to the purpose, or the pretended purpose, of preserving the peace between nations, and insuring the safety of the country itself against foreign fleets and armies. This principle, thus applied, puts one in mind. of Lord Peters's "pickle for houses, gar"dens, trees, men, women, children, and "cattle; quite a thing of catholic use and "emolument." It may be, in itself, ancient, but this application of it is entirely modern; and, indeed, it has undergone a change, a metamorphosis, such as, I believe, no principle ever before underwent.-This, Sir, in terms as much more happy and forcible as might be, it was, in my opinion, your business to point out, illustrating your position by such probable cases as would have discovered at once its intrinsic preposterousness, and the great danger of its tendency. The law, the ancient and established law of libels, proceeds upon a definite maxim, a maxim invariably true. It punishes a libel, because a libel tends to a breach of the King's peace; and it punishes a breach of the King's peace, because such a breach is always a crime. But, how does this principle apply to the peace of England with relation to foreign powers, to disturb which, for years together, is no crime at all. To break the King's peace is necessarily criminal; but to break the peace between this country and another may be an act highly meritorious. It will not do to say, that the latter may be sometimes criminal, and sometimes not criminal: the principle, to be worth any thing, must be uniform and impartial in its operation; and, therefore, if it be criminal at one time, it is so at another time; if it be criminal in Mr. Peltier, it was criminal in Mr. Pitt. To say that Mr. Pitt acted in the name of his Majesty, who was himself the guardian of the country, makes nothing against my argument; for, a magistrate acts in the name of his Majesty, who is the guardian of the peace also; and, we all know, that a magistrate may be prosecuted for any libel that tends to a breach of that peace.-But, preposterous as this principle is, the danger of its tendency is a consideration of much greater weight. By opening an unbounded latitude of construction, it exposes to the decision of caprice, of self-interest, of corruption, or of mere chance, not only the property, but the personal freedom, and eventually the life, of every man who, though actuated by the purest, most innocent and most honourable motives, shall venture to write on the subject of foreign affairs. We all know what tends to a breach of the King's peace: when a man is called a thief, or represented as an ass, amongst his neighbours, and that by a person living in the same country, we know that he must be angry, and must entertain such a desire of revenge as naturally tends to a breach of the King's peace, which breach it is always within his power to make. But, who can say, what jury can possibly determine the degree of this species of provocation likely to produce war with a foreign country? Peace or war must always depend upon interest, upon means, and, indeed, upon a multitude of conside rations, which are totally unconnected with the private feelings of the sovereign or chief of the nation, who therefore, however grossly libelled, has not always the power of breaking the peace with another nation; whereas, as I'before observed, an enraged individual has always the power of breaking the King's peace. This principle extends, too, to a whole nation as well as to its chief; for, it is well known that wars, though factious republicans and levellers have ascribed them exclusively to the passions of princes, have frequently arisen out of the passions of the people: and, therefore, any publication which tends to expose a whole people to the hatred, contempt, or ridicule of other nations, may, according to this principle, be the subject of a criminal prosecution; because, whether true or false, and for whatever purpose intended, whether for the gratification of malice, or for the prevention of an introduction of foreign manners and foreign vices, it equally tends to irritate and inflame the said people, and, of course, to disturb the peace existing between them and this realm. Silence, therefore, must be strictly observed with regard to the robberies, the murders, the apostacies, the blasphemies, of the French republicans; a veil must be drawn over their follies and all their crimes; and our Sovereign and his people must forego every advantage, every motive to content, every means of security, furnished by that awful lesson the revolution. of France. I am aware, that the AttorneyGeneral attempted to draw a line between. an historical fact and a fanciful description; but, to say nothing about the mortal blow which this gives to the principle on which the justification of truth is rejected in such cases, where did the Attorney-General find this distinction in law? and, had you not here, Sir, a most auspicious opportunity of shewing the versatility of the principle altogether, by pointing out to the court and jury, that the passage for which Mr. Vint was prosecuted, as being a libel on the Emperor of Russia, was a relation of an his. torical fact! The words were these: "The "Emperor of Russia is. rendering himself "obnoxious to his own subjects by various "acts of tyranny, and ridiculous to the rest "of Europe by his inconsistency. He has "lately published an edict to prohibit the "exportation of deals and other naval "stores, in consequence of which, hundreds "of sails of vessels are returning to this "country without freight."