forget the ruinous, the cruel hardship, of | Morning Chronicle of Monday, the 3d compelling them to do justice to the coun-instant, entitled a PICTURE OF FRANCE. try, and bawl as loud as ever.-But, as al- The phraseology of it, being rather out of ready said, I am glad these corruptionists, the common line, arrested my attention, who have so long luxariated on public plun- The subject also, owing to my being fa der, begin to feel alarmed at their si-miliar with that country, attracted my taation; first, because it is high time they curiosity; and to refute the unfair stateshould experience some of those pangs, ments of a writer, more brilliant than that have sent thousands to their graves, solid, is the purport of this letter: and to the workhouse. Next, because, although it is not upon public grounds they now complain, something may arise out of these complaints that may open the eyes of the credulous and deluded multitude, and ultimately lead to a favourable change. I see it stated, in all the newspapers, that the Emperors of Russia, and Austria, and the King of Prussia, have issued orders to recal the excess of paper currency, which the great exigencies of the war had occasioned, and, in other respects, are giving their subjects such relief as must convince them that the cry of peace is not a deception, and that the benefits resulting from a cessation of arms, are not chimerical.-But in this happy country, under the best Government now existing in the world, instead of the circulation of paper money being lessened, instead of the public debt being reduced, instead of the war taxes being removed, they are every day increasing to a fearful amount. Every where, amongst all classes of society, to whatever side one turns himself, nothing is to be heard but curses on th: peace. Even when walking along the public streets, it is noway uncommon to be attracted by the murmurs of the labourer and the mechanic, who deeply deplore an event, which, they calculated, would be to them the dawn of happiness, but which has not been accompanied with one single blessing. The plain and obvious reason of this disappointment is: people are still in a state of stupid intoxication, of which corruption has dexterously availed itself to plunge the country into a new war. They may complain of their sufferings as much as they please; they may talk to doomsday about the hardships they endure; but as long as they do not shake off their present lethargy; as long as they continue the willing dupes, and hug the chains of their oppressors, just so long are they undeserving of compassion, or of a termination of their miseries, PICTURE OF FRANCE. MR. COBBETT.-It was not until yesterday that I read a long article, in the Various have been the genius, the pussuits, and the means of information of the numerous tourists, who have availed themselves of the Peace, to take a peep at France. Superficial as the examiners may have proved, each traveller has returned brim-full of consequence, and conceited knowledge, which their disinterested modesty has not permitted them to keep to themselves, but obliged them to impart to the public. A few weeks, or perhaps days, residence in Paris: a slender knowledge of the language; an extensive acquaintance of half-a-dozen Frenchmen, among whom stand distinguished their Tonsor, and their Taylor, with whom they shall have conversed in a kind of jargon, made of broken English, bad French, and numerous shrugs. To these a more intimate and frequent intercourse may be added, with English, Scotch, and Irish, gentlemen, either strangers there like themselves, or settled, and making fortunes, at the expence of either nation, as they can find customers. With these powerful helps our tourists presume to decide en dernier resort on the genius, the manners, and the morals of the whole French nation. Thus, the public has to travel through so many erroneous, and, sometimes, contradictory accounts, that France and Frenchmen must long remain unknown to the bulk of the English nation, unless some person, well acquainted with that country, speaking the language fluently, of a rank for admission into all companies, with the talent of accurate observation, and untinctured with partiality, should stand forth, and faithfully depict a nation and a country long since described by another Ministerial writer as having ceased to exist, and forming a chasm in the map of Europe-an assertion rather invalidated by that country having cost us 800 millions, spent in digging the pit into which we ourselves and not them must eventually fall. The elegant writer of the PICTURE OF FRANCE, which country, by the bye, during his three weeks excursion, he most likely has surveyed chiefy through the windows of a stage coach, so as to render, | embellished it with some account of French as he emphatically expresses himself, his orgies, and drunken parties. They would, mind a complete magic lanthorn—a rapid in some degree, have given a countenance succession of disjointed images. This wri-to those we practise at home. Some trater makes the ground-work of his picture vellers, however, who have had a greater now dwindle into, as he expresses himself, intercourse with the French, than the the worst idea of social Paris. We do writer of the PICTURE OF FRANCE, assert, not deny that it may have been this Gentle- that politeness has not been banished; man's misfortune, to have fallen into that that respect for the sex prevails; that company where the women were treated as those in the least degree above the comsoubrettes, as figurantes, and perhaps as mon class, are remarkable for good grisettes. But had he been admitted in breeding; and that cleanliness and decency the respectable circles, he would have are essential parts of the education of both found the sex always treated with respect; sexes: Yet, as was before hinted, ia and he would have had his choice either to cities like Paris, London, Dublin, or treat them so himself, or to receive from Edinburgh, there must be a class of people, some one of their friends, or admirers, a who pay little respect to either cleanliness piece of cold iron through his lungs. Had or decency. If his lot fell among such, he however frequented the court, or the and he himself possesses notions of deliaudiences