To begin well is to ensure a good conclusion. It is related in a memoir of Horne Tooke, inserted in a work published some time since, that he was removed from Westminster to Eton at the usual age. This, however, must be a mistake, as Westminster and Eton are not in the relation of school and college to each other. It is possible that Horne Tooke might have had the advantage of both these eminent schools, but it is more probable that this is an error.

In the year 1754, he was sent to Cambridge, and entered himself of St. John's College. We do not know what was the reputation of this college at the time, but it is certainly a high honor to its name in literature that it has sent forth such a profound scholar as Horne Tooke.

He studied at college with the most exemplary industry, and he acquired the necessary fruit of such assiduity, an early proficiency in learning and philology.

Mr. H. Tooke was educated for the church, and his first prospects are said to have been very promising. He entered into holy orders at the usual age, and immediately obtained the living of Brentford. He had connections whose favor did not stop at this point. The Duke of Newcastle, we believe, from some kind of interest, took him into his patronage, and Horne Tooke obtained a promise, that he should be appointed one of the royal chaplains. Fortunately, however, (for such we must consider it) for the interests of religion, Mr. Horne's star here interposed.

The nation very shortly became convulsed by party dissentions. The English were too easily persuaded that Lord Bute possessed a dangerous and unconstitutional influence. The oppositoin, in parliament, remarkably anxious at that time, to adopt any watch-word that might rally the popular affections around them, filled the kingdom with exclamations against the double cabinet, and the "influence behind the throne which controuled the throne itself."-This was the clamour of the day. And the incidental affair of the expulsion of Wilkes, which in ordinary times would have been considered only as an irregularity, and rectified as such, added fuel to the flames, and rendered the country and metropolis one scene of mob, sedition, and cla

mour.

Mr. Horne immediately embraced the popular cause, and united himself with Wilkes. He visited him at Paris during his exile, and when he failed in his attempt to obtain his return in parliament, in 1768, Mr. Horne warmly adopted his interests, canvassed the town and country for him, opened houses, solicited votes and subseriptions, and ultimately procured him to be returned as the member for Middlesex.

Shortly afterwards a rupture ensued between

these friends. Mr. Tooke did not find Wilkes BOOK XI. that violent patriot which he had anticipated. When Wilkes had obtained what he wanted, and CHAP. III was provided for by the liberality of the city, who made him their chamberlain, Wilkes was satis1818. fied, and therefore quiet. Horne Tooke lost his firebrand, and he resented it by a public attack and abuse of him.

Junius, the writer of the letters under that name, imputed this dispute to its just origin: Horne Tooke wrote a letter in reply to him, which appears in the collection of that work. It is certainly an admirable specimen of his talents, and only excites a regret, that such wit, satire, and eloquence, should be accompanied by so lit tle goodness.

Junius replied in an angry declamation, and Horne Tooke rejoined in another, as singular for its boldness, as for its splendor and real eloquence. In this answer, Mr. Tooke first announced himself the champion of those principles which afterwards set Europe in a flame. He employed, amongst others, the following pointed sentence, which, however true in the abstract, no bonest man should openly produce

a maxim of action;-" The king, whose actions justify rebellion to his government, deserves death from the hand of every subject, and should such a time arrive, I should be as free to act as any."-Now, though there is nothing erroneous in the bare abstract assertion of this principle, yet it is one of those which tend to weaken the necessary respect and attachment of sovereigns and subjects. Questions of this nature must never be argued. The matter must speak for itself.

Mr. Horne again came forward as the popular advocate in the American war. When the war was commenced by the skirmish at Lexington, Mr. Horne opened a subscription, and advertised in the public papers in the public papers" for the relief of our unfortunate brethren in America, basely murdered by the British troops." The attorney-general very properly prosecuted him for this insult on the government, and the jury very justly found him guilty. He was in consequence imprisoned in the King's Bench.

Mr. Horne Tooke had now nothing to hope from ecclesiastical preferment. He therefore, with the most shameless indecency, if not with direct impiety, threw off his clerical gown, and produced himself as a layman. He resigned the living at Brentford, and entered himself of the society of the Inner Temple. He kept his commons regularly, and studied the law as a profession.

