sera of the
French revolutioi,i, without disturbing among us the rights
of property. I should not indeed apprehend any danger
to property in thig coimtry, if the jacobin confiscations still
72
centlnued, and if daily robberies and murders were now
perpetrated in France, as they were during Kobespierre's
tjTanny. I trust we shoidd view them with the deepest
abhorrence, and that in place of exciting us to similar guilt,
they would render us more zealous in the protection of
property and life.
Robbery and murder have not much more power of fas-
cinating the mass of mankind, than atheism. Many, in-
deed, may wish, although few will have the shameless au-
dacity to declare, that they are willing to im-itate the suc-
cessful plunderer. But no extensive robbery, such as Mr.
Burke apprehends, can ever be committed without a very
extensive combination, and a full declaration and confes-
sion of the views of the combining parties. I am persua-
ded it would not be possible to find within this kingdom,
granting liberal permission to canvass, such a number of
men as would be sufficient to destroy the rights of proper-
ty, who would also be inclined to do so, and barefaced
enough to avow their guilty inclination. I have a better
opinion of the people of England than Mr. Burke. I do
not believe they are so prone to plundering, that they only
want the revival of jacobinism in France to make them be-
gin their depredations..
Property seems perfectly secure in England, because a
great majority of the people are interested in its preserva-
tion. There is hardly an Englishman, possessed of a cot-
tage and an acre of land, who does not know that he wo\ild
be in danger of losing both if his wealthy neighbour could
be plundered with impunity.
Whatever may be the operation of foreign example upon
Great-Britain, and whatever example, unfavourable to the
73
rights of property, France may have hitherto given, she
does not now, and probably will not in future, afford any
further encouragement to unlawful confiscation. Her ru-
lers having acquired for themselves and the state so much
of the wealth of the proscribed orders, will naturally en-
deavour to render it secure. But it can possess no secu-
rity except what it enjoys in common with all other pro-
perty. If confiscations were still encouraged or permitted,
it would be impossible to restrain the depredations of the
confiscators to particular portions of property. The con-
fiscators of France, and those who claim under their acts,
should be uncommonly strict in securing to every man hig
just possessions, to compensate in some measure for the
doubtfulness of their own title. On Mr. Burke's supposi-
tion that all their confiscations have been acts of robberv,
they must consider that they are liable to have their own
example turned against themselves ; they must therefore
be careful that no future robbery, however minute, may
be unpunished ; and they must oppose with rigorous se-
verity every attempt to establish any new system of plun-
dering on a large scale. He would be a highwayman of
wretched intellects who, having acquired a handsome for-
tune by his exertions on the road, should suffer his zeal
for his profession so far to get the better of his prudence,
as to make him encourage the depredations of all other ad-
venturers. If he were not miserably ignorant of his own
interest, he would wish that no more robberies should ever
be committed in the world ; he would advise in opposition
to the jacobin doctrine that all titles to property should be
maintained, without looking too minutely or too far back
into their origin ; and he would admire above all things
the anti-revolutionary principle of our statute ©f limita-
ti©ns.
74
whatever the causes may" be, the fact is, that since the
death of Robespierre few confiscations have been made in
France, except what were made most jnstly of the proper-
ty of many of his accomplices. Judicial robbery, like ju-
dicial murder, can never long be an established system in
a country where the voice of the people is heard. In
France indeed it formed the chief part of Robespierre's
system during many months. But as every one living be-
gan to think himself interested in the cessation of judicial
murder, so every one that possessed any property, and
chiefly all those who possessed the confiscated lands, began
to wish that no more judicial robberies should be com-
mitted. Opposition to the general will was vain, and the
cause of justice and humanity was triumphant.
The apprehension that the establishment of the French
republic, will endanger the safety of out country, seems
wholly mifounded. The form of the new French consti-
tution, and the leading principles on which it is establish-
ed, have a resemblance to the form and the leading princi-
ples of the constitution of Great-Britain.
In some instances the restrictions of the right of suf-
frage, both in respect to age and property, are more nu-
merous and more severe in the former, than in ours. No
French citizen iias the rig'ht of voting for a member of
eii ]ier of the legislative councils, unless he is 25 years of
age, and is in possession of a property equivalent in some
districts to 71 and in others to 14L sterling per annum.
The legislative authority is vested in two councils, or
houses, according to our plirase. Citizens under the age
of 40 years are excluded from the council of ancients, and
aftsr the seventh year of the republic, no person under the
75
Age of 30 years will be eligible to be a member of the
council of five hundred.
The French constitution does not indeed, like ours, re-
quire the election of opulent legislators : But it is not likely
that the electors, who must themselves have property, will
clioose for representatives men who have none ; that they
will vest legislative power with those whose necessities
might tempt them to make too free with the purses of their
constituents. I think it may be fairly presumed that these
qualifications, if fairly allowed to operate, will give to
the future government of the French republic, a charac-
ter incompatible with a disposition to encourage wild and
wicked revolutionary projects.
The executive authority of that commonwealth is now
given to a council of five persons, who are vested with
high powers and cloathed with little less than regal splen-
dour. This council, called the Executive Directory, su-
perintends the execution of the laws, the receipt and ex-
penditure of the public money, and the ministry of all the
municipal bodies : It disposes of the armed force by sea
and land, receives ambassadors, negotiates treaties, pro-
poses peace and v/ar, appoints and dismisses at pleasure
all the ministers, generals, and a great number of the
otlier public functionaries : It has its g-uards, its messen-
gers audits ushers, — [Their dress would in some countries
entitle them to be called gentleman ushers.'] Its members
are lodged in splendid palaces, arrayed in robes of state,
addressed in respectful language, and received with the
highest military honours. Its relation to the legislative as-
semblies is similar to that which exists in practice between
his majesty and both houses of parliament. If the direc-
tory have no legislative voice, his majesty never exerts
the legislative authority bestowed upon him by our constitu'
tion, but in sanctioning the decrees of our two legislative
assemblies. The directory have not the full power of de-
claring war. It cannot be declared but by a decree of the
legislative body on the formal proposition of the direc-
tors.* With us the same forms are observed ; for although
the royal prerogative authorises his majesty to declare war
in the first instance, he always sends a message to both
houses of parliament, whenever war is deemed necessary,
and without their approbation he never engages the coun-
try in any contest whatever. Treaties made by the execu-
tive directory with foreign powers are not valid until they
are ratified by the legislature. His majesty can indeed
by virtue of his prerogative make binding treaties, but
these are seldom concluded without the approbation of
parliament. Li some circumstances, apparently of no great
importance, our political modes are exactly copied by the
republican legislators. They have constructed the very
g'alleries of their assemblies in conformity with ours. AVhat
the speakers of our houses of parliament observe as to the
admission of auditors into those assemblies has been
adopted in France, and secured with the force and so-
lemnity of a constitutional article .f
I confess, that as far as I could allow myself to judge,
I was pleased at its establishment. Far from considering
it as a jacobin structure, I regarded it as a fabric built up-
* Article 526 of the netu Fre^ich constitution.
f Article 64 provides that the sittings of both councils shall
be public ; but that the persons -who attend cannot exceed the
number of one half of the members of each council.
77
on the tomb of jacobinism, and hoped that it would forever
prevent the resurrection of that abominable system. The
division and accurate discrimination of all the great pow-
ers of government ; the independency of the tribunals ;
the two legislative assemblies ; the strength of the execu-
tive authority ; the severe qualifications of age ; all these
provisions seemed to me peculiarly suitable for the French,
nation ; to curb its flights, to correct its levity ; to mode-
rate the violence of its head-strong passions ; to restrain
its rash precipitation ; to protect unpopular minorities
from the rage of the multitude ; in short, to prevent for
ever the revival of those wild, extravagant, monstrous and
despotic measures which were pursued by the convention,
and which were, in my opinion, not more ruinous to France,
than terrible to Great-Britain.
Some circumstances, it must be observed, have rendered
tlie provisions of tliis constitution much less efficacious
than they will probably be after the lapse of a few years.
The qualification of 30 years of age, will not be required
in the members of the council of five hundred before the
year 1799. This circumstance can have but little influ-
ence, compared with that of the memorable decree for the
re-election of two-thirds of the convention into the legisla-
tive assemblies. Few will hesitate to admit, that the pre-
dominance of the conventional members in the composi-
tion of the new government, is unfavourable to its moral
character, and that it will probably have a stronger claim
to our esteem, when the good sense or indignation of the
people shall have expelled every September assassin, and
every accomplice in the crimes of Robespierre.
Notwithstanding that extraordinary decree, the new con-
stitution, aided by other causes, has greatly changed the
spirit and character of the French government. The
courts of justice are independent, and France is not deso-
lated by those murdering* gangs, the revolutionary tribu-
nals : No proconsular tyrants scourge the departments :
No system of robbery is established, or proposed ; nor is
there aiiy more encouragement given to revolt, ih the
countries that are at peace with her, than in her own do-
minions : No decrees of con-fraternity are made by her
legislators : No orator of the hiiman race, is permitted to
propose, that every altar, and every throne be levelled with
the dust, and that every country in the world be annexed
as a department of the French republic. Her present ru-
lers have established their power on the overthrow of a
faction, which, notwithstanding its defeat, still meditates
insurrection, and aspires to empire ; and they know that
they cannot excite universal revolt abroad, without encou-
raging rebellion at home. They are therefore, as adverse
to high revolutionary principles as any statesmen in Eu-
rope : They seem to encourage them only, where the en-
couragement facilitates their military operations, employ-
ing their politics merely as an instrument of hostility. We
cannot reproach an open enemy with availing himself of a
formidable weapon. Who would not account that govern-
ment most stupid, who would spurn the proffered alliance
of enthusiasm, and create enmity to their caus^, and oppo-
sition to their measures, when they might secure zealous
friendship, and powerful co-operation? Itwouldbe as absurd
to censure the French generals for countenancing the re-
publicans of Flanders and Holland, as to blame our com-
manders for assisting the royalists in Martinique and St. Do-
mingo. France does not now, as Mr. Burke continually re-
presents, exert her power to extend her principles ; but she
avails herself of her principles to aggrandise her power.
She has long been extremely cautious of establisliing them
(much more eautious than could have been expected from
her former zeal,) except where they favour her hostile pro-
jects. Her dh-ectors appear to have been very dilatory and
reluctant in changing the political system of Lombardy.
Their journals avow the motives of their conduct. They are^
sensible of the energy of freedom, and they apprehend, that
the establishment of a popular republic in the heart of Italy,
might render that country one of their most formidable
enemies. They are not merely indifferent, they are hostile
to the extension of repubhcan principles beyond their own.
territory.
In Belgium and the other conquered countries which they
Intended to form into departments, and unite to France,
they naturally established her political system. They
would have acted most absurdly if they had suffered any
of tlieir provinces to have retained a form of government
entirely different from that of their empire. In Holland,
indeed, which they have not modelled into a department,
they have effected a revolution by co-operating with the
democratic party. But that party was favourable to French
politics ever since we espoused the cause of the stadthol-
der, and would probably have been assisted by France if
she had atchieved the conquest of Holland under the aus-
pices of Louis the Sixteenth. The enemy could never have
drawn from Holland the advantages which that country
has actually afforded to him since he subdued it, unless he
had countenanced some one of its principal parties. The
democrats, it was said, were the strongest. They were
certainly the party most friendly to the conqueror, who,
desirous of making the most of his acquisition, fraternised
with them, aided them in establishing their favourite sys-
tem, and permitted them to regulate their own affairs as
80
they pleased, on condition of co-operating with him in all
the enterprises of his ambition.
But what puts out of all doubt that the French arenolong-
erpossessed with the spirit of propagating democracy, is
their conduct in the last campaign, whilst they were in pos-
session of a portion of Germany, containing the territories of
many absolute princes. If they had been revolutionary zea-
lots they would have then endeavoured to establish their
principles in those places ; but it is notorious they did not at-
tempt to excite any revolution in any one of them ; that
they did not dethrone any prince, untitle any nobleman, or
unbenefice any minister of religion. They do not now,
like Mahomet, make their invasions, the sword in one hand
and their creed in the other, except where their creed will
procure them some solid advantages. Experience has
taught them that the sword by itself is often more formi-
dable. Solely intent upon national aggrandizement, they
find a fitter employment for their armies than in enforcing
their doctrines on the mountains of Germany. They an-
noy their enemy in the regular, approved, old-fashioned
method ; by demolishing his fortresses ; by seizing on so
much of his territories as they can conveniently hold ; by
lev3dng contributions on his subjects ; by forcing from him
commercial immunities and privileges. They contend for
wealth and dominion exactly in the style of Francis First :
They are willing, when it may favour their all grasping
ambition, to countenance and assist persons of every sect in
politics and theology ; whether desirous of noble or popu-
lar rule ; whether attached to monarchy or despotism ;
whether deists or atheists ; baptised or infidel : They have
indeed given equal proofs of their attachment to the grand
signior, the king of Prussia, the lords of Piedmont, and the
people of Lombardy •■, to the papists of Milan, the Jqws
81
of Amsterdam, and the Mahometans of €onstantmople.
These are facts of notoriety, which prove that Mr. Burke's
statement of the nature of the war is fundamentally erro-
neous. It cannot be considered in any respect as a '* civil
war ;" or a war against an " armed doctrine," or a nation
of propagandists. We contend with a nation of enterpri-
sing- warriors. Our enemy is strictly ** local and territo-
rial." His strength consists in his extensive territories,
his impregnable fortresses, his victorious armies, and in his
abundant material resources, rendered formidable by his
activity, and dangerous by his insatiable thirst of dominion.
We have to repress the rulers of France, as a government,
endeavouring to extend their mighty empire ; not to ex-
terminate them as a sect of fanatical atheists jfcttempting to
barbarise the world.
From Mr. Burke*s representation it would appear tiiat
Prance had been conquered, and was now governed by g,
tribe of atheistical vagabonds. But the truth is, that she is
governed by her own citizens exclusively ; and so jealous is.
she of any other than national rule, that her constitution ex-
cludes from the humblest political privileges, all foreigners
who have not lived within her territory a sufficient time to
justify the presumption that they have formed towards her
a national attachment. Her ambition is of the old kind, rest-
less indeed as ever, but strictly national ; and it must be
guarded against and repressed as in former times. When this
is effected, as far as circumstances require and will permit,
peace may be made with her as safely as with any other
powerful, ambitious, and enterprising- state. The opinion
that we should war with the ' existence' and not the conduct
of the French republic would be as dreadful and destruc-
tive to be adopted and acted upon, as it is in just theory
destitute of all foundation.
g2
82
To show that her rulers aim at the destruction of every
government in Europe, Mr Burke observes that " they
** have hitherto constantly declined any other than a treaty
** with a single power," and that " they must be worse
** than blind, who do not see with what undeviating regu-
^' larity of system, in this case, and in all cases, they pur-
** sue their scheme for the utter destruction of every in-
** dependent power, especially the smaller, who cannot
" find any refuge whatever but in some common cause."
