ally formed and forming against him, against the French nation, and the French Government? Or why does the Government of England oppress and impoverish the people it governs by loading them with the burdensome expence of paying those coalitions? It is they who pay all, and I pity them sincerely.

The opposers of Buonaparte say, "he is a usurper." The case is, that all the kings in Europe are usurpers, and as to hereditary Government, it is a succession of usurpers. The present hereditary Government of England is derived from the usurper, William of Normandy, who conquered England and usurped the Government. If there is any man amongst them all that is less a usurper than the rest, it is Buonaparte; for he was elected by the French nation to the rank and title he now holds. The others assumed it by the sword, or succeeded in consequence of the first usurpation.

As to the coalitions against France, it is impossible in the nature of things they can succeed while the French Government conducts itself with the energy and activity it now does. The English Government may amuse itself with forming coalitions as long and as often as it pleases, but they will all come to the same fatal end. For, in the first place, there is no single power on the Continent of Europe that is able to stand against France until a coalition army, coming in detachments from different and distant parts of Europe, can be collected and formed. And, in the second place, those distant detachments of an intended coalition army cannot be put in motion for the purpose of assembling somewhere in Germany without its being known by the French Government. The case, therefore, will always be, that as soon as the French Government knows that those distant parts are in motion, the French army, with Buonaparte at its head, will march and attack the first part of the coalition army he can come up with, and overthrow it. Last year that part was Austria. This year it is Prussia. The English Government may vote coalition armies in the cabinet, but Buonaparte can always prevent them in the field. This is a matter so very obvious to any man who knows the scene of Europe, and can calculate the probability of events, that a Cabinet must be sunk in total ignorance and stupidity not to see it; and thus it is that the lives of unoffending men are sported

away.

As to the late negociation for peace between England and France, I view it as a trick of war on both sides, and the contest was which could outwit the other. The British ma

nifesto says, "The negociation originated in an offer made by the French Government of treating for peace on the basis of actual possession." Well! be it so; it makes the matter neither better nor worse; for the fact is, though the British manifesto says nothing about it, that the British Cabinet had planned, and was forming this coalition army of Prussians, Russians, and Swedes, several months before that offer was made, and the French Government had knowledge of it, for it is impossible to keep such things a dead secret. The French Government, therefore, having at least, what may be called suspicious knowledge of this coalition intrigue, made the offer to find out the whole of that intrigue, that it might be prepared against it. And on the other hand, the British Cabinet closed with the offer, and went into the negociation to give time to the Russians and Swedes to march and join the Prussians, while the comedy of negociation was going on.

But the Corsican usurper, as they call him, has been too quick for them. He has outwitted the coalition intriguers, and outgeneralled the coalition usurpers. The fallen King of Prussia has to deplore his fate, and the British Cabinet to dread the consequence.

In speaking of these circumstances, it ought always to be remembered that the British Government began this war. It had concluded a treaty of peace with France called the Treaty of Amiens, and soon after, declared war again to avoid fulfilling the conditions of that treaty. It will not be able to conclude another treaty so good as the treaty it has broken, and most probably no treaty at all. That Government must now abide by its fate, for it can raise no more coalitions. There does not remain powers on the Continent of Europe to form another. The last that could be raised has been tried and has perished.

New York, Dec. 14, 1806.

THOMAS PAINE.

OF THE ENGLISH NAVY.

THE boasted navy of England has been the ruin of England. This may appear strange to a set of stupid Feds, who have no more foresight than a mole under ground, or they would not abuse France as they do; but strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, and a little reflection on the case will shew it.

The expence of that navy is greater than the nation can bear; and the deficiency is continually supplied by anticipation of revenue under the name of loans, till the national debt, which is the sum total of these anticipations, has amounted, according to the report of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the English Parliament, the 28th of last March, to the enormous sum of £.603,924,000 sterling; and the interest of the debt at that time was £.24,900,009 sterling.

