Vol. III. No. 17.

Saturday, October 24, 1807.

Price 10d.

321

DISPUTE WITH AMERICA.

After the full examination of the question relative to the right of search, and after the principles laid down in a former number of this volume, it was unnecessary to expatiate farther upon the subject, inasmuch as I could offer, in other words, only a repetition of the reasonings, which I had before advanced. Upon this account, I gave notice that it would be prudent to suspend our judgments, respecting the points in dispute, until we had been put in possession of all the facts, connected with them. Since the publication of those sentiments, I have received, from an English gentleman at Philadelphia, a series of American papers, in which the matters, under consideration, are canvassed with the accustomed impartiality, temperance, and amicable disposition, which sigualize the Americans in all their differences with this country. In the letter which accompanied the parcel, he says, "As the details, &c. relative to the transaction between his Britannic majesty's ship Leopard, and the United States frigate, are extremely interesting, I presumed these papers would afford you ample matter to comment upon in your future numbers. I would particularly direct your attention to an extract in this day's paper, headed "National Intelligencer." This paper is always considered to be the organ of the sentiments of the executive; from which it appears, that this government are determined to provoke hostilities. Should this be the result of the present negociation, I have no doubt but the predictions of your Review of the 18th of April, (the last I have received) would be verified to the

utmost extent."

What those predictions were, the readers will perceive by referring to the 293rd page of our second volume. They will also find, amongst the State Papers of the Proclamations of the President of the United States, respecting the engagement between the Leopard and the Chesapeak, and of admiral Berkeley, authorizing the search of the American frigate, for the persons who had deserted from our service. In the same number also, are the observations which I offered in justification of the measure. We now come to the demi-official extract to which my correspondent alludes. I shall subjoin to it, a summary of the proceedings upon the trial of one of these deserters, the whole of which would be too long for our linits, and then, being in possession of the facts, as stated by both parties, I shall pronounce that opinion upon them, which the evidence before us, entitles me to give.

The following is the extract from the American paper of July 13" There is no doubt that whatever hope may be entertained of preserving peace, we ought to be prepared for war, as it is most probable we shall have it. It, therefore, becomes the nation, by all the means in their power, to prepare for an event, which will require their greatest exertions. For we venture to predict that the war, once begun by our country, will be waged, on our part, with a determination to make our enemy feel the full weight of that vengeance, that a free and powerful nation possesses,-the power of inflicting. Just in proportion to the value we set on peace, will be the greatness of our efforts to shorten the period of war, and crown those efforts with victory. Let not Britain imagine that we shall again exhibit the same languid and inactive scene of hostilities, that characterised our revolutionary struggle. Since that era, we have more than doubled our numbers, and our wealth, and resources, and, consequently, our means of resistance have more than quadrupled. "We have ten times as much circulating specie.

"We have an established credit, on which the government may draw to an almost unlimited amount.

"Our navigation is ten times as great, which may be, and probably would be, nearly the whole of it, converted into letters of marque and reprisal, which, by the extent of their captures, would probably yield us a more liberal supply of foreign production, than is at present received through the ordinary channels of trade.

VOL. III. —NO, 17,

"And as to the sale of our surplus produce, the very war would increase the demand for it, while it diminished its amount. For, in the first place, as a considerable number of the bands usually employed in agriculture, would be engaged in defending the country, either as regulars or militia; it would follow, necessarily, that a less aggregate amount of produce would be raised, leaving, consequently, a smaller surplus than in times of peace. And, in the second place, the European demand would remain the same; and, notwithstanding all the obstructions given by the British fleet to its free passage over the ocean, such is the nature of most of the articles, and the absolute necessity of obtaining them, that Britain, from an indispensable regard to her own interests, would continue to supply herself with them through neutral channels. Neither her subjects can live, nor her manufactures go on without them.

"It may be safely inferred from these considerations, that there is not the least room for apprehension that our products will sustain any such depression in price, as that 'experienced during the revolutionary war. There is one other circumstance that will, in no inconsiderable degree, prevent this effect. Many of our citizens, now engaged in agriculture, will turn their attention to manufactures, the necessary effect of which, will be a diminution in the quantity of our surplus production, by lessening the number of growers, and increasing the number of consumers among ourselves. We do not pretend to say, that war will not depress the prices of produce; we only mean to contend, that this depression will be, by no means, so great or ruinous as it was during the late war."

