The National Register. — London, England, 1809-10-22 00:00:00

to go and attack the Duke of Dalmatia ; when all on a sudden, and too late, he learned, that this same Duke was advancing upon him, with a corps of $O,OOO men. He then fled in-the utmost baste, and he was in the right. Had he been amused a! Talavera, insiead of being attacked, and had not particular and local circumstances permitted him to pats the Tagus. and escape by sacrificing the corps which he left behind him, not E soldie, of his army would have again seen England. Ifeset there was a General wanting foresight, it is certainly Lot- Wellington. If he should lung command the English armies we may flatter ourselves with obtaining great advantages from the brilliant combinations of a General so inexperienced in the trade of war. °‘ We are told that the French have a numerous flotilla under " the protection of the batteries of Lillo; if they should dart " to come forward, we shall, no doubt, give a good account or 1 ' them." Note.—What a prudent resolution.! We should be very ?nappy, should the English establish themselves in the Island of Walcheren, in order to retain it. When we choose to drive them nut, we can do it; and then it will not be a simple garri son of 2 or MOO men who must lay down their arms, but an en tire corps of 15 or iO.OOO. English Paper—Pas.age in n letter from an Officer at Flush frig—" I saw in c. waggon 16 officers of the 69th regiment, suffer ing under this cruel disorder." Note—lf the malady which affects the English army were thu consequence of laborious marches, the great fatigues of a long campaign, or of some unforeseen causes, the English soldier might to support with courage the evils inevitably attached to the noble profession of arms. When maladies are a scourge of the ditnate—w hen it is known to the whole world, that to send stn artily to the isle of Walcheren in the months of August, Sep tetnber, October, and even half of November, to expose it to certain destruction—'% hen it is only necessary to consult the sielnest of the fishermen of the Scheldt, to learn that dysente ties, hospital disorders, pernii•ions fevers, and even the plague itself arc less dangerous than the maladies which prevail in the Ile of Walcheren at this season of the year, we cannot but pity the fate of the English soldiers. The frantic, ignorant, or cri minal men, who have thrown so many brave fellows into certain danger, deserve not only their animadvertions, but that of the generous of all countrie. 7 ETTER FRO 37 ?TIE MINISTRR. FOR FOREIGN' AFFAIRS TO nv.N Tilt A ARMSTRONG. MINISTER PLENIPOTENIIA RY ?ROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMER/CA. " A LTLNEURG. Arr.. 22. " Spa,—Being informed that you a re about to dispatch a ves sel for America, his Majesty lia.s charged me to make known to 'you the immutable principles which have regulated and will continue to regulate, his conduct as to the grand point of diirer ence respecting neutrals. " France admits the principle, that the flag protects the ierehandize. A mer , :hant ve , .zel having a clearance from her GovermneL!, ought to be considered ri a floating colony. The violation of such a vessel by searche, prosecutions, and other acts of arbitrary power, is a violation of the territory of a en lotw, and an attack upon the independence of its Government, 110.! seas bclong exclusively to no nation; they are the common property of tates, toe domain of all. " Merchant vessels of an enemy, being the property of pri vate individaals, ought to be respected; private individuals ho take no share in hostilities, ought not to be made prisoners. In 1111 her conquests France has respected pri vate property. Warehouses and shops have been left in the possersion of their owners. They have been permitted to dispose of their tuerchandize, as they thought proper; and at this moment there are cargoes, particularly of cotton, passing in waggoas through the French army, and through Austria and Germany, to proceed to wbatioever destination commerce may hssigo them. If France had adopted the practices of maritime warfare, all the merchandize of the Continent would have been accumulated in France, and often have constituted a source of incalculable wealth. " Such would undoubtedly have been the assumptions of . . . . rectum, %mild have given the first example of reuew ing the practices of the barbarous ages. That Government is well aware of the injustice of its nu_ritinte code. But what does it heed injustice? Its only inquiry is what is useful ? " When France shall have acquired a naval force propor. ionate to the extent of her coasts and her population. tile Em- eror will gradually reduce these principles to practice, and exert himself