The enquirer (Richmond, Va.), 1808-11-25 00:00:00

The Enquirer.
VOL. 5.]
RICHMOND, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1808.
[No. 60.]
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS RITCHIE, OF THE GLOBE TAVERN, AT FIVE DOL- LARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE
By virtue of a deed of trust, executed to us by Miller Waddell, of Prince Edward county, bearing date the 16th May, 1808, for the purpose of securing to Sterling Smith, and to Sterling Smith & Co. sums of money therein expressed: We shall, on Wednesday, the 21st December next, (if fair, if not, the next fair day,) at the Tavern of Ster- ling Smith, in Farmville, proceed to sell, for cash, the following SLAVES, to wit: LUKE and her children, WINNET and TAYLOR, or as many of them as may be sufficient to discharge the purposes of said deed.
JAMES DICK, Stew. } Trustees. WILLIAM WHITE, } Novemr. 22. [4m]
MR. WM. E. WEBB, Administrator of Ben- jamin Edwards, decd. North-Carolina— Sir—Please to take notice, that on the second Monday in January next, I shall take the deposi- tion of Mr. Spencer Ball, jr. of Northumberland county, in Virginia, at the court-house of said county, at the tavern occupied by Joseph Rogers, at that place, to be used as evidence in the suit depending in chancery in the United States cir- cuit court, held in Richmond for the district of Virginia, in which I am plaintiff and you are de- fendant. CHARLES J. LOVE. Nov. 18. [1f]
ALLAN MCRAE, informs his friends and the public, that he has removed a short dis- tance from the town of Manchester, and shall con- tinue to practice LAW, in the county courts of Pow- hatan and Chesterfield; that he shall also com- mence the practice in the county court of Henrico, and the Richmond District Court. A. McRae, still continues his office in Manches- ter, in one of the rooms of the house occupied by Dr. Branch T. Archer, where he may be found every day from 9 o'clock in the forenoon, till 4 o'clock P. M. November 18. [2w]
MANCHESTER TURNPIKE COMPA- NY.—The annual meeting of Stockholders, will be held at Mr. Brooks's tavern, in Manches- ter, on the first Monday in December next:— Special matters of business, important to the in- terest of the company, require a full meeting; hence it is expected, that such members as can- not attend in person, will appoint deputies to act for them. JAMES BRANDER, Clerk. Nov. 8. [4m]
FOR SALE, a likely young mulatto WOMAN, 18 years old, brought up as a nurse & house servant, in a private family, in the country; a mulatto MAN about 41 or 2, brought up as an est- ler and driver in the same family: Also, 12 val- uable and well broke MULES. Credit for 3-4ths of the value, and for 12 months, will be given on receiving proper security. Apply to Mr. Neil McCaull. Nov. 8. [3w]
LANDING from the Schooner RICHMOND at Lester's new Wharf: 23 Crates Earthen Ware, 25 Hbds. Muscovado Sugar, 11 Do. Green Coffee, 9 Bales Woolens, 11 STORE—100 bags Salt, 15 hds. Molass- es, 10 tiers green Coffee, 6 quarter casks Sher- ry, 3 pipes Gin, 50 boxes Segars, 8 bags Race Ginger, Soucoun—Hyson Skin and Young Hyson Tea. For sale by GEORGE WATT. Nov. 4. [1f]
ON Saturday the 10th day of Dec. next, will be sold, at public auction, the following HOUSES & LOTS to wit: The Tement late- ly occupied by Mr. Byrd, with ground on the cross street opposite to Dr. McCullough's lot, suffi- cient for a carriage house and stable. The Tement now occ. by Miss Bennett, adjoining the former. Also, two Brick Tements on the main- street, leading from the turnpike road to the Swan Tavern, & 40 feet of unimproved Ground, lying between said houses and the one occupied by Mrs. Vannett. The terms of sale will be, one- fourth in 6 months, another fourth in 12 months, and the remainder in 2 & 3 years. THOS. NORVELL. Nov. 18. [1f]
N. B. Any person wishing to purchase the a- bove property at private sale, will be pleased to apply to T. N.
WILL be sold, to the highest bidder, on Fri- day the 25th inst. at the late residence of Oba Smith, decd. in Chesterfield county, about four hundred barrels of CORN, together with the present year's crop of OATS & FODDER, consisting of about forty thousand weight of su- perior quality. Terms will be made known on the day of sale, by PETER F. SMITH, } Admrs. JNO. HOWLETT, } [epts]
Nov. 15. N. B. Also, a few likely NEGROES for cash.
PUBLIC SALE.—The subscriber intending to remove to the Western country, some time the ensuing year, will positively sell, at public auction, upon the premises, on the second Monday in December next, the tract of LAND on which he lives, lying in the county of Henrico, on Westham creek, containing 345 acres, with a Saw and Grist Mill; only about thirty acres of this tract is cleared, from which one crop only has been gathered. One other tract containing 100 acres, separated from the first named Land by the three chopped roads; this last named tract is entirely wood LAND: Also, all his household and kitchen FURNITURE, among which is, some excellent Mahogany—Several likely Vir- ginia born Slaves—the stock of Cattle, Hogs, about 1500 or 2000 weight of Pork, four Horses, five Mules, two Waggons and Gear, and the planta- tion Tools. Also on the 2nd Saturday in the same month (Dec.) and will also be sold upon the prem- ises, a half acre lot of Land lying and being in the city of Richmond, on Shockoe Hill, known by the No. 719—Also, part of a half acre Lot, ad- joining Mrs. E. Page. Terms of sale made known on the day. Any person inclined to view the pre- mises, will be shown them by the subscriber. All persons having any demands against him, will make application without delay. SPOTSWOOD LIPSCOMBE. Westham, Nov. 4. [2awds]
HOBDAY & SEATON, adjoining the City Hotel, on the Cross-Street from the Brick- Row to the Governor's house, respectfully in- form their friends and the public, that they have commenced business in FANCY & WINDSOR CHAIR-MAKING, TURNING, SIGN-PAIN- TING, GILDING, &c. and solicit patronage. Intending always to employ the best materials, and the best skill in the line of their profession, they hope to give universal satisfaction. Nov. 8. [1f]
NOTICE.—Cash given for Northern & South- ern Bank NOTES at a moderate discount by SIMPSON MORRIS. Richmond, Sept 14. [1f]
DESERTED —from the service of the Uni- ted States, on the 8th instant, a Private in the 5th regiment of Infantry, named JOHN FERGUSON—30 years of age, 5 feet 5 1-2 in- ches high, swarthy complexion, dark hair, blue eyes, has a sickly appearance—He was born in Delaware county, state of Pennsylvania—by profession a shoemaker. The said Ferguson had on at the time of his desertion, a round sal- toe's jacket, slash sleeves, dark drab colour, blue striped Virginia cloth vest, and Corduroy Pan- taloons, torn on the knees—Virginia cloth shirt; and an old pair of half boots, bound with cord, which he generally wore under his pantaloons. Also—Deserted on the same day, GABRIEL JONES, 21 years of age, 5 feet 8 1-2 inches high, fair complexion, hazel eyes; auburn hair —when spoken to has a sullen look—Born in Es- sex county, Va.—bred a Farmer—He wore a- way a round striped Virginia cloth coat, white home spun pantaloons, and vest of the same. Whoever will apprehend the said deserters, and deliver them to me, or to any officer in the service of the United States, shall receive twenty dollars reward, or ten dollars for either. EDWARD DILLARD, Capt. 5th U.S. Reg. Infantry Rendezvous, Petersburg. Sept. 16. [1f]
By virtue of a Deed of Trust, executed to the Subscriber by Wm. Brown of Chester- field, to secure the payment of a debt due Ken- non Gales, will be offered for sale, on the 30th or Nov. next, at Brooks's Tavern, in the town of Manchester; two Negro Men DIVER & JOHN , the property of the said Brown—for cash. PETER F. SMITH, Trustee. Oct. 28. [epts]
A FEW boxes of 18 by 12 Window GLASS, of the first quality for sale—Enquire at this Office. Oct. 14. [1f]
WANTED as a TUTOR in a private family a person qualified to teach the Latin and English languages grammatically, and Arithme- tic—Apply to the Printer. Nov. 15. [1f]
DOCUMENTS.
(CONTINUED.)
Copies and extracts of Letters from Gen. Armstrong to the Secretary of State, with copies of their enclosures.
EXTRACT.
General Armstrong to Mr. Madison. PARIS 5th April, 1808.
"I received the dispatch you did me the honour to address to me by Lt. Lewis on the 26th ult. "Though I had complained often and ear- nestly of both the principles and operation of the emperor's decrees of November, 1806, and December 1807, (having written at least twenty notes on the different cases which have arisen under them) yet as the Presi- dent's orders were express, that on receipt of your letter I should superadd to whatever representations might have been previ- ously made, a formal remonstrance against those decrees, I did not lose a moment in writing and presenting the enclosed note; the terms of which will I hope appear to be such as were proper or necessary to the case, and calculated either to obtain a recall of the illegal measures, or to leave in full force the rights accruing to the United States from a failure on the part of France to recall them. To this note I have not yet received an an- swer, nor have I reason to expect one soon; as the emperor had left Paris (it is said for Spain) and had, at no time before he set out, indicated any alteration in the views which originally produced the decrees in question. "Mr. Pinkney found means (in the return to the continent of M. D'Alpens) to commu- nicate the President's views on the subject of the general embargo, & particularly the desire he had that it should not be considered as a measure of hostility against any foreign nation. Some explanations of this kind, were perhaps necessary in England where, from the misrepresentations of our own people, the character of the policy was likely to be misunderstood; but as neither the same, nor any other reason existed for making them here, none have been offered."
General Armstrong to Mr. Champagny. PARIS, April 2, 1808.
Sir, Having submitted to the government of the U. States, copies of the Imperial de- crees of the 21st Nov. 1806, and 17th Dec. 1807, and of the expositions which your ex- cellency has been pleased at different times to give of them, I have recently received the instructions of the President to remonstrate against both the provisions and operation of the said decrees, on the ground of their in- fracting as well as the positive stipulations of a particular treaty, as the incontestible principles of public law. In discharging this duty your Excellency will permit me to recall to your remem- brance the 12th and 14th articles of the treaty made between the United States and France, on the 30th September, 1800. These articles provide— 1st. That "it shall be lawful for the citizens of either country to sail with their ships and merchandise (contraband goods always ex- cepted) from any port whatever, to any port of the enemy of the other, and to sail and trade with their ships and merchandise with perfect security & liberty from the countries, ports and places of those who are enemies of both, or of either party, without any oppo- sition or disturbance whatsoever; and to pass not only directly from the places and ports of the enemy aforesaid, to neutral ports and places, but also from one place belonging to an enemy to another place belonging to an en- emy, whether they be or be not, under the jurisdiction of the same power, unless such ports or places shall be actually blockaded, besieged or invested." 2nd. That "vessels sailing for a port or place belonging to an enemy without knowing that the same is either besieged, blockaded or in- vested, may be turned away from such port or place, but they shall not be detained, nor any part of their cargo (not contraband) con- fiscated, unless after notice of such blockade or investment, they shall again attempt to enter; but they shall be permitted to go to any other port or place they shall think pro- per." 3rd. That "free ships shall give a freedom to goods, and that every thing shall be deen-
ed to be free and exempt, which shall be found on board the ships belonging to the ci- tizens of either of the contracting parties, al- though the whole or any part thereof should appertain to the enemies of either, contraband goods being always excepted." These stipulations are not more clear in themselves, nor of more indisputable appli- cation and authority in the present case, than the injunctions of public law by which they are enforced, viz. that local regulations (ex- cepting by virtue of Convention) cannot ap- ply to foreign nations on the high seas, with- out violating the rights of the one, and the freedom of the other; that blockades can on- ly exist when places are so invested, that no serious attempt can be made to approach them without exposing the parties making them to imminent danger; that merchant vessels may be visited without any degrada- tion to the flag of the nation to which they belong, &c. &c. But why multiply proofs of a position which is not denied? Does not the official report of your enlightened predeces- sor of the 21st November, 1806, admit the illegitimacy of the original decree? Does it not expressly say that the doctrines of blockade introduced by England, are mon- strous and indefensible, and that the practice, like the doctrine, is a mockery of right and an insult upon reason? After strictures so severe, because so just, whatever be said, for the policy of France, which differs in no- thing from that of England? Has your excellency attempted to defend either the theory or the practice of this policy on the ground of its conformity to the prin- ciples of public law? Or have you done more at any time, or on any occasion, than to seek a justification for it on the bare suggestion that the U. States have acquiesced in the measures of England? And how has even this suggestion been maintained? By an exposi- tion of the wrongs inflicted on American commerce, and which have been notoriously practised by all the belligerents in turn?— Have not the ships of the U. States been en- countered by all? Have they not been turned from their original destination? Have they not been dragged into foreign ports for ad- judication? Have they not in several instances been burnt on the high seas? Is not the ar- gument founded on this state of things equal- ly good for either or for all the belligerents? And can France derive from it rights which do not equally accrue to her enemies? There is however another and a better answer to this suggestion which your excellency has already seen in the letter I had the honour of writing to you on the 16th February last, viz. that the suggestion, is neither well nor plau- sibly founded—and that the United States neither have submitted nor will submit to the usurpations of Great Britain, nor to those of any other nation.
