addressed myself to the King, in the hope" not least, Lord Castlereagh. Where now "are those warlike heroes who cast up "their caps,' and cheered' on the

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Royal Exchange of the city of London, "when Lord Lauderdale returned from "Paris? Peace must now be had.-An effort "on the Continent would now be more than "madness.-Napoleon, delivered by the "irresistible efforts of his own genius, from "the imminent, but final, danger with "which he could be threatened—is now firmly, immoveably, and permanently "fixed. He has vanquished all opposition "-from the Peninsula he will now drive "all other intruders-and the Continent of Europe will at length return to that "state of repose from which it was awak"ened by England-and by England "alone. England began the war by "breaking the Treaty of Amiens-and "she must terminate it upon the best terms "that can be obtained.-Of Walcheren "we might possibly obtain possession-

of thereby exciting more attention to a subject of vital importance, not only to the interests and welfare of the people, but to the independence of the country, and, of course, to the security of his Majesty's throne.The case supposed in that Letter, the complete sabjugation of the continent of Europe by Napoleon, is, I think it will not be denied, now at no great distance. For my part, I can see nothing upon the continent to prevent it; and, as to our expedition, I will not, I cannot talk of it! I may be deceived. My opinion may be wrong; but, it is my opinion, that the continent of Europe is now subdued. If my opinion be erroneous, so much the better; but, at any rate, there is no man, who wishes for England to retain her independence, who will not readily agree, that we ought now to take our measures upon the supposition, that Napoleon will subdue the whole of the continent; and, of course, that he will but that it can be permanently mainhave all its ports and all its naval means "tained, is impossible. Every port and in his hands.The question, then, is, "creek on the continent will now be what ought these measures to be? I have "closed-harsh and inharmonious as the not room, at present, to discuss them; but, "word Peace may sound in the ears of the I cannot refrain from making a few de- "War Faction-to that we must come—and, tached observations.—And first, let me "if the final result of all these disasters beseech those, who have the power over "shall so terminate-the tears which the our national force, not to waste any por- "calamities of war have produced, will be tion of it, however small, upon foreign "at length wiped away by the return of conquests of any sort. I mention this, "Peace."I am sorry to differ in opinion because it is a notion very fashionable with this gentleman, but, really, I see not, amongst the people in the city, that, if at present, the possibility of peace; nor do I under our present system of warfare see even the seeds of future peace.There is a little too much of party acri-` mony in this paragraph, for which I am sorry. If any man has reason to be resentful; if any man could possibly justify his enmity to measures for the sake of the men by whom they have been adopted, it certainly would be myself; but, I trust I shall never lose sight of my duty to my country; and, I must say, that, whoever were the cause of the war, I cannot see, at present, any hope of obtaining peace, without submitting to terms so disgraceful as to amount almost to a surrender of the crown of our Sovereign into the hands of Buonaparté; rather than see which day, there are not, I hope, many men in England, who would not, in spite of all the calumnies raised against them, literally shed the last drop of their blood.I do not know what is here meant by the "war-faction;" for, Iknow of no man of any public consequence, who wishes for war, if he could have peace

Napoleon has all the continent, we must "have all the colonies belonging to the con "tinent;" which is much about the same thing as to say, "if you get more strength "to attack me with, I will take a loud upon my shoulders, in order to be able the better "to resist you." This is a truth from which I never depart, that colonies never add to a nation's means of defence, and, indeed, that they always diminish the strength of a nation. I hope, therefore, that we shall not delude ourselves with the hope of finding, in the new world, " a balance," as it has been called, against the power of Buonaparté in the old world; for, I am quite certain, that such "balance" would prove to be a mill-stone about our necks.

The STATESMAN news-paper, proposes PEACE as our means of averting destruction. His words are these: "What is "now to be the object of the Expedition? "That is a question which we refer to the "sapience of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Canning, and, though last

