Star.
London, England, 1827-09-07 00:00:00

FRENCH PAPERS.

PROM THE GAZETTE DP /RAMC; SEPT. 5.
PARIS, San. 4.
We lately published the results of a comparative view
of the number of vessels from foreign ports, or from the
colonies, which entered the ports of France during the
years 1825 and 1826. To-day the Minutia. gives the
list of the vessels that have sailed, so that the reader
may judge cf the whole extent of our maritime com-
merce during these two years. We see by this table
that the exports by sea to foreign countries, during the
year 1826, exceeded those of 1825 by 1.47 th only,
whereas the excess to our colonies is nearly one.fifth.
Comparing this table with that of the imports,
cre find that the increase of importation has been
chiefly advantageous to our great towns, Bordeaux,
Marseilles, Havre, and Nantes; whereas the increase
of exportation has chiefly taken place in ports of the
second order, such as Bayonne, La Rochelle, Brest,
Cherburg, and Abbeville. This circumstance seems to
be not indifferent. It shews, in fact, that our great trad-1
in°° porportspre,erve all their importance by the increase
of the importations, and proves, at the same time, by
the more active part which tile secondary ports take is
the exportations, that there is a great improvement in
theindustty of the country about them.
Recent accounts from Constantinople announce the
' return to that city of General Count de Fernig, brother
/slaw to Count Goilleminot, his Majesty's Ambassador
to the Ottoman Porte. Gen. Fernig, who arrived there
with him last pe4r,has;eturned from traversing Egypt to
the frontiers of Nubia, the isles of the Archipelago and
Greece, where-he had the grief to witness the fall of the
Actopolis, and the dreadful cruelties perpetrated by

EXTRACT OF A PRIVATE LETTER.
LISBON, Am. La.
The Dictatorship pursues its hostile march. The
nment Garotte published the day before yesterday
(Gtrteve lifith), 1. A decree of the Regent, pronouncing the
resignation of the excellent Bishop of Algarves, a Peer
of the Realm, from his place of Minister of Justice and
Ecclesiastical Affairs. The retirement of this good man
has not been accompanied by those benevolent expres-
sions of consideration which, in Portugal, are usually
given to Ministers who retire. The vacant office has
been given, ad interiss, to Don Antonio de Cereal's°,
Minister' of Finances. 2. Anoiher decree, which dis-
misses abruptly, and with disdainful brevity, Don An-
tonio Meo,,el de Noronha front the functions of Minis-
ter of the Marine, which has been confided, ad interim.,
to the Viscount de Santarem, Minister of the Interior.
It was impossible to pardon the Bishop of Algarves and
M. de Noronha, for not having suppressed the expres-
sions of their grief for the disgrace of General Saldanha,
and for having more recently, in unison with the mino-
rity of the present Council of State, maintained that it
was proper to ;aspect, and cause to be executed, the'
decrees of Don Pedro IV.
BARCBLONA, Atm.
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE.

Although the administration of the police has passed
into the hands of the Apostolic,, yet the wishes of our
warlike Catalonians are not yet satisfied. They say
that they will not lay down their arms until tbe Go-
vernment shall have reestablished the Holy Inquisition,
and banished all those who Pied nay office under the'
Cones. Jep del Estanys is besieging the fortress of
Bergs; and it has even been runiouied that he 11.4 suc-
ceeded in getting possession of it. Our authorities have
not, however, received, that l have heard of, any dis-
patches on the subject of so important an event. They
are not, however, ignorant that this chief of the rebels
has raised the mountaineers as smatter (companies of
armed men, raised by a province for its own defence.)
More than 3,000 men, armed and 'unarmed, already
surround the town. Our authorities have also learned,
that the Commandant of the fortress, in order to increase
his-forces, which are insufficient for its defence, has
taken the precaution of arming all the inhabitants, who
formerly served as national militia, under the banners
of the Cortes. It is certain that if the place does not
receive speedy succour, the garrison will be forced to
open for itself a passage by force, if it be at all able to
pierce through the ranks of the enemy.
I told you lately, that the manufacturing towa of
Tarrasa had been put in a state of defence. General
Romagosa has just made a representation against the
measure. That General thinks that the remedy may
prove more dangerous than the evil itself, seeing, says
he, that the inhabitants of that town formerly sheaved
so greet a devotion to the cause of the Constitution, and
that from such a measure may flow most disastrous
consequences.
Sapires, better known by the name of Caragol, is
nuking progress also every day. The check which he
sustained on the 16th instant near Piera, by the move-
able column of the 10th of the line, under the orders of
Don Julien Los Ida, instead of weakening his band,
sterns to have given it new strength. The loss of men
killed and wounded in the wile, has been repaired by
an accession of two hundred fresh recruits. From the
environs of Vich to those of Barcelona, nothing is seen
but a crowd of small bands scattered abroad like so

