stalled) with a King, declared to be in a state of incapacity to govern; here is a precedent for the nation being left in that state, for its being left to be governed by men, appointed to their offices by that same King, for nearly a quarter of a year. →→ Now, suppose His Majesty should be, by Physicians chosen by these same ministers, declared to be recovered, to-morrow? All that has been done respecting the Regency falls to the ground at once. Then suppose, that, in a, week afterwards, his Majesty were to have a relapse, than which nothing could be more likely, seeing what a load of various matter it would be absolutely necessary to press upon him, and what painful reflections must crowd into his mind. Suppose this relapse to take place? What then? Why then we have, according to this precedent, another quarter of a year to go on without a King capable of discharging the functions of the kingly office; and thus, with shorter or longer intervals, we may, upon this precedent, go on for a whole year, or, for years together.--Then, observe, too, that, during the intervals of recovery, the grants of titles, lands, leases, places for life and reversion, and all appointments to offices of

as a trust for the "benefit of the people;" | and, of course, any suspension of them; any division of them; any reservation of their exercise for the King, when he shall recover (be it for a day or a year) is a violation of that great principle; whence it ensues of necessity, that the friends of freedom must approve of an expression of disapprobation of a measure, causing such suspension, division, or reservation; and, the Prince of Wales may be assured, that he has, from the feelings of the people, nothing to apprehend, whatever these intolerant and malignant men may endeavour to do in the way of exciting, even before he forms a ministry, prejudices against him, endeavours the more detestable as they are cloaked under the garb of attachment to his Father, than which nothing can be more base and hateful. -I wish particularly to put the reader upon his guard against this device, which is truly diabolical. The object is to make the people believe, that there are grounds of suspicion of the Prince, and that he will make a King when the time comes very different from his father; nay, and further. that we ought to suspect him of a wish to become King before the due time. And these are the men, who rail against jacobins These are the men, who apprehend dan-profit and power would be made; though, gers from a conspiracy against the House of Brunswick. Of this House they do not appear to look upon the Prince as making a part. They are men of strange notions. In short, what they mean by the House of Brunswick is that alone by the means of which they are enabled, without labour and without talents, to get a good fat living for themselves and an equally fat provision for their familes. This is what such men mean by the House of Brunswick; and, that being the case, it is quite natural that they should dread, even in their dreams, a conspiracy against it.-The matter may, however, be looked upon as being thus far settled; and the country, after having gone on without a King, capable of discharging any part of the functions of royalty, for nearly a quarter of a year, has, at last, a prospect of seeing the exercise of those functions committed, in part at least, to a person capable of performing the task! Here alone is food for some hours of serious reflection; and, the reader will do well to consider a little what may be the consequences of this precedent. Here is a precedent for the nation being left during nearly a quarter of a year (it will be more before the Regent can be completely in

one must confess, that it is difficult to see,
why these may not as well be made dur-
ing the King's known incapacity, as that
money should be drawn from the Exche-
quer, troops sent abroad, and the like,
during such known incapacity.Then,
who is it that is to make known any sor-
rowful return of the malady? The minis-
ters? Those men who have been ap-
pointed by the King during his intervals
of sanity? These very men who have
the power in their hands? Are they to
be relied upon for punctually and
readily making known the
when the King shall be again unfortu
nately incapable of discharging the func-
tions of royalty?--I do not say, that
they would be the last men upon earth to
be trusted with such a duty; I do not
say, that they would hide the fact from
the public to the last possible moment
that disguise should be thought practica-
ble. I do not say what would be, nor do
I consider it at all as a personal question;
but, I ask the reader, whether, upon the
known principles and rules of action
amongst men, persons so situated should be
the depositories of such a trust?――But,
all these considerations aside, and leaving

but has also been added to the vassals of France. Will this give him no trouble? Will he hear of this without any danger of

