SWEET bird of night, thy plaintive knell That soothes the pensive mourner's ear, Thy sighs their hidden woes foretell, And breathe the echo of despair. With care each busy haunt you shun, And fly the day's more vivid light Shrink from th' approach of opening, sun, And seek the silent shade of night. The moon's pale lustre suits thine eye, And lures thee from thy deep recess; From tower to tree now hoot and fly, And shrink in accents of distress. The gay, the happy, thee despise And call thee luckless bird of care, But ah! the wretched court thy sighs, They suit the darkness of despair. 'Tis sorrow teaches man to feel, And makes the heart with pity glow, The soul that never felt an ill, Can never feel another's woe. J. E, Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye? no! True, temples gone: Age shakes Athena's tower, but spares gray Marathon. Long to the remnants of thy splendour past Shall pilgrims, pensive, but unwearied, throng; Long shall the voyager, with th' Ionian blast, Hail the bright clime of battle and of song; Long shall thine annals and immortal tongue Fill with thy fame the youth of many a shore ; Boast of the aged lesson of the young! Which sages venerate and bards adore, As Pallas and the Muse unveil their awful lore. The parted bosom clings to wonted home, If aught that's kindred cheer the wel He that is lonely, hither let him roam, mirth. Tuesday, April 14. Lord GREY moved for a return of the amount of bank-notes offered for payment in 1797, and refused as forged; and a similar account, half-yearly, from the same period, to the latest time they could be made out. Lord STANHOPE said, it had been wittily observed within these few days, that the best way of preventing these forgeries, would be, not to hang the forgers, but to hang up the bank directors, for having notes so slovenly made, that any engraver's apprentice, who had been but two years at the business can imitate them. The House then divided; for Lord Grey's motion 12, against it 27. Wednesday, April 15. ' The Cupar of Fife gaol bill was read a third time, and passed. men, brought in a bill to prevent them from distraining for rent until the original landlords should be duly paid, which was read a first time. Friday, April 17. The Duke of Beaufort presented two petitions, one from the city, the other from the dock company of Bristol, against the East India monopoly. A petition from the corporation of Dublin against the Catholic claims was laid upon the table, when it was observed that they had refused the freedom of their city to Major O'Donoughue, who distinguished himself at Tariffa, because he was a Catholic. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Tuesday, April 7. Mr MILLER presented a petition from the East India Company, praying for leave to present one for the renewal of their charter. Leave was granted after some conversation between Lord A. Hamilton, Mr Perceval, Generals Gascoigne and Tarleton, and Mr Wallace, and the petition wa accordingly brought up, Mr PERCEVAL brought up a bill for settling annuities on the four Princesses, which was read a first time. Mr CREEVEY moved for copies of all warrants under the King's sign manuel, directing the amount of the salaries of Lord Melville as President of the Board of Controul, and of Lord Buckinghamshire to the same office. When this office was first created, it was understood that no salary was to be attached to it, but that it should be filled by persons possessing other lucrative situations. The late Lord Melville, however, however, had received a salary of L.3000 a year for it, and the present L. 5000, though in possession at the same time of the Privy Seal of Scotland, yielding L. 3500 a year. Lord Buckinghamshire, now President, held a sinecure office in Ireland, of L. 11,000 a year, though he had never been in any higher situation in that country than Chief Secretary. He had also a pen sion granted by the East India Company of L. 1500; and the L. 5000 a year as President, would altogether amount to L. 17,500 a year. Mr PERCEVAL said the present Lord Melville had not received a shilling of the emoluments of the Scotch Privy Seal; and that Lord Buckingham had declined accepting the salary attached to the Presidentship of the Board of Controul, The motion was then put and agreed to. Mr C. WYNNE rose to move for informa tion respecting Colonel M'Mahon's new appointment as private Secretary to the Prince Regent. In the reigns of King William, Geo. I and II. no such appoint ment had existed, nor was it even thought of by his present Majesty, until the loss of sight rendered the assistance of Colonel Taylor necessary. No such pretence exist ed with regard to the Prince Regent ; and he must consider the appointment as wholly unconstitutional, as leading to a control ling power over the responsible advisers of the crown; or, in other words, to the crea-' tion of an interior and exterior cabinet. He concluded with moving that there be laid before the House a copy of the minute of treasury, appointing Colonel M⚫Mahon, private Secretary to the Regent.