Newspaper Page Text
[VOL. L]
BY DANIEL STARNES «t Co. WEST END OF BRO \D.STRKF.T.
proposals,
»Y dA SIFL STARNES & CO.
. . *eMj N',vsp*?r
UTt* CITY OF AUGUSTA,
TO BE ENTITLED
Mirror of the T. imes.
TIIK Ui i'ersal promulgation of
Ami etneral deftribution of know
,n,' h nhieJ S of the firft importance in
ntrAhere liberty ha, left traces
V .«. D . under every government
-*r “(S’,l.e h,,,M>i,,efs of Man
iie.’ laid the Great Lord Bacon
fcKmw.edg witb virtue ” j t certainly
.„p°»c r , ignorance reign* there
i« iiher'v. despotism governs. A*
*"7 m L enlightened authority will be
B,r racralityreltorcd— Knowledge &
to,t f r the base, of freedom-the one
in our right, the ether tcache*
four duties; the firft (hews us how to
Su, the heft poihbie form _cf govern
1, the' -(»require, us to obey it when con-
J ni, therefore advantageous every
but ia a Rtfublic it is abfo'utely rc
, tt)i!t corrttft information fhculd he
"SV.ffufcd and eafilv obtained: For
the people who govern. 7i>y never
btentionaily choose had leaders or approve
TOwmcafure,, yet they are hahle to errrr
them true detail, end they w.ll judge
corieAly for on plain grounds the people al
iform }4 opinions ; whenever they mis.
Itiketheir own interest ‘tis owing entirely to
>int nf information in the many or want of
lencSy in the few. But extenjkv political in-
Icrajaton is net to be acquired without much
hHiur, ard few have leifurc to study the
ftiltios,compare the opinions, & peruse the
pgM of l.ocke, Sydney, Gibbon, Hume &
Vittel. If an acquaintance with the true
pnnciplesof government & duties of a citizen
tru'd be acquired only from huge folios
It dtffuferrcatifes,it wcqld he fe'dom fought
niff.tight, the plough, the hatchet, and
die saw molt stand ftiil. Some cheaper and
tifitr means of fatitfying curioftty and
prc.enring information mttft therefore be
Wed lor; and where is intelligence,
thcipneft and convenience united with more
I stallage, than in the closely printed col-
I wins of the'humble News paper ? Our
■ mimrymeti appear so well ronvinced of
I ufctuli efs of periodical prints, and have
■ bwf)'liberally encour-ged them, that we
Vicon it unnecefTary to insist on their merit,
I tsdalmiift hesitate to request public pat
■ r.agc for another News-paper establish-
I Knt.
I be tan promise little circpt what atten
■ ton,honefty k industry can perform. The
I fociple, of our Paper, like our own. will be
■ hpuiVican, “ but the fame freedom of opin
■ wiwlich we claim for ourselves, we with
I dlother*to enjoy.” Civil and RcP™
I jberty t» the btrh right of evry man," and
1 halio will not extend the fame induHence
■ Jt 1 <ll pat ties, and allfetft, wliich he wiflies
|rr bsown, is already or delcrvcs to be a
I To fepport Religion and morality will
I * Ctr P ri(1 f—to encourage literature our
■ j v “” l ? C(,mmunic *«i« n » calculated to
1 1J" W rCfufc(l; DO hintwi, l be
I Z'r ; ln . a f y ee country it i, necessary
■mV >W fllou dbe nei, her vrgue nor
I t; n .,r ! ! Public * oft be sfate leg
■ Chi reforcbepul,liflled asthc y
I iTf 0R 0F THF. TIMES Will he
1 CanVafs ‘ i,,b '' c measure with
-'I dm the condutf of
1 WlkooiV ir i° f ? r ' vcrnrncnt —it
1 t '*drr, J° yu> m y c °“” t 'y>
I CONDITIONS.
I • ° F THE will he
1 Cnf ever T- ™ a
I Type. mll ‘ D ‘ and good
1 will be three
■ advl ncc PCr anmim ’ pa ' d ba,f )' earl 7 '«
I) Vut' P l' C r f ° r advcrtifi ng will be fifty
I «nhi rtv f fqUare , I ° r the insertion
I! AS^ naud 3 halff °r each con-
n ?übfcribe P r a T;!' 'i eliv rcd ,0 Town
R 'Wef or d . ,rp atT “° fabo< ’ e a nd
m j r- packer aTr T viilhed ',A
ft C-fSct and del,Vertd ti c P oft P
■ RAINBOW, No. IV.
1 HKVOLUTION ;
I LiEm P of Bonaparte.