the interests of the country quite out of
the question, let us consider a little the
situation of His Majesty himself. If
any one of us were to find ourselves re-producing a relapse? Is it the office of a
covered from such a malady; if any one
of us were to find ourselves in such a state,
should we not seek retirement, quiet, tran-
quillity; should we not rest our hope of
final and perfect re-establishment upon
the having kept from us all those things
which require mental exertion? Nay, is
not this the invariable practice of the
world? Is it not always the practice of
those, who are the real friends of persons
in such a state, to resort to every possible
means of relieving and diverting their
minds; of amusing them with light and
trivial matter, of presenting them with a
variety of unimportant objects; and, in
short, of preventing the necessity and
even the chances of serious thinking.-
If such be what compassion points out,
and what the universal practice of the
world has stamped with its authority, can
it be supposed to be proper to leave the
King so situated, that, in the very hour of
his recovery he must necessarily have
pressed upon his mind a multitude of
objects, any one of which is of weight
quite sufficient to excite trouble in the
strongest mind? The Recorder of Lon-apprehension of which is enough to pro-
don would be amongst the first of his
visitors, to present him with a long list of
his unhappy subjects, condemned to an
ignominious death, during his incapacity.
Would he not feel upon beholding that
list? Would the sight of it, or, still
more the hearing of it read, give no trou-
ble to his mind? Would he, could he,
with a serene mind, decide upon the fate
of so many persons? Could he, in a
moment, by his breath, at once consign
them to or give them are spite from eterni-
ty without feelings that must deeply affect
his mind? To suppose it possible that he
could is to pronounce a satire upon human
nature. But, though I must believe,
that this would be his most dangerous
trial, must he not very sensibly feel for
the fate of the campaign in Portugal?
When he is informed how things stand
there; when he learns the real situation
of his own army compared with that of
the enemy, who, as he had been before
told, had not an inch of ground but that
which his army stood upon; when he learns
this, will there arise nothing to trouble
his mind? Sweden, since his inca-
pacity, has been added, not only to the
long list of the powers at war with him,

friend to present an object like this to his
mind?--Then, at home is there nothing
to trouble him? Is there nothing which
would be likely to weigh heavily on a
mind anxious for the safety of the country,
on the fate of which wholly depends that
of the Crown and the Royal Family? Is
there nothing in Ireland to awaken new
anxieties? Are there flowery prospects for
his advisers to present to him in that, or in
any other, quarter of his dominions, or in
any department of his government?
I, therefore, put it to any impartial man,
whether, if, in addition to all these and
many other most serious concerns, the
multitude of routine business be added, the
incessant attention and toil, necessarily
arising from this long suspension of the
King's capacity for business, it is not im-
probable in the highest degree, that a re-
lapse should not almost instantly succeed
recovery; and whether it would not be
cruelty in the extreme thus to expose him
to such manifest danger; the danger of
being replunged into a state, the most
humiliating to human nature, and the bare

duce insanity. I put this to the serious and impartial consideration of the reader; and, I am quite sure, that, if he do seriously consider the matter, he will agree with me, that a moment ought not to be lost in making permanent provision against the evils of which we now feel the effects.

It appears to me, that provision should be made, which may prevent the necessity of the King's being compelled to attend to business for some weeks, at least, after he shall have been declared to have recovered the perfect possession of his reason. Some months would be better; but, some considerable space of time appears to me to be absolutely necessary, in order to afford the best chance of his final re-establishment; and, at the same time, to guard the interests of the country against the dangers above pointed out. Something of this sort does, indeed, seem to be in the contemplation of some members of parliament; but, it is a matter that admits not of delay; it is not less pressing than the measure of the Regency itself; for, as was before shown, that measure, without some such provision, may be rendered nugatory in an hour, either before or after its consummation.Let us now turn to

other matters connected with the Regency. | Ireland? What should make the Irish --The limitations may yet be done prone to French factions, any more than away in the two Houses, during the dis- any body else?--In 1785 and the three cussions of the intended bill; and it is to or four succeeding years, we heard of be hoped, that they will be done away; French factions in Holland. The history but, at any rate, it is time for us now to of the conquest of Holland is before us; begin to think a little of the situation of and, will not his Royal Highness and his the country, and to form to ourselves some- ministry profit from that history? thing like settled notions as to what a new What caused French factions in Holministry ought to do and what the people land? Why, the refusal of the government are justified in expecting at their hands. to redress the grievances of the people; and, As to men, though it will be impossible to at last, when the war of words had been prevent the people from liking some bet- carried on as long as possible the war of arms ter than others, and quite impossible to resucceeded. This is the natural progress. concile them to the eulogisers of Mr. Pitt, It is thus that nations are laid open to inwhose measures must be considered as in-vaders; and thus that they finally become cluded in the eulogy; as to men, however, the people are little interested. It is the measures they look at, because they feel them; and, it is not now mere measures of what is called policy, but measures that af. fect us so closely, that we cannot divest our selves of the thought of them. Their effect comes home to the pocket of every man of us; we feel it in our incomes, in our means of living, in the distribution of our earnings amongst our children, in our means of making a figure in the world, in the looks of our poor neighbours, who, if they have not a legal, have an equitable, or, at least, a natural claim to partake with us. That creature is unworthy of the name of man, who can enjoy his dinner and his bottle, while he has, almost before his eyes, a neighbourhood half starving. Their vices! Good God! what have they to make them virtuous! Hunger, cold, and nakedness never yet made men abstain from crimes; never made them industrious, honest, or sober.--To a man, who feels as he ought to feel, this general misery is the greatest grievance; and, to such a man it is perfectly useless to talk; it is perfectly useless to philosophize; he never will be contented, 'till he sees this enormous grievance redressed. He knows, that it was not thus formerly; he knows well, for his parish books will tell it him, that, before the Pitt system began its dire operation, the people of England were comparatively happy.--The precise measures, which ought now to be adopted, and even a general view of them, I have not now time for; but, I cannot commit this Num-extent must be left to chance. A change ber to the press without again urging the necessity of doing something for Ireland. --We know, that we have recently been told, that a regular army is necessary to keep down French factions in Ireland. How came there to be French factions in