The period at length arrived, in which, having kept the necessary terms, he was to be called to the bar. He put in his claim for this nomination. But the benchers, with a feeling which did them honor, unanimously rejected him, on the

BOOK XI. grounds, that having been in holy orders they could not countenance such an indecent and CHAP. III. impious desertion.

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As Mr. Horne Tooke's abilities, and his violence were sometimes of great use to the leaders of parties, he was occasionally much courted and highly considered by them. Mr. Fox declared him to be a man of very eminent use to the commonwealth, and publicly patronised and praised him.

Mr. Tooke came forward as a candidate for Westminster in 1790. Mr. Fox and Lord Hood stood at the same time. On this occasion he kept himself in reserve till the very morning of the election, when he published a hand-bill, in which he declared his purpose. Mr. Tooke did not of course succeed, and he presented in consequence a petition to parliament, in which he treated all parties with the utmost insolence. It was writ

toms of mortification recently appeared, which soon occasioned his death. He was attended by his two daughters, Dr. Pearson, Mr. Cline, and Sir Francis Burdett. Being informed of his approaching change, he signified, with a placid look, that he was fully prepared, and had reason to be grateful for having passed so long and so happy a life, which he would willingly have had extended if it had been possible. He expressed satisfaction at being surrounded in his last moments by those most dear to him; and his confidence in the existence of a supreme being, whose final purpose was the happiness of his creatures. His facetiousness did not forsake him. When supposed to be in a state of entire insensibility, Sir Francis Burdett mixed up a cordial for him, which bis medical friends said it would be to no purpose to administer; but Sir Francis

and popular eloquence.

Mr. Tooke next appeared as the advocate of the French revolution, and he soon attracted the attention of government upon his movements, and avowed principlės. He was arrested as a traitor, and tried by a special commission. The jury ac quitted the whole of them, but the popular voice, or at least the best part of the people, though they did not approve of the violence of the accusation, felt only one regret, that they had not been all tried for sedition instead of treason.

Mr. Tooke, in the interval of his political pursuits, published several excellent pieces of literature. His principal work of this kind is the "Diversions of Purley," a most profound and learned grammatical treaties.

Mr. Tooke likewise published an attack on his royal highness the prince-regent, and in a pamphlet on the marriage-act, took occasion to speak with his usual contempt of the royal family.

Lord Camelford, an eccentric character, at length procured Mr. Tooke to be returned as member of parliament for the borough of Old Sarum. On Monday, Feb. 16, 1801, he took his seat, and on the 4th of May he was declared ineligible, as having been in holy orders. His seat was in consequence vacated, and a new writ issued.

From this poriod Mr. Tooke has been only known as the friend and political instructor of Sir Francis Burdett, and whatever might have been the feeling of the country upon the loss of a man of so much faction, bustle, and celebrity, Sir Francis, we believe, had occasion sincerely to regret his death.

Mr. Horne Tooke died at Wimbledon, about twelve o'clock on the night of March 18, 1812, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He had lost the use of his lower extremities, and his dissolution had been for some time expected. Symp

eyes, and seeing who offered the draught, took the glass and drank the contents with eagerness. He had previously observed, that he should not be like the man of Strasburgh, who, when doomed to death, requested time to pray, till the patience of the magistrates was ex-. hausted, and then, as a last expedient, begged to: be permitted to close his life with his favourite amusement of nine-pins, but who kept bowling: on, with an evident determination never to finish the game. He desired that no funeral ceremony should be said over his remains, but that six of the poorest men in the parish should have a guinea each for bearing him to the vault in his garden.

From the importance and universal interest which attached at this crisis to the orders in council, we shall conclude this chapter with a full and perspicuous representation of them, and endeavour, by an impartial, compendious, and chrono- : logical statement of the several official docu- › ments, to bring the whole series of the French, British, and American proceedings in one view.

1. The first of these documents, the Berlin de-. cree, so called because it was issued from the camp near that city on the 21st of November, 1806. It consisted of two parts:

1st. A statement of the wrongs done by England. 2d. Of the measures which these wrongs obliged the emperor to adopt.

