Star. — London, England, 1825-11-09 00:00:00

I near, the smoke having been so great all day that Mx* .could see where the flays were until they came down upon them. Many people have lost their lives ; whole families have been burnt to ashes round their dwellings. The Chatham side of the river has escaped the destruc tion; but the Newcastle side is entirely destroyed, with the exception of a house here and there in low situations, so that the fire passed over t'em. Mr. and Mrs. Rob,on have taken passage in the same ship they came out in (which happens to be the ship I.une, for Liverpool), to lay a statement of our losses and misery before our agents. The Governments of these two provinces will surely take into consideration our deplorable condition. Last night I bad to take try thin tomratch a store with provisions which had been threatened by t'le hungry poor to ise broken open. The Magistrates and others are doing the best they can to feed them for the present; but they are so many that it cannot last long wittiout something else being done: numbers have expired with cold and hungers and many poor sick people, In%erescued from the fever, have perished from the effects of fatigue, ter having escaped use fire. " Goo only knows what is to loco*, of this place, for the only article of export we have tir depend upon is, I fear, completely destroyed—for it stems even now as though the whole country is in flames. The smoke is so great that, in truth, the place seems buried in ruins and suffocation ; it has, indeed, a most awful appearance. II You may publish the particulars of the above, if you think proper, so that the distres,es of the poor and miserable may be taken into consideration. GOD bless you all, and preserve you from the like calamity." FROM ?Hi HALISAI JOURNAL, OCT. 17. Amidst the confusion and distress, the inevitable con sequences of the dreadful dispensation of Paevruznca which has just befallen our devoted Colony, it is altoge ther impossible to calculate or describe its destructive ef fects; but to awaken the sympathy of those who,under the protection of ALMIGHTY GOD, have escaped the awful calamity, it will be sufficient thus briefly to state, that mote than one hundred miles of the shores of Miramichi are laid waste, independent of the north-west branch, the Battibog and the Nappan settlements. From one to two blushed people have perished within immediate observation, and thrice that number are miserably burnt or other% ise wounded ; and at least two thousand of our tellow-creatures are left destitute of subsistence, and thrown at present on the humanity of the province of New Brunswick. The number of lives that have been lost in the woods, among the lumbering parties, cannot be ascertained for some time to come, for it is feared that few are left to tell the tale. It is not in the power of language to describe the un paralleled scene of devastation which the parish of New castle at this moment presents ; out of upwards of 250 houses and stores, 14 of the least considerable only re main. The court-house, gaol, church, and barracks; Messrs. Gilmore, Rankin, and Co.'s; and Messrs. Wm. Abrams and Co.'s establishments are reduced to ashes. The loss of property is incalculable, for the fire, borne on the wings of a hurricane, rushed upon the in habitants with such inconceivable rapidity, that the pre aervation of their lives could be their only care. The ships Concord and Canada, and brig Jane, were burnt to the water's edge, and many others took fire, but by great exertions were saved. Two vessels on the stocks belonging to Wm. Abrams and Co. were en tirely consumed. About 800 of the sufferers are already in Chatham, and numbers of men, women, and children, are hourly pouring in, and throwing themselves upon the bounty of its inhabitants. _ A Gentleman arrived in town yesterday from Ilifiramichi, which place he left on Thursday: he states generally that the fire con tinued to rage near the scene of the recent conflagration, and that from the lumbermen who had come in, accounts had been received of the loss of several lives. One instance he mentions where, of a party of sixteen persons, but three of them had escaped. SPAIN AND HER LATE COLONIES. The following k an authentic Copy of a Note addressed by the Right Honourable George Canning, his Majesty's Principal Secre tary of &ate for Forivt Affairs, to the Chevalier De Los Rios, Minister Plenipotentiary of his Most . Catholic Majesty : Foreign Odice, March 25, 1925. The undersigned, his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, is commanded by his So vereign to deliver to the Chevalier De Los Rios, for the purpose of being transmitted to his Court, the following reply to the Official Note addressed by his Excellency M. Zea to his Majesty's Charge d'Affaires at Madrid, on the 21st of January. So large a portion of the Official Note of M. Zea was founded upon a denial of the facts which had been reported to the British Government with respect to the state of the several countries of Spanish America, and upon an anticipation of events expected by the Court of Spain to take place in those countries, by which the credibility of. the reports transmitted to the British Government would be effectually disproved, that it has been thought advisable to await the issue of the ex pected events in Spanish America, rather than to con front evieence with evidence, and to discuss probabi lities and conjectures. Of