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"not heard a word which has altered my

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original opinion on this subject."-The Civil List! Poor civil list affords, according to Mr. Perceval's account, only £800 a year for the king to give away, in the reward of merit. But, this civil list is a thing made of stretching materials. It can be extended this way and that way. In 1801 or 1802 (See account of 1802) there was lent out of this civil list, upwards of £100,000 to the king's sons; and so the civil list fell into arrear; and then the minister, Addington, came with a bill to parliament for the purpose of making the people pay off the arrear; that is to say, pay, amongst other things, the £100,000 which, without the consent of parliament, had been lent to the king's sons, and that, too, observe, notwithstanding the Droits of Admiralty !-More of this hereafter.

· Botley, 4th March, 1809.

AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, AND CGMMERCE.

SIR,It gave me very great concern to perceive by your last Journal, that the letter in which I requested you to cancel the account of corn imported in 1900, did not come to your hands in time; as I stated in it that the account was greatly erroneous. A severe disorder in my eyes has obliged me to depend on an amanuensis, which has occasioned errors I much lament: the following was the importation of that year.

Corn imported in 1806.

| Atper

Species. Quantity. Quarter.

Valne.

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whose hands the safety of the kingdom is placed. To find that our consumption of wheat in a year of moderate plenty, exceeds the produce by more than a million sterling, accompanied as it is by a population admitted on all hands to be increasing, must surely be considered as a just cause of apprehension. Were the countries which have usually sup plied us, in a state of independence and security, the prospect would be far from pleasing; but when we cast an anxious eye to the ports of the Baltic, the view becomes dreary indeed. To expect our bread from America, would be to look for it fiem a country whence it never came, except in quantities perfectly insignificant when compared with the magnitude of our demand. If the price of wheat was at present high, there are many who would deprecate all conside ration of the subject; but the price is now so moderate as to prevent the smallest alarm! no trifling motive for such discussions as may tend to throw a light on the subject; and ought to induce the legislature of the kingdom to give a direct and steady attention to it. Who can contemplate the consequence of a short crop, a mildew, or a wet harvest, without terror? Manufactures and commerce inactive; and ill disposed minds gathering discontents into petitions for peace e! It is easy to imagine such a combination, but not so easy to measure the resolt. I know not any view that can be taken of the subject, over which there is not suspended a dark cloud which sheds a gloom not easily dispersed: if there is any circumstance that tends peculiarly to thicken it, the present state of our extensive wastes is well calculated to do it.-Upon this subject Mr. Spence has several very just observations, but he offers one remark in which I cannot agree with him: and, as it is upon an inportant point, I must crave your further indulgence for a moment. It is calculated, that in this kingdom there are twenty two millions of acres of waste land; and, it is frequently asked, by the followers of the economistes, as well as by those who are of a very different opinion on matters of politi cal economy; why this waste land is not brought into cultivation, and why such a source of riches as this, is neglected? For this very good reason-that the greater part. of this land, with the present demand for, and the present prices of the produce that could be raised from it, would not pay for cultivation. Every person who has had occasion to let land, knows, that there are ma ny more farmers wanting farms, than there are farms to supply them; and this being the case, it follows, iddisputably, that if the

waste lands in the kingdom could be profit- | acres at present unproductive, would be

