The Sun.
London, England, 1810-04-24 00:00:00

nom of the terms finally agreed Upon ; it is my duty,
soieninly to declare to you, and through you to
the Presidents that the dispatch from Mr. Canning
to Mr. Erskine, which you have made the basis of
an oticial correspondence with the latter Ministeee
and which Was read by the former to the American
Minister in London, is the only dispatch by which
the co editions were prescribed' to Mr. Erskine for
the conclusion-of an arrangement with thisarouritry
on the Matter to which it relates."—Words can
have no definite meaning—there is no such thing-as
precision or accuracy of expression, if it is possible
to torture any part of this pass'age last qeoted into
an implicltion that the American Government/at
tee titre iney concluded the arrangement' with Mr.
' Erskine, knee that the dispatch from Mr.. Canning
restetated him to glee • three conditions which he sub-'
nutted to them.—Mr. Jackson addresses Mr. Smith
in this [elm of his letter, in a style which ought to'
have satisfied him, that the writer emelt-lined:the
idea that
,the American Government had, beenlen-
tirely igeorant-of the extent of Mr.Ersktee'e instruce
thins,- not that they knew of the restriction imposed
Upon him. " You have informed me, he says, that
you-understood that Mr. Erskine had to o sets of in-
struCtions,one of which had not been communicated
either to -you or to the. public." Dees Mr. Jackson
allow an expression to escape him, which would ime
ply a -drub' of. Mr. Smith's having really -understood
thaLMr. Erskine.had such instructions, which had.
'not been 'c-ominunicatedeo hitne-eno, he proceeds in
the :most serious manner to remove the mieappre-
-hension, -and-assures him solemnly that Mr. Erskine
- , never did possess any such instruCtion, nor any other
than that to which he refers.
In the Letter of the t 1 th of aliker then, no
such implication is to be tound : let us now turn to
that of the 23d, and "consider whether, taken sepa-
rately or conneCted with that which we have just'
examined, we can disoover it there. • •
The first paragraph witch can beak npon the Sub- -
jet% is as follows, " I Crave no hesitation in inform-
ing you, that his Majesty was pleased to disavow the
agreement concluded between you anti Mr. Erskine,
because it was concluded in violation of that Gentle-
man's instructions, and altoeether wlthout 'authority
to subscribe to the terms of it ;" The reasOrichere as-
signed, is simple, "because ii was cent:Wed in
, violation of Mr. Erskine's inr;trudiotise" -gait lacaute.
the American Goernmeot knew that it •NtlaS' cot).-
eluded: in violation of .them,---and, although Mr.'
Jackson goes on to state, " these in,trutlions, I now
understand by.yoer letter, as well as frein the erbe •
vious cledndide tea the liberty-of making,
in mine of the 11th instant, kk ere 'at that time in ,
surbstatice made known to you_;" yeethiseis men.
tioned to point out the difference ,between -the ir;
structions prescribed to the Minister; and the cone-
' ditions upon which he concluded thearraegement—
for he immediately adds, "no stronger illustration
therefore can be given, of the deviation from thetu
which occurred, than by a reference to theeternas of
your agreement."—eWe get no farther here then,
than a repetition of the assertion, that- the-three con-
ditions contained in Mr. Erskine's instru&ions had
been originally made known to the American- Go-.
verement.--Jt is true Mr. Jackson-says, " these in-.
strudions now understand were in substance made.
known to you;'' but the exteni in w hick the word,
substance, is to be tintiersood, is -ascertained by
his reference to the means of his knowledge of that
fact ; " I understand it, he sea's, from yoer letter,-
as well as from the obvious th duration which I Made
in mine of the a 1 th instant ;"-.-The express on in.
Mr. Sihith's letter is as folloays, " cerain it is that
your predecessor did present for • my consideration
the three condhiuns st Inch now appear in the print-
ed document •;" These three cotiditons did in fad,
contain: tie aubstattee of Mr. Erskine's instruction,
died Mr. Smith theiefoie, when his-Own letter was
Oats referred te, could-not infer that Mr. Jackson
meant to imply airy knowledge beyond them. The
obvious- deduction to which Mr. :Jackson alludes
in his letter of the l t th was only,what we have be-
fore recited that the very-aat of substitution -evi-
dently S!lews that those original conditions -were
-very explicitly communicated to 'Mr.- Sr .ith ;—We
look in train., here for n the implication of .at such
knowledge-as die American, Secretary of State de-
clares to have been imputed-to hie Government.--,
That they ..kneWa the 'conditions upon :which Mr.
'Erskine ‘cis authorized ti)makeansarr.plgen eat with
them is most certain,- but that they knew,at the time
- the arrangement was made that those were theonly
'conditiona.on which he was antharitedeo conclude
it, has not,yet been implied or • insinuated
will it be helieVed, will -those who haVenot yet-pee
raised these documents ere it me when :L anett; that
on advancing a feWc liner 'farther into Me". laticson's
letter of the 23d of October, -they will-read-the
p-
fol-
lowing passage? You are already acquainted with
the instruction WhicleWas giien, and l'haVe -had the
honour of informing you that 'it was the only one by
which the conditions on which he was to conclude
were prescribed."—To what period then are the
American-Government referred for their knowledge
, of this fact,--when did their communication,with
Mr. Jackson comnience,—was he 111 America -at
the time the arrangement was made with Mr. Era.
kine ?—" 1, he s.tys, have had the honour of in-
forming you."—When• ? A week before the time
ire Was writing, and Months after the arrangement
had heewmade with Mr. Erskine; and are we, after
this express -declaration on his part of the seurce
and season of- their information, ,to be told that he
woud imply that-they had received lt through ano-
ther channel and at a prior period? If he had
• intended to make this offensive implicatien he must
have supposed that the establishment of it would
support the cause intrusted- to him ; And if so would
• he -tare made a specif.dty..daration in' the samelet-
ter, which if it did notutteriy destroy the implitaa
tion he would raise, u ould yet grove that he was en-
tirely unanle to substantiate-it ?e--Would he have so
expressly stated that tale American Government de-
rived their knoWledge of this fact fro, hirees'elf if he
wished it to -be believed that- he had rect.:reed it from
his predecessor ? It is:scarcely_possible that lie could
have, been so injudicious ; 'it he has neee e. if- there,
-is any.other part.of this-letter or the: former vthich.
• wilt imply any earlier knowledge of- this str ictiou
on the p ,rt of t he American Government, it: is in-
i'cuMbetit upon Asir.. Smith, after. Me Jackson has so
expressly ref -rred Inn-I'n) a subs, epee t period, to point
o it specifically tie- pass,ge which-con-Lam it. .1 have

