The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1808-11-15 00:00:00

FRENt'll PRISONERS.

Jacques Laael, Captain of the French privateer
I puha( de Jour, captured by the Bra. !Stoat. oft'
Plymouth, on his examination before the Coin-
missioners of lirites, proved to be one of the
French prisoners who escaped with the buoy-boat,
Erma Yort.thouth, on the sdl of April boa. He
MVP., they rut a hole in the Pigihtnt, end swain to
• tipaiiisli fri4nte (the Aniphitrite); took her boat,
and gut nu board the buoy-boat, at ten o'clock at
ujj‘lit. There woo the two iinglishineu on
board, whom the! kept below. At Kiva One
o'clock in the morning, a boat came alongside,
with another of the men belonging to her, who
had been spending his evening on shore. At
a quarter poet tire they got under weigh; the day-
break gun tired just as they get outside oPthe
harbour. At noon they were chased by a cutter
and a brig of war, lint the buoy-boat very mach
outs:Ailed thciii. They arrived at Dieppe at 'Wl-
past eight in the evening. The people at the sig-
nal-bowie thought it was a cartel, and sent a boat
oft' to say they could lint be permitted to come in ;
'.but perceiving they were Frenchmen, they were,
of rosirAe, allowed to hind. The 11041 was sold to •
tnercleint for 1.5,000 livrcs (about 70tt1.) The three
men were need well, and seut into thy interior.—
The beiriyAboat is at present cruising in the Channel,
earyiiiir richt ti-polinderis, under the name of the
I.tioy Heat (!l. Pbrlsmorth. She is fitted oat by the
iiierrlmat who purchased her, and who was the
owiser of the Pointe de Jour. Wiles' they lett the
timpluirde, it was their intention to take the bons-
hens es I,at (.111y, but it coming nu to blow iitrolitt,
tint tboiight it vandal not be Loge enowcio, as
there %vie loine of them. The crew of the Pointe
ale Jour, after her rupture, were yak( ii out, except
ate unto, and eleven mew of the Brillioat were put
o tat hoard her • 4.114 i• We are sorer to velatei *he rmlu-
.steved *um Ilidury Buy the everting sli:e we. taken,
• a:A et cry rcrfp,a perished.

-S.

_ .
TO Tla Z OF THE EFLITIVI PRIG•
Sin— hvinn bemisue of those who signed the
Reowaition to the High Sheriff of the County of
Stafford, to convene a meeting fur the purpobe of
addressing His Muji-sty upon the budijett of tile
Convention of Cintra, I deem it necessary, in con-
sequence of the turn which matters have tuken, to
make a few observations iu justification of Use con-
duct of myself and others upon that °ma*
Many of the most respectabte Freeholders of this
county having deemed it necessary cud expedient
to call a meeting upon the said subject, they ties
rordingly agreed that an application should be
inside to the Sheriff for that purpose, which wise
done in the following manner :—Upon the Lid alt.
the following requital was sent bt Mr. Blount to
the Iligh Sheriff, in a note, requesting his nektion-
ledgiuent thereof :>

TO THE HIGH SHERIFF OE THE COUNTY 07

WI AFFORD.
We the Endersigned, reluest y Oil fiscal' a Martina of the
hold:used Gentleman, Clergy, and of hers, Freehold.- no of the
Comity ntnalturd, to einiankr ilea pi unriety
Majcaty, that he will be graciously pie rued to niewllllolC
hiaParliainrat, in order to • eunstitatioual ellrrnial It.
ircatigatina into the Cowin which lid to the late Convention,
coin tailed by the Odicas commanding tin hlaj(sty 'a Comm
to Put toga'.
StaSard Jae. Macdonald
Shrewsbury Edward Mount
Bt. Yhicent Thomas Clifford
Amon Julio H. Bost
Stovirton Hear) Crorl.ett
Tha. bt idiot\ Bart. John Smith
0!V/11111 Mmtel, Bart. T. Wedgewouil
' . Joseph Scott, Mart. J. Wedgewood.
C arks tbo:wloy T. Birch.
Of the. licquistion the Sheriff acknowledged'the
receipt, stud at the some time begged to be &Now_
ad with the original, on account of its having been
written, together with the signatures, all no one
hand. Mr. Blount and myself accordingly waited
upon the tiheritf, and informed him of the authority
upon whi, h we acted, by chewing him several let-
ters, and making various verbal conituunications,
with all of which he out only elpeemied himself per-
frt.: tly satisfied, but positi rely atated, that he, is come-
peace therrojiwould advertise it in the next Stafford-
shire paper. When we were about to leave the roans,
and net befbre, Mr. Hinkley, jun. son of the Under
Sheriff, alto was the only person present beside our
selves. remarked, that at the interview. we had had
with his father, a few hours before, be (the Under
Sheriff,) had expressed his opinion, that, fur the pri-
vate satisfaceitat of the Sheriff it would be proper,
in case he should be subsequently called upon for
his authority, for us to certify the names of the par-
ticular iudii ideals for whom wi respectively acted.
Although the Sheriff still esprtoied himself to be
perfectly satisfied with the authority he had alrea-
dy received, yet we, from a wish to leave tiothinx
undone that could contribute to his own private
satisfaction, did not hesitate to comply with this
request of the Under Sheriff, not having the smallest
reboil to suspect that it was intended for any other
purpose than as an authority to the Sheriff to con-
vene a M.:klieg according to the form usually
adopted upon similar occasions. Mr. Blount and
1 accordingly certified that we hod been respectively
authorised to sign the names of the followiti4 indi-
viduals, and this we did in the following. instinct :
finitissW at. vaginas,
Sapouitary A issmeMoottee,
Hama Welsch!, Bart. Joseph Scout, Itait.
Oswald Musky, Bart. Jelin H. Burt.
1. Weal inuod, 7 base ammo sue sOsed 1%,
T. Mc wood, e, iu comp:Mum with their
J. hl wishes.
Thames Clithird, Edw. Blount
Heavy Crockett,
J. &nab,
I'. Birch.