-I am really astonished, Sir, that this inconsistency, which exhibits in so strong a light the accommodating quality of the principle on which your client was prosecuted, should have escaped your animadversion. This affected distinction was, indeed, evidently absurd, when considered as to the ultimate object protessed by the information, to wit: to prevent a beller from disturbing the peace between the two countries; for, who could possibly believe, that the epigrams, the fanciful descriptions, of Mr. Peltier were half so likely to produce a rupture of the peace, as were the historical facts related by Sir Robert Wilson? Do not these historical facts tend to vilify Buonaparté, and to bring him into disrepute and disgrace, amongst those over whom he exercises dominion? Does not Sir Robert's plain unvarnished detail of facts tend more immediately to expose the first magistrate of France to the hatred, detestation and contempt, not only of his own countrymen, but of every individual in Europe? does not such a detail tend more directly and more powerfully to irritate Buonaparté, and, of course, to cause a breaking of the peace on his part, than any fanciful satire by either poet or proser? And, if this be so, what becomes of the Attorney-General's affected distinction -So that, if we admit the principle on which the precedents. in this case were founded, there is an end at once to all publications, of whatever sort, levelled against any foreign potentate or people, with whom we are at peace; and we are for ever debarred, in this respect, from all the advantages, whether in morals, religion, or politics, to be derived from the genius of the poet or the labours of the historian. The speculating politician must be totally silent; for nothing, not a word, can he say to caution his country against the machinations of any foreign power; he cannot even state that such power is hostilely inclined; he cannot, though he should be fully persuaded, though he himself should know, that such power is actually preparing to attack his country; whatever may be his opinion or his knowledge of facts, he cannot state either without exposing himself, according to this principle, to a criminal prosecution for publi cations calculated to irritate the potentate in question, and thereby to provoke him to a breach of the peace.-Here, then, the danger of this pernicious principle reaches its acme: it not only silences the voice of the poet, the moralist, and the historian, as to all the useful lessons to be drawn from the follies, the vices, and the crimes of other nations, but it seals up the lips of every man who has the sagacity to perceive the dangers with which his country is threatened, and the courage to endeavour to animate the people with that spirit, by which alone their independence and their happiness can possibly be preserved. 4. But, Sir, if you had failed, which I hardly think you would, in convincing the court and jury, of the utter absurdity of this principle, and of the great danger of admitting it, as a ground of prosecution, in any case whatever; still it remained for you to show, and, I imagine, you might easily have shown, that even this principle, pliable as it is, would not, with any show of justice, admit of an application to the case of your client.-That which is principally to be considered, that which must finally be considered, as constituting the crime imputed to your client, is, the consequence likely to be produced by his publications, which consequence is a rupture of the peace, existing between this country and the person against whom the publications were made.-Before, however, I enter on the arguments relating to this part of the subject, it seems necessary to make a few remarks as to the meaning and object of the words published by Mr. Peltier. He had called Buonaparté a tyger and a tyrant, whether with propriety or not, it was, as I before stated, your business to shew, in your examination of the prece dents cited by the Attorney General; but, the heaviest charge, that which referred to what was allowed to be the principal cause of irritation in the mind of the Corsican, and that which certainly had the greatest weight in the decision of the jury, was, that the words of your client were intended to excite the oppressed people of France to ASSASSINATE their ruler. And, here, before I proceed to shew the absurdity of this charge, I must particularly notice one of the pas sages, on which this odious construction was put, merely from a misinterpretation. In the French it runs thus: "Pour moi, loin qu'à son sort je porte quelqu' "envie, "Qu'il nomme, j'y consens, son digne successeur, "Sur le pavois porté, qu'on l'élise empereurl "Enfin, et Romulus nous rappelle la chose, "Je fais vœu ... dès demain qu'il ait l'apothiose!" These words were, by Mr. Broughton, the sworn interpreter, translated in the following manner:-"As for me, far from "envying his lot, let him name, I consent "to it, his worthy successor. Carried on "the shield, let him be elected emperor! "Finally, and (Romulus recalls the thing "to mind), I wish that on the morrow he may have his apotheosis." That Mr. Broughton's misinterpretation proceeded from a want of knowledge on the subject is evident from the illustration, which, in print, he has since given of the rule, on which his translation was made; but still it was a misinterpretation, and, as the charge of exciting to assassination was made to rest principally upon this passage, you might have made something more than a very feeble attempt to have put the court and jury right with respect to it; especially, as you are, I am told, considered as a proficient in French literature and philology.