ably cultivated, it would speedily be occupied by those farmers who so eagerly seek employment for their capital." P. 28.-It is I conceive, a great mistake, to suppose that these lands remain uncultivated for want of a demand of the uncultivated produce; seeing that the prices of all the returns of grass lands are adequate to their production; with a regular import of corn to an immense amount: the reason for the scandalous state in which they are left is exceedingly different: they are under rights of commons, and cannot be touched without distinct acts of parliament to permit the plough to produce grass and coru, instead of gorse and ling. Rather than give this permission by a general act of enclosure, parliament is content that a large portion of the people should be fed by foreign, rather than by British corn; and is content to remain, at the present mooient, a quiet spectator of the waste state of these lands, at a period when a short crop, or a week's mildew, would make an enormous import necessary. Ministers best know where it is to be had; to me it seems just as probable to procure it from the moon as from Prussia or Poland. Were such a moment to arrive, we should see the two houses called together; committees appointed; examinations, proceedings, proclamations issued; harangues pronounced; substitutes recommended; the volunteers in activity; government alarmed; and Baonaparté delighted. And what would be the effect of all this? Experience has told us: the general alarm would raise the price rapidly, and thus lessening the sumption, what might have proved a dreadful famine, converted into no more than a severe scarcity; but with the foreign supply cut off we might expect these evils to attend a much smaller deficiency than produced the same evils on a former occasion. I leave to others fully to appreciate debates on Copenhagen, and the other very important ubjects occupying that attention which might be given to measures for establishing the security and prosperity of the kingdom on the solid foundation of our domestic resources. But to return; The demand for farms is at present very general, a proof that capital is Hot wanting; and wherever an act of enclosure appropriates a tract of waste land, neither hands nor money are wanting for its culture, plantation, or other improvement, according to the soil and other circumstances of the case. Enfield Chase is not a proof to the contrary; and were other royal forests enclosed on the same principles, the measure would be equally negatory. If a general enclosure bill was to pass, many millions of

brought into cultivation; the necessity of importing corn would be removed; and those farmers alluded to by Mr. Spence who possess capital, but want employment, would, by their vigorous exertions, soon convince that gentleman that the only obstacle in their way is the negative at present put on the power of enclosing.I have the honour to be, Sir, &e.- ARTHUR YOUNG.Feb. 24, 1808.

CURATES SUSPENSION BILL. SIR,The account published by you, in your last week's Register is so extremely incorrect, that I am induced to send you a statement, which will, I believe, completely refute the aspersions, which have been most unwarrantably thrown on the conduct of Lord Oxford, in a transaction, which you assert to be unparalleled. By the 1st of Geo. I. augmented curacies were subject to the same rules of avoidance as other benefices, and the clause inserted in the act of 1796, only declared that to be law, which, in fact, was law before.-The living of Brampton Brian was, in 1800, given by Lord Oxford to his brother-in-law Mr. James Scott. In 1805 the perpetual curacy of Titley became vacant. To this curacy Lord Oxford's ancestors had been great benefactors to the amount of near 1200.; and, in consequence, the right of nomination had always been exercised by them. On this occasion, however, the Warden and College of Winchester disputed the right, and it appeared that they were legally entitled to it, because nothing but an act of parliament, could alienate their church preferment: but had the curacy been in Lord Oxford's nomination, he would have given it to Mr. Bissel, and not to Mr. Scott. Though a contrary statement was made, in the House of Commons, by Mr. Whitbread, yet he was positively contradicted on this point, by another honourable member. It is to be observed, that at

the time of Mr. Scott's nomination to the perpetual curacy of Titley, he was a Fellow of New College Oxford, of which College the Warden and all the Fellows of Winchester, must necessarily have been previously Fellows. It is impossible to construe Lord Oxford's having become the renter of part of the tythes in the parish of Titley, into a consent and approbation, on his part, of Mr. Scott's nomination to the curacy, because Lord Oxford's principal residence is in the parish, and he only rented the tythes of the land, in his own occupation. I leave it to you to judge, whether the compounding for small tythes, instead of paying them in kind