The directory declared, in their answer* to lord Malms-
fcury's memorial, that they did not decline treating,
with Great-Britain and her allies, conjointly. That they
have hitherto preferred treating with their enemies singly,
is no proof that they pursue a scheme for their utter de-
struction. Their policy in this respect was so obvious,
that they would have been extremely stupid if they had
preferred any other. It is the stratagem by which a great
confederacy is most likely to be broken and confounded ;
and the adoption of it by France, proves no more, than that
she w*as desirous of getting rid of her enemies in the best
and speediest manner. A confederacy of three nations is
now formed against us. Suppose an ambassador was sent
by the king of Spain, to treat for peace with Great-Britain ;
would your lordship recommend his majesty to decline
treating, until an ambassador should come from the French
republic ? Would you not eagerly seize the opportunity
of detaching an ally from the great enemy ? If you had
good reason to believe that a separate peace could now be
made with Spain, on as favourable terms as France obtain-
* This anstoer did 7iQt appear until after the publication 6f
Mr. £%irke's letters.
s:
ed from several of the combined powers, would you not
advise every just measure to expedite such a fortunate
event ? Would you not defer, if not absolutely decline
treating" with our enemies conjointly, if you could treat
with them separately, on more honorable and more advan-
tag-eous conditions ? What would you think of the repub-
licans, if they made this conduct a subject of invective,
and adduced it as a proof, that his majesty was pursuing
a scheme for the utter destruction of every independent
power ? Would you not deem their accusation unfounded
and ridiculous ; and compare the authors of them to
children, who, in their little battles, complain that their
antag-onists strike too hard ? It would be as just, becom-
ing" and mag"nanimous in the enemy to inveigh against us
for the victories of our fleets and armies, as for the suc-
cess of our negotiations.
Mr. Burke considers the change which France has made
in her laws, manners, morals and usages, as further evi-
dence of her determined hostility to all mankind.
Few points can be established by better evidence than
that France bears no resemblance at this time to the hor-
rible nation he has described under her name. We know
that the majority of her people are employed, either in
the useful labours of agriculture, or the more arduous
and more honorable duty of defending their country ; that
of the remainder, some are occupied in the important
tasks of legislating and of administering laws ; others
in high pursuits of science ; some in the cultivation of the
elegant arts ; others in the acquisition of wealth ; others
in quest of the bright phantom, glory ; all actuated proba.-
bly, by the same sort of motives, good and bad, fair,
corrupt and compounded, that urged the inhabitants jof
84
this island in their various pursuits. Is it possible that
they are cannibals, savag-es and obscure ruffians, who
have been more careful than any government in the world,
in providing- institutions for useful, learned and refined edu-
cation ? Is it possible that those works of genius, judg-
ment and erudition that come to us almost daily from
France, and excite our warmest admiration, are executed
by debauched banditti, assassins, bravos and smugglers ?
Does the history of the whole world exhibit a single in-
stance of a debauched and depraved nation, possessing
such a proud spirit of rationality as now animates the
French people ? No : their enthusiastic devotion to their
country, in all the vicissitudes of her fortune, is utterly
incompatible v. ith the abominable vices of which they are
accused by Mr. Burke. These would suffer no passion^
but the vile and selfish, to exist in their minds. Some of
their very faults ; their haughtiness and arrogance towards
foreign powers ; \heir self-sufiiciency and mireasonable
pride .; their perseverance in pursuit of vrhatever they un-
dertake, just or unjust ; their insolent and imbounded ambi-
tion, will rescue them from the imputation of gross and
savage wickedness, and demonstrate that they are not
simk in brutish depravity.
Let none imagine from what I now say, that I am dispo-
sed to be the advocate of the French government, or the
undistinguished panegyrist of the French nation. I wish
to represent it, as an enterprising and formidable enemy
whom we should oppose, if we must still oppose, no
otlierwise than by fair hostility ; and whose friendship we
may accept of with honour whenever we can cultivate it
-with safety ; not as an assemblage of vile and fanatical
barbarians, who are hostile to the whole human race, and
whom we should therefore pursue to destruction, I wish.
85
to refute the calumnies that are only calculated t« prolowg'
this war, and to render it more bitter while it lasts. I
wish to show that a treaty of peace and alliance (which
Heaven accelerate) may be made by us with the French
republic, without being- disgraceful to the reputation, or
injurious to the interests of Great-Britain.
Sooner or later peace must be made, but peace between
such proud, martial and high-spirited nations can ne-
ver be of long duration, whilst either of them is exas-
perated against the other ; it is therefore the duty of eve-
ry good citizen to prevent, as far as he is able, the irri-
tation and exasperation against France, which Mr. Burke's
unjust invectives are likely to produce.
Continuing this style of rancour, he asserts, that the
French legislators ** have omitted no pains to eradicate
" every benevolent and noble propensity in the mind of
" man," and that " their law of divorce, like all their laws,
" had not for its object the relief of domestic uneasiness,
" but the total corruption of all morals, the total discon-
" nection of social life.'*
On the very face of this statement it must (I hope) be a
misrepresentation. I cannot believe there ever existed a
body of men who undertook, with cool and steady design,
to effect the total corruption of all morals. The rulers of
France could have had no interested motive for attempting
such atrocious and stupid wickedness. History does not
exhibit any race of men, nor has any writer of correct ima-
gination ever fabled a class of beings, cooly and steadily
wicked without selfish inducements, or perpetrating mis-
chief only for the delight of contemplating misery. Our
great poet will not suffer even those spirits, whom he re-
86
presents as the source and perfection of every thing guil-
ty and abominable, to pursue their projects without the
impulse of a powerful motive. If the French legislators
meditated, as Mr. Burke asserts, the subjugation of the
world of Europe ta their laws, manners and opinions,
they must have lost their senses if they would intention-
ally encourage corruption of morals. The execution of
that daring design would require the aid of every stern
and rigid virtue ; of courage unappalled by any danger ;
of patience in difficulties and hardships ; of devoted zeal ;
of perseverance against reverses of fortune ; of prompt
and blind obedience. It would have demanded the sacri-
fice of every private feeling and every selfish regard to
the public ambition. Would the practice of these virtues
be promoted by an universal dissoluteness, and the total
corruption of all morals I
Dissoluteness and corruption of morals, when spread
over a nation, will inevitably give it a voluptuous, feeble,
and effeminate character. If France has formed a scheme
©f universal conquest, a law that would produce dissolute
and licentious manners in a considerable degree among- all
her citizens, v/ould be more beneficial to mankind, and
more ruinous to her guilty ambition, than the annihilation
of half her armies, and the capture of all her frontier for-
tresses. No dissolute people have ever yet subverted the
liberties of any portion of the world. If the history of every
age and nation can be depended upon ; if Lycurgus, and
the fathers of ancient Rome are of any authoiity ; if Bacon,
More, Harrington, Montesquieu, Hume, and the whole
race of speculative jurists and political philosophers are
not completely mistaken, the legislators of an aspiring,
martial republic, should not only discourage, but should
jnost rigorously repress licentious manners. They destroy
87
all the virtues, and even the vices, that enable such a state
to accomplish its ends. They render a people unable to
1>ear the fatigues of military duty, loth to encounter dan-
gers, unwilling to sacrifice, or even forego their ease and
pleasures on any account, and careless, except as they
are personally interested, of their country's glory or dis*
grace, her aggradizement or her ruin. Nor are they fa-
vourable to those shocking and unnatural exertions of pa-
triotism, which have sometimes filled a whole people with
a frantic fury, that has rendered them invincible and irre-
sistible. Dissoluteness, with all its evil, is not universally
corrupting. Although it always diminishes public spirit,
it does not always extinguish the natural affections.
I do not mean to deny that the opposite vices of unna-
tural severity and extreme dissoluteness may exist in the
same nation, or that the same city may contain a Brutus
and a Messalina. Bat I insist, that the legislators, who
wish to avail themselves of the austere fortitude of the one,
are mad if they encourage the depravity of the other ; for
that vice, if become general, would not only prevent any
prodigies of patriotism, but would soon destroy all rational
attachment to the common welfare.
Since the downfall of jacobinism, we do not hear of any
of those horrible exertions of public or party spirit that
were at one time so much applauded in France. By some
persons these patriotic enormities are called virtues, and
they are generally characterised by an epithet taken, with
great propriety indeed, from the name of that nation that
robbed and enslaved as much as she could find of the
world. I confess I feel abhorrence, not admiration, at those
conquests of nationality over nature. I detest all laws, in-
stitutions and opinions, that require the man to be sacri-
88
ficed to the state, and private virtues to public ambition.
When such sacrifices are demanded and applauded, the
foundations of moral philosophy are rudely and dangerous-
ly shaken. The sense of right and wrong must be obse-
quious to political circumstances. Public opinion, the
strongest sanction of moral law, will be depraved, and will
afford all its authority to recommend as examples, those
excesses and crimes which are committed, or may be pre-
tended to be committed, in the fury of an ungovernable pa-
triotism.
Country is a moral being of our own creation, which we
support for our own advantage. It can neither destroy
nor supercede the rights of those beings to whom the so-
vereign legislator of the universe, providing for our wel-
j'are by means, certainly much wiser and fitter than any
that we can devise, has drawn us by stronger attachment,
and bound us by a prior obligation. The factitious rights
and duties cannot take place of the natural. Our country
cannot require of us to forget our instinctive affections ; to
violate any duty, or perpetrate any crime. If in some cir-
cumstances she may require the violation of any one duty^
or the perpetration of any one crime, she may in others re-
quire the violation of any other duty, or the perpetration
of any other crime ; and therefore she may command us to
violate all our duties, and to perpetrate all sorts of crimes.
If she can justly require you to murder your son, she
may, by a less rigorous exaction, command you to betray
your friend, to rob your benefactor, to violate your oath ;
and indeed all those crimes, when supposed to have been
perpetrated from revolutionary motives, were applauded in
France during the flagitious reign of the jacobin usurpers.
But this moral being, country, exists only for the general
good, which is its laws, and which sets limits to its claims.
a9
it cannot therefore require what would be so utterly siib-
versive of that end, as the violation of the duties of nature
and the laws of universal morality,
A blind, unlimited, and exclusive devotion to cause and
country, has occasioned some of the greatest calamities
that have ever afflicted the human race. It was a vicious
enthusiasm that enabled the Roman robbers to pillage the?
earth, and a few wretched and ignorant fanatics of the de-
sart to barbarise almost all the nations of Asia, and one of
the finest and most celebrated portions of Europe. A fu*
rious zeal has often made the mildest of all theological sys-
tems, the christian religion, appear the most detestable ;
and has transformed that dispensation of mercy into a
cruel scourge. Liberty, the greatest of temporal bles-
sings, when cherished and supported by a rational affec*
tion, has been made, by the fiery enthusiasm of its advo-
cates, to produce as much misery as the most savage des-
potism. It was this frantic principle that gave success for
a time to the jacobins, and had almost enabled them to
plant their associated gangs, more abominable than that
murderous junto which Sparta imposed upon the vanquish-
ed Athenians, in the midst of the finest countries on the
conthient of Europe. Happily for the quiet and freedom of
the world, this ferocious spirit has expired in France
along with the system that gave it birth. Her people are
still animated in her cause by a generous zeal : a passion
as remote from the terrible jacobin madness, as inconsis-
tent with a corrupt and depraved national character.
Daring the whole discussion on the law of divorce, th^
object of which, according to Mr. Burke, was the total
corruption of all morals, I happened to be in Paris, and
to be acquvainted with some of the iliembers of the nation-
H
90
al assembly, who were active in support of that measure.
I am firmly persuaded that they had no such object in view.
They acted in this instance as in many others, without
sufficient caution or consideration. The law of divorce
was adopted in the delirium of liberty.* An indissoluble
engagement of any kind appeared to the democratic en-
thusiasts destructive of freedom. They expatiated on the
dissoluteness and domestic misery that prevailed through-
out France, occasioned, as they asserted, by the abuse
of the ancient paternal power, and by the licentious man-
ners that had grown up under the ancient system. The
object of the law of divorce was not to corrupt morals.
* JMr. Burke (" through inadvertency I presume^ has sta-
ted the law of divorce inaccurately. He says in page 102,
*' proceeding inthe spirit of the first axithorsof their constitU'
•* tiojif succeeding assemblies ivent the full length of the princi'
'^ pie, and gave a license to divorce at the mere pleasure ofei-
" ther party, and at a mo7ith's notice.^' The laiv of divorce
passed by the J\*ational Assembly in September, 1792, provi-
ded, that -when either party demanded to be divorced without
the consent of the other, and assigned no other cause for the
demand than incompatibility of tempers and dispositions, the
person mahing the demand shoidd signify it to a municipal of-
ficer, tvho ivas directed to cause the relations of both parties
to meet at the expiration of three months. If they could not
then reconcile them, they -were to hold a second meeting, for
the same friendly purpose, at the expiration of three months
from the time of the first meeting ; and if this second attempt
m reconciliation failed, the divorce, if insisted upon, ivas al-
loioed -without further delay. A divorce at the pleasure of ei-
ther party -was therefore not pertnitted without at least six
^nonths notiee.-^See La Loi de Divorce.
91
but to relieve the domestic inquietudes that corrupt mo-
rals had produced ; but although its purpose was good,
its operation was certainly most pernicious. It did not
sufficiently restrain capricious separations, nor sufficiently
protect those who stand most in need of protection. It
abandoned the most feeble and most amiable of our spe-
cies to the mercy of those who, if they ever have the de-
testable inclination, will alwaj-s have the power to injiu-e
them. The ardour of the authors of this law prevented
them from foreseeing the consequences. In their estima-
tion, nothing was of account when set in opposition to
boundless liberty. But Mr. Burke will attribute nothing
of the conduct of the revolutionists, no, not a single act or
endeavour, to mistaken zeal ; nothing to wild, extrava-
gant enthusiasm ; nothing even to ignorance, stupidity or
folly, or to any other cause that might in any degree ex-
tenuate their errors. He finds the source of every one of
their measures in wicked cunning ; in cold, designing
villainy ; in determined hostility to the human race ; in
persecuting atheism; in systems of pure, unchequered
guilt ; in the radical depravity, and the inherent, invete-
rate, incurable corruption of their nature.
Speaking of the new lav/s, usages and manners of France,
he has these observations : " The whole body of this new
** system of manners in support of the new scheme of poli-
** tics, I consider as a strong and decisive proof of deter-
" mined ambition, and systematic hostility. I defy the
^* most refining ingenuity to invent any other cause for the
" total departure of the jacobin republic, from every one
** of the ideas and usages, religious, legal, moral or social,
" of the civilized world, and for tearing herself from its
** communion, with such studied violence, but from a
" formed resolution of keeping no terms with that world,"
92
No refining ingenuity is requisite to show, that the ne^'
system of government of France, demanded a correspond"
ing system of laws, usages and manners, and that she
could not effectually establish the one without the aid of
the other. Having abolished the feudal regimen, with all
the immunities and distinctions of the privileged orders,
and lastly, the monarchy itself, she acted only with com-
mon sense in abolishing all the Gothic usages ; all the
adopted titles of the Roman code, that related to monar-
chical government, and all the laws, customs, and manners
that had any connexion with the feudal system, with the
privileges of the orders, or with the poAver, influence, and
splendor of the throne. A revolution in the system of go-
vernment can never be complete, unless laws, usages, and
manners above all, are made congenial with the new order
of things. If the old laws and manners remain, they will
perpetually recall the old system of government to remem..
brance ; they will make its loss regretted, and in the course
of time, or at any favourable opportunity, they may occa-
sion its restoration. I doubt whether the laws of landed
property, that spring from the feudal institutions, and the
manners that prevailed in France during her ancient regi-
men, could exist in a democratic republic. If they could
exist in it for any time, they would be at perpetual variance
with the spirit of the government. It would sit heavily
and aukwardly upon them. It would keep them in conti-
nual fear, and subject them to unceasing vexation. — They
would always sigh for the return of that government, that
instead of threatening, insulting, and despising, would fos-
ter and protect them. How came it, that at the restoration
of our Charles II. the republican gavernment expired in
England without a struggle or a groan ? Because the old
laws, usages, and manners had been left almost untouched.