*-The pronoun his, relating evidently to Romulus, the meaning is, that Mr. Peltier wished Buonaparté to experience his (Romulus's) fate, which was, according to the opinions of historians, that of being placed in the list of the gods, after having been assassinated By the Romans. But his apotheosis" is not a fair translation of "Papothéose." Le, in this case, is the definite article, and that article can never be translated into English by the possessive pronoun, except when it is found before the name of the whole or some part of the body, (human or not) or that of some quality, faculty, or property of the body or mind. For instance: il a LE bras court-HIS hand is short:-il a LE pas lent-HIS step is slow :— il a La voix très-belle - His voice is very fine: il a L'esprit très éclairé—HIS mind is much enlightened. In all these examples, and in every other of the kind that can possibly be given, the noun, before which the article is placed, represents something which be longs to, and which is inseparable from the body or mind of the person or animal spoken of; and, in no other possible case, can the French definite article be rendered in English by the possessive pronoun. You cannot say, il a LE CHAPEAU nir-HIS HAT is black; but you may that il a LES CHEVEUX noirs -- 66 very In order to give to my assertions, on this point, that weight to which they are duly and fairly entitled, I think it necessary to state, for the satisfaction of those of my readers who may not understand French themselves, my pretensions to decide on the meaning of any passage in that language. I am the author of a work, entitled LE MAITRE ANGLOIS, intended to teach Frenchmen English, and written, of course, in French. The work was first published in America; but, it has since been re-published in France, has been adopted by the Prytanée François, and has, under their sanction, been received in all the schools of France. HIS HAIR is black; because the hat is not a part of the body, and because the hair is a part of it. Therefore, "L'apothose," never can be rendered in English by HIS "apotheosis," and, of course, the word his, which made the word apotheosis apply to Romulus, which gave the invidious and, malignant meaning to the sentence in ques-. tion, and which probably produced the conviction of Mr. Peltier, was a misinterpretation; and thus, an instigation to assa sinate the Corsican was gathered from a verse, in which the poet simply expresses a wish, that the said Corsican may be deified, and which verse, if it had expressed a desire to send him to the devil, would have been regarded as perfectly harmless!-But, the charge of exciting to assassination, particularly in poetry, might, by a reference to almost any of our satirical poets, have been rendered so completely ridiculous, as to make the prosecutor blush for having seriously advanced it. SWIFT, in his description of the Irish Parliament, says, "Could I from the building's top "How might then our isle be blest!" Is not this a wish full as wicked as that of Mr. Peltier, who only desires to see Buonaparté defied?-There is another pas-, sage or two, of the same writer, in a poem entitled "Wood an Insect," and by which Wood, was well known to be meant William Wood, who had a contract from government for supplying Ireland with copper coin, and who had, in consequence of that, contract, and of the writings of Swift, be-, come extremely odious amongst the common people in particular. "The Louse of the Wood for a med'cine is us'd, "Or swallow'a alive or skilfully bruis'd. "And let, then, our mother Hibernia contrive "To swallow Will Wood, either bruis'd or alive. Thus, then, the whole question was, at last, brought into a very narrow compass; here was the pivot, on which the fate of your client was to turn. And, Sir, astonished, astonished was I to see, that you made use of no one argument, that you cited no one fact out of the thousand that presented themselves, in order to convince the jury, that no libel or any other species of provocation, could possibly render Buonaparté more the enemy of our king and country than he already was, or could induce him to hasten by the space of only one single moment, those plans which he has conceived for our impoverishment and destruction. Here, Sir, it was, that I would have entered into a history, not of the ambition of Louis XIV, not of that "infamous "transaction and public robbery," the partition of Poland, not, in short, of the crimes of kings and the virtues of republics, "parti"cularly a new republic of British growth;" this is not the