VOL. VII. No. 19.]

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THE PRESENT TREASURER OF THE NAVY.
LETTER I.

SIR,-There having appeared, in a newspaper called the ORACLE, of the 3d instant, a publication containing a threat against all persons concerned in conducting the PRESS of this country, bidding "the Editors of "papers in general, not only those who "publish daily but those who publish weekly papers, to take notice, and receive warning, that a great change has now taken place in the system of forbearance hitherto "adhered to, and declaring that a new era "has now begun," it will, I think, be deemed perfectly natural in me to make some remarks thereon; and, as this menacing publication purports to be a speech delivered by you, in the House of Commons, on the day preceding its date, I trust, I shall stand excused for addressing these remarks more immediately to you.

In order clearly to understand the nature and the object of the above-mentioned threat, made under your name by the Editor of, or Writer in, the ORACLE, it will be necessary first briefly to state, from the several publications in that paper, the circumstances which led to the making of the threat. Mr. PETER STUART, the editor, or, rather, the proprietor, or part-proprietor, of the ORACLE, published, in his paper of the 20th ultimo, certain strictures upon the decision of the House of Commons relative to Lord Melville, of which strictures the following is a copy, the paragraphs being distinguished by numerical figures, for the purpose of facilitating the references, which it will be necessary to make to them.- "I. Sir Charles

Middleton, Bart. has been appointed to "succeed Lord Melville as First Lord of the "Admiralty. Sir Charles. being an officer "of first rate talents, of great experience, "and distinguished gallantry, his appoint"ment to such an elevated situation cannot "fail of affording very, great satisfaction. "He will be called to the House of Peers by the title of Lord Barham, of Kent.

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II. While we announce this arrange"ment as the proper reward of public and private virtue, we cannot help sincerely

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regretting, that party rancour and popular "clamour have at this time deprived our King and Country of the great and power"ful abilities of Lord Melville. In no pe"riod of our political history can we find such an instance of the strong effects of prejudice. With all our profound respect "for the motives which influenced the majority of the House of Commons; with "all our admiration of that spirit which arouses and animates the people in their expressions of indignation at the supposed "malversations of an individual; with all

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our regard for town and county meetings "when properly directed in supporting the "cause of independence, freedom, and pub"lic virtue; we cannot help again and "again declaring, that Lord Melville has "fallen a victim to confidence misplaced, to "prejudice misjudged, and to indignation

misapplied. He has been condemned "without a trial When an appeal has been "offered to his intemperate judges; when a request has been made to put him on his defence; when it has been earnestly so"licited to give him a fair and a candid hearing, and then to come to a decision

on the merits of the case; a strong and a "presumptuous negative has been given, "directed and enforced by the violence of the times. -III. If those who were so very impatient to deprive Mr. Pitt of so able a coadjutor, were equally zealous in their "endeavours to restore to the public the un"accounted millions of which that public "has been so disgracefully robbed, there "would perhaps be some excuse for all that "affectation of public virtue which has late

ly distinguished certain bawling patriots "of the day. Lord Melville has not deprived the public of a single farthing. "His most implacable enemies have not "dared to charge him with such an act. "Can as much be said of the fathers of some men? If the public were paid its pecuniary, claims, long since indisputably proved, certain furious patriots, instead of living in splendour, would be put on the "parish. In the future Resolutions of the "House of Coinmons, in the future Reso "lutions of all Public Meetings, we hope

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that an immediate attention to the enor

mous debts still due to the public by cer"tain noisy individuals will be strongly recommended."Before I proceed further with the narrative, it may not be amiss to notice here, the impudence of the assertion, that "Lord Melville has not deprived "the public of a single farthing; and that "his most implacable enemies have not "dared to charge him with such an act." In my opinion, and, I believe, in the opinion of most men, it has been clearly proved, that Lord Melville has deprived the public of immense sums of money. But, as to the latter part of the assertion, every one knows, every one knew, and this writer must, therefore, have known, that Lord Melville had been charged, over and over again, openly charged, at least, with having caused such deprivation.

-The delicate allusion, in the last paragraph, is to the late Lord Holland, the father of Mr. Fox; but, of that particular notice shall be taken hereafter.Of the 2d pa-ragraph, this writer informs us, Mr. Grey complained, in the House of Commons, on the same day it was published; in consequence of which complaint MR. STUART was, the next day called to the bar of the House, where, being asked by the Speaker what he had to say for himself, he read a paper as follows: Permit me, Sir, to as

sure you, that I very much regret that any part of the contents of my paper of yesterday should have incurred the displeasure of this Honourable House. If, "Sir, I have expressed myself too warmly in favour of Lord Melville, for whom I shall always entertain the highest respect and esteem, I beg that this Honourable "House will view it as the unguarded language of the heart, and not a wilful inten

tion to provoke the censure of a power on "which our dearest rights and liberties de

pend. I entreat you, Sir, that some al"lowance may be made for that freedom of "discussion of public affairs which for a long series of years has been sanctioned by common usage; and that the hasty composition of a newspaper may not be "considered as a deliberate design to offend "this Honourable House." After the reading of this, which all those who know Mr. STUART will readily acquit him of haying written, he was taken into the custody of the Serjeant at Arms, and there remained until the 24 inst. when upon the following petition being presented by Sr Hen. Mildmay, he was, after a reprimand from the Speaker, set at liberty petition, signed by Ma. STUART, mess words: That for that part of his paper

