the past may not be lost for the future. His Majesty has often stopped when the most certain triumphs lay before him, and turned round to invoke peace. In 1805, secure as he was by the advantages of his situation, and spite of the confidence which he might reasonably feel in anticipations which fortune was about to realize, he made proposals to his Britannic Majesty, which were rejected, on the ground that Russia should be consulted. In 1808, new proposals were made, in concert with Russia. England alleged the necessity of an intervention which could be no more than the result of the negociation itself. In 1810, his Majesty, having clearly discerned that the British orders in Council of 1807, rendered the conduct of the war incompatible with the independence of Holland, caused indirect overtures to be made towards procuring the return of peace. They were fruitless, and the consequence was, that new provinces were united to the Empire.

"In the present time are to be found united all the circumstances of the various periods at which his Majesty manifested the pacific sentiments which he now orders me again to declare that he is actuated by.

"The calamities under which Spain, and the vast regions of Spanish America, suffer, should naturally excite the interest of all nations, and inspire them with an equal anxiety for their termination.

"I will express myself, Sir, in a manner which your Excellency will find conformable to the sincerity of the step which I am authorised to take; and nothing will better ovince the sincerity and sublimity of it than the precise terms of the language which I have been directed to use. What views and motives should induce me to envelope myself in formalities suitable to weakness, which alone can find its interest in deceit ? "The affairs of the Peninsula, and the two Sicilies, are the points of difference which appear least to admit of being adjusted. I am authorised to propose to you an arrangement of them on the following basis:

"The integrity of Spain shall be guaranteed. France shall renounce all idea of extending her dominions beyond the Pyrenees. The present dynasty shall be declared independent, and Spain shall be governed by a national constitution of her Cortes.

"The independence and integrity of Portugal shall be also guaranteed, and the House of Braganza shall have the sovereign authority.

"The kingdom of Naples shall remain in possession of the present Monarch, and the kingdom of Sicily shall be guaranteed to

the present family of Sicily.-As a conse. quence of these stipulations, Spain, Portugal, and Sicily, shall be evacuated by the French and English land and naval forces. With respect to the other objects of discussion, they may be negociated upon this basis, that each power shall retain that of which the other could not deprive it by

ward

"Such are, Sir, the grounds of conciliation offered by his Majesty to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent. His Majesty the Emperor and King, in taking this step, does not look either to the advantages or losses which this empire may derive from the war, if it should be prolonged; he is influenced simply by the considerations of the interests of humanity, and the peace of his people and if this fourth attempt should not be attended with success, like those which have preceded it, France will at least have the consolation of thinking, that whatever blood may yet flow, will be justly imputable to England alone.

"I have the honour, &c.

66

The Duke of Bassano."

Copy of the Answer of Lord Castlereagh, Secretary af State for Foreign Affairs of his Britannic Majesty, to the Letter of the Minister for Foreign Relations, of the 17th of April 1812.

"London, Office for Foreign Affairs, April 23, 1812.

"SIR-Your Excellency's letter of the 17th of this month has been received, and laid before the Prince Regent.

"His Royal Highness felt, that he owed it to his honour, before he should authorise me to enter into explanation upon the overture which your Excellency has transmitted, to ascertain the precise meaning attached by the Government of France to the following passage of your Excellency's letter, the actual dynasty shall be declared independent, and Spain governed by the national constitution of the Cortes,'

"If, as his Royal Highness fears, the meaning of this proposition is, that the royal authority of Spain, and the Government established by the Cortes, shall be recognised as residing in the brother of the head of the French Government, and the Cortes formed under his authority, and not in the legiti mate Sovereign, Ferdinand the VII. and his heirs, and the Extraordinary Assembly of the Cortes, now invested with the power of the Government in that kingdom, in his name and by his authority-I am commanded frankly and explicitly to declare to your Excellency, that the obligations of good faith do not permit his Royal Highness to

receive

receive a proposition for peace founded on such a basis.

