The Statesman. — London, England, 1815-01-30 00:00:00

HALIFAX MEETING. On Saturday last, a meeting of the , principal in h ibitints of the town and parish of Halifax took ieace at the Talbot inn, in that town, to consider the propriety of petittoning Parliament against the continuance or renewal of the income and Property x. Mr. hl main being called to the Chair, opened the meeting by reading the Requisition, and the names of the requisitionists; in consequence of which be and his brother constable had called the meeting. JOIIN Ritooes, Esq briefly introduced the busi ness of the meeting. He said he deemed it unneces try to occupy, at length, the time of the Gentle men present. Nor should he then enter upon the objectionable nature of the tax in question. He believed th:it the minds of the Gentlemen present were fully made up on that subject, and it was unnecessary for Ikn to anticipate objections. He had the honour to propose to the meeting a Resolution which declared it expedient, under all the circumstances, to present a petition to the House of Commons against the mnitieuarice or renewal of the tax in question. Con sidering the numerous and respectable attendance around him sotlieient evid.aice of the expediency of the measure which he proposed, he should content himself with reading the Resolution, which was seconded by Mr. Turner, Longhotham, and passed unanimously. Each of the Resolutions was similiarly pat and carried with perfect enanimity, and with the usual expressions of . applause at public meetings. •Mr. linones again addressing the Chair said, that the Meeting having unanimously resolved to present a Petition to• Parliament, he wished to ask if any Gentleman had a Petition to offer ? No one having come forward, Mr. •R. said, he should take the liberty of submitting to the consideration of the Meeting a Petition which he had dra'wn up. He should be glad to receive any suggestion. or amend ment from any Gentleman present. Mr. Rhodes then read the Petition, which was received with great applause. At the instance of some of the Gentle men, it was read twice, and with similar marks of approbation. Mr. Rhodes then said, that as no other Petition bad been offered to the meeting, he moved that the Petition now read be adopted, which being seconded by Michael Stocks, Esq. was carried unanimously. Mr. Notinis then moved, with a view to the Vote of Thanks, that the Chairman do leave the Chair. Dr. Tnostrson said, that tholtgh it was impossible to have any objection to the vote which the motion of Mr. Norris contemplated, yet he could not but con sider that motion a; premature, as the Meeting had not yet appointed a Committee to see their Resole ti ,ns carriA into effect. Nor did he think that the Meeting could, with propriety, separate, without expressing its obligation to those Gentlemen who had been instrumental in bringing them together on that cecasion. lie was confident that he but spoke the feraings of every Gentleman present, in acknow ledging a great obligation to those Gentlemen, who, stepping nut of the privacy of their usual occupa lions in life, bad called the present public Meeting. As he bed not this honour to have his name attached to the Requisition, be Wailed _hive to have the ho not:r of moving a vote of thanks to the Gentlemen vl , O signed the Reqoisition, led to the Constables of I', fax, for calling the piesent Matting. Dr. coucluded by reading the Resolution, which was rt'.:eived with great akprobationiatd was unanimously .w!ented. paff die Res( :dr. ?ionnte- said, the existeo . agri lion comprised 'what he intended to have proposed. culture? We have not long lost that great friend Mr. STOCKS proposed a vote of Thanks to Mr.. to agriculture, Francis, Duke of Bedford. Since iZhorles for his exertions on the present occasion ; 1804, has there been no improvement ? Has not the W^h was seconded by several Gentlemen, and car. improvement kept pace with the times, and the pro ri,d unanimously. 'duce with the improvements? Every body who has Mr. Rimini briefly expressed his acknowledgments , crossed the water must have witnessed the abundant for the honour confeered upon him, crops in France ; and on his return, must have had A Committee was then appointed, consisting of the most poignant feelings of regret at seeing the the Requisitionists and the Cnnstables of Halifax. i blighted state of the crops in his own country; but The Chairman having legjhe chair, and Mr. I how can the Legislature relieve this distress? There Norris having been called teAlli the than.ks of the bare beet► times, when experiments have been made meeting were unanimously voted to Mr. Mellin, for to starve countries at war with each other, but by his conduct in the chair; moved by Mr. Rhodes, the blessing of God it had never succeeded. In the awl seconded by ?.Jr. Taylor, of Heath. year 1792, it was a measure of this Government, Froni the perfect unanimity which prevailed, the that corn should not go to France; and when proceedings did not occupy much time. I Bonaparte, with the iron hand of power, was en- The meeting consisted of about three hundred i deavouring to shut us out from every quarter, no less Gentlemen, many of them from the country town- than 30,000 quarters came every week from France, ships in the parish. j and we supplied him with money, which he as much Iwanted. There is no power on earth can prevent it. It is like the wind which bloweth where it listeth.