Accept, sir, &c. &c. JOHN ARMSTRONG. His Excellency the Minis- ter of Foreign Relations. }
Extract of a letter from Gen. Armstrong to Mr. Madison. PARIS, April 12, 1808.
"I have detained Mr. Lewis till to-day, on the supposition that my letter of the 2d in- stant would be answered. This was how- ever a mere accommodation to forms, as the ab- sence of the emperor and of the minister of foreign relations rendered this supposition highly improbable. There being then no public reason for Mr. Lewis's longer stay in Paris, and the permission to the Osage to prosecute her voyage to England not includ- ing one to return to France, I have thought it best he should embark with such dispatches as were ready, proceed to Falmouth in En- gland, and thence, after receiving Mr. Pink- ney's orders, return with all possible expe- dition to the United States. He has accord- ingly been instructed to this effect."
Extracts of a letter from Gen. Armstrong to the Secretary of State, dated, PARIS, June 25th, 1808.
"The St. Michael arrived at L'Orient on the 1st instant, and, like the Osage, was im- mediately put under sequestration. It was not till the 8th that Mr. Baker arrived here. "The remonstrance ordered, with respect to the terms of M. Champagny's letter of the 15th of January, shall be executed the moment the Prince of Benevento returns from Valencia; & I hope in a way which, while it makes the French government sensible of the offensiveness of those terms, will not obstruct the road to friendly and respectful explanations on its part. To give this a chance of finding Mr. Li- vingston at Bordeaux, I must close it here." With very high respect, sir, Your obedient servant. (Signed) JOHN ARMSTRONG. JAMES MADISON, Esq. } Secretary of State. }
PARIS, July 18th, 1808
Sir, I avail myself of the detention of the Arcturus, to transmit copies of two letters, which I have written to M. de Champagny. The one, in execution of the President's or- ders with regard to the offensive terms em- ployed by that minister in his note of the 15th of January last; the other demanding from him on the part of his government, an avow- al or disavowal of the conduct of rear-admi- ral Baudin, in burning, or otherwise destroy- ing on the high seas, four American ships and their cargoes. I have the honour to be, sir, With very high consideration, Your most obedient and Very humble servant. (Signed) JOHN ARMSTRONG. JAMES MADISON, Esq. } Secretary of State. }
Extract of a letter from Gen. Armstrong to M. Champagny, dated, PARIS, July 4th, 1808.
Sir, It has been made the duty of the un- dersigned to bring to the view of the French government, an official note addressed to him on the 15th January last by his majesty's min- ister of exterior relations; and which in the opinion of the President, is calculated to de- rogate from the rights of the U. States, as an independent nation. The note is in the
following words, viz. (See Mr. Champag- ny's letter of the 15th Jan. 1808.)
On this note, the undersigned would re- mark:
1st. That the U. States have a right to e- lect their own policy with regard to England as they have with regard to France; and that it is only while they continue to exercise this right, without suffering any degree of restraint from either power, that they can maintain the independent relation in which they stand to both: Whence it follows, that to have pronounced, in the peremptory tone of the preceding note, the effects which the measures of the British government ought to have produced on their councils and conduct, was a language less adapted to accomplish its own object, than to offend against the re- spect due from one independent nation to an- other; and
2d. That the alternative to be found in the last paragraph and which leaves the United States to choose between an acquiescence in the views of France against Great Britain, and a confiscation of all American property, sequestered by order of his imperial majes- ty, is equally offensive to both governments: to France, as it would impute to her a propo- sition found in wrong to individuals; & to the U. States, as it would imply on their part a subjection to pecuniary interests, totally in- consistent with their principles, and highly dishonorable to their character.
His excellency will be persuaded that the President, in directing the undersigned to make this representation, had no object in view beyond that of seeking an explanation which cannot but tend to promote the har- mony of the two powers.
The minister plenipotentiary of the United States, (Signed) JOHN ARMSTRONG. His Excellency the Minis- ter Foreign Relations. }
Copy of a letter from Gen. Armstrong to M. Champagny, dated PARIS, July 10, 1808.
Sir, Your excellency will see, by the en- closed extracts from two letters, which his majesty's minister of Marine has done me the honour to address to me, on the 18th of A- pril and 15th of June last, that the proper- ty taken from the four American ships, de- stroyed by rear Admiral Baudin, has been placed under the jurisdiction of the imperi- al council of prizes, to be judged by it, as a case of ordinary capture. To your excellency, it will be unnecessary to remark, that whatever may be the deci- sion of this council, in relation to the mer- chandise that has been saved, the case pre- sents a question of much higher import and entirely beyond the jurisdiction of a ma- ritime court, viz. the kind and degree of re- paration which shall be due for the ships and merchandise which have been destroyed? And by way of opening this subject, your ex- cellency will permit me to ask—whether his majesty's government does or does not jus- tify the conduct of rear admiral Baudin in burn- ing, or otherwise destroying, on the high seas, the ships and merchandise of a neutral and friendly power?
I pray your excellency, &c. (Signed) JOHN ARMSTRONG. M. CHAMPAGNY.
Extract of a letter from Gen. Armstrong to the Se- cretary of State, dated PARIS, 26th July, 1808.
"It would have given me the highest pleasure to have drawn from this government, such expla- nations on the general subject of our differences with them, as would have met the friendly and equitable views of the United States, but I owe it as well to you as to myself, to declare that ev- ery attempt for that purpose, hitherto made, has failed, and under circumstances which by no means indicate any change, in this respect for the better. "With very high consideration, I am, Sir, your most ob't. serv't. (Signed) JOHN ARMSTRONG. JAMES MADISON, Esq. } Secretary of State. }
Extract of a letter from Gen. Armstrong to the Se- cretary of State, dated PARIS, 7th August, 1808.
"I wrote a few lines to you yesterday. Two weeks have gone by without any new condemna- tion. My remonstrances continue to remain un- answered." "P. S. I enclose a copy of my note of yester- day to M. de Champagny."
Copy of a letter from Gen. Armstrong, dated PARIS, August 6th, 1808.
Mr. Armstrong presents his compliments to M. de Champagny, and begs leave to inform him, that having for some months past, made trial of the artificial waters of Tirol, without any useful effect, his physician has prescribed for him those of Bourbon D'Archambault. Should M. de Champagny have any communications to make to Mr. Armstrong, he will be pleased to address them as usual, to the Hotel de Legation Ameri- caine, Rue Vauguad, No. 100, whence they will be regularly and promptly transmitted to Bour- bon.
On leaving Paris, Mr. Armstrong thinks pro- per to state his regrets, that the political rela- tions of the two powers should continue to wear an aspect less auspicious to their future good un- derstanding than is wished for by those who are the friends of both.
That his majesty has a right to make such mu- nicipal regulations as he may deem proper, with regard to foreign commerce, neither is nor has been denied. For example, he may forbid the entry into the ports of France of American ships which have touched in England, or been destined to England; and he may either seize or con- fiscate such vessels of the United States as shall infract these laws, after due promulgation and notice; even if, but beyond this, the U. States hope and believe that his majesty will not go.
M. de Champagny will not fail to seize the dis- tinction which these remarks present, between the authority of municipal regulations and that of public law, and will decide whether it does or does not offer a ground on which the good under- standing, so long and so usefully maintained be- tween the U. States and France, may be preserv- ed, and a degree of intercourse between them revived, which shall have the effect of reanimating their former industry.
Does his majesty fear that the balance of trade arising from this renewed industry, would go to the advantage of England? Means are certainly
not wanting to prevent this consequence: would it not be entirely avoided by making it a condi- tion of the commerce in question, that all ships leaving France shall take (in some article, or arti- cles of her produce or manufacture) the full am- ount of the cargoes they bring hither?
Ships sailing under this regulation would or would not go voluntarily to England. If they went voluntarily, it would only be because that country afforded the best markets for the produc- tions of France, in which case the habitual re- sults would be entirely changed, and England, ceasing to receive a balance for her manufac- tures, would begin to pay one to the U. States on the productions of France. Could France wish a state of commerce more prosperous than this?
If, on the other hand, the American ships did not go voluntarily to England, but were captured and sent in for adjudication, it may be fairly pre- sumed, that the United States could no longer hesitate about becoming a party to the war against England.
Thus in either case the interests of his majesty would be directly advanced by the measure: in the one, the wants of France and her colonies would be not only regularly supplied, but she would herself become an entreaty for the supply of the continent: in the other, the wishes of his majesty as expressed in Feb. last, would be di- rectly promoted. Mr. Armstrong has the honor of renewing to M. de Champagny, the assurances of his very high consideration. To his excellency M. DE CHAM- PAGNY of exterior relations. }
Extract of a letter from Gen. Armstrong to the Se- cretary of State, dated BOURBON L'ARCHAMBAULT, 28th August, 1808.
"Since my arrival at this place, I have been honored by the receipt of your dispatch of the 21st ult. and would immediately return to Paris to re- new my discussions with M. de Champagny, ei- ther personally, as you suggest, or by writing, had I not the most solemn conviction that any new experiment made at the present moment in ei- ther form, and of official character, would cer- tainly be useless and probably injurious."
COPIES AND EXTRACTS OF LETTERS
FROM MR. MADISON TO MR. PINKNEY.
Extract of a letter from Mr. Madison, Secretary of State, to Mr. Pinkney, Minister of the United States, London, dated DEPARTMENT OF STATE, December 23d, 1807.
"Mr. Erskine having been so good as to let me know, that the mail of this evening will carry his dispatches for a British packet, which will sail from New-York, immediately on their arrival there, and other conveyances now failing, I avail myself of the opportunity to enclose you a copy of a message from the President to Congress, and their act in pursuance of it, laying an immediate embargo on our vessels and exports. The policy and the causes of the measure are explained in the message itself. But it may be proper to an- thorize you to assure the British government, as has been just expressed to its minister here, that the act is a measure of precaution only, called for by the occasion: that it is to be considered as neither hostile in its character, nor as justifying or inviting, or leading to hostility with any na- tion, and particularly as opposing no ob- stacle, to amicable negotiations and satis- factory adjustments with Great-Britain, on the subjects of difference between the two coun- tries." "The suddenness of the present opportunity does not allow me time to add more than a news- paper containing a part of the proceedings of Congress in relation to the embargo." "P. S. As you may be able to find convey- ances to Paris, whither none will for some time of- fer, I request the favor of you to commu- nicate to Gen. Armstrong the contents of this let- ter, and through him, or otherwise, to Mr. Erving at Madrid."
Extract of a letter from the same to the same, dated DEPARTMENT OF STATE, February 19, 1808.
"A vessel having been engaged to carry from the port of New-York public dispatch- es and mercantile letters to Europe, I avail myself of the opportunity of forwarding you a series of gazettes which contain the proceed- ings of Congress, and such current informa- tion as will give you a view of our internal affairs. They will be put with this letter into the hands of Mr. Nourse, a passenger in the dispatched vessel, who will deliver them at London; and as the vessel, which will have previously touched at L'Orient, will, after waiting ten or twelve days at Fal- mouth, return to that port, and thence to the United States, you will have an opportu- nity of sending thither any communications you may wish to make to Paris, as well as of transmitting to your government such as may follow up your correspondence, which at the present period will be the more ac- ceptable, the more it be frequent and full."
"My last, which was committed to the British packet, inclosed a copy of the act of embargo

violations of neutral commerce, and through them, the vast injury to France, antecedent to the Berlin decree. It is probable that something further is to pass between us on this subject."
Extract of a letter from the Secretary of State to Mr. Pinkney, Minister of the U. S. at London, dated
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
March 8, 1808.