The first part stated: "That England had ceased to observe the laws of civilized nations that she considers the individual of a hostile nation as enemies-that she seizes as prize the property of such individuals-that she blockades commercial ports, bays, and mouths of rivers, and other places not fortified-that she declares places to be in a state of blockade where she has no actual force to enforce the blockade-that this. abuse is intended to aggrandize the commerce and.

industry of England by means of the commerce and industry of the continent-that those who traffic in English commodities on the continent second her views and render themselves her accomplices-that this conduct of England is worthy the age of barbarism, and is advantageous to her at the expence of every other nation-that it is just to attack her with the same weapons which she employs."

And in pursuance of this assertion the second part proceeded to decree:

"That the British islands are in a state of blockade."

"That all commerce and correspondence with the British isles are prohibited."

"That letters and packets addressed to England or to Englishmen, or written in English, shall be intercepted."

"That every British individual whom the troops of France or those of her allies can lay hold of, shall be a prisoner of war.”

"That every warehouse, any commodity, every article of commerce which may belong to a British subject is good prize.”

"That the trade in English goods is prohibited, and every article that belongs to England, or is the produce of her manufactories or colonies, is good prize."

"That no ship from England or her colonies, or which shall have touched there, shall be admitted into any harbour."

"That this decree shall be communicated to all our allies whose subjects as well as those of France have been victims of the injustice and barbarity of the English maritime code."

"Aud this decree is further stated to be in force, and considered as a fixed and fundamental law of the French empire, as long as England shall adhere to the principles herein complained of."

The sum of this decree was, that England should be erased from the list of commercial and even civilized nations, until she abandoned her maritime code, which had raised her to her present pitch of superiority over other nations, and that France and her allies and dependants were pledged and required invariably to maintain this, which had been since called the continental system, till England should have been reduced to make these concessions.

2. On the 24th of November, 1806, the above decree was recapitulated in a proclamation from the French minister to the senate of Hamburgh, which stated:

"That as several of the citizens of Hamburgh were notoriously engaged in trade with England, the Emperor of the French was obliged to take possession of the city in order to execute his decree."

This threat was the same day executed by Mar

shal Mortier, at the head of a division of the BOOK XI. French army.

1812.

This proclamation and occupation of Ham- CHAP. III. burgh was particularly important, as being the first act of that principle on which France, at this period, proceeded, of not only extending her continental system to all places within her reach, but actually seizing upon neutral countries that she might extend the continental system to them; so that the original violence and injustice against England became the source and pretence of more violence and injustice against all rights and laws of nations, and an excuse for the most outrageous usurpation and hostile seizure of neutral territory that had ever been attempted.

3. These proceedings of the government of France produced, on the part of England, the measure which was called Lord Grey's order in council, because his lordship was secretary of state at the time it was issued-7th January, 1807. This order stated:

"That the decrees issued by the French government to prohibit the commerce of neutral nations with the British dominions, or in their produce or manufactures, are in violation of the usages of war."

"That such attempts on the part of the enemy would give his majesty an unquestionable right of retaliation, and would warrant his majesty in enforcing against all commerce with France, the same prohibition which she vainly hopes to effect against us."

"That his majesty, though unwilling to proceed to these extremities, yet feels himself bound not to suffer such measures to be taken by the enemy, without some step on his part to restrain this violence, and to retort upon them the evils of their own injustice."

"And that, therefore, it is ordered, that no vessel shall be permitted to trade from one port to another belonging to France or her allies, or so far under her controul that British vessels may, not freely trade thereat."

This was, as it expressed itself to be, a mitigated measure of retaliation; one intended rather to call France to a sense of her injustice and the neutrals to a sense of their own duty, than to, inflict a vengeance on the enemy adequate to his aggression; but it very properly stated the right in Great Britain to go the whole length of complete retaliation; and it strongly intimated, that if this moderate proceeding should fail of its effect, more effective, but equally justifiable modes of retaliation would be adopted.

