The National Register. — London, England, 1821-11-19 00:00:00

r 364 r I ~c ~ h~ Till BARCELONA FEVER. M. Francois, a member of the French commission ant to Barcelona, has written a letter, dated Oct. :30, to M. Bertin, a physician in Paris, from which we extract the following particulars relative to the disease:—" The contagion ap: cars to shots itself' visibly. Its point of departure is marked, its pro gress followed ; it may be said that it is seen passing from one individual to another. Those who devote their cares to friendship rarely fitil to pay dear fur their humanity. In a house inhabited by fourteen persons, all have beim attacked, and eleven have died. The progress ut the disease is often so rapid, that there is not lime to try any remedy. The pa tient dies as soon as he is taken ill. In general, however, the sickness lasts seven or nine days. It would require many pages to describe this terrible fever, it presents so many anomalies and deceptious appearances. Sometimes the access is slight, and a deceitful appearance of convidescenee gives confidence to the attendants at the moment the patient is ex piring. At other times the most terrible symptoms maniti.'st themselves at once, such as petechial spots, echymoses, and jaundice. Blood woes from all apertures of the body. Fetid and diluted blood flows copiously from the tongue. The usual evacuations are black and sanious. IVhat is vomited may, after dilation in water, be compared to the oxyde of' man ganese. The body is cold as marble, and the pulse insensible. Involuntary cries are put forth, though the patient is in perfect possession of his mind, and so continues until the heart ceases to perform its functions. When the vital energy sinks, it cannot be again revived; the benumbing poison of the con tagion destroys it. The body of the patient then exhales miasmata, not perceptible to the senses, which attaches it to bedding, clothes, furniture, and even the walls of the apartments (as, from numerous facts, there is reason to believe), which weft; become capable of infecting individuals, more or less promptly according to their predisposition. The disease appears to have its seat in the nervous system. It succes sively paralyzes the different viscera. The kidneys cease their functions first. The body, which may be called a corpse still animated, exhibits all the symptoms of decomposition. Some patients, after exhibiting all the signs of complete dissolution, have by degrees returned to life, and have been cured. It requires courage, I assure you, and the most perfect self-resignation, to approach and touch certain pa tients. The stomach appears to be the most con stant point of attack. It is subject to a kind of irritation which is quite gni generis. Its state must not be confounded with a phlegmasia, though Ran. grenous parts are often foiled in its interior. There is no inflammatory appearance in the yellow fever. After the convulsive spasms which mark the com mencement, atomy soon takes place, and the extinc tion of life follows. At this moment the intensity of the disease appears to have abated, but still from one to two hundred die daily. Scarcely a week ago the 'number was from two to three hundred." DUTCH MAIL. HAGUE, Not. Taels Van Amer-1 ongtn, Aide-dc-Camp to the Governor-General of . 1 the East . India possessions, and Lieut. Koopman, al the navy, arrived here yesterday with the intelli-1 gence of the successful issue of the second expedition against the rebellious Sultan of Patternlran, which was of so much importance to the maintenance of the Dutch authority in India. On the 25th of June, Gen. de Kock, to whom the chief command of the expedition was confined, made himself master, after an obstinate resistance, of the works in the river, which impeded the approach to the town. The General states, in his despatches of The 28th ofJune, that on the 26th he cast anchor befbre the town, and that the Sultan Badr al deen, seeing no means of resistance, declared himself ready to give up the government to his brother, who was on board the Dutch fleet, and to surrender himself, on the assurance that his life would be spared. The General therefore hoped that he should soon be able to send the Sultan and his family to Batavia on board the Dagerand frigate. The General bestows the highest encomiums on the bravery and perseverance of the soldiers and se.tmLn. [he enemy had his chief force in the river near the island of Gumbori. in the mouth of the river Pladjoe, on a low and te.arshy spot of ground. A large battery was erected on the island. Between that and the right bank were two floating batteries, and on the bank four batterie:t, one behind the other, the largest of which was at the mouth of the Pladjoe. These works were defended by 126 pieces of artillery, which, as the event showed, the enemy knew very well how to manage The two banks were also defended by a double palisade, under the command of the gnus, and heitind the palisade were armed boats. —lt