ene thousand eight hundred and one, and of the independence of the United States the twenty-sixth. James Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, Taskeno Hopoia, Prota Homo, Mingo Homo Massatubloy, Oak Shummo, Mingo A Testy concluded the 20th of May, 1802, between French Republic and His Serene Highness the Duke of Wirtemburg. much as possible suited to the convenience and pleasure of His Serene Highness, equivalent to the losses of all kinds resulting to conformable to the advantages and priviHis Serene Highness, from the war, and leges attached to the ceded possessions. V. The 8th Article of the Treaty of Luneville, concerning the debts of the countries on the Left Bank of the Rhine, shall serve as the basis of the regulations to be made respecting the debts of the countries comprised in the cession made by the 2d Article of the present Treaty. VI. The private debts of communes and Art. I. There shall be good understand-other corporations, shall remain charged to it and amity between the French Repub- them, and by them paid. ing lic and His Serene Highness. II. His Majesty the Emperor, and the Empire of Germany, having consented by the 7th article of the Treaty of Luneville, that the French Republic should possess in fall sovereignty and property, the countries and territories situate on the left bank of the Rhine, and which made part of the Empire of Germany, His Serene Highness the Duke of Wurtemburg, renounces for himself, his heirs and successors, in favour of the French Republic, the rights of sovereignty, territorial superiority, property, and all other rights which he exercises, and which belong to him over the countries and territories on the Left Bank of the Rhine, and in particular, 1. The principality of Montbeliard. 2. The county of Storburg. 3. The seignories of Riquewir, Ostheim, Aubare, Franquemont, Blamont, Clermont, Stéricourt, Chatelot, Granges, Clerval, and Passavant. 4. The fiefs arising out of the said principalities, counties and seignories. 5. The seignories, fiefs, and domains, possessed by the heirs and successors of the natural children of the Duke Leopold Eberhard of Wurtemburg Montbeliard, and which are revertible to the Ducal house. 6. The territories, rights, and revenues at Spire, Dudenhoven, and in the environs on the Left Bank of the Rhine. III. His Serene Highness in like manner repounces all claims of restitution which be might make upon the French Republic fur arrears and non-enjoyment of rights and revenges, and for all other causes, anterior to the present Treaty. IV. In pursuance of the 7th Article of the Treaty of Luneville, the French Republic promises and engages its good offices to obtain for His Serene Highness, those territorial indemnities which shall be as VII. On the day of the ratification of the present Treaty, all sequestrations placed on account of the war, on the goods, elfects, and revenues of citizens of the French Republic, in the states of His Serene Highness, shall be taken off, and they shall be at liberty to carry away their goods and effects, and also to sell their property, or receive its revenues, without any hindrance whatever. LOUISIANA. The cession of this country to France will be one, if not the first and most powerful, cause of the next war, which, it is greatly to be feared, will be the last war that GreatBritain will ever wage. It is, therefore, of great moment to watch the events and circumstances connected with this cession, and to prepare ourselves for acting as the case may require.It is evident. that the result of the projects ef France on the coatinent of North-America must, in a great measure, depend on the disposition and conduct of the United States; and, for that reason, it is of vast importance for us to be early acquainted with that disposition and conduct-That the people of the United States, from one end of that immense country to the other, are alarmed at the prospect of seeing the French in their neighbourhood is very certain; but, that they will take any measurės to prevent what they so much dread is very doubtful indeed. The perusal of some few of the articles, which have lately appeared in the American papers, will, however, enable the reader to judge of the probabilities in this respect. "Baltimore, May 20th, 1802. "We find nothing, among the articles of the treaty of Amicus, by which the interest befall us; short of an open and predatory warfare. We have the fullest confidence that it will be viewed as an evil by our go to avert it. That these efforts may be crowned with success, must be the ardent wish of every American, of whatever sect or party, who is not deluded by a blind and enthusiastic attachment to this too powerful Republic." of the United States can be in any degree | constantly exposed to their hostile inguraffected; and there is nothing, therefore, sions. If the waters of the Levant have been to alloy the pleasure which every friend of no security against their ambitious and desohumanity must derive from this auspicious lating schemes of conquest; the course of event. We had hoped, however, and had the Mississippi would hardly serve as a line been led to believe, that the convention be- of demarcation, by which they would meatween France and Spain, by which Loui- sure the rightful extent of