I [Concluded]
■' P ni' h; V errlhle convu lsion ’
ihe' Ca - ?, arth( l uake > which
■ ft ' u! -t,wh : i' Un:Zed tanh to ils
iHhvAA extrem ‘lies treixi
■ u. tumbled into si-
l C Wri V Ve ' Sht anf| in *Wc
iSCr, • lf l n * u, ptndou3 pro-
C Fr , cnch revolu.
of it y Cnded in ‘he dca-
P r « p ce, ... <nrt f mrt e—what will
ft'"' r “ <i ihe
BC^’ 1 a ° S -' )r^in rt by Itl l°n
li»''sn‘,K ir:J
■ k e «n:e ~f 1,. ■ COm -
lf£,ncc »
I ,c wuh , u si .
MIRROR OF THE TIMES
tuation under the first of the 80.
ndpatfc’s. Jurists have long since
made a compendious division of
the absolute rights of man—/</>’,
tibertpy k property. These rights
are completely secured only in the
U. States ; Great Britain ranks
next in the scale of Ircedom. But
the question before us, is not
which government of the earth
most effectually secures the rights,
but whether they were best secu
red by the government to which
Louis XVI was born, or, hv those
institutions which Napoleon I. has
established. Among- others, of
inferior consequence, there seem
to be six points of comparison, by
which the two governments may
be judged. 1. The oriom of the
two despotisms. 2. The nature
of the nobility. 3- The hierarchy,
or church establishment. 4. The
administration of justice. 5. The
financial arrangements. 6. The
feudal system. First , as to the
origin of the two despotisms.—
And here I must premise that by
the word origin I do not mean the
actual, real origin of the two gov
ernments, but the ideas of the ru
ler, and the received popular no
tions respecting his right to com'
mand , arid their duty to obey. Un
der the old system, kings were the
immediate vicr-gertnts of God.
They considered and avowed, that
they were accountable to him albue
for their actions. Dim et mon
droit —God and my right, was
their appeal. The people were
lost in the dust while the monarch
was elevated to the clouds. Lou
is was the Lord’s anointed ; the
nobles and die ptiests were bis
slaves ; and the peasantry again
were the beasts of bunden for
these. When the king and the
people were brought into compar
ison, the latter were considered as
dust in the balance . The ease of
one man was thought of more im
portance, than the happiness of
twenty-five millions ; and many a
summer's day . and many a winter's
night, “ wretches have been hung
up, in long tortures, lest luxury
should feel a momentary pang.”
But Napoleon is neither the vice
gerent ol God, nor the Lord’s an
ointed ; he is not the sovereign,
but the chief magistrate of the
people ; for among the host of de
fects observable in the new order
of things, we yet find some im
portant principles recognized : the
sovereignty of the people, with
their right to alter Et abolish their
governments at pleasure ; equali
ty of all men in respect to their
tights ; religious toleration •, taxes
m proportion to property; these,
with some other principles, decla
red and acknowledged in the bet
ter times of the republic, are still
sacredly regarded as inherent in
the nation. Louis was literally
king of France; without any legal
or literary fiction, upon certain
contingencies, the whole territory
of France might be forfeited to
the monarch ; he was the propri
etor &. the nation, from the prince
to the asant, were his tenants.
But Napoleon is Emperor of the
: French ; the soil of France be
longs to the people o*t France ; and
; the last title which he has assn
; med, merely expresses the politi
i cal relation in which the governor
stands to the governed. This is
great point gained ; not only
to France but to mankind in gene
ral. We hear no more of divine
; Tight, or any other right than that
: ol the sovereign people ; and tho’
1 tJle y may abuse it, as they have
j tecemlv done, yet the barfe ac
j knowiedgement. that such a right
, exists, and its being recognized by
j *he governing Jpower, as the only
I legitimate ongtn and basis of his
; a rithonty. is a material advauce in
practical politics.
Second and third —the nature of
the nobility, a;,d hierarchy, or
l church establishment. Ido not
; t-peak ol the nobility and hierarchy
! ‘l lelaten to their tcudel privi
“ hold the mirror up to nature.”— Shakespeare.
ledges ; these will* he ' consolered
presently ; but as hoary, civil and
sacerdotal aristocracies ; whose
power and pretentions were view
ed with awe and reverence, by an
ignorant anti superstitious peasan
try. The lotd, who occupied rhe
manors and the mansions, which
his ancestors had occupied in sue.
cession, so manv centuries before
him, was easily impressed with a
belief, by the circumstances of his
birth and education, that there
was an immeasurable distance be
tween the feelings and the rights
(if such were allowed) of the po|.
ished baron and the rugged pea
sant. The peasant too, servant
to the son of that lather, who had
been served by his father, before
him, & whose ancestors had from
time immemorial, been in th; re
lative situation, with their barons,
of master and slave, could not but
believe that his lord was a superior
being, invested by nature with all
the rights, while the services (mi
serable birthright !) alone belong
ing to him. These sentiments of
domination on the one side, and'
debasement on the o 1 he», were
greatly aggravated, whenever the
peasant’s lord happened to be an
ecclesiastic. Family distinction
was united with priestly hauteur ;
but the unbending austerity of sa
cerdotal pride is proverbial.
