FROM COBBETT'S REGISTER OF JANUARY 21, 1815.

America. Peace being now happily concluded with the country of freedom, it will not be necessary for me to occupy so large a portion of the Register as I lately have, with observations relating to it. But, still this country, now nearly as much above all others in military and naval prowess as she is, and long has been, in civil, religious, and political liberty; still this favoured country, this asylum and example to the oppressed of all other nations, must continue to be a deeply interesting object with every one, whom I wish to see amongst my readers. I shall, therefore, in future, write of the affairs of America under one general rule, numbering the several articles from No. I. onwards.Previous to the war, I wrote several articles, under the form of Letters, and otherwise; during the war a great many more. And, I am of opinion, if all these were collected together, from the month of July, 1810, to the 14th of this present month of January, 1815, they would be found to contain as good a history of this important struggle, as is likely to appear in any other shape.-The rise, the progress, the termination, are all here to be found very amply detailed. The views on both sides the passions, the prejudices; the means made use of to delude the people of England. The effect of the result of the contest on men's minds. All will here be found to have been faithfully recorded;

that is to say, as far as I have dared to go; and for the restraint, which I have been under, and fos which no human ingenuity could have compensated, the judicious and impartial reader will make a suitable allowance.-This, however, is only said as to our side of the water; for, in the country of freedom, the naked truth will be told. There every man will write and publish what he pleases; there discussions will be really free; there no man will tremble while he writes; and there truth must and will prevail. It is often observed, that history, to be impartial, must be written long after the date of the events of which it is a record. This is a strange notion. It is so contrary to every rule of common life, that it naturally staggers one. If we want to keep our accounts, or the records of any proceedings in life, accurately, we never lose a moment in minuting the facts down as they occur. If evidence is given from a written paper, it must, to make the evidence good, have been written at the moment that the facts occurred. How strange, then is it, that, for history to be true, that it must be written a century, or two, after the period to which it relates; that is to say, that, to come at the real truth of any national occurrence, in order to arrive at a just decision upon the conduct of a nation, you must enter upon the inquiry after all the witnesses are dead, and after all the springs, hidden from common eyes, and which no man has dared to record an account of in print, are wholly forgotten, and sunk, for ever, out of sight.-It is said, that, at the time when the events occur, the historian is too near to the passions and prejudices of the times, and is too likely to partake of them. But, at a hundred years after the events, what has he to refer to but writings of the times; and how then is he more

likely to get at the truth? We suppose the historian to seek earnestly for truth; and is he more likely to get at it, when all the springs are forgotten and all the witnesses dead, than when he has access to them all? The real state of the case is this: the historian DARES NOT write a true history of present events, and a true description of the character of public institutions, establishments, laws, and men, in any country except America. Truth, in England, may be a LIBEL; libels are punished more severely than the greatest part of felonies, as my lord Folkstone shewed, in the house of commons, from an examination of the Newgate Calender; and, it is well known, that in answering a charge of libel, the TRUTH of what you have written or published, is not allowed EVEN TO BE GIVEN IN EVIDENCE. This is the real, and the only ground for pretending, that history ought to be written long after the period to which it relates. But, how are you bettered by length of time? It is a libel here to speak evil of the dead. The dead villain must not, if it give offence to certain persons, be truly characterized; and, remember, that the sources, to which the historian has to refer, are precisely those which have been created under this law of libel.

In the great republic of America, the case is wholly different. There any man may publish any thing that he pleases of public measures, or public men, provided that he confine himself to truth in what he asserts to be facts. There any opinions may be published; but here, even opinions expose writers, printers and publishers to punishment; and, observe, that that which a man may say in a private letter, is held to be published, and if determined to be libellous, liable to punishment.

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Well may we hold it to be a maxim, that the writing of history ought to be delayed until a remote period; but it would be a much more sensible maxim, that no history, written under such circumstances, (with a law that punishes libels on the dead) ought ever to be regarded as any thing better than a sort of political romance. There is no reason, however, why a history of this war, should not immediately be written, and published in the republic, with whom, thank the ministers, and the president, and the brave republicans, we are now at peace. From that country we may now receive such a history. It might be a little too strong to be published here; or even to be sold here. But those who wished for copies might get them through private channels; though, I ought to observe, for the good of the unwary, that to lend a book, or, to shew a book to another person, is to publish a book in the eye of our sharp sighted libel law.

Nevertheless, if some able and animated pen, set to work on this fine subject, a subject so closely connected with the cause of freedom all over the world, there is no doubt of its obtaining circulation, even in England; and while it would be sure, by means of a French translation, to be read all over the continent, where it must produce a prodigious effect. But I hope to see nothing of the maudling kind; nothing of the milk and water; nothing of the "gentlemanly" sort; no mincing of the matter. But, a real, true, history, applying to persons and acts the appellations which justice assigns them.If such a work were published, rather than not pos sess a copy, I would make one of my sons traverse the Atlantic, expressly to fetch it to me. I hope, however, that some man in America, who feels upon the subject as I feel, will take the trouble to

convey to me by a safe hand, (not through the post office) a copy or two of the first work of the above description that shall appear. But mind, I should despise any history which should not speak of ALL the actors, on both sides, without the smallest regard of the humbug and palaver of the day, applying to their actions and their characters, and their motives, the plainest as well as the truest of epithets and terms. I am not much disposed to be unhappy. I never meet calamity half way.

But really, such a work; the reading of such a work, and hearing my children read it, would make up for years of misery, if I had passed such-and it would be much more than a compensation for all the sufferings of my life. In short, I have set my heart on this thing, and, if I am disappointed, I shall be grieved more than I ever yet have been; ten thousand times more than I was, when I heard the sentence of Judge Grose on me of two years imprisonment in Newgate, a thousand pounds fine to the king, and seven years bound to good behaviour af terwards, in bonds of 5,000 pounds, for having written about the flogging of English local militia at Ely, and about German dragoons. But, why should I be disappointed? Have I not, if no one will take up the pen, a son to take it up in the cause of truth and liberty? The world is wide; and now it is open. In the mean while let us not neglect that which is yet within our own power. We ought to keep the republic constantly before our eyes.Though we make her less the subject of observation than we have done for some time past, we ought never to lose sight of her. The enemies of liberty are always on the watch to assail, through her sides, the object of their mortal hatred; and, therefore, we ought to lose no occasion of facing and of