regarded as more strictly and properly their own, had no slight tendency to recall their attention and interest to the proceedings of parliament: they expected that these members would bring forward subjects, not of mere party dispute, but such as would concern and benefit the whole nation.

It would far exceed our limits to offer even general and brief observations on every topic of essential and permanent interest, which was brought before parliament during the session of 1809. We shall therefore confine ourselves to those of primary importance, referring our readers, for a connected view of the whole proceedings of both houses, to the usual depart ment of our Register.

The subjects on which we mean to advert, naturally class themselves under three heads. In the first place, the state papers that were laid before parliament; of these, the correspondence with the Russian and French governments, relative to the overtures received last year from Erfurth, alone claim our notice and attention.

In the second place, the reports that were laid before the house of commons by the different committees appointed to examine and report upon public abuses and delinquencies: of these, the seventh and ninth reports of the commissioners of military inquiry, which respectively relate to abuses in the office of the secretary at war and in the West Indies, in a high degree de.

serve our consideration.

In the third place, we shall offer tome remarks on the proceedings in the house of commons, relative to the duke of York; a subject of the highest interest and moment, not only in itself, but as having led the way to several other debates

and investigations, connected with it in principle, and scarcely inferior in importance: we refer more particularly to the abuse of East-India patronage; to the charges against ford Castlereagh, and to Mr. Curwen's bill for better securing the purity of parliament; Mr. Wardle's plan of aconomical reform; and the plan proposed by sir Francis Burdett for a reform in the representation of the public; the one incidentally, the other directly, flowing from the proceedings respecting the duke of York, claim also our attentive consideration.

On a perusal of the correspondence with the Russian and French governments, relative to the overtures for peace received from Er furth, it is impossible not to be struck with the subserviency of the Russian emperor to the interests and schemes of Bonaparte. The sentiments contained in the letters from count Romanzoff the Russian minister breathe the same appearance of moderation and disinterestedness with respect to the wishes of his master, as Bonaparte so well knows how to assume, when he is anxious to disguise his real intentions and character, and to draw from the unreflecting, and deceived multitude of France, praises on the peaceable nature of his disposition. Even the language in which he conveys the overtures of his master, savours strongly of the French school. In short, every passage contained in the letters of the Russian minister might, without fear of detection or misapprehension, have been received and acknowledged as conveying the sentiments of the French government, and as palpably and une. quivocally conveyed in the style' which it usually employs in diplomatic correspondence, if the letters

had not possessed the signature of count Romanzoff.

The first letter from the Russian minister is dated Erfurth, October the 21st. In this his excellency as sures Mr. Canning, that no change of circumstance can possibly break or interrupt the union between the two empires of Russia and France. These sentiments, like their interests, correspond, whether peace or yar be determined upon. Advert ing to the letter from the emperor, which his own enclosed, he expresses the hopes entertained by his master, that his Britannic majesty will perceive the grandeur and sincerity of the step which the emperors have taken, in order to prove their anxious wish for the reestablishment of peace. In order that the English government might be blamed, as indisposed to amicable arrangements, if they refused to entertain the peaceable sentiments held forth by the two emperors, the count expressly declares, that their imperial majesties see no difficulty in adopting, as the basis of the proposed negotiation, all those formerly proposed by Great Britain, viz. the uti possidetis, and every other basis which should imply or rest upon that reciprocity and equality that ought always to prevail between great nations. Here we have a striking and indubitable example and proof of that adroitness, with which the French, in all ages, and in a more especial manner since the revolution, have removed the odium of protracted hostility from themselves, and fixed-it on their rivals.

The letter of the two emperors is a still more refined specimen of French diplomatic finesse; although some may be of opinion that the regular and methodical

use of peaceful sentiments, and the strained breathings after that which they acknowledge all Europe needs and wishes for, is too barefaced to deceive those who reflect that they proceed from two men, one of whom has been nurtured in greatness and power by a continued state of warfare, to which, by his ha bits, not less than by his natural disposition, he is incessantly borne forward; and that the other, while professing an anxious wish for peace, has sold himself to the ruling cause and prime mover of war.

Can any assertion be more palpably erroneous than that which attributes the changes which have taken place in Europe, and the overthrowing of its states, to the agitation and misery in which the stagnation of maritime commerce has placed the greatest nations? Is whatever sense the phrase, maritime commerce, be taken, it can in no respect, either directly or indi rectly, either by itself or connected with other causes, be regarded as the source from which the slavery and wretchedness of Europe have proceeded. Could not the emperors of Russia and of France have discovered some more natural cause of the misery which they deplore? Does the latter deem himself entirely guiltless of it, when he brings back to his memory and his conscience the transactions in which he has been engaged for these last ten years? Had he not been born, or had he been born with that love of peace which he pretends to possess, does he actually think that the states of Europe would have heen overthrown, and her people steeped in slavery and wretchedness!