with a common chance of safety. Can it | naval means, mentioned in my First Letbe shewn to me, how it is possible; I do ter to the King; or, my opinion is, that not say probable, but possible to obtain we shall not be able long to resist his unpeace, at the present time, with a chance divided power." Now comes the tug of safety? If peace is made, a part, at of war." What we have heretofore seen least, of our naval means must be laid aside; has been mere child's play to what we a part of the fleet must be dismantled; and, must see now. This country will now beit is certain, that a peace of only two years come the sole object of the greatest comwould, if we were to make peace now, mander and the most numerous army that give Buonaparté a fleet of a hundred sail of the world ever saw. Every single man in the line. There is no doubt upon this point. England should, betimes, make up his No man can call the position in question. mind to the necessity of fighting for EngWhat, then, are we to do? Go to war land upon English ground. Those are again, with every thing to create, or re- poltroons, or fools, who endeavour to hide pair? How long could we go on thus?- the danger from others, or pretend not to My opinion is, that Napoleon would make see it themselves. Every man should ask peace with us now, and very readily, be- himself, should put it home to his own heart, cause it would be convenient for him to what he intends to do, in case a French get us quickly out of Spain and Portugal army should land. The worst of it is, without either trouble or expence, and that we but too often talk of exertions in without the great dangers which his defence of the country, as if we ourselves Marshals will have to encounter in facing had nothing to do with such exertions but "the heroes of India." He would, without to talk of them. In ' 1804, when there doubt, make peace with us now; but, to was great alarm, but no real danger, or, at me it is as clear as day-light, that he would any rate, not a hundredth part of the not suffer us to remain at peace two years, danger that there soon will be and must when he would again force us forth with be, I said, "Let us put out PITT as soon our means greatly diminished and his means greatly augmented.--Does it appear to the editor of the Statesman, that Buonaparté has a settled determination to subdue this kingdom? If he answer that question in the affirmative, as I think he must, he will then, at once, see how peculiar is our situation. We can make no peace with Buonaparté upon equal terms, for we have no design to subdue any part of his empire. Ours must in this case be a peace upon the defensive. No matter who it is that has brought us into this situation. In this situation we are; and if, in this situation, and upon such a principle, we make peace, our days are numbered; the days of our remaining independence will be but as a span long. The peace of Amiens (no matter who broke it) we shall never see again. Good God! what a change since the peace of Amiens was made! Nay, how much worse are things than they were at the Convention of Eintra, or even at the retreat to Corunna ! Can we long preserve our independence, after Buonaparté has subdued the whole of the continent of Europe? In my opinion we

can.

In my opinion England may set him at defiance for ever. But, we must have a new system of warfare; we must interrupt and destroy that commercial connection, that nursery of seamen; we must cut off that inexhaustible source of

as we can, but, in the mean while, let "us not think of him until we are quite "prepared for beating the French." Such are my sentiments now. Let us do all we can in order to obtain a Reform of Abuses, because that is the way to make the country sound at heart; but, at the same time, let us, without considering who is minister, do all that lies in our power, and let cach man (for that is the thing) do all that lies in his power to prepare for the country's defence against its foreign enemies.-The measures of the ministers may be unwise, as the Local-Militia law, for instance, and the putting a stop to that excellent measure, the enlistment for term of years; but, still, we must not give up the country; we must not give up England in our resentment against Lord Castlereagh, however just that resentment may be. Those, therefore, who, at ELY, and elsewhere, have quelled the spirit of mutiny amongst the Local-Militia, are certainly entitled to the thanks of the country. No one can be pleased to see his countrymen flogged; but, when, as in this case, they have roluntarily entered, and that, too, for the sake of a bounty, I say, as I said before, "flog them," if they do not abide by their bargain, and strictly obey their officers.My opinion is, however, that, the sure means of national defence; the safe means as well as the cheap means, is

that it was impossible to dislodge him from the central position, in which he covered Bohemia, Moravia, and a part of Hungary. It is true that this position did not cover Vienna, and that the French were in possession of the capital. But this possession was, in a certain degree, disputed, since the Austrians remained masters of one bank of the Danube, and prevented the arrival of the articles most indispensible to the subsistence of so great a city. These were the reasons of hope and fear, and the subject of conversation in the two armies.-On the 1st of July, at four o'clock in the morning, the Emperor removed his head quarters to the island of Lobau, which had been already named by the engineers the island Napoleon. A small island, to which had been given the name of the duke of Montebelio, and which bere upon Enzersdorf, had been furnished with ten mortars, and

authorised the supposition of there being, in fact, a substantial equality between armies so different, of which one was animated and in some measure reinforced by the multiplicity of its successes and victories, while the other was dispirited by the most striking reverses.-All the intelligence concerning the Austrian army shewed that it was considerable; that it had been recruited by numerous bodies of reserve, by the levies from Moravia and Hungary, and by all the landwhers (fencibles) of the provinces; that its cavalry had been re-mounted by requisitions in all the circles, and its draughts of artillery tripled by immense levies of horses and carriages in Moravia, Hungary, and Bohemia. To add new chances in their favour, the Austrian generals had raised military works, of which the right was protected by Gros-Aspern, and the left by Enzersdorf, and the intervals between them were covered by redoubts, surround-twenty 18-pounders. Another island called by pallisades and frizes, and defended by more than 150 pieces of battering cannon, taken from the fortresses of Bohemia and Moravia.—It was inconceivable how the Emperor, with his experience in war, could think of attacking works so powerfully defended, backed by an army estimated at 200,000 men, as well troops of the line as militia and new raised levies, and who were supported by 800 or 900 pieces of field artiliery. It appeared more simple to throw some fresh bridges over the Danube, a few leagues lower down, and thus render useless the field of battle prepared by the enemy. But in this latter case it was not thought practicable to avert the inconveniencies which had already nearly proved fatal to the army, and succeed, in the course of two or three days, in protecting these new bridges from the machines of the enemy.-On the other side the Emperor was tranquil.-Works were raised upon works in the island of Lobau; and several bridges on piles, and several rows of stoccadoes, were fixed at the same place. This situation of the French army placed between these two great difficulties, had not escaped the enemy. He was aware that his army, too numerous and unwieldy, would be exposed to certain destruction if he acted on the offensive; but at the same time, he believed