Every thing was congenial with the old Gonstitution. The
93
country was conquered by the fanatics, as by a band of
Mamelukes, but not revolutionised. She thought and felt
monarchically. Republicanism was violence during this
time. The restoration of the old constitution was the re-
storation of the natural order of things, and it was accom-
plished with a facility that appears incredible to those, who
do not sufficiently consider the powerful influence of cus-
toms and manners. The people naturally exulted at the
restoration of the system, from which their prejudices and
affections had never been drawn away by any revolutionary
artifices. Much as its re-establishment was facilitated by
the opmion of its own merit, it was greatly indebted to the
ignorance and stupidity of its fanatical enemies. They
had no management. Although complete masters of the
country for eleven years, those barbarous usurpers could
make no impression upon it, except what was ruinous to
themselves, their government, and theu' execrable reli-
gion.
Far different has been the conduct of the revolutionists
of France. They have suffered nothing to remain that
could militate against the genius of theu* institutions. La
Vendee was the only part of France impervious to theiie
operations, and its long and zealous attachment to the an-
cient system may be attributed, in a considerable degree,
to the little change that was effected in it by the revolu-
tionary measures. All these circumstances should be well
weighed by those whom the restoration of Charles II.
still encourages to expect the re-establishment of the
throne of Bourbon. — From what has been stated, we can
account satisfactorily for the change which the French re-
public has made in her laws, customs, usages, and man-
ners, without supposing with Mr. Burke, that she had
formed " a resolution of keeping no terms with the
H 2
94
world," or that slie had any other motive in this ifistance^
than a strong- desire of firmly establishing-, and perpetua-
ting her own system of government within her own domi-
nions. The change in her laws has not indeed, been quite
so great as Mr. Burke represents. Most of the articles of
the Roman law, not interfering with the republican system,
that were formerly adopted by France, are still found in
her code, and are meant to be preserved, if Cambaceres
has spoken the sense of her legislature.
But if the change in her laws, manners and usages had
been as great as possible, it need not prevent an eternal
peace between her and every country in Europe. We
have long been at peace with nations which differ from
ours in almost every thing in which it is possible for a dif-
ference between nations to exist ; in government, religion,
laws, customs, manners, prejudices and opinions ; with
the Ottoman empire ; with the piratical communities of
Barbary ; with Poland and Russia. The good understand-
ing that we have maintained with those states cannot be
attributed to their distance from us, since otir navy v.'ould
speedily bring them all within the reach of our power.
Our wars have been almost always with the countries whose
governments and manners most nearly resembled our own.
" Resemblances, conformities, and sympathies," do indeed
lead us to associate ; but they very often occasion us to
quarrel. Thej^ make us pursue the same objects : they
therefore create rivalship. " Nothing," says Mr. Burke,
" is so strong a tie of amity between nation and nation, as
correspondence in laws, customs, manners, and habits of
life." Yet such a correspondence between the common-
wealths of Greece formerly, and between many of the na-
tions of Europe in modern times, by giving them the same
viewS) the same wants, the same ambition, produced per-
95
petuai rivaiships, jealousies, animosities and contcntioits
between them. States which are candidates for the same
sort of power, wealth and renown, must frequently clash
in their pursuits, and the discordance will g-enerally kindle
irritation enough for a quarrel. France and England have
long" soug-ht to acquire dominion and influence in the world
by tlie same means, and they have found in almost every
object of their ambition, a source of war.
Those resemblances between nations have often made
their wars more rancorous, as well as more frequent. The
most trivial disagreements have caused the most spiteful
and sanguinary conflicts. Mr. Bvirke observes with satis-
faction, that " the nations of Europe have had the very
^^ same christian religion, agreeing in the fundamental
*^' parts, varying a little in the ceremonies and in the subor-
" dinate doctrines." Yet these ceremonies and subordinate
doctrines ; the fashion of a liood ; the placing of a table ;
the decorations of a church ; have produced amongst
christians, maligTiant and bloody wars.
If, at the commencement of the reign of Louis XIV.
France had become dissimilar to this country in every re-
spect, by being suddenly converted to the Mahometan re-
ligion, and to Mahometan politics, opinions and habits of
life, such as they are at this time, we might not have had
one contest with her ever since. She would not have given
herself the least concern whether w^e were Papists, Lu-
tiierans or Calvanists ; whether our king was a Tudor, a
Stuart, or of the line of Brunswick ; whether the high
church or the low church, the whig or the tory preponde-
rated in our legislature. She would have viewed with in-
diiference and composure our rising colonies in America ;
our conquests in the East and Vv'est-Indies ; our commer-
96
cial monopolies ; and we should have contemplated her af-
fairs without any emotion except what might arise from our
curiosity ; little anxious about the proceedings of the di-
van or the intrigues of the seraglio ; little concerned whe-
ther the sect of Ali, or the sect of Omar was triumphant.
It is difficult to suppose any cause of hostility with France
in this situation ; so that, in truth, a total dissimilitude in
laws, customs and manners, instead of being a cause for
implacable enmity, may be a strong preservative betv/een
nations of perpetual peace.
I have hitherto maintained little more than that peace
might be made honorably, if it could be made safely. On
the advantages of peace it is unnecessary to expatiate. —
The topic, although so fertile, has been nearly exhausted.
There is, however, one among those advantages that has
not been considered with the attention it merits : I mean
the influence that peace would have upon France ; in
soothing her sufferings ; in mollifying her stern charac-
ter ; in lov/ering her high military spirit ; in destroying
what may yet remain of the revolutionary enthusiasm ;
in a word, in directing all her valour, enterprise, perse-
verance, activity and energy to other purposes than con-
quest or destruction. She might soon be distinguished
for refinement, and blessed with prosperity. I shall be
told, perhaps, that she would then become a formidable
commercial rival to Great -Britain. Be it so. She will be
a much less dangerous rival to us as a commercial than as
a warlike republic. It is vain to deny it : great commer-
cial prosperity tends not only to mollify and refine, but to
enfeeble the national character. A nation of rich mer-
chants and manufacturers is a far less formidable foe, thaa
a commonwealth of fierce and hungry warriors.
^7
If I were perfectly neutral in this great «ont«st, I slioulcl
wish sincerely fpr the peaceful happiness of the people of
Prance. But as one of their enemies, I wish for it most
ardently. What would be our situation if we had suc-
ceeded in reducing" France to famine and wretchedness,
and had deprived her of ail hope of improving her condi-
tion, except by plunder ? The exuberance of her popula-
tion, urged by political passions only, carried terror and
dismay throughout all Europe. What then would she
not achieve if, impelled by the necessity of preserving
life and thirst of vengeance, as well as by enthusiasm,
her whole race of warriors were to gush forth on all sides,
uniting Vandal fury with Roman perseverance and know-
ledge seldom equalled in the science of war ? I confess,
I sincerely desire that France may soon become rich enough
to have more to fear than to hspe from hostile depreda-
tions, and that she may derive so much prosperity from
the re-establishment of peace, as to make her desirous of
its eternal preservation.
It is evident that a general peace would have upon her
that benign influence, which I delight to predict. The
partial treaties which she has already made, have pro*
duced it in so great a degree, as to have divested her of
the savage ferocity that marked her character, while she
was assailed by all the confederate powers. I consider the
effect that a peace of tolerable duration would have up-
on the martial spirit, and the political ardour of the
French people, of such importance, that 1 believe the
French republic, bounded by the Rhine, the mountains,
the Mediterranean, and the ocean, would be a less formi-
dable antagonist, after ten years of tranquillity, than she
would be at this time, if her empire did not extend beyond
tlie territories she possessed at the commencement of the
98
war. It is not long' since Spain has become her ally, and
our opponent. The event did not depreciate our funds an
hundredth pai't of their value. Spain is a quiet, sober,
regular enemy. Her friend has not been able to commu-
nicate to her a spark of his fire. One Spain coming against
us, fresh out of a revolution, would be worse than a dozen
of such enemies as Spain is now.*
It has been urged, that the conduct of the French repub-
lic to some of her enemies, and to all the powers with
which she has made peace, should deter us from making
with her government any treaty whatever. Mr. Burke ac-
cuses her of negotiating with the insolence of ancient
Home, and he seems to regard each of her generals as a
Brennus.f *' Spain," says Mr. Burke, " is a province of
*' the jacobin empire, and she must make peace or war,
" according to the orders she receives from the directory
*' of assassins." That the French directory have great in-
fluence over her councils cannot be doubted. But it seems
* JWr. Burhe^ having discussed the subject of the equiva-
lent to be offered to France for the cession of the territories con-
quered by her from our allies, makes the follotmng mysterious
»bsei"vatio?i .• " If you or others see a toay o^it of these difficid-
*' ties, I am happy. I see indeed a fund from tvlience eguiva
** lents ivill be proposed. I see it, biit I cannot just no-iv touch
** it. It is a question of high moment. It opens another IlUad
*• of -woes to Europe." — See page 156. Concerning the nature
of this fund I have formed various, bzit unsatisfactory con~
jectures.
■j- " With their spears they draio a circle abotitus.*' p. 61.
** lie is the Gaid that puts his sword into the scale J* p. 13,
S9
to have been acquired in some degree by diplomatic ad-
dress. It is certain, at least, that if her situation is as Mr.
Burke represents it, she is ignorant of her abasement. She
would not otherwise speak of her masters in the con-
temptuous and insulting language she applied to them in
her answer to the remonstrance of the court of Peters-
burgh, concerning her conduct to the allied powers. When
she published that answer, she must have forgotten that
" the regicide ambassador governed at Madrid," and he
too, must be unacquainted with the extent of his power,
or he would not tamely suffer such an outrage on his dig-
nity.
f
Prussia has also been supposed to furnish proofs of
French insolence. This has been presumed, in conse-
quence of the permission granted by his Prussian majesty
to the French citizens, who reside in his territories, to
distinguish themselves by the revolutionary decoration.
But from the conduct and views of the French directory
and the king' of Prussia, when this distinction was allow-
ed, it is extremely improbable that he granted it without
some sort of compensation.
There is not one of the other states she has made peace
with, to which she bears such a relation, as would exist
between her and the British empire after the termination
of the war. The power of waging war is the best guaran-
tee for preserving peace ; and when a country refuses t»
treat with her enemy until he has deprived her of that
power, she lies wholly at his mercy, and can expect no-
thing more than permission to capitulate.
With respect to our material resources for supporting"
war, by which I mean laeii and military apparatus of evciy
kind, I can hardly ae« an end to them, provided Uie people
will contribute to the utmost extent of their ability. But if
fehey refuse to contribute, except in the usual, regular,
and moderate manner ; if they are animated by no fervent
zeal, no glowing- patriotism, to support them under priva-
^ons and in distress ; if in short, they will not give every
thing beyond what is necessary to support themselves, to
siipport their country, 1 am apprehensive that this war
cannot be long continued without very great embarrass-
ment.
On the subject of the military resources of nations, some
verj^ erroneous opinions have been prevalent. It is not in mo-
ney of any description, paper or metallic, that the actual re-
sources of a country consist, nor is it by the credit of assig-
nats or mandats, or the price of any public fund that we can
estimate the real ability of France or of England. If a coun-
iry produce men, ships, provisions, ai*ms and ammunition in
Sufficient abundance, or enough of other valuable commo-
dities to purchase v/hat she does not produce ; and if her
people are willing-, or can be made to contribute them for
her service, she may wage war, defensive or offensive, as
long as they last, without possessing a single piece of coin,
and without being obliged to support any paper currency by
plunder. Those representatives of value, which have been
mistakenly considei-ed as real resources, are no more than
useful instruments for obtaining the actual instrumei^.ts of
war. They greatly facilitate, but they are not absolutely
necessary to the transfer of them from the subject to the
government. In some situations the government may lay
their hands on whatever they want for the public service
in the first instance. But in such countries as France and
Engiand, an able minister can never be driven to adopt this
Oppressive mode of supply. He mtist be extremely igiio-
101
lunt of the science of finance, who couid not mamtaln *
good paper currency, having the whole surplus produce of
a wealthy nation to support it. If every piece of coin, and
every note, bill and debenture in Great-Britain were sud-
denly annihilated, the loss would not render us unable to
carry on a long- and vigorous war ; if the population and
produce of the country continued as at present, and if her
people were animated in support of the contest. The loss
of the present circulating medium, although it would oc-
casion extreme embarrassment, would not deprive us of
men or arms, or of any of the materials for attack or de-
fence, except what the annihilated coin could have pur-
chased from foreign countries. Nothing, indeed, short of
a palpable stale necessity would justify the creation of a
paper currency in a great commercial nation. It is an ex-
pedient productive of much evil, and I triist we shall never
be compelled to adopt it. If, however, a paper currency
were our only resource, it might be maintained by impo-
sing annual taxes, to be paid with the paper money only,
to the amount of the paper money annually issued. It might
even preserve its full nominal value, if that amount exceed-
ed those taxes in a certain degree. So much of the paper
money as would be absorbed by commerce, might be safe-
ly issued, over and above the quantity of that money that
would be returned to government by the taxes. If this
currency should fail, another could be raised upon differ-
ent principles. Taxes might be imposed on actual produce,
and the payment exacted in kind. What they yielded
might be lodged in the public storehouses, and such arti-
cles as the government had no occasion for, might be sold
for the paper money, to keep up its value ; and with this
paper money the government might pui'chase what they
102
could not obtain by direct taxation or requisition.* This
last sort of paper currency, or rather, this mode of support-
ing one, is aukward and embarrassing. It can only be ne-
cessary when the first sort of paper money has failed,
through extravagance, bad faith, or financial inability.
France has fully shown, since the revolution, in what real
Biilitary resources consist ; and she has completely refuted
the opinion, that the want of money, or even the ruin of a
system of finance, must necessarily disable a country from
prosecuting war with vigour.
At the beginning of the revolution the coin of France
disappeared. Its place was supplied by the assignats ;
various causes reduced their value so much, that they
were at last hardly worth the expense of fabrication. Yet
in their lowest state, France supplied her armies with the
most lavish profusion. She produced every thing they
wanted, and her government were masters of every thing
that she produced. For a short time they levied taxes on
* A part of the internal commerce of the state of Virginia
is carried on through the jnedium of a paper currency , called
tobacco notes. The oivners of tobacco of a certain quality, are
permitted to lodge it in the ware-houses of the state. Receipts^
specifying the quantity deposited, are given to theyn, and are
circulated as the signs of so much value, which, as the quality
of the article represented is ascertained, can be appreciated
from the state of the markets with tolerable exactness. The
governme7it of Virginia, if they possessed no specie, might im-
pose a tax upon tobacco, to be paid in Jci?id, and issue tobacco
notes for the service of the state, payable at the public ^ware-
houses in so much tobacco as the notes represented.
