STATE PAPERS. 



541 



with France almost illusory ; the 

 burning of their merchant ships at 

 sea, long after the alleged repeal 

 of the French decrees — ail these 

 acts of violence on the part of 

 France produce from the govern- 

 ment of the United States only 

 such complaints as end in acquies- 

 cence and submission, or are ac- 

 companied by suggestions for ena- 

 bling France to give the semblance 

 of a legal form to her usurpations, 

 by converting them into municipal 

 regulations. 



This disposition of the govern- 

 ment of the United States, — this 

 complete subserviency to the ruler 

 of France — this hostile temper 

 towards Great Britain, are evident 

 in almost every page of the official 

 correspondence of the American 

 with the French government. 



Against this course of conduct, 

 the real cause of the present war, 

 the Prince Regent solemnly pro- 

 tests. Whilst contending against 

 France, in defence not only of the 

 liberties of Great Britain, but of 

 the world, his royal highness was 

 entitled to look for a far different 

 result. From their common origin, 

 —from their common interest,— 

 from their professed principles of 

 freedom and independence, — the 

 United States were the last power 

 in which Great Britain could have 

 expected to find a willing instru- 

 ment and abettor of French ty- 

 ranny. 



Disappointed in this his just ex- 

 pectation, the Prince Regent will 

 still pursue the policy which the 

 British government has so long 

 and invariably maintained, in re- 

 pelling injustice, and in supporting 

 the general rights of nations ; and, 

 under the favour of Providence, re- 

 lying on the justice of his cause, 



and the tried loyalty and firmness 

 of the British nation, his royal 

 highness confidently looks forward 

 to a successful issue of the contest 

 in which he has thus been com- 

 pelled most reluctantly to engage. 

 Westminster, Jan. 9, 1813. 



Copy of a Letter from her Royal 

 Highness the Princess of Wales, 

 to his Royal Highness the Prince 

 Regent. 



" Sir ; — It is with great reluct- 

 ance that I presume to obtrude 

 myself upon your royal high- 

 ness, and to solicit your attention 

 to matters which may, at first, ap- 

 pear rather of a personal llian a 

 public nature. If I could think 

 them so — if they related merely to 

 myself — I should abstain from a 

 proceeding which might give un- 

 easiness, or interrupt the more 

 weighty occupations of your royal 

 highness's time. I should con- 

 tinue, in silence and retirement, to 

 lead the life which has been pre- 

 scribed to me, and console myself 

 for the loss of that society and those 

 domestic comforts to which 1 have 

 so long been a stranger, by the re- 

 flection that it has been deemed 

 proper I should be afflicted with- 

 out any fault of my own — and 

 that your royal highness knows 

 it. 



" But, sir, there are considera- 

 tions of a higher nature than any 

 regard to my own happiness, which 

 render this address a duty both to 

 myself and my daughter. May I 

 venture to say — a duty also to my 

 husband, and the people committed 

 to his care? There is a point beyond 

 which a guiltless woman cannot 

 with safety carry her forbearances. 