that decisive issue, as it appears to be, the undersigned is directed to say, that it is a gie it satisfaction to the British Government that it had actually taken place before the intentions of the British Government towards S?anish America were announced. Those intentions, therefore, cannot possibly have had the slightest in fl uence upon the result of the war in Peru. With this single o b servation the undersigned is di rected to pass over all that pal t of M. Zea's Note which turns upon the supposed incorrectness of the informa tion on which the decision of the British Government was founded. The questions which remain to be examined are, whether in treating with de facto Governments, now established beyond the danger of any external assailment, Great Britain has violred either any general principle of international law, or any positive obligation of treaty ? To begin with the latter as the most specific accusation. M. Zea brings forward repeatedly the general charge of violated Treaties; but as he specifies only tmo—th.t of 1809 and that of 1814, it may be presumed that be relies on them alone to substantiate his charge. First as to the Treaty of 1009. That Treaty was made at the beginning of the Spanish struggle against France, and was directed wholly, and in terms not to be misapprehended, to the circumstances et the moment at which it was made. It was a Treaty of Peace putting an end to the war in which we had been since 66 1804 engaged with Spain. It is expressly describedin the fi rst Article a s a Treaty o f Alliance during the . war" in which w e were engage d j o i nt l y w i t h Spain aga inst France. All 'the stsplAtious of the Treaty bad evident reference to the declaresi detertiii-1 natiod of the then ruler of France to uphold a brunt)) of his own family upon the throne of Spain and of the Indies; and they undoubtedly pledged is to Spaih hbt to lay down but arms until that design should be defeated in Spain; and the pretension altogether aban doned as to Anterita—a pledge which it is not, and cannot, be denied that Great Britain amply redeemed. But, those objects once accomplished, the stipulations of the Treaty were fulfilled, and its obligations neces sarily expired, together with the matter to which they relived. In effect, at the happy conclusion of the war in the Peninsula, and after the restoration, by British assistance,' of his Catholic Majesty to the Throne of his ancestors. the treaty of 1809 was replaced by the Treaty of 1814. And what does that treaty contain? First, The ex pression of an earnest wish on the part of his Maje.ty. that Spanish America may be re-united to the Spanish I Monarchy ; and secondly, an engagement to prohibit British subjects from supplying the Spanish Americans with munizinns of war. This engagement was instantly carried into effect by an Order in Council of 1814. And in furtherance of the like object, beyond the obli gation of the Treaty, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1819. prohibiting the service of British subjects in the ranks of the resisting Colonies. That the wish expressed in this Treaty was sincere; the proof is to be found not only in the measures above mentioned, but in the repeated offers of Great Britain to mediate between Spain and her Colonies. Nur were these offers of mediation, as M. de Zea alleges, uni formly founded on the single basis of the admission by Spain of the independence of the Spanish Provinces. Years bad elapsed, and many opportunities had been missed of segociating on better terms for Spain, before that basis was assumed to be the only one on which negotiation could be successfully opened. It was not assumed in 1512, when our mediation was offered to the Cortes. lrt was not assumed in 151 S, when Spain asked our mediation, bat refused to state the terms to which she was willing to agree. It was not assumed in 1818, in the Conferences at Aix-la-Chapelle, in which conferences the question of an arrangement between Spain and her Americas was for the first and last time discussed between the Great Powers of Europe. After the silence, indeed, which Spain observed as to the opinion of the Powers assisting at those Conferences, when laid before her, two things became perfectly clear; the first, that Spain had at that time no serious intention of offering any terms such as the Spanish American Provinces were likely to accept ; the second, that any subsequent reference of the subject to a Congress must be wholly fruitless, and unsatisfactory. From that time forth, Great Britain abstained from stirring the subject of negociation with the Colonies, till, in the month of May, 1822, Spain spontaneously an nounced to Great Britain, that she had measures in contemplation for the pacification of her Americas on a basis entirely new, which basis, however, was not I explicitly described. In answer to that notification, Spain was exhorted by Great Britain to hasten, as much as possible, her nego tiation with the Colonies, as the course of events was evidently so rapid as not to admit of a much longer delay ; but no suggestion was even then brought forward by Great Britain, as to the adoption of the basis of independence. The first suggestion of that basis came, in fact, from the Government of Spain itself, in the month of Novem ber, 1822, when the British Minister at Madrid re ceived an intimation that the Cones meditated opening negociations with the Colonies on the basis of colonial