The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-01-22 00:00:00

discussed with warmth by the French politicians. The
Etoile, dated Thursday, contains another long article
in reply to the Opposition Journals, which, it says, have
written, and will write, much on the conclusion of treaties of
OClMlllette by Great Britain with Colombia and Mexico. It
has acknowledged, it says, that this recognition was a minus
step, and has examined the consequences, conirr.ercial and poli-
tical, that it was likely to have. It remains to be examined how
this new act of the English diplomacy may have really changed
the situation of France. First, it says, this act was not unforeseen,
and the proceedings in Parliament had prepared Europe for it.
France, bound to protect its commerce, concluded a treaty with
Ferdinand, opening the ports of the Spanish Colonies to French
merchants. The French trade is protected by its men of war,
and has been constantly respected In the seas that wash the 1380
leagues of the South American COWL None of the treaties about
to be concluded by England can stipulate the exclusion of the
French commerce, therefore England can derive no additional ad-
vantage from them ; and it does not appear that the United States,
which recognised the Republic 18 months ago, have derived any
greater advantage from so doing than England, which had not inn_
tated them. The Etoile acknowledges that the superior maritime
force, skill in manufactures, &c. and wealth, will give it great su.
periority, but does not think it will be enhanced by this new act.
If the Opposition will find fault, says the writer, let them accuse
Spain, which receives the American vessels in its ports, though
America has long recognised the independence of the Colonies ; let
them accuse Russia, Austria, and Prussia, which remain at peace
with Great Britain, but let them not accuse their own country only.
They would probably blame in much stronger terms, if the King's
Government were to precipitate France into the chances of a war,
which would endanger the repose of the world without securing to
the King of Spain the possession of his Colonies.
FiENCII FUNDS—Pasta, Jarr.l9.—Five per Cents. 109 f. 7fic. ;
Baak Stock, I,llBof. ; Neapolitan I pa Cents. Falconet's Certif.
88f.; Renee d'Eapagne, 17f. ; Royal Spanish Loan, 1813. 68f.
, Exchange en London, one mouth, 23f.; thus months,
Comrs Asithitaique, Jan. 19.

Letters have been received, by the Westmorland, from
Calcutta, dated the I9th August. A vessel had arrived
there from Rangoon, just before the Westmorland sailed,
which brought unfavourable reports of the Burmese war-
fare. We have seen letters by this conveyance to houses
of the first respectability in the City ; but in them, no
mention is made of any reverse or misfortune sustained by
the British expedition in the Burmese territory. We
know also that the best informed houses at Liverpool have
received no such intelligence as some of our contemporaries
have published as from private letters.
- -

A very clumsy attempt has been made to cheat tha
holders of South American Securities by palming one of
the grossest fabrications that can well be imagined, upon
the agent of the New England Coffee-house, resident at '
New York. We have given the despatch of this " learned
Theban " in another column, and our readers will at'
once me, from the internal evidence of the document, that
it is not worthy of the slightest regard. It was posted,
however, in the public room of the coffee-house, with every
circumstance of appropriate dignity, headed—" Late and
important from South America." The story itself is too
outrageously ridiculous to deserve a serious refutation by
a critical exposition of its wild absurdity. Suffice it that
BouvAa, who we know on good authority was pursuing li
CANTARAC, in the direction of Cuzco, is by some magic
operation brought back to Truxillo, a distance of above six
hundred miles, where, with an army diminished by some
means in number to 6000 men, he is completely defeated,
through the treachery of a battalion of his veterans; and
to crown the wonderful narrative, he retreats to Guayaquil:
900 miles further, and the victorious Spaniards invade
Colombia ! Never was there so feeble and wretched an
imposture; awl yet so morbidly sensitive is the Fo-
reign Stock Exchange, that it produced some effect
for a time in depressing the South American Stocks.
The broker's " eye, in a fine frenzy rolling," saw the abso-
lute dominion of the beloved FEADINA ND restored through-
out the vast continent which once acknowledged his sove-
reignty, and the fires of the Holy Inquisition spontaneously
rekindling, to burn the new Constitutions and their sup-
porters together. The report, we are told, was first re-
ceived at Boston, from whence it was transmitted to New
York, where the Ambassador of the New England Coffee-
house, " keeping his eye on the watch," writes rip to the
last moment of the packet's departure. When this vessel
arrives at Liverpool, by some accident this news, which
the Editor of the Boston Sentinel bad alone received, hav-
ing been deposited in a second bag, is overlooked for two
days, and instead of reaching town on Wednesday with
the other American intelligence by the same conveyance, is
detained till yesterday. Its history is not less extraordinary 1
than its character. Its certain falsehood is established
beyond doubt by several facts. The defeat of BoLIVia is
represented to have taken place near 'fruxillo on the 17th
of September ; and the (forged) letter announcing it is
dated Panama, 20th October. Letters were yesterday in
town from La Gua3ra, dated the sth of December, from
Guayaquil dated 28th of September, and from 'fruxillo
dated the Ist of October, in none of which is there the re-
motest allusion to any such occurrence. The letter from
'fruxillo describes the positions of the armies, which
were then, a fortnight after the date of the pre-
tended battle, near five hundred miles distant. Let-
ters were also received yesterday, by way of Jamaica, from
Bogota to the 9th of November. The Bogota Gazette an-
nounces that despatches had been received by the Colom-
bian Government, from the Intendant of Guayaquil, dated
the 27th of September, advising, that, in consequence of
further successes of General Bouvaa in Peru, he had
reached the River Apurimac in pursuit of CANTARAC,
who was retreating with all speed on Cuzco. We have
no doubt that the next advice, from Peru will bring the
details of the news we published in substance on Wed-
nesday.

