their hovels, and the consequences are pretty much the same, dysentery, ague, and consumption, and that anticipated old age produced by the causes already stated, superadded to bad food, smoke, filth, and despair, which changes as beautiful a race of people as ever originally came from the hands of the Creator, (particularly the females) into skinny, sallow, and withered invalids in the prime of their existence, when youth should give them spirits, and vigour, activity. I join the name of Wilberforce especially with the Molungees, because he has already stood forth the champion of a much essl aggrieved class of human beings, and may therefore, be the more inclined to exert his talents and his influence in behalf of these wretched outcasts. Great praise is certainly due to him for his labours in behalf of the Negroes, though they will terminate in the loss to Great Britain of the West India colonies, while a doubt may still remain on the minds of many, as it does on mine, whether the same good to Africa and a less evil to England might not have been produced by a new modelling of the colonial code and making the condition of the blacks so much more advantageous, by assimilating it as closely as possible in point of civil rights, to that of the British, that compulsion would have been no longer necessary, and the Africans would have emigrated to Jamaica from motives of self interest, as the Irish and Scotch do from the United Kingdoms to America,But the motive of the abolitionists was "fiat justitia, ruat coelum ;" and such a sentiment is too apt to be accompanied with a degree of virtuous but imprudent enthusiasm that passes over remedies which to cooler and less expanded minds seem perfectly adequate.--But it is no longer tithe to investigate those measures which led to the abolition of the Slave Trade-it has received the sanction of the legislature, and the fate of the Africans, as far as that measure and its consequences reach, is decided-it is the cause of the Molungees which I now wish to advocate it is the misery of this miserable class that I wish investigated and redressed. Whether it will ever be discussed in Parliament remains to be seen-at least it deserves discussion as well as any of the enormities attributed to Lord Wellesley, and throws as deep a stigma on the British Domination in India-it will at all events if you think it expedient to publish this letter in your Register, acquire in the course of the well deserved and extensive circulation that Register has obtained, a considerable share of publicity and this is all I want--for I will not think that the commercial gangrene has so completely rotted and mortified the British heart

as to render it insensible to such misery as falls to the hard lot of the Molungees-I am, Sir, &c. MALB.-Ireland, Nov.23d,1807.

PUBLIC PAPER.

RUSSIA AND ENGLAND.-Declaration of Russia against England. Done at St. Petersburgh, October 28, 1807...

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The higher the value in which the Ein-. peror held the amity of his Britannic Majesty, the keener the regret he must feel at the complete alienation of that monarch.― Twice has the Emperor taken up arms in a cause in which the interests of England were most immediately concerned: but he has solicited to no purpose her co-operation to promote the accomplishment of her own objects. He did not require she should unite her forces with his: he was anxious only she would make a diversion in their favour. He was astonished that in the furtherance of her own cause she herself would. make no exertion. On the contrary, she looked on a cold spectatrix of the sanguinary theatre of the war, which she had herself kindled, and sent a part of her troops to attack Buenos Ayres. Another portion of her army, which seemed to be destined to make a diversion in Italy, finally with. drew from Sicily where it was assembled. Hopes were entertained that they had taken that step, in order to throw themselves on the Neapolitan coast; but it was understood that they were employed in taking. possession of Egypt.-But what most sensibly hurt the feelings of his Imperial Ma... jesty was, to see that in violation of the faith and express stipulations of treaties, England was annoying the maritime trade of his subjects; and at what period was this pro ceeding adopted? when the blood of the Russians was flowing in the glorious battles which accumulated and directed against the armies of his Imperial Majesty, the whole of the military force of his Majesty the Emperor of the French, with whom England was, and still is, at war! When the two Emperors made peace, his Majesty, notwithstanding his just causes of displeasure at the conduct of England, did not however refrain from endeavouring to render her services. The Emperor stipulated in that very treaty that he should interpose his mediation between England and France; and he accordingly made an offer of that mediation to the King of Great Britain, apprising him that it was with a wish to obtain honourable conditions for him. But the British ministry, adhering no doubt to the plan that was to dissolve and break off all the ties between Russia and England, rejected that mediation, -The peace between Russia and France

