silly he would have looked! And yet he could have no reason to complain.

I perceive also many other instances of this aping propensity in the Americans. It is the "honourable William Jones, secretary of the navy;" the "honourable the mayor of New-York ;" "his honour the chief justice;" and even the members of congress call one another "honourable gentlemen," and their "honourable friends."-I was not till of late aware, that this sickly taste was become so prevalent in America. This is indeed contemptibleand England will have, in a few years, a much better ground of reliance for success, in this change of national character in America, than in the force of Our arms. When once the hankering after titles becomes general in that country; when once riches will have produced that effect, the country will become an easy prey to an old, compact, and easily wielded government like ours. When men find that they cannot obtain titles under the form of government now existing, they will as soon as they have the opportunity, sell the country itself to any sovereign, who will gratify their base ambition. This is the slow poison that is at work on the American constitution. It will proceed, unless speedily checked, to the utter destruction of that which it has assailed. Our best way is to make peace with them now, and leave this poison to work. By the time they get to "right honourable," we shall be ready to receive their allegiance. When the bit of bunting comes to be exchanged for some sort of armorial thing, the fellows who now "fight like blood-thirsty savages," as our papers say, will become as tame and as timid as sheep.

[Letter IV. has not yet come to hand.]

LETTER V.

TO THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL, ON THE AMERICAN WAR.

MY LORD-The nation begin to suspect, at last, that this American war may prove an unfortunate thing. If your lordship recollects, I taunted Johnny Bull, flouted him and gibed, when, at the outset of this war, he crowed and cock-cock-caw'd, at the idea of giving the Yankees a good drubbing.If your lordship recollects that I flouted wise John, and told him, that, at any rate, I hoped, if he was resolved to enjoy this sport, he would never let me hear him say a word about the property tax, or, what he vulgarly calls the income tax. I knew, from the beginning, that I should see him galled here. I knew that I should have him upon his hip: and here I have him, for he is now crying out against the tax, as loud as a pig under the knife of

butcher, though he, at the same time, seems to have no objection to the work of slaughtering going on. In short, so that he is safe himself, and pays nothing, his delight is in seeing the war desolate the rest of the world. But he does not like to pay. Rather than pay, he would give the world a chance of being at peace, and of ceasing to bleed.

That so amiable a personage should meet with any rubs or crosses in life must, of course, be matter of regret with his friends, and must remind them of the maxim, that, as virtue alone is not, in all

cases, sufficient to inspire happiness in this world, the virtuous afflicted ought chiefly to rely on the world to come. This sort of reliance is very suitable to Johnny, at this time; for he has not given the Yankees a drubbing; and yet the income tax sticks to him like bird lime. The Times newspaper cheers him, indeed, by telling him, that he is causing the Yankees to pay taxes; that, though he so sorely feels himself, he does not suffer in vain ; for that he is making others suffer too. To be sure, this is a consoling reflection; but still it is not quite sufficient to reconcile him to the continuation of the income tax, seeing that, when called on for the money, he sometimes forgets the delight of seeing others suffer, which he has enjoyed for his

money.

But now, my lord, leaving wise Johnny, amiable and honest Johnny, to his taxes and his hopes of giving the Yankees a drubbing, permit me to remind your lordship, briefly, of the origin of this war; for, if I have life to the end of it, this origin shall not be forgotten. It is necessary, at every stage, to keep it steadily in view: for, unless we do this, we shall be wholly "bothered" out of it at last, as we were in the case of the French war.

The war against France was a war against principles at first; it then became a war of conquest; and it ended in being a war for deliverance. We set out with accusing our enemy with being dangerous, as disorganizers of ancient governments; and we ended with accusing them of being dangerous, as despots. The French were too free for us at the beginning, and too much enslaved for us at the end; and it was so contrived as to make more than half the world believe that the Cossacks were the great champions of civil and political liberty.

So, that, when we came to the close, leaving the French nearly as we found them, not seeing tythes, monks, game-laws, gabelles, corvess, bastiles, seigneurial courts re-established, we had spent more than a thousand millions of pounds in a war, of the first object of which we had wholly lost sight. We will not have it thus, my lord, with regard to the American war. We will not suffer its first object to be lost sight of. Nobody, as to this point, shall be able to "bother" any historian who is disposed to speak the truth.

The war with America arose thus-We were at war with France, America was neutral. We not only exercised our known right of stopping Ame. rican merchant ships at sea, to search them for enemy's goods, for troops in the enemy's service, and for goods contraband of war, which species of search, and of seizure in case of detection, Mr. Madison did not oppose either by word or deed. This is a maritime right, sometimes disputed by Russia, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden; but never given up by us, except for a while, at a time of great danger. This right was never disputed by Mr. Madison during the French war. The exercise of it he submitted to without complaint. This was our "right of search;" and this right was enjoyed by us, without any complaint on his part; and this is the right which many people think he opposed, and upon that ground they have approved the war.

But the war had nothing to do with this right, any more than it had to do with our right of bringing coals from Newcastle to London. The war was declared by Mr. Madison against us, because we stopped American merchant ships upon the high seas, and impressed people out of them. We said, that we did this in order to recover our own

seamen, who were frequently found serving in these American ships; but it was notorious, the fact was never denied, and never can be denied, that we impressed thus, great numbers of native Americans, forced them on board of our ships of war, and compelled them to submit to our discipline, and to risk their lives in fighting for us. These are facts which can never be denied. Mr. Madison, for years, called upon us to cease this practice. We did not cease. He repeatedly threatened war if we persevered. We did persevere; and, after years of remonstrance, he, or rather the two houses of congress, the real representatives of the people of America, declared war against us.

Here then, is the cause of the war; the sole cause of the war; war, long threatened, and, at last, frankly declared, previous to any hostile act or movement on the part of Mr. Madison, or rather the congress. For, my lord, though Johnny Bull, though wise Johnny, whose generosity would put all other nations into his own happy state; though wise and generous John talks about Mr. Madison's hostility, it is, in fact, the hostility of the congress; that is to say, the hostility of the people: because the congress are the real and not the sham representatives of the people; and because the congress, who declared, and who now support the war, have been chosen during the war, and just before it. The members of the congress do not purchase their seats; no seats can be bought or sold; none of the members can get any thing for themselves or families for their votes. So that when they decide, it is, in reality, a majority of the people who decide; and, the people did decide, that they would resist, by force of arms, the impressment of their seamen.