Star. — London, England, 1818-09-25 00:00:00

. . • w e... ' B4 SOUTH 4UEIUCA. 14 REPEZSENTATIO (14430E.1irilACIII00 or Tore OE or CAEACAS, AUDIENCE or oAaloAs. ' " MOST POWERTUL Sli during the long space of - firmi AMC* tnried in: N ; iron : after pat and loaded With sable immbeis. of the Arise fate I after having witnessed cal and melancholy scenes after having, alterable patience, repressed the feelings of my soul ; nod, finally, • itfti; being fully convinced that; owing to a lamentable effect of the most notorious infrac tion; the people of Venezuela groan under the cruel' yoke of the heaviest oppression : it appears at length time, for the honour of the Spanish nation, for the salvation of these Provinces, for the credit and re sponsibility I have at stake in them, that I should take up c t e h u e pen, at the only and precise moment that it has Allowed to me, in order to claim, before the Supreme Judicature of the country, our sealed and incontestable rights. I should fill many pages if I were to execute this task by the detail of all the events that have occurred during this ominous pe-. riod ; but I shall console myself with exhibiting them briefly and succinctly, and with the precision which the subject requires. " The city of Caracas, and some cities and towns of the interior, had just experienced the dreadful ca• tastrophe of the earthquake, on the 26th of March, last year, which buried in its ruins upwards of ten thousand of the inhabitants, and the earth continuing in a state of agitation, and the inhabitants panic struck from the frequent concussions of nature, these sought for safety in the woods and fields; which, al though it preserved their existence from like destruc tion, .exposed them to the ardent heat of the sun, to the intemperature of the air, 'and all the disasters re sulting from this ; exhibiting to humanity the most melancholy and painful spectacle of which there is an example in the annals of Columbia! •It was ae this critical moment that the expedition from Coro, advancing into the interior of the country, and pro• fang of these unforeseen. accidents, waE enabled to penetrate as far as the city of Vilemcia. " I omit to enter into the particulars of the cam paign, as too well known; but it is necessary to state, that Caracas, sensible of the imminent danger to which she was exposed, I was, by the unanimous and spontaneous movement and consent of all the Consti tuted Authorities, named Generalissimo of her troops; and that, invested with the supreme powers which they had exercised, and then deposited in me, I dis charged my duty with all the honour and zeal in my power, by using every exertion to bring . matters to a happy issue. But, notwithstanding the advantages we gained at the post of Guayca and the town of Victoria, still as, on the other hand, I was convinced of the calamitous situation. to which the capital as well as the port of La Guayra were reduced, both from want of provisions, and by the rapid incursions of the slaves from the vallies and coast to Windward (for the e, stimulated by the offer of freedom, which our enemies had made them, had already begun to commit the most horrid assassinations, in Guatire and other places), I felt the alisolute necessity of-adopt ing a measure, which, saving my honour and re spoasibility, and putting a stop to evils so transcen dant, even to those who fomented them, might re store peace and tranquillity to the people, repair in some degree the disasters of the earthquake, and, in short, reconcile the Americans and Europeans, so that in future they might form one satiety, one fa mily, pad have only one common interest : Caracas thus.giving an example of her political views to the rest of the Continent, proved that she- preferred an Istaiourable reconciliation, to the hazardous move ments of a civil and desolating war. " So salutary an idea, approved of and applauded by all the principal inhabitants of that city, was con- , stilted with the most judicious and enlightened Eu ropeans, and supported by reasons of such advantage, that they became self-evident at the first glance. Un der such favourable auspices, I promoted the nego tiations with the Chief of his Catholic Majesty's ex pedition. Fur this purpose I sent Commissioners with competent instructions, and after a short armis tice, some discussions, and overcoming all the ob stacles which presented themselves, the 'Treaty of Capitulation was celebrated with the customary hos tazcs, and all the rights and formalities prescribed by the law of nations. I exhibited this Treaty in Caracas, and it was afterwards printed and circula lidsthroughout the province. A short time previous I, Led also written to Cumana and Margarita, and participated to them my resolution, and prepared them to ratify the contract, which, through my re commendation, they did in fact afterwards sanction, in presence of the Commissioners, Jove and