To the vague expressions of a desire for peace, mixed up with no indirect insinuation, that his Britannic

the Britannic majesty was deaf to voice of humanity, and listened only to that of the passions, Mr. Canning replied in a manner, at once diguined and open,-in a manner, which evinced a sincere disposition on the part of his master to accede to terms of peace, while it was very properly far removed from that overstrained anxiety for it, which proved either insincerity, weakness, or meanness,

He at once declares, in the most explicit and positive terms, that unless France acknowledges the government of Spain as party to the negotiation, he cannot, consistently with his own honour, with the faith of treaties, or with those principles of liberty and independence which must always unite the British nation more firmly than any treaties can possibly do, with a people struggling for their independence and the government of their ances tors, and of their own choice, listen to any pacific overtures. That his Russian majesty intended to include Spain as the ally of Great Britain if the proffered negotiation, his majesty cannot entertain the most slight or distant doubt, when he calls to mind the lively interest which his imperial majesty has always expressed for the digrity and welfare of the Spanish monarchy; that he must view with indignation, as repugnant to his sense and justice, and to his principles of national independence, the usurpations begun and carried on in that kingdom, his Britannic majesty must believe, since the empsfor could never sanction, by his concurrence or approbation, a mode of conduct which directly tends to the overthrow of all legitimate go

vernment.

In reply to this letter, and to an official note of Mr. Canning's, in

which that gentleman, with perhaps too much of his characteristic sarcasm, scarcely hides his satisfaction at the calamitous effects acknowledged by the emperors to have been produced by the anticommercial system of Bonaparte,count Romanzoff enters at large into the question respecting the admission to the congress for peace, of plenipotentiaries from Spain; and in this place it is impossible not to perceive how subservient his imperial majesty is to the designs of Bonaparte, and yet how unwilling he is to examine into the justice of those designs, or into their connexion or coincidence with the interests of himself and his empire. He repeats that he is united to the emperor of the French for peace as well as for war; and declares, that by his having already acknowledged Joseph Napoleon king of Spain, he is debarred from admitting to the congress those whom he calls the plenipotentiaries of the Spanish insurgents, even had he been disposed, as he is not, to assent to the principle on which his Britannic majesty contended for their admis sion. Though the language of Mr. Canning's letter and official note was so very strong and definite, that it could not possibly have been misunderstood; and, if understood, must have spoken plainly the determination of his Britannic majesty to consider himself bound by a more solemn and higher obligation than a mere positive engage ment to the cause and interests of the Spanish nation; yet the Russian minister, in his reply, affects to see with pleasure, that, as there was no express engagement with Spain, there could be no obstacie, either to prevent or delay the opening of

a congress.

In the official note of M. Cham R 3 pagny,

pagny, the French minister for foreign affairs, the wounded pride and ambition of his master breaks through the usual mild and peaceable tone of French diplomatic correspondence. In the former letters, Bonaparte had declared him self anxious to put an end to the horrors of war; and had ascribed the misery and desolation of Europe to the stagnation of maritime commerce. In this note his language is entirely changed; he is affronted, that it should have been supposed possible, that the misery which he acknowledges to exist, had weakened his ability to carry on the war, and that his desire for peace could have originated from any other source, but that principle of moderation, which is the true characteristic of power and real greatness. Respecting the admission of the Spanish plenipotentiaries, he feels so indignant, that his true greatness forsakes him; he cannot reason; he bitterly asks, What would the English government have said, had it been proposed to them to admit the catholic insurgents of Ireland? His close and irrevocable union with Russia is held forth, as calculated to preclude England from any chance of again rousing the powers of the continent, or contending here with the armies of France.

The correspondence terminated with a reply from Mr. Canning to count Romanzoff, and another to M. Champagny. In the former, his Britannic majesty expresses his astonishment and regret, that he should have been expected to join in a negotiation for peace, by the previous abandonment of his allies the Spaniards, and the sacrifice of his own honour and that of his people. His majesty is at a loss to conceive by what arguments or

considerations, or upon what prin ciples of interest, duty, or policy, the emperor of Russia has been led to sanction and approve of the unprovoked and unjust attack made by the government of France upon the sovereignty of Spain. If his imperial majesty is determined to carry his union with France, so far as to establish by war, and maintain in peace, the fight of that government to trample under foot the most sacred and inviolable rights of mankind, by the deposi tion and imprisonment of friendly sovereigns, and the forcible transference to herself of the allegiance of loyal and independent nations, his majesty must lament such a determination; but he cannot upbraid himself with protracting the period of peace, if peace could be obtained, only by the sacrifice of justice and of hopour.

In the short reply to M. Cham. pagny, Mr. Canning contents himself with expressing his majesty's firm determination not to abandon the cause of the Spanish nation, and of the legitimate monarchy of Spain. Did he accede to the proposals of France, to exclude from the negotiation the plenipotentiaries sent by the provisional go vernment, acting in the name and under the authority of Ferdinand the Seventh, he should be virtually acquiescing in an usurpation unparalleled in the history of mankind.

Although the reports of the commissioners of military inquiry have neither appeared so frequently, attracted so much attention, nor been productive of such beneficial effects, as was expected by many people, yet they have a strong claim on our deep consideration, The benefits they may produce, and which they would necessarily produce, if they were properly ta

ken