the reader. That it is impossible for such a trade to continue, for any length of time, is certain enough; but, that such is the state of it now is not only possible, but strictly true. The rum sells, it is even now selling, in the port of London, and in several other ports, at the price above-mentioned. The planter who has it in the storehouses, where it lies as a pledge to the government for the payment of the duties, sells it for 6d. or at most 1s. 2d. per gallon, leaving the duties to be paid by the purchaser, who takes out the commodity and pays the duties as his occasions require. The planter has to pay upon every gallon of rum after it leaves the still, about 4s. under the heads of freight, insurance, and other charges attending the shipment and landing of the commodity These four shillings are, observe, exclusive of duties; so that, supposing him, in every instance, to sell his rum at 1s. 2d. exclusive of duties, he sustains a loss upon each gallon of 2s. 10d. Is it not, then, with perfect truth, that the Assembly of Jamaica state, that they have "nearly their whole income "torn from them by duties which cannot even be alleged to fall upon the consumer, "when nothing is left to the grower for la"bour or capital?" It is, when we add the duties that have been laid on since the Assembly made this statement, still worse than they described it, as far as relates to the article of rum. Not only has the planter nothing left for labour or capital; not only are his industry, his stock, and his estate rendered, by these enormous duties, totally useless to him: they are worse than useless: they occasion him an annual loss in direct proportion to the quantity of his produce they make an annual addition to his debts, and cause an annual augmentation to the mortgage on his estate. And these are the people upon whom government are calling to double the amount of their colonial taxes! To take upon themselves the expense of defending their island, as if they and their esattes contributed nothing to the general wealth and strength of the empire! The consumer," says Messrs. Addington and Pitt," the consumer pays "all at last." This is not true even in their own sense of the words; for they make the planters pay duty upon a certain portion of their produce which is never reckoned to the buyer. But, as was before observed, though the consumer pays dear enough for West-India produce, a fact which no such consumer will deny; though the rum drinker pays from 21s. to 25s. a galIon (it may be more for aught I know), before the liquor reaches his lips, he does not there

:

by compensate the planter for his losses; he does not thereby prevent a diminution in the demand for the commodity. "The con

sumer pays all at last." Yes, all but the planter, between whom and the consumer the government has, by its merciless exactions, cut off all connexion, the former having sustained an irretrievable loss long before his produce gets into the hands of the latter.

The consequences of a perseverence in the indiscreet measures which have produced this state of things, which have given rise to these bitter complaints and recriminations, is a topic into which I should now enter somewhat at length, were I not, for want of room, compelled to confine myself to a few detached observations.

In the several occasions, when the governor has, of late years, made an application to the Assembly for an addition to their contribution towards the expenses of defending the island, and, having failed in his object, has, in no very indirect terms, reproached them with niggardliness, they have, in the course of their answer, complained of the injurious restrictions laid on their intercourse with the United States of America, whence only they say (and they say it truly) they can obtain a supply of several articles indispensably necessary to their very existence in the colony. Assuredly this restriction is to them a great disadvantage, merely as planters of Jamaica; but, there remains no doubt in my mind, that the navigation laws may be strictly adhered to, as to their spirit and utility, without leaving the Jamaica or other West India planters any ground of complaint. But then, the duties imposed upon their produce consumed in the mother-country must be lightened, and its channel to

the markets of the continent must be rendered more free; for, to compel them to bring their produce here, to tax it when it comes here in such a way as to leave them nothing for their labour and use of their capital, and at the same time to oblige them to pay, not in produce, but in specie, for the necessaries of life which they receive from America is, in fact, cooly and deliberately to pass on them a sentence of ruin; a sentence to which most assuredly no men will submit, if they can by any means come at the power of resistance. The West India planters, those of Jamaica I mean, have lived and flourished under the navigation laws, for nearly a century and a half, withont ever, till of late years, making any thing like a serious complaint. But, they did not complain, because they flourished; and they flourished because their produce was not overloaded

as

with imposts; because the custom house of England did not add in any considerable degree, to the disadvantages arising from the laws of navigation; because the justice and the wisdom of the mother country taught her not-to restrain her colonies by navigation laws with one hand in order to obtain from their trade sailors for her navy, while, as a mere object of revenue, she squeezed them, as it were in a wine press, with the other; because the statesmen of England had not yet conceived the brilliant idea of a public debt, the interest of which should absorb the total of the annual revenue, with a view of preserving the state by the baseness instead of the patriotism and loyalty of the people; and because this debt had not created a necessity for a system of taxation universal in its touch as the air that we breathe. The planters of Jamaica have no enmity to the navigation laws; no desire to weaken the ties that have hitherto bound them, heart and hand, to the mother country; but, they cannot bear these duties and the navigation laws too. Their present state is not bearable; they must and will complain; and, if you reproach them with niggardliness, shall they not show the causes that disable them from acceding to your demands? I am not one of those who think that the West-India Islands are, for centu ries to come, at least, if ever, destined to be colonies to North America, notwithstanding their dependence upon it for all the articles of first necessity. But, I do think that there is great danger of a total subversion of those colonies, succeeded by a sort of beggarly independence; the islands inhabited here by blacks and there by whites; having in one place a government of one sort, in another a government of another sort, and in another no government at all. This dreadful revolution, which we may be assured would be aided by France, by America, and which would be viewed with pleasure by most of the nations of Europe, would go very far indeed towards the destruction of the maritime force of Great-Britain; and, to produce such a revolution nothing would contribute more than the ruin of the planters of Jamaica. Men will not love those by whom they are ruined, nor will they die merely to remove the apprehensions of their oppressors. Some one tells a story of a French minister, who hav ing reproached a lampoonist with his conduct, and having received for answer, "Eh, "Monseigneur, il faut que je vive," replied, "ma foi je n'en vois pas la necessité." This might be a very good answer from a French minister to a lampoonist, but for an