Shortly after the publication of this order, Lord Grenville's and Lord Grey's ministry went out of power, and that of the Duke of Portland, which included Mr. Perceval and Mr. Canning, came in. Finding the measures of further reta

BOOK XI. liation threatened in Lord Grey's order of January preceding, were become absolutely necessary from CHAP. II. the increasing violence of the French, and the continued supineness of the neutrals,

1812.

4. On the 11th of Nov. 1807, the Duke of Portland's administration issued two orders in council; the first of which stated:

"That the orders of the 7th of January has not effected the desired purpose, either of compelling the enemy to recal his orders, or of inducing neutral nations to interpose against them; but, on the contrary, that they have been recently enforced with increased rigour."

"That his majesty is, therefore, obliged to take further measures for vindicating the just rights and maritime powers of his people, which are not more essential to our own safety than to the independence and general happiness of mankind; and in pursuance of these principles of retaliation, (already asserted in the first order) all the ports of France, and her allies, and all other ports or places in Europe from which the British flag is excluded, shall be considered in a state of blockade; and all their goods and manufactures shall be considered as lawful prize, thus retaliating upon France and her allies their own violence."

"That his majesty would, of course, be justified in making this retaliation, as unqualified and without limit, as the original offence; but that unwilling to subject neutrals to more inconvenience than is necessary, he will permit to neutrals such trade with the enemy's ports, as may be carried on directly with the ports of his majesty's dominions, under several specifications and conditions which are set forth as favorable exceptions to the general rules of blockade."

The second order in council of this date set forth:

"That articles of the growth or manufacture of foreign countries cannot be by law, (namely the navigation act,) imported into Great Britain, except in British ships, or the native shipping of the country itself which produces the goods."

"That in consequence of the former order of this date, which says, that all neutral trade with France must touch at a British port, it is expedient to relax, in some degree, this law, and to permit the shipping of any friendly or neutral country to import into Great Britain the produce or manufactures of countries at war with her."

"That all goods so imported shall be liable to the same duties, and under the same warehousing regulation as if imported according to the navigation act."

The sum of these orders in council is, that France having declared that there should be no trade in communication with England, his majesty resolved that the ports of France, and every port from which, by the controul of France, the British flag was excluded, should have no trade except

Next came the decree, dated Milan, December 17, and published in Paris the 26th of December, 1807, reciting:

"That the ships of neutral and friendly powers are, by the English orders in council of the 11th of November, made liable not only to be searched, but to be detained in England, and to pay a tax rateable per centum on the cargo.

"That, by these acts, the British government denationalizes ships of every nation; and that it is not competent to any sovereign or country to submit to this degradation of the neutral flag, as England would construe such submission into an acquiescence in her right to do so; as she has already availed herself of the tolerance of other governments, to establish the infamous principle that free ships do not make free goods, and to give the right of blockade an arbitrary extension, which infringes on the sovereignty of every state, and it is therefore decreed,

"That every ship, to whatever nation it may belong, which shall have submitted to be searched by an English ship, or to a voyage to England, or shall have paid any English tax is, for that alone, declared to be denationalized, to have forfeited the protection of its own sovereign, and to have become English property."

"That all such ships, whether entering the ports of France, or her allies, or met at sea, are good prizes."

"That the British islands are in a state of blockade, both by sea and land, and that all vessels sailing from England, or any of her colonies, or the port of any of her allies to England, or her colonies, or the port of an ally, are declared good and lawful prizes.'

"That these measures (which are resorted to only in just retaliation of the barbarous system adopted by England, which assimilates its legislation to that of Algiers,) shall cease to have effect with respect to all nations who shall have the firmness to compel the English government to respect their flag. They shall continue to be rigorously enforced as long as that government does not return to the principle of the law of nations, which regulates the relation of civilized states in a state of war. The provisions of the present decree shall be abrogated and null, in fact, as soon as the English abide again by the principles of the law of nations, which are also the principles of justice and honor.