--The mo tion was lost on a division of 176 to 100. Wednesday, April 15. Captain BENNET addressed the House on the subject of military punishments. He severely condemned the practice of flogging soldiers, as cruel and disgraceful; and mov ed for a return of the number of corporal punishments inflicted on soldiers during the last seven years. he was unprotected-he had no one to tell his sufferings to; his condition was worse than that of a dog; the surgeon was not sworn to tell the truth as to the cause of his death, if he should die during the torture; nor was a coroner ever called in to hold an inquest over his body. It was, therefore, the duty of the House to call for an account of the blood thus cruelly shed. The cat-o'-nine-tails was an instrument fit only to have been the invention of devils; but, severe as it was, it was innocent, compared to the disgrace attending the punishment. Sir SAMUEL ROMILLY drew a pathetic picture of the sufferings of the soldier, brought out at different times to receive the full complement of his sentence, which he was unable to bear at once. The most cruel murderers would not be suffered to be lashed to death; yet the soldier, for inferior crimes, might be scourged to the extremity of existence-the very verge of life. Once lacerated, till nature could endure no more, he was sent to the hospital in his body, and only to recover to be tor to suffer greater tortures in his mind than tured again. There he felt his wounds heal only to be opened afresh, and his nahausted with fresh agonies. He concluded ture gain strength, only to be again exan eloquent speech, in which he was re peatedly cheered, by voting for the motion. sion a book kept by a master at arms on board Mr BROUGHAM said he had in his posses a king's ship, in 1809, containing a list of punishments in that ship for six months, and amounting in all to no less than from 14 or 15,000 lashes. One is returned in it as having jumped overboard and been drowned, when brought up to receive punishment. The motion was opposed by Mr Perceval, Mr Lockhart, Mr W. Smith, &c. and in the end rejected on a division of 49 to 17. Friday, April 17. Petitions from Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Exeter, Halifax, Nottingham, Bristol, Hull, and Berwick, were presented by Mr Whitbread, praying for the repeal of every political disability on account of religious persuasion. Mr M. SUTTON could not see any advantage to be derived from granting this motion. The only object of it could be, an On two petitions being presented from expectation of finding some excessive punish-Yorkshire against the orders in Council, Mr ment, on which the Hon. Gentleman should, ground a motion for abolishing military punishments altogether. Sir F. BURDETT said, that cases of the grossest abuse with regard to flogging had been already made out. The condition of a soldier in this country was shocking; Brougham observed, that in Manchester alone, the poor who received relief from the parishes amounted to 25,000 persons, one-fourth of the population. The Princesses annuity bill, after some opposition from Messrs Tierney, W. Smith, and Whitbread, was passed. HISTORICAL 1 Historical Affairs, SPAIN & PORTUGAL. STORMING OF BADAJOZ. pero, within two leagues of Ciudad Rodri go; and it was supposed that Marshal Marmont was on his march with other (From the London Gazette Extraordinary.) troops from the side of Salamanca. Extracts and copies of dispatches from the Earl of Wellington:→→→ W March, from 26 pieces of cannon, in the second parallel, to breach the face of the bastion, at the south-east angle of the fort called La Trinidad, and the flank of the bastion by which the face is defended, called Santa Maria. The fire upon these has continued since with great effect. The enemy made a sortie upon the night of the 29th, upon the troops of General Hamilton's division, which invest the place on the right of the Guadiana, but were immediately driven in with loss.-We lost no men on this occasion. The movements of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Graham, and of LieutenantGeneral Sir Rowland Hill, have obliged the enemy to retire by the different roads towards Cordova, with the exception of a small body of infantry and cavalry, which remained at Zalamela de la Serena, in front of Belalcazar. Marshal Soult broke up in front of Cadiz on the 23d and 24th, and has marched upon Seville with all the troops which were there, with the exception of 4000 men. I understand that he was to march from Seville again on the 30th or 31st. I have not heard from Castile since the 30th ult. One division of the army of Portugal, which had been in the province of Avila, had on that day arrived at Guada The river Agueda was not fordable for troops on the 30th. Camp before Badajoz, April 7, 1812. MY LORD,My dispatch of the 3d inst. will have apprised your Lordship of the operations against Badajoz to that date, which were brought to a close on the night of the 6th, by the capture of the place by storm. The fire continued during the 4th and 5th against the face of the bastion of La Trinidad, and the flank of the bastion of Santa Maria; and on the 4th, in the morning, we opened another battery of six guns, in the second parallel, against the shoulder of the ravelin of St Roque, and the wall in its gorge. Practicable breaches were made in the bastions above mentioned, in the evening of the 5th; but as I had observed that the enemy had entrenched the bastion of La Trinidad, and the most formidable prepa rations were making for the defence as well of the breach in that bastion, as of that in the bastion of Santa Maria, I determined to delay the attack for another day, and to turn all the guns in the batteries in the second parallel on the curtain of La Trini-, dad, in hopes that by effecting a third breach, the troops would be enabled to turn the enemy's works for the defence of the other two, the attack of which would besides be connected by the troops destined to attack the breach in the curtain. This breach was effected in the evening of the 6th, and the fire of the face of the bastion of Santa Maria and of the flank of the |