The Minister, in consequence of this single SURCHARGE, would be enabled to relieve 2,440 poor Householders from a Ten Shilling Assessment, which might perhaps have pressed very severely upon some of them. If the Rate was to be taken (as it was originally proposed) upon the lowest Class, we should find that 16,298 individuals would be relieved by this SURCHARGE; and that a few more of these FORTUNATE SURCHARGES, would be sufficient to replace the deficiency which has been created by the total exemption of this Class of the Community. The Jacobins, considering this SURCHARGE in the spirit which distinguishes their Political Calculations, have computed, that if a good wholesome meal (prepared upon the modern economical plan) costs something less than one Penny Farthing (say Id. 1-5th), the whole amount of the Duke's SURCHARGE would be sufficient to give food, for one day, to 244,000 individuals; that is, about a 67th part of the whole population of the Kingdom. Again, if we divide the number of sufferers by the number of days in the year, it will appear that if this HAPPY SURCHARGE had never taken place, if the Firmness of the Assessors had been overpowered by the Rhetoric of the DUKE, no less than six hundred Souls might have been condemned to a daily privation of subsistence through the year. For our part, we are not fond of speculations of this sort, but, as they were suggested by a Friend and Protegé of his Grace's, we thought there would be an impropriety in refusing them a place in our Paper, while the subject of the SURCHARGE itself was discussed so much at length. PRISONERS PRISONERS OF WAR. THE French Papers are filled with accusations against the Government of this Country, on the subject of its treatment of Prisoners of War; and with loud panegyrics on the conduct of the French Government, and pompous declarations of all that they have done, and all that they intend doing, for the relief of suffering humanity in this respect. These boastings and revilings are faithfully copied into the Jacobin Papers of this Country. We feel the subject to be one which is, in truth, too important to be passed over in silence; and we are prepared with a Statement of the whole of what has been done, and what has been proposed, between Great Britain and France, upon this point, since the beginning of the War. As the nature of such a Statement requires some detail, it has exceeded in length the space which we could assign to it in our present Number. We are therefore under the necessity of postponing it to our next, in which we shall certainly give it a place, and shall confidently present it to this Country and to Europe, as a convincing and irrefragable Answer to all the Misrepresentations of the Directory, their admirers and adherents. In the mean time, however, that our Readers may form some opinion of the scrupulous delicacy with which the Laws of Civilized War have been in all cases observed by that Government, which proposes its conduct as a model for that of Great Britain, we subjoin a short account of the treatment experienced by the AUSTRIAN Prisoners who fell into the hands of the FRENCH in Italy. This account comes to us from a quarter, for the veracity and authenticity of which we can pledge ourselves in the most unequivocal manner. "A Cartel for the Exchange of Prisoners was long ago established between the FRENCH and AUSTRIANS in Italy. This, however, did not prevent BUONAPARTE from disposing of the AUSTRIAN Prisoners in a way that he found more profitable. HE SOLD THEM TO THE SPANIARDS, TO WORK IN THE MINES OF AMERICA. They were embarked by hundreds for this purpose, during the course of the last Campaign; and it is by the vessels in which they were stowed falling into the hands of the English, that the history of their sufferings, and the fate to which they were destined, have been made known. "TWENTY-FIVE of these victims to the sordid and savage barbarity of the "gallant CONQUEROR of ITALY," are now in London. The account which they give of their treatment is as follows: During the time that they were in prison at Tortona, they were crowded together in loathsome dungeons, with no other food than bread and water, and those neither wholesome nor sufficient. Their complaints were answered with stripes. THEIR WOUNDS WERE SUFFERED TO REMAIN UNDRESSED. In the condition to which these hardships reduced them, they were afterwards marched from Tortona to the extremity of Provence, where they were embarked for America. Fortunately, the Ship which carried them was taken by the English." We recommend these FACTS to the Encomiasts of Republican mildness and magnanimity. POETRY. POETRY. WE have been favoured with a Translation of the Latin Verses inserted in our last Number. We have little doubt that our Readers will agree with us, in hoping that this may not be the last Contribution which we shall receive from the same hand. PARENT of countless Crimes, in headlong rage, She falls her languid pulse scarce quick with life; Behold! she pours her Monarch's guiltless blood, Where'er her Banners float in barbarous pride, Fly Fly the mild Duties of domestic life Nor yet can Hope presage th' auspicious hour For midst the ruins of each falling State Just Heav'ns! how Envy kindles at the sight! Far |