The National Register. — London, England, 1808-01-03 00:00:00

TIIE NATIONAL REGISTER. . :1161C m " . . -qO-*' sogm Not a single Member supported the Resolution, but all censured its imprudence. The general opinion was, that if persisted in by the Mover, the doors should be instantly opened, and the resolutions rejected in public. Mr. Lyon then withdrew the Resolution, and the balk• ries were opened, under the understanding that all secrecy was at an end. Nov. 27.—Mr. J. Clay presented a Memorial from sun dry inhabitants and traders of the city of Philadelphia, praying that the Act prohibiting the importation of certain goods, wares, and merchandize, passed the Isth April, 1806, may be repealed. Mr. Clay moved, that the Memorial be referred to the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures. Mr. Rowan hoped the Petition would not be referred to any Committee. lie thought it would be beneath the dig nity of the House to give it any consideration. had Le hee►t in Congress at the time the law passed, he would have voted against it ; but as it had passed, arid as we had re ceiN ed a fresh insult from Great Britain in the attack on the Chesapeak, he would not Note for its repeal. Mr. Crowninshield said, that from the rumours which were afloat, and the disposition of Great Britain, he enter tained no hope that she would do America justice. She was making great preparations, endeavouring to decoy the Indians on our frontiers, and was arming her Militia in Canada and Nova Scotia. Mr. Randolph said, if the prayer of the petitioners was improper, would it not be better to expose their errors in a masterly Report from a Committee, than to slain the door in their faces, and affecting all the airs of an Asiatic Sove reign, refuse to hear them ? We were, he believed, on the eve of a war with Great Britain ; and we were treading in the very footsteps of the British Ministry on the eve of an American War, and on the eve of the French War.—The House, Mr. R. said, had now been in session five weeks; and, on the eve of a war, they were discussing whether we should import locks with brass nobs or locks with iron nobs; they were sitting there looking; at one another, read. in; newspapers, writing letters, receiving bank checks, and counting their money; and the nation was precisely in the same situation as it was when the Ilouse first assembled. If we were to have a war Kith Great Britain, as he believed we were, it would become the House at the outset to con. ciliate those by whom that war was to be carried on ; he meant by those, the great body of the American people, and not the rich merchant more than the landholders, but not less. After a long debate, the question was then taken for re ferring tte Petition to a Committee of the whole House, and it Naas lost.---Aye s 50—Noes SO. The r elit ion was ordered to lie on the table, NEw YonE, DEC. 3.—The visit of General Moreau to the westward, and the expedition of his travelling, has ex cited a variety of conjecture in the political world. A friend of the General has handed us the following account of the moll% es of his journey, which will fully satisfy the curioslty, , and allay the suspicions of those who aro always watching the movements of great characters:— " The tieneral had some time ago, the misfortune of losing his only son. His Lady has also been under the necessity of returning to France, in order finally to settle some fat►miis con cerns. Such painful separation, added to the dreadful loss which he had ju , t experienced, have rendered his house so to tally disagreeable to him, that in order to divert his griefs, he has determined to undertake this excursion, and visit the Ohio and Mississippi, as far down as New Orleans. His intention is - 1 ;'t! S . f • •„. 4: .T.l N. 3. MOOSE OF REPRESENT.ifTWES. --.0 1 ■1■P•••• THE AFFAIR or THE CHESAPEAKE. WAsnisurrori, Nov. 17.--Mr. Blount, from a Commit tee of the House of Representatives on a part of the Presi dent's Message, reported this day on the subject of the at tack on the Chesapeake. The report commences with an expression of sensibility at this outrage ; states the receipt of informaticni relative thereto from the State and Navy Departments; presents a general view of the circumstances, observing that it might be said to have been incontestibly proved, - that William Ware, John Strachan, and Dan Mar tin (three of the four persons taken out of the Chesapeake) are Citizens of the United States; but the Committee add, that they conceive it unnecessary for them or the House to go into any enquiry on that part of the subject, as, in their opinion, whether the men taken from the Chesapeake were, or were not Citizens of the United States, and whether the Chesapeake was, or was not within the acknowledged limits of the United States at the time they were taken, the cha racter of the act of taking them remains the same. From the foregoing facts, it appears to your Commit tee, that the outrage committed on the frigate Chesapeake has been stamped with circumstances of indignity and in sult, of which there is scarcely to be found a parallel in the history of civilized nations, and requires only the sanction of the government under colour of whose authority it was perpetrated, to make it just cause of, if not an irresistible call for, instant and severe retaliation. Whether it will receive that sanction, or be disavowed and declared an un uthorized act of a subordinate officer, remains to be de ermined by the answer which shall be given to the demand f explanation; that answer, now daily expected, will ither sink the detestible act into piracy, or expand it to Ise magnitude of premeditated hostility against the sove eignty and independence of this Nation ; and until its true haracter shall be fixed and known, your Committee deem t expedient to decline expressing any opinion as to the mea ures proper to be adopted in retaliation to it. But the 'ommittee add, as other acts of aggression have been minked within our ports and waters, such as those men oned in the President's Message, the Committee are of pinion, that it is expedient to pros ide more effectually for tc protection of our ports and harbours; but not being repared to report specifically upon that subject, they ask !diler indulgence of the House, and submit the following esolution : " Resolved, That the attack of the British ship of war Leo . anl on the United States frigate ('hesapeake, was a flagrant iolation of the jurisdiction of the United States ; and that the ontinuance of the British squadron (ot' w hick the Leopard was ne) in their waters, after being notified of the Proclamation of e President of the United States, ordering them to depart the one, was a farther violation thereof." Nov. 18.—Yesterday the Hon. Mr. Lyon stated in the oust of Representatives, that he wished the galleries !cared, and the doors closed, bolted, and barred, as he ad some highly important matters to communicate. The once having gratified his wishes, he observed that Mr. ',rsk hie, the British Min ister, had recently transferred tuck, possessed by his father, to a large amount in the merican Funds, and in consequence proposed the follow ng Resolution " That provision ought to be made by law, forbidding all raniferi of right of action, and all monies, and other property, ither real or personal, to or by any subject of the Crown of , neat Britain; and also forbidding. any Citizen or Resident of he United States pa„ in an) debt or dennuld upon any such uhject," 'C4 -L