— Mr. W. denied that agriculture had improved in France so much as in England; it was not from France alone we received our supplies, but from Poland and the Baltic. We are told these countries i can supply us because they are not burthened with tithes and taxes ; but what are the burdens on • j the landlords there.? Those who till it there are slaves, who till, it for their Lord, slaves without a bed to lie on, without covering for I their nakedness, or shelter for their wretched ness. Ile was sure there was no station of agricul ture in this country who would exchange their situa tion for any other in the globe. Suppose, says Mr. W. there are two farms adjoining each other equally well cultivated, with the same industry, same care, and the'same skill, one may be blighted, and the other good, can any thing that the King, Lords, and. Commons can enact prevent this? Can any Legista.' five interference make the had grain plump? This, Gentlemen, is a short view of the case: I would not advise you to go to Parliament now : I am of opinion, if the Corn Bill hod been passed last year, the dis tress would have been the same, for it could not have prevented the blight; nor will you be benefited if it now takes place; next year Providence may bless you with good crops,* hich will exclude the foreigner; if it was not for him now, distress would tie in. evitable: these reverses, however, ought not mislead us : if I thought there was a possibility to remedy your present grievances, no man would be more ready. Mr. AV. a hoped they would do him credit to believe that he felt regret at standing in opposition to so large a body of the respectable part of the county, but he knew if he went to Parliamenthe should only mislead then). - Lord Sr. Joint and Mr. Fosrca replied to the ar guments of Mr. Whitbread. Mr. W. finding that he stood alone, handsoiely retired before the Resolutions were put, when they wets: carried unanimously: COUNTY or DunnAu.—On Wednesday, the 25th inst., a Meeting of the County of Durham was held at the New Courts, to consider of. a Petition to Par liament epluit the Income Tax. A long discussion took place in consequence, and much oprosition was shown by the Earl of STRATUMOILE 1111(1 the Rev. Mr. Istrarism); wbo spoke the sentiments of Mr. Russet. in Ms absence. Mr. LAMBTON, the County Member, strenuously supported the Petition, and high words passed between him and Mr. Ns:sets:Li). The question was not decided when the last accounts came away. _ _ __________ GRAND LOTTrRY Jaw. Isls.—Nn. 261, drawn this day a Prize of Twenty Thousand Pounds, and, as the first drawn Prize above 9.51. further entitled to Twenty Thousand Pounds more, waking together a Prize of Forty Thousand Pounds, was sold in ono Half, one Quarter, one . Eighth, and two Sixteenths, by Nttu -ris and Co. No. 8, Cortibill, at which truly Lucky Office the fortunate Holders may receive their Prize money on demand. This is the most extraordinary cirrimstance in the annals of Lotteries, there being no other instance of a Twenty Thousand falling in addition to a fixed Capital of the same amount. When the prize was announced, by the posting of placards on the windows of MARTIN'S Lottery Office, a numerous assemblage of persons immediately re plired to the spot, stainus to get a glimpse of the fortunate number. In the course of the afternoon, the street in the front of the °fliee was so much crowded, it was almost impossible for a foot passel]- , ger to pass on that side of the way. In the evening the office was illuminated with small lamps, which had a v.. , !y pretty effect. The crowd conticued to in crease up to a late hour last night. Amongst the throng were observed several Ladies and Gentlemen of the greatest respectability. We understand that a Spanish Gentleman, who re sides in Bedford-square, is the holder of one half of this ruminate Ticket. E'E TING. COUNTY OF BEDFORD M At a numerous meeting of the Proprietors of Land in the county of Bedford, held on, Saturday sennight, at the Severn Inn, in Bedford, to take into conside ration the distressed state of agriculture, the Earl of UPPER OSSORY was called to the Chair, sad stated the object of the Meeting. . Lord Sr. Jontt said, that nothing was so painful to him as to see honest industry in distress; nothing was so heart-rending as to see the industry and prospects of so great a bulk of the community going into the pockets of others. He trusted there was no one in the room but would ngree as to the necessity of petitioning Parliament. Corn had not been regu lated by the necessity of the markets, but by the ne cessity of the growers ; he hoped he might be per mitted to nthise those present, as he had done his own tenants, not to sell their corn, but wait and see if Parliament would not adopt some plan for their relief, and he would not distress them. It was a circumstance well orthy the reflection of every one present, that we now received corn from France ; the result was, that France was a nation of farmers.; they support not only Great Britain, bat Spain and Portugal. lie then proposed the Resolutions. • Mr. FOVIEIt said, the present system made us de pendent upon foreign countries in two ways: de .peadent upnwthern for feeding t. , and dependent in finding money to pay for it, and we were putting power into the hands of our enemies. If the present system is continued, agriculture would no more flourish here ; it may flourish on the banks of the Vistula, on the plains of Normandy and Picardy, b‘t no more in the country of Graft Britain. When corn is so!d at a price that will not pay cultivation, how are landlords, taxes, tithes, &c. to be paid This year he knew good land would not produce 15 bushels per acre, for which the farmer sowed three bushels of capital grain, worth double the price of that produced, which, with harvesting and thrashing, this year would about balance the account. Mr. F. concluded by seconding the resolutions. Mr. Witt ratte.to was at all times open to convie thin, and he was sorry nothing had been said to convince him that the steps they were about to take would bring them to the desired goal ; he was of opinion every encouragement ought to be given to agriculture, and we ought not to be dependent on any but ourselves ; he wished again to see us an es porting country. Mr. Foster and Lord St. John had said, if we allow France to import, we are en couraging France to the injury of British agricul tore ; and we are told France has so improved the culture of its soil, that she is enabled to overwhelm the English market. Now give me leave to ask my Noble Friend, whether France has not been blessed with a most bountiful harvest, and whether we are not taking that as the work of man, which is in fact the work of God ? We have not in England wheat enough to keep the country, and if the average of 20,C00 quarters has not been brought in weekly, the ' metropolis could not have been supported. Are we, therefore, to look up to the Legislature for redress? They are always ready to assist, but sometimes they I are improperly led to interfere, and then they do mischief. If you go to Parliament, and importation is prevented, would that make the lean corn plump? I —would it be put in competition with the plump fo reign corn in the market? It is a delusion that you cost Imre redress in (hat way from what at present asetwiteless you. How long, Gentlemen, has this !existed? flow lot - have we fallen back in • ~:: ~_. THE STATKSMAN. COURT-M4RTI4L. TRIAL OF LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR J. MURRAY. • SATURDAY—EIGRTH•DAY. • Sir John Murray proceeded in the reading of his defence. Having already detailed the numbers arid strength of the enemy, he should now come to the consideration of the force and equipment of the army under his orders. Returns had already been present ed to the Court, which greatly exaggerated his force, including some corps that never were in Spain at all, and adding considerably to the effective strength of the regiments tinder his command; while, at the Same time, the force of the enemy was considerably underrated. He, on the other hand, should produce the official returns made by the Quarter-Master ' General of the effective force of his army. It would I appear by those returns, that the whole of the allied larmy, which landed before Tarragona, amounted to 12,810 infantry, and 698 cavalry, including some non-combatants, which %sere necessarily attached to every army. The whole loss before Tarragona, and at the taking of St. Felippe, did not exceed 56 men, killed and wounded. He shouldi therefore, state his force generally at 13,500 men. As to their corn pocition, in point of effective strength, 3910 were British, 1710 Germans, 1332 Italians (many of them dt , serters or prisoners), 980 Sicilians, 490 Cala. ! 'biese and the remainde r cons i s ti ng o f G enera l i ' ' Whittingham's Spanish corps. With this hetero. genenus mass, he debarked on "the 3(1 of June, and from the time of his debarkation received no rein forcements whatever. Had his' whole force consisted of British and Germans, it would nut have been able to 'contend with the force which the enemy could bring against it, consisting of 20,500 of the best troops of France, - without including the garrison of •. Tarragona. Of his army, the British and Germans were all that he could depend on as perfectly effec five : and although he placed as mach confidence in the gallantry of the greater part of his remaining force as any other officer would do, yet he must say, that there were some parts of it of which he could not speak so favourably.. As to General Whiffing- ham's Spanish corps, great difficulties were found in provisioning it. He had received the express orders of Lord Wellington that he was not to furnish' any Spanish corps with provisions; and it could hardly'l be expected that General Copens would provide bet• i ter for that corps than for his own army, who were often in want of provisions. When he tookthecommand of the army at All. ' cant, he found it immoveable, on account of the 19w state of the military chest, and because the officers expected daily to be superseded. The CoMmissariat also required additional arripagemeuts ; and for that reason, the army landed before Tarragona in a sot.' which was incomplete and insufficient with respect to its equipment. This was not his fault. He could neither build transports, nor enlarge the dimensions of those in whichhis army was to be embarked. Al though as many horses and mules were • brought as room could be found foi, yet many would have been wanting for the service of .tite- asety.