inekpendence; negociations which were, in fact, subse quently opened, and carried to a successful termination, with Buenos Ayres, though they were afterwards dis avowed by his Catholic Majesty. It was net till after this lastmentioned communication from the Sp ,nish Government, that Great Britain ex pressed the opinion whi .h she entertained as to the hope lessness of negotiating upon any other basis than that then first suggested by the Spanish Government. This opinion stated (as has been said) in the first instance confidentially to Spain, was nearly a twelve month afterwards, that is, to say, in the month of Oat. 18'23, mentioned by the undersigned in a conference with the French Ambassador in London, the substance of which conference was communicated to Spain, and to the other Powers. It was repeated and enforced in the Dispatch from the undersigned to Sir Wm. A'Court, in January, 1824. Nothing therefore can be less exact than the supposi tion that Britain has uniformly put forward the basis of independence, as the sine qua non condition of her counsel and assistance to Spain in negociating with her Colonies. To come now to the second charge against Great Britain, the alleged violation of general international law—Has it ever been admitted as an axiom, or ever been observed by any nation or Government, as a prac tical maxim, that no circumstances and no time should entitle a defado Government to recognition? or should entitle third Powers, who may have a deep interest in defining and establishing their relations with a deficit) Government. to do so? Such a proceeding on the part of third Powers undoubtedly does not decide the question of right against the mother country. The Netherlands had thrown off the supremacy of Spain long befo.e the end of the 16th century ; but that supremacy was not formally renounced by Spain till the Treaty of Westphalia, in 1648. Portugal de. dared in 1640 her independence of the Spanish Mo narchy ; but it was not till 1668 that Spain by Treaty acknowledged that independence. During each of these intervals the abstract rights of Spain may be said to have remained unextinguished. But third Powers did not, in either of these instances, wait the slow convict on of Spain, before they thought themselves warranted to establish direct relations, and even to contract intimate alliances with the Republic of the United Netherlands, as well as with the new, Monarchy of the House cf Braganza. The separation of the Spanish Colonies from Spain has been neither our work nor our wish. Events in which the British Government bad no participation, I decided that separation—a separation which we are still of opinion might have been averted if our counsels had been listened to in time. But out of that separation grew a state of things to which it was the duty of the Doltish Government (in proportion as it became the plain and legitimate interest of the nation whose welfave is committed to its charge) to conform its measures as well as its language, not hastily and precipitately, but with due deliberation and circumspection. To continue to call that a possession of Spain, in which all Spanish occupation and power had been actu ally extinguished and effaced, could render no practical service to the mother country ;—but it would have Asked the peace of the world; for all political coo • t • inanities are responsible to other p.Aitteal communitie • for their conduct4that is. they are bound to perform the ordinary international duties, and to afford redress for any violation of the rights of others by their citizens or subjects. Now either the mother country most have continued responsible for acts over which it could sin longer exer cise the shadow of a controul; er the inhabitants of those countries, whose independent polnical existeoce was, in fact, established, but to whom tie acknow ledgment of that independence aas denied, must have been place) in a situation in which they were either wholly irresponsible for all their actions, or were to be visited for such of those actions as might fur nigh ground of complaint to other nations with the punishment due to pit ates and outlaws. If the former of these alternatives, the total irrespon sibility of the unrecognised States, be too absurd to be maintained, and if the latter, the treatment of their in habitants as pirates and outlaws; be too monstrous to be applied for an indefinite length of time to a large portion of the habitable globe—no other choice re mained for Great Britain, or for any epuntry having intelcourse with the Spanish American Provinces, but to recognise, in due time, their political existence as States, and thus to being them within the pale of those rights and duties which civilized nations are bound mutually to respect, and ate entitled reciprocally to claim from each other. Ti e example of the late revolution in Fiance, and of he ultimate happy restoration of his Majesty Louis XVIII. is pleaded by M. Zea, in illustration of the prin ciple of unextioguishable right in a legitimate sove reign ; and of the respect to which that right is entitled from all foreign Powers ; and he calls upon Great Britain, in justice to her own consistency, to act with the same reserve towards the new States of Spanish Arne rice, which she employed, so much to her honour, to wards Revolutionary France. But can M. Z:a need to he reminded that every Power in Europe, and specifically Spain amongst the foremost, not