of the great, he would there cacy, I pity him, and shall cease to wonder have seen the fair always enjoy prece- at the crude notions he has picked up, redence, and accompanied with the highest specting the morals and the manners of a consideration. Our traveller likewise com- people whom he elsewhere confesses replains of French filth, and particularly of ceived him with cordiality, and on account their spitting. Unfortunate he must have of his high merit treated him with a rebeen in his selection of company, since, as spectful politeness, while, in return, he he asserts, every thing on the surface is seems to have dipped his satirical pen rahorrible beastliness, which with us. do ther in brandy than in sympathetic ink; not exist; they actually seem, in talk, and and, while descanting on the propriety of practice, to cultivate a familiarity with giving, or refusing, the liberty of the hastiness. In every public place they are press, to what he calls the volatile French, spitting on your shoes, on your plate, al- he practically demonstrates the abuse to most in your mouth. A well worked up which that liberty may be carried in Engpicture this. The Gentleman does justice land, by passing a precipitate and unjust to his brief, and richly has deserved his sentence, upon a whole nation, with whom retaining fee. His oratory is fine; it is he has had but a three weeks intercourse; deficient only in the small matter of not forgetful, that however banter and exaghaving strict truth for its basis! We geration may serve the purpose of the hired will, however, conceive it possible, that rhetorician, nothing but truth and imparamong the Porteurs d'Eau, among the tiality ought to flow from the pen of the ladies de la Halle and of the Place Mau- historian. bert, and among the numerous Decroteurs with whom Paris abounds, some characters may be found nearly as fitting as he depicts them. But if such have been his associates, whereon he builds HIS PICTURE OF FRANCE, we need not be surprised should he, in a subsequent visit, enter the temple of Cloacina, thence to draw his description of the Thuilleries and the Louvre. While he is not ignorant, so let him not be forgetful, that in his own dear Dublin, there are individuals, nay quarters of the town, which it would be the height of misrepresentation and injustice to hold up as a faithful picture of the Irish nation. But as it is possible his account may have been rendered outrée for the purpose of -picasing in a certain quarter, he might have Oct. 12, 1814. NON CAUSIDICUS. TYTHES. MR. COBBETT-Having seen in your excellent REGISTER a paper signed Aristides, proposing, as a means of liquidating part of the National Debt, the sale of the Crown lands, and ofthe lands of those individuals who have pledged themselves and their property, over and over again, to the carrying on of the war against those monsters, the French, and against their cowardly, sneaking, leader Boncy, I was induced to think that that is not the only measure to which this ever frugal Government might have resort; but that there is another, which, if adopted, will prove na less beneficial in its effects; I mean the appropriating of the church lands, together with the ty hes, to the same laudable purpose. And that those who a. present live upon these lands and tythes may not entirely be turned out of bread, I propose that a moderate income be allowed them for their lives, at the expiration of which, their salaries and offices expire also; unless those people who now attend Divine worship, in the Church of England, and think that it is there carried oz as it ought to be, follow the example of the Dissenters, and pay their successors out of their own pockets, and not allow the whole nation to be burdened with the maintenance of a set of people, who are most properly denominated, when they are called, dead bands. As an inducement to follow this measure, and as a proof that a country is none the worse without hierarchy, but rather the better, we have the example of America at this instant before our eyes; a country which bids fair to become one of the most wonderful and happy on the face of the globe. And if America can thrive without supporting an expensive established clergy, why may not England? Is there any such great difference between the two countries? To be sure, the soil of America is much more productive than that of England, but that is the very reason why every possible burden should be taken off the English farmer, in order to enable him to bring his produce to market as cheap as possible. But to this it may be said, can the taking the tythes from the clergy, and still levying them, but applying them to defray the expences of Government, lessen the burden of the grower? In the first instance it cannot, but in the long run it undoubtedly will; for, on the present system, the farmers are paying these tythes to people who are of no service to the Government; but if the measure were adopted which I here recommend, they would go towards paying our navy and army, and so gradually diminish the amount of taxes indispensably necessary to be raised on the present corrupt system. It must be evident to every one, that the debt is already unpayable; and as, no doubt, many families will be utterly ruined by it, humanity itself should make us use every means to prevent its increase. A. B. AMERICA. -Some of my readers having found it difficult to procure a copy of the American Constitution, and, as that ocument is now become somewhat inte resting, in consequence of the bold avowal of our corrupt press, that it is our design to overthrow the Democratic Government of the United States, and to replace it by the best Government in the world; I have thought it adviseable to republish the former, in order that, by a comparison of both, the public may judge which of them deserves the preference. As to the right, which we claim, of compelling the Americans to accept of what form of Government may be most suitable to our ideas, and the probability of their complying with our views, the Declaration of Independence, which precedes the Constitution, is the best criterion that can be given upon that subject. With the truth of the statements which this Declaration presents I have no concern. I give it merely as