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faith must be allowed by every impartial man, in fending out counter-orders, and in ratifying the treaty, the moment they were apprifed of its having been made, though without any authority whatever from them, and contrary to their wishes. However malice may labour to pervert, or sophiftry feek to mitreprefent, these plain facts, they muft peak home to every man's understanding, not, according to this Obferver, as "a defence or a defiance, and a folema mockery," but as plain, pofitive, unfophifticated proofs of the wildom and integrity of minifters.

We had marked various paffages of this reply for remark and exposure, but we must confine ourselves to a few of them. It will be recollected, that the Near Obferver was accused by us, and by others, and that on the best authority, with wilful and deliberate faldhood, in afferting that Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville had given Mr. Addington a specific promife of unconditional support. Our readers thall now fee his anfwer to this direct and ferious charge, which forms not the leaft curious part of his new production, and affords an admirable fpecimen of his honefty.

It is beneath my care to expofe all the cavil and chicanery which have been oppofed" (is direct and unqualified contradiction to be called cavil and chicanery?)" to the statement of the Curfory Remarks, with respect to the specific terms of the promife of constant, active, and zealous fupport. It is acknowledged that Lord Grenville repeated the words in the Houfe of Lords." Here we must stop with our quotation, in order to expose the despicable artifice by which this Obferver attempts to impole upon the public. He would fain make his readers believe that Lord Grenville had juftified his affertion by a speech in the Houfe. It becomes necellary then to re-state that affertion, and to re-quote his Lordship's words, that our readers may have the queftion plainly before them. We firit cite the "Curfory Remarks." "I muft take upon me to aver that his Majefty's molt gracious offer of his confidence to Mr. Addington could not have been, and was NOT definitively accepted, until a solemn authentic pledge of honour had been given by the late minifters for their "CONSTANT, ACTIVE, AND ZEALOUS SUPPORT;" I do affert that Mr. Pirr and Lord GRENVILLE did facredly and folemnly enter into this exact engagement, and in this precise form of words." This affertion is to plain and unequivocal, that no one can poflibly mistake its meaning. Now it has been moft positively contradicted on the part of Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville, and, therefore, by all the rules of argument and of common fenfe, it behoved the Obferver to fupport his allertion by proof, and not by another affertion devoid of proof. How he has done this we hail fee, after we have given Lord Grenville's words, to fhew how the acknowledgment to which the author refers will bear him out in his inference. His Lordship reprefented, (in the speech adverted to) the minifters as men " who had both publicly and privately profefled their intention of continuing to act the fame upon neral fyftem as their predeceffors;" and as such, his Lord hip declared, they fhould have his "conftant, active, and zealous fupport." Now so far from an unqualified, unconditional promife, we here fee the qualification, the condition, fpecifically annexed to it. Such is the proof of the exact engagement which his Lordthip is faid to have contected! We now proceed with our quotation: The Plain Anfwerer pretends, that the promife upon Mr. Pitt's part, was not only fpecific, but that he guarded it with a triple hedge of precaution and fecurity." I do indeed think it my duty," to do what? to prove the falfhood of this statement, and the

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truth of his own? No, but, forfooth!" to protest against this circumftance in the statement; but this will not invalidate the admiffion of Mr. Pitt's counfel, that a fpecific pledge was abfolutely given. This I infift upon only for my own juftification, for it is of little confequence, among men of honour, whether an engagement be formal or implied; Mr. Pitt's panegyric was itfelf a promife of fupport." Never furely was the public infulted with such wretched fhuffling, fuch miferable evafion, fuch paltry equivocation as this. He first pofitively afferts, that an exact engagement was entered into, and in the precise form of words quoted by himself; and, when attacked for falihood, he confounds a specific qualification of a conditional pledge, with a specific pledge without any conditions, and then reprefents it as a matter of little coniequence whether the engagement was formal or implied; that is, whether he himself spoke truth or falshood; for, if the pledge was only implied, he was certainly guilty of falslood. The ridiculous affertion, that Mr. Pitt's panegyric was itself a promife of fupport is moft contemptible; if that were the cafe, Mr. Fox's panegyric, for he too panegyrized Mr. Addington when he first came into power, was alfo a promise of fupport; and we wonder much that the Near Obferver has not reproached him with the breach of it. The conclufion of his defence against this charge is as curious as the rest.

