The National Register.
London, England, 1816-10-21 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

LosnoN
MONDAY, OCTOBER el.

THE French Papers of the past week contain no-
Cling material but the accounts of the Elections,
which are proceeding according to the preponderance of
opposite politics in the different Departments. Upon
the whole, there is little doubt that a large proportion
of the Members of the old Chamber will be excluded,
by the various methods which, according to the French
system of Elections, the Government possesses of ex-
erting its influence. They were, of course, well satis-
fied of the extent to which this could be carried, when
they telopted the expedient of the dissolution. It is
not likely they should-have taken such a step without
pretty gootl assurance of its being to some purpose.
Humours and speculations of various sorts reach us
as to the meeting and the intended occupation of the
Diet, to which Germany is looking for the restoration
of something like laws and a constitution. We do not
augur very great things from this assembly. What is
to be expected from an exclusive Congress of Ministers
of Despotic Powers, met together to deliberate on
popular rights. Arc they likely to curtail the pre-
rogatives of their masters.? and without doing this we
do not see very well where popular privileges are to
come from ? All Delegates immediately or mediately
from the people are to be excluded from these diploma-
tic orgies, and we therefore easily imagine the spirit
that will predominate at them.
Spain and the Dutch Government seem to recog-
nise the old Latin proverb--

" Scra tivaluam est ad banns mores ia."
They follow up the victory of Algiers with a very
solemn treaty, engaging between themselves to do that
for Europe which Lord Exmouth and the English
have just done. We do not see the efficacy of this
exactly ; and we wish, if there is any more work of the
sort to be done, that in spite of this Treaty Lord Ex-
mouth and the English may not have to do it again.
With the exception of the neighbourhood of Notting-
ham, where the late ferment appears to be hardly sub-
sided, we have reason to hope tranquillity is pretty
general. It is not that distress is not severely and
widely felt, but that the people have discovered from
experience, that tumultuous conduct defeats its own
end. Meetings have taken place in various parts of
the country for considering the means of immediate
relief to the popular burdens. We give an account of
two of the most considerable of them—at Norwich and
in the Borough. We are sorry observe at the latter
a disposition to foment the discontents of' the lower or-
ders by exaggerated statements, and vague charges,
against individuals in power ; and these, too, from
some persons whose rank and education ought to point
out to them the folly and danger of such attempts at
popularity. What can equal the inconsiderate absur-
dity of one of the Southwark Members suggesting an
amendment to a grave Resolution, stating that the late
contest against Buonaparte was in opposition to the
wishes of " ALL the people of Great Britain." lie
must have himself known the inaccuracy of such a state-
ment. when lie proposed it. It is by such means as
these that the ignorant part of the public (who are no
small portion of them) arc deluded and excited by those
popular leaders on whom they pin their faith ; and who
are, in Fact, much more than the miserable agents them-
selves, accountable for many of the disturbances which
have of late to shockingly agitated the country. It'
they had any pretensions to the patriotism they pro-
fess, these men would endeavour to throw oil on the
waters instead of increasing their agitation.

A paper of Saturday asserts, with reference to the
late outragrs at Nottingham, that no precaution has
been omitted on the part of Government, and no aid
withheld. This negative statement we have not the
means of controverting ; but it would certainly be more
satisfactory to state what has been done in the way of
precaution. It is stated to us in letters from that part
of the country, that the Magistrates are now active in
attempting to put down the desperadoes, and to break
their confedcraties! but if there had been always an
equal activity, it is not probable that sUch confederacies

ME NATIONAL REGISTER.

aMld have been carried to the pitch of audacity which
they have attained; and if the Magistrates were not
always as active as they ought to have been, when,
where, and how did the Government exert itself to
stimulate them to the discharge of their duty ?

Paris letters of Wednesday mention the exchange on
London to have advanced to 25f. 75c. the highest rate
since the Peace of Amiens.

Letters from Hamburgh of the 11th state, "that the
negociation with the French Government, relative to
the restitution of the property of the Bank, has been
brought to a close. The amount of the money and bul-
lion seized by Davoust was 16,000,000 t The French
Government would not consent to refund more than
10,000,000 f. This offer has been accepted, and the
deputies, Senators Sillem and Pehmaller, were expected
to return immediately from -Paris. Mr. Chapeuurouoe
was to remain there, to urge the claims of his fellow-
citizens fin. payment of the requisitions made upon them
by the French".—This is but a bad specimen of that in-
tegrity in pecuniary affitirs ofwhich the French financiers
so frequently make their boast. The Hamburg Deputies,
lmwever, have very prudently taken all they could get.
The following is an account of the celebration of the
anniversary of the death of the Queen of France:--

" Yesterday the funeral service to the memory of our un-
fortunate Queen, was celebrated with all due pomp in all the
churches of Paris. All the theatres were closed, and the
people participated with seriousness in this melancholy so-
lemnity. All the King's household were in mourning, but
neither his Majesty nor the Prineca appeared in public. At
eight o'clock in the morning the Duchess DAngonleme want
to St. Denis, to put up prayers at the tomb of her august
mother.