many swarms of bees. A company of the 3d Regiment
of infantry of the line, which was marching yesterday
to Grenollers, had several of its men wounded on their
route. This recalls the disastrous times of the war of inde-
pendence; for it was thus that the French columns, who
in this province traversed the roads in every sense, saw
their soldiers fall, without discovering the aggressors,
who, concealed behind the bushes and in the forests
which bordered the roads, and wherever they could
escape notice, sacrificed their victims with impunity. At
Olet the rebels are organising, at this moment, a nume-
rons band, with the most perfect security. It appears
that the horses of the diligences, which have been up
to this date respected by the rebels, are no longer secure
from their attacks. Yesterday they carried off a relay
of six horses. The day before yesterday the third light
regiment directed its march towards Gerona. In Ar-
ragon, on the side of Huesea, an individual named
Tena is scouring the country, having tinder his orders
two bands, which be has organised on the same footing
as those in Catalonia. On the side of Segorleo, in the
kingdom of Valencia, there is also another band. As
these two provinces have been left without defence, by
the absence of troops, it is feared, and not without foun-
dation, that these bands, which augment every day,
may renew in these provinces the disorders and excesses
which afflict Catalonia.

FROM THE QUOTIDIENNE.

BARCELONA, Almost 27.—Panarz Coaassrompixca
Three columns of 600 men each, infantry and cavalry,
are organizing at this moment, and will speedily march

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• -FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 7, 1827. diVRb. )
-... -al Maim will go at the his country, the liberality of the proprie,o-s at
.... ND others, which will vessels, and the feelings of others well affected to s ~
--,,
,ded by Colonels gation by the power of steam. After this declaratis, 3
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Regiment of is it possible for Symington to pretend to any privi. i •
cg ime n t of lege or right of invention from his letters patent ? Th;y
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-ss of the were surreptitiously obtained many years after my fa-
titer -had made the discovery known to all the world,
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-r thereby rendering his letters patent of no avail. The , •
-,.. -titer person whose pretentions I find it incumbent on
to refute is henry Bell, at HAensburgh. In a Lie .
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-... -s to Parliament, praying for some provision in
". that person sets forth " That, in the year }
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~ Ntly 23 years of age, he commenced expe-
N view of propelling vessels by the power
oursued these experiments for ten ,
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-arson in this country who brought
'f secant in propelling vessels i
••. -lls this invention his oWn,
-,. ',ll larger capital had
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,s the first person -
lm navigation
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his country, the liberality of the proprie,cvs of steam-
vessels, and the feelings of others well affected to nevi-
gation by the power of steam. After this declaration,
is it possible for Symington to pretend to any
lege or right of invention from his letters patent ? They
were surteptitiously obtained many years after my fa-
ther ,had made the discovery known to all the world,
thereby rendering his letters patent of no avail. The
•ther person whose pretentions I find it incumbent on
.me to refute is Henry Bell, at ILlensburgh. In a Inc
petition to Parliament, praying for some provision in
'his old age, that person sets forth " That, in the year
1789, when only 23 years of age, he commenced expe-
rimenti with the view of propelling vessels by the paver
of steam ; that he pursues these experiments for ten
years, and was thefirst person in this country trio brought
into practice the power of steam its propelling vessels
agailut wind and tide. He calls this invention his vain,
and complains that others with larger capital had
adopted the invention, and were liiinging ruin tin his
heacl."• It may be true that Bell was the first person
in this country who attempted to turn steam navigation
to a profitable use, by building the Comet seam vessel,
and ,bringing her to ply upon the river Clyde in the
year 1811, for the conveyance of goods and passengers.
But while I admit this, and in so tar as it can be consi-
.dered as a merit, I have no wish tryinjure him; com-
mon justice, however, to the memory of my late father
seems to require that I should state the facts as they
lay are. I have already noticed that my father was
.thp first who introduced the practical use of 'wpm
navigation, and that Symingtol I- was the mechanic'
employed by him in constructing and putting onboard
his double boat the first steam engine ever used for pet:o-
pening a vessel: that this took place in the year 1788.
At that time Henry- Bell, who was origin .lly bred a
one mason, was working with Mr. James Inglis, engi-
neer, at Belisha, and afterwards as an engineer super-
intending some public works in Gfalgow ; and having
bola applied to by Mr. Fulton from America for draw-
ins of some of the machinery used in this country,
" that gentleman," as Mr. Ben says in a letter signdd
by himself, and published in the Cakdonian Mercury,
on the 28th October, 1816, " begged me (BM) to call
on Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, and see how he had suc-
ceeded in his steam boat plan; and if it answered the
end I was to send him a full drawing and description
of it, along with my other machinery. This led me to
have a conversation with the late Mr. Miller, and he
gave me every information I cold wish for at the
time," &c. and he adds, " two years thereafter, (i. e. in
1801), I had a letter from Mr. Fulton, letting me know
that he had constructed a steam boat from the different
drawings of machinery I had sent him, vhich was
likely to answer to answer the end, but required some
improvements on it." In 1824, Bell gave a further ac-
count of his connection•with Mr. Fulton, in a letter
addressed by him to John Macniell, E.q. of Glisgow,
of which the following is a literal copy. It will not
be overlooked, that, in this account of his scientific cor-
respondence with the American engineer, he makes no
allusion to his intercourse with my father
Mr. John 111,Nall,

