Star.
London, England, 1818-02-10 00:00:00

Five per Cents. Thursday-66 fr. 55 c.

rails of any kind have arrived this .lay, nor
French papers mentior. a single word farther
ig the Lite intelligence reported to have been

receive.' from Algiers, via Italy ; so slut ye are s
left in the same uncertainty as before respecting

authenticity. One important circumstance his come
to our recollection, which tends to throw a consider.
able degree of discredit on the late accounts, and
even to furnish some ground for hope that the whole

will prove to have been a most cruel and wicked

brication. In the STAR of the Sd instant, we

before our Readers the substance of an Official Com-
munication by General DON, the Governor ofGibraltar,
to Gen. ALOE, the Spanish Commandant in that quarter.
This letter, which was dated the 31st of December,
stated, that by the latest accounts the Plague still
raged in Algiers ; but said not a single word of any
occurrence like that reported from Genoa. Now we
think it impossible that an event of such a nature
stated by the accounts furnished by Sir SIDNEY
SMITH, to have occurred on the 2d of December,
could have been unknown to the Go'vernor of Gi-
braltar on the 3lst of the same month ; and it is
equally impossible, had lie known of such an event,
that he would not have mentioned it in a communi-
cation in which he states other circumstances re-
specting affairs in that Regency and its neighbour-
hood, of much less interest to Europeans—as, for
example—that in the month of November the
BEY of ORAN had been strangled—his chief Offi-
cer thrown into a dungeon—ar.d the old Audio-

rities restored. The oily circumstance that tends
to invalidate the inference we would draw from Go-
vernor DON'S silence, is the terms in which his com-

munication is concluded, riz. a strong recommenda-
tion to the Spanish Authorities to prevent all possi-
bility of the communication ofinlection from the
African Coast—or, in other words, not to admit into
their ports, on app pretext, vessels of any description
from Algiers. It is therefore still possible that the
event might happen at the time ststeJ, without
reaching the Governor's ears.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FRoIIPORT SPAIN, TRINIDAD,

DATED DECESSBEA 19, 1817.
" General Murals, before he' left Guayana, established a
Provisional Government; until the expulsion of the Spanish troops
may allow the election of a General, Congress, agreeably to the
Independent Constitution ; and Guayana will be so long the seat
of Government. The greatest order and tranquillity prev..K there,
and a brisk trade with the Islands, chiefly in British vessels,
whose flag is well received, and uniformly respected, by the
cruisers of Venezuela. The least infringement is severely pu-
nished by Bator, and has only occurred, to the best of my- know-
ledge, in two privateers having taken a Spaniard and his dollars
out of a mail boat. Both the man and his money were imme-
diately given up, OD our Admiral's requisition, at Margarita--
where a Captain was also hanged, for robbing vessels on the coast
of St. Thomas in a piratical way.
" General Bermudez has .been sent with 1500 men to take
the command in the Province of Cumana, where he is to raise
troops, and act against the capital and sea coast. General .Mo-
nagas has the same commission in the province of Barcelona.
In both these proviuces the Patriots are superior to the Roya-
lists, who are confined to the envos. General Pass's army, 4000
cavalry, commands all the province of Defines and the Lower
Apure. The Spaniards are shut up its the town of St. Fernando,
on the Apure, by this army; and, by water, by the Patriots in
Guayana. General Morilles head-quarters, it is said, were at
Calabozo, and all the troops he can muster were endeavouring
to collect there, and it is in that neighbourhood, probably, tha:
a hattie will be fought.. if it has not already taken place. Bo-
livar states that he is ready, ..nd if he can meet him in the plains
of Calabozo, an overwhelming cavalry will give Bolivar every
advantage.

" The sprit of the country is all with him, and the cause of
Ferdinand, and the Inquisition and Monopoly must die a natu-
ral death soon. The people on the Main will read English books
and will wear English manufactures in spite of tyranny.
• Nitimur in vetitum temper, cupimusque negata
particularly when we are prohibited from what is reasonable and
just. Indeed I hardly know a clever Spaniard who does not owe
the best part of his learning to the friendly hint of the Holy Of-
See in publishing a catalogue of prohibited books and sticking it
up in the Cathedrals.
" To conclude OIL, I have no doubt whatever upon my own
mind, that Spain, single-handed, must lose her dominion over
the continent of America ; and that the Power in Europe which
should attempt to cram such an execrable system on the South'
Americans, by aiding her, might prolong the misery of the coun-
try, but would produce no permanent effect. The emancipation
of South Amerk a, on the contrary, is the interest of all Eu-,
rope, and of a great manufacturing nation in particular. The
South Americans look up to England principally, and hope she
will redeem the pledge."

It appears from the :Lverage returns made from the
twelve Maritime Counties of England, that the price
of Grain for the siz weeks preceding the 15th of Fe-
bruary instant, will be above the rate for restricting
importations, and consequently that the ports will be
open for the reception of foreign Corn during the next
quarter. The last average of Wheat quoted in the
London Gazette, which is up to the 31st of January,
is 836..11d. being Ss. 11d. above the mininu,m.
There certainly never was a people among whom
so many and such opposite opinions prevail as to the
means for producing national prosperity. At one
time the best is, by raising the price of corn—which
always tends to increase the number of 'paupers ; and,
when this effect does follow, then to contrive means
fcir reducing the population. Now it is impossible
to conceive means more directly calculated mutually
to destroy the effects respectively promised from
each ; for the price of corn will ever depend on the
number of mouths to be filled, compared with the
quantity at market. Reduce the number of customers,
and, however high the prices of corn may be, they
must fall, from the supply being greater than the
demand : and, on the other hand, increase the num-
ber of mouths, and, however low the prices were
before, they must rise, by the increased demand.--
Corn-bill-men, Malthuses, and men of . that school,
may dream, and speculate, and legislate ; but till
they attend to the laws of Nature, in vain 1,611 they
labour to nukh one class at the expense of another.