Sir stance of the depreciation of our paper- "sentiment. All eyes have been turned on "the English, in the hope of finding in them their liberators; but their cold"ness and apathy have left every one to the pangs of despair. All this cannot "do less than produce the saddest consequences to their own cause; in a word, this kingdom is on the eve of its destruc❝tion, and with it the British army, the "subsidies which have been so long la"vished on it, the immense sums spent "for its defence, and besides, all the views which ever could have induced the Bri"tish Government to so expensive an undertaking. Whenever we see a man selling off all the furniture of his house, "we conclude that he is going to leave it. "The Proclamations declaring the in "tended sale of all government property "were inclosed with the above letter, in "their original language, and printed at "Palermo. Is it natural to suppose that "the royal family in Sicily have any in"tention of remaining there, when they "are selling off all the principal bases on "which the public revenue of their own "kingdom reposed?"--Now, if there be any truth as to the main points stated in this letter, what a war we are waging in Sicily! I have often had to observe upon our efforts to deliver nations against the will of the people; but if this letter speak truth, we are bent upon the deliverance of Sicily against the will of both people and sovereign. The statements may, perhaps, be untrue; but, what are we to think of the declaration of the king of Sicily, which will be found in another part of this Number? It has not often happened, that kings have issued declarations in contradiction to mere rumour.It is very curious to see what a change has been produced by our war against the Jacobins and Reformers. We seem no where to have any cordial friends. Those whom we side This, though it does not appear to with do not seem to like us. There ap- have excited much attention in the pubpears to be every where a suspicion of us; lic, is a matter of vast moment. It is the and a partiality towards the French, in dawn and only the mere dawn of what is spite of all they have done.The cause to come. I will, therefore, endeavour to is, that no people can now rely upon a place it in a clear light.—Officers of defence against the French. We have the Navy, when on foreign stations, obnot the means of affording permanent pro- tain their pay by drawing bills of exchange tection. Experience has now taught the upon the government at home; and, of course, governments of Europe, that our alliance if the paper-money, in which those bills is fatal, and that is the cause of their in- are finally paid at home, be depreciated, decision, We have done, perhaps, all the bills will not obtain so much of the that we were able to do; but, then, it fol- money of the country, whence they send lows, that, in that way, we are not able to the bills, as they would obtain if the paper. do exough. The expence of the war is money was not depreciated. For, inBow become enormous from the circum-stance, if I am at Malta and draw a bill NAVAL OFFICERS' PAY.—A curious debate has taken place in the House of Commons on this subject; but, it does not appear to be clearly understood by the public. A motion was made by CAPTAIN BENNETT for causing such an arrangement to be made as that the officers of the navy might always receive their pay at par, when on foreign stations. at Malta; so that he gets his £.200 to send to England, and has 296 dollars left in his bag.No, no; SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, this is not a natural state of things: it is not a state of things that can last: and, we have in these very facts another instance, and a very striking one too, of the manner, in which the paper-money will work upon us.--It will, by-and-by, be felt sensibly in the soldier's pay at home, who, though he has bread and meat at a fixed price, will wonder how his pay comes to produce him so much less than it used to do. It will work through all departments. It will affect every body whose income is of a fixed nature, as to nominal amount; and, in this way it will fulfil the predictions of PAINE, that "that which has been the "cause of our strength, will become the "cause of our weakness." I had partly prepared an article upon the subject of Parliamentary Reform, in answer to the Morning Chronicle, but I have not time to finish it.