as his officers are independent of him.Such officers as meritoriously preserve their troops, highly merit of his Majesty; and, notwithstanding the superior strength of their regiments, never ought, except in extreme urgency, to serve longer than usual; for in such event, their exact discipline, and exemplary conduct meeting with no attention, would not by example stimulate succeeding regiments to such meritorious duty and conduct.Troops never ought to serve longer in the West Indies than five years, (emergencies excepted) and such knowledge of their certain return, would strongly tend to promote the health and comfort of the troops, and operate powerfully as an antidote to that discouragement, with which officers and men embark on that service.If it is observed, that an extraordinary expense would be incurred by removing the troops sooner than usual; it is to be observed also, that such paltry considerations ought to shrink before the humanity, justice, and policy of the measure in question. Enlightened minds can readily conceive, that many things, which forty years ago were expedient, are at present become inexpedient; and this, perhaps, is not inapplicable to the mode of drafting the remains of regiments into other regiments, by which they are doomed to almost extermination. This mode, though long sanctioned by custom, is repugnant to justice, humanity, and policy, and ought to be abolished.A. B.August 1, 1905. SUMMARY OF POLITICS. COMBINED FLEETS.Against the disappointment, so evident in the public, and so loudly proclaimed by most of the newspapers, at the result of the operations of these fleets, a timely endeavour was made to guard the readers of the Political Register, It was, from what ought to have been concluded from Sir Robert Calder's first dispatch, but too probable, that nothing further was, for the present, at least, to be expected from the efforts of the squadron under his command; and, though that dispatch was not so circumstantial as it might have' been, it by no means appears, from any thing yet published, that the commander, or any commander, could have done more than he did. Nothing is easier than to cry out coward and traitor; but, let us hope, that such a ery will never affect the life or fortune er fame of any man, until he be fully and fairly convicted of the crime laid to his charge: let us hope that neither the persons nor the reputation of our commanders will ever stand apon so slippery a foundation as that of the hopes or fears of the babbling and unreflecting swarms of the metropolis, who always unite criminality with want of success, and who never inquire into the means by which success is accomplished, or into the con sequences whereunto it leads; who are now reproaching the admiral because the combined fleets have got into Ferrol, but who seem to have forgotten, that it is to be attributed entirely to the dollar-war, in the success of which many of them so much exulted, that there was a combined fleet at sea, and that Ferrol was open to receive it. To the decision of such judges let us hope, that the conduct of our commanders is never to be subjected. Not a word do we hear from the 'Change against the conduct of those ministers, by whom we have been exposed to our present dangers; owing to whose war with Spain, and to whose subsequent management of our naval force, our colonies have been plundered or laid under contribution; a considerable convoy has been captured; and that the naval force of the enemy, the despised naval force of the enemy, has compelled our squadrons to fall back one upon another. Not a word does Lloyd's say upon this subject, while its sooty walls re-echo with reproaches against the admiral, who with fifteen sail of the line, captured only two out of the twenty that he engaged! But, admirals give no ac"commodations" to loan-jobbers: admirals have none of the public money to lend, without interest: admirals possessing none of the means by the overflowings of mercantile avarice or mercantile trepidation are kept within decent bounds. It is not meant here to cast a slur upon the mercantile character; and those who choose to understand it in that way, must take their resentment for their pains; but, when we hear, from the city such loud expressions of disappointment, such clamourous accents of censure on the admiral, and hear not, from the same quarter, a word against the conduct of those, of whose measures the present lamented events are the natural and obvious consequence, to refrain from an exposure of the inconsistency, would be to merit a full share of the contempt for which it calls. 66 -When unfortunate events have taken place, it is perfectly useless to sit down with folded hands and repine. This is not what the leaders of the French have done. Every new embarrassinent, with them, and with all other men who have extricated themselves from greater dangers, has ever given rise to new and extraordinary exertions; and, amongst such exertions has been that of getting the better of their prejudices and . sequent events. The truth is, that, if they possessed wisdom in the highest degree, they are too much taken up, and have been too much taken up, with self, with the important business of defending themselves, to attend to the business of the nation, which is with them, a matter of secondary consideration; and, agreeably to the main principle, upon which they and their adherents proceed, we may expect to hear the insuficient state of our navy, the ap cation between the different squadrons, and the consequent escape of the combined fleets; all these, and the invasion of Ireland, were it to take place, we may expect to hear ascribed, not to the want of wisdom or integrity in the ministers, but to the hampering and shackling effects of the motions and speeches of the Opposition! And, if we reply, that, the Opposition being so strong is a good reason for the mi their errors. The season of misfortune is, with a nation destined finally to triumph, the season for reflection also, upon which principle it is that I have now, in the selection of iny Morro, endeavoured to recall the minds of my readers to the opinions held, or, at least, expressed, by the present ministers, in their defence of the Preliminaries of Peace