103
property in kind, and when pressed hard they made di-
rect requisitions. Another paper currency (the mandats)
has been established, and has succeeded in part. Where
it fails, metallic money is obtained to supply the deficien-
cy. During the greatest of the fiscal distresses of France
she carried on the v/ar against the allies with an energy that
cannot be derived from the most flourishing finances, im-
aided by the power of enthusiasm.
Extensive as our material resources now are, we should
not be able to accomplish the objects for which Mr. Burke
advises the continuance of the war, if every one of us
were convinced of the justness of his opinions, and fired
with the ardour of his zeal. France was at one time as-
sailed by 50,000 men, on the very lowest computation ;
consisting of the armies of La Vendee, those of the
king of Spain, the king of Sardinia, the Italian states,
the king of Prussia, the emperor, the Germanic princes,
Holland and England. Most of those armies were enraged
against the enemy ; they were all composed of brave, ac-
tive and disciplined troops, and were commanded by ma-
ny of the ablest generals in Europe. Yet this mig-hty force
i»ot only failed in its object, but failed without ever having
been near the attainment of it ; without ever having been
even in a situation from which we might now presume
that it would have been successful, if it had been increas-
ed by two or three hundred thousand men. These numer
rous, well conducted, well appointed, active and enthu-
siastic armies, not only failed of the conquest of France,
but were themselves vanquished by her in a shorter space
of time, and with more terrible defeat, than any other
foree of equal magnitude, whose discomfiture is record-
ed in the annals of the modern world. No person in his
senses would think of attempting the conquest of France,
104
■ or what is the same, the subversion of her political sys-
tem, in this moment of her prosperity and triumph, with
less than double the force, which was so extremely inade-
quate to that acliievement in the days of her greatest
difficulties and deepest affliction. Were a million of troops
at our disposal, (a force which in our present circum-
stances is hardly necessary to say we cannot bring to act
offensively ag-ainst her,) I . do not believe that we could
change her government.
Fortunately for this country, and perhaps for the whole
world, all powers and all parties seem to have relinquish-
ed the design of effecting by force, a counter-revolution
in France. Indeed, as far as France is only concerned,
there seems no attainable object of value, for which the
continuance of the war against her would be advisable.
Her commerce as an object of booty is contemptible.
Almost all her possessions in both the Indies are ours, ex-
cept the island of St. Domingo, which I am told the whole
force of England would be insufficient to subdue. As for
France herself, she lies before us a mighty and impene-
trable mass of strength. At home, I trust that we are
equally invulnerable ; and that although we have not like
France, a chain of fortresses to impede an invader, we
are as firmly protected, should even our navy fail, by the
rampart that made Sparta so long invincible, a wall of men.
Externally, our situation is not so strong. Our extensive
commerce, and our rich and numerous colonies, render
us vuhierable in every quarter of the world. The peril
in which these may be placed deserves serious considera-
tion. But there are other objects of higher importance.
Great-Britain has much more at stake than her colonies
and her commQrce. Ardently as I wish for a speedy peaccj
105
and sanguine as is my hope that it will be the foundation
of a sincere friendship between France and England, and
the forerunner of unexampled prosperity to both nations,
it would be the last advice I would offer to my country, to
sacrifice her g-lory or her freedom for the preservation of
her wealth.
The manner in which the directory have broken off the
negotiations must be highly afflicting to every one who
wishes for the termination of the war. The advocate for
peace is extremely embarrassed by their conduct. It has
placed us in a very difficult situation. Difficult, however,
and embarrassing as it is, I trust that the magnitude of the
evil will suggest some remedy, and that both parties will
sacrifice punctilio, to put an end to the eifusion of human,
blood, and to all the other evils of this murderous conflict.
I have the honor to be.
Your grace's most obedient servant,
JAMES WORKMAN.
^2-
A LETTER
TO THE
RESPECTABLE CITIZENS,
MHABITANTS OF THE COUNTY OF ORLEANS
TOGETHER WITH
SEVERAL LETTERS
GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE,
A-!TD OTHEU DOCUMENTS RELATIVE TO THE EXTRAOE=
BINARY MEASURES LATELY PURSUED
JN THIS TERRITORY.
BY JAMES WORKMAN, Esq.
Late Judge of the County of Orleans, and of the Court of
Probates for the Territory of Orleans,
A LETTER*
TO THE
RESPECTABLE CITIZENS,
IJsrHABirAJSTTS OF THE COUJVTY OF ORLEAJSTS.
GENTLEMEiSr,
THE public journals have announced my re-
signation as judge of your county : I offer the following
letters and documents to your notice, anxious to prove that
I did not quit my post at a time of difficulty and peril, for
any other cause than the failure of my efforts to obtain
from the executive the support necessary to the perform-
ance of my duties. Every possible exertion was made by
me, but in vain, to repress the usurped power that
subverted and insulted the law, and to terminate the des-
potism which, obscure as to its nature, objects and ex-
tent, hung in terror over this afflicted and degraded land.
These documents will show that from the commencement
of this odious and disgusting tyranny, my resistance to
it, as far as my legitimate authority enabled me to resist,
was uniform and persevering. Neither menaces, nor ca-
lumnies, nor accusations, secret or open, nor outrage,
accompanied with indignity, for a moment induced me to
relinquish or relax in my opposition. The last letters in
* In this and in the follotvin^ letters a fe-iv corrections have
been made.
110
this collection, and those which remonstrated with tlie
greatest severity, were written and delivered subsequent
to the time when you saw me conducted by dragoons as a
prisoner through the city ; and subsequent also to tbe
charge which it was thought proper to prefer against me,
after I had accused general Wilkinson and governor Clai-
borne of high offences before the house of representa-
tives of the territory. Those officers expected, perhaps,
that their conduct towards me, -and the apprehension they
supposed I should entertain of the lengths to which ma-
lice might push persecution, would have induced me to
soften, if not to abandon my opposition to their lawless
career. If such was. their expectation, they have been
wholly disappointed ; every outrage, and every slander to
which I became subjected from their enmity, especially
from the enmity of the man who owed in some degree to
my steady support that he yet held the power of persecu-
ting, served only to sharpen the severity of my remon-
strances to the ungrateful author of the injustice.
I entreat you, gentlemen, to remark also, that while
in my own person I disregarded the oppressor's anger, I
observed due caution in whatever regarded the safety of
other men, carefully avoiding, as far as my authority was
discretionary, every measure which in our distracted state
might have endangered the lives of the citizens.
I allude to my letter to the governor when I was called
upon to issue an attachment against general Wilkinson. —
My reasons for taking that precaution, are set forth in the
passage printed in Italics. My conduct was in all respects
similar to that of judge Bee on alike occasion in Charles-
ton, although the circumstances imder which that magis-
trate acted, did not by any means require the same call-
Ill
tion as the very extraordinary and embarrassing situation In
which I was placed : but as my judicial conduct during
the late trying period is the subject of accusation in a com-
mvmication made to congress, it may be requisite to an-
swer the charge more fully than my occupations at this
moment will permit. In the mean time, however, I cannot
forbear to notice the wretched and infamous libel father-
ed upon me by its stupid authors, and published together
with the president's official message. It is stated as the
ground of suspecting me for being connected with Mr.
Burr in his conspiracy, that I declared that ** the repuh-
lican who possessed power, and did not employ it to esta-
blish a despotism^ was a fool."— Without deigning to dwell
upon the intrinsic incoherency, and the absurdity in terms
which this vile morsel of nonsense contains, I may re=
mark that if men's opinions can be inferred from their
conduct, the sentiment which would have been expressed
in that sentence, if those who wrote it knew how to write,
maybe fairly imputed to general Wilkinson himself. The
i nstant I saw the paragraph, I ventured to particularise
its authors. The miserable folly of the thought, and the
bombast in the expression, induced me to believe that it
must have been the joint composition of both their civil
and military excellencies. The imbecile driveller who in
a solemn state paper declared his apprehension of the ar-
rival of persons charged with the fulfilment of a treasona'
ble duty, might well conceive the bright idea of a republi-
can establishing despotic power. And as for the general's
share in the mock heroic composition, it has appeared t#
me that there is a strong analogy between his warlike and
his literary achievements. His campaign on the borders
of the Sabine resembles most of the performances with
which he hath enriched the literature of America. He
wields his pen and his sword in the same style ; the en o-
NONHOTONTHOLOGOS OF LETTERS AND OF WAR.
112
On the remaining part of the general's accusation, 1 re-
quest you will suspend your opinion. I think I have some
claim to this indulgence. For during the period, now
about three years, that I have resided among you, (engaged
nearly the whole time in some public employment,) calum-
ny breathed not against me until I had opposed and become
the accuser oTyour oppressors. In the exercise of my ju-
dicial duties I have reason to hope that I have been honour-
ed with your approbation. Upwards of six hundred suits
have been brought before the~ court in which I presided :
From its decisions there have been but very few appeals,
and in every one of these which has been heard and deter-
mined, the judgment of the superior court has invariably
confirmed mine. Permit me to remark also that I have a
considerable share in forming the system of laws by which
the territory is now governed ; a system which, combining
the excellencies of the Roman and the Eng-lish — of the
Castilia.n and the American codes, innovated boldly where
personal liberty required a change, and preserved with
scrupulous solicitude, in spite of the barbarous ignorance
that opposed us, all your laws, customs and usages, not in-
compatible with the acts of congi*ess or the principles of
the federal constitution. Yes, gentlemen, we were oppo-
sed by ignorance and presumption at every step. The first
legislative council, under whose auspices that system was
formed, and who deserved great praise for their cautious
wisdom, and for the firmness with which they resisted the
strong prejudices of two opposite and obstinate parties,
were frequently presented, (as the printed journal of their
proceedings may have informed you,) with bills from go-
vernor Claiborne, These were all read twice, through re-
spect for his excellency's office-— but a paramount regard
for the welfare of the public prevented the council from
passing any one of them into a law ; they were sufl^ered to
113
sleep in peace and die in oblivion. Utterly inapplicable to
our situation, they were not conformable nor even analo-
gous to the principles of our code. The rejection of these
proposed statutes was in a good measure owing to my ur-
gent representations of their evil tendency, to the public
in one very important case, (the licentious bill of divorce,)
and in others, to the members of the legislative council.
That honorable body had chosen me, on the recommen-
dation of Dr. Watkins, as their secretary ; (an appoint-
ment for which governor Claiborne had proposed another
gentleman ; and they also appointed me as they had done Ed-
ward Livingston and James Brown, Esqs. to assist them in
draughting some important laws.) Congress, it is true, had
ordained that one of our governor's duties (for the supposed
performance of which we were obliged to pay him 5000
dollars per annum) was to enact laws for the territory,
with the advice and consent of the legislative council ; but
congress might as well have ordained that his excellency
should speak French, or write English, or act with wisdom^
or dignity, ©r courage.
Was it not then much better that the inhabitants should
be put to the additional expense of a few thousand dollars
by reason of his excellency's ignorance, than suffer their
code to be mangled and deformed by him, and their pro»
perty thus rendered uncertain and insecure ?
The sum allotted by the joint resolution of both branches
of the legislature as the fee for the services of Mr. Living-
ston and Mr. Brown was 5000 dollars ; not one of whic^
either of these gentlemen has ever received, noi: were
114
they complimented with the thanks of the public, or even
of the ungrateful authority which has derived so much un-
merited credit from their able assistance. But can g-rati-
tude consist with low malice and abject pusillanimity ? He
who abandons, betrays and persecutes his best friends
must think very lightly of ordinary ingratitude. But the
g'overnor did not merely neglect to reward those by whose
counsel he had benefited ; he actually assumed the credit
of their works : — and, by an unparalleled union of eifro n -
tery and injustice, he endeavoured to convert them into an
instrument of his malignity against one of their authors.
In his speech to the legislative council, on proroguing
them, July third, eighteen hundred and five, he remarks :
** To you, gentlemen, who have participated -zoith me the
*' toil of legislating for a territory, situated as this has beeji,
" where a general innovation throug"hout the whole S3-S-
" tern of government, presented a variety of legislative
" objects that required the exercise of a more than ordina-
" r?/ share of talent and discretion,- where prejudice and
" former habits presented impediments to that progress
" of improvement, which experience had suggested and
"^ reason sanctioned, and above all, where party spirit,
" lighted up by restless, and occasionally by unprincipled am- .
" bition, was too successful in producing distrust and in-
"* quietude ; permit me to say that to citizens who neither
*' influenced by any wayward impulse of the moment, or
"awed by the, difficulties in view, attended with fidelity
*' and remained with firmness at the post assigned them by
•* their country, a great debt of gratitude is due,*' &c. His
excellency, not content with a general eulogium on those
admirable legislative labours of his, in which he allows
the council the honour of having merely participated,
specifies some of the acts for which he claims a more par-
ticular commendation.
115
" I now come to the period at which yoiir labotirs com-
" meiiced, and permit me to assure yo\i of 7ny great admi-
" ration of the- judgment you have manifested in selecting
" proper objects of legislation. Your code of criminal laxv,
'* exhibiti?ij a system at the same time mild and energ-etic ;
" the judicious innovations -which you have occasionally jnade
" in the municipal arrange7nents of the country ; the ivise acts
" you have passed for the convenience, eiicourogement and
"protection of commerce, as tvellas for the internal improve'
*' ment of the territory : and above all the latidable pro-
*' vision you have moxle for the introduction of science and li-
** terature, and for the education of the rising" generation, ~vill
" remain lasting testimonies of ij our abilities, discretion, and
" real patriotism."
There is not perhaps extant such a monument of impu--
dence, vanity and falsehood, as the speech from which
those extracts are taken. The code of criminal law, claim-
ed by his excellency, was drawn by me. For the judicious
innovations made in our municipal arrangements, you are
indebted chiefly to Mr. Livingston, Mr. Brown and Doctor
Watkins. The first of these gentlemen drew the county
court law — Mr. Brown is the author of the act regulating
the practice of the superior court, and Mr. Livingston and
Doctor Watkins, jointly, drew the bill for incorporating the
city of New-Orleans. Two bills for improving the inland
navigation of the Territory were drawn by Mr. liivingston.
Some objections having been made to them, they were con-
siderably altered, and united into one act by me, at the
desire and conformably to the instructions of Mr. George
Pollock, a member of the council, to whose perseverance
and activity the passing of that act was chiefly due. The
other bills, which the governor considers 'SO eminently ex-
cellent, namely, the acts for establishing a college, public
116
scliools and libraries, came from my pen. Indeed, his ex-
cellency has done me the honour to adopt one of those
humble legislative performances with an ardent, parental
affection. The law to institute a university in this terri-
tor}^ has been published in several of the newspapers of
the United States with hig-h encomiums on the production
itself, and great compliments to the supposed author for
his solicitude for the education of youth. You may sup-
pose, perhaps, that these bills were written privately for
the governor by their respective authors — No such thing,
gentlemen ; their origin was a matter of notoriety. They
were almost all drawn at the desire, publicly expressed,
of the council or some of its members ; a fact generally
known here to those who inqure into such concerns. — Nay,
incredible as it may seem, his excellency himself had ap-
proved an act allowing me a recompense for draughting
the very laws, the merit of which he so modestly claimed.