" On this occasion, the room iu which the Queen was con-
fined in the Coneiergerie was solemnly consecrated sf a
chapel to her memory. It was bung with black, and lighted
with wax-tapers. On the left of the altar was u picture, re-
presenting the Queen standing near her bed of straw; her
asplict noble arid majestic, and at the same time expressing
resignation and piety. After the gospels, the Abbe Montes,
Chaplain of the Coneieigerie, advanced to the nave, and
read the letter of the Queen to her sister Madame Elizabeth,
which was often interrupted by sobs, which the sacredness
of the place could not restrain. After this, the Countess
Angks, conducted by M. de Hangeranvire, made a collfc-
tinn, the produce of which was destined for the prisoners.
Among others present weer the Dukes of Havre, Grammont,
Oniche, Coigny, and other noblemen.

Advices from Montreal, dated Sept. 7, say—" We
were this morning inthrmed, by good authority, of the
arrival last evening of a gent ,man from the north-west,
bringing the intelligence of tit William having fallen
into the hands of Lord Selkirk's party. William
M‘Gillivray, Esq. is said to be taken prisoner."
The following communication from the Agent for
Lloyd's at New Orleans confirms the accounts in the
American papers of the occupation of a Spanish port in
that quarter by an insurgent squadron :

" New Orleans, Aug. 10. —A number of armed vessels, with
transports and troops, watered at the month of the Missis-
sippi a few days ago, being part of the Republican squadron
of Cartliagena, bound down the bay to a place called Mata-
gorda, which they have since taken possession of. Several
armed vessels have sailed on the same expedition from this
place, and others are now fitting out. They have not, as far
as I have learnt, molested the vessels of any nation, except of
Spain. How long they will respect or continue this neutrality
to others, i know not ; but it appears that our cruisers wink
at what is going on. There are several 20 gun ships now
cruising on the coast belonging to the United States, and as
tar down to the southward as Vera Cruz. The Republicans,
as they call themselves, were very sanguine bf success."
The Agent for Lloyd's in the Bahama Islands has
transmitted the following information :

" Nassau, Ang.l2.—The coast of Cuba is at present in-
fested with a number of very large privateers, fitted out by
the insurgents of South America. Their crews eonsist of
people of all nations ; and it is doubtful whether British pro-
perty falling into their hands would be safe."

The latest accounts from Jamaica respecting Bolivar
are of the 12c1 July, from Curacaa, and merely mention
that he had made a second landing at Ocumares with
1,500 men; that Soublette, one of his Generals, was
marching upon Cameras; and that a reinforcement of
Spanish Patriots had sailed from Curacoa for the Main.
The advices previously received from the Leeward
IslaE•ls, and which were later by 25 days than the in-
telligence from Curacoa, represented the arms of Bolivar
as having been again triumphant by sea and land.

KINGSTON', (JANIAICA) AUG. 17.—1 n consequence of the great
scarcity of rice and corn, a memorial from the merchants and other
inhabitants of this city was presented, in the early port of this week,
to his Grace the Governor, requesting that these articles might be
permitted to be imported in British vessels from foreign ports, under
the usual p.oclamation ; but his Grace was pleased to reply, that he
was not able to comply with the prayer thereof, as it would interfere
with the laws that regulate trade, and which cannot be dispensed with
but in cursor urgent necessity.

l)ied, in Hannah's town on Tuesday night, at a very
advanced age, John Reeder, a well-known black man,
as having been many years Captain of the Charles Town
Maroons. He is the person who, in the year 1781, after
a most severe personal conflict, killed the noted and des-
perate robber Three fisger'd Jack, who was supposed
by the negroes to be possessed of supernatural powers,
and deemed invulnerable from all attacks. In conse-
quence of the service Reeder received an annual stipend
from the Government of this island. He did not know
his exact age, but said, only a few days ago, that he
was a stout boy, at the first peace with the Maroons in
the yearl739. Jamaica Paper

LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY.

" And his meat was Locusts and Wild Honey."—Matt. e. Ui.v.‘

1.11 E meaning of the word Locust in this passage has
puzzled many commentators. Dr. Clarke and other
travellers have discovered that it is the fruit of the
Lochs! Tree, which grows in many countries bordering
on the Mediterranean, and has lately been discovered
much finer and larger in the Eas. Indies. Importa-
tions have been made of it to Venice and Trieste, where
it is intended to distill from it a liquor which it is sup-
posed will serve as an antidote to poison. In the
stems of the Locust-tree, the Wild Bees deposit their
honey. This is the explanation of St. John's diet in
the wilderness, described in the passage above.