their possessions. siana is ceded to the French, would be an- Add to this, the chance of being deprived of nulled by this treaty. In this expectation the navigation of this river, so immensely imporwe have been disappointed; and it now ap tant to our western territories; and we may pears, that this important province is to be consider the possession of Louisiana, by the annexed to the territories of the French Re-French, as one of the greatest evils which could public. Whether an attempt will be made, by the government of France, to establish a colony there, is not yet apparent. We stated, sometime since, upon the authority of in-vernment, and that every effort will be made formation which we then considered authentic, that the project had been abandoned. We never questioned the cession of the territory, but denied its intended colonization by the French Republic. Nothing has yet transpired, either giving the stamp of authenticity to the report which had led to this "New York, May 24th, 1802. opinion, or convincing us that our informa- "The operations in St. Domingo may tion was altogether erroneous and unfound-retard the French in taking possession of ed. We can only say, that we most sincere- Louisiana, and, possibly, afford an opporly hope it may be true, and that we are sa- tunity for negotiation, respecting that vultisfied, nothing will be wanting on the partnerable quarter of our continent.-England, of the American government, to induce a relinquishment of the plan. Whatever may have been our attachment to the cause for which the people of France were contending, in the commencement of the revolution, we have now no hesitation in believing, that the government of that country ought to be watched with a jealous eye. We have had strong indications of a departure from the first principles of their revolution. Great and wonderful as is the character of their Chief Consul, we have had too much reason to believe, that universal conquest and domination are the leading objects of his policy. We do not see in him the tyranny of Philip, the cruelty of Alexander, or the brutal ferocity of Charles the XIIth; but we trace in his life and character, the un--The United States would furnish but a governable ambition of a Cæsar, and the aspiring temper of a Cromwell. While the energies of the French Republic, therefore, shall continue under the direction of Buonaparté, we should most sincerely deprecate the event, which should give them an es tablishment on any section of our continent. The inert and sluggish Spaniard is less to be dreaded than the active and enterprizing Frenchman. Bred, and almost born in the camp; trained to the use of arms, and inured to scenes of pillage and slaughter, the peaceful settlers, on our frontiers, would be Spain, and the United States, are alike concerned in preventing France from gaining foothold on this continent-a single demibrigade of French invincibles, will form the entering wedge to rend asunder the Northern and Western possessions of all these powers.-Can Great-Britain remain a calm spectator of the gigantic strides of the French Colossus to universal empire? Will Spain yield up her inexhaustible mines, with the largest and fairest portion of the Western world possessed by any European power, without a struggle? Pour nous autres, what can we do alone? To Americans, will not be left the last dire consolation of the wretched Ulysses in the Cyclops clutches, we shall not be the last, but the first, to be devoured. The breakfast for the French, who would make The Editors of the New York paper, after inserting Mr. Cobbett's remarks on the consequences of the cession of Louisiana | cannot lend their aid to assist the Americans, (Vide Register vol. I. p. 199) say, or any other people, against the encroachments of France. They dare not do it. They have, by their late measures, completely extinguished the warlike spirit of the country.. War, of whatever kind, or for whatever object, they have caused to be regarded as an evil; as something detestable; as some thing to be avoided and hated at all events. Yet we must finally go to war; we must go to war in a very very few years, or we must sink without a struggle. But, the conse quence of the peace will be, we shall, though at war in a year from this time, find that we have begun too late; we shall, in every quarter of the world, find the vantage "These remarks deserve the serious at"tention of every American citizen interest"ed in the integrity and tranquillity of his "country. If some measures be not adoptedy "either by negotiation, or otherwise, to "divert the French from taking possession “of Louisiana, it will not be long ere the fore "gang prediction is accomplished." For the purport of this prediction we must refer the reader to Mr. Cobbett's letter, the opinions of which, though ridiculed by that profound politician, Sir Frederick Morton Eden, will, when it is too late, be attended to in England as well as in America. So serious are the Americans on the sub-ground taken by the enemy; and, as to the ject, that the Governor of Georgia had, in the month of May, issued a proclamation, calling an extra meeting of the legislature of that state, on the 10th of June, the object of which was, to take into consideration the cestion of Louisiana to France.