The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-06-02 00:00:00

•••• 11.
l'E STATESMAN.

EARTIQUAICE. IN SOUTH AMERICA.

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[EURTRT.R PARTICULARS./
EXTRACT OP A LETTER raom.„A MERCHANT AT. t.
I TO HIS CORRESPONDENT AT NEW YORK,
P.trxn ArRIL 1.
"You will perceive by this that lam alive, although
the danger and misery we have been in since my last
are beyond description. On the 26th ult. at 4P. M.
we had an earthquake here, which has completely
I ruined this part of the province; not a house is
standing that any person would venture to remain in
, for a single hour, and riine-teoths of the town are
!vet with the ground. From tiventy-five hundred to
hree thousand persons have lost their lives. Ca-
recces has shared the same fate. I was there the time
it happened, and escaped by running from the house
to a large Court-yanl, iu which tiothingcould fall up-
on me. We have had one or two more shocks everyday
since. There is not a house in Laguyra, nor more than
SO in the whole city of Caraccas, but must be pulled
down, or the places completely abandoned; wnich
I latter, I think, will be the case, and cities and
towns built in places adjacent, and of wood. Ten
thousand lives are said to be lost in Ca' recces, but it.
is mi possihle to tell to a certainty. They have been
digging eat the bodies ever since, and burning them.
It is shocking to see, at the close of the day, !semis, '
arms,- and legs, that have been left unburnt as the
ire dies away, and the stench is terrible. Every
person is ordered out of Caracas, except labourers,
to avoid a pestilence. Three-f Purths of the wealth
of Caraccas are lost ; and as [today has passed with-
out a shock, we are waiting, with fear .and trem-
Whig,- to know when it will be entirely over, or
what the effect of the next shock will he. All fo- '
reigners, and every person having the means, are
leaving the place for the island and elsewhere. There
is a report that Porto Cavello is safes If so, num-
bers will flock to it, but a long time will be required
to make it a place of extensive business."

Extract of a letter received at Baltimore, per
schooner Independence, from Laguyra, dated April
4 A few days prior to our arrival, this town
was almost destroyed by an earthquake ; it corn.
menced about four o'clock, P. M. on Thursday, the
26th of March ; its duration was about four minutes
and its effects horribly destructive ; since my arrival,
there have been a few shocks, but no material damage
done. Such is the alarm of the inhabitants that the
, town is entirely deserted, and they are uow living
without the walls, beneath little tents and huts which
are erected merely to shelter them from the rain and
heat of the sun. It is not within the compass of my
ability to describe to you the misery of these peo-
ple ; fear and despair, grief and ruin have complete-
ly overwhelmed them. Parents have escaped, with
the loss of their children—children with the loss of
their parents, and very few without the loss of their
property. Already five hundred persons have been
found, and the probability is, that a great numh..r
still remain buried beneath the ruins. The detruc-
tion at Caraccas is much greater ; 2500 bodies have
been thrown on the funeral pile, and burned already,
and it is supposed that from Sto 10,000 souls are lost.
Out of 40 churches in that place, two convents only
I remain standing. Stich is the lamentable situation of
these two places, that it will be a long time before
they can be reinstated. No business of any nature
is doing. All the Americans here will go to Puerto
ICabello."

The total number of fives lost in the late earth.
quake at the Caraccas is estimated to be from 12 to
14,000.---This lamentable catastrophe, it appears,
happened on the second anniversary of their Decla-
zation of Independence, at the very hour that they
had formerly dragged their Governor to priien; a
circumstance which, from their superstitious princi-
ples, it is conceived, will produce a very sensible
change in the politics of that -Continent, many of
them considering it as a judgment of the Ajmigitty
for their separating themselves from the Mother-
Country. Indeed, their Priests have already avail-
ed themselves of such arguments in their exhortaz
tions to the people. The earthquake was also felt at
Curacoa, but no damage whatever occasioned by it.

One of the most fatal accidents that ever happen-
ed in this country occurmd on Monday sennight, at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne : from some cause, with the
particulars of which we are enacquainted, two coal
pits at that place took fire, by which catastrophe,
seventy-nine persons were burnt to death, and five
others taken out of the pits so dreadfully scorched as
to afford little hopes of their recovery.—(Leeds
Mercury).
RACE AGAINST TIME.—A galloway, belonging to
Mr. Prince, of Stour-street, yesterday started to
go to Bushey from Kilburn, and return, a distance
of twenty-three miles, in an hour and half, for a
wager of 100 guineas. The animal was rode by young
Clue, and arrived at Bushey in thirty-nine minutes
from the time of starting. After five tbinutes stop-
page the match was renewed, and the animal won
with great ease in seven minutes less than the given
time. It is a fact to be relied on, the galloway was
fired, and sold in Smithfield within twelve months for
41, 10s.