But his pretensions shall not be allowed. The poor daw
m|iy continue to v/ear and display the feathers which have
been charitably ^iwre to him to clothe his unfledgedj miser-
able form, but he shall not steal the plumes which others
have appropriated for their own use or ornament.
Inquire too, gentlemen, when you hear any man's con-
duct condemned, who are his accusers, what their charac-
ter ; their motives, their interest in supporting the accu-
sation ? How stands their account with fidelity and truth r
Are they as hostile to veracity, as she is to them ?
But gentlemen, if desirous of removing from your minds
unfavourable prepossessions respecting individual charac-
ter, much more anxious am I that the constitution of our
government may not, from what has passed here, be de-
preciated in your esteem. The enemies of the United
117
States and of civil liberty have availed themselves of these
apparently inauspicious events, to insinuate that we have
no constitution, and that the laws which can be set aside
and trampled upon by such a person as general Wilkinson
■are of no value. Much industry, I fear, has been used to
give currency to these sug-g-estions. Libels inculcating
them have been openly published in your streets. Persons
(to adopt the majestic phraseology which our Roi de Co-
cagne has been lately commanded to assume) high in office,
if not in character, talent or understanding, insist on the
great inconveniences of the trial by jury, and of public tri-
bunals ; nay, they have gone so far as to propose destroy-
ing in some measure, by the mockery of law, the most va-
luable privilege secured to us by our constitution. They
have discovered that the habeas corpus is a nuisance ; the
possible instrument o^ rescuing those who, in the vile jar-
gon of imbecility and ignorance may be charged to fidfil
some treasonable duty. Gentlemen, let not all this treach-
ery, or- folly alarm you. The law is not dead, but sleep"-
eth : The constitution is eclipsed indeed, but the dark
bodies of hideous and ill omened form, which, have inter-
cepted its light and deprived us of its genial influence, will
soon pass away ; and we shall again behold the glorious
luminary shining forth in all its original splendour.
My reasons for entertaining sanguine hopes of the resto-
ration of our rights, and of security against future usur-
pation, are given in my letter of the 25thof January, 180*,
to the then nominal governor of this territory.
Even during the late alarming period, circumstances
have taken place, which demonstrate that our judicial in-
stitutions possess an essential purity itnd energy that des-
potism itself cannot wholly destroy. Of the number of
K 2
118
your fellow-citizens who were denounced as conspirators
against the peace of their country, some have been brought
to trial, against whom the utmost efforts and influence of
power w6re employed. What was the consequence ? Did
you see the accused abandoned to the rage of their ene-
mies ? No. The brightest talents shone in their defence.
A lawyer, the ornament of his profession and of his coun-
try, stepped forth for their protection ; a man whose in-
trepid and high minded integrity stood far aloof from the
degeneracy of the day, and defied the outrages of usur-
ping power, the malice of dastard enmity, and, more
hateful than these, the poisoned shafts of slander. In line,
the accused were acquitted by a jury of their country;
whose verdict evidenced their own courage as well as
the innocence of those whom they had in charge. Far
then from suffering ourselves to be discouraged by the late
temporary" usurpation, let us endeavour to educe some
good from the evil which cannot now be prevented or di-
minished. Our cause requires action not lamentation. What
■^e have suffered wiU convince the general government that
some change is necessary for our safety ; and I feel confi-
dfent that they will meliorate our condition, if it be repre-
sented to them justly, and illustrated with tl^ose lights
which eloquence can throw upon truth.
I have the honour to be, gentlemen,
Yo ur faithful and obedient servant,
JAMES WORKMAN.
JSTew-Orkam, March 28fA, 18G7.
COPIES AND ABSTRACTS
OF CERTAIN
LETTERS AND OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS.
Xo. I.
JVew-Orleans, January 18, 1807.
To the honourable the house of representatives of the territo-
ry of Orleans.
Gentlemen,
HAVING lately adopted the unusual mea-
sure of adjourning' the court of the county of Orleans^,
sine die, I feel it a duty incumbent on me to justify myself
on the occasion to your honourable body, and to enable you
without delay, as far as lies in my power, to take such steps
a« your wisdom may deem requisite for our relief in the
extraordinary and painful situation to which we are redu-
ced. The documents herewith transmitted will inform you
of the illegal arrest and transportation of certain persons
by the authority of brigadier general Wilkinson ; the pro-
ceedings which have been had in consequence ; my unsuc*
ctessful applications to his excellency governor Claiborne
fbr support ; aiid the reasons which induced me to decUne
120
holding" a court, whose authority and dignity I had not the
means to maintain.
I have the honour to be, g-entlemen.
With sentiments of profound respect,
Your most obedient and most humble servant,
JAMES WORKMAN.
No. IL
JVeiv- Orleans, Jaiiuary 5th, 1807.
To his Excellency Governor Claiborne.
S I R — The late extraordinary events which have taken
place in this territory, have led to a circumstance that now
authorises me to renew to your excellency, in a -formal of-
ficial manner, the earnest request I have so frequently
urged in conversation, that you would make use of the
constitutional force placed under your command, to main-
tain the laws of your country, and protect its citizens
against the unexampled tyranny exercised over them.
It is notorious that the commander in chief of the mili^
tary force here, has, by his own authority, arrested several
citizens for civil offences. Ke has avowed on record that
he had adopted measures to send them out of the territo-
ry ; he has openly declared his determination to usurp
the functions of the judiciary, by making himself the only
judge of the guilt of those whom he shall suspect, and he
has in the same manner asserted, as yet wichout contra-
diction, that his measures were taken after several consul-
tations with your excellency. ^
121
Writs of habeas corpus have been Issued from my court.
On one of tliem Peter V. Ogden was brought before me
and discharg-ed. He was however again arrested soon after
by order of general Wilkinson, together with an officer of
this court, who had aided professionally in procuring Mr.
Ogden's release. The general in his return to subsequent
writs of habeas corpus^ issued by me in their behalf, refer-
red me to a return made by him to the superior court ;
and in the further return which 1 ordered him to make, he
has declared that neither of those persons was in his pow-
er, possession or custody : Bat he does not assert, what
is requisite in such cases in order to exempt from the pe-
nalty of a contempt of court, that these persons were not
in his power, possession or custody at the time when the
writs were served. In consequence of this deficiency I am
called upon to issue an attachment against him.
Although a common cause would not require the step I
am now taking, yet I deem it my duty, before any deci-
sive measures are pursued against a man who has all the
regular force, and in pui'suance of your public orders, a
great part of that of the territory at his disposal, to ask
your excellency whether you have the ability to enforce
the decrees of the court in which I preside, and if you
have, whether you shall deem it expedient to do it in the
present instance ; or whether the allegation that you sup-
port these violent and unlawful measures, is well founded ?
JSTot only the conduct and poiver of general Wilkinson, but
various circumstances peculiar to our present situation — the
alarm excited in the public mind — the description and charac-
ter of a large portion of the population of this county, might
render it dangerous in the highest degree to adopt the measure
lisualin ordinary cases of calling to the aid of the sheriff thQ
122
posse coiTimitatus, miless it xvere done loith the assurance
of being supported by your excellency in an efficient manner.
I pray your excellency to give a precise and speedy an-
swer to my inquiries. Should I be asFAired of your sup-
port, I shall forthwith punish as the law directs, the con-
tempt that has been ofrered to ray court : On the other hand,
if your excellency shall not think it practicable or proper
to afford your aid, I shall not expose that court and its offi-
cers to the farther contempt or insults of a man whom
they are unable to punish or resist.
I have the honour to be
Your excellency's most obedient.
And most humble servant,
JAMES WORKMAN,
Judge of the county of Orleans.
Compared and found conformable to the original letter
transm.itled to governor Claibornej by Geo. T. Ross, she-
riff of the county.
GEO. T. ROSS-.
No. III.
Copy of an affi davit of Judge Workman.
I, James Y^'orkman, Judge of the county of Orleans,
and of the court of probates of the territory of Orleans,
do declare, that some time after the arrest of Dr. BoUraan,
Messrs. Ogden and Swartwout, by the order, as declarant
was mformed, of brigadier general James Wilkinson, this
declarant waited on governor Claiborne, and asked if he
123
had consented to these proceedings.— Governor Claiborne
replied that he had assented to the arrest of Dr. B oilman
only, and that as to the propriety of the arrest of the others
his mind was not made up. This deponent then represented
the illegality and evil tendency of such measures, and be-
sought the governor not to permit them, but to use his
authority, as the constitutional guardian of his fellow-citi-
zens, to protect them in their rig-hts. The governor re-
marked that he had not the authority to libera.te those per-
sons, but that it was for the judiciary to do it if they thought
fit. Thereupon this declarant said, he had heard that a
writ of habeas corpus had been or would be issued by the
superior court, to bring Dr. Bollman before them ; that he
had also heard that general Wilkinson intended to send
the persons he had arrested out of the territory, and that
if this was not prevented the writ of habeas corpus would
be nugatory. — Declarant said he considered it to be the duty
of the governor in such a case not only to enforce obedience
to the judiciary, but to protect the citizens in the first
instance ; and prevent them from being sent away in such
a manner, and placed possibly out of the power of their
country, or the reach of justice. And this declarant fur-
ther saith, that soon after he had issued a Vt^rit of habeas
corpus, in the case of Peter V. Ogden, this declarant again
waited on the governor, and urged him as before to inter-
pose his authority, to prevent the laws from being violated
or rendered of no avail : This declarant stated his appre-
hensions that the persons arrested might be taken to the
Moro Castle, unless the governor would protect them. —
The governor on this occasion replied, that he was con-
vinced general Wilkinson's intentions were patriotic, and
that the prisoners would be carried to the United States and
not as this deponent feared, to the Havanna. — And this de-
ponent further states, that afterwards when Mr, Ogden and
124
been arrested the second time, together with Mr. Alex-
ander, this declarant again applied to the governor on the
subject, repeated his former observations, and recommend-
ed that general Wilkinson should be opposed by force of
arms. — He stated further, that the violent measures of that
officer had produced great discontent, alarm and agitation
in the public mind : And that unless such proceedings were
effectually opposed, all confidence in the government would
be at an end. Declarant then urged the governor to re-
voke the order by which he had placed the battalion of
Orleans volunteers under general Wilkinson's command ;
and to call out and arm the rest of the militia force, as
speedily as possible.— Declarant stated it as his opinion
that the army would not oppose the civil power, when con-
stitutionally brought forth ; or that if they did the govern-
or might soon have men enough to render such opposition
ineffectual. Declarant added, that from the laudable con-
duct of commodore Shaw and lieutenant Jones, respect-
ing Mr. Ogden, declarant not only did not apprehend any
resistance to the civil authority from the navy, but thought
it might be relied on for aid in case of necessity. And the
declarant further states, that he did afterwards, at various
times, and previous to the fifth of this instant, January,
in presence of judge Hall and judge Matthews, urge the
governor as before to revoke the order above mentioned,
and assemble, arm, and call out the militia to defend the
country, enforce its laws, and protect its inhabitants
against tyranny. And this declarant hatli also heard
judge Hall and judge Matthews frequently call upon and
urge the governor to the same effect.
James Workman, being duly sworn on the Holy Evange-
list of Almighty God, doth depose and say, that the facts
125
set forth in the above statement are substantially true, to
the best of this deponent's recollection and belief
(Signed) JAMES WORKMAN.
Sworn before me, this 13th day of
January, in the year of our Lord,
1807.
(Signed) JOHN WAT KINS,
Mayor of the city.
No. IV.
JVew-Orleans, January 12thf 1807.
To his excellency governor Claiborne.
S I R — Not having- received any answer to my letter to
your excellency of the 5th inst. and considering your silence
on the subject of it as a proof, in addition to those that
previously existed, that your excellency not only declines
the performance of your duties as chief magistrate of this
territory, but actually supports the lawless measures of
its oppressor, I have adjourned the court of the county
of Orleans, sine die. — And I took this step without grant-
ing the attachment sued for against general Wilkinson, for
the reasons alluded to in my late commimication. Had
this process issued, and the general, in pursuance of his me-
naces, made resistance, the sheriff -would then have been aU'
thorised and required by larv, independently of the court, to
call the aid of the posse coinimtsityLS. The ruinous effects of
that measure at this time — the confusion and destruction to
xohich it would probably have led, in consequence of your ex-
cellency^ s refusal ofyoitr support, are obvitym to every persm
I.
126
ftcfuainted tifith our present dreadful situation, and 7dll fully
justify my conduct in the opinioti of every frietid to the ccwitry.
When your Excellency shall think proper to resume the
leg-itimate authority which you have abdicated, and be dis-
posed to exert it in support of the constitution and laws,
I shall then (if in my present office) cheerfully resume
the judicial duties which I am now unable to perform.
I have the honor to be
Your Excellency's most obedient
humble servant,
JAMES AVORKMAN,
Judge of the County of Orleans,
No. V.
Affidavit of Lawrence Clark in the case of Peter V. Ogden.
County of Orleans, ss.
Personally before me, Lewis Kerr, one of the justices
assigned to keep the peace in and for the said county, ap-
peared Lawrence Clark of the same place, merchant, who
being duly sworn, on his oath saith, that Peter V. Ogden,
late of the city and state of New-York, merchant, and a
native citizen of the United States, is now in confinement
and imprisoned on board of the United States.' bomb ketch
^tna, this deponent having there seen him in custody this
day, which said ketch is now at anchor, and lying in the
river Mississippi, opposite the city of New-Orleans, and
within the limits of the said county, and that, as this de-
ponent is informed and hath reason to believe, and doth
verily believe, the said Ogden there remains in the immediate
127
custody of Lieutenant Jones, but under the command
and controul, and within the power and subject to the orders
cf Captain John Shaw, of the United States' Navy, now in
the said county being", and that as this deponent is advised
and believes, the said Ogden is so detained without any
lawful cause whatsoever.
(Signed) LAWRENCE CLARK.
Subscribed and sworn at the City of
Kew-Orleans, this 16th of December,
A. D. 1806.
Before me,
(Signed) Ls. KERR,
Justice of Peace.
I certify the above to be a true copy from the original now
©n file in my office.
THOS. S. KENNEDY, Clk.
No. vr.
Leviis Kerr^s Jlffidavit in the case of Peter V. O^den.
County of Orleans, set.
Lewis Kerr, being duly sworn, saith, that the United
States' bomb ketch, now in the port of New-Orleans, called,
as this deponent is informed and believes, the ^tna, is at
anchor in the river Mississippi, at a distance from the
shore, in the stream, and ready for sea, and that as this
deponent has been informed and believes, the said vessel
is about to depart from this territory witliin a few hours,
certain officers of the same having received, as this depo--
128
ii^nt has been informed and believes, orders to hold them-
selves in readiness for such departure.