"But if the expressions cited above, apply to the actual government of Spain, which exercises the Sovereign authority in the name of Ferdinand the VII. upon an assurance of your Excellency to that effect, the Prince Regent will feel himself disposed to enter into a full explanation upon the basis which has been transmitted, in order to be taken into consideration by his Royal Highness; and it being his most earnest wish to contribute, in concert with his allies, to the repose of Europe, and to bring about a peace, which may be at once honourable, not only for Great Britain and France, but also for those States which are in relations of amity with each of these powers.

"Having made known without reserve the sentiments of the Prince Regent, with respect to a point on which it is necessary to have a full understanding, previous to any ulterior discussion, I shall adhere to the instructions of his Royal Highness, by avoiding all superfluous comment and recrimination on the accessary objects of your letter. I might advantageously, for the justification of the conduct observed by Great Britain at the different periods alluded to by your Excellency, refer to the correspondence which then took place, and to the judgment which the world has long since formed of it.

"As to the particular character the war has unhappily assumed, and the arbitrary principle which your Excellency conceives to have marked its progress, denying, as I do, that these evils are attributable to the British Government, I at the same time can assure your Excellency, that it sincerely deplores their existence, as uselessly aggrayating the calamities of war, and that its most anxious desire, whether at peace or at war with France, is, to have the relations of the two countries restored to the liberal principles usually acted upon in former times.

"I take this opportunity of assuring your Excellency of my respect.

"CASTLEREAGH."

SPAIN.

Dispatches have been received from the Earl of Wellington, dated from Salamanca on the 18th and 25th June, and from Fuente la Pena on the 30th, giving an account of his farther advance into Spain, and of the retreat of the French army under Marmont.

On the 13th June, the allied army crossed the Agueda, and arrived at Salamanca on the 16th, the erremy evacuating that place,

and retreating across the Tormes, having left about 800 men in three forts, constructed upon the ruins of colleges and convents in Salamanca. The forts were immediately laid siege to by a division under Major-Gen. Clinton. An unsuccessful attempt was made upon one of them on the 23d, in which Major-Gen. Bowes was unfortunately killed, and several other officers and a number of men killed and wounded; it surrendered, however, on the 27th, and the remaining two were on the same day carried by assault.

Between the 16th and 19th of June, Marshal Marmont collected his army on the Douro, and moved forward from Fuente Sabuco on the 20th. Lord Wellington formed the allied army, with the excep tion of the troops engaged against the forts in Salamanca, on the heights extending from Villaries to Morisco. The enemy re mained in front of the allies during the night of the 21st, and established a post on their right flank. Sir T. Graham was directed to attack them in that post on the 22d, which he did with the troops of the 7th division, who drove the enemy from the ground with considerable loss. They retired in the night, and on the following evening posted themselves with their right on the heights, near Cabeza Velosa, and their left on the Tormes at Huerta; their centre at Aldea Rubia-thus endeavouring to communicate with the garrisons in the forts at Salamanca by the left of the Tormes. Lord Wellington made such movements as counteracted this attempt, and the enemy crossed the Tormes at Huerta on the morning of the 24th.

The operations against the forts in Salamanca were carried on in sight of Marmont's army, which remained in its position, with the right at Cabesa Velosa, and the left at Huerta, till the night of the 27th, when they broke up, and retired, in three columns, towards the Douro; one towards Toro, the others on Tordecillas.-The allied army were, on the 30th, encamped on the Guarena.

The loss of the allies, from 16th to 27th June, inclusive, was as follows:

Killed-2 captains, 3 lieutenants, 1 ensign, 5 serjeants, 1 drummer, 98 rank and filc, and 28 horses.

Wounded-1 general staff, 1 lieut.-colone?, 1 major, 10 captains, 10 lieutenants, 5 ensigns, 14 serjeants, 7 drummers, 317 rank and file, and 51 horses.

Missing-2 lieutenants, 11 rank and file, and 5 horses.

The following are the names of the British officers killed, wounded, and missing:

Killed Captain Elije, royal artillery; Captain Sir G. Colquhoun, 2d foot; Lieut.

Mathews,

Mathews, ditto; Lieut. M'Kenzie, 36th foot, 2d battalion; Ensign Fitzgerald, 32d foot: Lieut. Leonard, 23d foot, 1st battalion.