-Georgia is very mach exposed towards the Mississippi. Indeed, it is totally at the mercy of a powerful French army. But, Bernadotte will be there before the state of Georgia can have voted a corps of militia, which, after they are embodied for actual service (no easy matter), cannot move without the orders of Mr. Jefferson, who, if we are to judge from the language of the prints of his faction, will have little inclination to give such orders.-The extracts, which we have above made from American papers, are taken from prints hostile to the present general government, or, at least, to the persons administering it. We have carefully examined those prints, which are well known to speak the sentiments of the government, and have, as yet, not been able to discover any direct proof of its opinion on this subject, either one way or the other; but as these prints are extremely solicitous to palBate, and even to justify, all the infamous conduct of the French towards the Americans in St. Domingo, there is every reason to believe, that Jefferson and his party are resolved not to break with France on any account; and, though we are fully peraded, that they will see with great regret the arrival of the French force in Louisiana, they will take no measures to prevent it. Without the aid of Great-Britain, it is, indeed, out of their power to prevent it, and that they would not, were they to ask it, obtain that aid, will be readily believed by every one who has the least knowledge of the character and sentiments of His Majesty's present administration. In fact, they important territory of the Mississippi, all the evils of its cession to France will have taken place before any ministry will dare to talk of arming. Of what vast importance the absolute command of the Mississippi is, may easily be gathered from the following account of exports down the river from the port of Louisville alone, during the quarter of a year, ending in March last. LOUISVILLE, (Falls of Obio) April 15. Exports from the Port of Louisville, in the district of Kentucky to Floridas and Louisiana, for the quarter ending 31st March, 1802. (Taken from the Custom-bouse books.) Castings 30 dollars, 360 Barrels apples, 2,225 Gallons cyder and Manufactured iron, 60 cyder-royal. 50 Barrels beef. 4 Pair boots, 443 Pounds cheese, 55 Do. wax-candles, 2 Pleasurable dollars. 55,302 lb. Hogg's lard, 562 Bushels Indian meal, Merchandize, 13,062 dls. 3 Pair shoes, Household furni- 517 Hogsheads ditto, 4 Barrels tar, 2,450 Fect plank, Aggregate value, 312,263 dollars, or about £.80,000 sterling. Now, let the reader refer to the speeches on the peace, by Lords Hawkesbury and Castlereagh, by the Master of the Rolls and General Maitland, as also to the observations of Sir Frederick Morton Eden, and he will at once perceive, that neither of them was in possession of the most trifling degree of knowledge of this part of the subject, on which they were speaking. They believed, or at least, they wished to make the nation believe, that, because Louisiana was of but little value to France a bunderd years ago, it would be of no value to her now. This was begging the question; it was drawing a conclusion upon premises by no means granted or established; for, Louisiana was of great value to France a hundred years ago; but, allowing that it was not of any value before an inch of land had been cleared on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, before the very name of Kentucky was known, does it follow that it will be of no value now, when from Louisville alone, the exports amount to £320,000 a year? On this, and on every other subject, we shall be careful never to make hazardous assertions, never to proceed upon vague and uncertain foundations; but, it may not be amiss to state, what we think will be fully confined by future details, that the whole of the exports down the Mississippi, for the year ending on the 31st of March last, will not amount to less than a million and a balf sterling-a fearful amount, when we consider that it will now be placed entirely at the mercy of France! We shall close this interesting account with an extract of a letter, addressed to Mr. Cobbett, by a gentleman residing in New York, and to the contents of which we may, without hazarding the displeasure of the reader, venture to call his utmost attention. New York, May, 12. 1802. As to public matters, since the liquidation of the old debts took place, in which the Virginians were so much interested, they have had no particular motive to prolong ancient animosi.ies, or to excite new ones Between the two nations. The French mania, which this country once affected so unwisely, grows weaker, and will be succeeded by a more sincere hatred, if Buonaparté executes his project of colonizing Louisiana. Whether this hatred will ever rise to hostilities, or whether it will sink into a prudential acquiescence, in case of such an event, will depend much on circumstances. At present the French are viewed with an evil eye by a great majority of the people, not only on account of their pretensions to Louisiana and the Floridas, but for the advantages they took in the last treaty, and for their treacherous and profligate conduct towards the American traders at St. Domingo. On their side, I believe, they