sort of history I would have entered into, but a history of the conduct of Napoleon Buonaparté with respect to Europe in general and to England in particular, since the conclusion of the peace of Amiens; and, I think, I could have shown, Sir, that, from the signature of that ruinous and disgraceful compact to the moment in which you were speaking, this abused and deluded country never had been really and truely at peace; and, that the person, in whose behalf the prosecution was commenced, instead of living in friendship with us, had constantly been loading our Sovereign and his people with every species of injury and insult that the mind of the bitterest enemy could possibly devise. I would have cited some few, at least, of the numerous and infamous libels, which had been circulated against us, in every country in Europe, through the channel of his official gazette; but, in particular, I would have shown, that the strongest of the publications, which were imputed to Mr. Peltier as a crime, were published subsequent to the arrival of that atrocious libel, in which the Corsican's official gazette styles His Majesty the rewarder of assassins, and which might well have justified words ten thousand times as harsh, wishes ten thousand times as bitter, as those ascribed to your client. "The to scald him or boil him, as any set of people in the world, who ever accused Swift of exciting them to assassinate this maker of half-pence? Who ever had the folly to suppose that the Dean had any such excitement in view, or that this poem had any other object than that of keeping alive a spirit of watchfulness, and, perhaps, of public indignation, against a man, whom the writer regarded as a peculator, and as an enemy of the country? And would not a lawyer have been hooted out of court, if he had attempted to impute a satire like this to an intention such as that imputed to Mr. Peltier? Yet, it must be evident to every one, who has eyes to see, ears to hear, and who possesses the very humble faculty of making a comparison between the two writings, that the poem of Swift was much more likely to lead to assassination than were the fragments and epigrams of your client, which, besides their being published in a country where the Corsican Consul did not reside, could not, as the publisher well knew, be admitted into that country where he did reside, and where, if assassination had been intended, the assassins were only to be found.After all, however, and to come to the close of this wearisome discussion, it was not the expressions cited in the information, it was not the sentiments conveyed by those expressions, it was not the motive by which the defendant had been actuated, nor was it the degree of irritation probably produced in the mind of the Corsican, that formed the principal points of inquiry; these were all leading points, indeed, but the ultimate question was, were the publications likely to cause a rupture of the peace existing between England and France? For, whatever might be nature of them, how ever bad in themselves, and from whatever wicked motive arising, still, unless they had a tendency, and even an evident tendency, to bring, in some way or other, injury upon His Majesty or his subjects, they were, in the eye of the law, perfectly innocent. To make out this injury, therefore, it was alledged, that they tended" to interrupt, dis"turb, and destroy the FRIENDSHIP and "PEACE, subsisting between our said Lord "the King and his subjects, and the said Napoleon Buonaparté, &c. &c." And, the Attorney General clearly stated this to be the only ground on which he came into court. "Because," said he, "I think, "that this libel tends to endanger the tran"quillity between this country and a nation with hom we are at peace, I prosecute the au"thor. That charge brings me, and it brings the defendant, this day before you." 66 friendship subsisting between His Majesty "and Buonaparte!" Friendship and peace subsisting between us and the Corsican! What a glorious field for the display of oratorical talents! I would have rung these words in the ears of the Attorney General, until, soft and sweet as they are to a "safe "politician," they should have sounded to him more dismal than the knell of his father; and, as to the jury, I will not believe, that | any twelve honest men upon the face of the earth, hearing what might have been said in defence of your client, would have hesitated one moment to pronounce him not guilty. Here, Sir, I conclude my remarks. I have discharged a duty, imposed on me by the laws of honour and hospitality; and, though you may, perhaps, remind me, that I should have done well to keep this defence for my own use, I shali not thereby be put out of humour, or led to view my present effort with regret. Seeing the disgraceful situation of my country, I cannot feel much anxiety as to its favour or its frowns, its justice or its injustice: if we are to be slaves, it is of little consequence whether we are surrounded by the walls of a jail or by the waves of the sea.-I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, W. COBBETT. Landon, 9th March, 1803. FOREIGN COUNTRIES. Constantinople, Jan. 10.