English minister to tell the planters of Jamaica, that, "if they cannot live by making sugar they may make something else," is not quite so good. They can make nothing else; they must live or starve by suger-making, and as we may be certain that they will not starve if they can find the means of avoiding it, we should be very careful how we goad them on to the secking of those means.

WM. COBBETT.

DODDRIDGE ON PARLIAMENTS.

SIR,-In consequence of a letter dated from Gray's Inn, and inserted in the last number of your Register, I have been induced to look into Mr. Justice Doddridge's Essay on Parliaments among Hearne's Discourses; and I shall be happy if I can throw any light on the subject of your correspondent's inquiries, certainly a point very interesting and important in the consideration of our mixed constitution.- -It seems to me, that all the latter part of the paper, for nearly two pages preceding the signature is, in fact, a short abstract made with the usual care, perspicuity and judgment of Mr. Justice Doddridge, from a manuscript treatise very famous in that day, under the title of Modus tenendi Parliamentum. This little work had been first brought into notice about ten years before, by my Lord Coke, when he was Speaker of the House of Commons; and it was always believed by him really to have been of that high antiquity to which he supposed it to pretend; that is, the time of Edward the Confessor, or, at least, of William the Conqueror. But in truth the writer, whoever he was, is more modest; for the very title states it to be no more than a description of the mode of proceeding in Parliament used "not only by the founder of the Norman line," but "of his successors, Kings of England." And he does not profess to tell where he discovered, or whence he derived his original document, neither, indeed, does he distinctly assert, that he had any such before him. Sir Robert Cotton, no mean judge, calls it a "reverend monument not far from that grave man (Glanville's) time," or the reign of Henry the Second. The learned Selden in his Titles of Honour says, that he had seen divers copies of it, but never any which exceeded the age of Edward the Third, to which period he attributes it. Prynne, however, brings it still lower. He sup poses it to have been drawn up towards the end of Henry the Sixth.--But not to trouble you or your readers with a discussion to settle the fact, the very latest date is old

that the 4s. 6d. have sunk. This, as you have before observed, amounts to absolute proof of the depreciation of our money. The dollars thus issued then, if looked upon as coin, would contain that proof, and if they are issued as a coin of 5s. that is, as worth 5s. sterling, a fraud would be committed on the public; they would then be forced to be taken in exchange for crown pieces, which contain 6d. more silver than they do. Again, if 5s. notes had been issued by the Bank, then came all the objections to such small notes, and we should be exposed to all the calamities under which Ireland is now groaning in consequence of her issues of silver notes,

How then are the two rocks to be avoided, and how is that done? It is done by giving to the dollars this double doubtful character; by issuing them as notes; and letting them assume the appearance of coin and pass as such. Do you object to silver notes? You are immediately shown the King's head on the dollar; and asked whether that is not something more than a note. Do you assert that they are issued for more than their sterling value, and that a fraud is thus committed? The reverse is then presented to you, and you see the arms of the Bank, with the inscription "Bank Dollar;" and you are then told, this is no coin; it is merely a token note; only a silver note instead of a paper one. If so, why was not paper used? If paper was bad, why was not lead or tin? Such notes would have been cheaper to the Bank, and full as convenient for the public.—I have run on with greater length than I intended. I will not therefore stop now to compare the above assertion of Mr. Pitt, with the fact, as is demonstrated in the different denomination of the value of the dollars in England and Ireland? The dollar, which is called Dollar in England, is worth 5s. In Ireland it is called a Token, and passes for 6s. (5s. 6d. English money) and after that Mr. Pitt gravely tells the House of Commons, "these dollars are mere tokens, they