with France; I say ministers, because the reader will find, by a reference to the debates, that the Pitts and Dundases, every one of them, joinedparently total want of authentic communiin the sentiments of Lord Hawkesbury, upon which sentiments the present situation of affairs precludes the necessity of any comment; nor, is it at all necessary to remind the reader, that sentiments exactly opposite, and foreboding precisely what has now taken place, were repeatedly pressedupon the country by Lord Grenville, Mr. Windham, and, indeed, by all those who opposed the peace; that peace, which Mr. Pitt defended, which he applauded, which he described as a sub-nistry being changed, your true Pittite will ject of national pride and exultation, and as meriting, to the ministers who made it, the praise and the lasting gratitude of the country. "Well," some Pittite will exclaim, " and did not Mr. Fox too approve "of the peace?" Yes. but it was upon the ground of necessity. It was because the war could, in his opinion, be carried on no longer, without risking the very existence of the nation as an independent body. It was because the peace put an end to those, as he described them, hypocritical professions upon which the war was conducted, But, to Mr. Pitt belong the peace, the previous war, and the present war. All these three are to be viewed together; and all of them as the measures of the Pitts and Dundases; for, I repeat it again and again, that Mr. Addington acted constantly under their advice, not to say their controul.-To return, then, to their opinions, the hopes they held out to us, to the promises they made us, at the peace, and a specimen of which is given in the extract, the question we have to put to ourselves is, "have we any ground of reliance upon "such men Let us not be told, that this is no time for asking such questions. It is the proper time. It is the time when alone it is perfectly proper to ask them; because it is a time when we have the means of obtaining a solution. It is for want of wisdom in rulers, and foresight, in them, is the proof of wisdom, that nations suffer calamity and disgrace; and the degree of foresight possessed by Mr. Pitt and his colleagues may be easily ascertain ed by their opinions, compared with sub- not hesitate a moment to declare us insane. Nay, a person of that description will, as to these very observations, object, that they are, in whatever degree they are likely to produce effect, calculated to add to our present dangers, by compelling the ministers to employ, in the preservation of their places, some more of that time, the whole of which ought to be devoted to the preservation of the country. A ministry so weak, so feeble both in mind and in the number and character of their supporters, possessing so very little confidence amongst the people, and, if possible, still less abroad, never can retrieve affairs such as ours now are. Nations, like individuals, are prone to shut their eyes to their dangers, especially after they have been some time upon the decline, and when the declining circumstances come pretty regularly one after another. Yet, one would think, that, whoever reflects upon the state of the public mind at the conclusion of the Preliminaries of Peace; whoever reflects upon what would have been, at that time, said of Mr. Windham, if he had predicted, that, in less than four years from that day, they would see the navy of France arrived at its present pitch; would see that navy laying several of our West-India islands under contribution; capturing or destroying all the ships in their harbours; first capturing and then burning a rich convoy of our merchantmen; and in such force upon the coasts of Europe as to compel our squadrons to sheer off from its presence: whoever reflects upon what would have been said of him; who ever reflects upon the bitter invectives, the vile misrepresentations, the malignant im- 66 and from such a state of mind men are not tions" was faithfully retailed to us through we take leave of this subject, it may not be little, only a very small part, of what he said, upon the tardiness of the Admiralty to produce the papers called for by the House of Commons: "I must," said he, " beg "leave to differ with my right hon. friend, "in his observation, that the House, remarking this conduct of the Admiralty, "will be fatigued and give up the pursuit "in despair. God forbid! No: they will, 66. on the contrary, view it as a silent symp"tom of conscious guilt; they will, if they "see that there is a design to overthrow "that by management, which cannot be "resisted if fairly met, consider the Ad"miralty Board as labouring under the con"viction of delinquency; they will say, "that it carries with it strong symptoms of "dark, latent, lurking guilt, which covets "concealment. That, after all the sound"ing, proud boasts, challenges, and de"fiances, they sink into mean and wretched "pretences, hoping to secure themselves, "for a time, from the infamy of that de "tection that must come upon them at last. of Nay, that they are so fond of place, that, "for the sake of another week's life, they **will fall so low as to practice a little manœuvre on the House, and live upon the "precarious and temporary acquiescence "parliament." Such was his language with regard to Lord North and his colleagues. Such was his tone; such the style in which, when out of place, he arraigned the conduct of the King's government," of" his Majesty's confidential servants!" Whether his conduct (for as to that of the old gentleman at the Admiralty, whose name I have forgotten, that is out of the question) will become the subject of an inquiry is more than I can say; but, if it should, the passage here quoted from the reports of Debrett, 28th January, 1781, may be not altogether without its use. INVASION. This was the word last August; it was the word the August before; and it will be the word every August, as long as the Pitt system exists. There may be a year; or, perhaps, a couple of years, when, in consequence of a peace, we shall be less alarmed at the dangers of invasion; but, as long as that system remains, let who will be minister, we shall never again know a really tranquil month of August. Am I again told, that I say