on their representing one certain proportion of an invariable standard; were this not the case, these coins, like metals, would vary every day in value, and all the intercourses of society would be thrown into confusion; but take away the standard altogether, suppose no such thing existed, then all intercourse betwixt man and man, as carried on at present, would be at an end, coins would be useless, and the precious metals would sink into insignificance; gold and silver would become of no value; of themselves, they are not at all necessary to the existence of man in this world, and they have only been raised to their present importance in consequence of being found of service in facilitating the intercourse or interchange of commodities by being representatives of value, for which, from their physical properties they were conceived to be better adapted than any other article, but their usefulness depends entirely upon the existence of a standard unit, without that, mankind would have to recur to the original practice of exchanging one article for another, and which would be confined to articles of the first necessity for food and cloathing. When the South Sea Islands were first discovered, the intercourse of the islanders amongst themselves appears to have been very limited, and what little gold and silver they had was entirely used as personal ornaments; at first they exchanged their articles of food and cloathing for a few beads, or any thing gaudy offered them by the strangers; they very soon however found out of what value iron utensils were to them, and then they freely gave their gold and silver ornaments for hammers, nails, axes, &c. on which they set a much higher value than on gold and silver; indeed axes became of such consequence, that naturally conceiving they were all of exactly the same value, they seem to have made a standard unit of them, by fixing the value of their own articles, at so many axes; and when any thing else was offered them in exchange, estimating its value in the same way; so many nails of one size equal to one axe, so many of another &c. So that it appears ident, that, wherever barter, or the exchange of one commodity for another, was carried to any extent, a standard unit was found necessary, and was always introduced before coins were thought of; and that, therefore coins are merely used as simbols of that standard. The circumstance of coins being always issued of value, as near as possible to what they pass for, has tended to mislead on this head, but that has been entirely the effect of political expediency; in order to establish coins as invariable representatives of the standard, government found it necessary to take the coining and issuing them into their own hands; but they just say to the public, bring your gold and silver bullion to the mint, we will be at the expense of making it into guineas and shillings, and we will return it to you in these forms, of the extact weight you brought. Were government to put less bullion into the pieces than they passed for, they would be cheating the country and opening a door for coiners to do the same, were they to make the pieces of greater value, then they would have to make up the deficiency themselves.

If coins are thus only simbols of the standard unit of the country, then it must be evident, that all the writers on this subject have taken them completely out of their sphere and given then an importance to which they are really not intitled. And in endeavouring to establish not only the coins, but the metals of which they are made, to be the invariable standards of value, these writers have been led to make most false conclusions upon the nature of paper money and doctrine of exchange; instead of placing paper money upon the same footing with coins, they have treated it as a representative of coins, and consequently subject to, and liable to be controlled at all times by them. Iu the next part, an attempt will be made to point out the fallacy of this, and some other of the assertions of these writers in regard to paper money; in the course of which, an opportunity will be taken to show that gold and silver, these vaunted invariable standards of value, have actually altered their relafive value to all other articles, more than any other article of value whatever.

ON THE CONDUCT OF THE PORTE.

Nulla fuga.

spes nulla salutis,

CLAUDIAN.

Sir,-The folly and infatuation of the grand seignior and his adherents are almost incredible. The distance at which his dominions are situated from the theatre of war would enable him either to preserve an advantageous neutrality, or to form a power