Mr. Kiwi, it is understood, will appear in public on
Monday evening. We certainly consider this step as
satnewhat unadvised: it would, we think, have been more
prudent to have delayed his appearance till the moral in.
dignation, which he has so recently excited, had had time
to cool. Some of our contemporaries have endeavoured to
excite a strong feeling of resentment against him on this
account, and, considering themselves as guardians of the
public morals, contend that be ought to be driven from the
stage. 'We have expressed our opinion in pretty strong
language on the conduct of Mr. KEAN ; but the present is
a different question, and presents some points for our con-
sideration, which, in common candour, and in human
charity, we ought to weigh with coolness and temper. It is
of great importance that, in all cases of this kind, we shottkl
keep our moral views distinct; and, in truth, it requires no
slight effort to do this, for they have a natural tendency, in
most minds, to run into confusion. It is said that Mr.
Kest,/ is a public character, and that therefore all that
commas him comes properly under the animadversion of
the public press. But is there not some fallacy here? Mr.
KC•W, it is Mk, is a public character, but he is only so,
inasmuch as his protission, of necessity, keeps hint per-
petually before the public, and in no other sense. The
public have no stake nor interest in his character as a
private man ; they are concerned with him only as an

THE BRITISH PRESS.

actor. It would be, no doubt, most desirable that his
private character should be respectable and exemplary ;
but, if he were so, would the theatrical public endure his
defects as an actor in consideration of his moral excellence
as a man ? Certainly not. They would say, one and all,'
he may be a very worthy member of society of the stage,
but we have no interest in him but while he is on the
stage; we know him only as King Richard, or in what• I
ever other character he undertakes to perform, and it
is according as he acquits himself, either well or ill,
that we hiss or applaud him. On what ground, then, do
the public Journalists assume to summon him to their
tribunal? Their affectation of moral susceptibility is
quite out of place. If the most upright and conscientious
man that ever breathed were to appear for the first time in
Macbeth on Monday next, and were to perform it in a
manner that evinced his misconception of the character,
and his deficiency in theatrical talent, he would be handled
unmercifully in their next day's critique, without regard to
any other than the theatrical standard of approbation ; his
virtues would not be suffered to weigh a feather. Why,
then, is the press on a sudden to turn round, and, after
throwing moral excellence out of the scale, to contend in an
exasperated tone, that an actor, however eminent, ought to',
be driven from the stage, and left to want bread because he
has swerved from that lire of moral rectitude, the most
scrupulous adherence to which they hold in so little account?
It would be well, we think, that on the appearance of Mr.
Kt•x on Monday evening, his reception should be such
as to testify the moral disapprobation which his conduct
has incurred ; but to carry our resentment much beyond
this would be hardly defensible on any principle of equity:
For how stands the case? Mr. KLAN has been guilty of a
crime ; for this crime the party injured has prosecuted him
in a Court of Law, and a Jury, before whom all the facts
were put in evidence, have subjected him by their verdict
to the full penalty, which, after weighing the whole facts of
the case, they conscientiously judged it to deserve. What
rule of justice, then, we would ask, warrants our bringing
him again into judgment before a tribunal to which he is
not amenable, and to visit him with a second sentence, in-
volving in it an iufinitely more rigorous and afflicti‘e punish-

ment ? Why our contemporaries should so ostentatiously
profess,—as several of them have done,—to be steeled with
such rigid virtue as not to endure any other course than this,
is more than we can account for. Why they should strive
to excite the public feelings to this pitch of vindictiveness,
in order that Mr. KEax may meet it in the full rage of its
fury, is not intelligible on any maxims of religious reason,
or any rules of distributive justice. Let us suppose for a
moment—for the purpose of showing to what an extent
this principle would lead—that, instead of Mr. KEAN, any
distinguished Gentleman of the Bar had been guilty of the
same offence, and had been in like manner punished in da-
mages by the verdict of a Jury, would the Judges be war-
ranted, when he next appeared before them, in refusing to
hear him plead ? would they be justified, in the vengeance
which their pretended reverence for virtue might kindle, to
drive him from the Court, to destroy him in his profession,
and to deprive that profession and the public of the aid of
talents which they must in vain search for elsewhere ? and
this on the ground that he was a public character, and
therefore out of the reach of pity or of pardon ! All the
better feelings of our nature must be dulled, and all our
fair sense of justice extinguished, before we could be
brought for a moment to approve of such a proceeding. It
is a very unsafe school of morals in which such a lesson is
taught. Such sentiments have never yet characterised the
people of England, and we trust they never will.