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pleased to pardon him for a transgression

solely attributable to the hasty composi "tion of a newspaper, and rot to any de"liberate design of offending this Honour"able House.- That your petitioner is "emboldened to solicit your indulgence and

forgiveness on his well-founded assurance, "that during the several years in which he "has conducted a newspaper, it has uni"formly been his principle and pride zeal"ously to support the character and dignity "of the House of Commons; and that it "las frequently fallen to his lot to have "vindicated both from the charges of so"cieties expressly instituted to bring them "into public disrepute and contempt."That in any observations which your pe "titioner may have published on the conduct "of Lord Melville, he could not but bear "in mind, that the views of those societies, abetting domestic treason, and assisted by "the co-operation of the revolutionary

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adopted; and this Honourable House world "not, in that case, perhaps, have been now "in existence, either to censure Lord Mel"ville, or to pardon your petitioner.— "That if any thing could increase your "petitioner's regret, it would be its being

supposed that the objectionable paragraph was directed also againt the Right Honour"able the Speaker of the House of Commons; that your petitioner has no hesi "tation to declare, that no idea was ever more remote from his mind; and that your petitioner would be the very Last person to insinuate any thing disrespectful of a character whom he, in conjunction with "the whole nation, highly esteems as a pri vate gentleman, and most profoundly venerates, as the head and public organ of "this Honourable House."The repri mand was in the following terms: "PETER STUART You have confessed

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you are the printer and publisher of the

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paper complained of in this House, as containing libellous reflections on its cha"racter and conduct, and this House hath resolved that you were thereby guilty of a breach of its privilege, and ordered you to be taken into custody. Ey your peti"tion to-day, you appear to have expressed sorrow for your offence, and to have ac"knowledged the justice of your punish"< ment; and thereupon this House, in its lenity, hath ordered; that you be brought 26 to the bar to be reprimanded and discharged. I have, therefore, to reprimand and "admonish you, as a warning to others; "that this House doth and will resent it as an high offence in any man who shall presume to slander its character, or shall "endeavour to degrade it in the public esti"mation. You are now reprimanded. I "have further to acquaint you, that you are

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now discharged, paying your fees."In the same paper giving an account of this latter part of the transaction, Sir, it was that Mr. Stuart published, under your name, the threat against all the public prints in Eagland, which threat has induced me to trouble you with this letter.

There are several topics which will naturally grow out of those started in the libel published by, and the petition presented in behalf of, Mr. Stuart. The " great "satisfaction" which we are told the public must experience at the appointment and motion of Sir Charles Middleton; "the party

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rancour and popular clamour," and the "unfairness and the presumption" of the House of Commons, in their "intem

perate" proceedings, "directed and en"forced by the violence of the times;" the "high respect and esteem which the writer of the libel is resolved " always to "entertain for Lord Melville:" these demand some remark. The share, too, which Lord Melville had in saving the country, and in preventing the utter annihilation of the House of Commons, during those sixteen years that he was constantly guilty of a gross violation of the law and a high breach of duty, will merit attention; and as to those SOCIETIES, of which Mr. Stuart speaks, in his petition, and to counteract the efforts of which he, it seems, so long and so successfully co-operated with Lord Melville; those Societies, "expressly instituted to bring into public disrepute and contempt both the character and dignity of "the House of Commons," as to those Societies, Sir, it will behove us, who are now so loudly threatened by the upstart writer in the Oracle, to inquire into the origin of those Societies; to point out the person,

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and to quote the language of the first great agitator, he who taught the Corresponding Societies the principles upon which they proceeded, and whose having so taught them being proved to the satisfaction of the Judge and Jury p:o luced the acquittal of the accused and arraigned members of those Societies. All these topics, dir, it wil become us to touch upon; and, if, as in the lastmentioned instance particularly, they tend to awaken a remembrance of what all of us might heartily wish to be for ever buried in oblivion; if they tend to revive party distinctions and political animosities, be the consequence on the heads of those liberal and judicious writers in the ORACLE, by whom they have been provoked.