--The debate, upon LORD FOLKESTONE'S motion relative to the sentences upon Messrs. COLLYER and DRAKARD, which debate insert below, shall be noticed in my next; when I shall endeavour to exhibit a true comparison between the government of Buonaparté and that of England, especially relative to the press, and to the treatment of soldiers—In the mean while, I hope the debate will be read. for a hundred pounds upon the government at home, and that bill be paid in guineas, I can get 445 dollars (all but a fraction) for the bill; but, if the bill, when it comes home is paid in a papermoney, worth, as Mr. HORNER has acknowledged, only 15s. 10d. in the pound; then I cannot, of course, get so many dollars for my bill; because, when the bill comes to England, it will not fetch so many dollars here. The real fact, at this time, is, that, at Malta, for instance, the naval bill upon the government at home will not sell for so much by 33 per centum as if we had real money in England to pay the bill with. This is what is meant when people say, that the exchange is 33 per centum against England.Now, suppose a captain of the Navy to be stationed at Malta, and suppose his pay to be £.200 a-year. He draws his bill for his pay; and, if our paper-money were not depreciated, or if we paid the bill in guineas, his bill would fetch him 890 dollars at Malta. But, as things now stand, his bill will fetch him only 594 dollars. This is something worthy of attention. Aye, the reader must be as blind as some other good folks appear to be, if he does not see, that this will lead to consequences; for, GO ON IT MUST as sure and certain as time will go on.--Oh! they begin to feel the thing, do they! They will possibly begin to doubt of the wisdom of all the fine sayings about the solidity of the Bank Take my word for it, that those are drollish times that make Naval Officers study and understand Political Economy. ◄ But, the contrast between the Naval and Military Officer makes the thing more plain. For, as the Army are paid upon the spot, they do not suffer from the exchange. So that, observe, the Captain in the Army gets for his £.200 of pay 890 dollars, while the Naval Officer gets, for his £.200 of pay, only 594 dollars. This is droll work! This is a state of things that is not made to last for ever.Suppose now, that the Naval Officer and the Military Officer have £.200 of pay due to each, and that "Sir John Throckmorton,—I can they are both at Malta. The Naval Officer hardly hope to be pardoned, if I shew so draws his bill and wants to get dollars for little gratitude to the last Speaker, as to it. The Military Officer gets his pay in find the least fault with any part of his dollars from the paymaster; and, as he most excellent Speech. But I beg your wants to send his money home to his wife, patience for a few moments, while I conas all good husbands in the army and fess that I cannot entirely agree with him every where else ought to do, he buys his in his lamentations for the out-lawed fanaval friend's bill, and gives him 594 dol-mily of guineas. This subject is intimately lars for it, of course, that being its worth connected with the business of the Meet WM. COBBETT. State Prison, Newgate, Friday, REFORM OF PARLIAMENT. Sir;-attended the Meeting at the FreeMason's-Tavern yesterday; and it is no wonder that the impression made upon me by the sight of so many respectable men convened from all parts of the country for the best of purposes, continued after I fell asleep. I dreamed that I addressed the Meeting as soon as Mr. Northmore sat down, in the following words: to alarm the most timid with a fear of insolvency. Suppose the House of Commons would never suffer Ministers to create a debt for delivering Europe out of the hands of the Buonapartés, and into the hands of the Bourbons. Suppose it was a maxim never to be violated, that the debt of the nation should be kept so low as that any creditor might, at any time, be sure of selling his share at its full value. On these suppositions, what would be the proper circulating paper-credit of the country? What! but Bank receipts and dividend warrants? I do not at all wonder at the sensation which this proposal has caused. The very mention of Government paper is connected with the ideas of ruin. I hear a gentleman observe, that all governments who have issued paper have been bankrupt. They were bankrupt before they issued paper; or they were governments whose land and labour, on which the security of alt credit must rest, were as insecure as the paper itself.-I do not say that this, or any other good may be effected without a R form of Parliament. But with a Reform, what may not be hoped for? A million a year saved to the nation; which now goes into Ing, and if viewed in what appears to me to be the true light, furnishes a fresh argument for a Reform of the Commons House of Parliament. In the first place, I cannot see how those same guineas can properly be called out-laws. They are not natives of this country. They were born in America, christened in Africa, and wandered to Europe, many of them in their way to Asia. Again, be pleased to recollect how they employed themselves while they were here. What were the places which they most avoided? The purses of Patriots. What the places which they were most fond of frequenting? The pockets of Court-Sycophants. Sir, the gentleman who spoke last tells us that he is a West-Country-Man: He has therefore, seen rotten Boroughs as plenty as Blackberries. Into which of those boroughs have not the guinea family crept, on dirty errands from the Treasury? Have they not been the go-betweens