Wounded-Maj.-Gen. Bowes-since dead; Lieut. Devonish, 2d batt. 53d foot-since dead; Brevet Major Thomson, 74th foot, acting engineer, slightly; Lieut. Love, British artillery, ditto; Brigade-Major Captain Hobart, 36th foot, severcly; Ensign Garret, 2d foot, slightly; Captain Teale, 1st batt. 11th foot, ditto; Lieut. Turnbull, ditto, severely; Lieut. Hamilton, 2d batt. 53d foot, slightly; Capt. Owen, 1st batt. 61st foot, armi amputated; Lieut. Givan, ditto, slightly; Capt. Conner, 8th Portuguese ditto; Lieut. Gethen, 11th foot, ditto; Capt. Hawkins, 68th foot, ditto; Capt. Mackay, ditto, dangerously; Capt. Smellie, 51st foot, slightly; Lieut.-Col. Eustace, Chasseurs Britanniques, ditto; Lieut. Lemmers, 2d Lt. batt. K. G. L. severely; Lieut. M'Glashan, ditto, ditto.

Missing-Lieut. Prideman, 11th foot, ascertained to be prisoner, and leg amputated; Lieut. Macdonald, 68th foot.

General Hill continues in Estremadura, to watch the motions of Soult and Drouet, who are represented in no condition to offer battle, being much distressed for want of provisions. A brigade of General Hill's cavalry, under Major-Gen. Slade, having lately fallen in with two French regiments of dragoons, under Gen. L'Allemand, near Llera, charged and broke the enemy's line, but having pursued, without sufficient caution or order, a body kept by the enemy in reserve fell upon the British before they could form, retook nearly all the prisoners Gen. Slade had made, killing and wounding 20 or 30 of his dragoons, and taking prisoners two Lieutenants and above 100 men.

A plan is said to be in agitation, from which great advantages are anticipated, for recruiting the British armies with Spaniards; of whom every British regiment is to receive an addition of 100 men.

The Guerilla parties throughout Spain Continue to harass the French detached corps; and have been in general successful in their system of desultory warfare. Gen. Ballasteros, however, sustained a serious defeat at Bornos, on the 1st of June; he attacked the French General Currus, for the purpose of dislodging him from his position, and at first actually obtained some advansage; but having been charged by a numerous body of cavalry, he was driven back with the loss of three pieces of cannon, and 1000 men killed, wounded, or taken. The action was most bloody; the French had formed a kind of entrenched camp. They lost about 600 killed; and did not attempt to pursue Ballasteros, who retired upon Gibraltar.

Several enterprising naval officers have recently been entrusted with the command of small squadrons, furnished with a proportion of land troops, for the purpose of annoying the enemy, and destroying the forts and batteries crected by them on the coasts of Spain. In this kind of service, Sir H. Popham, Captain Adam, of the Invinci ble, and Captain Usher of the Hyacinth, have been eminently successful. The details of their achievments, in which great gal. lantry and skill have been displayed, we are under the necessity of deferring till a future number.

An expedition, consisting of 7000 troops recently sailed from Sicily, under General Maitland, which, when joined by 4000 more from Cadiz, and a division under Gen. Roche which had embarked at Alicant, would, it is said, amount to 18,000 men. The object of this armament is stated to be a descent on the shores of Catalonia, to operate a diversion in favour of the Earl of Wellington.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

THE KING.

It is with regret we state that our venera ble sovereign had recently a most violent at. tack of his disorder. It appears that during the last fortnight of the month of June, his Majesty suffered a high degree of agitation, but he was rather better on the morning of the 4th inst. In the afternoon of that day, however, the paroxysm increased to a degree of violence such as his Majesty has not experienced since December twelvemonth. The paroxysm lasted, without abatement, between fifty and sixty hours; and, on Monday morning, he became for a few minutes speechless. These paroxysms are always viewed by the regular physicians with serious apprehensions, as it is with too much reason believed that they have their source in a suffusion on the brain, and most probably will at some time prove fatal. When this alarm. ing symptom came on, expresses were sent for Sir Henry Halford and Dr Heberden, who immediately went to Windsor. The interruption to speech, however, lasted only a few minutes, and the habitual course of rapid and inarticulate speaking returned till nine in the evening, when his Majesty fell asleep, and had between four and five hours. of quiet rest. He awoke very composedand, on Tuesday morning, he took several dishes of tea, and slept again for near an hour. His Majesty has since continued tranquil throughout the day, and the pa roxysm has quite subsided.