appe...red therefore not adviseable to attack the enemy's works by land. The first attack was on the 20th of June. At THE NATIONAL REGISTER daybreak the ships of war took the stations assigned to them. The cannonade was extremely violent on both aides. In the forenoon the fire from Gombora began to abate; one of the gun-boats had already penetrated through the palisade into the great river, and the General had already given orders to Lieut. Col. Kier to make an attack with 300 in boats on the last-mentioned battery, when ut:fortunately the cables of some of the ships of war were shot away, so that they drifted with the stream. This accident exposed the Vanket ;veil alone to the enemy's fire, and as this vessel had already GO men killed and wounord, and several of her gun-boats were dis mounted, the General thought it adviseable to sus pend the attack. The second attack was made on the 24th of June. Before day-break the ships of war took their positions under a heavy fire from the enemy. At five o'clock the ships returned the enemy's fire; and at six the fire from the island began to abate. Col. Ilisehof made a successfid attempt to penetrate with his troops in bouts through the palisade, along the left bank towards the island ; the battery was taken, and the flag of the Netherlands hoisted on the ene my's works. An attempt to attack the great battery in front was judged not to be adviseable, and the troops woe therefore collected on the side of the island in order to cross the river behind it, and turn the batteries on the right. Meantime the Ajas and Votus had overpowered the floating batteries, which were taken possession of by Lieut. Van den Ende, and after wards burnt. At nine o'clock the troops under Col. Bischoff' began to cross the river. At half-past 11 Lieut. Lunge of the navy, placed our colours on the hindmost battery. The second and third were quickly abandoned by the enemy, who endeavoured to maintain himself in the first and largest ; but the troops under Lieutenants Wagener and Van Sty rum carried it by assault, and made themselves masters of this last and important position. Here tidlows the names of the officers who dis tinguished themselves, and the statement of the killed and wounded.] The loss in the first action was—Killed 46, wounded 27. In the second action —Killed -29, wounded 140. Total (killed) 75; total (wounded) 237. BATAVIA, JULY 21.—The conquest of Palem bang has been announced by a salute of 101 guns. The chukra morbus still rages dreadfully at Ban lam, the out-districts of Sourabaya and Passarouang. At Banlam, about 100 persons die daily: in the two other placess above 170. The number of deaths at Batavia, in consequence of this disorder, does not exceed five daily. Among them the Vanherwrif alone had 17 killed and 63 wounded. To-day the guns have been fired on account of this joyful victory. HAGUE, Nov. B.—A private letter from Batavia of the 26th of July states that the cholera morbus was abating, and it was hoped that its ravages would soon cease. I.VECDOTES OF iIIONAPARTE. Buonapurte for some time considered himself at tacked by an internal disease, which would prove fatal to him. He sometimes mentioned it, accom panied with sombrous presentiments. But it was supposed to be nothing more than the wandering of an active imagination left unemployed. Some weeks before his death, he laboured with a spade in his garden so long and so severely, as almost to faint from fatigue. Somebody suggested to him the pro bable inj•ary to his health :—" No," said he, " it cannot hurt my health—that is lost beyond all hope. It will shorten my days." I suspect he gave but little time to the composition of the Memoirs of his Life. Bertrand one day urged him to labour with more assiduity. " It is beneath me." said he, "to be the historian of my own life. Alexander had his (,fuint/us Curiins, and I shall have mine. At all events, my life is recorded in my achievements." A short time before his malady became serious, he abandoned his reserve, and became familiar with every body. He set a high value upon Bertrand, but did not like him. He said to him one day at table, " Bertrand, it was not your attachment to me, but your love of glory that brought you to St. Helena—you would immortalize your name as my fidus Achates," the faithful companion of the hero of the Aineid.) A little girl only nine years old, the daughter of a sergeant of the garrison, often kept him company. He took great pleasure in speaking to her, and on her coming, always kissed her on the check. He constantly provided himself with fruits or sw.:etineats for her, and shortly before his death hung round her neck a small gold watch, and a gold dada. " Julie," said he, " wear this for my sake." With a pen-knife he graved on the cover, clumsily enough, it is true, these words.