This hostile denunciation, my correspondent assures us, we may consider as the voice of the government. At a meeting of the citizens of Richmond, Manchester, and their neighbourhood, holden on the 27th of last June, and at which were present, the judge of the court of appeals, the honourable Spencer Roane, who was chosen chairman, the honourable Alexander M'Rea, the lieutenant governor, and the honourable Creed Taylor, the chancellor; resolutions were entered into of a nature so inflammatory, and in their object so strongly indicative of a wish to precipitate the United States into a war with Great Britain, that I amn half inclined to advise they should be gratified in their pious and patriotic wish, by way of teaching them a lesson of moderation for the future. The following extract, from the preamble to the resolutions which they passed upon that occasion, will serve as a sufficient sample of the amicable and pacific sentiments which the Americans cherish toward this country. "We compare this monstrous outrage, (committed in the moment of treaty) with other acts of usurpation and aggression, practised upon us by the same nation;-their impressments of our seamen, so long continued, and their gross and perpetual violations of our commerce, which they have the effrontery to advocate even from their tribunals of law: the review confirms us in the belief, that the attack on the Chesapeak is not the act either of commodore Douglas or admiral Berkeley, any more than the act of the Oriental slave who licks the dust from the foot of despotism, is the act of the slave and not of the despot: but that this attack is the act of the British government; and simply another effusion of the same spirit, which produced their impressments and commercial spoliations. This act i. of the stamp and colour with the rest. We beheld in it all, a consistent picture; a nation. insolent in the consciousness of her naval strength,-totally regardless of the rights of others, totally regardless of all law, reason, and humanity,-destitute of every motive, feeling, and principle, which binds civilized nations together, and having no rule of actions whatever, but self aggrandisement, and the gratification of her own caprices by brutal force. We compare this bloody violence with the caresses and attentions, which they are even now shewing to our minister at their feasts ip London; and we behold a nation, which, to the picture of black and savage piracy, adds the features of smiling treachery and mean hypocrisy! A nation which her actions proclaims the opinion, that we are not only so feeble as to be insulted and outraged with impunity, but so weak and foolish as to be amused for ever with the perfidious semblance of a negociation for the redress of our wrongs, while she takes the shorter cut of blood and battle for the attainment of her purposes... With a nation of such principles and such practices, we wish no friendship, no intercourse: to such complicated and incessant wrongs, continually aggravated in proportion to our patience, we are disposed to submit no longer."

་་

Inspired with these swelling epithets, the American newspapers are filled with accounts of martial preparations, marches, and counter-marches. A prodigious deal of bustling has taken place, and the ardour for combat is so great, that even the school-boys, in the godly town of Salem, who have formed themselves into a corps of Lilliputian artillery, are not allowed to play at soldiers without being celebrated for their zeal and patriotism in the instructive columns of the American journals. Nor have the school-misses been deficient in the expressions of their inward and spiritual feelings; for we are told that a Salemite damsel, named Archer, who is represented in the polite phraseology of the Trans-Atlantic's, as "a miss of eleven years of age," was led to hold forth, in the presence of the assembled citizen-soldiers, and to present a standard to the Mechanic Light Infantry corps. I did not imagine that the Yankees would have imitated the ridiculous and contemptible fashions of Europe; nor did I think that the haughty republican spirit would have brooked the great degradation of being taught their duties by an "Amiable Miss" of eleven years of age, much less of copying the absurd, unmilitary, and nonsensical ceremonials which have too often attended the presentation of colours to the volunteer bands of Britain. But, I believe, we may lay it down as an universal truth, that mankind are more disposed, closely to imitate follies than to tread in the steps of sobriety.*

But to return,-Having shewn in what manner the Americans are affected toward us, I shall proceed to exhibit the other side of the question; premising that, though I have only selected one or two instances illustrative of the sentiments of that people, the papers which have been transmitted to me, are replete with similar sounds and fury. But we have no room to admit the publication of them: it is sufficient for our purpose to know, that they are all of the same tenour, and nearly couched in the same language; and that they persist in the most flagrant falsehoods respecting the reclaim ed deserters, whom they call American citizens, though one of them has been formally proved to have been a British subject, and, upon that score, has been since tried, and hanged for desertion.