pleased, at the requisition of the French Government, to give a hint to all noblemen, who quitted France during the revolution, and may now be found in his dominions, to leave the same within 10 days, without excepting those who are dependent on the British government. Although this account appears to be tolerably authentic, the undersigned cannot give any credit to it, without receiving a confirmation thereof from his Excellency Baron Montgelas, as he is too well convinced of the just and generous sentiments of his Electoral Highness, to believe that his Highness could have consented to such a demand from a power, which has formally declared, by the 4th article of its own constitution, that there are not any relations left existing between it and the persons against whom that measure is supposed 10 be taken: this deprives it of the right to assume any authority with respect to them; a principle which your Excellency owned yourself, at a time when it was in agitation to prohibit in this country the decorations of the French monarchy. The undersigned is the more justified in his supposition, that he must have been misinformed on this subject, as knowing how sorely the feeling heart of his Electoral Highness must be afflicted, if obliged to exercise any rigour towards persons, against whom no cause of reproach can be alleged; unless it be a reproach, that they have shewn themselves so firmly devoted to their duties, and to that sovereign house with which his Electoral Highness formerly stood connected, in so many respects.--The undersigned is moreover convinced, that it could not escape the enlightened wisdom of his Electoral Highness, that a similar exercise of rigour, against those respectable, and already so very unfortunate persons, would form a rueful example of the fate awaiting those who, in a moment of danger, are inclined to remain true to their lawful Sove. reign; and which example may induce them to swerve from their duty at the very mo ment when a Sovereign stands most in need of the efforts and actual proofs of their attachment.--The undersigned bas, therefore, the honour to request Baron Von Montgelas to clear up his doubts on this subject, and to inform him, whether the measure in question will extend to the officers of the late Condean army, who are attached to the British government, that he may be enabled to acquaint his Court thereof, and to await the commands of his Sovereign accordingly.The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to request Baron Von Montgelas to accept the assurances of his most particular regud, &c.

Note from the same to the same, dated, Mu

nich, 31st of March, 1804.

I have just received a notice of so very extraordinary a nature, but which is so important of itself, and for the consequences which may result from it, that though I am very far from crediting it, I think it a duty I owe to my Sovereign, to whom my person and services belong, as well as to his highness the Elector himself, immediately to inform your Excellency thereof. The said notice is in substance to the following purport: that a seizure of the British ministry at Munich is in agitation, in the manner of that which took place with respect to his high ness the Duke of Enghien, at Ettenheim, in the territory of the Elector of Baden, but with this difference, that the second seizure will not be effected by a body of troops, but by men secretly sent to Munich, and its neighbourhood, by different roads. With respect to the moment and particulars of the execution, I have no detailed accounts; and I own to your Excellency, that the difficulties of the enterprize appeared to me from the first too great, the project itself too extravagant, and at the same time too dreadful, to be fully convinced of its existence: on the other hand, it cannot be concealed, that the example of events which have very recently occurred, as it were, under our eyes, are little calculated to inspire confidence. How ever this may be, and little as this notice has affected me personally, yet it appears to me, that I should be transgressing the duties which my post, as a public minister, require, if I neglected informing your Excellency thereof forthwith, that you may be enabled to take in time such measures as the case may require, and to avert, by proper acts of precaution, the unpleasant result which might arise, even from the attempt to execute a design of this nature. I beg your Excellency to accept the assurance, &c.

Note presented to the French Min. of Foreign Affairs, by the Russian Chargé d'Affairs, MR. OUBRIEL; relative to the Occurrences at Eltenheim, where the Duke D'Enghien was seized. Dated Paris, April 20, 1804.

According to the orders which the undersigned Chargé-d'Affairs of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias has received from his Court, he hastens to inform the Minister of the French Republic, that his illustrious Master has learned, with equal astonishment and concern, the event that has taken place at Ettenheim, the circumstances that have attended it, and its melancholy result. The concern of the Em

peror on this occasion is the more lively as he can by no means reconcile the violation of the territory of the Elector of Baden to those principles of justice and propriety which are held sacred among nations, and are the bulwark of their reciprocal relations. His Imperial Majesty finds in this act a violation of the rights of nations, and of a neutral territory, which, at least, was as arbitrary as it was public; a violation, the consequences of which are difficult to estimate, and which, if considered as admissible, must entirely annihilate the security and independence of sovereign states. If the German Empire, after the misfortunes it has suffered, which have made it sensibly feel the necessity of tranquillity and repose, must still be in fear for the integrity of its territory, could it have been expected that this should have originated on the part of a government which has laboured to secure to it peace, and imposed on itself the duty of guaranteeing its continuance. All these considerations have not permitted the Emperor to pass over in silence this unexpected event, which has spread consternation through all Germany.- His Imperial Majesty has held it to be his duty, as guarantee and mediator of the peace, to notify to the States of the Empire, the manner in which he views an action which endangers their security and independence. The Russian Resident at Ratisbon has, in consequence received orders to deliver in a note to the Diet, and to represent to it, and to the Head of the Empire, the necessity of remonstrating to the French Government against this violation of the German territory.---His Imperial Majesty holds it in like manner to be his duty to notify his sentiments directly to the French Government, by the undersigned, as his Majesty is assured, that the First Consul will hasten to attend to the just remonstrances of the German political body, and feel the pressing necessity of taking the most active measures to relieve all the Governments of Europe from the alarm he must have occasioned to them, and put an end to an order of things too dangerous to their safety and future independence.-The undersigned hereby fulfils the commands of his illustrious Master, and avails himself of this opportunity to communicate to the Citizen Minister for Foreign Afairs, the assurance of his high esteem.

FOREIGN OFFICIAL PAPERS. Translation of an Imperial Ukase, issued by the Emperor of Russia at St. Petersburgh, the 7th of May, 1804, relative to the Admission of Foreigners into his Imperial Ma