NAV.IL INTELLIGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH, Juve 1.

Arrived his Majesty's ship Wanderer, from a cruise ; Active,
from Plymouth ; Vengeur and Asia, at St. Helens, from olf
Cherbourgh ; the Porpoise storeship from the West Indies, with
a convey; the greater part of them passed by yesterday with
his Majesty's ship Gluire. Also the following transports from
Gibraltar; and are pat underquarantine, viz. Edward, Thames,
London. John and Robert, and Abbstrass.

DEAL, JUNE 1.

Arrived ►is Majesty's ship Gloire, with upwards of 90 salt of
West lodiausen, under convoy, hound to the River, &c.; ►is
Majesty's ship Grillo, (ruin tie flushing.
Sailed Ms Majesty's ship Christian Vit. for off ditto.

TO 4,(8.. STOCK•BRONEri, 8, CORNHILL..
Smters'Anon, May3o.
sm,—flaring purchased a Whole Ticket at yoti,. Odtre,
In Ilse Lotteiv to be Drawn no Thursday nest. I am not •
.withour Amapa hurt I shall obtain n X 20,000 Prize, which
will. of course. caulk sue to she whole, or the treater past
of those goioets which 'on display in your Windows this
beiag the ma**, I frit interested in their safety, and wuald fa-
comu.rnd to sou that you should drpasit tbeut is the Bank of ,
England anal call for Ihrm (.n Friday.
i :tin, Sir, your humble servant.
• JOIAN RIC/141140111s

kittsDOM ELECTioi.

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opportunity. of judging ; and, having uitmessed
what I Imre etplai;:eit, ~1 demand. credit for
the truth of What state.---My Learned and
Reverend Fries& iis the Chair...spoil- s -former oc-
casion, spoke harshly el Lord Grey, but this night he
has spokeeilifforently,,l will not say- entirely in a re-
deeming spirit. t contend, that Lord Grey, though,
like other great men, he may he a mixed character,
and 6apalde. of involuntary error, is a man of the
strictest probity of ineeitiou, highly .gifted, of ex-
tensive information, and powerful-and commanding
talents. It is to be hoped by' every friend to his
country., that such a man may quickly feel'his own
importanee, and assume his own station. The mo-
trent he feelsisitnself, his country again finds in him
: her most powerful and enchanting advocate. His
habitual connection with Lord Grenville is lament-
' able—it is monstrous ! He has not enriched himself
or his family with the public spoil,- and this conside-
ration alone should continue to endear him to as.
In my soul, I believe that he neither has, nor ever
wished, to enrich. himself at the expense of his coon-
try, and. that cffi.te cost him more than hederived
from it. ['agree with Or. Crompton, whose worth,
respectability,-aid independence we have all a plea.
sure in acknowledgiug, that the system of borough-
mongering, bribery, listineoce, and corruption, de-
serves all the hostility which he hai directed against
it in all his public efforts. When this system of in.
Ithence is openly and safely eindiceted,when the
authority. of usage or prescription is urged in vindi-
cation of the outraged laws,the insulted feelings, and
vacant pockets of your country—when acts of pro-
fusion and gross injustice ate held Inabas maims of
comniou prudence—when an avowed patriot and a
vigorous statesman/ aye,. Lord .Grenville himself, is
upheld and cherished in the odious fact of having a
great personal interest in•property which belongs to
the country—when, in the cant of modern language,
a nmu's morals may be all purity,-whilst his politics
are all pollution—when, I say, these facts are before
) ou, and you are not fired e ith rage and indignation
at the guilty Ministers who uphold violation instead
of law, you may talk, you may prate or •gabble
about your liberties, but you hare clothing real but
your miserye• nothing strong bet your chains, and
the constitution is a fiction! Where now are the
splendid illustrations of your strength and your free'
dom ? Where is the practical assertion of the doc-
trines of Chatham, Junius, Tooke, Fox, Erskine,
Romilly-L-these the modern evangelists of your con-
stitution—the bold, the undaunted assertors of your
rightsthe enlightened promulgators of the laws, the
wisdom, the fixed purposes'of your noble, your ad..
likable institutions? Ireland, my country, in asking
for the constitution, only asked of you something to
bleed for! To attack Ireland is rudely, wantonly,
madly, to attack your own most powerful outwork ;
but (exclaimed Mr: Ca sey) give the Constitution to Ire-
land,- and you give a garrison to your Empire. Of
your whole Empire— toyour whole Empire—to every
man in your Empire, I would say, give arms and
freedom to the people—place the coestrcultioe in
Use hand, and a musette in the other, your Govern-
ment is a sinecure, and• your people a bulwark. In
the course of the evening, Mr. Casey said, some re-
spectable Citizens of America have honbured this as-
sembly with their presence. I shalt have heartfelt
pleasure in drinking totheirlsealtir,anti. I will add,
prosperity to their nation. Upon this interesting
subject I claim of yots'a very short indulgence.—
Gentlemen, upon the
„empty, the impracticable
thrl'ats of the enemy, you have declared* open war
against the commerce and the freedom of America;
and if there be truth in seine reports which have re-
cently reached us, you availed yourselves• of this
miseralsle fiction to promote dieision and war in a
peaceful and extensirecommenity—in a word, to ex-
ejte REBELLION in a frieudly state! I say that the
Charge of partiality against America is false. Against
r the people of America, it must be false; and equally
false, I hold it, against a Government acted upon,
as that of America must be, by the ha/crests, the
wishes, the honour, the good sense, and the power
of a free people. America, like all other actire, in.
genious, or commercial states, will, most surely,
pour her industry into the most convenient or pro-
fitable channels; and if English cluinoels be not the
best, it is English policy which has made them what
they are. Nattire still not ley down the immutabili-
ty of her character to sustain your greatness, to chide
year presuaipticm, or even to chastise your profli-
gacy. The course of nature will not be changed,
precipitated,-or inteemitted to meet your views—to
Inset the views Or w,llthes of the Britiits people—no—
not.eyen•to meet the views of the 'King, Lords, and
Commons' in, Parlktavent assembled! And I hope. in
God that the free, and happy, and simple institutions
of America may stand against all the shocks of war,
come from, what quarter of the world they may.-
11e must' bed monster whose first and most heartfelt
wish is-not-for the happiness and independence of
hit iatlia Peed, .14y.next is„lhat America and Ame-
rican liberty may bopreserved, in undiminished ful-
ness, in unshaken security, in %Wading. glory es
the last bbj>¢ mu .tefitge. of the curtailed liscluktrk;
• •
and the 'persecuted virtue of than:,,