only acknowledged the several successive Governments de facto, by which the House of Bourbon was first expelled from the throne of France, and af terwards kept for nearly a quarter of a century out of possession of ir, , but contracted intimate alliances with them all; and above all, with that which M. Zea justly describes as the strongest of de facto Governments, the Government of Bonaparte; against whom, not any principle of respect for the rights of legitimate Mo narchy, but his own ungovernable ambition, finally brought combined Europe into the field ! There is no use in endeavouring to give a specious colouring to facts which are now the property of history. The under signed is therefore compelled to add, that Great Britain herself cannot justly accept the praise which M. Zea is willing to ascribe to her in this re spect, nor can she claim to be altogether exempted from the general charge of having treated with the Powers of the French Revolution. It is true, indeed, that up to the year 1796, she ab- stained from treating with revolutionary France long after other Powers of Europe bad set her the example. But the reasons alleged in Parliament and in State Papers, for that abstinence, was the unsettled state of the French Government. And it cannot be denied that both in 1796 and 1797, Great Britain opened a negociation for peace with the Directory of France, a negociation, the favourable conclusion of which would have implied a recognition of that lot m of Government —that in 1801 she made peace with the Consu!ate; that if in 1806 she did not conclude a Treaty with Bonaparte, Emperor of France, the negociation was broken off merely on a question of terms; and that if, from 1808 to 1814, she steadily refused to I;sten to any overtures from France, she did so declatedly and no• toriously on account of Spain alone, whom Bonaparte • pet tinamoust per r used to admit as pan y to the negociation. N ty, further, it cannot be denied, that even in 1814, the year in which the Bourbon Dynasty was eventually restored, peace w:,uld have been made by Great Britain with Bonaparte if he had not been unreasonable in his demands ; and Spain cannot be ignorant that even after Bonaparte was set aside, there was question among the Allies of the possible expediency of placing some other than a Bourbon on the Throne of France. The appeal, therefore, to the conduct of the Powers of Europe, and even to that of Great Britain herself, with respect to the French Revolution, does but recall abundant instances of the recognition of de fad() Go vernments by Great Britain, perhaps later and more re luctantly than by others, but by Great Britain herself, however reluctant, after the example set to her by the other Powers of Europe, and specifically by Spain. There ate two other points in M. Zea s note which appear to call for particular obset ration. M. Zea declares that the King of Spain will never recognise the new States of Spanish America, and that his Majesty will never cease to employ the force of arms agrinst his rebellious subjects in that part of the world. We have neither the pretension nor the desire to controul his Catholic Majesty's conduct—but this de claration of M. 'Lea comprises a complete justification of our conduct in having taken the opportunity which, to us, seemed ripe for placing our relations with the New States of America on a definite footing. For this declaration plainly shews that the complaint against us is not merely as to the mode or the time of our advances towards those States: it shews that the dispute between us and Spain is not merely as to the question of fact, whether the internal condition of any of those States be such as to justify the entering into definite rela tions with them? that it was not merely a reasonable delay for the purpose of verifying contradictory re ports; and of affording opportunity for friendly nego. ciation that was required of us : it shews that no ex tent of forbearance•on our past would have satisfied Spain, and that, defer our advances towards the New States as long as we might, we should still have had to make them without the consent of Spain ; for that Spain is determined against all compromise, under any circumstances and at any time, and is resolved upon interminable war with her late Colonies in America. M. Zra csodudes with dedarhig that his Catholic Majesty will protest. in the most solemn assaser, oiliest the measures announced by the British Government, as existing Treaties, and the imprescriptibk rights of the Throne ain, al Against what will Spain protest? It has been proved that no Treaties are violated by us • and we admit that no question of right is decided by our recognition of the New States of America. But if the argument on which this declaration is founded be true, it is eternal ; and the offence of which we are guilty, in placing our intercourse with those countries under the protection of Treaties is one of which no time and circumstance could, in the view of Spain, have mitigated the character. Having thus entered with great pain and unwillingness ipto the several topics of M. Zeb's %Note, the undersigned is directed, in. conclusion, to express thetanxious hope of his Government that 'r discussion now wholly wit*out object may be allowed Imre to close. The undersigned is directed to declare to the Spanish Ministet that no feeling of ill-will, or even of indifference to the interests of, 'his Catholic Majesty, has prompted the steps Which his between his Catholic Government has taken—that his Majesty ►till cberishe,,,, r i t wish for the welfare of Spain—and that his Majesty stig ret ai li dieposition, and commands the undersigned again to ren: s ' Catholic Majeity's Government the offer, to etnploy hi, m !