"Having just learnt that the present mail will arrive at New-York in time for the British packet, I avail myself of the opportunity of forwarding your commission and letters of credence, as successor to Mr. Monroe in the legation at London."
Since my last, which went by Mr. Nourse in a dispatch vessel, bound first to L'Orient and then to Falmouth, I have received your communications of the 23d November, and of December. These, with a representation from general Armstrong to the French government on the subject of the decree of Berlin, as expounded and enforced in the case of the ship Horizon , were thought by the President to throw so much light on the course likely to be pursued by Great-Britain and France, in relation to the United States, that he had the documents confidentially laid before Congress."
Mr. Erskine has made a written communication on the subject of the British orders. I shall answer him as soon as the very urgent business on hand will permit."
Extract of a letter from the same to the same, dated
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
March 22, 1808.
"My last was dated the 8th instant, and went by the British packet. It acknowledged your letter of November 23d, and of December. I have since received those referred to in the latter, and also that of January 26, which came to hand last evening."
I cannot enclose my answer to Mr. Erskine's communication of the British orders; the unceasing pressure of other matters on a state of health, still feeble, having thus far delayed it. You will anticipate the complexion, which will necessarily be given to it, by the character of measures, not only violating our rights, and stabbing our interests; but superadding, under the name of indulgencies, a blow at our national independence and a mockery of our understandings."
From the same to the same.
(EXTRACTS)
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
April 4, 1808.
"My last was of March 22, and went under the care of Mr. Rose. I now forward printed copies of the correspondence with him, on the subject of his mission, and of the antecedent documents, relating to the case of the Chesapeake . As soon as the voluminous residue of the communications made to Congress issues from the press, it shall also be forwarded. You will find that they include certain documents relating to France, which were thought proper for the knowledge of Congress at the present crisis."
To those communications, I add copies of Mr. Erskine's letter to me, on the subject of the British decree of November last, and of my answer. And, that you may have a view of the ground which has been taken, with respect to the French decree of November, 1806, and to the judicial exposition, in the case of the Horizon , giving to it an illegal operation against the U. States, I enclose copies of two letters to general Armstrong on those subjects."
The President made to Congress, a few days ago, other communications relating to the present crisis, with Great Britain and France, among which were Mr. Erskine's letter, now enclosed, and a letter from Mr. Champagny to gen. Armstrong, explaining the course mediated by the French government, with respect to the commerce of the United States. These, being excepted from the confidential character attached to the others, have been published, and will be found among the printed enclosures.—Your letter of Feb. 26 was included in the communications to Congress, but not in the exception."
"The conduct of the two great contending nations towards this country, as it will now appear to it, and to the world, fully displays their mutual efforts to draw the U. States into a war with their adversary. The efforts on both sides, are too little disguised to be worthy the discernment of either, and are addressed, moreover, to motives which prove great ignorance of the character of the United States, and, indeed, of human nature."
"From the posture in which Mr. Rose's final reply to the compromise proposed to him, placed the question of adjustment, in the case of the Chesapeake , it remains with the British government to resume it, if adjustment be their object. Whether a tender of reparation will be made here, or to you, will also lie on that side. It will certainly be most becoming that government, under all circumstances, to make the reparation here; and this course might, of right, be insisted on by this government. The President, nevertheless, in the liberal spirit which always governs him, authorizes you to accept the reparation provided it be tendered spontaneously be charged with no condition, unless it be, that on the receipt of the act of reparation here, the proclamation of July 2 shall be revoked: and provided the reparation shall add to the disavowal of the attack on the Chesapeake , an express engagement, that the seamen retained shall be immediately restored, and that the guilty officer experience an exemplary punishment. The reparation will be the more satisfactory, and not exceed a just expectation, if the restoration of the seamen be made to the very ship from which they were wrested, and if provision be made for the wounded survivors, and for the families of those who lost their lives by the attack."
I must repeat, however, that it is considered entirely proper, that the reparation should be offered here, rather than in London; and it is only in the event of a decided repugnance in the British government to make it through a functionary here, that you are to accept it there."
"The answer to Mr. Erskine's letter on the British orders will furnish the grounds to be taken in your communications with his government on that subject. If the cabinet can be brought to view the orders in their true light, a revocation of the whole of them cannot fail to take place, unless they mean to violate every maxim of justice, or are fixed in hostile purposes against the United States. In not regarding the orders, indeed, as acts of hostility, and in trusting for redress to the motives and the means, to which they have appealed, the United States have given the most signal proof of their love of peace, and of their desire to avoid an interruption with the British nation."
Still it is to be understood, that whilst the insult offered in the attack on the American frigate remains unexpiated, you are not to pledge or commit your government to consider a recall of the orders as a ground on which a removal of the existing restrictions, on the commerce of the United States with Great-Britain, may be justly expected."
"The two letters to Gen. Armstrong of 22d May, 1807, and Feb. 8th, 1808, are proofs of the sincerity and impartiality with which the President has proceeded in relation to the belligerent parties; and may, perhaps, assist you in repressing unjust suspicions imbibed by the British cabinet. It would be happy for all parties, the belligerent, as well as the United States, if truth could in this case be made to prevail; and if the retaliating rivalry of the former against the latter could be converted into an emulation, as politic as it would be magnanimous in both, to take the lead in a fair, lawful and conciliatory course towards a nation which has done no wrong to either. Should the experiment be made on either side, it would probably be followed on the other; and it could never happen that the side first doing justice would suffer on that account."
In the present state of our relations to G. Britain, it would be premature to mark out the course to be pursued with respect to further negotiations on other topics than those above noticed. You are authorized, however, to continue your interpositions in behalf of our impressed or detained seamen; and in the event of a repeal of the British orders, and of satisfactory pledges for repairing the aggression on the Chesapeake , to enter into informal arrangements for abolishing impressments altogether, and mutually discontinuing to receive the seamen of each other into either military or merchant service, conformably to the instructions on this point transmitted by Mr. Purvis.
You will find by a passage in Mr. Rose's reply of March 17, that the British government does not maintain the principle, that the obligation of the United States extends beyond the discharge of deserters from their public service: and by an order of the Navy Department here, already carried into execution, of which a copy is enclosed, that it has lately been decided that no foreign seamen, whether deserters or not, shall serve on board our ships of war. The principles respectively manifested by these documents ought to facilitate such an adjustment as is contended for by the United States."
Extract of a letter from the same to the same.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
April 30, 1808.
"My last was of the 4th instant, and went by a British packet from New-York. I now forward a copy of it."
Congress ended their session on the night of the 25th instant. The series of newspapers, herewith sent, affords a view of their proceedings subsequent to the communications last made to you. Some other prints are included, which throw light on the workings of public opinion, and the state of public affairs."
You will find that the critical posture of our foreign relations has produced provisions of different kinds for our greater security; and particularly that no pains have been spared to stop every leak by which the effect of the embargo laws might be diminished. I refer you also to the report made to the Senate, by a committee, on the documents relating to the affair of the Chesapeake , and on the letters of Mr. Champagny and Mr. Erskine; and indicating the spirit which may be expected to influence the future policy of this country, if kept under the excitement resulting from the system now pursued against it.
You will observe, at the same time, that whilst a determination is sufficiently evinced against a dishonorable acquiescence in the despotic edicts enforced on the high seas, the United States are ready to resume their export trade, as soon as the aggressions on it shall cease; & that in a hope that this might happen during the recess of Congress, the President is authorized, in such an event, to suspend, in whole or in part, the several embargo laws.
The conditions on which the authority is to be exercised, appeal equally to the justice and policy of the two great belligerent powers, which are now emulating each other in a violation of both. The President counts on your endeavors to give to this appeal, all the effect possible with the British government. General Armstrong will be doing the same with that of France. The relation in which a revocation of its unjust decrees by either will place the United States to the other is obvious, and ought to be a motive to the measure, proportioned to the desire which has been manifested by each to produce collision between the United States and its adversary, and which must be equally felt by each, to avoid it with itself.
Should the French government revoke so much of its decrees as violate our neutral rights, or give explanations and assurances having the like effect, and entitling it therefore to a removal of the embargo, as it applies to France, it will be impossible to view a perseverance of Great-Britain, in her retaliating orders, in any other light than that of war, without even the pretext now assumed by her.
In order to entitle the British government to a discontinuance of the embargo, as it applies to Great-Britain, it is evident that all its decrees, as well those of January, 1807, as of November, 1807, ought to be rescinded, as they apply to the United States, and this is the rather to be looked for, from the present administration, as it has so strenuously contended that the decrees of both dates were founded on the same principles and directed to the same object.
Should the British government take this course, you may authorize an expectation that the President will, within a reasonable time, give effect to the authority vested in him, on the subject of the embargo laws. Should the orders be rescinded, in part only, it must be left to his free judgment to decide on the case. In either event you will lose no time in transmitting the information to this department, and to Gen. Armstrong and particularly in the event of such a course being taken by the British government as will render a suspension of the embargo certain or probable, it will be proper for you to make the communication by a courier to General Armstrong, to whom a correspondent instruction will be given, and to provide a special conveyance for it hither, unless British arrangements shall present an opportunity equally certain and expeditious."
EXTRACT.
Mr. Madison to Mr. Pinkney.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
July 12th 1808.
"Your communications by Mr. Lewis were safely delivered on the evening of the 8th instant. As it had been calculated that the interval between the return of Mr. Rose and the departure of Mr. Lewis would give sufficient time to the British government to decide on the course required by the posture in which the affair of the Chesapeake was left, its silence to you on that subject could not fail to excite the particular attention of the President; and the appearance is rendered the more unfavorable by the like silence, as we learn from Mr. Erskine, of the dispatches brought to him by the packet which left England and arrived at New-York at nearly the same time with the Osage . I have intimated to Mr. Erskine the impressions made by this reserve without, however, concealing our hope that the delay does not imply a final purpose of withholding reparation, and that the next communications from London will be of a different import. They must at least ascertain the real views of the British government on this interesting subject."
There were certainly no just grounds for Mr. Canning to expect any particular communications from you on the arrival of the Osage , unless they should have grown out of such accounts from France as would second our demands of justice from Great-Britain, particularly the revocation of her orders in council. And in imparting to him what you did from that quarter, every proof of candor was given which the occasion admitted.
If Mr. Canning was disappointed, because he did not receive fresh complaints against the orders in council, he ought to have recollected that you had sufficiently dwelt on their offensive features in the first instance; and that as he had chosen to make the formal communication of them to this government, through another channel, it was thro' that channel, rather than through you, that answers to it would be most regularly given.
"The communications and instructions forwarded by Mr. Purvis, who was a passenger in the St. Michael , will enable you to bring the British government to a fair issue on the subject of its orders. If it has nothing more in view than is willing to avow, it cannot refuse to concur in an arrangement, rescinding on her part the orders in council, and on ours, the embargo. If France should concur in a like arrangement, the state of things will be restored, which is the alleged object of the orders. If France does not concur, the orders will be better enforced by the continuance of the embargo against her, than they are by the British fleets and cruisers; and, in the mean time, all the benefits of our trade will be thrown into the lap of Great-Britain. It will be difficult, therefore, to conceive any motive in Great-Britain to reject the offer which you will have made, other than the hope of inducing, on the part of France, a perseverance in her irritating policy towards the United States, and on the part of the latter, hostile resentments against it."
If the British government should have elected the more wise and the more worthy course of meeting the overture of the President in the spirit which dictated it, it is to be hoped that measures will have been taken to concert with you, and through his minister here, for hastening as much as possible, the renewal of the intercourse which the orders and the embargo have suspended, and thereby smoothing the way for other salutary adjustments."
"It appears that the British government not satisfied with the general blockade by her orders of November 11th has superadded a particular blockade, or rather a diplomatic notification of an intended one of Copenhagen and the other foris in the island of Zealand; that is to say, a strict and legal blockade of the whole island. The island cannot be much less than two hundred miles in its outline, and is described as abounding in inlets. It is not probable, therefore, if it be possible, that a blockade, within the true definition, should be carried into effect. And as all defective blockades, whether so in the disproportion of force to the object, or in the mode of notification, will authorize fair claims of indemnification, it is the more necessary that guarded answers should be given in such cases, as heretofore suggested."