this, because I predicted, nearly four years ago, that such would be the consequence of the disgraceful conclusion of the last war? I answer, that, whatever may be the motive, from which I repeat this saying, it certainly is not rendered less true, nor less' worthy of attention, by the circumstance of its having been, thus far, fulfilled by events. Before I proceed to offer a few observations, which appear to me as likely to be useful in leading to a some what settled opinion as to the mighty event, which now again occupies so large a portion of the thoughts of the public, it seems proper to notice the manner, in which the diurnal prints are speaking of it; and, for reasons which will, as we proceed, become obvious enough, I shall quote the MORNING POST and the ORACLE, the two prints so amply quoted last year (Vol. VI. p. 570, et seq.) upon the subject of Mr. Pitt's and Lord Melville's decisive victory gained over the French flotilla by the catamarans. The Morning Post is not remarkable for a pithy style. Of words it is seldom sparing. What it has said upon the present occasion might, perhaps, have been expressed, full as well, if not better, in three sentences; but, in order to possess a complete view of the state of the writer's mind, and of the mind of the far greater part of his readers, we must take him as he lies before us; of the advantage of doing which we have an instance in the passage last year quoted from him, and . which we shall presently have occasion more particularly to refer to. He begins, as the reader will perceive, with an opinion that the enemy is coming, and concludes with expressing a wish that he may make good his landing. But, let us hear him; patiently, if we can; and, at any rate, let us hear him out. "An attempt was certainly "made by the enemy to put to sea on Sa"turday last, but a sudden change of wind "frustrated their intention. They con"tinue, however, in a perfect state of rea"diness to sail, and no doubt is entertained "of their determination to avail themselves "of the first favourable opportunity to carry "their design into execution. From the "French coast, similar intelligence has been "received, relative to the preparations and designs of the enemy in that direction; " and government, we repeat, entertain no doubt of the desperate attempt being shortly hazarded from different quarters. -To those who have minds capable of "being gratified with the sight of public "virtue, the efforts which are making by "our brave countrymen in arms to prepare "themselves for the threatened blow, and "the ardour which they manifest to meet "the unprincipled and implacable threatener, "must afford the highest possible enjoy"ment. But one sentiment pervades the 66 numerous ranks' of our gallant defenders. "Let, then, the enemy come; let them try "whether the British bayonet, the force "of which in other countries they have so "frequently and so fatally experienced, will "be pushed with less vigour on British ground. For our own parts, we contein"plate the approaching contest with calm "confidence; convinced, as we are, that the "day of combat will prove a day of glory "to Britain. There are, doubtless, indi"viduals who regard this patriotic spirit, " and the exertions to which it stimulates, "with the sneer of self-sufficient sagacity, " and who congratulate themselves on their superior wisdom in having avoided the "fatigues and inconveniences to which they see their neighbours cheerfully expose "themselves. We do not envy such men "the torpor of their feelings, although we "are willing to attribute it to an erroneous "estimate of the danger to which the coun coming, that it is supported neither by fact nor reasoning, and that, to all appearance, it has no foundation in truth. Of the "calm confidence," with which this " patriotic spirit contemplates the approaching contest," a tolerably correct judgment may be formed from the continsion of ideas, and the contradictory positions, so obvious through the whole of his remarks. 66 66 -Fright is generally, if not always, accompanied with anger, partly arising from a sense of danger and partly from that of the shime of appearing to be afraid; and, the objects of such anger are, those who cause the fright and those who are the witnesses of its effects. Accordingly, we see, that this patriotic spirit" falls about him, and that, too, without much rule or reason; for, at a moment when he was calling upon his readers for unanimous exertion, was it wise, was it "patriotic," to talk of persons, who "congratulate themselves in having avoided "the fatigues and inconveniencies, to which "they see their neighbours chearfully expose themselves?" Was this wise? And is the charge just? I am persuaded the reader will agree with me, that it is an insinuation totally groundless, and arising solely from the base feeling above described; and, if it could, coming through so contemptible a channel, produce any effect upon the public mind, it would be that of setting men on to reproach, and, perhaps, to murder one another. We have, we have been told a hundred times, 700,000 men in arms. whole population does not afford more than three times that number, capable of bearing arms; and yet, are we to be reproached, beCause we do not enough expose ourselves to fatigues and inconveniencies? And, is the proper person to reproach us, he who " pa 66 Our trioticly" expresses his wish to hear, that the enemy" has made good his landing?" -Not less malignant, nor less false, i, the imputation against Sir Francis Burdett, whose words, that "the country was not "worth defending," are placed within marks of quotation, as if extracted from some authentic report of a speech of his; when the fact is, as I have before shown, that he did not utter any such words, upon the occasion alluded to, and that, in all the other public prints except this very Morning Post, his words conveyed quite a different sentiment, which was this, that, when the people were called on for money, or for extra ordinary exertions of any sort, it was a proper time to redress their grievances,, and thereby inake them feel that their money would be useful to themselves and that their country was worth defending; a sentiment, Supplement to No. 8, Vol. Vill-Price 10d. |