The Recorder

The toast referred to, as drank by the republicans, was in these words: "Bonaparte; the man whom the laws cannot reach, the dagger must."

It is apprehended that most of the republicans will, upon reflection, be very sorry that they countenanced such a sentiment. The first consul was elected by so vast a majority, that the minority was only large enough to show that people durst vote on what side they pleased. Before the Corsican returned from Egypt, the French were worried upon all sides. After the most heroic and desperate exertions, Moreau and Macdonald were driven out of Italy. Massena and Suchet were cooped up in a corner of it. The weakness, prodigacy and corruption of the directory had excited universal hatred, and surpassed all description. Without taking a single life, without firing an ounce of powder, Bonaparte overturned this odious tyranny, and gave the country what it very much wanted, a strong, and at the same time, a wise and temperate government. He did not cram the prisons with his opposers. He shed not one drop of blood on the scaffold. He put the finances in order. He restored public credit. He burst, like a thunderbolt, upon Italy, and by a single battle reconquered that garden of Europe. He offered the emperor peace. It was refused. Moreau drove the Austrians before him into the heart of Germany: and terms of peace, which had formerly been rejected, were subscribed within three days march of Vienna. No addition was made to them: Yet, humanly speaking, there was nothing to have prevented the conqueror from entering Vienna. England was compelled to accept of peace, and upon terms highly favorable to France. Nor is it the smallest part of his praise, that Bonaparte restored the Roman catholic religion. The experience of all ages proves that, without some system of religion to repose upon, the human mind cannot be at rest. Bonaparte has, therefore, very wisely restored the old system in France; but it is now divested of much of its deformity. The situation of the farmers and peasants is also immensely improved; and the whole nation is restored to the blessings of peace. Is not this much better than to have a new constitution, or, at least, a new revolution, once in every eighteen months? Did not Moreau assist in person at the expulsion of the directory? And is he not almost as much interested as Dr. Shore himself, in the happiness of France?

The present generation of Frenchmen has had a full surfeit of that wild scatter brain system of liberty which left sail without either ballast, helm, or compass, and which menaced the world with a whole century of massacres and revolutions.

What conceivable advantage of any sort would accrue to mankind from the murder of Bonaparte? If the patriots of Petersburg were asked, they could not tell. If the present system were overset, which heaven forbid! the whole country would relapse into disorders, and the newspapers would once more resemble the history of a butcher's shambles. But then the usurper has deprived France of her freedom. Granted. But he has given her dignity, prosperity, and happiness; and without them, freedom is but a poor bargain. It is not pretended that the people are oppressed, or the courts of justice corrupted. But an immense military force has been found necessary to preserve the domestic peace of the country, to prevent fools from forming an eternal series of crazy constitutions, and collecting mobs to put them in practice.

The French are, at present, well governed. And therefore they should be quiet. A nation may be cursed with very worthless rulers, and yet, even in that case, they may find that a sudden restoration to perfect freedom is one of the greatest misfortunes which can befall them.

NOTE.

President of the Petersburg meeting.
Some years ago, the Irish revolted. They had received enormous injuries from England, injuries that admit of no pardon. There is not a country in the world that abounds with men of more honour and humanity than Ireland; but, in many parts of that island, British rapacity and oppression have kept the natives in a state of comparative barbarism. When they revolted, a great part of the insurgents behaved hardly better than the negroes of St. Domingo. As one sample of their conduct they broke into a jail, and butchered an hundred prisoners of war. This, and much more of the same kind, is to be found in the New Annual Register, an impartial, authentic, and useful publication. To all men of sense it is plain that such people were not fit for a separate and republican government, and that, of two enormous evils, British supremacy was less terrible than Irish anarchy.

It is true that the first consul is taking every step in his power to confirm his authority. But this he is compelled to do for the sake of self defence, as well as for the sake of the country. Within the last three years, he has done France more service than Henry the fourth and the duke of Sully ever did in six years, or than any other person ever did her in thirty. And for all this, the patriots of Petersburg wish to get him murdered! For shame, gentlemen! You cannot be serious. The action itself would be as unjust and immoral, as the drinking of such a toast is indecent and scandalous. It might have suited John Watts, or Doublehead, at a war dance. But it was unworthy of any human being above their level.

To any person in the possession of his sober senses, it must be needless to expatiate upon the indecency, the immorality, and even impolicy of calumniating, of insulting and of provoking the first consul. As Bonaparte is about to become our neighbour, what was in itself originally imprudent and improper, becomes a thousand times more so. The Recorder is the only newspaper in America, that has objected to the vulgar practice of attacking his character and wishing for his assassination. This style is the only point in which the writers of both parties agree. They assume it, for the sake of persuading the people that they are in love with liberty! What prodigious patriots! What profound policy! The federal printers do not reflect that all the public creditors, that all the most serious and substantial adherents of their party, hold the idea of such a crime in the most absolute execration. For whom do the national creditors of France, for whom does every man of wealth in that vast empire, offer up his first and last prayers? Assuredly, it is for the first consul, for that inestimable benefactor of the republic, who has ensured the execution of the laws, and the tenure of property; who has extracted light from darkness and regularity from confusion; who has restored safety to the idle, and business to the diligent; who gives credit to the counting house, protection to the church, and victory to the field of battle.

And this is the man, whose murder is so loudly demanded by Sandy McRae, by George Hay, by Dr. Shore, who was a reputed tory during the revolutionary war, and by housebreakers and letter-stealers, by the weepings of the jails of Manchester and Calcutta. The fiddlers at the Petersburg festival gave, as their toast, "the man, whom the laws cannot reach, the dagger must." This maxim might have been applied to John Adams. That vainest and meanest of mankind refused, upon Cooper's trial, to confess that he was the author of his own writings; and Chase and Peters refused to compel his appearance in a court of justice. The laws could not reach him. He was above the law. The federal constitution was, in this instance, a nullity; and the harvest of the revolution, the
Extract of a letter from St. Thomas, dated Feb 7

"A national schooner is just arrived from the Cape, in a passage of five days. All goes on well there; 25,000 men arrived, and 25,000 daily expected. A Fr. s."