Since the British order of evidently inviting our citizens to violate the laws of their country, by patronizing on the high seas their vessels destitute of registers and other necessary papers, and therefore necessarily smugglers, if not pirates, the circular letter of Mr. Huskisson has made its appearance, in which the United States are named as alone within the purview of the order. A more extraordinary experiment is perhaps not to be found in the annals of modern transactions. It is levelled moreover against a nation towards which friendship is professed, as well as against a law, the justice and validity of which is not contested; and it sets the odious example, in the face of the world, directly in opposition to all the principles which the British government has been proclaiming to it. What becomes of the charge against the United States for receiving British subjects, who leave their own country contrary to their allegiance? What would be the charge against them, if they were, by proclamation, to invite British subjects, those too expressly and particularly prohibited from leaving their country, to elude the prohibition, or to tempt, by interested inducements, a smuggling violation or evasion of laws, on which Great-Britain founds so material a part of her national policy? In the midst of so many more important topics of dissatisfaction, this may not be worth a formal representation. But it will not be amiss to let that government understand the light in which the proceeding is regarded by this.—I have already touched on it to Mr. Erskine, with an intimation that I should not omit it in my observations to you."
The French decree said to have been issued at Bayonne has not yet reached this country. Such a decree, at such a time, has a serious aspect on the relations of the two countries, and will form a heavy item in our demands of redress. It is much to be regretted that the same time that any of our vessels, by neglecting to return home, and conforming to the arbitrary regulations of one belligerent, should expose themselves to the arbitrary proceedings of another. So strong and general indignation seems particularly to prevail here against the Americans in Europe who are trading under British licences, and thereby sacrificing, as far as they can, the independence of their country, as well as frustrating the laws which were
intended to guard American vessels and mariners from the dangers incident to foreign commerce, that their countenance in that career ought to be frowned upon, and their return home promoted in every proper manner. It appears by information from our consul at Tangier, that great numbers of our vessels are engaged in a trade between Great-Britain and Spanish ports, under licences from the former, and that the experiment proves as unsuccessful as it is dishonorable; the greater part of them being either arrested in port, or by French and Spanish cruisers."
(To be continued.)
CONGRESS.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
[FROM THE MONITOR.]
FRIDAY, November 13, 1808.
Mr. Holmes from the committee of claims made a report upon the petition of certain inhabitants of Knox county, state of Kentucky, which concludes with the following resolution. Resolved, That the prayer of sundry inhabitants of Knox county, in the state of Kentucky, is reasonable and ought to be granted: Which being read in due form, was committed to a committee of the whole house on Monday next.
Mr. Morrow presented a petition from the inhabitants of the Indiana territory, stating their inability to pay the instalments falling due for their lands, purchased of the U. S. but that notwithstanding they find their means of payment suspended, and sincerely regret the causes which have produced a scarcity of circulating medium and the loss of a market, yet they are decidedly of opinion that the measures pursued by the general government were those, and those only, that have saved our country from the evils and distresses of war; and which measures they are willing to support with their lives as well as their property. Referred to the committee on public lands.
Mr. Lewis presented a petition from the vestry of the Episcopal Church in the town of Alexandria, praying for leave to institute a lottery to raise 12,000 dollars, for the purpose of building a new church and purchasing a burial place. Referred to the committee on the affairs of the District of Columbia.
The Speaker laid before the house a variety of papers transmitted from the legislative council of the Indiana territory, among which was a petition of sundry inhabitants of that Territory, stating in the most unequivocal language their entire disapprobation of any attempt to introduce slavery into that territory; which petition is accompanied with the report of a committee of the house of representatives of said territory, to the same effect as the petition itself. And,
A resolution instructing their delegate in congress "to use his endeavors to procure a law to be passed, vesting the powers of electing the members of the said council in the citizens of the said territory, entitled to vote for representatives to the general assembly, and that the continuance in office of the members of such council shall be for the term of four years only," and also, "for the passage of a law vesting the power of electing a delegate to congress in the citizens of the territory." &c.
The whole were ordered to lie on the table.
The certificate of the election of Jesse B. Brown, to represent the Indiana territory, in the last session of the 10th congress, was produced and accepted [Mr. Brown is chosen in the room of Mr. Parke, appointed a judge.]
Mr. Holmes, from the committee of claims, made a favorable report on the petition of Daniel Cotton, which was received, and committed to a committee of the whole house on Tuesday next.
Mr. Rhea, from the committee on post offices and post roads, reported a bill, (on the principle of Mr. Randolph's motion) providing for franking all documents relative to public service. Read a first and second time, and made the order of day for Monday next.
Mr. Poindexter called for the order of the day, on the bill for revoking certain powers at present vested in the governors of territories dependent upon the United States, which being acquiesced in, Mr. Helms was called to the chair.
Mr. Bibb denied that the house had the power to pass the bill before them; and surely if they had not the right, it would be superfluous to insist upon the policy. The Mississippi territory was formerly the property of Georgia, and had been ceded to the United States upon certain conditions, one of which was, that the ordinances for the government of the Western territory of the U. States should constitute the rule of government for the U. States had no right to infringe the compact—no right to alter it without the consent of Georgia. If the ordinance could be varied in one part, it could in another.
Mr. Troup moved for the committee to rise.
Mr. Poindexter enquired if the gentleman from Georgia had made his motion, with a view merely to a report of the bill without amendment?
Mr. Troup replied, that if the committee consented to rise, he should move to postpone the further consideration of the bill indefinitely.
Mr. Poindexter said, in that case, he should be obliged to discuss its merits.
Mr. Poindexter then vindicated the bill upon the grounds that the power at present vested in the territorial governors was arbitrary, contrary to the spirit of the constitution of the U. States, a vestige of the British colonial system, unnecessary in itself, and oppressive to the people.
Mr. Troup contested the power of the house to pass the bill without the assent of the state of Georgia; asserted that the territories were the dependents and not the equals of the states, and that the remedy proposed would not alleviate the condition of the people of the Mississippi territory.
Mr. Bibb supported the arguments of his colleague.
The committee rose, reported, and asked leave to sit again; which leave was by the house refused.
Mr. Van Allen reported the bill franking the executive message of the 8th inst. as approved by the president.
Mr. Troup moved to postpone the further consideration of the bill respecting the powers of territorial governors to an indefinite period.
Mr. Poindexter said he should regret it, if the bill were thrown out; but must, of course, submit to the will of the majority. He should, however, call for the yeas and nays on the question.
The yeas and nays having been agreed to be taken, Mr. Dana called for the reading of the articles of cession from Georgia, which related to the point in question, which Mr. Troup having read, the clerk proceeded to call the ayes & noes, and the motion to postpone was carried—Ayes 57—Nays 52.
Mr. Smith moved that when the house adjourn, it adjourn to Monday. He remarked that the committee which had the subject of our foreign relations before it would shortly report. (he understood on Monday) when the house would be enabled to proceed with the great concerns of the nation. To give that committee time to consummate its report, he made the motion. It was agreed to; and the house adjourned.
MONDAY, Nov. 21, 1808.
No business of consequence was done this day. An engrossed bill to enable the members to transmit all public documents during the session free of postage, was passed.
Mr. Love, from the committee appointed on the petition of those men who engaged in the Miranda expedition, and who are now confined in prison and in irons in South America, reported a resolution, that the President of the United States might be requested to adopt measures to obtain from the Spanish Vice-Roy the releasement of the thirty-six American citizens so held in confinement, and that dollars be appropriated for that purpose.
It was urged that the house immediately agree to the report, but it was definitively carried to submit it to a committee of the whole house.
Mr. Dana presented a petition from the state of Connecticut, and Mr. Quincy one from Massachusetts praying for the repeal of the embargo laws. Referred to the committee of the whole to whom was committed that subject.
The order of the day on the subject of the embargo was then called for.
The question, shall the house go into committee thereon? was taken by yeas and nays. It passed in the negative—Yeas 43, Nays 71.
Mr. Dana, after a few introductory remarks, proposed the following resolution:
Resolved, That it is expedient to provide for regulating the conduct of such merchant vessels, as, by agreement of the respective owners, may sail in concert for mutual assistance and defence, in cases which may be allowed by law, and also for settling, according to the course of proceeding in courts of admiralty, the respective rates of contributions to be made between them on account of any loss or damage which may be thereby incurred.
Mr. D. proposed to refer it to a select committee, it being a necessary mercantile defence.
Mr. Eppes opposed its reference to a select committee, because he supposed it to be involved in the main principle (of the embargo question) which was now pending, and therefore hoped it would be referred to the committee of the whole on that subject.
Mr. Dana opposed this reference. He had no desire to change our relations, or to enact any particular system which might be adopted, but he considered and desired that the resolution should exist forever in our statute book. He referred to the Barbarian and Asiatic depredators on our commerce to enforce his argument for a permanent preparatory statute.
Mr. Eppes still contended for the propriety of its reference to a committee of the whole house, to which was submitted the general subject of depredation, because he considered it intimately allied with the business now pending, and because gentlemen would have the most fair opportunity then of explaining, defending or opposing it. He did not conceive it proper to refer to the use of which the armming of our merchant vessels might eventually be made, until it was determined that they should be armed at all. This subject remained still to be discussed, then it would undoubtedly become a subject for decision, but not before.
On a question for reference to a committee of the whole on the state of the union, it was carried 59 to 39.
Mr. Newton, from the committee of commerce and manufactures, reported a bill to authorize the President of the United States to employ an additional number of revenue cutters.
On a motion to refer the bill to a committee of the whole, this day was mentioned for its consideration, which was lost, and it was determined to be taken up to-morrow.
A business which was before the house at the last session, and not acted upon, for an additional compensation to the witnesses attending the trial of Aaron Burr, at Richmond, was called up and referred to a select committee.
In the course of the sitting, several private petitions were presented and referred to the committees to whom their subjects related.
Mr. Morrow made a report on the public lands, which was ordered to be printed. Adjourned.
SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONDAY, Nov. 21, 1808.
The senate were this day engaged, according to order, in consideration of Mr. Hillhouse's resolution for the repeal of the embargo laws. A very spirited debate took place, in which the resolution was advocated by Messrs. Hillhouse and Lloyd, and opposed by Messrs. Smith (of Md.) and Pope. The speeches of all these gentlemen shall appear at length in our next Monitor. The senate adjourned without coming to a decision.
REPORT
Of the Committee to whom was referred on the sixteenth instant, the petition of thirty-six American citizens confined at Corthagena, in South-America, under Sentence of Slavery. REPORT:
THAT it appears from the statement of the petitioners, that in February, 1806, they sailed from New-York on board the Leander , a ship owned by Samuel G. Ogden, the command of which was, after getting to sea, assumed by general Miranda.
The said ship sailed to Jacmel, where the said Miranda procured two schooners, on board which the petitioners were placed; which, together with the Leander , sailed under the command of Miranda, about the last of March in the same year, for the northern parts of South-America, and arrived on the coast of Terra Firma, in the latter part of April following.
That upon their arrival on the said coast, the two schooners, on board which the petitioners were embarked, were captured by two Spanish armed vessels, the ship Leander , with Miranda on board, having made her escape.
That the petitioners, together with ten others, were convicted by a Spanish tribunal, at Porto Cavello, of the crime of piracy, from the circumstances of suspicion which attached to their situation, and not from any act of that kind committed on the high seas; that the ten others above mentioned were sentenced to death, and the petitioners, some to eight, others to ten years, which they now are suffering, some chained together, others closely confined under heavy irons and a guard; destined to other places, and to similar punishment.
The petitioners state that they were entrapped by the said Miranda, on the said expedition, by assurances made at the time of their engagements, that they were to be employed in the service of the United States, and under the authority of the government; for the truth of their statement, and a confirmation of the charges they make against certain persons, of having thus deceived and betrayed them into an involuntary co-operation in the design of fitting out an armament against a nation in amity with the United States, they refer to the testimony of several persons said to be inhabitants of the city of New-York, and to have had proposals made to them, similar, to those by which the petitioners were induced to engage on board the Leander .

the petitioners also state, that no opportunity was offered them of escaping from the service of Miranda and his associates; that they were restrained under the most rigorous discipline, and at Jacmel, the only place, where an opportunity of escape might have been probable, they were strictly guarded to prevent it. For the truth of this, they refer to certain captains of vessels then at Jacmel, belonging to the ports of Philadelphia and Baltimore.
The committee further report, That the foregoing statements of the petitioners, are unaccompanied by any competent testimony in support of them, and at the same time are uncontradicted by any opposing circumstances; they are of opinion, that a very strong probability of the petitioners, not having been guilty of the crime of wilfully engaging in the unlawful expedition of Miranda, attends their application.