(Signed) Ls. KERR.
Subscribed and sworn at the city of
New-Orleans, this 16th day of De-
cember, A. D. 1806,
Before me,
(Signed) JAMBS WORKMAK,
I certify the above to be a true.copy from the original on
file in my office.
THOS. S. KENNEDY, Clk.
[_A writ of habeas corpus, dated Dec. 16th, 1806, and di-
rected to capt. Shaw, commanding him to bring, without
delay, the body of Peter V. Ogden, tog-ether with the day
and cause of his detention before judge Workman.]
[A writ to the same effect and of the same date, directed
to lieutenant Jones, and to whomsoever it may be that has
or may have the command of the said vessel.]
[[From the alarm and terror prevalent in this city, the
deputy sheriff could procure no boat to take4iim on board
the -Sltna, to serve the above writ on the night when it was
issued. The circumstance was made known early on the
folio w^ing morning to judge Workman, who thereupon di-
rected the said deputy sheriff to procure a boat by the of-
fer of a considerable sum of money, for the payment of
which the judge undertook that the county would be res-
ponsible. The writ was served soon afterwards.
129
No. vn.
Return in the case of Peter V. Ogderif made by Captain Shaw
and Lieutenant Jones.
At the Chambers ofJames Workman, Esq. Judge of the
County of Orleans,
December VTthy A. D. 1806 — at 5 o^clock in the evening-.
Lieutenant Jones, commandant of the United States'
bomb ketch -Etna, brought up the body of Peter V. Ogden,
before the said judge in pursuance of a writ of habeas cor-
pus to him lieutenant Jones directed for that purpose.
And for return to the said writ, the said lieutenant Jones
declared that he had detained in his custody the said Og-
den by virtue of an order to that effect from his command-
ing officer, captain Shaw, who, he understood, had taken
the said Ogden into his custody in consequence of an order
from general James Wilkinson. And lieutenant Jones
further declared that he knew of no charge against the
said Ogden. Wherefore, no cause being shown for the
imprisonment of the said Peter Y. Ogden, the said judge
ordered him to be discharged^
I certify that the above statement made by captain J.
Jones, in the case of Mr. Ogden, is correct to the best of
my knowledge.
(Signed) JOHN SHAW,
Commanding the United States' naval forces at
New-Orleans.
l2
130
No. vin.
Copy of the order of Captain ShatOj referred to by Lieutenant
Jones.
JVevf-Orleansj December 14, 1806,
JLf. Comdt. J. Jones f
Sir,
I enclose a copy of an order which I received,
and from -which I have been compelled to act. It is demanded
of me to place on board the ^tna, under your command,
Mr. Og-den and Mr. Swartwout, and there to be kept un-
der guard until further orders. You are by no means to
permit any letters to pass or repass from them, and you
are to deny the visits of their friends on board you.
You are to furnish your table with all the necessaries
they may want, for which the government will pay you.
I am. Sir, your's. Sec.
(Signed) JOHN SHAW.
P. S. The moment the civil law was put in force I had
the honor to give up Mr. Ogden to the hon. judge Work-
man.
(Signed) JOHN SHAW.
131
No. IS.
AJ^davit of John Williamson in the case of Peter V. Ogden
and James Alexander.
County of Orleans, set.
Before me, James Workman, judge of the county of
Orleans, personally appeared John Williamson, who being'
duly sworn, deposeth and saith, that he saw Peter V. Og-
den, and James Alexander, in the custody of captain Ebe-
nezer Bradish, of the troop of cavalry at present employed
in the United States' army under the command of brigadier
general James Wilkinson, by whom they were arrested,
and that he verily believes they are detained ag^ainst their
free, will and consent, and that neither the said Peter V.
Ogden, nor James Alexander, are of the army or navy of
the United States.
New-Orleans, 19th December, 1806.
(Signed) JN. WILLIAMSON.
Sworn before me this 19th day of
December, 1806.
(Signed) JAMES WORKMAN,
Judge of the county of Orleans,
[A writ of habeas corpus directed to brigadier general
James Wilkinson, and captain Bradish, commanding them
to bring, without delay, the bodies of James Alexander
and Peter V. Ogden, together with the day and cause of
their detention, before judge Workman.]
132
NO. X.
Certificate relative to the application of Mr. Livingston for a
-writ 0/ habeas corpus, in the case of James Alexander and
Peter V. Ogden.
On the application for the allowance of the above writ,
it was stated by Mr. Livijigston, who applied for the same,
that unless the same was instantly allowed the persons
would be removed beyond the reach of the process of this
court — whereupon the same was allowed returnable with-
out delay.
(Signed) JAMES WORKMAN.
(Signed) JA : WILKINSON.
. XI.
General Wilkinson^ s first return.
General Wilkinson requests the honourable judge Work-
man may have the goodness to receive the general's an-
swer to the superior court of the territory in the case of
the traitor Bollman, as applicable to the traitors who are
the subjects of this writ.
On motion of Mr. Livingston, ordered, that general
James Wilkinson, to whom a writ of habeas corpus was di-
r€cted,commanding him to bring up the bodies of James
Alexander and Peter T. Ogden, make a further and more
133
explicit return thereto, or show cause ©n Monday next,
at the opening- of the court, why an attachment should not
issue against him.
NO. xn.
Further veUtrn of General Wilkinson^ in the case of
Peter V. Ogden.
The undersigned, comraanding" the armies of the United
States, has taken upon himself the responsibility of ar-
resting Peter V. Ogden, on a charge of misprision of trea-
son against the government and laws of the United States,
and has the honour to inform the honourable James Work-
man, judge of the county of Orleans, that the body of the
said Peter V. Ogden is not in his power, possession or cus-
tody.
JVew'OrleanSs December 26th f 1806.
(Signed) JA : WILKINSON.
On this return Mr, Livingston moved that an attachment
do issue against brigadier g-eneral James Wilkinson.
(Signed) THOMAS S. KENNEDY,
Clerk of the Orleans County Court.
[The same return and the same motion were made m
the case of Mr. Alexander.]
1:^0. xiiL
Copy of Ge@. T. boss's affidavit respecting^ general Wilkinson.
Georg-e T. Ross, sheriff' of the county of Orleans, being,
duly sworn, deposeth and saith, that on the occasion of
serving a rule of the court of the county of Orleans, on
brigadier general James Wilkinson, the said general ob-
served, that if he, this deponent, came again, he need not
1)6 surprised if admittance was refused him. This depo-
nent then asked, if the remark applied to his coming as a
private gentleman, or his coming in discharge of his duty
as sheriff, to which the said general replied, that the re-
mark applied only to his coming in his official character.
(Signed) GEO. T. ROSS,
Sheriff" of Orleans. :
JVew-Orfeans, January 11th, 1807.
Sworn before me, the 11th day
of January, in the year of
eur Lord, 1807.
(Signed) JAMES WORKMAN,
Judge of the county of Orleans.
NO. XIV.
iiopt/ of Geo. T. Ross's affidavit respecting the dslivevij »j
Judge Workman's letter.
George T. Ross, sheriff* of the county of Orleans, being
duly sworn, maketh oath and saith, that he did on the fifth
135
day of this instant, January, deliver to his excellency, go-
vernor Claiborne, a letter from James Workman, judg-e of
the county of Orleans, of which letter this deponent has
now in his possession an attested copy, carefully compared
by this deponent with the original, and foimd conformable
thereto.
(Signed) GEO. T. ROSS,
Sheriff Orleans county.
J^e~o-Orleans, January llif/i, 1807.
Sworn before me this 11th day of
January, one thousand eight
hundred and seven,
(Signed) JAMES WORKMAN,
Judge of the comity of Orleans.
NO. XV.
Thefollo'wingis the return referred to by General Wil-
kinson. [NO XI.]
The undersigned, commanding the army of the United
States, takes on himself all reponsibility for the arrest of
Eriek BoUman, on a charge of misprision of treason against
the government and laws of the United States, and has
adopted measures for his safe delivery to the executive
of the United States. It was after several consultations
with the governor and two of the judges of this territory,
that the undersigned has hazarded this step for the na-
tional safety, menaced to its base by a lawless band of
traitors, associated rnider Aaron Burr, whose accomplices
136
are extended from New-York to this city. No man holds
in hig-her reverence the civil institutions of his countiy
than the undersigned, and it is to maintain and perpetuate
the holy attributes of the constitution against the uplifted
hand of violence, that he has interposed the force of arms
in a moment of extreme peril, to seize upon Bollman, as
he will upon all othera, tvithout regard to standing or station,
against whom satisfactory proof may arise of a participa-
tion in the lawless combination.
(Signed) JAMES WILKINSON.
No. XIV.
JVew-Or/eans, January 25, 1807.
To Ms Excellency Governor Claiborne.
SIR — Although your excellency has not deigned to fa-
vour me with any answer to my late communications, I
still deem it right to use every effort in my power, and to
press, with the respectfulness due to one who has been
honoured with the confidence of the president and senate
of the United States, every argument and consideration
that may recall you to a sense of your duty, and restore
5^ou to the situation from which you have been so shame-
fully deposed.
The tyrannical acts of gen. Wilkinson, of which I have
so often and so vainly complained to your excellency, have
already produced an effect beyond even what I had antici-
pated; they have in a great measure blasted the hope
wliich the Louisianians began to entertain of the permanent
137
freedom and prosperity of their country ; the terror whick
they have inspired is visible throughout the city, in every
countenance. Apprehension and suspicion have taken
place of the fearless confidence^ by which our society was
distinguished. Is not the continuance of such a state of
things calculated to produce great discontent, if not dis-
affection ? Can we expect to be defended strenuously by
those who are deprived of almost every thing worth de-
fending ? Let us not conceal from ourselves our real situa-
tion. Your excellency is reduced to a cypher in the terri-
tory which, according to law, you ought to govern. In a
word, the country is subdued : The conqueror has estab-
lished over its vanquished inhabitants a severer despotism
than the harshest laws would authorise ; and the worst is
that your excellency surrendered at discretion without a
struggle or an effort. You struck your colours before a
gun was fired or a sword drawn. You cried out craven,
before you received a blow. And this at the summons of
an officer commanding five or six hundred troops, when you
had, as your excellency yourself hath informed us, five
tiiousand militia under your immediate command.
What the real object of general Wilkinson's measures
may be, I cannot undertake to assert ; but in my opinion,
they have a tendency highly injurious to the government
and interests of the United States. Of what value, may it
be asked, is our constitution, if such a man can violate at
pleasure and with impunity, every privilege which it holds
sacred? If acting at once as prosecutor, witness, judge
and executioner, he can imprison and transport, we know
not why nor whither, whomsoever he may think fit to sus-
pect ! Measures like these have preceded the downfall of
every republican government. It has been the practice of
those successful usurpers who have established despotic
M
138
fovfCT on the ruin of free states, to endeavour to persuade
the people that the existing- system is inadequate to their
protection ; these men generally seize on some popular
pretext for spreading alarm, and when they have thrown
every thing into confusion, they suggest the necessity of
a change of government for the restoration of order. — Your
excellency will remember that when Bonaparte had turned
the council of 500 out of doors, and treated the directory
and the other constituted authorities of the French repub-
lic with as little ceremony as general Wilkinson has shown
towards your excellency and the judges, the more mode-
rate t)Tanny which he soon afterwards established was en-
dured with satisfaction. The outrages which he hunself
had committed, were urged by his partizans as a reason
against the re-establishment of the system which he had
so easily overthrown. And may not we in like manner be
asked if we wish again for a constitution, which a few
dragoons have trampled upon ? for governors who abandon
those whom they are bound by every tie of duty and
honour to protect ? for writs of habeas corpus, which
serve only to cause those who are the objects of them, to
be more speedily transported ?
To these unsound, but specious suggestions, I should ans-wer,
that the suspension of our laios is but for a moment ; that si-
milar evils have been experienced in every free state, fespeci'
ally in the provinces and territories remote from tJie seat of go-
•vernment,^ ivithout producing the subversion of tjieir freedom ,♦
that many ages may pass axvay before such a combination of
men and circumstances as have occasioned our pi^esent misfor-
tunes, can again occur ; and that every year rvill increase the
number of freemen in our neighbourhood, and facilitate the
communication -with our protectors in the United Sates. In
fact, the present interruptioji in th^ enjoyment «/" our rights,
139
may operate as a temporary Jit of sickness on a careless man,
of a good constitution, to make him more sensible of the invtt'
luable blessing of health, and mare anxious and solicitous for
its preservation.
The evil of the tyranny in question cannot be duly
estimated by the number of its victims. When the person-
al rig-hts of any individual are violated with impunity, those
of every member of the state become insecure. From
that moment the proud confidence, the manly, liberal, up-
right self-possession which government by law inspires,
must yield to the deg-rading sentiment of dependence and
subjection.
The people of Louisiana have been often assured by your
excellency, that they were free, and that freedom would
fee the perpetual inheritance of their posterity. If you
wish them to give any credit to the prediction, restore their
rights without a moment's delay. Their doubts on this
subject are continually increasing. When we talk to them
©f American laws and liberty, they already begin to shrug
up their shoulders, and cry out Claiborne ! Claiborne !
That name, sir, will long be remembered : believe me that
every effort in your power is requisite to prevent it from
being immortalized by the curses of Louisiana. God grant
that the cradle of her freedom may not, through your
means, become its grave I
State necessity is made, as usual, the pretext for these
violations. — But never, sir, was there a country which less
than ours afforded a justification for violent and irregular
proceedings. In no part of the world were the laws more
easily executed, or the magistrates more readily obeyed.
Of the militia, some time ago drafted by your excellency
140
for actual service, not a man, I am told, refused to march.
Why then those unlawful arrests ? why are the accused
transported from the place where, if guilty, they ought
to be tried and punished ? It is said that the offences of
some of them are bailable, and that it would be highly
dangerous to set them free. Are we then in such a deplo-
rable condition as that the force or counsel of four or five
men can endanger our safety ? I sincerely believe not ; but
if these persons were indeed fprmidable, can any danger
to be apprehended from them, be put in competition with the
danger of violating all the rights of the public ? Shall we
outlaw the whole community, at the very moment we call
upon them to maintain the laws ? Shall we reduce every
man to the condition of a slave, holding life and liberty at
the pleasure of general Wilkinson, when we ought to nerve
every arm, and inspire every soul with enthusiasm, in de-
fence of our free constitution ?
No measures like these were ever adopted during the
war of the revolution, although it continued through a pe-
riod in which calamity and danger were experienced in al-
most every degree and vicissitude ; and when the Ameri-
can people had to encounter not only a formidable public
enemy, but a more dangerous secret foe.
The violator of our laws defends his conduct, it seems,
on the ground of extraordinary patriotism ; a zeal unvisu-
ally ja-dent for the good of his country. It seldom hap^
Dens that great public offences are committed without a
similar pretence. It was my misfortune to reside in Paris,
during the worst period of the French revolution ; and I
perfectly recollect that every abominable proposition made
there at that time, was founded on a supposed excess of
patriotism. The miscreants whose hands w^ere yet red
141
with the blood of the ianocent ; the detestable tyrants who
transported, (but not without some form of trial, the
mockery at least, of justice,) those who dared to resist
oppression, declared that they had no other object in view
than to insure the national safety^ to maintaii the constitution
inviolate y and perpetuate, what their impious hypocrisy
Stiled, the holy rights of man*
Business of an important nature compels me to post-
pone the further observations which I have to make on
this subject.
