the Privy Council, that in this very particular cafe they might be permitted to fell it in Liverpool. The request feems fo reafonable, that one would have thought it impoffible for a fingle man in England to hold up his hand against it; but at a meeting of merchants and brokers, held at the London Tavern, a counter-petition was agreed upon, and which was prefaced by various refolutions, importing, that Liverpool was attempting to rob the capital of the juft and legitimate advantages of its trade. For the honour of the country, the refolves were not pailed unanimously; three merchants held up their hands against them; of whom one of a very enlarged mind, and understanding the true interefts both of the capital and the country, expatiated in a very animated manner against the impropriety and cruelty of this interference; declared his with, that Eaft India as well as Weft India goods might be configned to any port of the kingdom; proved that the Eaft India company, and the whole kingdom, would thus be gainers; and af ferted and proved, that the first refolution was really a lie; for, from a very extraordinary cafe, it reafoned moft unjufily and falfely of the general intentions of the merchants of Liverpool The law courts called our attention to another circumftance, in which mercantile honour does not feem to ftand fo high as formerly; and which merits particular confideration. Some inftances of extraordinary rapacity having appeared in the conduct of the Weft India Dock Company, Meffrs. Cowell, with great public fpirit, brought an action against George Smith, Elq., Treasurer to the company, for 41, which, befides the Dock charges, had been charged on them under the head of cooperage. On the fide of the plaintiffs it was contended, that by act of parliament it appeared that the company had no right to charge more than 1d per gallon for cooperage; and feveral coopers gave in as evidence, that their average charge of cooperage was about 1d a gallon, or 1s 6d the puncheon, except one, who stated it from 1s 6d up to 2s. It appeared, alfo, that the company charged 8/6s 8d a thousand for rivets, which coft them only 98 or 10s a thoufand; that .fheet lead, from the finalleft piece to half the fize of a counfel's brief, was charged at 1s a piece. A verdict was given in favour of the plaintiffs, who deferve the thanks of the city for their exertions: and if fimilar fpirit was more frequently exercised, public companies would be compelled to pay a little more attention to public good; and directors would learn to act as honeftly in their public as they aim to do in their private capacities. Another extraordinary cause appears likely to be attended with coufequences very materially affecting_the conduct of Englishmen in the Eaft. An action was brought at the fittings in Guildhall against Meffrs. Stevens and Agnew, for extortion. They had received a prefent, from the Zammorean Rajah, of a lack of rupees, for the expediting and management of fome butinefs in which the Rajah's interefts were concerned. This is confidered as extortion on the one hand, and a defrauding of the company on the other. The defendants were found guilty, and condemned to pay eightyfive thousand rupees; the other fifteen thousand rupees having been entered on the company's books. This verdict will be attended with very great advantages to the lawyers; for when it is known in India that a Rajah may have juftice in an European court, he will naturally be inclined to secure his own intereft, by retaining counsel; and ficcah rupees will roll round Westminster Hall with many a brief. The verdict is of peculiar advantage at this time, when difpatches from India bring us the news of very decifive and important victories, by which the whole peninfula is now completely in our power, or under our influence. Agra, the key of India, is taken; and Delhi the capital, with the Emperor, is in our poffeffion. The last circumstance is not of very great importance; little remains attached to the Imperial title but the memory of former greatnefs. The conftitution of India very much refembles that of Germany: the Emperor is the nominal head, but his vaftals, many of them, exceed him in power and confequence; and if his own immediate territories do not give him the means of enforcing a command, they are attended to or not, according as the vaffal conceives it to be agreeable or not to his own interefts. The prefent and last Emperor have been entirely in the power of their vaffals; and when it is faid, that the prefent Emperor was releafed from his captivity by the British army, and that he fat on his throne to receive our General, it is not to be imagined that his fituation is in any degree altered: he has only exchanged one kind of captivity for another, and the Imperial mandates will be iffued under his name agreeably to the dictates of the British Governor at Calcutta. The late battles fought in India, by which fo great an acceffion of territory is acquired, are a proof of the great fuperiority in difcipline and courage of the British over the native troops. Though the forces of Dowlut Row Scindia, and the Berar Rajah, had the advantage of French officers, and an immenfe fuperiority in numbers, yet, they could not refift the intrepidity of the British troops. The numbers killed on our fide have been great, yet the advantages refulting are faid to compenfate for their lofs; for, according to the letters of the Marquis of Wellesley, from the triumph of our arms in the battle of Affye refult the complete defeat of the combined army of the confederate chieftains; an irreparable blow to the strength and efficiency of their military refources, especially of their artillery in the Dekkan; the expulfion of an hoftile and predatory army from the