conquered. To adopt such measures,
therefore, as shall make Ireland quiet, and
enlist her under the same banners with
ourselves is absolutely necessary..
But if this can be done without a reform
of the House of Commons, which I greatly
doubt, still that reform will be wanting to
the happiness and even the defence of the
kingdom.Major Cartwright has di-
gested the best plan of internal defence
that I have ever seen, or heard of; but
that plan is interwoven with a reform of
the Commons' House of Parliament, without
which, indeed, it is now too late to ex-
pect, that we shall ever again see an hour
of safety in peace or in war.We have
had expeditions enough now; we have sent
out armies enough to divert the French, and
pretty diversions we have made. Each of
them has cost some country its indepen-
dence. It is high time for us to consider
how this land, how these islands, are to be de-
fended. And, does any man think that they
are to be defended by a divided people?
If he does he must have shut his eyes
to the cause of the fall of every nation
upon the continent; and, to expect to
see an united people without a reform in
parliament, is, in my view of things, some-
thing worse than madness.--If it be sup-
posed, that the thing will jog on and last
our time, the notion, to say nothing of its
baseness, is excessively absurd. It will
not jog on; it must and it will have a
change of one sort or an other. A change
made may be as gentle and easy as you
please; but, if it make itself, its manner and

made may be under the guidance of reason; if it make itself, it must be under the wild guidance of passion.--The cry of those who oppose reform, is, that it is not wanted by the people at large. Never was any thing more false than this. All the na

tion, except those who are self-interested in the continuation of abuses of all sorts, anxiously wish for it. All men, who have -no such interest wish for a reform of the Parliament, as the only means of putting an end to abuses. They necessarily must wish for it. They must be the most unnatural wretches upon earth if they had not such wish; and, their expectations are now greater than ever.

PAPER AGAINST GOLD.-My correspondents in the country will please to perceive, that it would be inconvenient to continue this subject, till that of the Regency is over. But, they may be well assured, that I have the former too deeply at heart ever to drop it, till I have made the treatise as complete as it is in my power to make it.--I long had it in contemplation to make the Paper-Money System familiar to the understandings of the nation at large; but, until I was put into this jail, I wanted the time to do the thing to my wish. Now, nothing but want of health or senses shall ever make me quit it, till it be made so plain, that children at school, and even Doctors at the University, nay, that the Pitt statesmen themselves, shall understand it as well as they under

stand how to calculate the amount of their

salaries.When this task is completed, my intention is to unmask and lay bare to every eye, that GRAND MYSTERY, the Concerns of the East India Company; and, when that is well done, the people of England will want very little additional information to enable them to form a correct judgment of the prospect before them, and of the means which have been made use of

to bring them into their present situation.

W. COBBETT.

State Prison, Newgate, Tuesday, 15th Jan. 1811.

COBBETT'S

OFFICIAL PAPERS.

FRANCE.-Report of a Committee in the Con-
servative Senate upon the subject of the
annexation of Holland and the Hans
Towns to France.-13th Dec. 1810.
(Concluded from p. 96.)

But such is the empire of habits and of
self-love over nations as well as indivi-
duals; the changes which strike their eye
in all that surrounds them, in vain remind
them of their own decline; they both repel
the secret conviction which pursues them.
A blind sentiment averts their eyes from the
lessons of experience, and they make their
close more fatal by their efforts to ward it
off-Our colours were floating over the
whole Batavian territory; the partisans of
England fled in the ships which they
basely sold to the enemy. Its incorpora-
tion with France, the association of the
Batavians with their brothers in Belgium,
wishes, the most pressing of their wants.
ought to have been the first of their

enormous

The public debt, which had not then received that immense increase to which it latterly arrived, might have been entirely saved from shipwreck; vast combeen opened with France; munications of commerce might have weighed down these interesting countries: charges would not, for 15 years, have and for what? to obtain the barren honour of a Government pretendedly national, as if a nation could exist where there was neither independence, nor army, nor tertimes are passed, when the conceptions of ritory susceptible of defence.--Those some statesmen gave authority, in the of guarantees, of counterpoise, of political public opinion, to the system of balances, equilibrium. Pompous illusions of cabinets of the second order! visions of imbecility! which all disappear before necessity, that power which regulates the duration and the mutual relations of empires. -Would not the successive Governments of Holland in a thousand instances, have been subservient to internal agitations, to the efforts of England, had not the force of the French empire been constantly