ful union with the Anglo-Russian forces; yet has he suffered himself to be so entirely blinded by the artifices of Buonaparte's mission, that he supports, to the utmost of his endeavours, those schemes, which, in all human probability, will hurl him from his throne. The treacherous Prussian journals, indeed, assure us that the Turkish forces are innumerable as the stars in the firmament, and cager as the war-horse for the battle; whilst the disheartened Servians and Muscovites are every where retreating with alacrity from the presence of their formidable opponents;-yet each sensiole man will ridicule these deceitful and exaggerated statements. The Vienna Court Gazette, a paper too politic to call forth the vengeance of Napoleon, by a palpable antruth, declares, that violent dissentions have taken place amongst some of the Mahometan chiefs, and more especially between Mustapha Bairactar, lately ad vanced to the rank of a pacha of three tails, and others of his colleagues that the army of general Michelson was continually receiving reinforcements from the neighbouring states; and that a squadron of Russian cavalry had surprised the Turks, who were in the vicinity of Krajowa, and cut a considerable number of them to pieces. In fact, these gentle, timid, inactive kozaks are not so scrupulous as the world imagines. They can sabre a few dozens before breakfast with no particular symptoms of compunction; and the destruction of as many hundreds before supper does not appear, materially, to affect their appetites. The Servians also, with equal trepitation, have contrived to take Nissa, and to obtain possession of the important island of Ostrof ́in the Danube; by which they have now opened a short communication with nearly, or perhaps more than, 11,000 Russians in Little Wallachia. Nor is the maritime success of the allied flects less evident. Repeated attacks are stated to have been made upon the island of Tenedos by the Turks, but in vain. A small squadron of observation, which had succeeded in making its escape into the canal of Constantinople, is closely blockaded by the Russian admi ral, Siniavin; and, notwithstanding the 500 French gunners sent from Dalmatia, so closely do the English invest the city that the captain pacha has reinforced his fleet, and received positive instructions to risque a battle, as the want and misery, arising from the stoppage of provisions and necessary stores, which are imported by the way of the Black Sea, and the side of the Mediterranean, must be immediately remedied, or the place must fall.

The first care of a Russian general is, to observe the temper and operations of his opponents.-General Michelson, upon assuming the command, found the army of the grand vizier in a state of insubordination. The troops, he perceived, were eager, but incapable of sustaining fatigues; enterprizing, but insolent to their su periors; and, though not deficient in natural courage, yet headstrong and im petuous. He, therefore, most prudently resolved to persevere in the wise Fabian system, which has already been attended with such wonderful success in Poland; Laowing that a protracted war would render the Ottoman troops clamorous for theit Jay, and put them to great straits for want of necessaries and provender; nor has the event deceived his expectations.

As for the menaced attack by the captain pacha upon the British fleet, I can only wish that it may be put into execution. Our brave tars would have the glory of augmenting the British navy, and of adding another laurel to Britannia's crown ANGLICUS.

ERRATUM IN OUR LAST.

Page 15, line 36;-For all weiglit, read b. weight.

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Vol. III. N° 3.

Saturday, July 18, 1807.

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33

HISTORICAL.

IF calamity could at all times recall mankind to a proper knowledge of them selves and their duties, the disasters of the allies might be converted into a measure of good for ourselves; but inasmuch as it is too often the desperate and unprincipled course of human nature to disregard these salutary admonitions of Providence, until they are overwhelmed by a finishing stroke of adversity, which they cannot retrieve, all that can be reasonably expected from the ruin of other nations is, that we shall derive instruction from their faults, and endeavour to avert from our own country, by the pursuit of a different line of policy, the misfortunes which have fallen upon them. Nor is this so difficult a task as fools and rogues believe themselves and would persuade others to believe. But it can be accomplished by a steady and determinate conduct only, and not by blustering or half-measures. Whatever shall from this hour be devised for the purpose of upholding the glory, freedom, and independence, of our beloved country, must be conceived in the spirit of mature wisdom, and executed with vigour and promptitude. All these topics I shall have a thousand opportunities of expatiating upon hereafter; at present I shall narrate the sickening details of the public calamities.

After several months of inaction, during which the allies beheld the fall of Dantzick, Neisse, Glatz, and nearly all the remaining fortresses of the kingdom of Prussia; the Russian army renewed its operations, by making repeated, and in several instances, successful attacks upon the whole French line. Various conjectures have been started concerning the long inactivity of the allies, especially by those military politicians who criticize the conduct of generals and the movements of armies, according to the rules which govern their own mercantile thoughts and modes of action; but I hesitate not to inform them, and the whole world, that the downfall of European independence is ascribable not to any want of skill, zeal, or courage, on the part of our brave allies, but entirely and exclusively to that wicked and perverse aristocracy, by whom our affairs have been shamefully mismanaged and turned topsy. turvy for the last fifteen months, and through whose indifference to the interests of the confederated powers, the cause of European liberty has been lost. In other and better times, the people of England would not have suffered such heinous abuses of public trust to have passed away with impunity. They would have called upon the authors of all the evils of Europe to explain why they did not collect transports, march the troops to the coast, and keep them in readiness to embark the moment that intelligence had arrived of the battle of Auerstadt ? or, if three months after that event, 30,000 British troops had been sent to co-operate with the Swedes, carrying with them arms, accoutrements, and ammunition, the continent might now have been rescued from French thraldom. But, the disposeable force of this country amounted to more than 40,000 men: these, with the 25,000 Swedes, and the 12,000. Prussians, making in the whole a body of 77,000 men, would have been enabled to have penetrated into Germany, to have hoisted the standard of independence, and to have rallied around it all those patriotic inhabitants of the empire, whose bosoms still glowed with the fervour of public liberty. This might have been done by men endowed with ordinary capacities, provided their hearts were sound; but, whether the conception, from its obvious propriety, were above or below the contemplation of "All the Talents," they ought to be forced to explain to suffering Europe, and to their insulted country. Have we not read over and over again in the foreign journals, since the arrival of the French army on the banks of the Oder, that the people of Brunswick, Hesse, and Brandenburgh, have voluntarily taken up arms against the common oppressor, and that they have been exterminated in groupes by their unfeeling tyrants? The fact proves, the disposition to resist, and the guilt of