territory of our ally the Subahdar of the Dekkan, and a feasonable and effectual check to the ambition, pride, and audacity of the enemy. The Marquis in another place affures us, that the decifive victories at Delhi and Affye will speedily compel the enemy to retore peace to Hindoftan, and to the Dekkan. By whom this peace has been broken, and by whom the epithets of ambition, pride, and audacity, can with justice be applied, whether to the native Princes, the Eaft India Company, or the Marquis himfelf, time auft difcover. Papers have been moved for both in the houfes of Lords and Commons, which will throw light upon Eaftern tranfactions; and we fhall hope that in them will be found decifive proofs that the morality of Europeans does not change with climates; that if the conduct of Bonaparte and the French is reprobated with the utmoft afperity in this country, a fimilar conduct is not pursued by the East India Company in India; if overbearing haughtiness and the subjection of independent ftates to the influence of France is confidered as a ground of war with the Chief Conful, the ftates of India have not the fame reafon to make equal or greater clamours against the rapacity, extortion, and unbounded lust of domination of the British in India. But whatever may be the result of these enquiries, if the British shall be found not guilty of ufurpation, and to have acquired extenfive territory by the allowed laws of conqueft, the fuppeled glory in battle docs not cover the injury that the conquefts will produce to this country. Great Britain will be Her conftitution conquered in India. cannot stand against such an extenfive dominion, and the manners and wealth which it will introduce into this country: and if, instead of mowing down Indians, the British army had been conquering the foil at Botany Bay, subduing it to useful purpofes, making on it fit mansions for civilifation, the beneficial confequences to themselves and to this country would be much greater than any that can refult from the wealth and luxury of India. In the Houfes of Commons and Lords there were many debates; but the fyftem of the volunteers occupied, moft unprofitably, the most of their attention. Papers were moved for in both houfes relative to the affairs of India, and the minifter feems to have been taken by furprise; for, on the question for their production in the House of Lords, his party was found in the divifion to be in the minority. In the Houfe of Commons a virtue was made of neceffity, and they were permitted to be produced, not only without opposition, but the oppofition made in the House of Lords was faid to be owing not to the thing itfelf, but the form in which it was produced. The fate of exchange with Ireland brought to light a circumftance, which put the Irith minister into an aukward fituation; for it was difcovered, that he took care to be paid in England, by which means he favedthe Irifh difcount. This fubject and the Ir.fh Bank Restriction Bill were not fufficient to open the eyes of the legiflature to the origin and the grand caufe of all the evil,--the conduct of the Bank of England; for, as long as that is permitted to iffue its notes in the manner it now does, it must continue to enrich itfelf at the expence and inconvenience of the whole united kingdom. The flate of naval defence was brought forward, apparently more to embarrafs the minifter, than to introduce any improvement in the fyftem; yet it furely is a very extraordinary, circumftance, that, with fo many brave failers as we have, we cannot prevent the failing of French gun-boats from one port to another just when they please. It is not fufficient to fay, that our veffels draw too much water for the French coafts, for where the French boats can be navigated, English boats might cafily be conftructed to follow thein. The Irth Rebellion, the Marine Fishery Bill, the Exchange of Irith Militia, and the Supplies, made topics of debate: the miniftry was of courfe fuccefsful upon every point; yet the variegated oppofition now formed entertains fanguine expectation of ultimate fuccefs, and in overthrowing the minifter, another bone of contention would be fet in the midst, and the different parties would be more occupied in their petty fquab bles than in the grand interefts of their country. The Volunteer bill continued to excite the attention of the Houfe of Commons; and the less interest the nation feem to take in the debates, the more determined were all parties in the Houfe to correct, improve, amend, enlarge, confound, ftrengthen, or weaken the fyftem. When Mr. Yorke moved the Houfe, on the 27th of February, to refolve itself into a committee, and the queftion was put for the Speaker to leave the chair, Mr. Fraucis arofe, declaring his intention o be, not fo much to oppofe leaving he chair as to delay it. The provions of the bill did not feem to be very aterial or urgent; it is of more imprtance to underftand the danger in nding, and to look at the fituation of te country in all its circumftances and rations. It is not the juftice or the inftice of the war which requires difction, but we must compare its conde and progrefs with the principles on weh it began. declaring war for a rock in the Miterranean in our poffeffion, we ftol on the ground of national dignity, elated pretenfions, foreign dominion, anpoflibly of laudable ambition.