despise and hate us as sincerely. Tant mieux! The liberal manner, on your part at least, in which the old claims of British creditors have been settled, was a wise and happy measure: it has cut up the ancient enmity by the roots, in the minds of many influential men who were prejudiced against you merely on that account. To use a well known Indian phrase, the hatchet is buried, and I believe there are few who wish dig i fred serve, except the tench, and their the former take nydd which nothing is more o take place, or ought to take place, between the parent and her children. We must either go to war with the grand republic, in which case we shall want your aid, or we must agree to lose Georgia, Tenessee, and all the wes tem territory, or we must grant the enemy certain exclusive privileges in trade, injurious to you. The latter I apprehend is not very probable. But what a fatal neglect it was that Great-Britain did not seize on the mouth of the Mississippi before the peace was concluded! What a world of trouble and expense it would have prevented! I am happy in believing that the strange delusion, that took place in your countrymen, at and after the that, if the definitive treaty is signed, you have obsigning of the preliminaries, is passing away, and tained more just and adequate terms. The preliminaries, indeed, would disgrace an idiot. They are a monument of human imbecility. With the best terms you have any chance to obtain from a government of such enormous size and ambition as the French, you will always be unsate: the sword which has been drawn principally for your destruction, will always be hanging over your heads. It has long been a settled point with me that Great-Britain and France cannot long co-exist as equals. This is an opinion founded on the politics of France for more than a century, and is confirmed, beyond a doubt, by her present unexampled thirst for universal domination. The war will be renewed again, and again, until one or other is crushed. How impolitic therefore was your ministry to submit to such terms, or indeed to any terms which would leave your implacable enemies in possession of all their conquests, to say nothing of the surrender of your own conquests, when you had it so much in your power, when indeed it was your duty, to reduce them to a more moderate size. It is a folly, worthy only of a whining hypocritical philanthropist, to declaim against the horrors of a war ad internecionem, when the matter is not left to your choice-when your enemies have so long resolved on your destruction-and destroyed you must be, or you must destroy them. As to yourself, I see with pleasure you have made a nobler choice: you have resolved to wage perpetual war, with the pen at least, against the focs of your country, foreign and domestic, and I hope your labours will not be lost, that they will help to keep alive the old anti-gallican British spirit, which like the vestal fire of the ancients ought never to be extinguished. Excuse this leap across the Atlantic, and I will lead you once more back to the woods of America. Party spirit still rages among us with all its appro priate features. The outs are cursing the ins; and the ins, as far as they are able, are sending the outs to perdition. You have sometimes had such scenes in your country, but party rage has never been carried to such extremes as here. Here the changes in offices have been almost universal: it has extended even to the poor clerks.-Nevertheless I can excuse the present administration so far: the revolution, though pretty complete, does not contradict republican principles, or threaten any material injury to the body of the people. It is only shifting the loaves and fishes of government into new hands. But some of the late acts of the national legislature appear to me extremely impolitic. The abolition of the taxes on luxuries, and other articles to which the people were reconciled, while the duties on certain necessaries, such as tea, coffee, and sugar, are continued, must render the authors unpopular in a very short time; and the liberty that has been taken to remove a great number of judges from their offices, without any pretence of misconduct, looks too much like a deter mination to render the courts of justice the mere engines of a party.-These two articles excepted, I cannot discover any very tremendous charge, as regards the general interest of the community. As to our toren relations, the present system appears to be completely pacific, and towards your country rather firstly, than indifferent-though if you had obtained from the domineering French, more honourable conbruns of peace, you would have stood higher in our Mr. Win. Cobbett, London. ANSWER. I wish to convey to my readers, and, therefore, I publish your opinion with the acknowledgment that I regard it as of much greater weight than my own. Nevertheless, as you make the refusal to the granting of France certain privileges in trade injurious to Eng land, to depend on the other alternative of war, with our aid, or upon the losses after yielding the Western countries to France, I must confess, that I see little ground to hope for such a war; and, if France obtains possession of the Western countries without war, your and our ruin will be only postponed for a time. As