The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-11-21 00:00:00

E IST FLORID t.

The St. Aagrtstide Florida Gazette' of the 13th
alt. gives an agreeable description of the opening
of the local judicial Tribunal of E tst Florida on the

100, under an ordinance of li,►veronr Jackson.
The bench was filled by " five plain, intelligent, ho•
mat Citizens, sitting openly and publicly to admi-
nister juitice among the people."

" The first American t}rand Jury, which was ever
called upon in East Florida" was then sworn in. The
Petit Jury was also called and sworn in. " 1 thought
immediately" (says the narrator, and it appeared to
him that every one was of the same mind) that " this
seals thefite of kingly power for ever on this penin-
sala.—hiberty °jibe Press, and Trial by Jury, have
taken up their ab /de on this fine land of citron and
orange groves ! The sons of Washington will vindi-
cate the goodness of the Creator, in showing that man
may he great and free, though living within the influ-
ence of the torrid sane. and fanned by the breezes and
shaded by the bowers of a tropical clime."
It is pleasant to trace thus the st'ps of improvement,

which this country is making under the auspices of

liberty. How many, years would have passed away
'- *Ace the Spanish Regime. ere the Jury system
would have poured its benefits upon the people.—
But the improvement is not confined to the
judicature. At a meeting which was held in
the Council Chamber, at St. Augustine, (Mr. Forbes

in the Chair) the citizens /tarred into resolutions to
collect fends fur the establishment of a Protestant
Church. and of a Library. A Committee of three was
also appointed "to report to this meeting. on the 22d
inst. the best practicable plan of a public school or
schools for the inhabitants of East Florida."
Thus. we already see the Jury trial—a Protestant
Cbaretia public Library—Education—and, though
last, not least, the Press, finding their way into this new
acquisition. Suoh are the energies of liberty•—(Rich-
*ea Compiler.)

By letters from Vienna we learn that the Greeks of
Macedonia are far from being subdued. According
to letters from Sere, of the 17th of October, they have
gained some advantages. They have repulsed a new
attack made by the Turks against the position of Cas
sandra; the Turks were obliged to fall back on Salo-
idea, where Asiatic troops are daily arriving. The
oily point, it is said, upon which the affairs of the
insurgents present any really favourable chance is
gpiras and Albania; since several of the Albanian
',eye have declared themselves Ali Pacha. It Is
added, however, that it is almost Impossible to obtain

say aatheatif sews from this
terdiy, says the write, from
hauling and the §itiotes

Chourschid in the beginning of October near Arta; it
is also asseqed that the fasnces Pull&
Pacha's antaionlit,' has been taken, and bond
Pacba killed. Some letters doubtless exaggerate the
loss of the Turks in rating it at 10,000 men ; they
have retreated to Larissa in Thessaly to await rein-
forcements ; Arta must have capitulated. It is said
that Pacha Bey has offered a very considerable ransom,l
but that the Albanian Beys have resolved to give him
up to Ali Pacha, who has sworn his death. All the
letters agree as to the truth of this news, though they
differ in some of the particulars.
From the various accounts that have come to band,
we have no doubt that the Turks have been defeated

at sea. By a letter which appears in another part of
our paper, dated Trieste, it is understood that one
Turkish corvette was boarded and takes, seven other
ships •unk, another in the port of Cheri, in the island'
of Zante. The inhabitants of Zante are said to have
obliged the English authorities, after killing four
English soliiers,,to send off the forty Turkish ships

that had taken shelter in their port, so that hopes are

entertained the shattered remnant will be entirely de-
stroyed. According to another letter from Leghorn,
the meeting of the Oreek and Turkish fleet took place
on the 12th of October, off the island of Zaote: the

inhabitants of the island were assembling on the
shore. The ad►antage appearing to be on the side of
the tireel;s, u the Turkish dag was struck in some
of the ships, and the banner of the Cross hoisted in
its stead, caused them to express their joy by loud
acclamations and clapping of hands. The English
perceiving this, gave orderp for the stuns of the fortress
to fire on the Greek ships; but while they were en-
gaged in this, the inhabitants revoked, and the English
were obliged to retire, ant to shut themselves up in

the Castle. Troops, continues the writer, have, since
arrived from Coifs, under the commend a General
Adams, and we expect, with impatience, farther parti-
cnlars.—This account cannot be true. If may have
been mixed with those feelings which might arise in
the mind of an advocate of the Greeks, when he had
heard of the Proclamation of the Governor of the lonian