° l have separated the,,,,,, ht good offices for the bringing about of any amicable arrast,t (Signed) GEORGE CAltililt; which--- thwspheakiconh.unnutrYityietofbeAPmraectriiccaabie9 BERWICK-UPON-T THE Worthy and independent BURGEsstli BERWICK-UPON-TWEED, RESIDENT n 6 NEAR LONDON, are respectfully requested to M EI , COMMITTEE of Sir FRANCIS BLAKE, g am at the Tavern, Fleet-street, on Tnuastuiv Evening next, pre'" Seven &Clock. FIRE AT MIRAMICHI, AND OTHER PLACES THE BRITISH COLONY OF NEW BRUNSWI i t MEETING will be FIELD at the LON TAVERN, on FRIDAY NEXT, thel2tl i n ONE O'CLOCK, to take into consideration the mo st means of AFFORDING the most EARLY RELIEF ti SUFFERERS in the above Calamity. The Chair wi Ibe taken by JOHN BAINBRIDGE, E l. Agent for she Colony of New Brunswick, At Usa &Clasen precisely. North and South American Coffee House, NOT. o, WI TIIF, EVEN INC. NTAR, LUNIION. -...--- WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1525, Lou MATOlell DAIrHOIJDAY. CITY, TWELVE O'CU This being a dote Holiday at the Bank, Stock Riclucp, Foreign Market, some of the Brokers have anembki v Royal Exchange, but no business is doing as yet. Con r, The admirable State Paper ad hessed by Na NINO, on the 25th March last, to the Spanish NI , has already been laid before our Readers. That wa-, however, only a translation of a translation, not being able to rely on its authenticity in all t we abstained at the time horn any comment contents. We ate now enabled to publish this remat document in its original and authentic form, int to call the attention of our Readers at a very opportunity to the subject of which it treats;—the ' portance of which, in the present state of polit affairs, is scarcely second to any matter of that can well arise. The approach of winter, in the warlike days of was the harbinger of quiet repose, and compelledi most pugnacious belligerents to suspend their hostil and seek for comfortable quarters: In our the contrary, winter has aroused the martial of Ireland to run their accustomed career in the ending war of words. Mr. O'CoNeant. has a taken the field, not in his usual vocation of orator, in a long epistle. This assumption of the pen, h ever, has in point of composition and reasoning, played his powers to such surprising disadvantage, we now begin to fear his previous speeches ms passing through the crucible of his trusty friends of Daily Press, have undergone a severe process sf tti ment, else they would have been absolutely unteaml . • " It ►eems he is reduced to the humil;ation of himself against the attacks of his ungrateful clients, like all other men of the people, ancient and m from THEMUITOCLES down to the learned and ell Hamm HUNT, Mr. O'CONNELL finds the spring•tide popularity followed by such an amazing ebb, tl like a goodly vessel, he is at length left high and on the shore, a prize to every puny meckster t chooses to tear his hull asunder. They accuse h unjustly as we truly think, of interested views in late negociation, from which he defends hinvelf great length ; although his defence, even on this Fe is strongly assailed by an unrelenting antagonist WI Morning Herald of ye terday. They also accnseb of excessive vanity, and if they had added extremes of judgment, and of capacity to bring his missions successful conclusion, we fear Mr. O'Coatau vl have had little success in rebutting the charges ;tbs it is not the less certain, that if he had possessed' abilities of MErTERNICH, and the disinterestedness BOLIVAR, his services would have been rewarded• just the same wages—envy, contempt, obliNo! , an utter disavowal of any and every stipul4tim ii which he might have entered on behalf of his on tuents. So fared a much abler advocate, Artsi ,l Mmaza, on the former occasion of the Veto; spa I been, and such will continue to be the fate of e champion of the church of Rome, who won:1161in! l enity attempt conciliation with the Protestant tablishment. And why is this so ? Because, from suong and c° tuning circumstances, there is too mach reason toff that, unknown to the leaders in the foreground, t 1 is in the dense ranks behind them a pervading work, to which equality of political privileges is bill pretext for agitation, not the ulterior end in Tien, ° to which peace and conciliation, on any terms short' that end, were annihilation. That Mr. 0 Co'sta the unconscious agent of that spirit we %ell belief; that his projected Census of the Roman Cabo& real for the obvious purpose of intimidation to the Poll ant interest, and of encouragement to its imPlac al foes, is also an inspiiation of the same evil princiP it ' equally perceive. Such, we are convinced, go ll ' wise the latent source of the Roman Catholic !lentil of that most formidable redresser of grievaneeh never-to-be-forgotten Association. But the ti _ .lln of the disastrous primary cause to which we cannot be altogether veiled from men of disco _ .1 7liarlace it in its incipient efforts, and call there easgy card against its ultimate purpose. trhO is there that loves England, that vs" glory of his conntry, and the good of mankind won,kl rejoice in the welfare of the people of WI are 13 ce na