in every act of corruption? When you call to mind the numberless deeds of pollution in which they have been concerned, and remember, at the same time, the sacred head which is impressed upon them, you cannot but feel highly indignant. But when it occurs to you that the reverse is the arms of Great-the pockets of the proprietors of BankBritain, your indignation must be unbounded. You probably guess that I am going to be the Panegyrist of the family by which the guineas are succeeded; the ragged race of Bank-Notes. Nothing is farther from my intention. They are still worse than their predecessors. It is true, they are natives. They are cocknies. They were born and bred in Threadneedle Street: And happy would it have been if they had ended their days there. It is also true, that they are free from the guilt of disgracing the Ensigns of their King and Country. But in corrupt practices they equal, I believe they exceed the family that is gone into exile. They have moreover, a vice which, in these times, is looked upon as the worst of all vices, the vice of inherent poverty. Sir, the whole family is not worth a shilling. What then, are we to have no sort of money? neither coin nor credit? Enough of both: but upon a few suppositions. Suppose you should succeed at last in what so many good men have attempted, a Reform of the Representation. Suppose your Representatives should keep a proper watch over the expenditure of public money. Suppose they should insist upon it that the National Debt should never rise so high as Stock: An easy and unexpensive transfer of government securities: the whole host of stock-jobbers disbanded: Variations in the price of Stocks totally precluded: an end to the disgrace of creating a debt of 20 millions, merely that the signs of that debt may be a circulating medium; when we have a debt of 700 millions already created, without having confidence enough in go vernment to circulate any part of the acknowledgements of this debt: saving of the expence of foreign gold, without any danger from its substitute: a legal tender to which no man could object, because every man would take it willingly and without force. It is not my intention to go further at present, into this intricate but interesting department of political economy. If the out-line which I have drawn be correct, as I firmly believe it is, there are many in this assembly who are more capable of filling it up than I am. At all events, let Meetings, like the present, be stated, calm and constitutional. Let every thing that can with propriety, be conceded to unanimity. If, as just now, an apple of discord be thrown among us, let it not be taken up. Rejoicing in every point that may be gained, let us not remit our exertions REED 'till the Constitution be restored to its had been charged not only by the Lawpurity. Above all, take care not to fol-yers against him, but by the Judge on the low the advice which is given by a friend of those recreant Reformers, the Whigs, to ⚫ bind ourselves to ask nothing more, if perchance some alteration, in point of form, should be made in the existing system." I was roused from sleep by a sound, whether of disapprobation or applause, I am not able to recollect.-I am, Sir, what your generous attachment to a banished family will per haps make you readily believe, June 11, 1811. A DREAMER. LORD FOLKESTONE rose to make his promised motion for the production of the Criminal Informations against Messrs. Drakard and Collyer for libels, and he was happy that at length he was enabled to do so while the Attorney-General was in his place. The sentence that had been passed upon those men appeared to him to be of a most cruel and severe kind-and he would shortly state the circumstances of the prosecutions to the House, which he thought would abundantly prove that he was correct in his designation of the punishment. The libel for which Mr. Drakard had been prosecuted appeared first in his own paper, The Stamford News, from which it had been copied by a London news-paper. Against the Editor of this latter paper a criminal information had been filed by the Attorney-General. The matter came on for trial at Westminster Hall, and the accused had been acquitted by the Jury. It was not his intention to go into the details of the prosecution against Mr. Drakard at the present time but from the complaints that had been made, that there were persons who wished to overturn all establishments, and especially the judicial establishments, he should have thought it politic not to try a man for such an undefined offence as that of libel, when another who had published the same libel had been acquitted. These, however, it appeared, were motives which did not actuate the Law Officers of the Crown, and Mr. Drakard was tried at the assizes and found guilty. At the trial he Bench, with partiality to France, and a desire of exalting the advantages of the Government of that country, in compari son with that of England. When Mr. Drakard was brought up for judgment, therefore, he produced an affidavit, con. taining various extracts from his paper, disproving in the most convincing manner this charge; and shewing that so far from being actuated by any favour to the Government of France, he had on many occasions written with the utmost earnestness against the mode of Government which prevailed in that country. It was most extraordinary however, that these extracts, which were a complete answer to charges alledged at the trial as an aggravation of the libel, should at the time of pronouncing sentence be held out as an aggravation (Hear, Hear!)