From the minutes of the proceedings of the court martial, holden on board the Belleisle, in Halifax harbour, Nova Scotia, for the trial of Jenkin Ratford, one of the deserters from his majesty's ship Halifax, and who was afterwards found on board the American frigate Chesapeak, after she had struck to the Leopard; several important facts have been disclosed, which not only acquit our commanders upon that station of even a shadow of crimination for hasty or unwarrantable conduct, but also convict the American magistracy, the American commodore Barron, the American receiving officers on shore, and the American rabble, of prevarication, lying, subor nation of perjury, treachery, and outrage. It was established, by incontrovertible evidence, in the course of Ratford's trial, that four of the men who deserted from the Halifax, were British-born subjects, and that the fifth, though born in Philadel phia, had voluntarily entered into his majesty's service, at Antigua. It is clear, therefore, that, having deserted, and entered themselves in the service of the United States, they were all hangable men. Ratford did not pretend to deny that he was a British subject and a deserter; on the contrary, when called upon for his defence, he stated, that "the evidence against him was so strong, there was little left for him to say in his defence." What he did offer to the court was merely in extenuation of his guilt, and in making this attempt, he disclosed a piece of villainy, which displays, in the fullest light, the frauds, tricks, chicanery, and dishonourable conduct, even of the American naval officers. When captain Townsend (who mentioned the

* This infant heroine, who was obtruded upon the Salemites as the donor of their standard, is the daughter of their colonel; which is somewhat less indecorous than some ceremonies which I have known to have occurred more than once in England, in which the commander's wife was the principal actress, and actually presented the colours, with a suitable lecture, to her own husband, who, of course made a very gallant and respectful reply, with several profound reverences. There ought to be no standard except the king's, and it ought to be looked upon with awe and love by every beholder. Colours have become too cheap every where. If the standard were regarded as the most sacred pledge of martial prowess, we should not hear of su many being taken in battle.

following fact in his evidence, upon oath, on Ratford's trial) applied to the American lieutenant, Sinclair, who was entering men for the Chesapeak, to have the deserters given up, he received for answer from the lieutenant, an infamous and wilful lie; namely, that there were no men entered for the Chesapeak, by the names which captain Townsend had mentioned. And moreover, when captain Townsend applied to him a second time, and offered to point out the men, if Sinclair would allow him to go into the rendezvous, Sinclair returned no answer. Now, we should never have come at the real state of the case, if Ratford had not, from an anxiety to soften his own criminality in the eyes of the court, dropt an unguarded expression respecting the manœuvres of these honest and honourable American officers. He stated, that "he, with all the men who had deserted from the Halifax, were persuaded by the boatswain to enter for the Chesapeak to protect themselves, which they did; lieutenant Sinclair, (observe this! the very same Sinclair who, with a lying quibble in his mouth, denied that the men had entered into the American service,) asking them, if they had not a second name?" If Sinclair meant that all should be fair above board, he would not have suggested to them the adoption of a trick, which was worthy only of the lowest order of pickpockets in St. Giles's; he would not, as a man of honour, have countenanced a rank and downright act of perjury. Thus, we are let in to a knowledge of the character of these American men of honour, who affect to call themselves gentlemen. If they descend to such unprincipled practices, what can be expected from their fellow-citizens?

It will be recollected, that when the American account of this affair reached England, I requested my readers to keep their minds in a state of indifference until the British account should be laid before them. It is now in my power to lay before them the statement of the transaction as published in the Nova Scotia paper, together with the spirited proclamation of admiral Berkeley. From the contents of this document, it is now indisputable, that the outrage, insult, and infringement of neutrality, which have occasioned so many animadversions at home, were perpetrated by the Americans upon us, and not by us upon the Americans. Let us, therefore, attend to the Halifax article. 66 By this time the orders of admiral Berkeley are made known in the United States; they were founded on the following facts.In the month of Febru ary or March, a lieutenant of the American navy, opened a rendezvous in the town of Norfolk, in Virginia, for the Chesapeak frigate, then fitting out at Washington. Many deserters from his majesty's ships, then lying in the Chesapeak, entered with this officer, in particular from the Chichester, who, in consequence of running on shore, was alongside the wharf at Norfolk, and part of the Zenobia's crew, who was stranded near the Capes. These deserters, and many more belonging to the Halifax, Melampus, &c. were openly paraded in the streets, by the lieutenant, under the American flag, and frequently met by their former officers, and reclaimed by them, but were told by the lieutenant, that, although he knew they were deserters, he could not give them up without orders from his government.- -A remonstrance was then made by the British consul to the chief magistrate of Norfolk, who refused acting in it, or authorizing any, thing which might be done by their own officers to take them. This was officially communicated to his Britannic majesty's minister at Washington, who represented it to the secretary of state and president, whose answers were, that having entered the American service, and claimed its protection, they were to be considered as citizens, and therefore could not be given up; besides, that some, be understood, were impressed men.These applications were frequently renewed, and always the same answers returned. At this time it was ascertained, that above one hundred deserters from the British artillery actually composed a part of the crew of the Chesapeak. The account was sent to England with a description of such men as could be positively fixed upon, with the admiral's orders issued upon the occasion, and similar accounts were transmitted to every other quarter where the British flag was flying. In the month of July the Chesapeak sailed, and the occurrence of searching her took place.The crimping of English seamen, both from the merchant service as well as from the men of war of Great Britain, had arisen to that height, and so far from being able to avail themselves of that friendly intercourse, which in a neutral country, the English had a right to expect; not a boat could be

