The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-12-29 00:00:00

-FATESMAN

approaching prosecution of a number of individealat
charged with the crime of uniawfully prirateering
under the South American Ilag. In
lea

The Paris Papers to the 26th have come to band.
The 5 per Cents. were done as low on Thursday at
Paris as M. 25t. but rose, towards the close of the
market, to 63f. at which price they left off. The
King, on Thursday, transacted business with the
Duke of TA ItlitaTUM, the Chancellor of the Order of
the Legion of Honour. The same day the Duke of
Bouenox had the misfortune to have his carriage
overturned on his return from hunting at Chantilly.
Ilia Highness received a severe woond on his shoulder,
but it is not expected to be attended with any serious
consequences. The Bureaux of the Chamber of De-
puties had nominated a Committee to ',asinine the
Provisional Law of Finance, presented at the last
Sitting. The names of the Commissioners are M.'
BRETON, the Duke of GAETA (Finance Minister to,
BONAPARTE), Count HAUTETEUILLE, Count BEUG•
NOT, M. MENAGER, Baron DELESSERT, M. GANILII,
M. DE WENDEL, and M. 'ARMAND. Count DWG-
, NOT was appointed Reporter from the Committee.—
Lours XVIII. has issued an Order, Supplementary
to that of September last year, relative to the con-
cerns of the Scotch and Trish Colleges at Paris, and
the Colleges, of the British Jesuits at Poictieis,
Douayi Sad St. Omer. They are to be placed under
the management of a Board, subject to the superin-
tendence of the Minister of the Interior. The Ad-
ministrator-General is to be chosen by the King,
from a list of Clerical Catholic Candidates from the
three British nations, submitted to him by the Mi-
nister of the interior. The POPE seems to have
found the petty Protestant Princes of Germany more
accommodating, as to a Concordate, than a true son
of the Church. The Papal Nuncio at Munich has
not yet been able to effect an arrangement on this
subject with his Bavarian Majeity. Prince KARAM: A,
the late Hospodar of Wallachia, had not determined
on a retreat into Switzerland until he wasiPtiosed a
refuge in the Austrian States ; the Court of Vienna
being afraid of embroiling itself in disputes with the
Porte on his account.

A Mail from Holland, with letters end Palters to
the 25th inst., has arrived. By the latter of these we
learn that the persons implicated in the late pre-
leaded• plot still remain in custody; and it is said
the littottbations against them have been handed into
Court. Priest* accounts received in Holland from
Spain, cotrQrs the statements respecting numerous
desertions from the espeditionery troops at Cadiz,
and their having joined the smogglees of the. Sikrra
Moron.. They also state, that as goon as Faint-
..;
NANO beird of rho work of Don-Fum .. es EAN-I-ANA
klieg .bean poehlished in London, recommending
liberal form of Government, he caused
imeasures to
be taken to prevent its introduClion into his terra.!
tories. Tbe work is, nevertheless, circulated with
avidity in Spain. Letters received at the Ham,
from Iron, mention the same facts, and also notice
that great care is taken to prevent the circulation of
English Journals through the dominions of Fotot•
NAND—the Beloved! They state, that two Couriers
bad passed through that plaice, on the 7th, for Paris
and London ; and that the most alarming reports
were in circulation. According to advice, of the
latter end of August, from Vera Cruz, Father Ton-
RES had defeated a body of troops rent against him.
The standard of Independence which he had again
set up, bore the iuscription—" Victory or Death!"

The accounts presented by the Blois of England
of the number of Forgeries which have taken place
since 1797 (that is, since the suspeosion of cash pay-
ments), but more particularly since 1815, eahibit,
in-
a frightful degree, the rapid progression of the crime
of Forgery. In 1798 there were only twelve
prosecuted, and the sixpence of the prosecutions
during that year amounted to only 41301. 18s.

—An increase too abrupt for the teem gra
dual distinguishes each succeeding year. In 1817
the list of prosecutions amounted to 142, the a:-
pence to 29,9101. 45. Id.—the capital convictions 32.
To the Ist of April, 1818 (three months only ),
a total of 128 'prosecutions appears ; and the
expence incurred in these prosecutions, since the
suspension, amounts to the sum of 257,1351. 12s. 2d.
—Tbis enumeration is exclusive of the num-
ber of persons who appear, by the annual Par-
liamentary returns from the several Clerks of
Assizes, to have been discharged without prosecu-
tion, from want of evidence, hills thrown out by
Grand Juries, and other causes. The increase in
the present year, it will be observed, is alarming in
the highest degree ; and should the prosecutions con-
tinue at the same average rate, the total cannot fail
of presenting an amount not only shocking to every
'friend to humanity, but furnishing the most itre•
(reptile proof of the inefficacy of capital punish-
ment as a preventive of Forgery. The morality, the
injury likely► to follow such a progression of crime
is sufficiently apparent. But to the interests of
trade, in a country like F,ttglaml/ whose continpr-
cial prosperity so eminently rests on the full end
unembarrassed state of its currency, it is as impossi-
ble to calculate on the consequences, as it is to avoid
being alarmed at their tendency.
Hitherto we have pnid considerable attention to
the prosecutions for passing Forged tank•r.otes.—
Bat of the species of eTitleuce upon which the Juries