to your hope respecting the definitive treaty, it will, ere this, have been completely blasted by a pe rusal of that disgraceful instrument. I perceive, that your countrymen in general had adopted the opinion, that the circumstance of the French fleet having sailed to the West Indies would operate greatly in our favour at Amiens. This was the opinion here also. It is precisely what Lord Grenville urged in the House. of Lords; but, alas! little do you know of the ministers who have made this peace Inadequate indeed is the notion that you can possibly form of their miserable policy, and of the paltry motives by which they have been actuated. Dear Sir, Pall Mall, 14th July, 1902. You will, perhaps, be surprized to see so great a part of your letter in print; but, I place so much reLice on every thing you say, that I could not forbear Communicating your present remarks to my readers. I can readily conceive, that the liquidation of the el has softened the asperity of the Virginians, from whom, chiefly, those debts were due; but I am very fat from giving my entire approbation to the manner in which that liquidation has been effected. The delusion, which prevailed at the signing of the The debts due to British creditors amounted to about preliminaries is wearing away: indeed, it is no more; three millions, in lieu of which we have obtained six but the vestal fire of Britain, the old anti-gallican hundred thousand pounds. That it was very unwise in spirit, is not to be kept alive by any exertions, much Lard Shelburne to make any stipulation for the pay-less by the puny efforts that it is in my power to Best of these debts I allow; but, it having been made, and a fair and honourable mode of settling the amoont having been agreed upon in a second treaty between the two nations, that mode ought to have been adhered to. In diplomatic transactions this Cry is ever out-witted, but by no nation has she been cut-witted more glaringly than by America. serve, that, while we forego all the advantages of threaty of 1794, you forego none of them. While decisions of the board, which were to obtain jusDer British creditors are wiped away, because perate against the wishes of America, those of the sand, constituted to examine and decide on the -s of Americans, are to have their full effect. stem of concession may procure us a short The trem attack; but, be assured, that, it perse. fered in, it will, in a few years, as certainly chect as as it has already exposed us to contempt. Yopinion respecting the final consequences of texia of Louisiana differs somewhat from that * I have formed, though, indeed, you do not very positively. You say, that you must war with France, (with our aid), or lose the Wuntries, or grant to France certain exclusive folge in trade, injurious to us, which latter, you is not very probable.-I am glad to hear you Sitis, because it accords with the interests of my ry, and because I have the utmost deference for dment and foresight. I must, however, conat I greatly fear that you over-rate the spirit disposition of your countrymen. The tamewhich you have submitted, and are now , to the injuries and insults of France, me no encouragement to hope, that you will, she is become more formidable to you, buckle armour and resist her encroachments. Beso, she will be very careful for some time, not to in her colonization of Louisiana, in such a shifarish the real friends of American intance with a ground of complaint against her. Ne not attack you by storm but by sap. She e you completely in her power ere she draws get trom her cloak.—Truth, however, is what make. It is already extinguished, or burns in the breasts of but a very trifling portion of the people of this country. The love of money and of ease has overpowered every noble sentiment. There is not more profligacy than formerly. I believe not so much. But there is infinitely more effeminacy, more cant, and less courage. The French revolution has not destroyed our bank, our parliament, nor our courts of law and justice; but it has imperceptibly sapped the hearts of the people, it has neutralized their feelings; eradicated the patriot passion, and has ren dered loyalty a matter of expedience rather than what it used to be a principle of equal force with filial atfection or the love of life. The lower orders of the pople live better than formerly, that is, they cat better food, and are clad and lodged better; the towns and villages increase in population, in neamess, and in convenience; the houses, the roads, the fields, the cattle, the carriages of every description, present a picture of prosperity and opulence such as never was beheld in any other country; but we want the virtues by which alone these blessings are to be preserved. We want a high sense of national honour; we want a contempt of wealth and of life, when put in competition with the glory of England. I am, yours, &c. &c. Wm. COBBETT. ADDRESS to the Gentlemen, Clergy, Freemen, and Gentlemen, we trust it will not be thought the language of disappointment (we are sure it is not that of presumption,) if we say that we regret the event of the late contest less on our own account, than with a view to the effects which it is likely to produce in this city, and the example which it gives to the kingdom at large. |