lslands, to which we yesterday referred ; but, severe
as that exercise of authority was, it is not
consistent with the neutrality which the pro-
clamation professes, to make such a military
interference as is here alleged. By that Proclamation
threats are held out to " those imprudent ministers of
religion, who, in contravention of the pure prkcipler
if that Gospel which inculcates universal charily and
benevolence, on this occasion put up,. under tbp very
eye of the Government, public prayers for the destruc-
tion if the Ottoman Power. hies wickedly employing
the rare of religion to inflame a fatal enthusiasm al-
ready of itself too extensive." The unfortunate PAL
guinotes, who, with their brave countrymen, the Su-

liotes, had failed in an attempt to ze-possess them-
selves of Parga, their expalsion fromiwitich forms such
a stain on the history of this country,' ire also by this
Prjelauiation declared to have forfeitbd their right of
citizer.ship in the lonian Islands, and are to be refused
admission into any of the lonian States.—This Pro-
ylamatioa, it appears, is justified on the principle of
neutrality, which bad been declared by the Executive
government on the 7th of Jane.

The French Chamber of Peers with that fulsome
adnlation that alike disgraces the givers and receivers,
and whose empty unmeaning flummery cannot be ex-
ceeded, except by the late sapient address of the Al-
dermen and Common Council, have blended, in
their asldrers to the French King, some bold truths
hich appear t.) be satyrically directed some where
else. In referring to the Greeks and Turks. they
say emphatically, "He is not a Christian who does
not feel alarmed at them, nor has he a human heart
who i• not wounded ; and that policy must walk in
the train of religion and humanity." This is a
hint to those Despots who tamely look on the

,`unheard of murders and cruelties committed on
their fellow christians in Turkey and Greece. The ad-
dress continues to boast of the respect 'hews the
French flag in the Levant, and the protection it has at
forded to the persecuted. whereby the lanoeent were
succoured and protected ; the abase of power was pre-
vented, the voice of pity attended to, and a
_multitude
of victims rescued from the fury of vengeance. Whe-
ther this is meant as a censure on the conduct of Sir
Thomas MAITLAND, is a matter we submit to our
reader., whow we presume are aware of his refusing
the poor unfortunate Pargwinutcs permission to
land on their native island to save themselves from
the sanguinary knife of the infidel. This is a mani-
ple of a British Governor. It might have pained
over in India, where the press is in thraldom.
bat even in France. and under a Bourbon
Censor. it is held up as a disgrace to British ju-
risprudence.

In another part of the address the insult gathers as
it goes on, " The prosperity of the finances surpassed
their biglizst expectations, the laws are more respected
and purified from error." Are the.. two points directed
against England or not ? In the first place, the re-
sources of this country without the assistance of loan.,
are unable to pay the interest of the debt, therefore,
the irony is visible.

la the second, our sanguinary code is a disgrace to
shuinan nature. particularly as the example of frequent
immolations appears to hare no effect on the prevestioa

• cIIP-

•
•-

hundreds that 4v►sagered for fofse-
are so inhuman and disgraceful t$
of the Country, that we do not wonder at
it coming ander the cetuntro-cat the French Vhambey.
Tear after year a e have called)spon the Government to
abolish this base and bloody iyitem—vain we're our at-
tempts to humanize theme_ Bank prosecutions, and this
morni og added 4 unfortunate victims to the appalling ea-
talogne.Again the Frenchmen repeat their masked abuse:
‘4 Your MAJESTY beholds the passions calmed, and the
moment approaches, when ill jealousies, all resent•
meats, will become extinct." The readers must set
this was clearly meant as a rebuke for the conduct of
this Government to the people of Ireland, in not sub•
staotiating a system of kindness and conciliation,
instead of coercion, the bayonet, and the gallows, the
hopeful Tythe Farmer, and the Orange Wrecker.
Taking this address as a whole, we consider it prin-
cipally ditected against our political institutions at
home and abroad, and a censure upon our narrow-
hearted policy with regard to the Greeks and the
Irish.

