PROCEEDINGS AT THE YORK MEETING. ON Thursday July 28, 1803, a General Meeting of the Noblemen, Gentlemen, Clergy and Freeholders, of the three Ridings of this extensive and populous county, was held at the Castle at York, agreeable to the notice of the High Sheriff, for the purpose of addressing His Majesty on the present situation of the country. The Meeting was the first for respectability and number from all parts of the county, that was ever witnessed. Sir Henry Carr Ibbetson, Bart. the High Sheriff, was in the Chair. A most loyal, spirited, and patriotic Address was produced to the Meeting by Bacon Frank, Esq. one of the Magistrates for the West Riding, which was seconded by Walter Fawkes, Esq. unanimously adopt ed by the Meeting, and ordered to be presented to His Majesty by the Members for the county. The unanimity which was manifested by the thousands who attended, of their determination to support their beloved Sovereign, and enviable Constitution, with their fortunes, and with their lives, must be gratifying to every Briton. Their enthusiasm was unbounded -they felt like Britons, the energetic and truly patriotic speeches of the Gentlemen who addressed them. One and all seemed anxious to have the glorious opportunity of meeting face to face, the Ruler of France and his legions, Indeed the true flame of British patriotism never shone with greater effulgence than at this Meeting; and we have presented to our readers as full a detail of the speeches of the different Gentlemen who spoke, as our limits will permit; and which we doubt not will be highly worthy of attention at this important period. Mr. FRANK, having moved the Address, said: "I stand forward upon the present moment to address you, and as the VOL. I. C mover of the Address, for the purpose of which this Meeting is called: I should stand forward with great diffidence business of such publicity and importance, upon were I not in the almost constant habit of usually discharging my duty to the public. Assisted as I am by those habits; feeling, as I do, what I owe to the character of an Englishman, much of that diffidence is naturally destroyed. I address you at a period the most awful and important that we ever heard or read of; at a period when we are to fight with the strongest, and the greatest power that ever existed, for the preservation of that valuable Constitution, whence we have derived every happiness; for our lives, our families, and our religion. I say, when the strength of that great power is called out by the inordinate ambition of the greatest tyrant that ever lived upon the face of the earth, and the greatest enemy that this country ever had to contend with; I have no doubt but every man will think with me, that this country is not unnecessarily called upon for its exertion. When we know that this tyrant has satiated his ambition upon every thing but this country, and that its destruction is the only thing left here to satiate his ambition upon: When we know that it is, and has long been the admiration and envy of the world, and is now the only stumbling block in the way to the full gratification of all his desires; I trust, that under these considerations you will perceive that this meets ing is called for no common purpose. When we look back to the page of our history, I trust the lesson of our forefathers will be instructive to use that we will take their examples; and, like them, come forward with our lives and fortunes in support of our invaluable Constitution, and of every thing that is dear to us. Though this Address be signed by the Sheriff only, I doubt not it will be sealed by the hearts of the people; that they are determined determined to be true to each other; for if Englishmen unite with one heart and one soul, they have nothing to dread. The stake to fight for, does not merely concern us as a collective body, but concerns us all as individuals in the preservation of our property, our wives, and our daughters; but if Englishmen come forth with unit ed energy, England will stand against the whole world. Mr. FAWKES seconded the motion, and spoke as follows:-"When I consider the great importance of the subject which has this day called us together-a subject perhaps the most serious upon which Englishmen ever deliberated. Feel ing how absolutely necessary it is that as many as possible should give their opinion, where all are so deeply and momentuously concerned. I cannot help expressing the highest satisfaction, when I, observe, and have the honour of addressing myself to so numerous and so very respectable an assemblage of my fellow freeholders. The question, Gentlemen, which you are this day called upon to decide, is one upon which, happily, little differ ence of opinion appears to exist. Your Ministers have thought it expedient once more to have recourse to hostilities; and, if you think, upon a fair and candid examination, that His Majesty's Ministers had no other choice left them, I trust you will cordially support the motion of my worthy friend, Mr. Frank, which if carried into effect, cannot fail to encourage His Majesty to prosecute the contest in which he is engaged with confidence and vigour.-Gentlemen, I can with great sincerity say, that no man present regrets more than myself the interruption which the waste, disorder, and the unsocial passions of war threaten to that rapid march of improvement, which the state of society in Europe for the last century has so powerfully promoted: no man more sincerely laments that situation of affairs, which especially in a commercial country, tends to check the exchange of commodities; which paralyzes industry, and ́ which may eventually occasion an expen diture of blood and treasure, sufficiently prodigal to appal any mind; any mind, Gentlemen, not conscious of the tremen dous evils we are preparing to avert, and the mighty advantages which we have to defend. Gentlemen, notwithstanding all the miseries, all the incon veniences, attendant upon such a situation, still circumstances may arise, which may render war a necessary evil; and we may fairly conclude that such necessity has actually taken place. When we find a great and powerful people absolutely compelled forcibly to contend