First. Because the petitioners have made a detailed statement of facts, relative to the deception practised on them, referring to such species of evidence, as to render their contradiction easy, if not founded in truth, and thus lessen their claim on their country, and diminish their hopes of liberation.
Second. Because it is presumed they are proven to the Spanish tribunal before which they were convicted, to have been offenders in a secondary degree, those who were proven to have been more heinously guilty, having been sentenced to suffer death.
The committee, however, are of opinion, that should the petitioners have been guilty of a crime against the United States, by a voluntary, or otherwise culpable infraction of its laws, that nevertheless the dictates of humanity, no less than the principles of justice, ought to influence the legislature of the United States, to adopt the proper means for restoring them to their country, in order that they may expiate the offence by a punishment suited to, but not transcending the magnitude of their crime.
The committee, therefore, beg leave to submit the following resolution for the consideration of the house.
Resolved, That the president of the United States be requested to adopt the most immediate and efficacious means in his power, to obtain from the viceroy of Grenada, in South America, another viceroy, the liberation of thirty-six American citizens, condemned on a charge of piracy, and now held in slavery in the vaults of St. Clara, in Carthagena, and that the sum of _____ dollars, be appropriated to that purpose.
MARYLAND LEGISLATURE.
The following resolutions were read in the Senate on the 11th inst. the first and second time, by special order, assented to, and sent to the house of delegates.
By the Senate. Nov. 11.
Whereas great doubts are entertained and great diversity of opinion seems to prevail, in relation to the power exercised by congress touching the right of individual states to regulate and settle the manner of electing their representatives to congress.—And whereas serious fears are entertained, by some of the good people of this state, that the principles upon which Congress decided in the premises, if conceded by the states, will greatly tend to abridge the rights of individual states, and to impair their sovereign powers.—Therefore resolved, that Mr. Coogington, Mr. Lowry and Mr. Partridge, be a committee, on the part of the Senate, in conjunction with such committee as may be appointed by the house of delegates to enquire, whether any and if any, what alterations are necessary in the laws, regulating the election of members of congress; and that such committee be authorised to report by bill or otherwise.
NEW-JERSEY ELECTION.
(By General Ticket.)
CONGRESS.
Highest on Republican ticket 18,705 do. Anti-Rep. do. 14,702
ELECTORS OF PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT.
Highest on Republican ticket 18,706 do. Anti-Rep. do. 14,687
SIX Republican members of Congress and EIGHT Madisonian Electors are of course elected from the state of New Jersey by an average majority of upwards of four thousand votes. WELL DONE! Jersey Blues!
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS.
Pord, Southard, Helms, J. Cox, Newbold and Huffy.
ELECTORS.
Mott, Morgan, Harrison, Welch, Egbert, Hendry, Burgin and Smith.
ELECTION FOR ELECTORS.
Ohio.—Stephen Wood, Nathaniel Massie and Thomas M'Cune, all republican and pledged to vote for Mr. Madison, elected by a great Majority.
The total votes for representative in Congress for the state of Ohio have been received, and are as follows:
For Jeremiah Morrow, rep. 10,309 P. Beecher, fed. 4,505
Majority.
5,804
A large proportion of the votes for Mr. Beecher were given, not from political, but local considerations.
New-Hampshire.—126 towns give the federal ticket 10,456, and the Republican ticket 9,512, making a republican gain, compared with the late congressional election, of 1729. One hundred and four towns remain to be heard from.
RALIGH, (N. C.) Nov. 17.
In this state, our elections for Electors, took place on Friday last. In this district the votes were as follows:
Wake, 492 338 Granville, 657 283 Johnston, 254 209 1403 835
Colonel Taylor will vote for Madison and Clinton.
We have no correct return from any other district, but we have heard by a gentleman immediately from the Tarborough District, that Mr. Toole the Madisonian candidate, is certainly elected. It is also supposed that Col. Christmas has been successful in the Hillsborough District, though it is yet somewhat doubtful, on account of an error in holding two of the separate elections in Chatham on Friday instead of Thursday, (the law for electing Members of the General Assembly, appointing the separate elections in that county, on the day previous to the election at the court house.) In the Wilmington district, Governor Ashe, the Republican candidate, is certainly elected.
There is scarcely any doubt but the following Republican Electors are chosen: Kemp Plummer for the Warren district; gen. Thos. Wynne in the Hertford district; gen. Jos. Riddick in the Edenton district; Sam'l Lindsey in the Guilford
district. Wellborn in the Surry district; Col. P. Forney in the Mecklenburg district; & Wm. Love in the Burke district. In the Salisbury district it is doubtful whether Judge Locke or Louis Beard, the Federal candidate, is elected.
Manufactures in Connecticut.—Three pieces superfine Broadcloth, manufactured at Humphreyville, one of full blooded Merino wool, grown in this country, and the other two pieces, of the wool of the half blooded Merinos, were exhibited to the general assembly at its late session, to the high approbation of the members.—The first piece was judged to be equal in fineness and goodness to cloths now sold at 10 or 11 dollars per yard; the others to those which are worth 6 dollars per yard. We understand these and some pieces of cotton cloth from the same factory have been sent to Philadelphia, where extraordinary encouragement for the sale of Homespun cloths is afforded by the domestic society.—Con. Herald.
COMMUNICATION.
The words of the Poet— "How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest!"
have seldom been more conspicuously exemplified than in the respect and affection which have been recently expressed by all classes of citizens for the character of the late CAPTAIN STEPHEN DECATUR. While his services and sacrifices during the revolutionary war, and the promptness with which he hoisted the flag of his country, in the year 1776, have been mentioned by the public with gratitude, and his many friends have borne an affectionate testimony to his social and domestic virtues. There lives not, perhaps, a man that ever suffered by an unjust or unkind act from the hands of Capt. Decatur; and there live many hundreds who have been benefited by his friendship and charities. His creed as a Patriot, will long be remembered from the toast he gave at an entertainment given in this city in honor of his son's exploits at Tripoli, "Our Sons, the Property of our Country." One of his own perished in that enterprize. (Relf.)
THE ENQUIRER.
RICHMOND, NOVEMBER 25, 1808.
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE EASTERN STATES. NO. I.
A man, in whose veins there flows not a drop but of American blood—whose heart beats so high in the cause of the independence of his country, that "the last spot in which the hope of freedom would desert him, there would he hold, and the last intrenchment of Liberty should be his grave"—a man who considers the union of these States as the sacred ark of our political covenant—begs leave to address you.
The times are gloomy and portentous almost beyond example. The sceptre of the Eastern world is divided amongst two great nations; one commanding the element of land, the other of the water. Their concussions have destroyed all the laws of the civilized world. Then war is not so much waged between themselves, as upon the innocent and unoffending neutrals. For all the rights which have been usually attached to neutrality, are broken and despised.
Amidst these shocks and embarrassments, the people of the United States, the great neutral nation of the Universe, feel themselves peculiarly aggrieved. Scarce a privilege of theirs has escaped the wreck of morality. Scarce a vestige of their commerce has eluded the rapacity of the licenced freebooters of the seas. Scarce a vessel can seek its natural mart of destination without incurring the inevitable risk of capture and confiscation. In such times as these, when the rights and independence of our common country are so boldly assailed by piracy and corruption—when our national sovereignty on the high seas is assaulted, brow-beaten and almost despised.—When usurpations are boldly maintained that would so materially limit the range of our vessels, and the export of our productions—when the lasting interests of the merchant and the agriculturist are assailed with the same wanton and malignant intention; it is time for us to rally round the banners of our country. The times require that we should all peaceably and harmoniously assemble around the great fire of the nation. The people of the South should hold communion with those of the North; the East with the West. For as their vital interests are the same, their understanding ought to be complete and their exertions ought to be common and united.
To you then, fellow citizens of the East, I beg leave to address myself. I address myself to the honest yeomanry of the community, who need only light to guide their steps in the paths of patriotism; to those virtuous men, who have never bowed nor bent the knee to created man; to those enlightened Americans, who value the independence and honor of their country too dearly to dispose of it for a "mess of pottage," or the most magnificent luxuries. I address myself to the descendants of those virtuous men, who gave the tributary tea of G. Britain to the waves, and could pour forth their patriotic emotions in the most affecting effusions; to the heirs of such men, as could feel, that "if they arrested the hand which would ransom our pockets, if they nobly defeated that fatal edict, which proclaims a power to make laws for us in all cases whatsoever, thereby entailing the endless and numberless curses of slavery upon us, our heirs and their heirs forever; if they successfully resist that unparalleled usurpation of unconstitutional power, whereby our coasts are lined, and harbors crowded with ships of war; whereby the unalienable and inestimable inheritance which we derived from nature, the constitution of Britain, and the privileges warranted to us in the charter of the province, is totally wrecked, annulled, and vacated: Posterity will acknowledge that virtue which preserved them free and happy; and while they enjoy the rewards and blessings of the faithful, the torrent of panegyrist will roll their reputations to that latest period, when the streams of time shall be absorbed in the abyss of eternity."
Who are they, that thus insolently assail us? Who are they that thus call upon you, fellow-countrymen of the East, to remember and revive the pristine virtue of your illustrious progenitors?—Let us go at once to the great root of these evils.
At this time the United States should not
* Extract from the eloquent Resolutions of the County of Suffolk in Massachusetts, presented to the first Congress, in 1774.
forget the peculiar traits, which mark the history and state of Great Britain. Her proud and avaricious disposition is continually embroiling her in wars with the continent. Her great source of prosperity at the same time is the flourishing state of her commerce.
The first object of her wishes; therefore; the leading point of her policy, is to be able to gratify this belligerent propensity, without abridging the means of her commercial prosperity.
There is however but one way of reconciling these contradictory objects.
During the wars in which she is involved, neutral bottoms have decided advantages over her own in two respects. They have not only an access to those belligerent ports from which she is excluded, but being less liable to the risk of capture than her own bottoms, their insurance is less, and consequently their freight is lower. In those branches of trade, therefore, which they are both permitted to carry on, neutral vessels have a decided preference to her own.
It is, therefore, one of the leading objects of Great Britain to attempt to place her commerce as nearly as possible on the same grounds with the commerce of neutrals. But as she cannot elevate her own commerce to the same level with the natural commerce of neutrals, her policy is to draw them down to the same level with herself. It being impossible to make the advantages of the belligerent equal to those of the neutral situation, she is determined to reduce the neutral as near as possible to the situation of the belligerent.
Hence most of those numerous restrictions, so unjustifiable by the laws of war, which she has laid upon the trade of neutrals, almost with the same assiduity as if they were belligerents. In this manner it is, that without any formal declaration of war against their people. Her present indirect is, that the object of these restrictions is to distress the resources of her enemy. It is not, however, difficult to see, in various cases, that her real inducement is to reduce the resources of neutral trade to the same level with her own.
If such were not the motive of Great Britain, why does she proclaim whole coasts and even countries in a state of blockade, when it is not only impossible to invest them with all her naval forces, but to abridge the military means of her enemy?
Why does she sometimes institute blockades of whole coasts, reserving, perhaps, a few entire ports for the introduction of her own manufactures, if her object was not to curtail the general commerce of neutrals, at the same time reserving to herself an opportunity of transporting her own manufactures into the ports of her enemy?
Why does Great Britain subject to capture, a neutral trade, not open in time of peace, when she expressly reserves the right of carrying on the same trade to her own vessels? It is too evident, that many of the exertions which G. Britain has pretended to make for distressing the resources of her enemy, have been only restrictions upon the commerce of neutrals; and that amidst all these restrictions upon neutral commerce, she has ever bent a sleepless eye upon the extension of her own trade, and the prosperity of her own manufactures.
The question therefore comes home with irresistible force "to the business and bosoms" of the citizens of the United States. Notwithstanding those general and vague terms in which Great Britain may choose to invest her Instructions and Orders, the United States are the only great neutral nation now in existence. To them therefore, this question is imperiously addressed: "Will you suffer Great Britain to wrest from you the advantages of your neutral position?"
