The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-06-14 00:00:00

Till

sr,

CITY POLITICS.
A carious circumstance occurred on Friday, during
the discussion of the proposal to give £5OO to the
Greeks. The Lord Mayor had made the extraordinary
discovery that the proposed measure was illegal! and
that the city charter would be hazarded, if they carried
it into effect. This was improving upon the idea of Mr.
Crocker, who was anxious that the French Ambassador
should set the Attorney General upon the Corporation,
' for assisting Spain ! The majority of the Common
Council met these apprehensions as they deserved to be
met. Mr. James proposed the grant should be £lOOO
instead of 54101. ; and the amendment was carried literally
by acclamation. We shall now see whether'the Corpo-
ration will be attacked by the Attorney General, and de-
privedof its charter. if it were, the business might as-
sume still more of a Spanish character ; and the two
countries become still more closely identified with each
other! The French Government will now have an op-
portunity of ascertaining what l the tree feeling of the
British public; and the knowledge they may thus ac-
quire, will do them this good at any rate—that they will
find the stsbjugation of the British Cabinet to their
views, is not the way to paralyze the energies of the
British nation ; and, that, although Mr. Canning may
truckle to the Holy Alliance, British spirits will not
truckle to him, nor to any of his colleagues.

Frankfort papers haTe reached us this Morning to the
7th of Juoe ; but they bring very little intelligence of
importance. Their chief contents consist of a long ex-
tract of a letter from Romano, In Moldavia, dated the
10th of May,, in contradiction of an article in the
AllegemeineZeititng,d a ted Bach arest, Sth A priLaccord i n g
to which 50 Boyards, the Archbishop, Primate of Mol-
davia, had been arrested, bouhd, and carried beyond the
Danube to be tried. This statement, it is alleged,
originated in the banishment beyond the Danube, of
five foreigners, who were found not possessed of passports,
and who were suspected of intriguing to overthrow the
existing Government ; and in the Government having se-
questrated a year's revenue of the estates of the clergyiand
assigned on those of the Greek laod•owners the payment
of certain debts contracted by Prince Suzzo, who
bad gone away. These measures harp, it is
pretended, not been dictated by any motive contrary to
the pacific system of the Porte. Another statement in
the Allegenseine Zeitung, of several Boyards having'
been banistsed from 'Bucharest, is also declared to be
incorrect.

A letter from Frankfort states,that the firman granting
particular privileges to tile Turkish merchantmen, has
been communicated to the Foreigh Legation at Con-
stantinople. •

Paris papers to the 13th inst. have brought a fresh
Report of the blajor•General of the army to the Minister
at War; but as a proof of the great dearth of military
atcbievements, the Count has " thrice to fight the battle
o'er' and thrice to slay the slain." The old skirmish
at Astorga is the oily subject of this new bulletin, and any
one can perceive how trifling it was When it is known
that the Spanish division did not exceed one thousand
men; and that it formed the rear-guard of blorillo's
army, sod wis retreating when it was overtaken; so that
the enemy did not even give it the impulsion which left
him in possession of the field of battle, and the whole loss
which it sustained amounted to twelve or fifteen men
killed, and one hundred and fifty men taken pri-
soners. The Regency has issued another Proclama-
tion. This second is addressed to the Spanish nation.
The Regency promise to co-operate in restoring Ferdi-
nand to liberty, and pretend that they will exert their
authority to prevent:persecutions and excesses. It is not
worth insertion, and is not possessed of any vigour. The
Journal des Debuts contains the following letter from
Madrid, dated June 6. " A person in whom full confi-
dence may be placed, left Seville on the 241 of June, and
arrived last night at Madrid. He states that Seville was
in the greatest ferment; and that the battalion of Ma-
rines bad evinced a determination not to let the King be
removed. The Regency are organizing the Spanish Roy-
al Guard. Before long the 6.000 men who formed this faith-
ful troop on the 7th of July, will beassemblerl. A Spanish
Royalist corps of 3,000 men precedes the French column,
which is advancing from ;Madrid upon Seville by Coe.
does. The few troops belonging to the Cortes under
Colonel Abad, surnamed Chace°, dispersed in various
directions before arriving at the Sierra Morena. An-
, other Spanish Corps of three or four thousand men
marches With General Bonrinont, and is traversing'
Estreinadors' to reach Seville also, by the way of Trilx-1
illo and Merida. If necessary, it can operate upon Ba-
dajuz,
should the Cortes wish to go there, which is
not probable."—lf private advices received-yesterday!
from Paris are to he believed, the war would not
be far removed from its termination. The French
Government, it is stared, has two powerful motives for
bringing the matter to as sp..edy and favourable an
issue as possible. The one is the expence, which
is known to be enormous ; and the other the danger of a
re-action on the pat of the Royalists, which must of ne-
cessity encrease, with the prolongation of the contest.
To these two motives we will venture to add a third one.
France wishes to put an end to the war, because she has
acquired the conviction that although she may over-run
most or the whole of the provinces of_Spain, she cannot
break down and subjugate her spirit. She becomes de-
sirous of peace, when iu their turn the Constitutionalists
are beginning li.o war. Let Ferdinand be brought
back to Madrid, and she will withdraw her armies be-
hind the Ebro, and wait there till the King and his
friends shall have firmly established a new and more
agreeable order of •things. Such are the conditions
which it is confidently asserted she has proffered, after
having disdainfully rejected them ten days before, when
proposed by Ahisbal. The fact is, that her armies are
now divided into so many scattered bodies, that she fears
they may be cut off in detail, and would fain collect thew
again in a safe position behind the line of the Ebro.
FRENCH FUNDS, JUNE ll.—Five per cent. opened 87,
dossed S 7, 50.—Bank stock, 1,5,2 ; Neapolitan' ditto,
7511. Exchange on London, one month, 25, 60: Three
months, 25, 60.

STOCK Exctusraa. 12 o'Caocx.--Consols opened this
morning at SI I,and went down to st, at which price they re.
main. The Expresses from Paris Lave brought the closing
price of the French Funds 8740.—Spanish, 4.1. There is
but little doing in the Stock Exchange.
We have a current report that a Revolution has taken
place in Portugal. to abolish the Cortes. This is said to be
by trench intrigue. The above information is stated to have
come by way of France, with the Express Ibis morning.
We have just seen a gentleman who arrived this morning
from Barcelona. He saw Mina there, who was preparing
en expedition for the frontiers of France. He demanded of
the inhabitants of Barcelors, 6000 cockades, and several
thousands of Rations (or his troops ; and his demands were
immediately complied with. Five hundred of the women of
Harosloas have formed themselves, into a corps, dressed in