— What that time thought of a war of dorftic fecurity? But icarcely had the warxifted three months, when a plan waselivered out by authority for defeng the capital by lines of circuinvallon, and the nation was degraded by t bafeft act of humiliation. What folled? We have provided for fecurity,nd boast of having fix hundred thound men in arms to defend the two ilan Thus all the boat of thofe who made the war, is the glory of being able to defend themfelves. Such were not the fentiments of Queen Elizabeth; the esteemed the middle way a courie of continual charge and continual fear, and to fland only on the defenfive, is to live at the difcretion of her enemies. Such were not the counfels alfo of Raleigh, Wallingham, and Burleigh: men who will not fuffer much in a coinparifon with thofe who at prefent hold the reins of government. There is no want of physical force, but where is the directing mind? And a more melancholy circumftance opens to ftill more diftrefling confequences: all the faculties of the country are now most wanted; yet who can lay that the conftitution is in eal and practical poffeffion of its executive power? The minifter's explanations threw no light upon this question, and we gather from him only, that he is better informed than thofe who ought to know beft. Strict faith, it is faid, ought to be kept with the Volunteers; yet, if any perfift in their claim of choofing their own officers, their fervices are to be difcon tinued. That faith is not kept with them. They have put themselves to confiderable expence on certain condi→ tions, but now thofe conditions are to be violated, and they are to be turned adrift as deferters of the country in its utmoft danger. That they will not defert their country is certain; but theirown virtue, not the wildom of government, will prevent it. Their claim is just and right, and in it depends the difference between a voluntary and a mercenary army. In the mercenary army, men are brought together who know nothing of each other; but the Volunteers are combined together by previous acquaintance, friendhip, and the ties of nature. Their officers are their neighbours, and men of the greatest influence in the neighbourhood; and the claim if a defect in the fyftem is inherent to it. At what time, alfo, is this great national defence to be disbanded? When we are affured of an immediate and formidable attack from a powerful and inplacable enemy! Surely thefe contiderations require the utmost attention; and if the conduct of government, and care of the public fatety, are at all times to be inveiligated by the members of this Houfe, it is now more peculiarly requifite, when, unfortunately for the country, they have no other duty to perform. Colonel Craufurd oppofed the leav ing of the chair. He conceived the adoption of the bill, however altered by a committee, a ferious misfortune, and, inftead of debating on fo infignificant a fubject, a day ought to be appointed for taking a more enlarged and general view of the military fyitem of the country. There is not, indeed, notwithftanding the mifmanagement of minifters, any danger of the fubjugation of the ifland; but it is enough that we are in danger of becoming a province of France. We may indeed for a time ftand on the defenfive, but it ought to be in fuch away, that an army, which fet foot on these shores, fhould be inftantly annihilated or driven back into the fea. If the minifters had aimed at any thing great, however bungling the execution of the measure might have been perfected in the progrefs through the Houfe; but as well might a palace be erected on the fcite of a cottage, or a line of battle fhip on the keel of a wherry, as any thing ufeful or important on the prefent infignificant bill. We muft pafs as quickly as pollible from a bad fyftem to a good one. The minifter afferts, that he and his colleagues have done every thing for the fafety and strength of the empire. He throws down his gauntlet: I take it up, and pledge myself to prove, that ever fince the commencement of the war our affairs have been mifmanaged. To begin with the navy, which is faid to be equal to its ftate in any former war; but this fpecies of defence is good for nothing, unless the prefent fituation of the country is fimilar to that in former periods. To argue upon this point would take up unneceffarily the time of the House; and the other proof drawn from infurances is equally futile, for it difcovers to us only that the enemy prohibits their men from taking our fhips. An inquiry into the conduct of the Admiralty is neceffary. Part of the coaft moft expofed to the enemy's flotilla was fufficiently provided with veffels, but they did not receive their guns till Christmas; and probably many other places are in the fame fituation. The land fervice is equally mifmanaged. The army, at the beginning of the war, was not fo numerous as it ought to have been, but it poffeffed a truly military fpirit, excellent difcipline, and a confcioufnefs of prowefs from glorious actions. What ought to have been done with fuch an army? The first thing, evidently, was to increase it, by ingrafting recruits on old regiment, and thus augmenting the army; instead of raifing thirty-fix new battalions, the new levies would have foon affimilated themselves to the old stock, and sufficient officers would have remained for forming the referve and inftructing the irregulars. A real referve ought to have been formed in the following manner: by ballot from the first clafs, to whom othcers fhould have been affigned from the half-pay; and,without breaking in much upon their avocations, they might be taught loading and firing, and what is juft neceffary for enabling them to take their places in the rear ranks of a regiment in the field. The whole fyftem of the Volunteers is fundamentally wrong; in its conftitution, defraying of expences, committees, training, ufe to be made of the force, nay, even the clothing; all and every part of the system I do most entirely dilapprove of. From my partiality to the regular army I have received the appellation of Colonel, and the title I am proud of: I am happy to be diftinguished from the Colonels whom we now-a-days