ed island Espagne, had been supplied with six pieces of battering cannon, 12pounders, and four mortars. Between these two islands a battery had been raised, equal in force to that of the island Montebello, and in like manner bearing upon Enzersdorf. These 62 pieces of battering artillery had the same object, were in two hours to destroy the little town of Enzersdorf, drive away the enemy, and demolish the works. On the right, the island Alexander, with four mortars, two ten-pounders, and twelve six-pounders, battering cannon, were to bear upon the plain, and protect the operations of the bridges.On the 2d the aide de camp of the duke de Rivoli, passed over to the Mill island with 500 voltigeurs, and took possession of it. This island was also furnished with cannon. It was joined to the continent, on the left side, by a small bridge. In the front a little fleche was raised, and this redoubt was called Petit.-In the evening the redoubts of Essling appeared to be jealous of these works; not doubting that they were a first battery, formed to act against themselves, they fired upon them with great activity. This was precisely the intention in having seized this island. -The attention of the enemy was to be drawn to this point, in order to conceal from him the operations really proposed.

To be continued.)

LONDON-Printed by T. C. HANSARD, Peterborough - Court, Fleet Street;

Published by R. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent - Garden :-Sold also by J. BUDD, Pall-Mall.

VOL. XVI. No. 5.] LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1809.

129]

TO THE KING.

On the Maritime War against France.

SIR,

LETTER II.

[Price 18.

[130

had any knowledge of public affairs; which, of itself, is no small evil. But, for this the people are not to be blamed; for, I do not believe, that, in the whole world, there were ever such arts made use of to deceive a people, to pervert the reasoning powers of man, and, at the same time, to debase and corrupt the mind,, To those, therefore, who conduct, or direct the conducting, of the venal press (including, perhaps, nine tenths of the publications in the kingdom) belongs the whole of the blame of having produced this enormous mischief; this total want of faith, which, in an hour of real danger, will weigh, perhaps, more against the country than an enemy's army of a hundred thousand men. This is, with me, so important a point, that I cannot refrain from pressing it upon your Majesty's attention. Napoleon owes no small part of his success, and of that power, which has now become so gigantic, to his having never suffered any descrip- '

That event, that great source of future danger, which event was anticipated in the former Letter that I took the liberty to address to your Majesty, has now taken place. Austria has been defeated in her own territories. Her sovereign, in the midst of nearly twenty millions of subjects, by whom a venal press assured us he was ardently beloved, has been pursued to his capital, driven from his capital, beaten out of an entrenched camp in the heart of his dominions, and, after having fled before the enemy, till, in flight, he could, in all likelihood, no longer see a chance of even personal safety, he has besought, and, at last, obtained, under the name of Armistice, a respite, which no reasonable man can possibly consider as of long dution of persons to delude his people with ration. How serious are the reflections false hopes; to raise their expectations to which this event must give rise in the beyond what the real state of things warmind of every Englishman, anxious for ranted; to cajole and cheat them, to abuse the welfare of his country, and especially their credulity, to wear out their patience in the mind of your Majesty! The delu- with promises a thousand times made, and sive hopes, excited, in the minds of the un- never once fulfilled. There is, too, someinformed, by the reiterated misrepresen- thing, not only disgusting in itself, but tations and falshoods of a venal press, with greatly injurious to the cause, in the abuse, whom the Emperor Napoleon and his the vilifying language, the foul names, which army were become subjects of mockery; the venal press is continually bestowing these hopes are now vanished, and the peo- upon the Emperor Napoleon, when all the ple are in a state of mind much more de-world must recollect, that, during the short pressed, than if they had never been deceived into bright expectations. They now see the reverse of the picture: they see the immense sums of money, which this war, so fatal to your Majesty's ally, will have cost them, and it is not in nature that they should feel as much zeal in the cause of the war in general, as they felt before this event. They must hate those, by whom they have been so grossly deceived. It is impossible that they should not hate them; and, as to any belief in them in future, no one, in his senses, can entertain a hope of it. In short, public opinion, public confidence, seems now to have received a greater shock than it ever before received since I have

time that we were at peace with him, a writer was prosecuted, at the suit of your Majesty's Attorney General, who is now your prime-minister, and was convicted of a libel, for having written abusively of this same Emperor Napoleon, for whom almost every writer seems now to vie with all the rest in devising foul and abusive appellations; and, what is more, these same writers put forward claims to loyalty, to the utter exclusion of all those who do not join in this abuse, and who think that foul words are not the most effectual weapons wherewith to attack, or repel, an enemy so formidable as Buonaparte. The great objection, however, to this mode of warfare is, that it draws off our attention

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