wrote him a letter, saying he had advised the King of Sweden to decorate him with the cross of the order of the SWORD. A proclamation was published last night in the Gazette, which I never heard of 'till this morning, for a strict blockade of the ports of Norway, for, it seems, merely starving an invaded country into submission is not an operation of force or compulsion. It is a service of no great difficulty or danger, and has nothing of that character to recommend it to a British seaman. The Norwegians have no ships of war, and can make no resistance on that side. A fleet of luggers and row-boats, manned by custom-house officers, to prevent smuggling, would have answered the purpose. It was not necessary to employ the navy of Britain in so base an occupation. We talk of the honor of the flag, and this is the care we take of it. One serious reflection more, and then you are released, on an integral part of the subject, which wiser persons, better bred and longer practised in the school of courts than I have been, will affect to shudder at. Knowing and confiding in the rectitude of my own mind, I have no difficulty or reserve about entering as freely into such topics, as into any other. His Royal Highness the Prince Regent holds the honor of the crown and the administration of the government not immediately for himself, but in the name and in trust for the king. Now kings, while they are alive, or while they retain the power of giving, have many friends, and certainly no prince has enjoyed more of such friendships than his present majesty. Will they, or any one of them affirm, from a personal knowledge of the king's character, or any other source of information, that if his majesty were capable of judging and acting in his own behalf, he would level himself, he would lower his personal dignity, as well as the honor of the crown, by submitting to treat and con tract, on even terms or any other, with such a man as Ber nadotte, taking it for granted always that the account of his performances, given by Sir Robert Wilson, be as certainly true, as that it has never been contradicted, and that it was faithfully made known to his majesty. I pass by all the crimes of a higher order, imputed to Bernadotte and his comrades, which have any appearance of elevation of character, and may, by some perverted estimate of human depravity, be attributed to a barbarous mistaken ambition, To make the moral measure of crimes exact, the scale must be graduated according to their rank, quality, and complexion. A highwayman is not a footpad. The idea of an assassin is not included in petty larceny. The vices of some men are ignoble. Their crimes are contemptible. Their society contaminates when it cannot corrupt. My own immoveable conviction is, that his majesty would rather have resigned the crown than have written to this Crown Prince, and given him the title of Sir, my brother, and subscribed himself, your good brother, cousin, and friend. Unless, the contrary be maintained and can be made probable by some of the king's quondam friends, whose names I should like to know, were it only for the curiosity of the fact, I am entitled to conclude that the Prince Regent, were he so disposed, could not fairly and honestly do that, in the name and behalf of his royal father, which that great person would have thought the last dishonor to him. On the 25th of December, 1799, Buonaparte, then First Consul and chief magistrate of France, wrote a respectful letter to the king, which his majesty refused to answer. On the 28th of October, 1808, the king would not answer a letter from the Emperor of Russia, because it was also signed by Buonaparte. The present question is not whether his majesty was well or ill advised on those occasions, but what was and must have been his personal feeling and resolution on the subject. If the sense of shame, as well as duty, be not extinguished in this land, I presume there is not a man in Britain, even now, capable of contending that any trust can be morally or lawfully exercised to the ruin or disgrace of him, from whom it is derived. In former times, when I had the honor of being known to the Prince Regent, and when, I think, he had no doubt of my attachment to him, I am sure he would never have spoken to me again, if it had been possible for me to have proposed it to the Prince of Wales to unite himself, on any terms, with such a person as Bernadotte. I look back particularly to those honorable days, when an invasion was expected; when He solicited a military command, and when, failing in that just pursuit, he declared that he was determined, if the case occurred, to appear a volunteer at the head of his regiment, with Lord Moira on his right hand and Lord Hutchinson on his left; and that no authority, without positive force, should prevent him. In the present instance then, I am sure, he must have been misled by vile, if not treacherous counsels, or perplexed by political sophistries, or he may not have sufficiently considered the subject. But that, so informed and advised as he may be now on the whole merits of the question, he would have suffered his ministers to take the part they have done, and involve him in it-I no more believe it possible of him, than of the king. His royal highness's kindness to me has been for some years interrupted; but I have yet no positive reason to believe that it is totally effaced. If he should not take in good part this last unquestionable proof of my unabated disposition to serve him, the loss, if any, will be his own. To myself, there is nothing left to hope or to fear from the events of this world. When favor is not expected, fortune has no power. PHILIP FRANCIS. |