Ctaartes %Toisetry,
Edo .att

The above Names signed be
Charles Wolaele, iu a-ono:h-
-aws sitb their regaist. I
Oeswbee iI6,
We were not a little surprised to 6nd inserted in
the ',oldie prints, a Regnisition not esirrevowd in the
usuul form, nor such as was original) y dent to the
Iligh Sheriff, but (me made out from the docutueut
we had given hint, as before stated, which was
merely for his own private satisfaction, and to
which he had thought proper to subjoin the follow-
ing addition --
Luca ♦isruaut Anton hat, 11 Letter to the Sheriff, dr•
aired tLat there be 'Wall to tin. itegoinitsoo the %lames of
tit, Robert Lawtey, Bart. sari John ha lutiu, Eaq.
To the above facts, Mr. Editor, I realer? thus
pubfirly to chaNarge eontrisdiefion from the High
Sheri j/ tithe county of Stuford. In consequence
of the above irregular and unprecedented proceed-
ing, the Marquis of Stafford soon afterwards thought
proper to enter his protest publicly, in the follow-
ing letter:—

COTINTI OF ST.I.F.FORD.
The Ferns id' the Resin rail lost, as advertised in the Stafford-
shire Papas. of Saturday last, nppearing to hr both irregular
sod unprecedented, and it being my opinion that, under
seek Ritoilsition, a real Meeting of the Fiveholdert of ibis
County enema be otitained, I, uu say part, rub... wry Protest
ageirsr, sad de,avisu any iutridkna of racialist, .t :Reeling Se
convened. STA FIORD.
Trentham, Nev. 4,4 We.
'Thin was not the only consequence of such irre-
gular proceedings ; for, with the exception of each
as we,wthiwn to Stafford by the influence of two or
three very conspicuous Peers, few independent
Freeholders attended. The persons a ho, by their
mune', had authorised the Requisition, were alm,
from the mine motives, actually deterred from at-
tending; so that there was not Rft itdividuat preterit
to propose the measure for which the %forting bad
been originally called. Mr. Blount, Sir Robert
Leaky, Lord Auto% Mr. Birch, and myself, sent
in separate ',regrets, which were mail the Sheriff
from the Hustings. complai ii i i o 1 ihe irregular
work in which the Meeting had been called.
It is therefore for on and the licitly to judge of
the propriety of the thanks that have beets noted to
the Sitesa, by those who did attend, for hating
acted in a inatiner.strietly eonforwalik to hia official
duty. CUA121.1.11
Wnimeiri Melts Nor. 11, tens.

The fr,thming anecdote is related by the Master
of one of the transports lately retiii;:i.il from ear
ryiseir JUSOT.S troops to Prairce .--tt few (twin
previous to the cremation of ',kiwi', a patty of
Frcrich soldiers met it lurly iu the street, who wore
di.nnond ring on her finger. They slirroutiile.l
her, and each eytiag the commented a 'muffle
for the price; olienotte of the inisercants, snore
ferocious than the rest, drew his sabre, and at one
Broke cut oft' the wretehed• lady's booth %%Mel),
with the ring on it, •he put jut° his poet:• t, sand
'coolly marched off iu search of further plu,:dor !"