for that character, without which nations cannot be great, and that security without which they cannot be prosperous. It has, I know, been said by many, and objected to by our enemies, that Malta is the sole cause of the present dispute; it is con tended that we are expending our blood and our treasure, upon an object of incon. siderable value; a mere barren rock, which, even if it were ceded to us to morrow, would not afford protection to those dominions, which, we conceive, would be endangered by its being left in the occupation of the enemy. But Gentlemen, this is not the point of view in which I look at the present war; I regard Malta merely as the point upon which the two, Governments, irritated against each other, have chosen to take their stand; I feel convinced that this struggle must have taken place, even though the name of Malta had never once occured in the treaty; and I consider as the real cause of war, the unconquerable antipathy to this country which appears to have taken possession of the mind of Bonaparte. Gentlemen, firmly convinced that his Ma jesty's Ministers made peace in the true spirit of peace; after the great sacrifices we we made to obtain it; after the very libe ral treatment which Frenchmen of all descriptions experienced in this country at the cessation of hostilities, I must own, I did expect a suitable return from the First Consul: I did hope, that for the future, he would have left his neighbours at rest, and that the return of peace might have soothed his animosity to this country in particular. But Gentlemen, instead of this, what do we find at this period, on his part, but one continued series of injuries and insults; any of them, in my opinion, amounts to a just cause of war, even separately considered; but taken collectively, forming the strongest case ever yet exhibited to rouse the indignation, and to exasperate the manly feeling of a great and powerful people. Had the First Consul, Gentlemen, been suffered to proceed in his career with impunity, every thing sacred, every thing dear to us, must have been swept away; not only the honest fruits of our industry, but our Constitution, our private feelings, and our public character; every thing would have been put in requisition to gratify his malice and his mischief; and nothing would have remained to us but the miserable and me- lancholy remembrance of what we once were." Here Mr. Fawkes enumerated all the causes of the war, which we are sorry want of room obliges us to omit. Mr. Fawkes then continued "These, Gentlemen, are the gross injuries and the wanton insults you have received, and it is your province to determine, whether your feelings will permit you to put up with those wrongs; whether you will tamely and patiently await the destruction with which you are menaced by your inveterate foe; or whether by parting with a portion of your wealth, and sacrificing, for the moment, a few of your comforts, you will make one generous, one tremendous effort, to secure to yourselves and your posterity, that, for which alone an honest man would wish to live the independence of the country which gave him birth. Did I believe, Gentlemen, that this war was occasioned by private ambition; did I believe that it had been commenced merely that this country, might wreak vengeance, and satiate her vindictive passion, upon a country which had offended her: Did I not believe that His Majesty's Ministers had most reluc tantly drawn the sword, and that they would return it to the scabbard as soon as they can do it with security to the country, and credit to themselves; you would not find me the advocate of violent measures. But, Gentlemen, this is not a common war, these are not common times; we are not now contending for any of those ordinary objects which have so often and so unfortunately urged the human species to their mutual destruction; but against the entire ascendancy of that mon strous power which has already trampled upon one half of Europe, and which would now dictate to the other." Mr. Fawkes here exhibited to the meeting, in the most energetic language, and which we are unable to follow, the dangers to which all our institutions are exposed.→→→ In his mention of the audacious attack upon the liberty of the press by the First Consul, Mr. Fawkes called it that glorious privilege which had made his countrymen powerful, in proportion as it had rendered them enlightened.-"That en gine (he said) could alone tend to huma nize and break the bonds of those who still groaned under the dominion of ignorance, tyranny, and superstition, that right which none but despots disturbed; and for the establishment of which, the blood of Britons was not considered by those who maintained the glorious strug gle, as too precious a sacrifice. In the First Consul's attack upon this privilege, I say, Gentlemen, he urged you, and that with threats, to alter the Constitution C & of of your country in his favour. Gracious God! what does he take us for? What! at his mere pleasure, are we to alter a constitution, for the establishment of which our ancestors did so much." Mr. Fawkes then noticed the Commercial Commissioners sent over to this country by France; not for any commercial purpose, but as accredited spies and lastly that Bonaparte accused the King as the rewarder and encourager of assassins, and wished to make the people of this countrry believe that they are nothing more or less than a nation of cowards and shopkeepers. The country was, therefore, called upon to consider of these aggravated injuries and insults. Mr. Fawkes said, if the war had been entered into from ordinary causes; if it had been the offspring of private ambition; he, for one, should have withheld his support; but when we have to contend with a Colossal Power, that has trampled under its feet every other nation in Europe; when the choice is before us, whether we shall enjoy the benefit of that constitution, which has stood the test of ages; whether we shall enjoy that religion which has afforded to us and our forefathers a consolation under all the misfortunes of life, and an exalted hope in death; or whether we shall sit under the pestilential shade of the tree of liberty; no choice is