What are called loans, are no other than creating a new quantity of stock and sending it to market to be sold, and then laying on new taxes to pay the interest of that new stock. The persons called loaners, or subscribers for the loan, contract with the minister for large wholesale quantities of this new stock at as low a price as they can get it, and all they can make by retailing it is their profit. This ruinous system, for it is certain ruin in the end, began in the time of William the Third, one hundred and eighteen years ago.

The expence of the English navy this year, as given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, last March, is £.15,281,000 sterling, above sixty-eight million dollars. The enormous expence of this navy, taken on an average of peace and war, has run the nation into debt upwards of five millions sterling every year for the one hundred and eighteen years since the system of what are called loans began. And it is this annual accumulation of more than five millions sterling every year, for one hundred and eighteen years, that has carried the English national debt to this enormous sum of £.603,924,000 sterling, which was the amount of the debt, in March last. If it be asked, what has this mighty navy done to balance this expence? it may be answered, that, comparatively speaking, it has done nothing. It has ob

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tained some victories at sea, where nothing was to be gained but blows and broken bones, and it has plundered the unarmed vessels of neutral nations; and this makes the short history of its services.

That the English Government does not depend upon the navy to prevent Buonaparte making a descent upon England, is demonstrated by the expensive preparations that Government puts itself to by land to repel it. And that the navy contributes nothing to the protection of commerce is proved by the fact, that all the ports on the Continent of Europe are shut by land against the commerce of England. Of what use, then, is the navy that has incurred such an enormous debt, and which costs more than sixty-eight millions of dollars annually to keep it up, which is three times more than all the gold and silver that the mines of Peru and Mexico annually produce. Such a navy will always keep a nation poor. No wonder, then, that every seventh person in England is a pauper, which is the fact. The number of paupers now is 1,200,000.

Another evil to England attending this navy, besides the debt it has incurred, is that it drains the nation of specie. More than half the materials that go into the construction of a navy in England are procured from Russia and Sweden; and as the exports of English manufactures to those places are but small, the balance must be paid in specie. If Buonaparte succeed in all his plans, I hope he will put an end to navies for the good of the world.

Jan. 7, 1807.

COMMON SENSE.

REMARKS ON GOVERNOR LEWIS'S SPEECH TO THE
LEGISLATURE, AT ALBANY, NEW YORK.

INVIDIOUS Comparisons shew want of judgment. But when such comparisons are made on grounds that are not true, they become the more offensive.

You say in your speech to the Legislature, "In this general dispensation of benefits our State has received an unrivalled portion. In the course of a few years she has outstripped her confederates in those important sources of national greatness, agriculture and commerce, and is not behind the foremost of them in the improvement of the useful and fine arts. The first of these assertions is supported by a comparison of the exports from New York with those of the city of Philadelphia, during the short period of five or six years, which affords an unerring criterion, and establishes this important fact, that whilst each has experienced a rapid increase, the former, (New York) which at the commencement of the period was far behind, has previous to its termination overtaken and gone far ahead of the latter. To explain-in the year 1800, the exports from Philadelphia stood in the ratio to those of New York of about seven to six. At the close of the year 1805, those of New York were to those of Philadelphia as twelve to seven nearly. Whence, it is natural to inquire, proceeds those results? Which are the most remarkable, as Philadelphia has preserved her superiority in population, having considerably more than one hundred thousand inhabitants, while New York has little more than seventy [thousand.] The question (continues the Governor) is one that merits the examination of an enlightened mind; and the solution of it, if I mistake not, [it is very well the Governor put this in] will be found in our spirited exertions in the improvement of roads and navigable streams. These have facilitated an intercourse between our sea-ports and interior country. Have taught the forests [the forests then are more learned than the forests of Pennsylvania] to bow [that is, to make a handsome bow, such as the Quaker trees of Pennsylvania cannot make] beneath the labours of the husband men. Have converted the wilderness [this is an age of strange conversions] into fruitful fields, and made the desert places rejoice and blossom like the rose,"