MR. WILBERFORCE'S SPEECH AT YORK.

men are of an opposite character and quality; and if they are more slowly excited, their feelings, when once roused, are more fixed and durable. Shallow streams are easily moved into a rippling; but we English are more like the ocean we are used to traverse; not so soon raised into a storm, but, when once raised, raging with billows of tremendous magnitude.

Yes, Gentlemen, the attempt will be made; and we all, and each of us, in our several situations, should resolve to use our utmost efforts to repel it. The wealthy must contribute their wealth, the strong their bodily strength, all their spirit, and every one must act as if all depended on his own individual exertion. If thus we act, we cannot be defeated, With our triumphant navy, to every single ship of which we might almost point for some act of superior valour; with our army, with our militia, we are now going to join the mass and body of our people. We shall be an armed nation: this is what our enemy cannot bring against us. He may transport successive armies; but an armed nation like this will not be overcome. If these exertions require, as they will, great burdens and labours, lay them to the right account; they are borne to preserve all that is dear to you; they are laid on you, in fact, not by your own rulers, but by the French government. Oh! my friends, could I but represent to you the dreadful state to which you would be reduced, if the enemy should succeed in his attempt-it would be sufficient to call forth all your exertions, and make you feel as nothing the greatest labours and sufferings you will have to bear. Every conquered country is reduced to a state of wretchedness; its population become hewers of wood and drawers of water to their imperious lords; but, in the case of France, we should not only be enslaved by a nation, foreign to us in language, in religion, in manners, in habits, but the long rivalship and hostility between the two countries would serve greatly to aggravate our misery. They would have to revenge upon us all the victories we had gained over them; and happily there is a long score to be paid off, which now recorded in history to our distinction, would then only be remembered in order to add bitterness to our bondage, and heap up insult upon injury; besides, they would know that we could not but intend to take the first opportunity of shaking off the yoke, and therefore fear would exasperate cruelty, and they would see no hope but in grinding us down into sordid vassalage, that the slavish mind might be conformed in us, and every remaining spark of British spirit be extinguished from our bosoms,

Gentlemen, look abroad, and see how the French have conducted themselves towards other countries, even where this spirit of rivalship has not existed. Look to the French conduct in countries where they came with professed intentions of freeing the inhabitants from oppression. They extorted from the wretched natives all their property, and threatened them with every possible mark of cruelty and outrage. The very decencies of language forbid my mentioning to you the enormous brutality of their conduct towards the female sex but will any one say, This was at the beginning of the revolution; things are now changed? No.-Their conduct in Egypt was no less atrocious, and with which they had no quarrel, and which they professed to come to, in order to do good to the inhabitants. Even the other day, in Hanover, the same unutterable abominations prevailed, and in the broad face of day, shameless indecencies were perpetrated, which while the decorums of civilized society prevent my naming, so I trust, there is not present a single bosom so foul, as that the ideas of their abominations can be suggested by your own minds. All this and worse you would have to suffer. Can you then hesitate?—I draw a good omen from the general animation that I see around me. We must remember, however, that it is only by vigorous and steady exertions that our country can be saved; but we are prompted to these exertions by every motive of interest, as well as of honour and of feeling: and, as I own I look forward with desire to the restoration of the blessings of peace; remember that in proportion as your preparations for war are more vigorous and decisive, your hopes of peace may be more sanguine. So long as the enemy hopes to conquer you, yoù cannot hope for security in peace; but when he is at length convinced, that all his efforts must be vain, we may then hope for a cessation of hostilities: meanwhile it is a satisfaction to my mind, that while I am urging you to war, it is not for the purpose of conquering or enslaving others, but of defending yourselves. It is not to impose fetters on your neighbours; but to vindicate your own liberties and equal laws. It is a contest in which Europe, the world, human nature itself, is interested. Only guard against the delusion-excuse my once more repeating the warning, that the enemy will not attack you. Remember Switzerland, unhappy country! that calls forth the feelings of all, to whom the name of liberty is dear: while she hesitated, the enemy matured his strength, until at length he became irresistible. But you, I trust, will afford an instance of a different kind; and the other nations of Europe now bending under the yoke of

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BISHOP OF LLANDAFF'S THOUGHTS ON INVASION. France, may learn from you a lesson of successful resistance, and feel their own degradation more galling, by being contrasted with your independence. Know then your own state; make efforts worthy of yourselves; and then, as we consult together in this season of danger, so we may hereafter rejoice in the hour of victory.

Thoughts on the Invasion, addressed to the Clergy of his Diocese, by R. WATSON, D. D. F. R. S. Bishop of Llandaff.

Ar no period since I have been your diocesan, have I interfered with your political opinions, or shewn the least anxiety to direct them to the support of any particular party in the state. Had I followed a contrary conduct, I should have acted in a manner unbecoming the nature of my office; ill suited to the character I wish to maintain; and disrespectful to yourselves. I have unquestionably my political principles, as well as other men have theirs and, how unfashionable soever they may have become, I have never scrupled, and never shall scruple, to confess that those on which the Revolution was founded, and the present reigning family seated on the throne of these kingdoms, are, in my judgment, principles best calculated to protect the liberty and property of the subject, and to secure the honour and happiness of the sovereign.