[From the Liverpool Mercury of Friday last, we are enabled
I
'• to present our Readvri.wi hit pretty full Report of Mr. CAACY'S
Speech, at thepnblic Meeting of the 6th of May, held. by Ad-
vertisement al the Liverpool .gins. Short as it is, we racy of it
as Lawyers say of -brief—,t coniabs the cu,..)
Gerret.mot.-..Your nation is ettgaied in a contest,
is which victory or defeat must alike issue, in the
waste end devastation of •your resources. Hitherto,
itis clear, that defeat and• victory have terminated in
the desolation or abridgment of•those peaceful occu-
pations, in which, u :tier a wise policy, the capital,
the labour and ingenuity of your people would now
be happily and cheerfully engaged, It is quite im-
material to what -direction you Usti four attention.
What do you find but vexation in the.collectiony and
folly, profusion, and madness in the application of
the public treasure? Whilst war is nesting yoorsre.
sources, your policy, your folly, is other respects,
is undermining the foundations, is destroying and
absorbing the fountains whence these resources are
derived. Even the privilege or permission of sub- .
Witting to the sovere'gn a report of the national griev.l
vices has beetirleitiod to a great and most respectable
part, of the people of England ! Thus have your Mi.
nisters audaciously placed themselves between the
court and the country. What! was the Minister
afraid that the prayers and admonitions of a suffering
people would reach the royal ear? Was he afraid that •
power and office would'be lost to him and his miser-
able coadjutors, the moment that TRUTH broke in
upon the royal mind? To ma the present •Ministers
appear to stand before their royal master like so
ekny shutteria--to keep out the light. Nothing can ,
save you hut the prompt and constitutional interpo-
sition of the nation. It is idle to look to any thing
else, and it would be an idle waste of your time to
recommend any other menus of national safety.—'
Look at home, to Ireland, or America, the same
Reacting, dreary, and cheerless view presents itself.
In former wars, the extent of the evil was, in some
measure, ascertained, because the evil itself was
limited to the power of the enemy; but, by this
War—" this terrible and 'nnavoided danger"—you
are cut of, not only from all fair trade or commerce !
with your enemies, but from all beneficial or free in-
tercourse•with your friends: :In stating this, I have :
no desire to defend those who are called the Oppo:i-
tion. I have no ditposition to place myself between
Certain Whigs and the powerful battery which my
Friend in the Chair has this night opened upon them. ;
It is very clear, that they have had some share in the
Mgenuity by which all this misery and mischief has
been effected ; and when practices the most illegal,
and traffickings of the most odious and corrupt na-
ture, were to he sanctioned or palliated, many of i
them, instead of seconding and supporting the call for
investigation, basely lent themselves to the Minister.
What means have you of inflicting punishment i
upon such delinquents ? How diticrently cireum. 1
stanced are men out of Parliament ! Mr. Finnerty,
Mr. Cdbhett, Mr. Lovell, Mr. Dialstird, for their •
political spirit, or, if you please, for their political
sins,kaie been visited in no very light way. They
have had a Prosecutor; but the authors of •the vilest ,
traliekings and corruptions—theseithe crimes against j
the libertist of the State, where—where, I ask, have 1
they a Prosecutor? Some of -your most distinguished 1
writers are, at this moment, to he found in the com-
mon jails of your country. In a free state, Ido May,
without any particular reference, the act of driving 1
the public spirit into a dungeon appears to me to be
es odious and loathsome—as revolting to the best
and &wit feeling of our nature, as it would be to
chase virtue into a brothel !! I ahall now refer to a
subject which cannot be too often repeated, or too
powerfully denounced. When a foul and anconsti. 1
tutional attempt was made to metamorphose-a writer-1
ship into a Member of Parliament, the effort to pu.
