and then the burthens may be diminished; conclude it by a precipitate peace, no diminution can be effected, and you deliver yourselves up to the enemy,..to a tyrant whose little finger is heavier than the loins of any usurper that ever yet was sent as a curse among mankind... Is it of political grievances? Under no possible or conceivable form of government could we enjoy more perfect individual liberty. An Englishman is as free in word and deed as in thought, subject to no other restriction than that which natural law requires, which is the rule of reason, that he use not his own freedom to the injury of another. And for political freedom, in what other age or country, since the beginning of the world, has it ever been so secured? That any man of upright intentions might deliver his opinions plainly and freely upon all public measures, is a fact so notorious that it might seem superfluous to assert it. If at any time within our memory it has been otherwise, (as in truth it was during the Pitt and Grenville administration,) it must be remembered that revolutionary practices were at that time carried on; and it ought not to be forgotten, that government could not have acted tyrannically unless the stream of opinion had been with it, and that for the acts of injustice which were then committed, the juries were at least as culpable as the crown-lawyers. Public opinion in those days outran the measures of government; and in the riots at Birmingham we had a specimen of what is to be expected from its supremacy. For whether the fiend who bestrides it and spurs it on, have Jacobin or Anti-Jacobin written on his forehead, the many-headed Beast is the same. ESSAY II. ARMY AND NAVY REFORMS. DISCUSSIONS Concerning abuses, real as well as pretended, in the navy and naval departments, have been brought forward in Parliament with that prejudice and disregard of truth which distinguish the radical reformers; their exaggerated statements obtained all the publicity that could be given them by that part of the press which is never negligent in performing its work of mischief; and thus they succeeded in engaging public attention, while the measures of real utility to the service which were proposed or effected by its true friends were unheeded, and scarcely heard of. Such are the regulations which Mr. Croker communicated to the House, stating that, according to the old arrangement, when a seaman was permitted to procure a substitute, in order to quit the service himself, his only course was to apply to persons called crimps, who charged at the rate of 100 guineas for an able-bodied seaman, and 50 for a landsman; and who insisted, that the whole sum should be deposited at first. Months, and even years, therefore, elapsed before the substitute was found; and it often happened that the individual who paid his money sailed to a foreign station, or perhaps died, before the object was accomplished. Government, considering this a grievance which called for its interference, resolved * May, 1811. to put an end to the iniquitous trade of the crimps altogether. With this view, the Board of Admiralty determined that the man should be discharged the moment his discharge was paid for, at the rate of 80 guineas for an able-bodied seaman, and 40 for a landsman; instead of the fifty and the hundred, as charged by the crimps, under all the casualties of imposition and delay. The money thus received was carried to the fund for raising volunteer seamen, and all the objects of the arrangement were fully answered. Such, too, was the plan proposed by Lord Melville, that an adequate number of king's ships should without delay be prepared and held in readiness for the accommodation of such troops as it might be found expedient to embark in furtherance of the public service. This motion he introduced by a speech of sound reasoning and great ability. The great 'loss of lives,' he said, which our colonial conquests had cost at the commencement of the ' last war, had led him to observe that the mortality ' did not arise solely, nor perhaps principally, from 'their services in the field; and to believe that an ⚫ improvement in the mode of conveying the troops, ' by affording them a more airy and comfortable ' accommodation during the passage to the West Indies, would tend greatly to their preservation. "The then commander-in-chief of the troops upon 'that station was persuaded that every prospect ' of success from their operations depended more upon the care, attention, and comfort afforded to them on their passage, than upon any other 'circumstance whatever. These objects could 'best be attained by the use of armed troop-ships; ' and whether you consider the comfortable 6 |