was likely to bring about a general peace, but it was at this moment that England suddenly awoke from that apparent lethargy in which she had slumbered; but it was only to throw into the north fresh fire-brands, which were to rekindle, and have actually kindled, the flames of a war which she was desirous not to see extinguished -Her fleets, her troops, appeared on the Danish Coasts, to execute an act of violence of which history so fruitful in examples, records no parallel.. A power distinguished for its peaceful and moderate conduct, and for a long and unexpected course of wise neutrality, and who sustained, amidst surrounding monarchies, a kind of moral dignity, finds itself treated as if it was engaged in secret plots, and was meditating the downfal of England: while the whole of these imputations were only meant to justify the sudden and entire spoliation of that power-The Emperor, wounded in his dignity, wounded in the affection he feels for his people, wounded in his engagements with the courts of the North, by this act of violence committed in the Baltic, a close sea, the tranquillity of which has so long depended on the court of St. James's, and is reciprocally guaranteed by both powers, did not dissemble his resentment against England, and warned her that he should not remain indifferent to such a proceeding.His Majesty did not foresee, that while England, having successfully employed her forces, was on the point of seizing on her prey, she would offer a fresh outrage to Denmark, in which his Majesty was to bear a part.-New propositions, still more insidious than those made at first, were made to Denmark, which aimed at binding down to England that pow. er thus subjugated, degraded, and applauding, as it were, every thing that had happened. Still less did the Emperor foresee that it would be proposed to him to guarantee that submission, and to promise that that act of violence should not be attended with any mischievous consequence to England.-The English ambassador seems to have imagined that he might venture to propose to the Minister of the Emperor, that his Imperial Majesty should undertake the apology and defence of a proceeding which his Majesty had so openly condemned. To this step on the part of the cabinet of St. James's, his Majesty has thought proper to pay only that attention which it deserved, and bas deemed it high time to set limits to his moderation. The Prince Royal of Denmark endowed with a character full of nobleness and energy, and having been blessed by Frovidence with a soul as elevated as his rank,

had apprized the Emperor, that, justly enraged against what had recently happened at Copenhagen, he had not ratified the convention respecting it, and that he considered it as null and void-That Prince has just now acquainted his Majesty with the new propositions that have been made to him, and which are of a nature rather to provoke his resistance than to appease his resentment, for they tend to stamp n his actions the seal of degradation, the impress of which they never will exhibit -The Emperor struck with the confidence which the Prince Royal placed in him having moreover considered his own grounds of dissatisfaction with England, having attended to his engagements with the powers of the North engagements entered into by the Empress Catherine, and by his late Imperial Majesty, both of glorious memory, has resolved upon fulfilling them.-His Imperial Majesty breaks off all communication with England: he recalls his embassy from that court, and will not allow any ambassador from her to continue at his court. There shall henceforward exist no relations between the two cuntries. The Emperor declares that he abrogates for ever every act hitherto concluded between Great Britain and Russia, and particularly the convention concluded in 1801. He proclaims anew the principles of the armed neutrality, that monument of the wisdom of the Empress Catherine, and binds himself never to recede from that system-He calls upon England to give compleat satisfaction to his subjects, with respect to all the just claims they may set up, of ships and merchandises seized and detained, contrary to the express tenor of the treaties concluded during his own reign. The Emperor gives warning, that nothing shall be re-established between Russia and England, until the latter shall have given satisfaction to Denmark.-The Emperor expects, that his Britannic Majesty, instead of permitting his Ministers to scatter fresh seeds of war, in compliance only with his own feelings, will be induced to conclude a peace with his Majesty the Emperor of the French, which would be extending, in a manner, to the whole world, the inestimable blessings of peace.-When the Emperor shall be satisfied upon all these points, and especially upon that of a peace between France and England, without which no part of Europe can expect to enjoy any real tranquillity, his Imperial Majesty will then willingly return to the relations of amity with Great Britain, which in the state of just resentment which the Emperor should feel, he has maintained, perhaps, too long.

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SUMMARY OF POLITICS. "PERISH COMMERCE" (continued from page 881.)-IX. Respecting the effects of commerce upon the civil and political liberties of England.My correspondent, W. F. S. whose letter will be found in page 854, ex. presses his fears, that, if commerce were an nihilated, we should fall back into that state, when the population of this kingdom consisted of Lords and Fassals. After having described the rise of civil liberty, he puts his question to me thus: "Do we not, by anni

hilating commerce, retrace the steps, "which brought us from feodal tyranny? My answer is, that, while, by annihilating commerce, we should not retrace one of those steps, we should cut up by the roots that political corruption, which, in a thousand ways, has operated to our oppression at home, and has been the chief cause of all the dangers, with which we are now menaced from abroad.This is my opinion. I now proceed to offer the reasons upon which that opinion is founded-Liberty, by which I always mean, freedom from oppression, did not arise, in this country, from the operation of commerce (that is to say, trade with foreign nations), but from the conflicting interests and passions of our ancient kings and their thanes or barons. The church bad something to do in the matter; but, it was chiefly the work of the kings, who, in order to free themselves from the tyranny of the barons, called in the people to their aid; and, that this aid might be efficient, they did, by degrees, arm them with political privileges, after having emancipated them and enabled them to possess property. But, this was wholly a work of internal regulation and enterprize. The people, as fast as they became free, as soon as they could call their persons their own, naturally became proprietors; from free men, they became freeholders; and, with the aid of the nume rous measures, adopted from time to time, the land of England, which, at the Norman conquest was in the hands of, perhaps, not toore than seven or eight thousand persons,

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became divided amongst hundreds of thousands. Power followed property, or, rather, they went hand in hand; the dispersion of the one naturally produced the dispersion of the other; and thus was the partial and capricious sway of the feodal lords made, by degrees, to give way to the operations of general laws and fixed principles of jurisprudence, leaving nothing of the old system behind, except that which was deemed useful, and which really was, and still is, useful, as to the distinction of ranks, the ascertaining of local limits, and the tenure of property.