— " The Emperor to his little friend Julie." Ile s 'meanies amused himself in giving this child a les:on in drawing from the surrounding mountain seamy, with the most laughably whimsical figures • anti objects interspersed, His predilection for this child is extraordinary ; she had nothing interesting in her person, and was in capacity rather below the average of the little girls of her age. The :2,1 of April was the day on which he was observed to I.h.t seriously indisposed. Ile rose early, and walked in the garden. He, after a few minutes, sat upon a bank, apparently taint, Montholon went up to bim, and asked him it' he was taken ill. " Yes," said he, " I feel nausea and sick at stomach, the avant couriers of death." Count Monthoim lluonaparte took his arm and said. "My fri:2l.l, we must not laugh at death when he is so near us.' The little Julie soon appeared, with a basket, and canght his attention. He brought her into the saloon, where breakfast was prepared, and her basket with different sweet things, adding a bottle of liqueur, with these words, " This is tbr your father to drink toy health." One day he sent for a jeweller to alter or repair some trinkets, and asked him it' he could male a silver coffin. The jeweller tried to shift the question; Buonaparte repeated it, " I shall die (said he) in a few weeks." " God tiabid that we should lose your Highness," said the. other. " God grant that I may die soon —very soon," returned Buonaparte : " I am well con. vinced that life is not a blessing, but a curse." lie then approached a piano, touched the keys for a few moments, producing some vague but not in:iarmo. nious movement, and ended with playing his L. vourite air— •" 0 Richard I 0 num Roi " L'Universe iabandonne." He often stretched himself on a sofa opposite the garden window, and read with a loud voice frum Telemachus, or the Henriad. He inquired one day. with great eagerness, whether an Etigiiol journal could be procured him. With some c,lfi culty a newspaper was provided. He took it and glanced over it hastily, and suddenly exclaimed— " Ah! Naples! Naples! poor devils—Nlrat was the bravest king they ever had : but he did nut know his subjects. They are all Lazaruoi from the Duke of —..—., down to the lowest beggar! " The morning of the day on which he died he said— •' Death has nothing to affright me. For three weeks death has been the companion of toy pillow. Now he is about to embrace me, and bear we away for ever," REDUCTION 0/P RENTL. —Henry Howard, Esq. Corby Castle, ut his last rent day, returned to his tenantry of High and Low Coniscliff 25 and 20 per cent, according to the quality of their respective farms. At the late rent-day of Sir George Pocock, Bart. for the manor of Hart, the liberal return of 12 per cent. of the rent was made to the numerous tenantry. James Bower, Esq. has liberally returned to his tenants, at Snowsgreen, &c. 20 per cent. of their rents. The trustees of the lute Earl of Strath more have made the same return. John Orde, Esq. of Weetwood, and Messrs. Bewicke and Craster, returned 10 per cent. to their re pective tenants, on their lust rent days. On the afternoon of Sunday the 4th, during the performance of service at the parish church of Al derton, in Suffolk, us the minister was addressing a numerous congregation from the pulpit, a proportion of the old steeple, which had been fin many years in a ruinous condition, fell down with a tremendous crash, Happily the wind was in such a direction, that no part of it fell on the church ; otherwise the effects would have been appalling and disastrous in the extreme. The scene however which ensued, may be more easily conceived than described. The shrieks of the females, the tumultuous rush of the whole congregation to the east end of the church, the terror and alarm depicted on every countenance, and the roar of the tempert from without, produced an impression on the minds of all present, %%Lich probably will never be erased. But nu actual inky y was sustained by any one. ROVAL ANECDOTE. —Mr. Andrew Pitt, an emi nent banker, died at Hampstead on the 16th of April, 1736, of a gout-fit in his stomach. On Sunday, the 4th of that month, he had waited on the then Prince of Wales (the father of his late Ma jesty) to solicit his favour in relation to the Quakers' tithe bill, when his Royal Highness answered to this effect :—" As I am a friend to liberty in gene ral, and to toleration in particular, I wish you may meet with all proper favour; but, for myself I never gave my vote in Parliament ; and to influence my friends, or direct my servants, in theirs, does not become my station. To leave them entirely to their own consciences and understanding, is a rule 1 have hitherto prescribed to myself, and purpose through life to observe.'' Mr. Pitt, overcome with this conduct, replied—" May it please the Prince of Wales! I am greatly affected with thy excellent notions of liberty , and am more pleased with the answer thou hast given us, than if thou hadst granted our request." The gentleman who was shot in the duel on Sa turday last, at Blackheath, we understand, has died of.the wound. ~~ -.- _....- -A.A.