The absurd report of Bolivar s defeat had, in some mea-
sure, the effect yesterday that it was probably intended to
produce. Securities of every description were for a abort
time depressed. Consuls opened for money at 941, looking
Up, and even at one time reaching 4, until the report
respecting the Colombian Chief came into the market,
when they instantly declined to 9s. Time bargains expe-
rienced a similar depression with the transactions for
money ; !hey commenced at 943, and left off at 4. The
market at the clove, both for money and time, was dull.
The foreign market was exceedingly heavy throughout the
day, and was considered a falling one when it closed;
Mexican Bonds left off ash:de better than they were in the
middle of the day, viz. 811; they began at 82 and went
down to 80 ; they afterwards, for a very short time, rose
to 82 again, and ultimately, left off at 811. Colombian
commenced at 911; they afterwards fell to 904, and left
off at 89. French Rentes were quoted at 103 to 1031.
Greek Bonds have suffered no depression.
We have seen letters from Lima, dated the 7th Nov.,
which state, in addition to the fact already known, that the
Spaniards evacuated that place on the 16th August—that
the Chilian Directors had given orders for their squadron
to be placed at the disposal of Bolivar, and for the army
to be ready to assist him at all points.
The following is an extract from a New York Paper, of
the 24t11 ult.:—

NEW YORK. DEC. 23.

We have been favoured with the CulLr;bioni),Ffthe'24.b Nov.
printed at COMICCIII4, containing the following extract of a letter from
Bogota, dated Oct. 7. front a distinguished citizen in the Adminis-
tration You will have hear:l that Cantarac was defeated by the
President Liberator, at the Pampas de los Keyes. By the late
news we are informed of the capture of two vessels of war, anti a
transport, with a great quantity of munitions of war. off Callao,
by our fleet; the capture of the ship Asis, by the Chilian fleet ;
the abandonment of Callao, and even of Lima, by the Spnnish
troops, in consequence of the victory at Los Reyes ; the panic of
the enemy's infantry, and their dispersion through the country of
Arequipa, Jauja, and Cuzco, and their almost total annihilation.
The troops flew in every direction, nor could their officers rally
them spin."
Letters from Leipsic of a recent date mention, that in
consequence of the s;!veral regulations set on foot by the
Russian Government to enforce the tariff of custom duties,
all trade between that city and Russia and Poland, had
been nearly destroyed. It was generally thought some re-
monstrance would be made to the Emperor Alexander, as
the measure was not more injurious to the people of Leipsie
than to his own subjects.
Letters from Havannah, dated the 17th ult. were re-
ceived yesterday, but contain no political intelligence. In
consequence of an order from the Governor, all the sub-
ordinate civil officers in every department of the Adminis-
tration had been suddenly changed without any cause as-
signed—a measure which appears to confirm what has
been before stated, that great suspicions are entertained by
the Spanish Government of the fidelity of its own servants,
as well as of the attachment of many cf the principal per-
sons in the colony. It is evident that the tenure by which
Spain holds the valuable island of Cuba is of the most pre-
atrious nature.

By the Westmoreland, arrived at Liverpool, letters have
been received from Calcutta, dated the 9th of August,
which state, that an epidemic fever had been very preva-
lent among the European inhabitants of that city, hardly
any of whom hall been exempt from its effects ; to such an
height had it gained ascendancy, that, for the five last days
in July, all the public offices were closed, and business in
consequence at a complete stand ; but it had happily sub-
sided, without any serious consequences.
Gore's Liverpool Paper of Thursday says—" The Flora,
Captain Farrant, arrived off this port on Snnday, after an
uncommonly quick passage of sixty-two days frotn Buenos
Ayres, exclusive of the days of sailing and arrival. The
Kingfisher Post-office packet sailed seven days before the
Flora, and arrived at Falmouth on Friday only. This fact
does not say much for the quick sailing of those vessels ;
but they have frequently, of late, been outstripped by our
traders'
A Joint Stock Company is being formed, for the pur-
pose of establishing two steam vessels between Bristol and
Waterford. The shares, 9,00/. each, alloted to Waterfor?,
have ilz.aly all been subscribed for.