Parliamentary Debates: acting upon them to maintain and to de

The FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, and SEVENTEENTH Volumes, comprising the whole of the Debates and Proceedings in both Houses, during the Last Session of Parliament, are now ready for delivery.

fend them? And when England affronted France by supposing that this force was absent, because the Emperor was meditating victory and peace on the banks of the Danube; was it Holland that could have repelled the fleet, and the British legions assembled to recommence

years of a struggle glorious for France, the most extraordinary genius ever formed by nature in her magnificence, collects in his triumphant hands the scattered fragments of the sceptre of Charlemagne. The injuries of France are avenged; frontiers compacted by moderation and traced out by nature, are the trophies raised to the happiness of her people, to the tran quillity of Europe.-The Emperor proposes peace. Vain hope of a great soul! Thrice the cry of alarm was raised on all sides-thrice one victory led only to others; and peace, always offered, always demanded, and as it were pursued, retired before our eagles to the extremities of Europe.-In those shocks of which human prudence cannot moderate the effects, empires of the first rank are overthrown from their foundations; small states disappear: we have seen the gothic supports of the European edifice tumble down of themselves without the possibility of their being rebuilt on the same plan; and had not the genius of order advanced with a step equal to that of armies, it would no longer have been war, but anarchy and death which the 18th century had bequeathed to its successors. Does the conqueror perceive from the height of his car, nations united by ancient habits; he seeks out faithful princes, he creates for them common interests, he entrusts to them the destinies of those regenerated states of which he has declared himself the protector.But where all forms of Government have been tried in vain; where the aggregations are too small, or destitute of sufficient principles of adhesion to form masses, where localities would infallibly subject men and things to the direct action of avarice, of the attacks or intrigues of the eternal enemies of France; there the in

the oppression and disgrace of the Helder? -Certainly not; truths so manifest require neither proof nor example. Holland, like the Hans Towns, would remain the prey of uncertainty, of dangers, of revolutions, of oppressions of every kind, if the genius who decides the destinies of Europe did not cover her with his invincible egis. The Emperor has resolved in his wisdom, to incorporate them with the immense family of which he is the head. -In adopting this grand resolution, perhaps he himself obeys, more than he is aware of, the law of necessity. If he commands the glory of times present, the events which preceded his coming command those of his reign-that uninterrupted succession of causes and effects, which form the history of nations and the destiny of their chiefs. That of the Napoleons was to reign and to conquer; victory belongs to him, war to his age.-Among the wars recorded in our history, there is not one during which the jealous rivalry of England has not been the direct cause of our troubles, our misfortunes, our dangers of our energy, our combats, our conquests.-In the feudal times, England divided our princes, kept our vassals in pay, ravaged our fields; she foresaw that the throne of their Sovereigns would one day be the first in the Universe: driven back to her islands, she every where sought for avengers of her quarrel; Germany, Italy, the Spains, number but few cities where combats have not been maintained during 300 years for the cause of England. -To hear her, our kings made pretensions to universal monarchy after the siege of Rochelle, the works of Toulon and the surrender of Courtray. The most pusillanimous reigns could not impose silence on her accusations, nor lull asleep her hatred. In her eyes the French people were al-terest of the empire commands the union ways the same; they only wanted circumstances and a chief, to resume the name of Great.-A total subversion was necessary to the project of England; she wished for a bloody revolution, because her own had been cruel, and because, amidst our discords, it struck at, with the same sword, both our industry and our institutions; both the conquerors and the conquered; both the people and the dynasty. All Europe was summoned to this work of destruction: every where repulsed-every where threatened-trembling for herself she stopped short in presence of the conflagration lighted up by the fire-brands of the British Cabinet. At last, after ten

to the victorious nation of those portions of its conquests, to prevent their inevitable dissolution. And in the deliberation in which you are occupied, the question should be put thus: Holland and the Hanse Towns being incapable of existing by themselves, ought they to belong to England or to France ?-We shall search in vain for a third alternative. That inheritance of rivalry, always increasing by the importance of the interests, as well as by that of the masses; our generation, Senators, has succeeded to, without being åble to reject a single portion of it.—It is no longer two armies who combat on the plains of Fontenoy; it is the empire of the