-and that all the advantage Mr. Drakard derived from having refuted the charge of parti ality to France was to be told that it was no excuse for a libel against the Government of this country, to have libelled that of France. The sentence of Mr. Drakard was, that he should be imprisoned 18 months, fined 200l. and give security for his good behaviour for three years. He would not at present considèr the nature of the libel, or whether the punishment was at all proportioned to the offence; but he would take it in this light-was it fitting to subject one man to so very severe a punishment for an offence of which another, who had published the same libel, had been acquitted by a Jury of his coun trymen? The criminality of a libel, it was said, consisted in its tendency to produce a breach of the peace. One Jury had pronounced that the publication in question had no such tendency-another Jury had decided that it had; but when opinions were so nearly balanced, it was too much, he thought, to inflict a punishment which would have almost been excessive, if all mankind had been agreed that the publication was really criminal. It was on this ground that he called the attention of the House to the case of Mr. Drakard.— The other case was, in his opinion, a much more grievous one. It was that of Mr. Collyer, a dyer, at Manchester, who had been surcharged for the Income-tax. He appealed against this surcharge, and being put to his oath before the Commissioners, swore that his income was no more than 160l. whereas the charge was for 300L. This, however, had only been reduced to 250l. which Mr. Collyer conceiving to be unjust, refused to pay. His goods had in consequence been distrained, and a horse and cart had been sold. Mr. Collyer found himself injured by this proceeding in two ways. In the first place, many of his neighbours began to consider him as a man in bad circumstances, and by this means his credit in trade had materially suffered others again put a very injurious construction on the matter, and were disposed to consider him as a perjured man, the Commissioners having refused to believe him on oath. He therefore resolved to publish a vindication of his own conduct; but, being an illiterate man, he did not know how to draw it up, and applied to the editor of one of the Manchester papers, Mr. Cowdroy, stating the circumstances, and desiring him to make up a statement and publish it in his paper. This was to be paid for as an advertisement -but Mr. Collyer particularly cautioned Mr. Cowdroy to avoid all libellous matter, or any thing that might bring him into difficulty. The Editor promised to do this -and the paper being drawn up, Collyer not being very capable of judging whether it contained improper matter or not, signed his name to it, paid the money, and it was inserted. Some alterations were made in it afterwards, and it was then carried by Mr. Collyer to the Editor of another paper in Manchester, who also inserted it. From this it found its way into a London paper-for which Mr. Lovel was now suffering imprisonment for 12 months. An Information was filed against Mr. Collyer for this offence-he was convicted and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. The whole of the circumstances which he had stated, appeared in Court as he had taken them from an affidavit which must have been read there. Suppose the defence of this man had contained offensive matterstill it might have been a question, whether he ought to be prosecuted, when it was considered that his only reason was to do away the injurious impressions among his neighbours that he was a man in low circumstances, or that he had been guilty of perjury-but when it was found that he was really not the author of the libel; that he had even strictly cautioned the person who drew it up not to insert any libellous matter, nor do any thing against law; it was surely an extreme measure of justice to punish him with imprisonment for 12 months. He had on a former occasion stated, that at the Old Bailey, He did not mean to say that there was any foundation for this fear; but this shewed the state of intimidation in which the Press was placed. By the negligence of the Solicitors, the instructions had not been delivered to the Counsel till a few minutes before Collyer was brought up for judgment. The Counsel therefore applied to the Attorney Ge neral to have the matter put off, when the Attorney General asked them whether |