You will not, I think, be guilty of a breach of Christian charity in the use of even harsh language, when you explain to your congregations the cruelties which the French have used in every country they have invaded; for no language can reach the atrocity of the fact. They every where promise protection to the poorer sort, and they every where strip the poorest of every thing they possess; they plunder their cottages, and they set them on fire when the plunder is exhausted; they torture the owners to discover their wealth, and they put them to death when they have none to discover; they violate females of all ages; they insult the hoary head, and trample on all the decencies of life. This is no exaggerated picture: whoever has read the account of the proceedings of the French in Swabia, in Holland, in Italy, in Switzerland, knows that it is not. And, can there be men in Great Britain, of so base a temper, so maddened by malignity, so cankered by envy, so besotted, by folly, so stupified as to their own safety, as to abet the designs of such an enemy? It is said

there are such men; but I have too firm a confidence in the general good sense of the people of Great Britain to believe, that such men are either many in number, or respectable for character, or formidable for connexion. The men of this principality, at least, have nobly shewn, in a late instance, that they inherit the spirit of their ancestors, and have too ardent a love of their country to submit to a foreign yoke, under whatever specious promises of supporting "the rights of men," of introducing "liberty and equality," the invaders may attempt to deceive them.

What are these rights of men, this liberty, this equality, of which every man hath heard so much, and of which few have any proper conception?-Let us see what they are in France itself. There no man has any right in his person, or in his property; both are absolutely at the disposal of the few persons who have usurped the government.-There no man has any liberty, except the liberty of submitting to the worst of slavery; for what slavery can be worse than that of being subject to laws which are perpetually changed, according to the caprice of the ruling faction?-Ubi jus incertum, ibi jus nullum.

Are the French coming hither to enrich the nation? Will they pay attention to the poor of this country, when they have so many thousands of infinitely poorer persons in their own?-Will they reward their seditious adherents amongst us? Yes, they will reward them, as all history informs us such traitors ever have been rewarded-they will reward them with contempt, pillage, beggary, slavery, and death. The nation will be ruined by exorbitant impositions-our naval power will be destroyed-our commerce transferred to France

our lands will be divided (not amongst those who wickedly covet their neighbours' goods), but amongst French soldiers, who will be every where stationed, as the Roman soldiers were of old, to awe the people and collect the taxes-the flower of our youth will be compelled to serve in foreign countries, to promote the wicked projects of French ambition-Great Britain will be made an appendage to continental despotism.

I would say to the most violent democrat in the kingdomSuppose the business done: after seas of blood have been shed, millions of lives lost, towns plundered, villages burned, the Royal Family exterminated, and unutterable calamity has been endured by persons of all ranks :-after all this has been done, what advantages will you have obtained beyond what you now possess? Will your property be better protected? Will your personal liberty be more respected?

DECLARATION OF THE CITY OF LONDON.

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Will our code of jurisprudence be improved? Will our laws be more impartially administered? Quite the contrary of all this now takes place in France. I do not say that when things are settled there, the present wretched condition of its inhabitants will be continued, and I hope it will not; but I am sincerely of opinion, that few of us will live to see such a system established in France as will procure to its inhabitants half the blessings which our ancestors have enjoyed, which we do enjoy, and which it is our interest to take care that our posterity shall enjoy, under the constitution of Great Britain.

Declaration of the Merchants, Bankers, Traders, &c. of the City of London.

TUESDAY, July 26th, 1803, one of the grandest meetings ever seen in London or any other city, was held on the Royal Exchange, pursuant to public advertisement, which summoned the Merchants, Bankers, Ship Owners, Traders, and other inhabitants of the metropolis, to have an opportunity of expressing their sentiments in support of their King and constitution, and the honour and independence of their country. On the preceding day hustings were erected under the eastern piazza; and soon after twelve o'clock persons began to assemble. About a quarter before one Mr. Bosanquet, and the other Gentlemen who called the meeting, ascended the hustings. At one o'clock Mr. Bosanquet was called to the chair; and having taken it, the hats of all present were taken off. He then proceeded to open the business, by reading the advertisement desiring the meeting to be held; after which Mr. Bosanquet said,

"GENTLEMEN,

"When I look round me, and behold those walls within which we are assembled, and which have so often witnessed the good faith, the honour, and the spirit, that on all occasions have characterized the mercantile proceedings of this city; when I contemplate the effects of those principles and that conduct, which have rendered this country almost the emporium of the world; when I look about me, and perceive by what description of men I am surrounded, men whose spirit and exertions have been ever uniformly employed in support of the dignity, the welfare, and the prosperity of their country; 1 cannot for a moment entertain a doubt of your cordial and unanimous approbation of the Resolutions which I shall have