Will you unresistingly consent that she should reduce your commerce to the same level with her own? Will you permit her to play off the whole fire of her artillery of restrictions upon you, under the contemptible pretext of retrenching the resources or retaliating the policy of her enemy? She has already excluded your commerce from whole coasts of the continent and the West Indies, under the vague plea of a blockade, unaccompanied perhaps by a single investment of actual force. She has debarr'd you from the enjoyment of your rightful commerce, with the colonies of her enemy; that very commerce, which she has herself solemnly acknowledged to be just. She has impressed more than 4000 of your native born seamen during the present war.—And now, as if disgusted with the affectation of a longer forbearance, she has aimed a blow at your commercial rights, which is calculated to reduce the value of your neutral flag almost to a cypher—as well as to annihilate your Independence on the Ocean. Her Orders in Council are aspiring to reduce your commerce, even to a lower state of colonial vassalage, than oppressed you, when you were the colonies of Great Britain. At that time you were at liberty to transport many of your staple productions to the S. of cape Finisterre, and without the expence of a dishonorable tribute. But under her orders of council, you must carry every thing that is bound to the continent (exclusive of the barren coasts of Sweden,) to the ports of Great Britain, from which it can only be redeemed by the payment of a tribute. Your imports from the continent are subject to the same difference of restrictions. Unless the people of the United States are virtuous and energetic enough to arrest these encroachments by their common and generous resistance; this solemn truth will be hereafter incorporated with the annals of our country; that in all future wars, to which Great Britain may be a party, the commerce of the United States will be exposed to the rapacity and depredations of a rival, inflamed by jealousy, and animated by submission."
This, then, is the point, at which the United States must make their stand. If they yield now to the Encroachments of Great Britain, her belligerent bottoms will be as good as our neutral ones. Our commerce will be the complete sport and victim of the same restrictions, at any time when she may choose to impose them.—
Do you expect, that these depredations will be small in extent, because British wars will be limited in their number and their duration? Let us take an example & warning from the past. Let us consult the annals of British transactions. Let us interrogate these affecting monuments of the ambition and pride, the avarice and cupidity of the people of Britain. What an awful light do these memorials of the past shed upon our future prospects! The following brief catalogue presents to us in one point of view the relative periods of Peace and War exhibited in British annals. The wars enrolled on this list, were not the wars of religious enthusiasm, nor all, the wars about the balance
of political power. Many were the contests of commerce, and contests about colonies, those contests in which the future annals of G. Britain, are destined to be deeply involved.
Y. M. 1689 May Y. M. PEACE. 4 8 { 1697 Sept. 8 4 { 1702 May WAR. 4 8 6 4 { 1712 Aug. 10 3 { 1718 Dec. 2 6 5 8 { 1721 June 2 6 { 1727 Mar. 0 2 12 4 { 1739 Oct. 8 7 { 1748 May 7 5 7 0 { 1756 June 7 5 { 1762 Nov. 4 9 15 7 { 1778 June 4 9 { 1783 Mar. 9 2 9 10 { 1795 Jan. 9 2 { 1802 Mar. 5 6 1 2 { 1803 May { 1808 Nov. 62 7 56 8
Nearly one-half of futurity, in which the U. States may expect the most capricious and extensive encroachments on their rights from the naval power of G. Britain, if they now submit to her existing aggressions.
I have as yet said nothing as to France—not because I am insensible to her injustice—but because the ruling policy of that nation is less hostile to our commerce, than that of Great Britain. France on the land has been just as overbearing and destructive as G. Britain on the ocean. The usurpation of her present chieftain of the throne of his adopted country, his subjugation of Switzerland, Italy and the confederation of the Rhine, his selfish assiduity in carving out Empires for his brethren, the murder of the Duc d'Enghien, are so many imperishable monuments of the degeneracy and corruption of his principles. His unprovoked and perfidious invasion of Spain, combining the subjection of the Fox with the rapacity of the Tiger, will stand on record as an ample equivalent for the conquest of Poland, the murders of Ishmael and Prague, the attack of Copenhagen, and the theft of the Danish fleet. The unconcerned tranquility with which he has trampled under foot the Convention of 1800, and the laws of nations; the impunity which he has extended to the burning of untried, uncondemned American vessels, are not very favorable omens of the justice or forbearance, with which he would have wielded the trident of the ocean. But notwithstanding these aggressions, it must be confessed, that whilst France has whipped us with rods, Great Britain has scourged us with scorpions. These wrongs principally emanated out of the previous aggressions of England. Her abortive attempts to starve France during the last war by her Instructions of June 8th, 1793, commanding her privateers "to stop and detain all vessels loaded wholly or in part with corn, flour and meal;"—her additional instructions of Nov. 6th, 1793, to annihilate the trade of neutral vessels in goods even "the produce of any colony belonging to France, or carrying provisions or other supplies for the use of such colony;" are so many proofs of the wrongs inflicted by Great Britain on the rights of France as well as of the U. States.—The same encroachments during the present war—the same efforts to proclaim whole coasts in a state of blockade—to curtail the commerce of French colonies—and now the daring experiment of making the commerce of the United States the humble tributary of the British Exchequer—can never be wrapt in oblivion.—While these aggressions continue upon record, the encroachments of France will have some pretence to the apology of retaliation. But whatever may be the spirit of her conduct to the people of the continent, her attacks upon the maritime rights of the United States have been infinitely less atrocious than those of her enemy. France has not reduced 4000 of our unhappy countrymen to impressment and slavery. France has not burnt an English armed vessel within our acknowledged jurisdiction. France has not murdered one of our own countrymen on our own coasts. France has made no unprovoked attack upon a national vessel of the United States. France was not the first to interdict our trade with the colonies of her enemy.
It is not the interest of the French government to volunteer such aggressions upon the rights of the United States. During the wars in which she is engaged with England, it is her interest rather to cherish than consume our commerce. She is not jealous as G. B. is, of our commercial prosperity. It is not her interest to merge the privileges of neutrals in the restrictions of the belligerent. To extend the rights of the neutral flag—to multiply the number of neutral bottoms—is the true policy of a power, whose commercial navy is expelled from the ocean, and whose numerous productions must be principally transmitted under neutral protection.
But though France was not the first in the series of aggressions—though it is not her natural policy to be so—yet has she perpetrated injuries upon us, which provoke our warmest indignation and demand the greatest caution. Her extension to the United States of the Berlin Decree, the stipulations of her Milan decree, must deeply mingle with the just complaints of our country, and the causes of the policy pursued by the present administration.
Having taken these general views of the aggressions of the powers of Europe, let us enter more minutely into the present situation of our country. Let us enquire into those duties, which the times so imperiously impose upon you and the citizens of the South. Let us investigate the justice of those clamours and prejudices, which an faction is so busily striving to instill into your bosoms against your brethren of the South and the measures of your government. The investigation may not be altogether useless to ourselves and our country.
A FREEMAN.
Mr. Canning pretends to speak lightly of our Embargo Laws. The reason is obvious. But the acts of the British government speak a different language. Why those infamous instructions, protecting and tempting our own citizens to bring them our productions? Why those curious instructions of July 13, permitting the disposition of British manufactures and the acquisition of raw materials, through the medium of a trade between British and French W. I. Islands? Why the secret service money expended in Philadelphia and elsewhere, to encourage the exportation of food to the W. I. by indemnifying the shipper against the penalty of his bond? Why Mr. Erskine's anxiety to prove at Washington, that the crops are not quite so short in England?—Beware, sir minister of his Britannic majesty, you over-do your cause by
too much assiduity. Remember the old maxim, Artis est celare artem.
COMMUNICATION.
It is said that John Marshall Esq. the Chief Justice of the U. States, in his charge to the Grand Jury, during the term of the court now sitting, did not utter one word about the violations or violators of the embargo laws.—Why? Is it because this case does not fall within the jurisdiction of the circuit court, Or for what reason?
COMMUNICATION.
A friend considers the application of the following Fable of that honest old Fabulist and Moral-ist Esop, as very appropriate to the present contest in our state, concerning the Presidential Election:
The HERMIT and the BEAR. A certain Hermit having done a good office to a Bear, the grateful creature was so sensible of his obligation, that he begged to be admitted as the guardian and companion of his solitude. The Hermit willingly accepted his offer, & conducted him to his cell, where they passed their time together, in an amicable manner. One very hot day, the Hermit having laid him down to sleep, the officious Bear employed himself in driving away the flies from his patrons face; but in spite of all his care, one of the flies returned to the attack, and at last settled upon the Hermit's nose: "Now I shall have you most certainly," said the Bear: and with the best intention imaginable, gave him a violent blow on the face, which very effectually indeed, demolished the fly, but at the same time most terribly bruised the face of his benefactor.
MORAL. The random zeal of indiscriminate friends, is often as hurtful as the wrath of enemies.
Election of Electors, from OFFICIAL Returns received by the Executive.
Returns from 70 counties, 2 boroughs, and this city, in our last, Madison Monroe Pierce Ticket. Ticket. Ticket. Ticket. Grayson, 134 00 499 Wood, 49 71 00 Westmoreland, 48 90 00 Washington, 354 7 00 Hardy, 31 73 00 Brooke, 112 66 00 Ohio, 182 1 00 Pendleton, 85 39 3 Greenville, 127 3 00 Berkeley, 131 154 00 Bedford, 160 15 7 Patrick, 104 0 7 Harrison, 93 17 0 Lee, 52 09 0 Lancaster, 154 22 00 13870 3308 434
LAMBERT, ONE OF THE LIVING WONDERS OF THE WORLD, is represented in the celebrated Museum of
WAX-WORK,
Now exhibiting at the Tavern of Mr. Brooks, opposite the Enquirer Printing Office.—This remarkable person is now living in London, aged 35, and weighs upwards of Seven Hundred lb.—It is proved to a demonstration, by persons who have seen the original, that he is represented to the life.
The death of LORD NELSON, surrounded by his Officers in his dying moments, is the greatest master piece ever exhibited.
JASON FAIRBANKS in the act of murdering ELIZA FALES, his Sweet-Heart.—This striking representation calls forth the pity and horror from the human breast.
This Museum is comprised of thirty selected Figures, from the first collection in America, which are particularly described in hand-bills. nov. 25. [ow3w]
WILLIAM SCOTT begs leave to inform his friends and the public, that he has commenced the BOOT & SHOE cleaning business, in the little Wood House of Col. Bullock, to the left of his brick lumber-houses, and opposite the Basin, where he will be ready to accommodate gentlemen at all hours. He has on hand a quantity of the first quality Liquid Blacking for sale at 4s 6d per bottle, he will also clean Coat-Tops of any color at 3s. per pair. nov. 25. [ow5w]
EDUCATION.—The Subscriber (residing in the county of Hanover, about 30 miles from Richmond,) having employed Mr. Wm. Nelson, jr. to instruct a small number of boys, including his children, purposes taking a few boarders, in order to make up the SCHOOL. Mr. Nelson has in his possession, the most satisfactory testimonials of his qualifications as a Teacher of the following branches of Education, viz. The Greek and Latin Languages, English Grammar, Mathematics, the Elements of Natural Philosophy, Belles Lettres, Cegraphy with the use of the Globe, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. His price for Board, Tuition, Washing, Fuel, &c is £3 30, payable quarterly in advance. The School will commence on Monday the 9th of January next, and expire the 1st of December following. WILLIAM FONTAINE. November 25. (Or.)
FOR SALE, the TENEMENT on which the subscriber lives, situated on Church-Hill, within about one mile of Richmond Market, containing two and half acres of Land, well enclosed and highly improved. The buildings consist of a large and well constructed Dwelling-House, Laundry, Kitchen, Dairy, Smoke-House, 2 Stores, Brick Office, Coach-House, Barn, Stables, and Ice-House. All these buildings are in complete order for the accommodation of a large and genteel family, who may have easy access to all the advantages of the city, and live as retired as they could wish JOHN ELLIS. nov. 25. [ow6ff]
WANTING to rent, a small FARM, in the neighborhood of Richmond,

DOMESTIC.
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 17.
SHIP COMET.
The following statement from a number of disinterested and respectable Captains and Mates of Vessels, fully explains the nature of the accident which obliged the ship Comet to put into the Havana, on her voyage from Philadelphia to New Orleans; and must remove those erroneous impressions which, for party purposes, have been attempted to be excited by the most scandalous misrepresentations.
We the undersigned captains and mates of vessels lately arrived here from the Havana, having seen in the news papers, certain false and malicious assertions respecting the ship Comet, capt. Charles Dixey, calculated to injure him, and the officers and owners of the said vessel—do hereby certify and declare, that the said ship Comet, did enter the Havana with her pumps going and in great distress, in consequence of having grounded on the Bahama Banks, as we have understood and fully believe; and also that she was forced in by the crew, who, exhausted by fatigue and pumping, refused to proceed on the voyage.