I have the honor to be
Your Excellency's most obedient
And most humble servant,
JAMES WORKMAN,
Judge of the County of Orleans.
No. XVII. ^
J^Tetv-Orleansy February 11th, 180r.
T.o his Excellency Governor ClaiboPne.
SIR — ^I beg leave to resume the admonitions respecting
your excellency's conduct, which my official situation not
only authorises but requires me to continue.
The responsibility for the late unlawful measures is claim-
ed exclusively by general Wilkinson ; but notwithstand-
.^-
See ^en. Wilki?ison*s return to the xvrit o/habeas corpus.
u2
142
i'ng his generous intentions towards you, I apprehend your
excellency is entitled to a full share of the blame of all
that has been done. You admit that you assented to the
( Ulegal arrest of Doctor BoUman, and it is evident, that
without your permission, or inactivity at least, none of
the other gentlemen arrested in like mamier, could have
been detained or transported. In my opinion your excel-
lency has incurred a severer and more degrading responsi-
bility, in withholding your aid from those whom you were
able and were bound to protect, than if you had assisted
personally in the violation of their rights . Suppose a watch-
man were required to defend an inhabitant against robbers,
and that instead of going to the sufferer's assistance, he
remained inactive and trembling in his centry box : would
it be any excuse for him to say that he had no hand in the
depredation which his pusillanimous dereliction of duty
alone permitted ? And instead of aiding the person whom
he was paid and had sworn to protect, he should cry out,
(appealing like your excellency to the judicial power,) " I
can do twthiiig for you loithout an order from the justice'*'—
what epithets would you bestow on his conduct ? I shall
not mention them, because I fear they would apply to yovir
own.
The responsibility for most of the unlawful arrests
seems directly fixed upon you, inasmuch as they were ex-
ecuted by the volunteers of the Orleans battalion ; who,
however they might be liable to be commanded, if sent out
as a reinforcement to the army, were, or ought to have
been, under your orders, while you continued in the exer-
cise of your office, in the place where they were stationed.
■Vy^hatever general Wilkinson may think fit to demand, or
your excellencybe disposed to surrender, the congress have
143
ordained that the governor of this territory, for the time
being's shall be commander in chief of the militia.
The great object of the militia establishment is to main-
tain tbe independence of the nation, without endangering
its liberty. Standing armies have generally proved the >•-
best defence against a foreign enemy ; but they have so
often become the instruments of usurpation, that it has
been doubted whether, in a free state, the advantage at-
tending them is not overbalanced by the danger. The le-
gislature of the United States have endeavoured to com-
bine both those establishments so as at once to secure the
country against external and domestic foes ; and for this
purpose the regular and militia forces are placed, generally,
under distinct commanders.
The events of a few weeks past have shown better thaji
volumes could explain, the nature and use of the militia.
One of the first acts of gen. Wilkinson, previous to his ex-
traordinary measures, was to obtain from you the only
militia regiment in this part of the territory then fit for
service. — From the moment you abdicated the command
of that corps, the general became your excellency's and
our master. His will was then the law, and his sword the
minister of its decisions.— ISIost of his violent measures
were executed by his new auxiliaries. They were direct-
ed unlawfully to drag to prison (a prison, for aught they
knew, the vestibule of the grave) those whom every ho-
nourable motive inclined them to protect. It seemed as if
the general wished to exempt his own troops, and fix upoa
your's as much as possible of the odium of his own and
your misconduct.
144
If the governors of other states and territories were in
this manner, and for a like purpose, to relinquish the mi-
litary trust confided to them by their country, what would
its freedom be worth ? Just as much as the writ of habeas
oorpns, under your excellency's auspices, during the last
six weeks of your excellency's administration.
General Wilkinson's rneasures appear to me particularly
injurious to the United States, in the present perilous situ-
ation of the civilized world. From the late European in-
telligence, it is doubtful whether Great Britain can perse-
vere much longer in a contest in which she hazards not
merely her empire, but her existence. If she concludes
a peace with France, its consequences to this territory,
and indeed to the whole American union, cannot, I think,
te contemplated withovit g-reat anxiety. It is then, at this
conjuncture, when large standing armies may be requisite
for our defence, that general Wilkinson, aided by your ex-
cellency's humble alliance, will have rendered the very
name of a standing army odious to the American people.
On comparing your responsibility with that which gene-
ral Wilkinson has incurred, I should greatly prefer his risk
to yours. Imbecility in those who govern, is much more
dangerous than oppression. It was not the tyranny of
Loviis XIV. but the feebleness of liis irresolute descendant,
that drew upon France the successive calamities of anarchy
and despotism. The characteristic of ^en. Wilkinson's
late conduct is audacity ; that of your excellency's, sub-
mission. It would have been far better if you had deci-
dedly avowed and maintained, or boldly opposed his pro-
ceedings. In taking a wavering, middle course you have ■
offended both the friends and the enemies of the constitu-
tion.
145
The responsibility for the unlawful transpertatiens may
eventually be such as you will shudder to learn. Suppose
that any of the gentlemen who, with your aid or acquies-
cence, have been seized to be sent, as it is said, to some of
the northern states, should be intercepted on the passage,
and murdered ? What degree of felonious homicide would
those persons be guilty of, who had perpetrated or per-
mitted the original outrage, which led to the murder ? Do
not allege that you never imagined such a horrible result.
My reasons for apprehending it have been frequently
communicated to you. The Americans, sir, are slow to
wrath ; but a crime of this nature would, I am persuaded,
rouse the whole nation into fury, and impel them to take a
dreadful and exemplary vengeance on all concerned or im-
plicated in the atrocious guilt. God grant that the mea-
sures against which I have so often warned you, may not
bring your excellency to the scaffold.
Illegal arrests by military authority have sometimes ta-
ken place in the United States, as well as in other countries ;
but this transportatioji of American citizens accused of
designs hostile to the Spanish government, in private, un-
armed vessels which must pass1)y a Spanish fortress, un-
der whose guns, force, treachery or accident, may place
them, will distinguish (and I hope without a parallel) your
administration in the annals of America.
That there are cases of extreme necessity which require
an extraordinary vigour in government, I am free to admit
— ^but this necessity should be clear, evident, palpable ; as
if Hannibal or Cataline were at the gates ; if actual insur-
rection raged throughout the land, and that the rebels
were so numerous as to overpower or overawe the consti-
tuted authorities of the state, But if such were our sitU'
146
atl»n, the g-eneral has not gone fa.r enough. Instead of a
vam, vexatious contest, between the civil and military au-
thorities, he should have required your excellency to shut
up the tribunals and send forth his trumpets and proclaim
martial law.
But when has gen. Wilkinson proved the necessity by
which alone such raeasures could be justified ? Never, I be-
lieve : for although he has becyphered the superior court
and the house of representatives, for hours together, he
has communicated, I am told, but little more concerning
the alleged plots of disimion and separation, than was
made public a naonth ago, in the letter to your excellency
from your Tennessee friend, (in which letter, by the way,
you were specially warned to beware of the very man to
whom you have since surrendered yourself and your
government.)
Of col. Burr*s meditated expedition against Mexico, the
proclamation and instructions of the president of the Uni-
ted States afford undoubtedly sufficient evidence, for the
purposes of precaution. Let then, sir, that proclamation
and those instructions be your guide. I know that the
exalted magistrate from whom they proceed, does not di-
rect you to transport unlawfully, the inhabitants of this
district, to prevent the possible breach of a positive law.
I feel confident that he will never approve of your destroy-
ing the sacred rights of American citizens, in order to
preserve the dominions of his catholic majesty : I firmly
believe he would rather see col. Bvu-r conquer all the king-
doms and provinces of Spanish America, (horrible as that
event may appear to the traitors pensioned by the Spanisn
147
g-overnment,) than witness the recent scandalous violations
of the constitution of his beloved country.
But to return to the main object of my letter, the re-
storation of your excellency's legitimate power. The late
imprisonment by general Wilkinson of col. Kerr, while
under a military arrest by your orders, and a prisoner on
parole in your custody, should awaken you to a sense of
your real depressed situation. You endeavoured, I am
told, to obtain his immediate relief ; but as if the general
were determined to mortify your excellency, he did not
liberate that g-entleman 'til judge Hall commanded it in
the name of the United States.
In the course of these communications I may have said
disagreeable things. The firm physician is sometimes
obliged to use strong and painful stimulants, and even, in
cases of dangerous lethargy, to scourge his patient into
animation. My sincere wish on this occasion is to rouse
you from your death-like torpor ; to make you become a
real, efficient governor, the assertor and protector of your
country's rights ; and not a mock magistrate, such as the
unfortunate lunatic who parades our streets with feathers
in his hat, and other vain emblems of imaginary authori-
ty, stiling himself the emperor of Louisiana.
Resume then at once, sir, your office. Take every re-
quisite measure for defending the territory and its people*s
rights. Protect those who are not yet transported beyond
its limits : counteract the menaces of general Wilkinson,
by a solemn proclamation, assuring to your fellow-citizens
the protection of the law : in a word, make, before it is tod
late, one bold, strenuous effiart to retrieve your prostrate
148
character, and restore this part of Louisiana to its former
tranquillity and freedom.
I have the honour to be.
Your excellency's most obedient,
And most humble servant,
(Signed) JAMES WORKMAN,
Judge of the coimty of Orleans,
ON the 14th of January Judge Workman was arrested
by the order of gen. Wilkinson, and conducted to head-
quarters, from which he was released the following day by
a writ of habeas corpus.\
On the 23d of February, judge Workman resigned his
offices, finding that he could not, either by solicitation, re-
monstrance, or just reproach, induce governor Claiborne
to support him in bringing* general Wilkinson to condign
punishment.
On the 4th of March Mr. Workman was tried before the
U. S. court for the Orleans district, on a charge of high
misdemeanor, in setting on foot a military expedition
against the Spanish provinces of Florida and Mexico. —
When the counsel for the prosecution had gone through
their case, the traverser left it to the jury, without addu-
cing any evidence, or offering any observation in his de-
fence. The jury retired, and immediately found a verdict
of NOT GUILTV.
The following is the Letter coneerning the
Bill of Divorce alluded to in page 113.
TO THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF THE TERR?
TORY OF ORLEANS.
Gentlemen,
IN the discourse delivered by your president,
at the opening of the session, he invited his fellow-citi-
zens to aid you with their advice. He knows that laws
should not only be conformable to the immutable prin-
-ciples of eternal justice, but adapted to the customs,
the opinions, and even in some instances to the prejudices
of a people. It is also of importance, that the citizens
should be consulted, as far as good order and existing- es-
tablishments will permit, respecting the ordinances by
which their conduct is to be guided or restrained. All men
naturally desire to have some share in the management of
their own concerns. They easily approve what they have
suggested, and obey cheerfully what they approve.
It is to be regretted that in a city, containing so many-
persons well acquainted with the opinions, the manners^
and the wants of the people ; enlightened by study, im-
proved by travel, and above all instructed by the terrible
lessons of the French revolution, not one has yet obeyed
your president's call. But however inferior I may be to
W
150
these gentlemen in knowledge, I shall not like them de-
cline so honourable an invitation ; I shall communicate to
you such remarks occasionally as the nature of the sub-
jects offered for your consideration may suggest.
And for this purpose I conceive the channel of a public
journal the best that can be made use of. What is well
printed can be read with greater facility than the best ex-
ecuted manuscript ; and what is published to the world,
as well as to you, vi^ill have this advantage, that as it may
attract attention and excite observations, you will not only
be enabled to appreciate the value of my suggestions, but
to know how far they are discordant or in unison with
public opinion.
A bill is now before you, (a copy of which has appear-
ed in print,) concerning divorce and alimony ; and if it
should pass, in its present form, I am persuaded that its
consequences will be fatal to the happiness of the commu-
nity. Divorces have been considered by every wise legis-
lature, as a great evil, to be endured only when necessa-
ry. If we cannot always prevent, we should as much as
possible .Restrain and discourage those separations of do-
mestic ties, not only on account of the anguish they occa-
sion to innocent families, but of the example, unfavora-
ble to the reputation of the state of marriage, and injuri-
ous therefore to the public morals. "Whoever wishes to
promote marriage, that source of the preservation as well
as of the happiness of the human race, should discourage
divorce. In every civilized nation that has attained cele-
brity in the world, the state of marriage has been anxious-
ly guarded by the laws. Unwilling that it should be re-
garded as a mere civil contract, they have ordained that
it should be celebrated with solemn and religious rites.—
151
Each family, thus consecrated at its establishment, should
be preserved from untimely dissolution with the same care
as the state itself, of wliicliit is the image and the support.
It is of these domestic societies that a commonwealth is
composed ; and its moral character, its permanence and
its purity must depend upon theirs.
We live in an age when the bond of marriage has lost
much of its force : when licentiousness has the sanction of
fashion and the support of wit. It is at this time there-
fore the peculiar duty of the legislature to watch with so-
licitude over every thing by which morals maybe affected ;
especially the institution of marriage, the palladium that
preserves what is yet sacred from pollution. If you de-
stroy the connection between religion and matrimony, you
reduce it at once to a business of equal importance with
the freighting of a ship, or the hiring of a house ; a bar-
gain to be made and dissolved at an hour's notice by a jus-
tice of the peace or a civil commandant.
Pause, gentlemen, before you meddle with so delicate a
subject. Consider the ruinous effects produced in France
hy a law of divorce, in many respects similar to that now
before you ; and remember that you are legislating- for a
French people, aivimated and impetuous in all their pas-
sions, and often incautious in their conduct and unmind-
ful of its consequences. Be assured that if you weaken
the tie of marriage, you will undermine and soon over-
throw the strongest barrier against the inundation of mo-
ral turpitude poured forth from that foul but ever salient
source of mischief, misery and abomination, the licentious
and atheistical system, miscalled philosophy, which has
already deluged the finest nations of Europe, and which
menaces the whole world with moral destruction.
152
By the third section of the bill in question, it is de-
clared,
** That divorces from the bond of matrimony shall be de-
creed in cases where the parties are within the degrees,
prohibited by law ; where either of the parties are natu-
rally impotent, and in case of adultery in either of the
parties ; and also for wilful, continual, and obstinate de-
sertion for the term of four years, or for extreme cruelty
in either of the parties.'*
The first clause of this sentence is unnecessary ; for if
the parties are within the prohibited degrees of kindred,
the marriage from the beginning will have been null and
void. The provision that follows would lead to proofs and
discussions too offensive and impure for public inquiry,
and which should never be examined before a public tri-
bunal. By the succeeding paragraph there is given such
a facility to obtain divorces, that from the instant it is in
force, marriage will be degraded into a speculation of
profit or convenience, and debased into a state of licensed
concubinage. To ordam, as this clause imports, that
adultery in a man is an offence of equal guilt, and as in-
jurious to society, as adultery committed by a woman ;
and to put the offender on the same footing w ith the inno-
cent party, as to the power of contracting a future mar-
riage, would be to decide differently from all wise laws,
and in violation of aU received opinions.