trusted on shore, from the ships in Hampton roads, and all communication was carried on by two pilot boats, hired for the purpose, and manned by petty officers of his majesty's navy. The officers of the Chichester were not exempt. One, a murderer, being sheltered from justice, although at last surrendered of his own accord; the other, the gunner of the Chichester, seduced by the lieutenant's promises of promotion in the American navy, deserted; and actually officiating in the Chesapeak frigate, met with his death; a circumstance totally dropt in the account given of this affair, by commodore Barron, or his officers, as well as the three other seamen who were killed; and who were all Englishmen and deserters. The men taken by the Leopard are all of that description, and one in particular, belonging to the Halifax, had not only received the king's bounty, but seventeen pounds additional, given by this province.There is no doubt but that if the Leopard could have identified them by some of their own officers, many of the Chichester's, as well as the Zenobia's men would have been found, as the prisoners have since confessed they were on board; but as the captain of the Leopard could only identify those whose officers were on board, and actually recognized them, they were suffered to remain."In the former number wo mentioned, that admiral Berkeley had promised a pardon to all deserters from his inajesty's ships in the American seas, on their immediately returning to their duty. The following is a copy of this paper, which, we are happy to hear has, to a great degree, been productive of the desired effect : "BRITISH SEAMEN. As the hearts of all true British seamen are, like their native oak, honest, tough, and unchangeable, and never can be induced to countenance hostilities against Old England, the admiral and commander in chief of his majesty's squadron on this coast, proclaims a free and unqualified pardon to all those deluded men (mutincers excepted) who have been induced to quit his majesty's ships of war, on condition they return immediately to their duty-and every other British seaman, who shall voluntarily enter for his majes ty's service, shall receive the full and additional bounties, upon joining any of his majesty's ships. Applying for conveyance to his Britannic majesty's consuls, so that he may be sent to Halifax. -Given under my hand, this 14th July, 1807, at Halifax, Nova Scotia.- -G. C. BERKELEY." (To be Continued.)

VIEWS OF RUSSIA,

SIR,-For some time past, I have been a regular reader of your periodical work, which has, in general, met my entire approbation; more especially in the bold and masterly attacks made by you on the conduct of the late administration; and on the pusillanimity, want of exertion, and energy, displayed by them, in regard to our foreign connections, highly contrasted by the overbearing, harsh mode usually adopted by them, in bringing forward their new, ill-concerted, and rash measures of internal policy. Your predictions, of the consequences of this conduct, have been already, in many instances, completely verified; in some I am sorry, for my country's sake, to say, to an extent that you yourself seem scarcely to be aware of. For it appears to me, that this country is suffering, at present, very severely, and is likely to suffer still more, under the fatal effects of the conduct of "All the Talents," in not giving any assistance to the northern powers in their last struggle with the French despot, and more particularly, as strongly and justly stated by you, in your paper of the 18th July last, in neglecting, or refusing, to send any vessels or troops to the Baltic, last spring;, when a few ships of war, and 25 or 30,000 men, would have been of such essential service to the general cause. Had that number of troops been sent in time to co-operate with the Swedes, in the diversion they made in Pomerania, general Essen would have been saved the necessity of making the unfortunate armistice, which sealed the fate of the north of Europe. I always looked upon that as a fatal oversight, and daily events now concur to convince me thereof. When this armistice took place, however, it was thought little of in this country; it was passed over as an incident of trifling consequence, nor did our ministry conceive it necessary to take any decisive step to counteract its effects. Buonaparte knew better what use to make of it, and what advantage it would be to him; besides freeing him from all danger of having his rear attacked, or even harassed, and his supplies cut off, it enabled him, at once, to augment his grand army with 70 or 80,000 of his finest troops, which he had been obliged to leave behind, to oppose the Swedes, &c. as also