left us but war or slavery. Our lands are allotted out to his followers: our property consigned to plunder, our children to ruin, and our wives to dishonour. Mr. Fawkes then forcibly said, "Gentlemen, I must confess, that till very lately, the apathy and indifference of my countrymen to their present dangerous situation, perplexed, astonished, and terrified me. I began, to use the language of our immortal Bard, to Quake, lest my country A feverish life should entertain, And half a dozen winters more respect Than her perpetual honour. But now, Gentlemen, I trust that the country is roused; and I feel confident, that there is not a man present who would not sooner suffer death than part with one jot of that independence by which he lives, moves, and has his being." Mr. F. said, if exertions were made suitable to the great occasion which gave them birth, that it would not merely be ungrateful, but criminal, to despond. Why are we (he exclaimed) to forget the various exploits of our ancestors upon the plain of Blenheim? Why are we so suddenly to overlook their exertions on the summit of the heights of Abraham: but, Gentlemen, (he added) there is little reason to recur to examples of so remote a date, when they are abundantly supplied by the events of the last war; and when the First Consul vauntingly tells us, that we are unable to contend against him single-handed: I do maintain, that the field of Lincelles, the plains of Catux, the fortress of Acre, and the shores of Aboukir, are full and convincing proofs of the weakness of his assertion. Let us but consider; let us lay aside all our political differences at this moment; let us trust in God and a good cause; let us be united, active, and firm; and let us proclaim to the world, when the independence of the country is threatened, in the language of the Poet, which of the two to chuse———— "Slavery or Death." Mr. Fawkes made many more observations, which we regret our room will not suffer us to detail; and drew towards a conclusion, by strongly expressing his hope, that as no circumstance yet had, so no event in the womb of time, would ever tend either to blast or to wither those laurels, which, he trusted, with a deathless verdure, would encircle the proud records of his envied and magnificent country. In his appeal to the lower classes, Mr. F. said—“ Gentlemen it has been reported, but I trust. without foundation, for I should be deeply concerned to think so meanly, even of the the meanest of my countrymen, that some few individuals, in the great mass of our population, imagine, that the arrival and success of the French would put an end to all their toils, to all their cares, and to all their burthens. Gentlemen, if any person of that description now stands before me, if there yet remain any so perfectly infatuated, after the dire warnings they have received, I do beg, I do conjure them most earnestly to consider what has been the melancholy lot of those unfortunate countries which have fallen victims either to the arms or to the artifice of our enemies. Oh! Gentlemen, could we summon to our bar, at this awful moment, the poor miserable, half-starved, and devoted inhabitants of Italy, Switzerland, and Holland; could we put to them this simple question, "Whether in trampling upon the rights of their superiors, the French army had respected theirs!' depend upon it, to this plain question we should receive a general, an affecting, á tremendous negative: they would tell us, that they experienced neither safety nor protection, either in respect to their property or their persons; they would tell us, that owing to French plunder, to the want of work, to the want of encouragement to industry; they were steeped in poverty to the very lips; and that, preferring exile to scenes so dreadful and so disgusting, they were preparing to fly to the utmost extremities of the earth, from so cruel, so abominable, and so incomprehensible a change."-Mr. Fawkes concluded with seconding the Address. Mr. LASCELLES. This country having already, as I conceive, expressed its unanimous opinion of the justice and necessity of the war, in which we have been reluctantly compelled to engage, I should deem it a waste of your time to enter at large into the transactions between this country and France, subsequent to the Treaty of Amiens. Although doubts may have occurred upon particular points, the country had admitted, that, upon the whole, there was such a clear evidence of views of aggression and hostil ty on the part of France, as to justify our going to war. I consider the conduct of France, since the treaty of Amiens, to the renewal of hostilities, as one continual series of insult and aggression. Circumstances repeatedly occurred during that period, which in ordinary times would, separately, have been considered as declarations of war. I do not blame the spirit of forbearance, which, under all the circumstances of the country, actuated our councils; but, beyond a certain point, for bearance, degenerates into cowardice. When once a country, which has ranked high among the powers of Europe, feels itself degraded by the adoption of a weak and timid policy, from that period may be dated the commencement of its downfall. Circumstanced as we are at present, it behoves us therefore to look forward with steadiness to the dangers which threaten us. The Chief Consul has announced his determination to invade this country; the obsequious and blasphemous addresses extorted from the suffering people of France, appear to encourage him to the attempt. However disgusted they may be with the violence and tyranny of their ruler, yet I am persuaded, that stimulated as they are by every sort of artifice, what they would not undertake from attachment to their own Govern ment, they would readily undertake in the hope of plunder. This leads me to combat what I consider a most dangerous prejudice, too generally entertained by the people of this country, namely, the impracticability of invasion. Such an opiinion is calculated to lull the people into a state of false security, and to afford to the indolent a plausible pretence for inactivity. But, be assured, an invasion, however difficult, is by no means impracticable. |