That after her arrival, the government obliged captain Dixey to discharge the ship on account of the want of some articles of her cargo, and absolutely refused him permission to re-ship any part thereof to New Orleans on any condition; tho' he petitioned frequently therefor, as we also fully believe and have understood—That after discharging the Comet, she underwent a survey by American captains by order of the American consul, and was found so much damaged, by being on shore as well from decay, that she was pronounced totally unfit to repair—Such however was the great scarcity of vessels and dearth of freights (though the ship and all her materials and provisions sold for but 3000 dollars) that it became an object for the purchasers to repair her, and obtain a freight for Spain, which the subscribers understood was intended to be done, though they are fully of opinion that nothing can ever make her a good and seaworthy ship.
 Stephen Singleton, ship Bramin,  Isaac Remington, brig Reindeer,  John Boyle, brig Saunders,  Joseph Y. Singleton, brig Superior,  Joseph Michael, brig Brutus,  Wm. Gardner, brig Ruth & Mary,  Peter Bingham, brig Nancy,  Nathaniel Franklin, brig Havana Packet, of New-York,  Richard S. Sheppard, brig Saunders 1st officer,  John Wallace, brig Reindeer, 1st officer. 
N. B. The Editors of the different papers in this city, and throughout the United States, are requested to give the foregoing one insertion.—Phil. Gaz.
DELAWARE ELECTORS.
Tuesday last the Assembly of Delaware, appointed the electors for President, which were federal.
 JAMES BOOTH,  NICHOLAS RIDGELEY,  AND DANIEL RODNEY. 
CHARLESTON Nov. 14.
[We believe the following British orders in council, have not been heretofore published in this city—they have been acted upon for some time past in the West Indies.]—Con. rier.
COUNCIL OFFICE, WHITEHALL, 13th July, 1808.
Sir, I am directed by the lords of the committee for Trade and Foreign plantations, to acquaint you, for the information of the commissioners of his Majesty's customs, that their lordships, having had under consideration several applications from persons desirous of carrying on trade between British Islands in the West Indies and certain French Islands there, under any flag that may be thought most secure; and being of opinion it may, under present circumstances, be advisable to give the utmost possible encouragement to an intercourse which shall facilitate the introduction of British manufactures and East India goods into the French and Spanish settlements in the West Indies or on the coast of America, and to procure in return from thence into our Islands, all the articles enumerated in the first section of Stat. 45th. Geo. III. chap. 57. And their lordships having taken measures to give facility to such an intercourse, are of opinion that it is of importance it should be carried on, at as moderate expense to the parties as possible—The ships being short, and the vessels of small size. And I am, therefore, to signify their Lordships' directions, that the commissioners of his Majesty's customs do enjoin the officers in the Revenue, under their management, to take no higher fees for foreign vessels employed in the above trade, than those established in the case of British vessels.
I am, sir, Your most obedt. servant, (Signed) STEPH. COTTRELL. To M. Lichmond, Esq.
 Wool, cotton wool, indigo, cochineal,  drugs of all sorts, cocoa, logwood, fustic,  and all sorts of wood for dye's use, hides, skins and tallow, beaver and all sorts of furs, tortoise-shell, hard wood or small timber, mahogany and all other woods for cabinet ware, horses, asses, mules and cattle, and all coin and bullion, diamonds and precious stones. 
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17.
As a proof of the increasing value of our interior country, we give the following fact; Thirteen acres of the public land sold at auction, at Cincinnati, for $10,705.
The entire sales of the public lands, since the opening of the public offices, will be found to net six millions of dollars, at more than two dollars an acre, and more than two thirds of this sum has been paid by the purchasers.
When we consider that the averaged receipts are equal to the entire expense from the national civil list, & that we have yet near five hundred millions of acres for sale, as our population advances, we cannot but rejoice at our present situation in point of national resources.
ST. LOUIS, (U.L.) July 26.
It is with heart-felt pleasure we announce the patriotism displayed by St. Charles' troop of horse, a few days ago; they offered their services to accompany Gen. Clarke up the Missouri, in order to assist in the building of the fort at or near the Osage river.
The Osages have lately committed some many outrages on the frontiers, that government have permitted the Delawares, Shawanese, Kickapoo, &c. to go to war with them.
We understand from some of the chiefs of the latter, that they will be able to bring 5000 warriors into the plains; it is probable the Osages will get the Panies to join them; as the invaders must march through the plains, and as the Osages and Panies fight on horseback, there is no doubt of a warm and important campaign.
VINCENNES, Oct. 8.
Governor Harrison has recently received a letter from George Holsman, collector of the district of Michilimackinac, and Samuel Abbot, assistant judge, from which it appears that on the 12th August, John Campbell, esq. Indian agent for the United States, at Prairie des Chiens, and Mr. Radford Crawford, one of the British Mackinac company, met near the British fort opposite to Macanac, to decide an affair of honor, when the former was mortally wounded, and died on the evening of the next day.
MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE.
MONDAY, Nov. 14, 1808.
When the House assembled at 9 o'clock, the discussion of the "Order and Direction" of the Legislature was resumed. It was opposed by Messrs. McFarland, Morton, Weston, of N. G. Bangs, Ridley, and others; and ably advocated by Messrs. Gore, Thatcher, Channing, Ives, Bigelow, (of L.) Whitman and others.
The debate continued until near three o'clock, when the question was taken by yeas and nays, as follows:
 Yeas 244  Nays 204  Majority 40. 
 The house adjourned until four; when a few minutes after the Hon. Senate came in, and formed a convention of both branches of the legislature. The president having stated the object of the convention to be the choice of Nineteen Electors of President and Vice-President; a committee of five was raised to collect the votes—which done, the Chairman reported, that the whole number of votes was 269—and that the following Patriots and Statesmen were unanimously elected:— 
 ELECTORS, &c.  Hon. CALEB STONG, at large.  Hon. FRANCIS DANA, of Middlesex.  Hon. JOHN BROOKS, of Middlesex.  Essex S. MOSES BROWN, Esq. Beverly.  Essex N. Wm. BARTLETT, Esq. Newburyport.  Middlesex EBBENEZER BRIDGE, Esq. Cheever.  Worcester S. BEN. HEYWOOD, Esq. Worcester.  Worcester N. JOSIAH STEARNS, Esq. Lancaster.  Hampshire S. JOHN HOOKER, Esq. Springfield.  Hampshire N. JOHN BARRETT, Esq. Northfield.  Berkshire DANIEL DEWET, Esq. Williamstown.  Norfolk EBBENEZER WARREN, Esq. Foxborough.  Bristol SAMUEL TOBEY, Esq. Berkeley.  Plymouth JOSHUA THOMAS, Esq. Plymouth.  Barnstable, &c. LEMUEL WILLIAMS, Esq. N. Bedford.  York, AND P. FERNALD, Esq. Kittery.  Cumberland, SAMUEL FREEMAN, Esq. Portland.  Kennebec, SAML S. WILDE, Esq. Hallowell.  Lincoln, JEREMIAH BAILEY, Esq. Wiscasset. 
The whole number of votes given in convention was 269—and unanimous for the above candidates. There were 130 democratic members present—but they declined voting.
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 16.
A motion, that six thousand copies of the Report of the Committee on the subject of the Restrictions on our foreign commerce, be printed and distributed throughout the Commonwealth, with the yeas and nays annexed.
A motion for the purpose of expressing the opinion of the Legislature on the British Orders of Council, & French decrees affecting the commerce of the U. States, was laid on the table by Mr. Crowninshield.
A Protest from the Minority, against the mode adopted by the Legislature, in choosing Electors of President and Vice-President, was presented, and a motion made that the same be entered on the Journal. Carried unanimously.
The committee on the motion for the purpose of expressing the opinion of the Legislature, on the orders and decrees affecting the Commerce of the United States—reported, That the further consideration of the subject be referred to the next session of the General Court, and on the question whether the house would accept the report, it was determined in the affirmative—199 members in the affirmative, and 78 in the negative.
On Tuesday, in the House of Representatives, Resolutions were reported, to instruct the Senators, and request the Representatives of this State, in Congress, to use their utmost endeavors to effect the repeal of the Embargo Laws; and to express the opinion of the Legislature that no point of etiquette ought to be permitted to operate as a bar to arrangements which involve the peace and prosperity of the country. After an animated debate, which continued until a late hour last evening, they passed by the following honorable majority:—
 For them, 236  Against them, 147  Majority, 89 
The Senate took up these Resolutions yesterday afternoon, and after considerable debate agreed in a Resolution of concurrence. [The Resolutions not being signed by the President and Speaker, we were unable to procure a copy for this day's paper.] The Legislature is expected to rise this day.—Boston Gaz. Nov. 17.
BOSTON, Nov. 11.
From Washington, Nov. 7, 1808.
TO THE EDITORS OF THE CHRONICLE. The enclosed, I believe, has never been published. It is submitted to your disposal. The numbers mentioned in the secretary's report, from 1 to 13, contain—the seamen's names; dates of impressments; places of impressments; names of the vessels into which impressed;—names of those impressed seamen who are Americans; those who are neutral aliens; those who are British, and those who have been discharged; together with other remarks, too voluminous for a news-paper, and too cumbersome for the mail."
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, February 29th, 1808.
Agreeably to the resolution of the Senate of the 30th Nov. last, the Secretary of State has the honor to submit to the President for the information of the Senate, the statements herewith inclosed, from No. 1 to 15 inclusive.
No. 1. A statement of impressments from American vessels into the British service since the last report made from this department on the 5th March, 1806, founded upon documents transmitted in the first instance to this office.
Those from No. 2, to 13, inclusive, being a series of returns and abstracts from General Lyman, the agent of the United States at London, giving an account of the applications made by him in relation to seamen,
from 1st April, 1805, to 30th June, 1807, and of the result of these applications, and exhibiting other particulars required by the resolution.
Not having received any returns from the West-Indies since the date of the last report to the House of Representatives on this subject, nor from General Lyman for the quarter ending on the 1st January last, the Secretary of State has not the means, at present, of giving with any degree of precision, the information asked for in the last clause of the resolution.
From the returns in the office it would appear that 4,238 American seamen had been impressed into the British service since the commencement of the war, and that 936 of this number had been discharged, leaving in that service 3,302. General Lyman, in a letter dated on the 21st October, 1807, estimates the American seamen now detained in the British service, at a number greatly beyond what is here stated—but he does not give the data on which his estimate is made. All which is respectfully submitted.
JAMES MADISON.
The President of the United States.
SPANISH AMERICA.
AURORA EXTRAORDINARY.
HAVANA, October 22. Extract from the Mexico extra Gazette, of the 16th Sep. 1808. "Proclamation posted in all the corners of this capital, at seven in the morning, by order of government:
"Inhabitants of Mexico, of all classes and conditions! Necessity is not subjected to ordinary laws. The people have seized the person of his excellency the Viceroy. They have demanded his resignation for reasons of utility and general good. They have convoked last night to the royal assembly, the illustrious Archbishop and other authorities, who have yielded to the urgency of the case, and separated the Viceroy from all authority; it has fallen in conformity to the royal order of the 30th of October, 1808, on the field marshal don Pedro Garibay, until the provisional letters of instruction are opened. He is already in possession of the chief command. Be tranquil and without apprehension. You are, for the present, commanded by a chief of known reputation, and with whose probity you are acquainted. Rely on the vigilance of the Royal Assembly; all will end in your benefit. Disturbances can only serve to divide our minds and create damage, which may be irreparable. All this is assured by the above mentioned chief at interim, the Royal Council, and other authorities which have concurred.
Published by command of the most excellent Seignor, regent of the royal council, the illustrious archbishop, &c.
FRANCIS XIMENES.
At ten o'clock the new chief took the accustomed oath, in the council chamber, with the usual ceremonies prescribed by law. At eleven, he was acknowledged as supreme commander of New Spain, by all the authorities.
The people are in the most satisfactory state of tranquility."
WILLIAMSBURG FEMALE ACADEMY.
Mr. Blackburn, Professor of Mathematics, in the College of William and Mary, and Mr. Blankett, teacher of modern Languages in the same College, inform the public that they have united for the purpose of establishing an Academy in which young Ladies may receive an education, calculated at once, to improve and enlarge the understanding, and to ensure the acquisition of those accomplishments, which are not only extremely agreeable in themselves, but which have become essential requisites in polished societies.