-What part of this great change was, I would beg to know, the effect of commerce? The effect of trade and connection with foreign nations, not one of whom could afford any example whereon to frame that constitution which arose in England, and all of whom have remained, until within these very few years, under the sway of feodal or royal despots?-As fast as the people of England became free, they became possessed of property; they enjoyed not only food sufficient for them, but also a share of the surplus produce of the soil, which would naturally increase from the saine cause. Hence, and not from foreign trade, arose arts and manufactures; and, that the persons, thus employed, might have their due share of political power, corporations and boroughs were established. Men in trade, that is to say, engaged in buying and selling, would naturally arise as arts and inanufactures increased. In all these divisions of the popu-. lation, some would naturally acquire great riches, without any aid at all from foreign trade; and, if we have proved, that, upon a general scale, the nation can acquire no wealth from foreign trade, if we have proved, that, if commerce were to cease, all those who are now employed in manufactu ring for foreigners, would be employed in contributing to the national wealth at home, what reason is there to fear, that the loss of tommerce would throw us back under a feodal tyranny? If commerce were destroy ed, the persons pow employed in magatus

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turing for foreign nations, would be employed in something else. The profits, arising from their labour, would, in that case, indeed, certainly not go to the enriching of merchants, but, they would as certainly go to the enriching of some other description of persons engaged in trade; and, therefore, the change could have no tendency whatever towards a restoration of the feodal system. Suppose the silk trade to cease. The landowners, who have heretofore expended a hundred thousand pounds a year in silks for their wives and daughters, wou'd, you will say, apply that sum to the purchasing up of the property of those, who, on account of the cessation of the silk-trade, are obliged to sell; and, thus, branch after branch of trade failing, the property of traders, piece by piece would fall back again into the hands of the landowners, until, at last, we should come back again to the feodal system. But, I have, in my former sheet, page 875 and the two following ones, shown W. F. S. that there are, out of a population of about 11,000,000 no more than 400,000 persons now employed in manufacturing for commerce and in carrying on commerce. Supposing, then, the cessation of the silk and other foreign trades to work in the way above described, we should make but a very trifling retrogade movement towards the feodal system. But, I am sure W. F. S. is too wise to suppose, that the wives and daughters of the landowners would suffer their husbands and fathers to appropriate the silk-savings to the purchase of lands and tenements. In some way or other, they would obtain satisfaction for the loss of their silks. Woollens, for instance, would be made (as, indeed, they now are) to rival silks. Some fineries or other would be made out of our home-produced materials; and, the traders in these fineries (many, and, indeed, most of them, the very same persons that before traded in silks) would possess the profits, and, of course, the riches and the power, before derived from the trade in silks; the balance of property, and of the political power, growing out of property, would continue the same, with this difference, that they would not then, as they now do (as far as commerce is concerned), tend, as I shall now endeavour to show, to oppress and enslave the people, instead of preserving their liberty.The idea of Goldsmith, as expressed in the verses, taken as a motto to my last sheet, that is to say, that slaves are purchased at home bythe wealth pillaged from savage nations, is not fully enough explained. To be sure those savage nations are pillaged and most cruelly treated by those, who,

through the means of commerce, purchase slaves at home. But, it is we here in England (I use this word because I hate a long compound name for a nation) who, in fact, pay the amount of the pillage. We pay ar mies and fleets, and we make direct grants of millions, for the maintenance of colonies. The people there are oppressed and pillaged; but we pay the amount of the pillage. Suppose a parish were wicked or foolish enough to raise within itself a thousand pounds, and give it to an expert and gallant gentleman to go and raise contributions upon the next parish; that the various expences which he should be at for the hiring of subaltern ruffans, for the obtaining of arms, and for food and lodgings, cost him a thousand pounds; and, that, finally, he comes back with a thousand pounds worth of pillage. He has gained a thousand pounds; but the individuals of each of the parishes have lost to that amount; and, the only difference between them, as to the consequences, is, that the parish which has sent him out to plunder, has the satisfaction to see him raised above the heads of his former fellows, and making some of them, in fact, his slaves. Thus, does this sort of commerce, at any rate, deal its curses donble-handed.--But, the political effects of commerce are so glaringly injurious, that it is matter of astonishment, that any sensible and honest man should not perceive them and dread their final and inevitable consequences. One would think it impossible for any such man, recollecting the facts detailed in the speech, from which I have taken my motto, not to abhor the very name of commerce. Mr. Burke states, in that speech, that Benfield, had eight memters in the House of Commons. Now, if the wealth, which, by that corrupt transaction, had been heaped upon him, had been divided amongst a thousand or two of traders at home, is it not evident, that it would have had no such effect as this? If the million of money (I believe it was more) that he received out of the taxes, had not been raised in taxes, it would have been distributed about in supplying the wants and luxuries of those who paid those taxes; but, would no where have had, either in the beginning or the end, the corrupting cousequence so clearly proved by Mr. Burke. A hundred particular instances might be quoted of this corrupting effect of commerce; but, one has only to reflect a little to be convinced, that commerce must have a corrupting tendency. It forms men together in large companies, or bodies. They soon acquire great pecuniary powers; and they as soon perceive, that the minister of the day, be he who or what he