Ramirez. " In exact compliance with the stipulations, the towns were surrendered to the Spanish Chief, and the people laid down their arms a id submitted cheer fully to the new order of things, which they expected would produce peace and tranquillity. The Most Enid acquired courage, and, on reading the procla mation of the Commandant-General, Don Domingo de INlonteverde of the 3d of Augu3t, and the Pas• taral Address of the Right Rev. Archbishop of the sth, they all hastened to the regeneration of the Country and a solid pacification, and nothing was wanting on our part to the full and satisfactory exe cution of the pacification. " With what pleasure did I satisfy myself with having fulfilled, with decorum and integrity, the duties of my situation, and of having identified myr kelf with the beneficent intentions of the General Cortes of the Spanish nation, when I saw the Chief of the Expedition consent to it, and found his obsere dance of the Treaty in the august will pf that Legis lative Body ! I thought to perceive at a distance a luminous horizon, whoselight would at length reach us to re-establish peace, and reciprocally unite the iattreits of both hemis pheres ! " I protest to your Highness I never thought I had discharged my trust with so great satisfaction, as when, in the disastrous circumstances I have de scribed, I ratified by my signature a Treaty so be neficial .and analogous to the general welfare, sti pulated with so great solemnity, and sanctioned by all the requisites knoarn to the laws of cations—a Treaty, intended to form an epoch in the history of Vene zuela Treaty, which Great Britain would see with equal pleasure, for the advantages it produced to her was procUmed, that it was prOceeding to a by-trardpling on the rights of and cop• son, various persons, arrested in an ar bitrary-manner, or for sinister and undue purposes. These first excesses, committed against the common safety, 'and contrary to the agreement entered into, agitated the passions of those who only sought for tapport to give them vent. " Hence denunciations were multiplied, and poli tical opinions, formerly sustained, but forgotten in virtue of this contract were charted as crimes against . the State ; and, in short, by stringing offences toge. liter the list of an almost general proscription were dpened, which reduced the unfortunate inhabitants tcr mourning, grief, and desolation, who, having es caped the ravages of the earthquakes, had, with ge ' nerosity and confidence, delivered themselves up on the security and guarantee so often ratified. " To justify these proceedings, new conspiracies, projects of revolution, subversive meetings, ar.d all the springs that malice could invent, were resorted to—the arrests were repented, and every day was „marked by the imprisonment of different individuals. All these victims were conducted to the port of La Guayra ; some with their hands and feet bound, mounted on mules of burthen ; others dragged on foot, and all threatened, ill-treated, mid expo ,ed to , every insult of those who conducted them, 'and even H r depiived of performing on the road the offlinaff fulse 'tans of nature, presented to the view of the spee ators an object the most worthy of compassion end 'lnterest !.. I saw then, with amazement, a repetition of the same scenes of which I had been an eye-wit. *satin France ! *•'"I'll saw droves of men of the most illuntious end distinguished ranks, classes and conditioWueated like the most atrocious felons—l saw theta buried with myself in horrid dungeons--I saw venerable age, I saw tender youth, the rich, the poor, diemechanic, In short, the priesthood itself, reduced to shackles and chains, and condemned to breathe a mephitic air, which extinguished the artificial light, infected the blood, and led to an inevitable death ! " I saw, in fine, .Sacri fi ced to this cruelty, citizens distinguish distinguished by their grobity and talents—l saw them perish almost Addenly in those dungeons, not only deprived of the assistance -.which humanity dic tates for the relief of the body, butexpire in the arms of their corapoinns, destitute even of those spiritual Succours which our holy religion prescribes—men, who I am satisfied would have perished a thousand times with their sarnis" in their hands, rather than submit.to suet' 'outrages and treatment: " In the midst of this confusion, produced by events of sufficient notoriety, the wise and liberal Constitu tion, which the General Cortes sanctioned on the 19th March of the last year, was promulgated in Caracas. A monument, so much the more glorious and ho nourable to the worthy Representatives who dictated it, as it was likely to prove the Iris of Peace, the anchor of liberty, and the first but most important step that the mother country had ever taken for the benefit of the American Continent. The Veneaue- Rails thought that,. under the shelter and protection of this