"As to the evafive and litigious propofitions of the P. A. and others, upon unqualified and unconditional promifes," let the conduct of the new Minifters be what it would, "they are wholly out of the queftion, and their learning is inapplicable and pedantic." So that when a man is reproached with a breach of promife, and, in his defence, he urges a violation of the condition on which that promife was given, his plea is evasive and litigious! Admirable logician!" There is not an expreffion," he adds, "in the C. R. which can be tortured into a defire to hold Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville to the letter of their engagement, or to claim more than its fair and liberal conftruction. That interpretation I ftill contend for; I confider them as engaged by their promile, and folemnly pledged as men of honour, and as men, for a fincere difpofition and intention to give general fupport, friendship, and affiftance,"—that is, whether the general system, the purluit of which was the specific condition of the promifed fupport, was purfued or not Moft honourable casuist! But, if there be any meaning in this liberal construction of his, it must mean, that Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville, though bound to fupport Mr. Addington generally, were certainly at liberty to oppofe him when they feriously difapproved of any meafure of his adminiftration. And, indeed, his remarks on Lord Grenville's oppofition to the Ruffian convention prove this to be his meaning. How then will our readers be furprised to hear the fame writer, and in the fame pamphlet, declare, "I am firmly perfuaded that there is no mezzo termine" (furely his own learning here is inapplicable and pedantic)" between his (Mr. Pitt's) fupport, and his hoftility to government; and, I muft fay, no election between his affiftance and the very worst fpecies of hoftility." Such is his defire to hold Mr. Pitt to the letter of his engagement, fuch his notion of fair and liberal contruction!

Mr. Pitt's conduct on Mr. Patten's motion is here again censured with great virulence, and the judicicus obfervations on it, in the Plain Answer, are, with the ufual modesty and veracity of this writer, termed "Jacobin Jar,gon." But on that fubject we have already faid fo much, in our review of the different pamphlets which have been written upon it, that it is needless to add one fyllable to our past comments. All the Obferver's remarks on

the

the Plain Answer are diftinguished by the fame virulence, defcending even to the lowelt fcurrility, and by the fame perverfion of truth It having been faid in the latter, that 150 members refified a motion of Mr Pitt's one day, and adopted it the next, without affigning the fmalleft reason for the change, -a plain fact, on which we commented at the time, and which is notorious to the whole world, the Obferver taxes him with calumny and impudence, and ferioufly charges him with "a most deliberate libel on a majority of the Houfe of Commons." He attempts to repel the force of the obfervation, by stating, that they voted one day on a mere point of order, and the next on the principle of the motion. But all the Parlamentary reports, unfortunately, give the lie to his alertion.

The Obferver expreffes a with to fee Mr. Pitt in power, but, strange to fay, fecond to Mr. Addington! But there are (ome of his obfervations annexed to the expreffion of this with, to which we are happy in being able most cordially to concur.

"I acknowledge, as a part of my own liberty, the free prerogative of the Crown, to place him (Mr. Pitt) and every other of its fubjects in that fituation where his virtues or abilities may be most useful to the state. I say of my own liberty, for I would have it clearly and distinctly understood, that if my LORD GRENVILLE, or any other family of better pretenfions,” (aye, and we will add, or any union of families, interests, or parties,)" could fucceed in dictating to the Sovereign the choice of his Ministers, the liberty of the subject would be as completely overwhelmed as the privilege of the King. It is our right, and at this moment, perhaps the most valuable of our rights, to have our affairs administered by thofe men whom the King indicates-by those whom he loves and trusts-by thofe who will be content to be his fervants, not his masters and ours."