• • They did not land a singid tumbril, many of • the corps were without mules, and as to , waggons for the sick and wounded, and for the necessaries of the hospi tals, there were none. It was well known by most of his Officers, that there was necessarily s great de ficiency in the equipment of his artily ; and the in- . structions of the Duke of Wellington were most pre cise upon this point, that '° he would pardon every thing, except the suffering one of the corps of the army to be defeated and disperSed." As to the con. dition of the first Spanish army, under Gen. Copons, that was to co-operate with him, instead of loose calculations, as had been made by his Prosecutor, be should show its real strength and value, from the official memoirs of Col. Cabanes, the Chief of its Staff. The report of that O:licer was, " It cannot be denied that the troops are brave, and that many of the Officers have considerable knowledge ; but, to say the truth, from their having been generally em ployed on the mountains and in small detachments, they have not acquired that subordination and disci pline which was so necessary in battle. They were not fit for the operations of a siege, and could only be relied on for maintaining a strong position. The cavalry was full of zeal, but not well instructed ; and the artillery, though competent from their know ledge to support the ancient honour of that corps, were without the means of being terri:, , le to the enemy. They had no magazines, and were often in want of ammunition." Such was the account which Col. Cabanes himself gave of the composition of that army, ten weeks before the siege of Terragona. The real state of the case was, that till infantry, from want of discipline and subordination, were neither fit for battle, nor to assist in the siege, and could only be em ployed among the mountains, or in very strong positions. Unfortunately, however, it was in a flat country, and to assist in a siege, that their co-opera tion was wanted. Their cavalry was so inconsider able in number, and so deficient in instruction, that, whatever might be their zeal, they could • not be reckoned as of any service. Their artillery (which wanted the means of being terrible to' the enemy) had not in fact a single field-piece. Atthombise bed no written documents from General' Copons, as to' the slate-of discipline of his corps, yet that Gomel expressly informed him that they could not manoeuvre, Ibut that if they were placed in a strong position their courage might be depended on, He also added, that unless he was so posted as to have a retreat to the mountains, he would not put himself into line. This precaution on the part of the Spanish General was very reasonable, as in case of any disaster he could have no other safe retreat but to the mountains. — The consequence, however, of this would he, that this corps must be always placed on the north of the line, whether the ground was such as they were fit to defend or not. General Whittingham's corps was in a similar situation. ' At the battle of Castellar, he was obliged to trust them wish the defence of what might be considered as the key of our position, mere ly because it was strong ground, where Spanish troops could best be depended on. By another do cument from Colonel Cabanes, dated the 11th Jerre, it would appear that the real effective force of Gen. Cepons' army amounted to 6031 men. Ile had al ways estimated it at about 6000. As to the obseri (ions which he had found it necessary to make re specting the Spanish Miens, the state of a gal L tlon i so long overrun by toitilt troomand of its Government, was a st!ffic'Pnt anotogy them, but it was no npolog) lor his Pro,ecutor exaggernfittg thA numbor, quality, and efficiency. those troops. Weak nod ineffi:lent, however, the corps of General Copoos was, it could net :.110. been kept togethertor more than two or three - da longer. The next point that he shoted come to, woul.l het, consi(leration of thr , great improp►iet he would, ha , committed, if he had followed the advice of Admit Hallowell. In the course of his defence, he I; more than once reminded the Court, that the t great objects which he had in view' in remit kiting long before Tarragona, were, Ist, to draw Suchet far from Valencia as possible; and idly, to take ft, chance of any favourable events putting him in pos. session of Tarragona. By the night of the ItO however, Suchet had advanced to that point, frok which one day's march might hare brought him befort our lines. His next duty then was the preservation of the army ; and the preservation ( f it in all its ef , ficiency. The Judge-Advocate seemed to cottsi.k that the general instructions of the Duke of Wel. lington, sa)in„a " that he would pardon every thing except the saffering one of the corps of the army ' be defeated or dispersed," applied prhirlealty to t! Commanders of other corps, end not to him. He differed widely from that opinion; . .and considered these directions to be more pointed to hini than ' any other General. As the AtiglOAirilinn army w: I by far the most important 'of any carps ou the eau of Spain, its defeat or dispi+sion would have pri duced consequences much more fatal Clan any dis aster that could happen to any other corps. Stieliet might, in such a case, have detached 18 or t 0,030 men to act upon the flank of the Duke of Wellington when he was engaged in the siege of St. Sebastian • and Pamplona; and such an operation might hay destroyed the fruits of his Lordship's brilliant ' Tic . tories, and interrupted that career, on %%Well not.enlr the fate of the Peninsula, but of Europe, &pendia. In fact, the.army on the east of Spain could never. 