The National Register. — London, England, 1819-01-11 00:00:00

dk> (/Yyte -11- `ln Oalionat 3lttakitittr+ Our Wm ConOttution attb it aiDO. MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 1819. questionable fact. Asa trader with the Indians, it was impossible to do otherwise ; since on the supply of powder and shot depended the return cargo of furs for Europe. But these arc not the points Gil which the question turns. M. Arbuthnot dul stimulate the Indians to resist the arms of the United States. He did convey the means of warfare to the Chiefi. He engaged in the service of the Creek nations, and sup ported them to the uttnost iu whM Its felt to be their ju►tifiable hostilities against the republican arms. This was the whole case that was proved against our countryman—this is the whole finding of the Court ; for, as to the impudent and monstrous charge, that he was " a spy," the sentence is a complete acquittal. 11 e say, therefore, that on no prinrple of public law could Mr. Arbuthnot be condemned by this American Court martial. It will be seen from the course which we hare taken, that, so ftr as we can farm an opinion, Mr. Arbuthnot was illegally tried—unjustly sentenced—and barbs• rously executed. The question regarding Mr. Am brister is in some respects to be decided by the same reasonings as those which apply to the situation of his associate, on which we have spoken at so great length, that we must compress what rena within a narrow compass. The charge 2 against this prisoner were Ist. Aiding the thew. Td. Lading and coma - nutting than. Ambrister had been an officer in the British service, and the Court in the first instance condemned him to death ; but this sentence they reconsidered, when their final and official judgment was, that ho should be whipped, and confined with a chain for 12 months. Gen. Jackson disapproves this latter sentence; and of his own sovereign will and barefaced power, reviving the decision which the court had cancelled, and which therefore was already null anal void, he actually ordered the miserable man to be shot. Upon this point, at least, there can be no second feeling. We much doubt whether ►he indignation produced by it in America will not be more intense anti profoulid than here. It is indeed an inhumiat and atrocious murder—it is, • however, the murder of only a single Eaglishmao ; while it is (if there be any law in the United States) a most tyrannical and daring overthrow of the entire body of Republican laws and constitutions throughout the United States. It was not that n General Officer made a Court.martial his agent of injustice--he made it, in common with nature and humanity, at once his victim and his sport. We shall discover by the next arrivals from America, the impression produced in Congress by this disgraceful and revolting deed, which must, it is manifest, at no distant period, receive from the British Parliament a strict and thoroagh inves tigatioa. A Mail from Holland has arrived with intelli7enee to the 7th inst. The Emperor Alexander left Vienna on the C 3,1 ult. on his return ta St. l'etersburg.—From the Ist of Jar,Lialy to the :3!st of December, 1818, 80 Maya entered the port of Antwerp ; among them v 4 e 332 of the Netherlands, 297 English, 31 Atneri cans, 2, SwediNh, 27 DanisL, '4 French, 22 Hann &c. A Russian fligate, liora Archangel, has arrived in the Texel.—All the latest accounts from the North of Europe coincide in reprewnting the state of the weather as uncommonly mild and henefif.ent. The vessels collected at Elsineta in c•mscquence, is described as numerous beyond all precedent. Wedneglay Mr. Sergeant &Bon took leave of the M;o4istraies :It Union and will take, his seat at tattoo Carden. Baugh Alleyne, Eli. the Master of Dulwich Colleze, is sp.minted in the Learned Ser geant s place at Union Hall. I t is underitood, fron► pretty good authority, that accordin;.; to the culeti:aiion ei . ,Nliohours, the fillowitte; is the exact state of tie cnsuine l'ariiament : Plin6m)Misu CiTamtiou L1t..1-JUW 391 247 13-IU THE LA' L'AICE g!.d. QUEEN'S WILL. , 7/7 No. 570.—V0L. XII. roLiTicAL DisQuisrrioN. MrASItS. Ar.!SUTIINoT AND ANipitisTEß. THE proceedings of the North American Court ll!srtial, which sat upon the trial of Messrs Arbuthnot end Ambristcr, have arrived this week. The circum stances are fresh in the minds of our readers. The charges—the evidence (if such it can te called)—the defence of the prisoners—the sentence of the Court, and the execution of our countrymen; one of whom was hanged in pursuance of the sentence pronounced upon him ; while the other was shot by the order of General Jackson, and in open defiance of, avid contempt for, the sentence of the Court which tried him ;—all these are matters too striking and affecting to be soon iurgot. It is of high importance to the honour of Great Britain, and of the United States, as well as to the duration of that friendship which happily subsists between them, that the whole of this subject should be carefully re considered; and that the national judgment on both shores of the Atlantic should be temperately formed and gravely recorded. If an injury shall then appear to have been sustained by England, in the persons of any number of her unoffending subj.