The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1818-12-15 00:00:00

DEATH OF THE GRAND DUKE OF BADEN.

A telegraphic dispatch from Strasburg an-
nounces that his Royal Hightiesa the Grand Duke
of Baden died on the •tlt of this mouth, at eight
o'clock in the morning. His Royal Highness was
born on the Bth of 1786, and was, therefore,
aged J 2 years and 5 months; he was son of the He-
reditary Prince Charles Louis, whodied in 1801. He
succeeded his grandfather, the Grand Duke Charles
Frederick, on the 10th June, 1811, and was mar-
ried on the Bth of April, 1806, to Stephanie de
Beauharnai.. daughter of the Count Francis de
Beauhartiaiv. He left three Princesses, of tender
age. His uncle Louis, Grand Ducal Prince, Mar-
grace of Baden, born in 1763, will succeed hiin.
Should this Prince die without descendants, which
is probable, as he is still unmarried, the children
of the Grand Duke Charles Frederick, by his mar-
riage with the Lady de Geyersbeg, will succeed,
conformably to a family compact established by
the late Grand Duke. These Prisces„ who for•
wetly bore the title of Counts of Hochberg, re-
ceived, in 1818, that of the Margrsve of Baden.

It is known that in case of the extinction of the
direct line, Austria reclining ele reversion of the
B►isgaw, and the King of Binaris that of the Pala-
tinate, in virtue of uncial t poets and usages. The
ailcient Slate of the Slargrases did not contain more
than 200,000 iiihabitailtr, hot aggrandized by
France in all the trasisacSons of recent times, the
Grand Durhy has bees extemb.il to 758 square
leagues, with s popuheion or a million of souls. It
is a rich, Fertile, and pictsurempie eatiairy. It cwt..
tains all the defiles of the Black Forest, which
au entrance ictoSoutlicrii Centrally, and it es-

LONDON,
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 19 18.

We here received Papers Papers of Friday last.
The Momiteur contains the KING's Speech, which
we were enabled to present to our readers in our
last Number. The Duke of BADEN'S death is
announced in these Papers. Ile is succeeded by
his uncle the Margrave Louts. The death of the
late Grand Duke cannot, we conceive, exercise the
slightest influence upon the great point in dispute
between the Houses of Baden and Bavaria. The
Duke of ANDOLLEISE, it was expected, would
arrive on Saturday morning in Parise, from his pro-
vincial tour.

The French Funds have fallen considerably.
"The 5 per Cents. mere on Thursday at 65 f. 70 c.;
Bank Actions at 1,545 1.

We hate received New York Papers to the 14th
last. Congress was to open at Warhington on the
16th. The following intelligence from India is ex-
tracted from these Papers:—

" CALCUTTA. JUNE te.

" Letters from Chandsh of the Vith May in-
' form, that the Chief, Gosina SING, had been found
soon alter the assault. lying near the ramparts
wounded i.i ilie arm. When assistance was offered
to him by our troops, he said it was unnecessary, as
he had taken poison, and soon after expired. A
considerable quantity of treasure had been found
in Chandah. and it was expected that more would
soon snake its appearance. The I'F..ISHtvA is SAM
to be about to surrender himself unconditionally
to EEPGINSTONE. It was thought at 01011411
that the Rajah of NAGPORE would speedily be re-
captured. Reports from Cue wa titration a fort
taken by Colonel ill'Dowat.t., in which SO lacs
of rupees have been found.
" The insurrection at Ceylon was not subdued.
The Ceylonese discover great obstinacy. The secu-
rity they possess in their jungle retreats affords
them hope and confidme. The British troops
suffer greatly from sickness.
" A letter, dated Camp near Bortenli, sth June,
states, that the ruins had set in in that quarter, and
that the troops were moving to the attack of some
forts, which is Dot named.
" Our private letters from 'lad►as state, that
the cholera 'aortas bad made its appearance iu the
North Circar., and had added considerably to the
ravages of a fever, which had sine time prevailed
in that quarter. A malignant fever had also occa-
sioned great mortality at Triticontsdre."
" Extract ofa letter from Purneali, dated June 8:
—' The indigo crop in this district is by no means
promising, and I much question if there will be an
average crop.'

" Letters have been received from Batavia and
Bencoulen, btatilig that several free traders mid
Americans were laying at Batavia; that European
goods were very cheap ; that great difficulty war
experienced in procuring cargoes; and that, in con-
sequence, freight was at a low rate.
" Mr. BURRHARD, an enterprising traveller. who
had prosecuted his inquiries in the interior of Africa
under the °Mlle of SHEIK IBRAHIM, (Boil at Cairn
of dysentery. It is said his manuscripts have been
forwared to the African Society."

A Dutch Maid has strived. with Papers to the
12th instant. The Duke of A NGOUI.i,IIII is now
oo a tour of inspection of the ninth frontier.
He has visited Lille and Dunkirk. The question
of further extending the !loyal clemency to persons
included in the brentitl o.disisiice of 181.5. is agein
said to be under cuuside►atann. Marshal SOU I.lr,
NIERLIN of DOOM)", and Ann u vc, are among
those considered most likely in this class to he re-
stored to their country. The difficulties het wells
Baden and Bavaria having been finally arranged, the
military force of the former is placed on the peace
establishment.