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is not, what every man would do, whether the incumbent had obtained his preferment, with or without his consent.-Lord Oxford availed himself of his right to present to Brampton Brian, as soon as ever he was informed that the living was voidable thought himself fully justified in so doing, as disputes of a very unpleasant nature had arisen between him and Mr. Scott, in consequence of which he was anxious to remove Mr. Scott, from the neighbourhood of Brampton Brian, where his lordship has another mansion, at which he frequently resides, and the garden of which is immediately adjoining to the Parsonage House.-Lord Oxford's character and conduct are too well known, in his own county and neighbourhood, to admit of a suspicion that he would act either unjustly or oppressively towards any individual, especially towards one, with whom he was so nearly connected.-With regard to the respective values of Brampton Brian and Titley, the latter has hitherto been as profitable as the former; and had the rectory of Brampton Brian been "TEN TIMES" or even SEVEN TIMES" the value of the curacy, which is upwards of £200 a year, how came Mr. Scott to hold this valuable rectory together with his fellowship of New College, for more than four years, when, by the statutes of that College, no Fellow can hold preferment of a greater annual value than £120Your assertion, that Mr. Scott's curate at Brampton Brian refused to accept the living is totally destitute of foundation. I rely upon your candour, either to insert this letter, or to contradict what was erroneous in your original statement.—I am, Sir, yours, &c-A.B. C.-Feb. 25, 180s.

ARMY.

SIR, -Whenever our army becomes the subject of conversation, either in or out of parliament, I always hear a great fuss made about their high state of discipline. Yet, neither members, field marshalls, generals, or inspecting field officers, seem to know, wherein real discipline consists. One thinks it lies in the cut of a soldier's hair, and in the particular length of his queue; another on his being able to stand for hours on one leg like the geese on Botley common. James Cradock hates the mustache; Lord Paget and their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, and Duke of Cumberland, are great friends to its growth. A few years ago a dragoon was thought to be defenceless without his helrget, now he is clad in furs and tippets like a man-milliner, with a great muff upon his head, Among the heavy dragoons cocked hats are abolished, among the

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light they are just coming into vogue. Even a man may become a capital good soldier by introducing some barbarous accent into the plainest and simplest English words of command. Every thing for sound and shew.But whence comes it, Mr. Cobbett, that all this low imitation and frivolity, originate entirely in the higher ranks of the army, and that there is such a total dearth of genius and talent among that class of men who bear the name of Generals? But this would only be a temporary grievance: the cvil, Mr. Cobbett, has a much deeper root. I proceeds from this, that no win of superior talent, (and very few of those who possess comron sense), will remain in the army, if ther rank runs so high as to remove then from the command of a battalion. The command of a battalion is an object of ambition, which almost every one who aspires to it can attain, and it is a situation also, in which a man may chance to distinguish himself. But the officer who gets a step beyond that, unless he possesses great family connexions, or parliamentary interest, sees nothing before him but "a dull, dreary, unvaried, vista of exclusion and despair' Despair drives the man of genius from the field, and the prudent man will rather turn his commission into cash, than be honoured with the appellation of General, while he starves during the rest of his life on a lieut. colonel's pay. Hence it comes, that in the last ten years, 4-5ths of our best: officers have retired from the service before they attained the rank of generals. It is the radical defect of our English army, and if you or any man in England, will point out a cure, you will render a greater service to your country than if you had added thousands to its numerical force.- -I am, Sir, yours, &c.-V.

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COLD BATH FIELDS PRISON.

Copy of the Petition, presented to the House of Commons, Feb. 19, 1808.

To the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the Honourable House of Commons, of Great Britain and Ireland, in the United Parliament assembled:--The Petition of Alexander Stephens, of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, and Park House, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, Humbly sheweth, That certain persons lately serving the office of grand jurymen for the county of Middlesex, to the number of about nine, having visited the House of Correction for the said county, commonly called the Cold Bath Fields Prison, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, in the year of our Lord 1807, between the hours of 11 and 12 in the forencon:They there discovered, that all the loaves

found by them (each of which ought to con tain 16 ounces, and to be distributed daily, at 10 o'clock in the morning) were greatly deficient in point of quantity, as will be seen from the annexed statement on the part of one of the magistrates of the city of London. --That the prison weight demanded and used upon the present occasion, for trying the loaves in rotation, proved also deficient, as was fully demonstrated in both instances on the same day, when compared with the standard at Guildhall, in the presence, first, of Sir W. Leighton, Knight, then Lord Mayor; and afterwards of Richard Phillips, Esq. then and still one of the sheriff's of London and Middlesex, as well as of four of the late grand jury; and, moreover, that the scales of the said prison were false and fraudulent:

Copy of a Letter from Mr. Sheriff Phillips to William Mainwaring, Esq. Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, &c.