Perused them most carefully, but I can discover no
such implication in either of these letters, and it is
to them 4'e are referred for it. Mr. Jackson is only
accused of reiterating and aggt avati rig the same gross
insinuation in his letter of the 4th of Nove...ber,
and as 'I before observed, if the insinuation was iiever•
made, it is not Capable of being repeated or aggra-
vat(d'; but it is not necessary to shrink from the in-
vestigatibn of • any part of this correspondence, and
having established that no part of the language used
by -Mr. 'Jackson in his former letters wilt warrant the
implication which has bees drawn from them, I turn
with satisfaction to that of the 4th of November
which is in answer to Mr.-Smith's one of the Ist of
the saute month-; and upon the respective merits of
:.these letters, in regard-to the Observance .ot that
corurn- which should regulate dipltimalie corres
pondence, I would, willingly, rest the respective
merits of she- two Ministers who conducted
this I—Mr. Smith, in his letter of the Ist bays tb
Mr. Jackson —" I abstain, Sir,' from making any
particular animadversions on several irrelevant and
improper allusions, in your letter, not at all compOrt-
ing with the professed disposition to' adjust in an
amicable Manner- the differences unhappy subsist-
ing between the two countries. But 'it would -be
improper -to conclude the few observations to which
I purposely limit myself, withoit adverting lo jour'
repetition of a language implying a knoWledge on the
part of this Government that the instructions ofyour-•
predecessor did not authorize the arrangement form-
ed by him. After 11;e explicit and peremptoryias ...,
severation that this Government had no Sueh ktiOw
ledge, and that with such a knowledge no
rangetnent would have been entered into, the view,
which you have • again presented of the subject,
makes it my duty to apprize you,, that suchinsintaa-
lions are inadmissible in the intercourse of aforeign
Minister with a Government. that understands what
it owes to itself."