By the Merrier, Sir C. J. JONES. which arrived
on Thursday, at Plymouth, 60111 Bermuda, in 18
days, we learn that the fryer at the Island not
having wholly disappeared at her departure, she
is under quarantine. Mr. LLEwELLYm, Sur-
geon, and Mr. HARTIE, Master, died in the
We•t untie.. of revier; Mr. YouNo, Arbistoset
Commissary Geneva!, who writ to the West Indies
from Bermuda, in the harrier, ou service, died

the day after iiis return to the latter place. Mr.
THOII All GRAY, Assistant-Surgeon of the Streams,
hay been appointed to the Hospital at Bermuda.
The yellow fever first broke out at the Wand
of Ireland. in September; nearly all the artificers
who had receotly arrived at the Naval Dock-
yard were attacked by it, and twenty are dead.
Five soldiere, alba, belonging to u detachment
of the 62d regiment, died Ili the Ho I,it.jl : the re-
inaiuder were removed to St. Cutherine's Fort.
where they have been kept under strict tin:tram:D..
Many others, resident on Ireland, have fallen vic-
tims to the contagion, which rapni!e extended to
the neighbouring islands ; but at the time of the
Harrier's departure only two CdSO of fever had oc-
curred in the preceding ten days.

The recent acquittals in the prosecutions for
forgery threw a very considerable itoerest over the
proceedings that took place yesterday in the Old
Bailey. It will be remembered that :gel end per-
sons, charged with the minor offence of having
forged notes in their posseesosti, komviitg them to
be forged, without a I.6l(ficient and legal excuse
(of which the proof in all such crises rests with the
Prisoner), hail, in the early 1,4:1 of the present
Session, pleaded Goi/ty, and were in consequence
liable to be transported for the term of fourteen
years. Ai:pissed, however, of the unexpected dif-
ficultiee started by the London Juries r.spectiog the
proofs of forgery, and relying on the tenacity of
the Bank not to divulge the secret means of dis-
tinguishing a genuine from a hielitialtS note, these
persons, nine in number, c maed n Nlemorial to be
presented to the Court, praying that they might be
permitted to withdraw their plea of Guilty. To this
prayer the Court humanely acceded. and the Pri-
soners were yesterday arraigned anew.
Their offences were of such a trture, that it was
i competent for those who conducted the prosecu-
sions on the part of the Bank, to proceed upon
indictments for the capital felsmy of littering notes
knowing them to he forged, but with equal policy
and humanity they confined themselves to the
original charge. The first man put to the bar was
Broderick, who, after some hesitution, declined to
take advantage of the indulgence of the Court,
and persevered in his original plea. Jones suc-
ceeded him at the bar, and pleaded Not Guilty ;
the Court therefore proceeded stilt his trial. Li
this case the proof of forgery adduced by the Batik
I satisfied the Jury. It WWI stated by Mr. LEES, a
Bank Inspector, that the line comprising the date,
and the weld " London," was stereotyped in the
genuine notes, hut row-rived in those which were not
genuine; the same was said oil!, respect to the
number of the stole. and the letters " No. ;'' that the
water-mark was effected in the note in the
of the paper. and that with the exception of u
general knowledge of the signing clerk's writing,
there were Da other means of distinguishing a
genuine note from a forged note. Mr. Leese
however, added, • that the Runk lnspectors were
assisted much by long experience, and the con-
stant habit of examining notes. The signing
e'er k was, to Jones's case, also brought up,
who declared that the name purporting to be
written by him was not in his hand-writing. 'This
last evidence was irresistible, and would, we con-
ceive, have convicted the Prisoner without the
alinitte but very unsatisfactory detail given by
the Bank l'opector. if it were intended by
Mr. LEEs' evidence to give the public an assu-
rance that certain infallible means slid exist, ena-
bling the Bank Inspectors, almost at a glance, to
detect a forged note, it would seem to tot that this
object had riot been attained. It cannot he doubt-
ed that other persons, besides those who work for
the Bank of Eoglond, could produce, by stereotype,
an impression of the line contstioing the date and
the word LONDOV. It will not be pretended that
an insuperable difficulty is offered to the ing,enuity
of the fabricators of notes, in the tootle of effecting
the water-mark, so that the vaunted skill of the
Inspectors resolves it after al: into their long and
cultivated experience. It was allowed lay Mr.
LEES, that one instance did occur wherein even an
Inspector was deceived in a note, having taken a
forged fur a genuine note. We fitment that this
Conroe of exit:um:ll ion was not pu rs Oct!, and that lie
was not asked, whether an instance had ever os.-
-ciarred wherein a genuine note was rejected, or
...stamped as one foltrel ? If his memory served him
with even one ill3iUliCe to this effect, end if not very
'noel' deceived we apprehend such an instance
might be produced, the /rev instances united would,
we conceive. trod very seriously to shake the pub-
lic coolidence in the infallibility of a Batik In-
spectoCe vermird experience. These observations
wilt apple to the case of Clarker, who also was
found ga.sity by the Jury.

Extract of n letter from a mercantile house in
Anse'ma, to their Correvondrot in England, on
the prevailing commercial embarrassments in that
country :

" Such an extreme scarcity of money as pre►ails here at
present, we have scarcely ever before known ; it seems to
paralyse all business; the sales of imported articles will, in
consequence, be limited for the remainder of the year, and
we calculate that the same cause will materially reduce the
price of articles of export. This pressure fur money is oc•
visioned by the great demands of the Banks here for species
for the East India trade, which of late has increased beyond
all former ex.mple. The consequence it, the Banks must
either suspend their specie payments, or draw in their loans
to the public ; the last alternative is the plan resorted to.
To give you an idea of the extreme scarcity of money, the
price of bolls of exchange on • credit of GO days is about
par, and fur cash 3 per ccnt discount, and even lower."