It is proposed that the parties shall attend to the duties of the School alternately, as respects agreeing with their own views of a correct system of Female Education, and particularly as such an arrangement will prevent all interference with their respective engagements at College. Mr. Blackburn will, on one day, give lessons in Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, English Grammar, Composition, Geography and History, according to the progress which each pupil may have made. Should any of these young ladies discover a taste and capacity for further scientific acquirements, he will undertake to conduct them through certain Mathematical, Astronomical and Philosophical branches, which, whilst they cannot fail to strengthen the mental powers, will be rendered so simple, as to make the study highly pleasing and instructive. In his department he will steadily pursue a well digested plan, which he has already submitted to the test of experiment; and it will be his highest gratification, if he can evince, by the result in the present instance, that the female mind is as capable of improvement in real knowledge, as that of the other sex; a problem, the satisfactory solution of which, ought to be deemed highly important, but which has seldom been attempted on fair and liberal principles.
On the succeeding day, Mr. Plunkett will teach the French Language, Music, theoretically and practically, Dancing and Drawing. The experience which he has had, and the assiduous and minute attention which he engages to bestow, must secure to his scholars, the acquisition of those accomplishments which give animation to society, as well as grace and dignity to those who possess them.
Mrs. Camp, a lady well known for her prudence, exemplary conduct, and truly affectionate care of those entrusted to her direction, will board and lodge the young ladies, and be their superintendent when not engaged in school.
Parents may be informed of the terms, and have a prospectus of the school, by applying to A. Plunkett in Williamsburg, or to G. Blackburn at the College.
The Tuition commenced on the 15th instant. November 18. [law4w]
From our knowledge of the qualifications and assiduity of the gentlemen, who propose to institute and to conduct the Williamsburg Female Academy, we do, with pleasure, declare our belief that it will afford to young Ladies, an opportunity which may be relied upon, of receiving a well conducted, liberal and polite education, and do therefore recommend it to parents, as promising to merit their attention and encouragement.
 JAS. MADISON, Pres. W. & M. Col.  JOHN BRACKEN, Ham. Prof.  SAMUEL CRIFIN,  T. G. PEACOCK,  SAMUEL TYLER,  JOSEPH PRENTIS. 
november 18. [law4w]
JUST LANDING from the ship Trident, from Canton via New-York, and for sale by the subscriber, at his Grocery Store, between Messrs. Kirby, Drake and Taylor's Store, and Messrs. Gallego, Richard & Co.
 Fresh Gunpowder TEA in 24 lb. lead canisters.  Do. do. Eshing do. in 14 lb. boxes.  Do. do. do. do. single pound.  Do. Imperial do.  Do. Hyson Gomee, Hyson Chulang & best Hyson,  Do. Young Hyson and Hyson Shinn,  Do. Souchong Patre and common Souchong,  All warranted to be very good. 
Also, a few tea and coffee Sets, elegant and high gilt Seive Porcelain, some sparkling Champagne, and Burgundy du Clos de Vaugent, Claret and Cote Rotie, of the very best quality. AUBIN LAFOREST. nov. 15. [law6w]
EDUCATION. —The Subscriber intends to continue his SCHOOL the ensuing year, at the Green Springs in Louisa county, where a course of Education, embracing the Latin, Greek, French and English languages will commence on the 9th of January. This healthy situation, entirely removed from every kind of vice, offers particular advantages to gentlemen who live in towns, (too commonly the seats of dissipation,) or the unhealthy parts of the lower country, and wish to have their sons educated without incurring the risk of having their morals corrupted or their health impaired. The subscriber will pay the strictest attention, both to the morals and education of his pupils, which he will be enabled to do at all times, as none will be admitted, except such as live with him in the boarding-house, kept by Col. Morris, exclusively for the accommodation of the boys. The subscriber has in a former publication, produced testimonials of his ability and qualifications as a Tutor, which will, upon application, be enclosed to any person wishing to entrust pupils to his care. The terms will be, for board £28 per annum, (each boarder filling his own bed,) washing and mending £4 additional £10—One half of each charge to be paid at the expiration of six months, and the other at the end of the year. No scholar will be admitted for a shorter term than one year. Those gentlemen who intend to commit their sons or wards to the care of the subscriber, will please to notify him of it by letters directed to him, at Lindsay's Post-Office, Albemarle county.
FRANCIS F. MAURY.
[law6$54]
VIRGINIA, to wit—At a Chancery District Court held in the city of Williamsburg the 25th day of July, 1803
John Baird Plaintiff—Against Wyatt Walker, Robt. Walker, Freeman Walker, Beverley Clayton & Lockey his wife, Eliza Lacey, Wm. Graves and Tabitha his wife, which said Wyatt Walker, Robert Walker, Freeman Walker, Lockey Clayton, Eliza Lacey & Tabitha Graves, are children of Sarah Walker, dec'd. and Wm. McWhamm, Defendants.
The defendants Robert Walker, Freeman Walker and Eliza Lacey, not having entered their appearance and given security according to the acts of Assembly, and the rules of the Court, and it appearing to the satisfaction of the court, that they are not inhabitants of this country, on the motion of the plaintiff by his counsel: It is ordered, that the said defendants, do appear here on the first day of the next term, and answer the bill of the plaintiff and that a copy of this order be forthwith inserted in some news-paper of the city of Richmond, for two months successively, and posted at the front door of the former capitol in this city.
A Copy. ANTHONY ROBINSON, c. c. September 27. (oaw8w4.)
FOR SALE. —On the second Wednesday in December next, I shall offer for sale, before the door of the Eagle-Tavern, the following high bred BROOD MARES, COLTS & a FILLY, &c.
 No. 1. DIDO, by the imported horse Shark, out of a full bred Medley mare, eighteen years old.  2. FIDGET, by Bell Air, her dam Blueskin—she is by the much admired imported horse Lockhart, &c. 8 years old.  3. ROSINA, by the imported horse Diomed, out of No. 1, three years old.  4. TREASURER, by Diomed, out of No. 2, three years old.  5. BUZZARD, by the imported horse Buzzard, out of Hebe by Dare Devil—Hebe's dam by Medley, &c.  6. BLUEBEARD, a colt dropped last spring, by the famous horse Archduke, out of No. 2.  7. WOOD-PECKER, a Colt dropped last spring, by the celebrated Horse Florizel, out of No. 1. 
Terms of Sale—One half cash, the other in 6 months. E. SMOCK. lawids
By virtue of a deed of trust, executed by E. B. Dickinson to Wm. Lawrence, on the 18th day of February, 1802, and duly recorded in Louisa court, to secure the payment of a sum of money, and interest therein specified, due to Ludlow and Nimrod Bramham: Will be sold, to answer the purposes specified in said deed, to the highest bidder, for ready money, at Louisa court house, on the 22d day of December next, one negro man TOE, and one negro woman PITTY. The title to these negroes is believed to be good, but as I only act as trustee, I shall convey only such title as is vested in me.
Wm. G. POINDEXTER, Trustee appointed by decree of Louisa Court, to act instead of Wm. Lawrence, dec'd. nov. 18. law4w
BROKERAGE AND COMMISSION BUSINESS. —The subscriber respectfully offers his services to his friends and the public, in the above line of business and solicits their patronage. C. GREENHOW. Dec. 15. [oawtf.]
WANTED immediately, an Apprentice to the Hatting business. Apply to WINSTON & PRIDDY. nov. 1. [lawtf]
NOTICE. —A PETITION will be offered to the next General Assembly of Virginia, to authorise the sale of that tract of Land, which was used as a Glebe for the parish of Drysdale, lying in the parish of St. Stephens, and county of King and Queen. Sept. 30. (oaw8w)
WILL be sold, to the highest bidder, at the Saw-Mill of Capt. Ben Johnson, dec'd. of Henrico county, on Wednesday the 30th inst. a large quantity of PLANK well assorted; also, some HOGS, and many other things too tedious to mention—Credit will be given the purchasers until the 25th of October next, by giving bond with approved security, with interest from the date, but the interest will be remitted if punctually paid, for all sums above ten dollars, and for ten and under, cash will be required by— NAT. PEAKINS, Administrator of BENJ. JOHNSON, Dec'd. nov. 22. [3m]
THOMAS BRANCH, Executor. Chesterfield, nov. 1. [3m]
ALL persons having claims against the Estate of Wm. Friend, dec'd. late of Manchester, are hereby required to bring them forward, as early as possible, that arrangements may be made for payment; and all persons indebted to said estate, are earnestly solicited to make payment, as speedily as possible. The situation of the estate being such, as to render it impossible to grant longer indulgence. THOMAS BRANCH, Executor. nov. 22. [3m]
FOR SALE, 337 Hds. upper inspected TOBACCO, 1000 lbs. Soot LEATHER, 40 Barrels common WHISKEY, 8 Casks real old rectified Do. 10 Tons country bar IRON, by Wm. W. DICKENSON. nov. 22. [1m]
FOR SALE, that well known and valuable FARM, on Chickahominy river, formerly the property of Mr. Thomas Watkins, dec'd. acres 14 a very considerable part, is valuable swamp Land, a part of which is reclaimed, and now in meadow, from which I have been credibly informed, that Mr. Watkins in his life-time, cut upwards of 100 ton in the year; there is about 120 acres of swamp Land now in timber; and could be reclaimed at a very inconsiderable expense, to make at least double the quantity of hay, that has formerly been cut. There is a considerable quantity of Cedar on the high land, and I believe, full sufficient to fence the greater part of the plantation. On this plantation, is a tolerable good dwelling-house, kitchen and a very good barn, with several out-houses for the negroes. Also, an excellent young apple orchard of about 300 bearing trees, independent of the old orchard of 100 more of the best fruit, and about 300 peach trees, selected from the best kind, with a variety of pears, and cherries, and all of which are choice fruit. There is also, on this plantation, a very valuable mill seat, on which there was formerly, a good grist mill, and from information, used to receive from 50 to 60 barrels of toll corn, per annum. Last year I erected a new mill house on it, with a considerable part of the running year finished, and for about 100 dollars expense, the mill could be completed. Few plantations in this country, possess more natural advantages, as the whole of the meadow can be watered from the mill stream. This Farm is worthy the object of any person who is fond of farming, and can be made as productive as any in the state, for the number of acres it contains. I am satisfied, to any man, who would turn his attention to making of hay, the product of that article alone, would be from 4 to 500 pounds annually, independent of corn & wheat: to any person inclined to purchase this farm, I will give a credit of 3 years on paying down 1/3 of the purchase money, on securing the balance by a deed of trust on the premises.
Also, for sale, four Mules and about 32 head of CATTLE, and the crop of Corn, Fodder, &c. on hand, which will be sold independently of the plantation. DANIEL L. HYLTON. [tf]
NOTICE. —In the year 1793, a request was made by letter from a gentleman in Virginia, (through Mr. Joseph Johnson, Consul in London) to Mr. Thomas Digges, then in England, to make enquiry for the heirs or the family of a Mr. Abraham Milnes, who, when a youth, left Briggshouse near Huddersfield in Yorkshire, for America, and was a clerk to a merchant in Virginia, afterwards kept a store of his own, had a partner in trade, & died unmarried, about the year 1753, leaving landed and other property. Unfortunately, by the loss at sea, of the ship Jane and Rachel, capt. Dade from London to Alexandria, in the year 1758, the letters of request and other papers and memorandums were lost, and even the writer's name, which is supposed to be Farly or Farley, as well as his place of residence has been forgotten, but is guessed to be near Petersburg in Virginia. The subscribers, or either of them, will be much obliged to any one, informed of either of the parties above alluded to, or can give any trace as to their residence, or informed of any landed or other property of said deceased Abraham Milnes, by letter directed to the subscribers as below; and they will thankfully pay any costs for ascertaining the names, places of residence, or effects of said deceased, &c. &c. GEO: MILNES, Merchant Boston. THOS. DIGGES, Fort Warburton, Potomac, Maryland. GEO: W. RIGGS, George-Town. October 14. [3m]
* His name was spelt Milne or Milnes.
BANK NOTES, as below described, were put into the post office at this place on 27th May last, enclosed in a letter addressed to Messrs John Warder and Sons, Philadelphia, and which letter has never been received; it is therefore apprehended that the BANK NOTES may have fallen into improper hands; as a should such appear in circulation, we earnestly request that they may be stopped. Any satisfactory information regarding them will be thankfully received, and if required, liberally rewarded. BUCHANAN & POLLOCK. Petersburg, July 5. (tf)
  Bank of Virginia payable at their Office of Discount and Deposit Petersburg, to Robert Birchett President thereof or Bearer,   B No. 332 9th February 1805, $ 100   C 856 6th July, 100   D 153 7th February, 100   394 9th — 100