14 considered as any thing but an army of diversion in favour of the great operations of Lord W. If that army !had run the risk of total defeat and destruction, that I risk would have been run at the ex pence of the Duke 1 .01 . Welliegtou,and in defiance of his instructions. He ' had a right to calculate on the Anglo-Sicilian army 't for keeping Marshal Suchet in check, and preventing it from acting against him. If, however, he had re ! solved on giving a battle, whether that battle had i been successful or not, the public would probably have been silent. What would Lord Wellington, however, have said, if, by the total defeat of his army, Suchet gas left at liberty to detach a strong force to act upon his Lordship's flank I If he had resolved to give battle, he must have left at least • 3000 Spanish troops to mask Tarragona ; and if the remainder of his army had been beaten by the eine ?my., what retreat would have been left him ? The diffict ies of re-embarking an army exposed to the i 'attacks of a superior force, were well known to be fir greater titan that -of an ordinary retreat. The expedition to. Ostend was ,not yet. farget, , ner the m circeetandes - or (he re-embarkation at Carmine.; • although in thelatter case, our troops hod fought a successful battle the day before, and had a castle to protect •their embarkation.-- A retreat. 'rear . the beach at Tarragona, under the fire . of that fort s, would be likely to be much more disastrous, if : tali& in the presence of a superior enemy.— if he had overlooked all those dangers, and the uncertainty of the winds and waves, what advantage could he have preposed to himself by. remaining ! longer ? Unless Suchet saw some advautagein mak- . ing the. attack, he would never have given him an ' opportunity of engaging him. It was certainly meant by Admiral Hallowell to imply, that he ought to have staid longer before Tar. regent ; he, however, trusted, that he would con vince the Court, that a further delay would have been inexcusable. Information had been received on the night of the 11th, that the French were at Vll iafraeca on the east, and at Perillo on the west.-- Those two places had already been proved to be only two days' match front Tarragona. If he delayed longer, the probable result would be, that the army would have been engaged on the beach undery every disadvantage. By delay, he would have lost the op portunity of sending off the cavalry and field artil lery to Balaguer, where they were safe. If he had chosen, with 11,000 troops, composed as his army was, to give battle to 20,000 of the best troops of France, then, indeed, Suchet might have fulfilled the boast of " driving the British Army into the sea." The stake which he would have to hazard, was the whole army committed to his command ; and, if he could himself have any doubts how he should act, he had nothing to do but to look at his instructions. The safety of the Nita . of Welling.. ton's army, or, at least, of the operations in whirl' it was engaged, depended in a great measure upon the safety of . the Eastern army. It was true that Decaen's army did retreat oii the night of the .12th.. This was a circumstance, however, which he could not calculate upon' or extant. nto could appear more improbable, than that an army which had arrived by forced marches to the point from which iher4ould commence their attack, should re- ' treat illthrut any visible caose ? . Even now lip tenki not'eoneeire any reason for this retreat, on. lets it'itfas that General Denaew had received infer. _elation: of Lord Exmouth's arltival in the Bay Of 'Roust The movements of New had beforeasp.. peered to be so connected wit& thiadvince or Se.,' chet's corps from Valencia, that tk•anati:lnipiseak. ble to have foreseen that he wog tilt have fallen bark. . . Ile vettetted - acmuch as any man read* do, the loss of the cartilon and stores that were left behind.— M to the trophies that were thus acquired by the enemy, he mast, however, observe that they wet, gales!! trophies. The loss of those guns could not . .he said in any degree to cripple the army under his notamsnd ; se out of 91 . pieces of cannon, it was only INLarricenble heavy guns, and one unserviceable, that were left behind. If, however, in consequence ' of a battle, the enemy had captured many of our pieces of field artillery, many standards, or thou.. sands of our troops, then indeed Alarslint S J ehet could have boasted of the trophies of 144 victory, If many of the dead bodies of our soldiers', or slaugli. tered horses, remained on the beach, then, indeed,. to - a for in • of as ►are la) s "the. ITS 'rat had wo BO t as the iOS. th om ore ion 4f• ler • • el. ing to the He .ed to ras NIT iet !lent na. would he have pointed them out in triumph as trn. ; depriied Was of victory. Such an event would have brought : ) 1 4 ( - A,. In