-On the 26th of Dec. in the evening, an adjutant of General Stuart, had a conference with the Reis Effendi, and proposed, in the name of the English government, that the Porte should grant a pardon to the Egyptian Beys, and assign them a distant place in Upper Egypt for their residence, where they should engage to live peaceably, and conduct themselves as faithful subjects of the Porte.-The Reis Effendi, who had expected very different proposals from the English adjutant, answered, that the Porte would communicate its determination on this subject to the English Ambassador, Lord Elgin. The latter accordingly had several conferences with the Reis Effendi, and the negotiation was yesterday evening brought to a conclusion, as Lord Elgin took his leave of the Grand Vizier. The Porte has, in fact, contrary to general expectation, granted a pardon to the Beys, under the following conditions:-1. The cavalry of the Mamelukes shall enter immediately into the service of the Pacha of Cairo-2. The Porte will assign to the six insurgent Beys, the little town of Awan, in Upper Egypt, where they shall reside in peace, and subject to the Porte, without interfering, in any manner, in the public affairs and government of Egypt.-As soon as this convention was concluded, Lord Elgin declared officially to the Grand Vizier, that Egypt should be immediately evacuated by the English troops, which would be conveyed from thence to Malta.-On the 6th, the French Ambassador, General Brune, arrived here with the squadron from Toulon, consisting of a ship of the line, a frigate, 2 brigs and 2 corvettes. This squadron likewise brought the French agents of legation and commerce destined for the different ports of the Levant. Rome, Feb. 17.-His Holiness, by virtue of the right conferred upon him by the great powers of Since the above was written, it has been explicitly declared, in the Ministerial Gazette, and in both Houses of Parliament, that ever since the signing of the peace, Buonaparte has been in a state of HOSTILITY to this country. Europe, of appointing the Grand Master of the order of Malta, has chosen M. le Bailly de Thomasi, a Neapolitan Knight. The Commander De Busy has set out from Rome for Sicily to carry to the new GrandMaster the brief of election, conferring upon him that dignity. Ratisbon, Feb. 18-The extraordinary Depuration of the Empire held this day the 46th sitting. The Directorial Minister, on that occasion, announced the receipt of a decree on the evening before, from the Imperial Minister, by which he accedes to the decision relative to the Indemnities to be granted to the courts of the Empire, and intimates that he has made a communication to this effect to the ministers of the mediating powers. -Feb. 19. The Deputation of the Empire yesterday held their 45th sitting, in which the Direc torial Minister announced that the Elector ArchChancellor was ready to undertake the payment of the subsidies destined for the support of the higher clergy. The city of Passau was not evacuated, pursuant to a decree on the 12th of this month. Brest, Feb. 23.-General Decaen has arrived there This general, appointed captain-general of our settlements in India, reviewed the same day the troops that are to be sent there. He was received in the road with all the honours due to his rank. The expedition to India will soon be in a condition to sail. Berne, Feb.23. Gen. Serras arrived here yesterday from Paris. There is to be established in each canton a commission of seven members, in order to put into activity the new cantonal constitution. Six of these members are appointed by our deputies at Paris, and the seventh by the First Consul. As soon as the cantonal commissions shall have entered upon their functions, the present government will dissolve itself. The epochs of that dssolution is fixed for the 10th of March. Hague, March 1.-The government has officially announced, that all the West-India Colonies taken by the British during the war, have been finally given up, in consequence of the peace, to the Batavian Republic.-Last Tuesday arrived from Paris, one of the aids-de-camp of General Victor, with an order from the First Consul that General Casar Berthier should remain in his appointment of chief officer of the staff for the expedition to Louisiana, and should not obtain that new employment, which was some time intended for him by the First Consul. The naval minister writes to General Victor, that he has given the necessary orders for the departure of the expedition in the end of March. Paris, March 2-They write from Rouen, that Lebourgeois and Pigot, former leaders of the Chouans, accompanied by many others, had returned from England to France, where they kept themselves a month concealed. The Police, apprised of their return, made efforts to discover their motives, and soon found that they were forming new plots against the public safety. They have been arrested, and by their answers a proof has been discovered of the criminal designs which induced them to go back.-The camp, which is to be formed between Brussels and Louvain, at the epoch of the journey of the First Consul into the Belgie departments, will be established in the plain of Cortemberg. The number of troops of which it will be composed, appears to be definitively fixed at 15,000 men, who, as soon as the season permits, will be marched to their destination. |