5.-A good deal of discussion arose with America about the operation of these decrees and orders upon the American trade; and in order to

simplify the construction of the latter, and to apply the principle of retaliation more directly against France herself, and with less injury to neutrals, the orders of November, 1807, were superseded by that of the 26th of April, 1809; which declared "the whole coast of France and her dominions, as far northward as the river Ems, and southward to Pesaro and Orbitello in Italy, to be under blockade, and all vessels coming from any port whatever to any French port, liable to capture and condemnation;" the effect of this order was to open all ports, not actually ports of France, even though the British flag should be excluded therefrom, to neutral commerce, and to place France, and France only, in the precise situation in which, by her decrees, she endeavoured to place Great Britain,

7. By a decree of the French government, issued at Fontainbleau on the 19th of October, 1810, it was expressly declared, "that in pursuance of the fourth and fifth articles of the Berlin decrees, all kinds of British merchandize and manufactures which may be discovered in the custom-houses, or other places of France, Holland, the Grand Duchy of Berg, the Hanse Towns, (from the Mayne to the sea,) the kingdom of Italy, the Illyrian provinces, the kingdom of Naples, and in such towns of Spain and their vicinities as may be occupied by French troops, shall be confiscated and burned."

Thus the matter stood; on the side of France the decrees of Berlin and Milan were in force, and to them were opposed the British order of the 26th of April, 1809; and as long as the blockade of England by France remained unrepealed, so long England possessed an undoubted right to persist in her system of retaliation.

It now becomes necessary to explain shortly the conduct of America towards England and France respectively: from which we shall judge whether America acted with a strict impartiality towards the two belligerents, and whether she really had any fair ground of complaint against Great Britain.

8. A very short time before France began to act upon these new principles, a treaty of commerce had been, in 1806, negociated at London, (between Lords Holland and Auckland on the part of England, and Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney on that of America,) and sent over to America to be ratified: but the Berlin decree having appeared almost at the moment of the signature of this treaty, it was accompanied by a declaration by Lords Holland and Auckland on the part of England:

"That in consequence of the new and extraordinary measures of hostility on the part of France, as stated in the Berlin decree, Great Britain reserved to herself (if the threats should be executed, and that neutrals should acquiesce

in such usurpations) the right of retaliating on BOOK XI. the enemy in such manner as circumstances might require."

9. This treaty, the President of the United States refused to ratify; principally because the question of impressing seamen was not definitively settled. The British Government replied, that "this was a subject of much detail, and of considerable difficulty, arising out of the almost impossibility of distinguishing British subjects from Americans;" and, it added, "that it would be highly inexpedient that the general treaty should be lost, or even delayed, on this account; that Great Britain was ready immediately to proceed in a separate negociation in this point; and that, in the mean time, her officers should be ordered to exercise the right of search and impressment with the greatest possible forbearance.'

These arguments and this proposition did not, however, induce the American president to ratify the treaty.

It unfortunately happened (as before intimated in this book) that in June, 1807, the commanding officer of his majesty's ship Leopard having understood that some deserters from his ship had been received on-board the American frigate Chesapeake, and having in vain required their release from the American captain, attacked the Chesapeake at sea, and obliged her to strike; but he then contented himself with taking out of her his own men, and restored the ship to the American commander. An event of this nature called for, and received the immediate disavowal of his majesty's government; the captain was tried, and his admiral superseded; and Mr. Rose was sent, without loss of time, to America to offer reparation, and to state to the American government," that Great Britain did not pretend to a right to demand by force any sailors whatever from the national ship of a power with which she was on terms of peace and amity." In the mean time the president had issued a proclamation, excluding all English ships of war from the American harbours.

10. Exclusive of this affair of the Chesapeake, America appeared, in the spring of 1808, to have considered herself equally aggrieved by the acts of both countries. In this view they laid a genes ral embargo upon all the shipping in their ports, and denied themselves all commercial intercourse whatever with any European state.

11. This act of the American Government was very unpopular throughout the Union, and on the 1st of March, 1809, the non-intercourse law was substituted in its place, by which the commerce of America was opened to all the world except to England and France, and British and French ships of war were equally excluded prospectively from the American ports.

12. In the interval, Mr. Canning had instructed

CHAP. III,

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