VOL. III. NO. 3.

the last administration in not sending adequate assistance to co-operate with and give a sanction to the efforts of these loyal bands? During the whole of this mighty struggle, history will record to the eternal disgrace of that ministry, that they viewed with stoical apathy the expiring efforts of Europe, that they made not even an attempt to create a diversion-in favour of the allies, nor did they send a single battalion to share in their generous enterprize. Besides, every man.the least conversant with military affairs must know, that a very inferiour army in the rear of the French, who were contending against a powerful army in their front, would have created more difficulties to the enemy than the greater power against which they were car-rying on operations; independently of the alarming consequences which they would have had just ground for apprehending, from the insurrectionary spirit of the inha bitants, whose relatives had been butchered, and the fruits of whose industry had been torn from them by the insatiable rapacity of these conquerors. These, and -many other considerations which might be added to them, affix a stain on the poli'tics of the ex-ministers, which, I fear, the people of Europe will attach also to our 'nation collectively. For, they will not discriminate between the conduct of a ministry, and the sentiments of the public, they will not be persuaded that the British nation were not accomplices in the evils generated by their rulers; and they will conclude, as they ought to do, that as these gross proofs of mismanagement were passively borne with by the people, the people themselves are necessarily parties in the infamy of their government. Thus, our character must, ere long, be totally lost, or perhaps, despised upon the continent. For, they will either regard us as a nation incompetent to bring into the field a force capable of acquiring for Britain a name amongst military states; or, seeing our army broken up, and dispersed in remote quarters of the globe, for the acquisition of butterfly conquests, they will impute to us a selfish and sordid spirit, which is more busied in amassing treasures for the temptation of the common robber, after le shall have brought the rest of Europe at his feet, than interested, as we profess to be, in the public safety of our friends. Such will assuredly be the effects of that penurious and crooked policy which we have pursued since the death of Mr. Pitt But I am weary of making accusations, and of exposing ignorance and imbecility. The storm is lowering, and time presses: the worst passions of the refuse of the human species are about to be collected into a focus, and poured upon this country. It is enough, therefore, that we know the cause and the authors of this imminent danger; other thoughts than those of crimination and recrimination must henceforward occupy our attention. Our country will not only be saved, but her glory will be more transcendunt than ever, if the government and the people be rivals in the exercise of their patriotism and their duties.

But to return. The inactivity of the Russians has evidently arisen from the inferiority of their numbers to those of the enemy; otherwise, we may rest assured, more vigorous efforts would have been made to raise the siege of Dantzick, the capture of which, I predicted in a former number, notwithstanding the opposite opinion of the editors of all our journals, would prove an irreparable loss to the allies, unJess they could win a battle so decisive in its nature, as to enable them to retake it. The event has shewn the accuracy of that judgment. For, it is evident, that general Bennigsen has acted upon this principle. From the 5th to the 14th of last month, the two armies were continually engaged, but not in general actions, which, I-conceive, places the talents of general Bennigsen in a very distinguished point of view. On the 5th of June, the Russian army put itself in motion, and attacked the tête du pont at Spanden, which attack, according to the French accounts (for we have yet to learn the Russian account of these events) they renewed seven times, but were as often repulsed. At the same time, two Russian divisions, from the centre of the grand army, attacked the tête du pont of Lomitten; and while this operation was performing, general Bennigsen, in person, with the grand duke Constantine, attacked the positions of marshal Ney, at Altzirzen, Gutstadt, and Volfsdorff, and compelled him to retreat with his corps to Ackendorff. On the following day, the Russians attacked the French at Deppen, on the Passarge, but, according to the French ac count, they were repulsed by the 6th division stationed there under the command of marshal Soult. On the 8th of June, the 4th corps of the French marched to Volfsdorff, where it had a smart action with the Russian division of Kamenski, then