I will venture to assert that it is not possible to
extract from the whole of 'Mr; Jackson's letters any
passage to exceptionable and offensive as Ibis—tie is
not only accused here of making several improper
but he is. told that these allusions. do get
comport with the disposition which..he professes to
en!ertain. •

The passage contains a dire& and indecent atm.
-Sation of improper conduct on the part of .11,1 r; .f ack
son;and implies a doubt of the sincerity of-Ills pro-
fessions, in much more direct terms,, than any that
Can be found to support th:: implication, of which-
Mr. Smith complains ;• and the latter part of the pa-
ritgrapl, does not inform 11f1r. Jackson, tLe lan-'
guage of civt ity, that it -appeared:to -the American-
Government that his.letter wound bt ar a constrne-
tion which was offensive to theM, and require from.
- him an explanation of had they done so, I
have no doubt he would have replied he was 'not
aware that any such construction could be put uj'op
language, and that he certainly did not intend-to.
offend: them ; bat it positively asserts that he had
given them the offence they complain of, and C 041...
ciudes, in a tone sufficiently high, with informing
him that his insinuation: ate
frx, Nova Scotia, Feb. 26, 1810.)
troZe cfmagored To.ritiwrolv..l

From an Officer in the 95111 to his hrothee.
Norwich, on the sub: pet of the affair 'at Barba de
?urea
BABA, DE PORCA, MAECE 20, i write.
this immediately alter an aciiou with the enemy...-
We had been reinforced more companies
of our regiment., making altogethrr 300 men, under
the. command of Colonel Beckwith. Very near
Barba de Porca is a /town called St. Felices, at .
which piace the enemy had a garrison of 2009: in-
lautry and .500 cavalry; between the town. runs't he'
rarer Agueda. .sAtillis time of the year it is pas.sahle
• but at the bridge, which is situated_ at the bottom of
the mountains. The enemy had a strong piquet,-
the advanced sentries of . both -parties, ;taring the
night, being .Within ten yards cat the bridge. Tile
whole country on both .ides of the river is so moult-
tainous and full of rocks, that I always thought it
impossible for either parties Ao hurt each other. Tl.e .
French .thonght otherwise, and last night about eight
they advanced with 500 'chosen men towards the
bridge. Here I confess myself at a loss to know
in whatluanner they gassed suck an immensepre-
cipice: In four hums the 500 ..men were as ern-
bled at the bridge, exactly at t* o'clock at night,
gassed over it, and made .our-advanced sentries pri-
soners; but our piquet of eighty men, po.+ted be-
hind the. rocks, immediately opened . a tremenclre,s
firing .upon them. The enemy did uot fire, but
kept forcing their way up the mountain ; thereby,
I suppose, to surprize the rernaiuder 'of our men k
but they were deceived ; our piquet retired slowly
and in "excellent order,- and in less than ten minutes
the.whole elOur 300 were down upon"them. The
enemy finding they bad failed surprising us, com-
menced firing in every direction. Here a general
action took place, and continued upwards of, an
hour. At this time, half past .one o'clock, and
quite moon light, the e.s.etny madea desperate push„
apparently with an intention to charge up the moun-
tains, shotiting, "./Long live Napoleon !" We, in
return gave them three hearty cheers, and inimee
diately Charged ; the enemy gave way, and fell
down the rocks it every direction.. I have not
time to leirtilhe exact number of killed and wound-
ed ; however, we have only one officer, Lieut.
Mercer, killed, and about 12 men. We' have
found two of and 20 Frenchmen killed. Col.
Beckwith received a shot through the-cap ; _the fel-
'. low was not more than-six yards distant at the tine
that, hefired ; the Colonel knocked him down, and'
made burn a prisonerher begged the Colonel to
spare his life, saying he 'had given an Ettgligh sol-
dier. a shirt -at Colunna. The enemy had 2000
men formed on the bids, ready to cross the bridge, '
if the 590 chosen men had succeeded in forcieg the
pass. I.forgot to mention we bad 100 Spanish :sol-
diers . .
with us ; the Captain and 30 men foti.z;ht
,
well; the other' officers and 70 men ran off the
moment they heard the enemy had crossed the
bridge."

, .
On Friday•night, some ttilevei sealed the 'garden'
wall -of .I\elr. Taylor,, di ktahipsteal, -with ali int-efl.t.'
to'-rob 'the house.; but:being alarmed by the. watt
~
they made a precipitate retreat, without effector
a
_their p ii.pose • ,