44 lieleinbUrgb, lit Mar Ch. Info

" this morning was fevered with your letter and In anger
to your loqueres anent the lea Mr. Robert Fulton the American
ingenair his father was from Areshair but what plus or familay I
ennui tell but his self was born in America. He was different
times in this contray and staped with me for some time but he pub-
fished a tritiez on Canal Declining Railroads acettiards. I have
not his bona but you will finde it in lUr. Taylor Stashner Londcn
it is els He published it in this contray in tacos I think for in tha
letter end of the year 1803 he on his way to Frans called on me
and in his return in 1804. He was brought up in the line of a
painter and was the best hande scratcher and lickways a good
mineter painter. He was not brought up as a ingenair but be was
employed to came to this contray ro take drayings of our eattin and
other meshineray that leaid him in to become en siva ingenar and
was quick in his uptake of any thing. When I wrat to the Anse.
recap government the grate yaudity that steam navigation wold be
to them on their rivers they apointed Mr It Fulton to eorspond
with me so in that way the Amerecans gait their first insight from
your humbel servant . " lIRNERY BELL".

---
Boats on Mr. Fulton's construction were soon aftir-
wards brought into general use in the United States of
America; but it was no: till twelve years alter my
father had employed steam in propelling the two boats
erected by him, and after he had given public intima-
tion of the invention to every Court in Europe, that any
of Mr. Fulton's steam vessels appeared ; and not till
the year 1811, being ten years after the introduction of
them into the United States, that Bell built his vessel
called the " Comet" to ply upon the river Clyde, and
which was soon after wards followed by many others.--
What I have now stated has been extracted from, and is
supported by, the writings and memorials of Messrs.
Symington and Bell, and seems to me quite sufficient
to :hew that the merit of the introduction of steam na-
vigation rests with my late father entirely ; and that the
only merit of these two persons consists in following out
the plan he had adopted, and long before promulgated,
of applying wheels or paddles turned by steam in Oro-
- pelling vesstls at sea.

• was the very year in which the success of my father's
experiments were very generally reported by the public press, and
I front which the young, but invnanve, genius of Henry Bell, 4.t.
rived no doubt much assistance at its origin, and in its growth; and
which was likewise much and rapidly improved by frequent 1n•
speedo° of my father's steam vessel at Carron in 1789, as Symington
states. So much for steam navigation bring his invention, uhe is
pleased to call it.

t My father often regretted to me luring yielded to Mr. Taylor's
recommendation of Symington, in place of having employed'
Messrs. Watt and Bolton for his engines, and to ha►e availed him-
self of Mr. Taylor's very competent knowledge in mechanics, to
have applied them to the wheels of h‘s vessels. After the violent
disgust he received from Symington's coodutt at Carron, he used
not unfrequently to reproach Mr. Taylor rather smartly for hulas
ever thought of bringing such a person about him. This circumstance,
as much as any thing else, contributed to check the progress of
steam navigation In this country, from its introduction In 1788-9 till
1811, by damping my father's ardour at the time he had resolved
to build another vessel sullitiently strong to undertake a sea voyage,
and to support the weight of the engine, in which he proposed to
have embarked at Leith for London; and thus at once to have
made It manifest that steam was u apglicable to coasting as inland
navigation. Such, however, was his bed fortune; and both Mr.
Taylor and he lived long to repent afterwards, the ate foe hub;
given, and the other for baring attended to, the recomnsendation ;
but my father always felt strongly disposed to encourage and upper*
genius, when he found it struggling with poverty ; and WI man.
Tinkly had he to regret his mistaken kindness. •

J