SCOTTISH

HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY.

Monday, June 22. THIS day, John White and his wife, ac

cused of reset of theft, were brought to the bar, and having petitioned the Court for banishment, they were accordingly banished furth of Scotland for life, under the usual certification.

Same day, came on to be advocated be fore the Court, by bill of suspension and liberation, the case of three journeymen cali co printers, in Glasgow, against the Procurator Fiscal of Lanarkshire. The circumstances of the case were as follow:-In the month of March, the suspenders had been libelled before the Sheriff-substitute of Lanarkshire, at the instance of the Procurator Fiscal, accused of an unlawful combination for the purpose of raising their wages, and of mobbing and rioting on the streets of Glasgow. The criminal libel was followed by defences and answers, and the Sheriff' allowed a proof of the charge, and to the sus penders a conjunct proof. On advising these proceedings, the Sheriff-substitute, on the 2d March, pronounced the following interlocutor:-" Having considered the proofs for the parties, and informations thereon: -finds it clearly established, that an unlawful combination did exist among the journeymen calico printers; but that it is not proven that the defenders were implicated therein, although the presumption is, that they were: finds that part of the complaint for mobbing established against the defenders, therefore decerns and ordains each of the said defenders to make payment to the said pursuer FIFTEEN POUNDS in name of fine: finds them liable in expences, and grants warrant of imprisonment against the said defenders, within the tolbooth of Glas gow, for the space of one month modum pœnæ, and until the fine and expences are paid, and until the defenders find bail to keep the peace for twelve months, &c." On the 16th March, a reclaiming petition was presented to the Sheriff, which was refused, by an interlocutor of the 18th, adhering to the sentence, and allowing the defenders to see and object to the account of expences (of which interlocutor the suspenders affirm they never received any notice ;) on the 26th they were held as confessed in absence (they not having attended, or, as they assert,

not having been stimmoned to attend,) and judgment against them was affirmed, modifying expences to thirty-five pounds and dues of extract. Immediately after, the Procurator Fiscal craved and obtained a warrant for breaking open doors, and entering lock-fast places, for putting the sentence of 24 March in execution, and on the night of 31st they forcibly entered the suspenders residenees, and committed them to the tol booth of Glasgow.Against these proceed ings their agent petitioned, complaining, that the interlocutors of 18th, 20th, and 26th of March, had all passed in absence, and were not final:the Sheriff' appointed answers, and, on 1st April, adhered to the sentence complained of, "inasmuch as the sentence of the Court is now carried into effect." In consequence of this, the defenders applied to the High Court of Justiciary, by a bill of suspension and liberation, which was passed. by Lord Meadowbank, and the cause ordered to be advocated before the Court.

On the part of the defenders, it was ar gued that the sentence was illegal, 1st, Beeause it was passed in absence. The criminal law in this country humanely supposs. ing, that, to the last moment, before judg ment, is pronounced, the accused is inne cent, and that when even this presumption of innocence yields to the proof of guilt, the accused is never deprived of the last moment, before that sentence be pronounced, of urging whatever he can in mitigation or objection; therefore, in all cases, no sentence can be pronounced, far less put in execution, when the accused has not been present in Court, and this is universally the proper and only legal course pursued in all Courts having criminal jurisdiction. The suspenders were entitled to be called upon to hear sentence pronounced, which never was done; they had therefore suffered in the execution of a criminal sentence which was never legally pronounced, they had no opportunity afforded them of bringing this severe sen tence under the review of a superior Court, it having been put in execution before they knew that it had passed. Such precipitate proceedings, it was contended, were fraught with dangerous consequences to the liberties and security of the subject: the presence of the accused was acknowledged to be absolutely necessary, even by the Sheriffcourt itself, which took a bond, under penalty,