We return to the subject of the application to ..the
Court of Chancery by Messrs. Hudsons, Tenants to
the Coopers' Company, for a reduction of the rent of
a farm in Essex ; because an application of thii kind
to a Court of Equity, at this juncture, deserves the
most serious attention, as mooting a point in Which
all persons connected with agriculture, and holding
long leases, are deeply interested.
The Petitioners stated that they had taken the farm
on lease the latter end of the year 1817 ; that three
years ago potatoes were 6/. per ton in the London
Market, but by on importation from Scotland, they
were now as low as 2/. per ton, and that they had con-
sequently lust 10001. by their farm during the last
year only.
We cannot at all float but that Messrs. Hudsons
bare lost the money by the farm, which they state; but
we think we shall be able to prove, either that they
are themselves ignorant of the cause of their less, or
had not the courage to state it to the Court. Now
the fact was, that in 1819 the potatoe crop totally
failed is all the home isounties, so that WI. and 11/.
per too were given in the London Markets; this set
several speculators on importing from Scotland, Devon-
shire, and other distant parts of the kingdom, which
speedily reduced the price to an average of about 4/.
10s. per MR ; since then, a few, and bat a very few,
cargoes of potatoes have been brought into the port
of London, more than was customary previous to 1819;
so that blesses. Hudson. cannot pretend that the pre-
sent low prices is at all owing to importation from
Scotland. But Messrs. Hudsons also grew drum-bead
cabbages to a considerable extent ; now no cabbages
have been sent from Scutlamd, or from any other dis-
tant part, so that the reduction in their value cannot
have arisen from a glut in the market. It must be
evident from this, that some circumstances other than
those pleaded by Messrs. Hudsons, have operated to
cause thew so dreadful a lust as maw. in one year, of
little more than 100 acres of land.

If, however, it had been true, that the fall in the
price of the produce of their farm had been caused
by the circumstances stated, we can conceive of no-
thing more strange, than that a farmer may be re-
lieved by the Court, and his lease nullified, because,
by a fair competition, to which every trader is, and
ought to be exposed, the article, he produces are fallen
so low in price, as to effect his rain, What should we
lay of a merchant applying to the Court to be relieved
from a contract, because he had found, that on send-
ing his goods abroad, a similar article lead been sent
from France, by which the market was glutted, and
the price reduced ?
The most extraordinary feature in this ease, how-
ever, is, that the Lord Chancellor ordered the petition
to be referred to the Master, to consider what reduc-
tion should be made ; the reduction to be refunded
whenever pekes should get higher; remarking, at the
same time, that "he never heard of a farmer, when 1,
the articles of produce were at a high price, paying a
greater rent to the land-owner than be had stipulated
for in his lease." But, surely, after this decision,
we msy expect to see a land-owner come
to the Court, and say. " I let a farm last
year. when wheat was t*. a bushel. but now it is risen
to 10s. ; it is lint just that my want of foresight
should he remedi..d to me, anal the lease so far cancel-
led till the price of so heat shall again fall to .is. a bushel."
If this should ever he admitted as a principle in equity.
we may expect to see every foolish or unfortunate spe-
culator applying to the Court of Chancery to be re-
lieved from the injurious consequences of his own want
of judgment ; so that trade and commerce would be
soon annihilated, and law only thrive.
_ _ • _ _

We have shewn that Messrs. Hudson's did not state
in their petition, the true cause of their losses. It wa►
not caused by importation front Scotland, but by the
financial operation of the Uovernment, which is pro-
ducing precisely the same effects in every part of the
kingdom, where importation from Scotland cannot
possibly he even the pretest.
In 1817, the tame when the lease was granted to
Messrs. Hudson's, prices were high, in consequence
of Ministers having caused an enorsnens issue of paper
money, to qniet the landholder, who, after the dread-
ful depressions under which the agriculturalists la
bowed in 1816, had become clamorous and threaten-
ing, as they are now ; though the Ministers were nut
so well prepared to meet them.
This temporary elevation of prices. naturally caused
• rise in the value of land ; and 31 . . Hudson's,
among many others, took their farm at a corresp.nd-
invent, not dreaming tha4,3llaisters could and might,
by a single Act of Parliament. so alter the value of all
their property as to overwhelm them with ruin.
We conceive, notwithstanding these observati.•ns. that
Messrs. Hudson bad good grounds for applying
to the Court of Chancery for relief. from tin ruinous
colseelsences of their lease. bad they ventured to state
thins. Had they said, that they bad taken their farm
lin 1817, at a rent. which prices then warranted ; that
by withdrawing the paper money, Ministers had al-
tered the ►alue of property ; that it wss not equitable
to pay rent. in gold, which had been contracted for
is paper of a mesh lower value; that neitl►er iheu►-
selves our the great mass of Ate people ha►l any. even
the nest meow influence over tie allakiliffe, winch
maid 'those Mans llecteatiedis in the mane of property,

T 144 STATESMAN
I esinntri. We beard iestof rili;ik We b
i Belgradeti that the A. nee on the:lciait)
had beaten the Puha the Governtnent of