At present, however, I shall confine myself to three points; but, before I proceed to the discussion of either, it is an act of justice dne to Mr. Stuart, to declare, that I believe him, personally, to be perfectly innocent of the publications I complain of, a belief founded on the grounds I am now 2beit to state. Into the private concerns of Mr. Stuart I pry not; I ask for no suppo.t to my position from the rumours that are afloat relative to his professional or political connections, with respect to which I have only to observe, that those rumours, as faz as they have reached me, represent him as connected with no person, with whom he is not, whether as to birth or dignity of mind, upon a footing of perfect equality. My opinion shall rest upon the evidence afforded me by the pablications, which, only a few months ago, appeared in the columns, under his controal, relating to the very persons, who, through the same channel, are now assaulted with such unsparing and persevering malevolence.--The epoch, to which, Sir, I am desirous of recalling your attention, is the memorable one, at which, in an hour for his country and for himself inauspi cious, Mr. Pitt re-grasped the reins of ministerial power, and at which the ORACLE was, in the confined sphere of its circulation, distinguished for the zeal with which it inculated the wisdom and the necessity of including the members of the Opposition, particularly Mr. Fox, in the new arrangement, no less than for the ardour, the vehemence, with which it reprobated an union between Mr. Pitt and any of the persons composing Mr. Addington's ministry. In support of what is here stated, it will be necessary to quote the passages alluded to somewhat at length; because it is of great importance to show, that the sentiments now promulgated through the columns of the Oracle prove, either that Mr. Smart is a man

completely destitute of all public principle,

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that he is not the author of the publications recently made in his paper. Speaking of the debate in the House of Lords of the 1st of May 1804, during which Lord Hawkesbury was said to have called the opposition a faction, the ORACLE says: "Were we sure our contemporaries would pass "over this low and abusive term (as unbeconing in the Sec. of State to use as it was revolting to parliament to hear) in silence, we should never pollute our pages "with its mention. Lord Grenville disdained to make any reply. Lord Spencer, with that dignity and manliness which must ever distinguish him, hurled back "the foul reproach in the teeth of him who, gave it, and left him, in the eyes of all, So a sorry and discomfited railer." * much for Lord Hawkesbury, who, for reasons that you, Sir, may, possibly, be able to point out, is now never mentioned in the ORACLE, but with that sort of respect, which his lordship may be entitled to expect at the hands of those, whose flippant impertinence he has had the generosity to overlook, or, rather, of whom he would not condescend to accept of atonement, because it was atonement which they dared not refuse. -On the 8th of May, the day after it had been announced, that the King had sent to Mr. Pitt to form a ministry, the ORACLE thus expressed its joy: The DOCTOR'S" (for, Sir, they did really call Mr. Addington, now Lord Viscount Sidmouth, the Doctor) "administration is no more; and on this "we must heartily.congratulate our country. "We are no longer left for protection to "the puny and pigmy efforts of the Ad"dingtons, the Yorkes, the Hawkesburies, "and the Castlereaghs, to men, who have, "in no instance, exhibited one single mark

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of talent, one effort of firmness, or one ray "of genius."The next day, however, this joy was turned into mourning. From what cause, think you, Sir? Why, an apprehension that Mr. Pitt, in consequence of an obstacle imputed to a personage to whom no wrong should ever have been iraputed, was about to form a ministry from which Mr. Fox was to be excluded! So alarmed was the Editor at this...... but, let us hear his own words; words, which, if you have never read them before, I beseech you to read them with attention, bearing in your mind all the way, that they were published in the same paper, which contained the libel and petition inserted in the former part

See Spirit of the Public Journals, p. 290. Ibid. p.316. See the whole of these articles.

of this letter. "Mr. Pitt's representations" [to induce the King to admit Mr. Fox into the ministry]" on this subject are, unfortu

nately, supposed to have been ineffectual. "The permission to communicate with Mr. "Fox on this subject, is said to have been peremptorily and finally refused; and the "natural consequence of this refusal is un"derstood to have been, that part of the "members of what has been called the New "Opposition, have, on being invited to take a share in the arrangements now pending, "expressed the utter impossibility of their acceding to such an exclusive system, after "having openly pledged their opinions, both by their language and conduct, to the necessity of looking to the most comprehen"sive plan for a new administration. In

this situation the business is now reported "to rest; the rumours which were floating "in the course of yesterday, pointed towards arrangements of a description so contracted, inadequate, and humiliating to the country, that we are unwilling even to detail them. Should they be realized, we "shall think it our duty to call the attention "of the public, in the most serious manner; to "the shame and donger which the country

must sustain, from seeing its first situations of trust still dormed to be filled by a suc"cession of underlings, while the first talents of the country are proscribed and excluded; "but we look with more satisfaction to the "belief which generally prevailed in the

course of the afternoon; that Mr. Pitt, disdaining to employ in such situations any "of the members of the Doctor's administra "tion, whose incapacity, both collectively and individually, was not ten days ago object of his bitterest sarcasm, irony, and invective, and finding it hopeless to collect new recruits for so desperate an expedi tion, has thought it his duty to represent, "in the highest quarter, this plain truth; "that however desirous he may be to execute the wishes and obey the commands "he has received, he finds it impossible any longer to contend against his own conviction, backed by the unanimous sense of a "loyal, but a free and united people, and must therefore recur to the same proposi"tion which he originally submitted, as in