precious shield, all their misfortunes would be at an end—that the imprisonments would relax— that tranquillity and mutual cor.fidence would be re toted, and that a new order of things, a system free and liberal, would for ever ensure their lives and pro perty. But who will believe it? In the very act 'of swearing on the Altar, before the SUPREME Basso, the inviolable observance of the Constitution, fresh imprisonments, like tl.e Ermer, were going on, which were continued for marry days, and the dungeons, of La Guayra and prisons of Caracas filled by those arrests to the extraordinary number, as I am in formed, of fifteen hundred persons ! Nor where these unjust acts confined to this Province. " Cumana, Barcelona, and Margarita, under the auspices of the capitulation, and the shelter of up right and impartial Magistrates, were enjoying pro found peace, undisturbed calm, and all the blessings and happiness which the exact observance of that solemn compact carried with it, when on a sudden a Commissioner from the capital appeteri, and in spite of the Chiefs of tho.e districts, and in contempt of good faith, an infinite number of every class and rank, without consideration for the respectable grey hairs of the man of eighty, or the venerable charac ter of the priesthood, are arrested, loaded with irons, and buried in the dungeons of La Guayra and Puer to Cabello. (Tole ,ontinu:d.) astonishment, Spanish at capi- 1 7 ofit. A private letter from Paris contains the following particulars respecting the state of political matters in Spain : " The Minister of the Thiited States of America is still well received at Court, in spite of the protest addressed by King Ferdinand to all the Sovereigns of Europe against the occupation of Pensacola. It appears that, after the satisfaction given to Spanish pride by the Cabinet of the United States, every thing will be arranged by a pecuniary negotiation, and by compensations which will be more useful to Spain than a territory from which she did not know how ,to derive any advantage, and which she probably would net• have been long able- to keep. The cool behaviour of the Court is all reserved for M. de Souza, Minister of Portugal. The credit of your Ambassador, though evidently increasing, does not reach so far as to produce a reconciliation, or even the hope of it, with the Court of Brazil. 44 Enough is known at Madrid for every body to feel corivinced, that a mediation or guarantee of words, as has been generously •proposed by some of your Journals, will not suffice to bring back *nth America to submission. It would require effective succours of men and ships, with money; and it Is not believed that either England or Russia is any longer disposed to furnish any, or that they are so closely united as to hazard such an enterprize in common, which perhaps might lead to their disunion in ano ther hemisphere. 44 The troops of Spain, although in constant readi ness, according to some journals, to put to sea, are Ally—a Treaty, in tine, which opened to the Euro- etSigarCA. peen Spaniards a safe andopermastent asylum, let the struggle in which they -were- engiged with France 01111111ASICISOO MIRANDA; A terminate 23 it'snight. Snob •ORTe Ally ideas, such ifr CARACAS, • TO VIZ ROYAL my sentiments, and such the basis of this p . acacias, which I proposed, and carried ut.—After having observed, into due effect. , eight months, the most pro- " But what was my surprise sod' astonishment, • dirritinlifiltptim, when I saw, two days afterwards, that the Spanish after having seen a conside- Government had been established in Caracas, and at tsmand conditions. „undergo_ the very momentin 3ehich the inviolability of.the capi- ng witnessed the most tragt; tulation was proclaimed, that it was proceeding to a :nes : after barium with till. breach of it, - by-trampling on the rights of and cop. • . .. ~~... not collected together in any one spot ; and even if they weeny they would not dare to expose • - , to a voyage, except with such a convoy as d alone could furnish. 4 nary "M. Garay, who, in his quoli en e aga V nary privileges, has always t him the and the Nobility, is the. Necker of ain. The Isrof January is appointed for the first payment of the an nuities, or consolidated funds. This is the test which will decide his fate. If he can furnish money for the Court, which is completely destitute, and to the cre ditors who have so long expected it, he will strengthen himself, and triumph over his numerous enemies. " There has recently broken out among the troops at Corunna one of those disturbances which have no consequences, because they are not connected with any plan or system. The soldiers, reduced to ex treme misery from want of paymept, rose on their march, and plundered the provision stores. The Ma gistrates appeased them by distributing among them some thousand reals. They afterwards arrested and punished several, associating their insubordination with the recollections of the plats of Porlier and Lascy. The same causes from time to time renew the same dangers at different points—but it is all par • tial and without connexion. There needs, however, • a very silly vain-gloriousness and an immense com t placency, to imagine that a Government, reduced on its own territory to such a degree of penury, can think , seriously of re conquering another world 1" THE EVENING STAR. LONDON. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1818. THE FUNDS. PRICE OF STOCKS THIS DAY AT TWELVE O . CLOrK Bank Stock shut-3 per Cent. Reduced shut— per Cent. Consols 741 ;—for Acc. 74H. 31 per Cent. stint-4 per. Cent. shut 5 per Ct. Navy 10411 —India Bonds 75 pre. Oinnium 4} disc.—Exchequer Bills 151: prem. The Paris Papers of Tuesday arrived this morning. The business of the Department of Foreign Affairs has been confided during the absence of the Duke of RICHELIEU 21 the Congress of Aix4a-Chapelle, to . . Count HAVTERIVE. General CA NUPL and Viscount CtiArlittAnin have been transferred from the Conciergerie,to La Force. The Lady of Viscount CHApnniniii,- and .the wives of some others of the deteniis ,this *ir of the conspiracy, presented on iihreday t Petition to the Kigo, which his MAlesiileial: v.i4l to the . Duke of G A M mowr, Captain oT tbs. 0.1411 . de Service. The ring and . Queen . OrnikOlikate will, ii is said, be Rt Aix-he-Chapelle durivethe Congress, m der the title of thetount and Countess-ofkiiiif The accounts' llama Constantinople .continue to speak . of a great number of fires in that capital, sup- posed to be a manifestation of the disContentstthe Janissaries. Two of the conflagrations had . produce 4 mo p ; . eger.site mischief; one.of them broke out M open aay on . tbiki7th July. between the gate Sultan Sills! and t cf'Adtisaople. The fire cOnrituled harning for hours,. and destroyed 4600 houses and shops, chiefly belonging to. the. indigent . the other commenced in the night of the Ist ult. in a4able, ancVdestrojed. between - 9 aittOiXttoptis, togethex,w i a numbir shops belbaghietO the Jews. &viral ,individuals had . ' been .:aresc4,,, on wham were found Inflammable ni.iferials, Trout Berlin_ kis menticit*d that a novd) . llgind of evoltition• was to be exhibited in the neigh)aunitood: of that capitil'cia tbe arrival of the EnaP rat of:Rt* &tr.: the best swiiiinmes the - Prussian corps were to be assembled in a kolimn, • which was to s . wim across the Spree, and • make a mock attack on a supposed enemy's corps posted on the opposite bank of the river. French 5 per cents. Monday, 74 fr. 85 FRENCH FRONTIERS, SEPTEMBER la. All the of&cers who are to be employed in the new cadres of the army are now appointed, and among them are a great many officers of the old army. The number of officers on half pay who have applied for employment amounts to above 15,000. The levy of the recruits, drawn by lot, has been effected without difficulty. Foreign deserters are not received in the departmental legions, which consist entirely of French men; but they are sent to the legion of Jlolienlohe and the colonial regiments. The German Papers throw some doubt on the eva cuation. of France by the Allied Troops within the present year. Certain articles, dated Sedan, have re.. cently appeared in the Prussian Newspapers, wherein that measure is openly contradicted, on the ground that new contracts had been made for the mainte nance of the Allied Troops till March 1819. A Dutch Mail arrived this forenoon, with Papers to the 23d instant. The following is the only article we have met with of any interest dens of paper curreney on the same footing as holders of the more ancient' obligations,' as th e y ue both to be considered as creditors of the State, a n d have therefore equal rights. Most, however, are for a fixed rate of 300, because this in its subdivisions facilitates payment of smaller sums, making th a . e 'florins paper equal to one florin convention mom and one florin paper to a piece of 20 kreuzers. " It is probable that liberty will b e g i ven to eoeTT one who has to pay in paper, in case he should kl v i e l lt m io v n id r e n d on ‘ C ' y ith , aptaPtehle to make the payment coy, e).change of 3GO. It is said also, that the interest of the old public debt, svb4, interest is reduced one half, will no longer be p a :3 4 paper, but'in convention money ; and that aFr the paper currency will be annually witlidurs . circulation by the sale of domains." This morning we received American Pape rs elt kBth ultimo, from which we make the foncv.in :tracts : NORTOTIC ITI.ItALD, AUCLIT it. Captain Nelmc, of the British sloop Fraace.,....:2,% arrived at this port on Thursday, from Turk'sl,l 4 4 informs, that no American vessel would hertak c permitted to touch there, even if they had a ca This regulation extended as well to vessels direct from the United States, having the pred3ce cf United States on board, as to those from est 114 having West India produce on boar.