There is a wide difference be
tween the preceding, & anv order
of nobility, hereditary distinction,
or religious establi ihment, which
is now to be found in France.—
Any nobiiitv which Bonaparte can
estahiish, if, which we mn>t sup
pose, he chooses them from among
his adherents, will be an upstart
nobility. The people of France
will witness their creation. They
will see their old companions,
brewers aad bakers, htwers oi
wood and drawers of water, made
members of the legion of honor,
from their alertness as spies, oi
or their perseverance as blood
hounds. And while it has a ten
dency’ to extinguish every spark
of veneration and respect for no
bias , it elevates them, in then own
imagination*, by exhibiting so pal
pably that between the peasant and
his lord there are only artificial
distinctions. It therefore has a
double effect, in raising the class
to which the peasant belongs, in
his own estimation, (which is im
portant ; for the moment a man
believes that he moves in a lower
circle than his merits entitle him
to, he becomes restless and unca
say—) while it depresses the or
der to which iiis comrade has been
elevated. He very naturally and
a *
very justly imagines that he has
the same rights as his quondam
friend- the brewer ; nor will the
pageantry of power be able to beat
this imagination from his brain.—
The present religions establish
ment in France, is widely dissimi
lar to the old hierarchy. The do.
mains of the church have been
sold and the sale repeatedly legal
ized and sanctioned by successive
factions, from Robespierre to Bo
naparte. A new division of dio
cesses has been made by Bona
parte, in concert with the Pope ;
and a new division of Parishes by
the bishops ; the government no
minates the latteTj who, in their
turn, nominate to the parishers. —
All ministers of religion are paid
from the public treasury. The su.
periority of the present establish
ment will he seen at a glance.—
Formerly, immense landed estates
were attached to each diocese,
or bishop’s see, connected with
which, were myriads of idle pre
tensions, oppressive priviledges &
cruel extortions. A French bi
shop of Bonaparte, compared with
a French bishop of Louis XVI. is
as powerless and insignificant as a
Virginia parson. In this point of
view, therefore, in suppressing the
ridiculous veneration for nobles,
& the impious idolatry tor priests,
the French Revolution awl Ltnpe.
rorsnip of Bonaparte, has been
'ineularlv happy, not orlv for
France, but for the progress of
bberal thinking.
Fourthly —1 he administration of
'"Mice, m the old and new govern•
•nents. It j s indeed a perversion
Terms to call the judicial pro.
C: cotngs, under the old govern
ments, nn administration of jus
t,ce* the shocking degree of
corruption and venalitv vvlvch per
i l diese courts, cannot be par
' c tc. in ;jpy oiß t>r or coun
•'x ■ Instead of employ ing honest
aml anomies, fairly and inge
nooiisly to state (j ie ma t,^ r ; n f jj 9 .
P. ut , e » to an impartial jury and up
'•b'H judge, there was notoriously
and avowedly, a certain class of
lenities, who, under the name of
Le\ SoHciteuses , were bribed, by
rival clients, to corrupt the court
bv the most infamous sacrifices.
But there is another feature, in the
ancient regime, which tends more
pointedly to shew the dreadful in
security of the lives and liberties
of all classes of men. I all tide to
the lettresde cachet. These were
a species ol blank mittimus. The
date of the warrant, the name of
me victim, and the price of im
prisonmennt, remained blank.—
lois price may be supposed to
have varied, according to the
wealth, rank or power of the per
son to be immured. When this
was ascertained and paid, the
blank warrant was delivered io the
purchaser, who inserted the name
of his enemy, and delivered it,
thus fraugh with misery, to the
officers of Justice 1 It is difficult
to imagine a more horrible instru
ment of despotism than the lettres
de cachet. The unhappy victim,
unconscious of his crime, and ig
norant of his persecutors, seized
at the silent hour as mid-night, &
spirited awa\ from human society,
is forever immured in the dark E<
loathsome dungeons of a subter
anean prison. This was a fate to
which almost every man in the
kingdom was subject. But the
lives of the lower orders, were not
secured even by the flimsy cere
mony of lettres de cachet. They
were considered as of no greater
value than beasts of the field. In
the time of Louis XiV. the Count
de Charolois sometimes amused
himself by shooting his peasants.