"SIR; consider it a duty which I owe the public to inform you, as chairman of the quarter sessions, and, I believe, one of the committee for conducting the business of the prison, that I was present when an appeal was lately made by the grand jury of the county to the standard weights in Guildhall; that I witnessed the examination of the pound weight for weighing meat and other provisions in the House of Correction, Cold Bath Fields, when it was found to be seven-eighths of an ounce too light; and that on weighing some loaves which were found in the same prison, by the grand jury, they appeared also to be considerably too light, one or two of them being from an ounce and a half to two ounces under weight. I should compromise the feelings which I bear towards the respectable magistracy of the county of Middlesex, if I were to omit to make this formal communication.—I have the bonour to be, &c.-R. PHILLIPS, Sheriff;-Bridge street, Nov. 13, 1807."

Your petitioner, together with other gen. tlemen, late members of the grand jury, also discovered: that several of the liege subjects of this realm were committed to close custody in cell destitute of fire, 3 feet 3 inches long, by 6 feet 3 inches wide, two of them in irons, although sick; some, if not all, of these were innocent in point of fact, as all were then innocent in point of law, being detained under the pretext of re examination, and consequently uncondemned by the legal judgment of their peers, or even the accusatory verdict of a grand jury. Of this number were a mother, a daughter, and a son, of creditable appearance; the two former in one cell, so situated as to be exposed

to a continual current of external air, without the possibility of obtaining, even during the severest frost, an artificial warmth by means of fuel, while the convicts below enjoyed all the comforts of an open roomy ward, with occasional access to fire.That in one of these lonely cells was closely contined a foreigner of some rank, the Chevalier de Blin, who, as we were told, by one of the jailors, while so immured, had been deprived of his reason, and who presented to your petitioner, after communicating with him for some time in the French language through the key-hole, and demanding entrance, a memorial on his knees.-—That in this place, originally destined for the improvement of the morals of petty offenders, a female prisoner, as we have learned, has been lately debauched by the son of the chief jailor, or governor, wlo then held an office of trust in the prison, and has since had a child, now, or at least lately, burdensome to the parish of Kensington, in the county of Middlesex That four debtors were shut up in this House of Correction, the only communication between whom and the world, appears to take place occasionally, by means of two iron gates, at upwards of six feet distance from each other, with a jailor walking in at intervals, so as to preclude complaint; and that from the examination of a debtor, and also, by a letter from him, both in the possession of your Petitioner, it appears that he was shut up with persons guilty of robbery, and unnatural crimes-And, lastly, that six irnocent persons, the bills against whom had been thrown out by the Grand Jury, were dragged from Cold Bath-fields prison to Hicks's-hall, in open day, at the close of the session, first manacled, and then fastened together by a rope, to be discharged by proclamation.- -Your petitioner, therefore, conceiving that such gross instances of fraud, coupled with such an open violation of the laws, and even of the express orders of session, are calculated to bring his Majesty's government into contempt, and cast an unmerited cdium on our most excellent constitution; thinking also, that if such malpractices were detected in a casual and slight survey, of less than two hours duration, far greater abuses are likely to be brought to light, by the intervention of the grand inquest of the nation, most humbly and earnestly solicits this Honourable House to take the premises into consideration, and by a public and open examination at its bar, or any other mode, afford such relief as may seem meet.

A. STEPHENS.

FRANCE.

OFFICIAL PAPERS.

Report of the Minister of Foreign Affairs relative to Portugal. Made in Oct. 1807, and published Jan. 24, 1808. (Concluded from p. 352.)