• (me sl.ipli z j been nearly seized, and barely escaped by cak/ her cable and running to sea. Captain Obadiah Wright, who has to be tied 'a September nett .for destroying the Chebaw rgh t ., e , made his escape from Millidgeville on the 27th D i t , His Excellency Charles Bagot, from Great Briti e , and his Excellency J. M. Fea, late from the N et h er . lands, are the only foreign Ministers at Washisr a . The Hon. John . Quinc y -Adams, Secretaq ris me: the Hon. J. C. Calhound, Secretary cf War; aal ttt Hon. William Werts, Attorney-Geoeral, who return. ed from Baltimore on Saturday last, are the r t i r Members of the Cabinet at this Cum., At I,VaLingtos. NEW ORLEANS GAZETTE, JULY 34. ABOMINABLE Tacrste.—The slave market ap pears to be very brisk, a constant demand, and high prices, notwithstanding the arrivals lately of thirty. six in the brig Mary Ann, thirty-nine in the sisop Thom, ninety-seven in the chip Virgin, nirdetem the schooner Lea, seventeen in the schooner Fame, 34 in the brig Venus, 38 in the Franklin, r is ;h e schooner Humming-bird, all from the States; and 159 in the brig Jo:4h, from Africa :--1110Neproes Were offered for sale at the Sheriff's Home, in New Orleans, on the 20th of July, for cash. • Sixty thousand dollars in French francs arrived atl New Yost . on the 7th August, in the ship linbicoa,l from Havre de Grace, all for the United States Bank. Among the vlifilita , paeri lately taken fiom their enewies by the Petriets of Venezuela, is the otigiul of.a Memorial presented, in 1812, by General Mt sant& to the High Court of Justice in Caracas, rt. acting to the gross violation of the Capitulation et tiered into the preceding year with the Spanish Coe. mender in Chief; on behalf of the inhabitants of bee provinces. It will be remembered that in 1812, C - r..cet, as well as the Capitals of some of the cthe Provinces, was visited with a dreadful earthquals which spread alarm and desolation among all orders . of society, and rendered it impossible for the cause it Independence to proceed. General MIRANDA %lc theri at the head of affairs, and fully sensible of the state of public feeling, and supported by the concur rence of all the leading characters, who judged that a cordial reconciliation with the parent State would: best accord with the situation of both parties, he un dertook and carried into effect a Capitulation, which was afterwards solemnly exchanged and ratified,befo the country was delivered up to the Spanish Chiefs. And what was the result of this reconciliation ? It will be seen by the Exposition of General M BANDA, an eye-witness, which will be found in a. ther part of our columns, and certainly the el , hardened will shudder at the re.ital. The facts • states are incontrovertible. They are not asserted a man out of the reach of the Spanish Government but by an individual at the time confined in a ho dungeon, whose life, in such hands, was not safe moment. There is no exaggeration in the picture draws of those receptacles of misery, which resernb • the black hole of Calcutta, from the numbers at fined in them, and owing to the state of the phere, which m La Guayra, where Mteaena hi P• • was confined, HUMBOLDT says, is the hottest in world. All ranks and colours were imprisoned ' discriminately together, which the Spaniards did t chew their contempt of Liberty and Equality. MIRANDA'S predictions have, however, been r.. fied, for the conduct of the Spaniards at the time hided to, and itubsequently, has been such that :J eternal and implacable hatred pervades the 10. 151 " the South Americans ; a hatred which all the Mil sels and admonitions of the Allied Sovereigns id never remove. FRARKPORT, SEPTEMBER 17. In the Sitting of the Diet on the 10th, it heard the complaint of the Jewish community, respecting the late measures of the governinent of the city in regard to them. We learn that the Diet has. appOinted a Com mittee, to endeavour to terminate the affair amicably. A respectable Paper saye-4. It is now beyond a doubt that the Austrian Goiernment will take, in the A rumour has been for some time in circulricc course of this year, measures to putn s checli ripen the that material changes are about to take place in_ r th injurious unsteadiness of the exchange on paper cur- Law Courts of Scotland. It is said, that the L rency, and to place it in a reasoaahle nnd.fixed pro- b Lor . 4 Vesident ; • Lord Justice Clerk Bow: portion to Convention money. - “ With respect to.the tate of exchange to he flied Chief Baron will retire, and be succeeded brth President' Lord PITMILLY to be Lord Justice t the Lord Advocate to succeed Lord PirsciciA'• opinions are divided, some are for having . it between WILLIAM RAE to be Lord Advocate; and Mi. 9 ' l l 300 and 400, in order, as •they say, to plamithe hot- to be Sheriff of Ldiabu - - Or Ise SI as