The only reparation which was
offered by the tyrant king, who
had before frequently pardondtd
the count, for his venial excesses,
was, this royal witticism—“ 1 a
gain pardon you, but at the same
time I promise the like favor, to
him who shall kill you.” As late
as the yeariry9, an ecclcsiaatsc
named de Baufiremont, is said .to
have been still fonder of this lively
sport ; and so ct itunon was it in a
particular district, that it obtained
the name of la chasse aux vilains.
The situation of France, with
respect to the administration of
justice, has been totally changed
by the revolution. The civil and
criminal code has been greatly re
formed and ameliorated: In ca
ses of meum and luum the tribunals
are no longer venal. It is beiiev.
ed that they are much inferior to
those of England and America ,
but vastly superior to those cf the
old government. From what has
appeared upon the subject in the
French papers, ihtire is no reason
to believe that the proceeding 1 !
have been unfair :* l here is now
but one man in France who has the
power of committing murder with
impunity ; and this is Bonaparte :
and in doing this, under the plea
of public necessity, he i* obliged
to resort to the forms of law which,
although it is a better mockery to
the persecuted individual, evinces
that the emperor of the trench,
in the zenith of his power, is com
pelled to pay that outward respect
to tho laws of the country which
his predecessors of the Bourbon
• From Cobbctl’t R*gifter, June *«.
MONDAY, Novcmobcr &#-, 1808 .
_!U u.
rare divlained. It is a threat point
jra’nrd to the nation, to possess
a code of equitable laws, even if
these laws are imperfect and oc
casionally abused. General regu
lations, in their nature, cannot de
scend to the detail of cruelty which
the caprices of individuals are
wont to exercise. The murder of
the Duke d’Knghein. although no
man is less disposed than myself
to palliate such atrocious ccnduct,
ought no more to be considered as
a proof of the corrupt administra
tion of justice in France, than that
of Jonathan Robbins should de
cide upon the excellence of our
criminal code. The illusuiout
victim makes the case more stri
king, as it respects him, but the
life of the brave tar was a sacri
fice equally great, in the eye of
strict justice. Both cases only
prove that where governments in
terfere with ihe prescribed course
of national jurisprudence, courts
are too apt to be compliant. It is
probable that where the govern
ment is not concerned, the admin
istration of justice is better in
France than in any other country,
Kngland and the United State*
excepted. It is true that We lwar
of imprisonments and executions
by the ministers of Bonaparte {
hut never at the instance of indi
viduals ; we never hear of the
avowed sale of blank warrants of
perpetual imprisonment, under tho
name of Itttrcs Je cachet. The
Count tie Cbarolois, and M. do
Bauifremont, who were so fond of
hunting peasants , have vanishedji
with the execrable institutions
which authorised such horrors.—
It would seem therefore that irt the
administration of justice, the revo
lution has produced important and
auspicious changes ; immediately
beneficial to the French nation, and
remotely to mankind £ since every
improvement in the condition of*
people, whose language and influ.
ence aie so fashionable and exten
sive, nmy be considered as reach
ing every corner of the globe.
fifthly, The system ol finance,
under the old and the new govern,
ment. Under the old government,
three fourths of the territory of
1< ranee, independent ol the feudal
bondage, under which the whole of
it was held, belonging either to the
king, the nobility or the clergy,_
The royal domains, as well as the
estates of the nobility and clergv
were exempt from taxes; The
burden of these fed entirely upo„
the peasantry who were least ab| c
to bear it. It follows, therefore,
that all the taxes of the old govern,
ment, were levied upon one quarter
of the property of the nation •
which property was parcelled out,
in diminutive and scanty portions
among twenty millions of meagre,
squalid bondsmen ; that the re
maining three fourths, in the hands
ol the king, the nobility and the
c * er o>’» contributed nothing to the
revenue, “ wrung from the hard
hands of peasants” by everv species
of indirection , wa s squandered by
those very priviledged orders whicii
had ~ot paid a sous toward it.
Now the emperor of the French
has no domains ; no hereditary no
bility, or dignitaries of the church,
are proprietors of the soil ; for the
royal domains, the estates of the
emigrant nobles, and most of the
lands of the church were confisca
ted and sold during the revolution ;
and this sale is sanctioned, bv the
same instrument, which has made
Bonaparte emperor. There is now,
therefore, in France, no part of the
territory priviledged from contri
buting us portion of the revenue
1 axes are levied in proportion to
the ability ot those who have to pay
them. And although there is un
deniably a very shauietul misappli-.
cation of the immense sums winch
France pays to Bonaparte ; yet the
mode ot levying the taxes, as well
as the person* and property upon
whom they tail, is infinitely nure
equitable than under the ancient
regime. T his may be considered
[No. VI. j