a public document, which all the world saw at the time, and which may be still seen in our files of newspapers, in our magazines, and in accounts of the American Revolution, published at that period. It may, how ever, be remarked, that our Government afterwards recognised the independence of the Americans, entered into treaties with them, and received their Ambassadors at the Court of St. James's, upon the same terms that we now receive the accredited Ministers of the most favoured nations. These circumstances, in my apprehension, go pretty far to shew, that the complaints of America, and the reasons she assigned in 1776 for separating from this country, were acknowledged here, by our own Government, to be well founded. Since then, a thousand circumstances have occurred to render independence more dear to the people, and to induce them to resist any attempts that may be made to restore British influence. When they forced us out of the country, they only then anticipated the blessings of freedom. Now they enjoy them; and if to this we add, that they have become great as a manufacturing, a a commercial, and as a naval people, we shall soon be convinced, that the recolonization of, and the destruction of democracy in, the United States, is a task much easier accomplished by the pen than by the sword; and that, if we are so mad as to persevere in this project, we may chance not to have so lucky an escape as we had at the termination of our last unnatural contest with that country. IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776. The unanimous DECLARATION of the THIRTEEN UNITED STATES of AMERICA, When, in the course of human eveni * it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that Govern ments, long established, should not be changed for light and trasient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the Legislature; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together Legislative Bodies at places unusual, uncoinfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legisla tive Powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependant on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: For imposing taxes on us without our consent: For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of the Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing 1 James Sm Georg Taylor, JOHN HANCOCK. Rhode Island, &c. Connecticut. Ditawar Maryland. Samuel Claasen, C. Carroll, of Carrollton the same absolute rule into these Colonies: rity of the good people of these Colonies, For taking away our charters, abolishing solemnly publish and declare, That these our most valuable laws, and altering fun- United Colonies are, and of right ought to damentally the forms of our Governments: be, Free and Independent States; that For suspending our own legislatures, and they are absolved from all allegi n e to the declaring themselves invested with power British Crown; and that all political conto legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.nexion between them and the State of He has abdicated Government here, by Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally declaring us out of his protection, and dissolved; and that, as Fice and Indepen waging war against us. He has plundered dent States, they have full power to levy our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our war, conclude peace, contract alliances, towns, and destroyed the lives of our establish commerce, and do all other acts people. He is, at this time, transporting and things which Independent States may large armies of foreign mercenaries to com- of right do. And for the support of this plete the works of death, desolation, and Declaration, with a firm reliance on the tyranny, already begun with circumstances protection of Divine Providence, we muof cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled tually pledge to each other our lives, og in the most barbarous ages, and totally un-fortunes, and our sacred honour. worthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inha-bridge Gerry, bitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction, of all ages, sexes, and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose chap Livings.on, racter is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been want-John ing in attentions to our British brethren. John Hart, We have warned them, from time to time, Abraham Clark. of attempts by their Legislature to extend Ponsolemnia. an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. Robert Morris, We have reminded them of the circumBenjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, stances of our emigration and settlement John Morton, here. We have appealed to their native jus-George Clymer, tice and magnanimity, and we have conjured CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, them by the ties of our common kindred to We the people of the United States, in disavow these usurpations, which would order to form a more perfect Union, estainevitably interrupt our connexions and blish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, correspondence. They too have been deaf provide for the common defence, promote to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. the general welfare, and secure the blessWe must, therefore, acquiesce in the ne-ings of Liberty to ourselves and our cessity which denounces our separation, posterity, DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH and hold them, as we hold the rest of man- this CONSTITUTION for the UNITED kind, enemies in war, in peace friends. STATES of AMERICA, We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Con- Sect. 1. All legislative powers herein gress assembled, appealing to the Supreme granted, shall be vested in a Congress of Judge of the world for the rectitude of our the United States, which shall consist of a intentions, do, in the name, and by authe-Senate and House of Representatives. Roger Sherman, Oliver Wolcott, William Fioyd, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, New Jersey. Withe spoon, Georre Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, jun. Francis Lightroo. Lee. Carter Braxton, North Carolina. William 11ooper, Josepa Hewes, John Penu. South Carolina. Button Gwinnett, Article I. 10. |