It had neither protected the French nor their commorce; the persons and trade of their enemies have continued free and favoured. Portugal promised to join the cause of the continent, even to declare war against England; but she wished to make it, if I may use the expression, in concert with her, to furnish her, under the appearance of hostility, with the means of continuing her trade with Portugal, and through Portugal with the rest of Europe; a kind of war equialent to a perfidious neutrality. Succcurs were demanded of England, and to gain time, attempts were made to deceive your Majesty by vain declarations; scruples were alleged upon some of the consequences of the war when none were entertained upon war itself, which breaks all ties.--In vain did your Majesty, deigning to condescend to these pretended, scruples, modify your first demands the same refusals were renewedPortugal made promises, but delayed the execution under different pretexts. At one time it was the Prince of Beira, a child of twelve years, who was to be sent to the Brazils to defend that colony-at another time it was a squadron expected from the Mediterranean, which it was wished to have in safe. ty in the Tagus.—Thus Portugal, enibarrassed in her artifices, making with the Court of London engagements, real and useful to the English, with France, vague and pretended engagements, waited for succours and advice from England, sought to delay the measures of the cabinet, and, humiliating herself before both, blindly committed to the chance of events, the interests, perhaps the existence of a nation, which unanimously desired her not to give them up to a power so fatal to all its allies.-The epoch which your Majesty had fixed for the expected determination, which you had consented to prolong for a month, arrived. Portugal decided her own fate. She broke off her last connections with the continent, by reducing the French and Spanish legations to the necessity of quitting Lisbon.-Portugal has placed herself in a state of war with France, notwithstanding the benevolent disposition of your Majesty towards her. War with Portugal is a painful but necessary duty. The interest of the continent, from whence the English ought to be excluded,

forces your Majesty to declare it. Longer delay would only place Lisbon in the hands of the English.

Second Report, made Jan. 2, 1808. Published Jan. 24.

His Excellency recals to the recolection of his Majesty how necessary were the active and vigilant measures which have been taken, and so well seconded, by the rapidity of the march of the French troops-Portugal only sequestered the English goods when the English were secure from that measure, which Portugal did not even affect to exe cute. She concerted her flight with the English; and a little while before we eceived the news of it, a courier had carried to Italy, where the Emperor then was, new protestations of attachment to the common cause of the continent. He announced the return of M. de Lema, who had not quitted Lisbon, and the arrival of the ambassador extraordinary, M. de Marialva, probably the dupe, as was the courier, of the bad faith_of her court-Portugal is at length delivered from the yoke of England; your Majesty occupies it with your troops-it had been left defenceless on the sea side, and a part of the cannon on her coasts had been spiked. Thus England menaces her at present, blockades her ports, and would lay waste her shores. Spain has had fears for Cadiz-she has bad fears for Ceuta. It is against that part of the world that the English appear to wish to direct their secret expeditions They have embarked troops at Gibraltar-they have recalled from that quarter those which had been driven from the Levant, and a part of those which they had accumulated in the city. Their cruizers on the coast of Spain become more vigilant, and seem to wish to revenge upon that kingdom the reverses they have experienced in the Spanish colonies. All the peninsula deserves to fix particularly the attention of your Majesty. Report of the Minister of IVar on the Measures taken by France under the present circumstances.-6th Jan.

Your Majesty ordered me to form the first and second corps of observation of the Gironde. The first of those corps, commanded by General Junot, has conquered Portugal. The head of the second is ready to follow the first, if circumstances require it. Your Majesty, whose vigilance is never at fault, wished the corps of observation of the ocean, confided to Marshal Moncey, to be in the third line.

(To be continued.)

Printed by Cox and Baylis, No. 75, Great Queen Street, and published by R. Bagshaw, Brydges Street, Cafeat Garden, where forme Numbers may be had; seld also by J. Budd, Crown and Mitre, Pall Mall

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