The Journal des Debals lately denied the accession of Eng-
land to the Holy Alliance. The following letter, at least,
was addressed by the Prince Regent to thi Emperor of Rus-
sia, the Emperor of Austria, and the King 01 Prussia.--

" Carlton•house, Oct, 6. 1815.
"My dear Brother and Cousin,--1 leave had the honour to
receive your (imperial) Majesty's letter, together with the
copy of the treaty between your Majesty and your High Al.
lies, signed at Paris on the 26111 of September. As the forms
of the British Constitution, a hich 1 am called upon to main-
tain in the name and in the place of the King, my father,
prevent me from acceding to the treaty in the form in which
it is laid before me, I choose this way to convey to the august
Sovereigns who have signed it, my entire concurrence in the
principles which they have exp esse.l, and in the declaration
which they have made, that tiny will take the Divine pre
reins of the Christian religion as the unalterable rule of thci-
conduct, in all their social and political connexions, and cone
firm the union which should always exist between all Chris-
tian nations. It will be ever my serious endeavour to guide
my conduct, in the situation in which Divine Providence has
placed me, according to these holy principles, and to co-ope-
rate with my high allies in all measures which are calculated
to contribute to the peace and welfare of mankind. 1 re-
main, with the most unalterable feelings of friendship and re-
gard, my dear brother and consin,
" Your (Imperial) Majesty's brother and cousin,
(Signed). " GEORGE, P. li."
The following curious paragraph is from a New York
paper of Sept. 1 4 :—On Tuesday, as the British Consul
was about to drive from his door in town to his country
seat, a revenue officer stept up to his gig, and ordered
him to stop, to open the box, and produce a certain bag
that had just been put publicly into it; fiu he suspect-
ed it contained smuggled goods. This affair seems to
have been conducted by the officer with peculiar and
unprecedented delicacy. If any other individual had
been suspected of smuggling in a similar manner, I
presume the ordinary step would have been to have
waited upon him in his office or counting-house, told
him of the suspicion entertained, and, if circumstances
demanded a search, to have made it before leaving th•
room. But here was an opportunity toe good to be
lost—a chance to detect the accredited agent of His
Britannic Majesty in a dishonourable act—attempting
to cheat the revenue—and it could not be too public.
It was resolved, therefore, to detect him in the ope❑
street, and in presence of numerous witnesses : the
Consul obeyed, opened the bag, and permitted the
officer to search it : when, to his great disappointment
and mortification, he discovered neither more nor less
than a fine surloin of beef!

The corps of the army of occupation rival each
other in discipline. A Russian soldier, who lately
committed a great crime against a French citizen, has
been shot on the spot where the crime was perpetrate'.
The Prefect of thy' Department of the North has been
several times at Valenciennes, in order to concert mea-
sures with the British Commandant for preventing
complaints which may arise from the difference of lan-
guage. Every thing is_done to lessen as much as pos-
sible the burthen of the inhabitants, who still consider
the occupation of the country by foreign troops as a.
humiliation.

A letter from an Officer of his Majesty's ship In.
constant (Commodore Sir James l'eo), dated Sierra
Leone, July 20, says:—

Since our arrival upon the coast, we have ran down as
far as the Hight of Biatha, whence we are just :Twilled.
Our cruise was not so successful as we expected, haviug only
taken five Stave-traders, with about 260 slaves. We are now
in the height of the rainy season, which falls almost without
intermission the whole 24 bolus. Mr. Sterling, Midshipman
(brother of Captain Sterling, of the fteracno and one man,
are yet the only victims to the climate. We have heard no.
thing of Captain Tuckey's expeditioh ; he did not call here ;
and nothing has been heard of Captain Priddey's expedition
since he w.mt up the Gambia. It is said to he the intention
of Government to form a settlement at the mouth of the
GaMbia, for the protection of the Gum Trade. We sail in a
(lay or two for Cape Coast, whence we shall run down to the
Bight of Benin, and thence to itirbadoes and England."
It is said ..hat the son of Mungo Park, the tnivc,ller,
who resides in the neighbourhooa of Edinburgh, a fine
youth of about 14 years of age, is preparing (a second
Talemachus !) to go abroad in search of his father, whoa►
he still believes to be alive.

A letter from Genoa, dated October 5, save,—" The
Dey of Algiers has sent sn Agent to the Emperor of
Morocco. It appears that the letter has not adhered to
the treaties which existed between them. lie accrues
him of having favoured his enemies, and of having had
an understanding with them. It appears that the Dey
wishes to embroil the Etnperor with the English, which
is the most certain means of obtaining vengeance, with-
out running any risk himself. The French are still well
treated at Algiers."