Entertaining thefe fentiments, existing circumstances afford him an admirable opportunity for the application of his theory, of which, if he would not have his fincerity doubted, he will not fail to avail himself. His attack on Mr. Windham's conduct in oppofing the peace of Amiens, and in lamenting the renewal of hoftilities, is molt impotent, though the sketch which he has given of that gentleman's private character (rather indeed intended to fatirize others than to panegyrize him, and proceeding more from malevolent rage, than from a fente of justice) is ably drawn.

His repetition of the falhood, proved to be fuch by the faithful records of Parliament, that Mr. Addington gave no hopes of the stability of the late peace, is a ftretch of impudence, aloft unparallelled, in the hiftory of controverfial writing. He offers no opportunity to efcape of venting his rancour against Mr. Pitt, in a manner which thews, with a force almoft equal to mathematical demonftration, that it originates in a low and selfish motive. Where mortification and difappointment have been experienced by a little mind, all public confiderations are made to yield to SELF, which, thenceforth becomes the ruling principle, and the fecret motive, of the most bafe, malicious, and unprincipled hoftility. After praifing Mr. Addington for having "checked the ardour, and bridled the enthufiafm of the country," he exclaims, in the pint which we have marked, "how different from those unfortunate and guilty times, which fome of us may remember, when a di contented and alienated people felt fomething confoling in the public calamities, from the mortification of infolence and pride, and the humiliation of arrogant and odious authority!" That he fo felt we can easily believe, acting, as he evidently does, upon the principle which we have de

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fcribed. But how does he reconcile his reprobation of this " odious autherity," with his allertion of "the most valuable of our rights, to have our affairs adminiftered by those men whom the King indicates," fince that authority was certainly indicated by the King, and his Majesty as certainly trusted the perfon by whom it was exercited? Or how does he reconcile the triumph, from felfih motives, at national disaster, with his profeffions of loyalty to his Sovereign? He will have time, before the appearance of his next edition, to digeft these questions, if not to answer them: and poffibly may then be induced to favour readers of plain common fente with a gloífary to enable them to understand his expreffions, fome of which are, no doubt, the quinteffence of elegant writing. For inftance," without queftion these orders" (to Lord Keith, to prevent the French army in Egypt from returning to Europe, but as prifoners of war)" were of the very seminal essence and sublimed spirit of impolicy and imprudence, as the defence of them is the very caput mortuum, and sediment of abfurdity and falfhood." Р 18.

"I will not alk the Plain Anfwerer to bluth upon this occafion, for he has seen Pharfalia.” p. 66.—“ abforbed in cryptogamic coalitions""the brightest pebble of that confuled Mofaic patchwork of parties." p. 69."Some benefit might have derived from his fervices." p. 71.-" My answer muft neceffarily be concife, but I hope it will be able to avoid obfcurity." But enough, we now confign the Near Obferver to his own meditations, and to the public judgment, with this admonition from another controverfialift, whofe violence he may imitate, but whofe abilities he can never hope to rival-" Cease viper, you bite against a file."

Observations on the Importance of a strict adherence to the Navigation Laws of Great Britain. 8vo. Pr. 16. Printed by Davifon, Lombard-street, White Friars.

1801.

Extract from the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Society of Ship Owners of Great Britain, inftituted at London, A. D. 1802. 8vo. PP. 12. Printed by

Davifon. 1804.