on its march to rejoin the main body. At the same time, the corps of Ney and Lannes, the French imperial guard, and the cavalry of reserve, advanced to Guttstadt, and engaged. on the way at Glottan the rear guard of the Russians, which they drove successively from all its positions. On the 10th of June, however, the decisive blow was given which led to the disastrous battle of Freinland.

The French army advanced towards Heilsberg, in front of which the Russians occupied a position which was uncommonly strong both by nature and art. The French succeeded in cutting off the communication of the Russians with Lansberg, and by night-fall, after continual fighting, they arrived under the Russian entrenchments. On the 11th Buonaparte made the necessary dispositions for a decisive action. At four in the afternoon, he ordered marshal Davoust to change his front, and push forward towards his left; by which movement he arrived upon the lower Alle, and completely blocked up the road to Eylau. Every other corps of the army, with the exception of the first corps which continued upon the lower Passange, was collected together, and had its assigned post, so as to shut up the Russians in their entrenched camp. It does not appear that the Russians felt themselves sufficiently strong to repel an assault from the French, and accordingly, they made a most masterly retreat in columns and in excellent order across the Alle, at 10 o'clock at night, after having made a demonstration of giving battle, le ving their magazines and entrenchments to the disposal of the enemy. At day break, on the 12th, the French army entered Heilsberg, and immediately after, a division of their cavalry pursued the Russians upon the right bank of the Alle, towards Bartenstein, while the body of their army marched in different directions, to outflank the Russians, to cut off their retreat to Koningsberg, and to anticipate them in reaching their magazines. As these movements brought on the fatal battle of Friedland, and as there is no other account, at present existing of that event, I here insert such parts of the 79th bulletin of the French army, dated Wehlau, June 17th, as will afford the reader an opportunity of contrasting them hereafter with the official narratives of the other party.

On the 12th, at five in the afternoon, the emperor removed his head quarters to to Eylau. The grand duke of Berg moved towards, Koningsberg on the 13th, with his cavalry; marshal Davoust followed in his rear to support him; marshal Soult moved towards Kreutsburg; marshal Lannes, towards Domnau; and marshals Ney and Mortier proceeded to Lampasch, In the mean while general Latour Maubourg wrote, that he had pursued the enemy's rear guard; that the Russians abandoned a number of their wounded; that they had evacuated Bartenstein, and continued their retreat to Scheppenbeil, along the left bank of the Alle. The emperor immediately began his march to Friedland. He gave orders to the grand duke of Berg, the marshals Soult and Davoust, to manœuvre towards Koningsburg; and with the corps belonging to the marshals Mortier, Ney, and Lannes, the imperial guard, and the first corps, commanded by general Victor, he marched to Friedland in person. On the 13th, the ninth regiment of hussars entered Friedland, but were driven out by 3000 of the enemy's cavalry. On the 14th, the enemy appeared upon the bridge of Friedland. At three in the morning the report of cannon was heared. The marshals Lannes and Mortier were first engaged; they were supported by general Grouchy's division of dragoons, and general Nanscuty's cuirassiers. Various movements and different actions. took place. The enemy were checked, and could not pass the village of Posthenen. Thinking they had only a corps of 15,000 men before them, they continued their march to file towards Koningsberg. On this occasion, the French dragoons and, cuirassiers, and the Saxons, made several fine charges; they took from the enemy four pieces of canAt five in the afternoon the different corps of the army were at their posts; marshal Ney upon the right, marshal Lannes on the centre, marshal Mortier upon the left, and general Victor, with the guard, in reserve. The cavalry under general Grouchy supported the left; general Latour Maubourg's. division of dragoons was in reserve behind the right; and general Lahoussaye's dragoons, with the Saxon cuirassiers, were in reserve in the rear of the centre. In the mean while, the eneny had deployed the whole of his army. His left was supported by the town of Friedland, and his right extended a league and a half beyond it. The emperor

non.