•cts, we doubt not that ample and amicable redress will follow without delay. Thus may no uneasy feeling, the certain source of jealousy and distrust, be left to rankle iu the heart of either country ; n* consciousness on one side of having been affronted with impunity ; nor fear, on the ether, of being visited by future retaliation. The circumstances under which Messrs. A. Arbuth not and Robert C. Ambrister fell into the hands of General Jackson, commanding the American army against the Seminole Indians, are too well known to require that they should be immediately recapitulated. These gentlemen were resident among the Indians who inhabited the wild country upon the ill defined borders of Georgia and the Florida'. They were taken by the Americans within a Spanish post. A Court martial was assembled, by General Jackson's orders, on the 26th of last April, 1818, lo try these British subjecla for crimes against the United Stows, of which Court martial General Gaines was President. The charges against Mr. Arbuthnot were three in number : Ist. Exciting the Creek Indians to war against the United States. be being a subject of Great Meths. with which the said States were arpesee. id. Acting as a spy, and aiding the enemy—suirelyini; them with the meara of war. 31.. Exciting the Indians to municr W. !iambi, and E. Doyle, sarjects of the Spanish Govcrinnrnt. With respect to the last charge, however, the Court having declared its want of Jurisdiction, we shall dis miss it from our notice. The evidence in support of the first allegation, that Mr. Arbuthnot bad "excited the halms to war" against the United States, consists, for the most part, of his own letters to 'Governor Ca meron, of the Bahamas ; Mr. Bigot, our Ambassador neWashington ; Colonel Nichol], a British officer ; to his son ; and to certain of the American agents. The object of these letters to the British Authortities was invariably to claim assistance or protection, in some shape or other, tier the Indian trines, against what be always represented to Le the attacks, encroach ments and erucliies of the Americans. There are distinct papers bearing the signature of divers Indian Chiefs, addressed to functionaries, British and Spanis,,, with a power of attorney delegating extensive trusts to Mr. Arbuthnot, and which that gentle:m.6n appears to have drawn up ; there is likewise brou s ht forward sme oral testimony, all tending to prove, what it is needless to deity, his active superintendence neer Indian anirs, and his sr:unlearnt csertions for what he con eviTta to be the Lio:t important interest of that Napless and persecutes, people. His supply of certain articles of ammunitiou to the Italians cc ustablishud as an un- The Will of Her late Mt&sty was on Friday proved in Doctor's Commons, by Lord Arden and Gencr..l Taylor, the executors. The peronal property is mewl) to as being under 140,0001. The will is in substance as follows: Her Majesty directs her debts, and the Ic7acies annuities given by her will, to be paid mit of the per sonalty, or out of the ask ofprionals, if there is nut sufficient in Her Majesty's treasury to provide for tito.e payments. Her Majesty states her property to consist of a real estate in New Windsor, called the Lower Lodge, and of personals of various descriptions: those of the great est value being her jewels, which are classed as fol. lows : ). Those which the King purchased for 50,0001. and presented to her, (supposed on her marriage.) 2. Those presented to her by the Nabob of Arcot. 3. Those purchased by herself, or being presents made on birth-days or other occasions. In the event of the King surviving, and being re stored from his malady, Her Mujesty bequea!hs to him the jewels which he purchased and gave her ; but if he should not survive, or should not be restored to a sound state of mind, she then gives those jewels to the, }lns. of ►lanov'r as an heir-loom. I ler Majesty then alludes to the Queen of Wet., tentherg being so handsomely provided fin, and girt a the jewels presented by the Nabob of Arcot to her four remaining daughters, directing those jewels to be sold, and the produce divided amongst the four daughters, subject to the charge of debts, &c. The remaining jewels she gives equally amongst the four daughters just mentioned, to be divided according to a valuation to be made of them. The :loose and ground at Fruginore, and the Shaw& establishment, lkr Majesty gives to the Princess Au gusta Sophia ; but if she should find living in it, and keeping it up to expensive, it is directed to revert to the Crown, upon a valuation being made anti riven for it to the Princess Augusta Sophia, with due :onside. ration to the improvements; whether it shall please the Prince Regent, to reserve the possession of it as an ap.. pcndage to Windsor-castle, or to authorize any other disposal of it. Her Majesty gives the fixtures, articles of common household furniture, and live and dead stock in the house at Froinore, or on the estates, to Ler daughter Augusta Sophia. She gives the real estate in New Windsor, purel.ascd of the late Duke of St. Alban:, and commonly callel the Lower Lodge, with its arycadages, to her youngest daughter Sophia. Her books, plate, house-linen, china, pictures, draw ings, prints, all articles of ornamental tnrniture, and other vtiunliics and personals, she directs to be divided in equal shares, according to a valuttion to be made, amongst her tour yotinger daughters. Her Nlajesty states, that she brought various pro. perty from Mecklenburg, as specified in a list, No. 1, to be annexed to her will; and she desires, that that property. shall revert to the House of Mecklenburg. Strelitz, and be sent bark to the senior branch of that I louse. _ Her Majesty then expresses her intention of giving several legucies, ai specified in a list, No. 2, to be an nexed to her will, to be paid out of her persona] pro. nerty, within six months after her death : but no such lists as these were annexed to her will or made out by her Majesty. ller Nlajesty appoints Lord Arden and General Taylor, Trustees for the property bequeathed to her daughters Elizabeth and Mary ; stating that property to he left to them for their sole benefit, and indepeiii cot of any husbands they have or may have, ai:d he also appoint* Lord Ardtu and General Taylor her Executors. _ _ _ The %%ill is (litel Nov. Ifi, ISIS, (the day betbre her Nlajesty'. death.) It is in tin: liana- writing •of General Taylor ; an I twn of the Attesting wit nesse, are Sir Fratieib an s l S:r I len ry llalf►ni. It is understood that Pao liumenc will he npenksa by commission un Thursday next. As there is no i •eu of opr.sin , - the late worthy Spcuker, it is expeetcl that he a iii ht press:tin - A to the C)nun►ssiontrs for appro. bution up aauv, thr becond duy of the Me,n.ing ; uu3 cutuk-rviently the ..k.w Nn n W iurtuwit.h bu niuvu.l.