IN our laft Number we reviewed a very able pamphlet by Lord Sheffield, on the very important fubject of the navigation laws, to which Great Britain is indifputably indebted for her maritime and commercial greatness, and confequently, in a great measure, for her independence as a nation. The first of the two tracts now before us, relates to the fame topic, and enforces the neceffity of a ftrict adherence to thefe laws, from which of late years, fome deviations have, for temporary purposes, been made. It was printed, as it appears by the title-page, three years ago, but it never fell into our hands till the other day. It briefly traces the origin of our navigation laws from the early period of the reign of our fecond Richard, to the paffing of Lord Liverpool's act, generally called the Navigation A&, from the comprehenfi venefs of its provifions. It appears manifeft to us, that for no purpose either of revenue, or of political accommodation to other states, fhould we depart from the ftrict principle of thofe laws; but, that special care should be taken that we should carry on our own trade in our own ships, and give every poffible encouragement to fisheries of every defcription.

"It is with the deepest regret," fays the author of the Obfervations, "the SHIPPING INTEREST of this country obferve, that the fufpenfion of the navigation laws, during the last two years, has already been attended with ferious inconvenience and lofs; and they fear the continuance of it, unless those laws are again speedily permitted to have their free and natu

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ral operation; and if, by new regulations, or by any further relaxation of the prefent navigation laws, new and foreign competitors fhould be admitted to hare in the advantages resulting from them, they apprehend that the MARITIME Ipirit of the country will decline; that the capital of BRITISH OWNERS will lie unemployed, or be employed uselessly, while the SHIPPING of GREAT BRITAIN will lie rotting in her harbours, and her feamen emigrate to foreign countries in fearch of employment; it is, therefore, particularly at this time the interest of GREAT BRITAIN, and the duty of her government, to encourage her maritime, purfuits. The events of the late war fhew that many nations look with a jealous eye on the fuperiority we have gained by our CARRYING TRADE, and that they are ready to ufe every effort to participate in the benefits of our navigation, and to rival us, if poffible, on our native element. To counteract these efforts with fuccefs, we must not lofe the recollection, that, without an extenfive naval commerce, carried on in BRITISH BOTTOMS, we can neither rear nor retain our feamen, the grand fupport of our prefent pre-eminence, nor preserve our country from falling even below the level of furrounding nations.

We trust this truth will never be loit fight of for a moment; but that in this respect, as in most others, we may ever continue to walk in the good old path of our ancestors. The association of owners of British-built hips, for the preservation of their rights, recommended at the clofe of this tract, was formed in 1802; and the fecond pamphlet before us contains an account of their proceedings at one of their meetings in March 1804. It there appears that they had applied to the King's minifters to prevent any direct tax upon fhipping, as having a tendency to add materially to the diftreffes already experienced by the Shipping Intereft. To this part of the fubje& we have not paid fufficient attention to enable us to speak with decifion, on the policy or impolicy of fuch a tax. But, from the calm and temperate language of thefe gentlemen, and from the nature of their arguments, we have but little doubt that they had good grounds for their application, which, however, does not appear to have been fuccefsful. They here complain of the continued fufpenfion of the Navigation Act, and of the emigration of our feamen, many of whom they state to be in the fervice of the American States, or in that of our enemy. This furely is an object of most ferious confideration, and we agree with the fhip-owners in thinking, that a neceffity fubfifts for a parliamentary inquiry into the actual ftate of the navigation of Great Britain. Their Committee alfo preferred a complaint to the Board of Trade of the inconvenience arifing to the hip-owners, from the obligation impofed upon them to take out licences, and give bonds to the Commithioners of the Customs, on account of the particular conftruction of their fhips. In their petition to the Board, they indicated a means by which this inconvenience might be removed, and without any injury to the revenue; but the Board rejected the prayer of their petition. Some other grievances of inferior moment occupied the attention of the Committee, who adopted the necellary meafu es fo: removing them. The thanks of the Society were, moft properly, voted to Lord Sheffield, for his Lordilip's pamphlet reviewed in our laft Number. This all ciation appears to us likely to be productive of much good, by watching over one of the most important interests of the country, and by calling the attention of the legilatu.e and of the public, to any attempt that may be made to trench upon the principles or fyftem of our navigation laws.

The

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