for

for their appearances at every diet of Court, and which, although it could pronounce sentence in absence, would not proceed, in absence, of one of the parties accused, to the examination of witnesses; and his cautioner had to pay five-and-twenty shillings for his absence at that diet of Court: 2dly, It was argued, that the sentence was illegal, because the proceedings of the Sheriff-court were irregular, inasmuch as the execution of the sentence took place before the reclaiming days had elapsed; the sentence was pronounced, i. c. it was written in a note-book, which the clerk of Court keeps for his own convenience, and which is no public record, on 2d March; fourteen days are allowed to reclaim, and a petition was given in on the 16th, the 14th day, although the suspenders had merely heard accidentally of this said memorandum; after which, it was contended, other fourteen days ought to have been allowed, instead of which, on the 31st, at dead of night, before sentence was legally pronounced, the suspenders were committed to gaol during the currency of the very time they were allowed, by the forms of the Court, for craving a review of the judgment by the Sheriff, or making an appeal to a higher Court: the suspenders would not enter into the merits of the original case, though, if the Court thought proper, they had no objections, and were under no apprehensions for the resultat present, they would only contend, for the reasons stated, that they had suffered under an illegal sentence.

For the Procurator-Fiscal it was urged in answer, that the usual practice of the Sheriff-court of Lanarkshire was in consonance with the proceedings in the present case, which was proved by the regulation of the Sheriff-court [produced] enacting, "that if after caution is given, the defender shall fail to compear, his bail-bond shall be declared forfeited; and whether caution has been found or not, the Sheriff, if the nature of the case admits, will proceed further in the cause, by considering the relevancy, taking the proof, pronouncing sentence, and otherwise as he shall judge proper." That what might be proper in the proceedings of the supreme Criminal Court, in cases where life and death were the awful alternatives, where the doom once fixed by their sentence was by them irrevocable, would appear ridiculous in the proceedings of inferior courts; personal presence, where such was the state, was proper, but were every petty delinquent brought before a Sheriff Court, to claim as a right his own personal presence at all the proceedings, it would be most burdensome to himself, and harassing to The Court. The Court, in the present in

stance, had taken the bail of the suspenders to appear when called on, and their not being called on was an indulgence; so far from being a hardship, they were, by their own account, absent from several diets of the Court; and the one at which proceedings were delayed, was one in which one of the suspenders' presence was necessary to prove his identity; and besides, by the binding themselves, as the suspenders allowed they had done, to appear at all diets of the Court, the Court were warranted in considering them as virtually, if not personally present. In answer to the other plea, it was a custom and rule of the Sheriff-court, that if the processes were not borrowed up in six or seven days after sentence had been pronouncetl, (and it was affirmed by the Procurator-Fiscal, that the entries in the book, which he contended was a regular minute book, was the usual mode of pronouncing sentence,) the decreet might be extracted, and execution follow immediately.

In reply, it was stated to be a very strange kind of indulgence, to force a party to appear at a diet of inferior moment, and fine him for not appearing, while at a diet of the greatest importance he was not even summoned to attend. The regulations of the Sheriff-court, if admitted, would prove any thing; because the Sheriff, by the one quoted, could not only proceed in absence to take the proof and pronounce the sentence, but might act otherwise as he thought proper; an extensive power granted to no other criminal judge, and inconsistent with the principles of criminal law, and certainly improper to be intrusted in the hands of any inferior judge, especially one who could pronounce such an interlocutor as had been read in Court; finding, that although the suspenders were not proved to be guilty, they might be presumed to be so.

After hearing counsel, the Judges delivered their opinions serintim, at considerable length; the majority of the Bench considered the objection, as to sentence being pronounced before the reclaiming days had run, as not possessing much weight; it accorded with the forms of the Court, and the proceedings usual in such cases, which, however, in themselves objectionable, could not be urged in the present instance as an objection; all practitioners before that Court being aware of the fact, that if the process was not borrowed before the seven days expired, the prosecutor had it in his power to extract the sentence, and proceed to summary execution. But with regard to the objection taken against sentence being pronounced in absence, the Court were of opinion that it was a just and strong objection, the practice in criminal Courts in general