"assistance of their talents, where no such "aid was permitted to be derived from his " acknowledged abilities and experience. "Their unanimous rejection of this propo"sition must not only be considered as a tri"bute of private friendship, but as a public testimony of the sense they entertain of "the value of those services arhich he is so "well qualified to render to this country." * -This is, Sir, that very Mr. Fox, who is so delicately, and in such a manly style, alluded to in the 3d paragraph of the publication, for the 2d paragraph of which Mr. Stuart was reprimanded! On the 8th of May, 1804, the ORACLE, finding a report prevailing, that Mr. Pitt was actually engaged in patching up an "underling cabinet," burst forth in the following strain of indignation. "In this

situation, it seems universally allowed, that "no possible resource is left to Mr. Pitt for "the formation of his new government, un"less he were content to take up with the refuse of that administration which he has "succeeded in overthrowing, on the ground "of acknowledged misconduct and incapa

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city. His enemies, indeed, assert that he "is actually so employed. They even, at "this very moment, represent him as soli"citing Lord Hawkesbury, Mr. Yorke, and

Lord Castlereagh, to retain the same offices for which he has publicly de"clared them totally unfit; and to con"tinue to administer, under his auspices, "those departments of government in which "their confusion, mismanagement, and "blunders have been exposed by him with "the severest invective, and the most poig

nant contempt and ridicule. To add to "this humiliation, it is even asserted that "these great statesmen have taken time to deliberate, whether they should condescend to accept of his invitation, and to hold "offices in his government!!" t Yes, Sir, this was the language of the ORACLE! Of that very paper, which is now extolling the administration of Mr. Pitt, thus formed, even with the super-addition of "the Doc"tor" himself! On the 11th of May, indeed, after having profited from sleep, or, perhaps, from something more potent, the Editor of the Oracle did appear to have begun to change his opinion. He descanted largely on the wisdom, talents, and public spirit of Mr. Fox; but, could not help regretting, that the friends of that gentleman had persisted in their refusal to come into the cabinet without him, though, observe, they

* Spirit of the Public Journals, p. 325. p. 332. The whole of these articles should be read now; as also those of about the same date in other prints.

had, only the day before, been highly commended and extolled for such refusal! A declaration was, however, made, which it is ne, essary to keep constantly in mind, and which is peculiarly proper to be stated upon this occasion. The writer seemed to be fully impressed with the disadvantageous and suspicious light, in which the conduct of Mr. Pitt appeared to the public, and was, therefore, anxious to inculcate the belief of that gentleman's having had no share in excluding Mr. Fox from the ministry. "We do not, says he, "pretend to state all that has passed "in the several written communications and

tion which we possess, we have no hesita

tion in assuring the public, that every pos"sible exertion was made, both in the one "and in the other, to induce his Majesty to

confer on Mr. For a place of the highest "trust and importance in the new cabinet "and that Mr. Pitt persisted in his endea Yours for the attainment of this desirable object till the royal negative was given in "such a manner as left neither room for, nor hope of, success by any further per"severance. We shall not presume to sur"mise the grounds on which his Majesty was "induced to exercise this, the undoubted

prerogative of his crown, however much "we may regret the use that has been made "of it in this instance; it is a subject upon "which our respect for the constitution, "and our loyalty for the King, equally pre"clude all discussion.' Yet, Sir, this

same print it is, which is now going back even to Mr. Fox's infancy to find out grounds for justifying, not only his exclusion from the cabinet, but from every thing wherein the interests of the nation are concerned! This same print it is, which, in the form of both. paragraphs and speeches, is now endeavouring to represent Mr. Fox as a person totally unworthy of being listened to upon any subject connected with a charge of corruption; though, it is well known, that, since the above quoted articles were written, Mr. Fox's opposition has been against that ministry, of the very elements of which, the writer in the ORACLE expressed his decided hostility! Can we then believe, Sir, that the recent publications in the ORACLE have procecded from the same pen, whence preceeded those which I have just submitted to your perusal? I sincerely acquit Mr. Stuart of the imputation. I cannet consent to the imputing to him conduct, to express an adequate degree of abhorrence of which no language can afford words. No, Sir; it cannot have been Mr. Stuart. Wit