to procure their general adoption. The right, or taller the assumption, of blockading rivers and coasts, by pro lineation, is equally insolent and absurd. No right can possibly spring ant of the mere will and caprice of one of the interested oarties, but must originate in the actual nature of the thing s to %hid' It belongs. No place is properly in a state of bloc kade, out when it is invested by land and by water. It is put under blockade, to cut off all means of assistance by w high the sur render may be retarded ; and in this vise only pecrues the right of preventing neutral ship. from entering it ; b . e/-aese, the place o alacked is in danger of being taken, an-I the don) ni o n o f i t is undecided, and still in dispute, between the Commander f the town and those who blockade or invest it ; and from this arises the right of prohibiting neutrals from entering the place. " The sovereignty and independence of the flag, like the ;overeignty and inilependence of a territory, is the property of all neutrals. A state may surrender itself to another, divest itself of its independence, and undergo a change of So‘ereigns gut the rights of , overeignty are indivi ihlr and unalienable; the smailest particle of them cannot he ceded. " England proclaimed France in a state of blockade. The Emperor, by his decree of Berlin, declared the British Is'ands to be in a state of blockade. The former in-asure excludes neutral vessels from France; the latter prohibits them from going to England. " England by her Cabinet orders of the Ilth Nov. ISO?, laid tax upon neutral vessels, and compelled them to enter her har before they can proceed to their place of destination. By toe decree of the 17 rh of Dec. of the same year, the Emperor declared all such vessels denationalized, whose Hag is violated, insulted, and trampled upon. " To protect herself against the spoliations, wherewith such a state of things menaced her commerce, America laid on :In embargo in her harbours; and though France, which had only exercised the right of retaliation, was aware that her own in terests, and those of her colonies, must suffer from such a mea sure, yet the Emperor applauded the magnanimous resolution of renouncing all commerce rather than acknowledge the sove reignty and tyranny of the seas. " The Embargo has been taken off, and a system of exclu sion has been substituted far it. The Powers of the Contineet, in alliance against England, make common cause; they have, the same object in this war; they must reap the same avail. ; they must also run the same risks. The pores .f Holland, the Elbe, the NVeser, Italy, and Spain, will eirjoy no advan tage of which France would be deprived. They will all of them he open or shukat the same time, with regard to any com mercial intercourse with them. " Thus. Sir, in point of principle, France recognizes the freedom of neutral comm rec.., and the independence or the mark time powers, which she respected up to the moment when the maritime tyranny of England, that respects nothing, and the arbitrary proceedings of its Governmeut, compelled. her to adopt measures of retaliation, to which she resorted with regret. — Let England revoke her blockade of France, and France still resat her declarat i on Of blockade against England. Let Fng land revoke her Cabinet Orders of the I 1 th November, W I and the Milan Decree will expire of it'elf. The America* commerce will then recover its complete freedom, and he assured of finding in the harbours of France favour and protection. gut it belongs to the United States to attain this Inuppy object by their firmness. Qin a nation, resolved to remain free, hesitate between certain momentary, interests, and the great cause of maintaining her inde,,pendeuce, her honour, her tiovereignty, and. her dignity ?" nussiA. TO THZ CIVIL GOVERTfOR. OF LIVONIA AY9 ACTUAL COUN. , • - —r, land had the English_ possessed the came superiority by laud, SELLOIL or STATE. , which they have at sea. AVe should, as in the times of barbarism, "On the sth of this month, a treaty of an eternal peace he, y • been tit,, ancluislted sold as slaves, and their 'lauds divided tween Ittlisianad Sweden was concluded, and sieved at Frederic- ' .. ...•. - , ors. Mercantile cupidity %you'd have engrossed shamn, by our Minister Plenipotentiary Coma Romanzow, and a Government 4.l..„,-. .. o f An enlightened . nation, that Baron Stedingk . on the part of Sweden. All the proposition* by . 7% . • • . , ge) ). 47 111 .i - ' .., civilization to the highest pitch of per- us : made with regard to the said peace have been accepted, and .••• { • - , . ..., 1-.- . . "I` l -i S 'l"` .- '• $ . it , ~ w :: .. t ... . 0 ;ot ~... - • e 's -• . OCT. It THE NATIONAL REGISTER.