nish that attempt, instead of being upheld by the re- i
presentatives of the people, was cried down by many
of them, and by none more than Mr. Ponsoithy, the
avowed leader of the Opposition !—lle invoked
them to rally round the Government, or; in other
words, round the guilty Minister—to support the
Throne—there was virtue in the Crown. Well !
well ! (said Mr. Casey) a hatever virtue there may be
in the Crown, it is pretty clear that there is not mach
about it. But, if a great proportion of the House
of Commons, any more, or only a little mere, than
the House of Lords, can be said to have a constitu-
ency, I desire to know upon what basis that part of
your Constitution rests ? The question is idle and
nugatory. Even your language—the sure symptom
of your degradation—your very language, I say, is
rapidly sinking into the language of base servility.
Every day we hear of the Manager of the House of
Commons. The Manager of the Representatives of
the Nation ! But what would a Manager be with.
out his Company t Without them, not so much as
a farce could he get up for the edification of the
country, or the amusement of the country gentlemen.
I do not intend to follow my worthy Friend in the
Chair on his trip to Java and thence to Ireland. I
acquiesce in the strong and accurate.piistisno• he has
drawn of misery and mitananagement its eildiroc-.
Lions. • The Ministers themselves appear to .be on a 1 . ._ „
voyage of discovery to find out all the aolutoala ills : as ..
~-1 LI. Or ?!4[E LATE Mn. PeRCivAL.— i ne.Will
by which what remains 'to us of spirit ar comfort was a kitten, about four years ago, en a half-Sheet of
may be -farther abridged, or wholly destroyed,, In
reply to what has fallen from a Lgarned Friend (Dr. paper, in Mr. Putccexis own hand-writing.
IVithout much. preamble, Mr. Pi.acivar. bequeaths
Crompton), whose sincerity no man, wilt discredit, I
to Mrs. Ps
must be permitted to offer a remark or two ; and I i:ecru., '" all his freeholds, qopyholds,
and other estates, in reversion, expectancy, or re-.
am sure, from the candour and honour of my friend,
maiuder." Mrs. PLIIC.EVAA is left sole Elecutrix e
no man will be, and indeed no man ought to be,
and the only stipulation respecting his lady h, that
more gratified than himself in the correction of an in case siic marries again, Lord Aetna-is appointed
error, or the assertion of that which is unfavourable Joint Guarding. Os the' back of the Will it writ.
to others. His indiscriminate attack on the Whig
ten, " delivered a Copy of this to JAPE, Ist April;
Club, of which I anti a member, is unjust—and 1 iste2.., JANk is the Christian name of Mrs. Peak+
state this from the demonstration of feeling and prin.
CIA
and AL.
ciple which I witnessed myself. I do not think it i ~ie
New
York
Vaiers contain letters of a recent
fair to' decide upon the character of that or any other l
club by the principles which are avow ('! 1
date, respectieg the eartirojnake in South America.—
u s acted
be
their. CaptaintaiCaptainLit rrs' of the schooner independence, who
wealth wi brought these letters, states, that, on the 4th of
miby
or titles, but by the general and *sea few members, whatever may ;
feeling of the Club; and where the cause art"- : April,
limitary Reform, the steady virtue of the Electors
and La Guyra, 66 there was another very hard shock,
which made the
of Westminster, and the name of Burdett, are i vessels tremble as if they had been
hailed and cheered by a decided majority, I cannot a reef of rocks in a heavy sea; and from on board
on
consent to think or streak lightly of such an assem- the. . . lndependence they could see the mountains move
' bly, nor can I discover any good that can arise
• from , like a ship in a heavy sea, antliarge. pieces scaling
! oil' them. At half past Mist; Alio Independence
disgusting such men, sir holding them up to public ,
sailed,
scorn or suspicion. The Learned Doctor, or auk so that she could not tell, whit damage had
• •
ma who is net a momberb. can have uo actual beam done." -

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