meet in the streets. If, inftead of rifing in the regular army, I had followed a lucrative profeffion, I might ftill have been a Colonel; a Banker and a Colonel, a Phyfician and a Colonel. But it may be asked, are not four hundred thoufand Volunteers in addition to the army and militia-ar not they fufficient for our fecurity? I think, inequally as they are distribute, they are not enough; not that we shri therefore be conquered, but they re not enough to prevent a serious f after. I wish the whole of the first class, nd in many diftricts the fecond and tird claffes, to be armed; that is, to havean armed peafantry. Perfons mistake in fupponing the French army to have ten deftroyed by the revolution, and thathe battle of Jemappe was won by irigulars. The French troops, even thoimot of the line, were totally diffimilar rom what our Volunteers will be at theommencement of an invafion; the bad been embodied, and long engaged nder a fuccefsful general; and even in that battle Dumourier had between fort and fixty thousand men to cope with fteen thoufand Auftrians. If that exmple. therefore, is not in favour of th Volunteers, fufficient intances we afforded in the last war of the advatage of an armed peasantry; and then deans with their pikes wrefted arms out of the hands of the Volunteers with whom they were to contend. In the fame manner I fhould think myfelt unworthy of command, if, at the head of a body of sturdy pealants, armed with pikes, I did not find an occafion of fignaling myself, and rendering effential fervice to the country. An armed peafantry would comprife the whole of the first clafs, of whom three-fourths are not now enrolled. Their drefs would not be expensive, their drilling fimple and eaty. Fire-arms would of course be given in proportion only as they were able to use them; and if they could but hit a mark, the mode of carrying the gun would be of little confequence: they would be inftructed to take advantages of ground, line a hedge, to condenfe themfelves, and rush in a body into an opening where it appeared. Such an armed peafantry would be far preferable to Volunteers, resembling foldiers only in their drefs; for their drefs is by no means a trivial circumftance, and may be injurious to the service. As to the regular fyftem of tactics to which the Volunteers are trained, I maintain that it is worse than the fimple mode I should teach them. That fyftem we took from the King of Pruffia, but is unfuited to this country; and if it is not to be exploded in the regular army, there can be no reason for a body of men to adopt it who are never to go out of this country. For inftance, let any perfon put into his pocketGeneral Dundas's fyftem, as now practifed by the Volunteers, and, riding round the country, find out the places where the mancuyres there recommended can be put into practice: whence he will perceive, that whatever merit there may be in the fyftem, it is the worst that could be adopted in this country. I was furprised at not being among the French the folid battalions to which we have been accustomed; and in Ireland had an opportunity of obferving the confequences of teaching men a fyftem unfuitable to the country. For, on ordering an officer of militia to feize an enclosure, he drew up his men in a folid form, in the middle of the field, inftead of lining the fence. Another circumftance is, that a fufficient number of fire-arms cannot be procured; but in a few weeks pikemen in abundance may be had, and with the addition of a fpade or hatchet, a very useful body is at once formed. Inftances of their utility were enumerated by the Colonel,, who thence proceeded to the attack on Volunteer committees, and recommended the whole expence of the Volunteer corps to be defrayed by government. After this attack he recommended to minifters a judicious fyftem of fortifications. Good works would increase the difficulties of landing; but the entrenched camp at Chelmsford was evidently not of the kind he meant, as it would not, he afferted, be of any ufe. Our depots were faid to be in a perfectly defenceless state, our batteries fo weak that they might eafily be taken, and Martello towers might have been erected. In fhort, the moft material branches of defence have been greatly neglected, and the meafures of the ministry are not of a nature to refift an active, enterpriting, and powerful enemy. General Maitland complimented the laft fpeaker on the gallantry of his fpeech, but conceived that fome few circumstances might have been mentioned in favour of the country, as well as fome which proved the enemy to be not fo formidable as reprefented. He contended that the affertion on the danger of exemptions to the regular fervice was not warranted by the fact. The reprobation of difcipline for the Volunteers he could not admire, nor fee much benefit in the poffe comitatus or armed peafantry. As to the fyftem of tactics, it might have more than was neceffary; but this did not prevent the Volunteers from acting as circumftances might require. The clothing, too, did not feem to him objectionable; and it may be recollected that the barbers and fhopmen of Paris drove the Duke of Brunswick out of France. By the laft fpeech, it would feem that the gallant Colonel was the only perfon in this country who underftood military matters; yet there were fome of higher rank and greater experience in his Majefty's fervice. After reprobating the greater part of the Colonel's speech, the General affented to the Speaker's leaving the chair. Admiral Berkley could not fee what connection there was between the Volunteer fyftem and the Admiralty; yet as the latter had been introduced into the debate, he could not abitain from obferving, that blame attached forewhere to that department. The naval |