Such a law as this, although it might be agreeable to a
few married harlots, by releasing them from some of the
restraints to the gi-atification of their desires, would ope-
rate fatally against the happiness, the honor and the dignity
©f the virtuous part ©f th« female sex. A worthy roan di-
153
vorced from his wife, is by no means in the same unfortu-
nate condition as a woman of honor divorced from her hus-
band. Various physical and moral reasons, as well as the
opinions and prejudices of society, support this position.
Let us imagine the situation of a virtuous female, whose
best years, and whose early charms had been .given to a
husband whom she thought deserving, on the solemn con-
dition, and under the promise, made at the altar of God,
that nothing but death should dissolve their union ; let us
also suppose (what it is to be regretted doth not violate
probability) that this husband becomes disgusted or in-
different — that attracted by novelty, or seduced by artifice,
he transfers his faithless vows to some unworthy object;,
and that he has had the felicity to live until this law shall
have enabled him to violate his oath aiid his engagements with
impunity : How is he to act ? Let him commit adultery ; let
him bring his concubine to his wife's bed ; let him treat
her -with cruelty, and then we may safely predict that her
feelings, her honest pride will urge her to demand a di-
vorce. Her request is instantly granted ; and she may
soon have the additional satisfaction of knowing that her
rival has become the wife of her late husband ; of seeing a
licensed adultress introduced into public society ; and of
finding in time that the bread of her children is given to
feed the spawn of a strumpet. It is here proper to inform
you that the persons in question could not be married be-
fore the Louisianian church : its altars are too sacred, its
ministers too upright to suffer such abomination. Should
the bill, therefore, pass into a law, it would be requisite,
for the accommodation of such worthy persons, as might
take the benefit of it, and desire to contract new matrimo-
nial engagements, to establish, for the purpose of perform-
ing the requisite ceremonies, one or more offices, to be
N 2
154
styled marriage brokers, marriage contractors, or l)y some
other new and suitable denomination.
But, no g-entlemen, I am persuaded your feelings as
fathers, as husbands, as honest and intelligent men, will
never allow you to put to such an impious law the seal of
your approbation. You will never consent to corrupt the
manners, nor outrage the feeling, nor contemn the usages
of the people of Louisiana. Distm-b not then their domes-
tic peace — violate not their hearths or their altars — destroy
not the alliance which the good and the wise of every age
and nation have endeavored to establish between sanctity
and marriage — take not away from the most important of
all moral obligations, the sanction of religion ; and what
its rites have bound, let nothing separate but its authority.
Cases demanding separations, divorces a mensa & thoro,
will unfortunately arise. Let the chief of the Louisianian
church be authorised, as heretofore, to take cognizance of,
and decide them according to the rules which our religion
has established. Before such a tribunal all the public
scandal and the dishonour of families, which the discussion
of such causes in open court must occasion, would be en-
tirely avoided. When that tribunal decides that there is
ground for a separation, let every thing respecting alimony
and the provison of children, in a word, every pecuniary
question be determined by the superior court. And should
any instances of particular and extraordinary hardship ©c-
cur, calling for relief, beyond the power of the tribimal to
bestow, reserve the decision of them to the legislature
alone. Its wisdom may enable it to do justice, without
wounditig the feelings, violating the religion, ok injuring
the morals of the community.
I..
PROPOSALS FOR PUBLISHING
A
DIGEST
OF THE
LAWS OF CASTILE
AND
THE SPANISH INDIES,
WITH THE
INSTITUTES OF THE ROMAN CODE
ON WHICH
THOSE LAWS ARE FOUNDEX*.
BT JAMES WORKMAJ^, ESQ.
Counsellor at iaw, late Judge of the County of Orleans,
and of the Court of Probates of the Territory of
Orleans.
THE principal difficulty experienced in tlie administra-
tion of justice in Louisiana, since its cession to the United
States, has arisen from this circumstance, that its most
important laws could be found only in books written in
lang-uag-es with which few of our judg-es were thoroug-hiy
acquainted. To remedy this inconvenience is one of the
objects of the proposed publication.
It is well known that when Spain took possession of this
colony, the laws ©f Castile and the Indies were immedi-
158
ately introdaced by a proclamation of general O'Reily,
which was acted upon here, and considered valid by all
the Spanish judicial authorities. Since we have held the
province, its code has in some respects been altered. In
the criminal part, it was rendered conformable to the laws
of the United States, by two acts, which were drawn by
the author of this v/ork, at tlie request of the first leg-isla-
tive council of this territory. The nature of our g-overn-
ment, and the particular ordinances of congress required
this innovation in our criminal jurisprudence. But in civil
concerns — in whatever related to property, contracts or
obligations, the Castilian Code has undergone little altera-
tion, further than was expedient to adapt it to the practice
of our tribunals, and the mode of trial by jury. Should
this system be preserved, it were needless to urge the
utility of a work to explain and promulgate more gene-
rally its principles ; and whatever further improvements it
may require, a thorough knowledge of it in its present state
will be indispensable to those who may undertake the task
of correcting its errors or supplying its defects. If even a
code altogether different should be adopted, an acquaint-
ance with our present system will long be necessary, for
the just determination of controversies arising out of en-
gagements, formed or imposed by its authority.
It may not be unnecessary to inform some readers that
the laws of Spain, like those of most of the nations of Eu-
rope, are derived from the Code and Pandects of Justinian.
The discovery of his admirable Digest was regarded in
the middle ages as a New Revelation. It brought to light
a system of jurisprudence which, notwithstanding all its
faults, was the best compilation then extant of written
reason, applying the maxims of morality to the various and
complicated affairs of human life. Many advantages at-
159
tended the rise and growth of the Roman Code : It was
not like most others, the progeny of ignorance and super-
stition : It was the favoured offspring of civilization and
science ; and it was matured by the care of many centu-
ries, improved by the collected wisdom of various nations,
exalted by philosophy and adorned by eloquence. If an-
cient Greece hath borne from all competitors the prize of
literature and the finer arts, Rome stands unrivalled in
legislation : as if they who could conquer, best knew how
to govern the world.
This Code, however, like every thing of human origin,
is far from being perfect. Equity itself, in all its decisions
in civil causes, between those whom its regards as equals,
too often breathes the spirit of the harsh and arbitrary
government from which it sprung. The authority of that
despotism was communicated in various degrees to a large
portion of its subjects. The master in his household, and
even the father among his children, were images of the
prince on his throne, released from the obligations of the
law ; and tlie whole female sex were held in a state of tu-
telage, impairing the freedom and dignity to which nature
entitled them.
During the progress of this system in Europe, it was
often mingled with local usages, and always moulded by
national character. When it took root in Spain, that high-
minded nation was animated by religious zeal and roman-
tic gallantry. Modified by these predominating passions,
the Civil Code of Castile seems to be the Roman law, sof-
tened by the spirit of Chivalry, and touched and purified
by the influence of the Christian Religion. The parental
power was reduced within its proper limits ; the female
sex were emancipated, and peculiarly favoured ; and slave-
ry itself assumed the form of protected servitude.
160
The laws peculiar to the Spanish colonies will be com-
prised, in an abridged form, in one of the volumes of this
Digest. Those laws are now compiled in four folio vo-
lumes, and classed in nine books : a brief summary of
their contents will enable the reader to judge how far they
are calculated to interest or instruct him.
The First Book is consecrated to the establishment of
the Christian Religion, and its ministers : — This division
treats of cathedral and parochial churches, monasteries,
convents, hospitals, universities, colleges, and seminaries
of education ; of the extent of the privilege of asylum ac-
corded to churches and monasteries ; of the royal patron-
age in ecclesiastical appointments ; of provincial and sy-
nodal councils ; of archbishops, bishops, prebendaries, and
generally the clergy, regular and secular, of all classes
and orders; of tythes and other ecclesiastical dues; of the
tribunals of the Inquisition, their jurisdiction and powers ;
of the ecclesiastical judges, visitors and conservators ; of
the apostolic bulls and briefs ; of the books allowed to be
printed and published in the Indies, &c.
The Second Book treats of the laws, and royal ordi-
nances, to be observed in the Indies ; of the council of the
Indies, its fiscal, treasurer, secretaries, alguacils, advo-
cates, procurators and other officers ; of the royal audi-
ences and chanceries, (tribunals of high jurisdiction,) and
their various officers; of the auditors and visitors of dis-
tricts, and their jurisdiction ; of the administration of the
estates of deceased persons, &c.
The Third Book contains the laws which treat of the
royal dominion and jurisdiction in the Indies ; of the man-
ner of appointing to offices, and bestowing rewards and
161
favours ; of the viceroys, presidents and presiding go-
vernors ; and their authority to levy war ag-ainst hostile
or rebellious Indians ; of forts, castles, and fortifications,
their governors, and alcades, and the revenues assigned
for their maintenance ; of the pay, privileges, and du-
ties of the military in general, and the mode of deciding
causes in which they are interested ; of the punishment of
pirates ; of the application of prize money ; of commerce
with foreigners ; of the honours to be paid to viceroys,
governors, and other high officers, civil, ecclesiastical,
judicial, and military ; and lastly, of the conveyance of
letters by expresses and post couriers.
The Fourth Book treats of new discovered countries,
and the privileges and immunities bestowed on the disco-
verers ; of the reduction, pacification, conversion, and
colonization of the Indian tribes and nations ; of the found-
ing and settlement of new cities and towns, their councils,
public officers and municipal government ; of grants, dis-
tributions, and sales of lands and building lots ; of the
public property and funds of cities and towns ; of public
granaries ; of duties, taxes, and contributions, for ob-
jects of public utility : of public works ; of roads, inns,
taverns, boundaries, mountains, pastures, woods and
vineyards ; of the commerce, provisions, and productions
of the Indies ; of the discovery and working of mines
and the privileges to which miners are entitled; of the al-
cades and secretaries of the mines ; of the assaying, melt-
ing and marking of gold and silver ; of the mints and the^
officers ; of the value of gold and silver, and the com-
merce thereof ; of pearl fisheries j of the estftbUshmeftt
of manufactures in the Indies.
©
162
The Fifth Book treats of divisions and limits of go-
vernments, and the subordination of certain governors to
the viceroys ; of governors, corregidors, alcades mayores,
and alguacils, their duties, privileges and authority ; of the
ordinary alcades, provincials, &c. ; of physicians, surgeons
and apothecaries ; of notaries public and notaries of the
government ; of the jurisdictions of the several tribunals,
and the manner of determining disputes concerning the
cognisance of causes ; of suits at law, and the proceedings
therein ; of the pleadings, judgments and executions ; of
the recusation (or challenging) of judges ; of appeals from
the inferior tribunals, and from the royal audiences to the
king ; of the mode of levying executions and the fees there-
on ; of the examinations or trials which viceroys and other
high officers must undergo on resigning, or being removed
from their respective offices.
The Sixth Book contains nineteen titles, which regu-
late the condition of the native Indians, and treat minutely
of their marriages, employments, instruction, tributes,
taxes, disabilities, and personal services ; of the privi-
leges of the city and republic of Tlaxcala ; of the authori-
ty, rights, privileges ajid duties of the Indian caciques or
chiefs ; of the exemption of the Indians from personal sla-
very ; of the means of reducing the wandering Indians
to form towns and settled establishments ; of the pub-
lic property of Indian communities, and the adminis-
tration thereof ; of the good treatment and the offi-
cial protectors of the Indians ; of the allotments {reparti-
mientos) of Indians, and the revenues and services which
may be exacted from them by the persons (encomenderos)
to whom they are assigned ; of the duties of the encomen-
deros to protect and defend their Indian vassals, and to
16
n
promote civilization, learning and religion among'st them ;
of the services which the Indians are liable to perform in
agriculture and manufactui-es, in the mines, pearl fishe-
ries, public inns, the transportation of goods, &c.
The Seventh Book treats of the powers and duties of
tiie judges who are appointed by special commission ; of
games of chance and gamblers ; of Spaniards absenting
themselves in the Indies from their wives, or the ladies to
whom they are bethrothed in Spain, and how they shall be
compelled to return thereto, in order to cohabit with their
wives, or to marry their affianced mistresses ; of vagrants
and gipseys ; of mulattoes and negroes ; of jails, jailors,
and the visitation and inspection of prisons; of crimes
and misdemeanors ; of fines and their appropriation.
The Eighth Book treats of the finances of the Indies^,
and of the various officers, councils and tribunals employ-
ed in collecting or enforcing' the payment of the royal re-
venues ; of the method of keeping the public accounts ;
of the administration of the royal finances ; of the tri-
butes to be paid by Indians who are the immediate vassals
of the crown ; of the proceeds of vacant encomiendas ,• of
the king's fifths of all gold, silver or other metals ; of the
administration of the mines ; of treasures discovered in
caves, Indian temples or sepulchres ; of estrays and de-
posits ; of the alcavalUf or duties on the sales of proper-
ty ; of custom houses ; of the duties on imports and ex-
ports, and the valuation according to which those duties
are to be rated ; of the penalties incurred by the neglect
or violation of the revenue laws : of the importation of
slaves and the duties thereon ; of the media amiata, or
first fruits, (the half of one year's salary and emoluments
of every place, office, and annuity conferred by the royal
164
authority ;) of the sale of offices, and the duty on the
subsequent transfer thereof; of the royal monopoly of
quicksilver and salt ; of the duties on sealed or stamped
paper, (requisite to give validity to public acts and to con-
tracts ;) of the king's ninths, or portion of the tythes ; of
the revenues of the vacant bishoprics and arch-bishops ;
of the salaries of the king's officers, and the manner of
paying them ; of assignments and appropriations of par-
ticular revenues ; of libranzas, or treasury orders ; of clo-
sing of accounts, and the manner in which the royal re-
venue is to be remitted.
The Ninth and last Book treats of the royal audience
and chamber of commerce of the Lidies, residing at Se-
ville, of its members and officers, its powers and duties ;
of the consulate of merchants at Seville, trading to the
Indies ; of the levy and administration of the duties on
goods exported to the Indies ; of the company of mer-
chants, purchasers of gold and silver ; of the generals,
admirals and governors of the fleets and armaments of the
trade of the Indies ; of the inspector, comptroller, ^dctual-
ler, pa}rmaster, storekeeper, clerks and military officers
belonging to the armadas and fleets ; of the corporation
of ship-owners, pilots and mariners at Seville — their ex-
emptions and privileges ; of licences to pass to the Indies,
and to return to Spain ; of foreigners desirous to trade
to the Indies : of the building, rigging and measurement
of ships ; of the registering thereof; of the search or
examination of vessels ; of the navigation and voyage of
the fleets, and the regulations to be observed thei*ein ; of
advice or packet boats ; of underwriters and policies of
insurance ; of the judges of registers in the Canary
islands, and of the commerce and navigation thereof ; of
tbe navigation and commerce of the Windward islands.
165
and the adjacent provinces ; of the trade and navigation
to the South seas, and to the Phillipine islands, China,
New-Spain, and Peru ; of the consulates of merchants
at Lima and Mexico.
The proposed work will be published in two volumes,
Svo.— at the usual price of Law Books.
T H U END.
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