of Constantinople, I shall find my self in a situation to watch over the first interests of my commerce in the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and the Levant. I will protect the Porte, if the Porte withdraw her self from the fatal influence of England. I shall know how to punish her, if she suffer herself to be governed by cunning and perfidious counsels. I have wished to give the Swiss nation a new proof of my esteem, by annexing to my titles that of their mediator, and thus putting an end to all the uneasiness endea voured to be spread among that brave people. Holland, placed between England and France, is equally bruised by them. Yet she is the debouché of the principal arteries of my empire. Changes will become necessary; the safety of my frontiers, and the well-understood in terests of the two countries, imperiously require them. Sweden has lost, by her alliance with England, after a disastrous war, the finest and most important of her provinces. Happy would it have been for that nation, if the wise prince that governs her now had ascended the throne some years sooner! This example proves anew to kings, that the alliance of England is the surest presage of ruin. My ally and friend the emperor of Russia has united to his vast empire, Finland, Moldavia, Wallachia, and a district of Gallicia. I am not jealous of any thing that can produce good to that empire. My sentiments for its illustrious Sovereign are in unison with my policy. When I shall shew myself beyond the Pyrenees, the frightened leopard will fly to the ocean, to avoid shame, defeat, and death. The triumph of my arms will be the triumph of the genius of good over that of evil; of moderation, order, and morality, over civil war, anarchy, and the bad passions. My friendship and protection will, I hope, restore tranquillity and happiness to the people of the Spains. Gentlemen deputies of departments to the legislative body, I have directed my minister of the interior to lay before you the history of the legislation, of the administration, and of the finances of the year just expired; you will see that all the ideas I had conceived for the amelioration of my people, have been followed with the greatest activity; that in Paris, as in the most distant parts of my empire, the war has not produced any delay in the public works. The members of my council of state will submit to you different projects of law, and especially the law upon the finances; you will see in it their prosperous condition. I demand of my people no new sacrifice, though circumstances have obliged me to double my military means. FLUSHING. Sentence against General Monnet, December 9. The council of inquiry appointed by his majesty the emperor and king, convened by his excellency Count de Huneburgh, minister at war, in obedience to his majesty's orders, dated Schoenbrunn, Sept. 7, 1809, and assembled at the general military depot, closed on the 25th of last month its deliberations, and pronounced the following sentence: that General Monnet, contrary to his duty, did not fulfill the orders of his imperial majesty, in case of his being pressed hard by the enemy, to cut the dykes rather than surrender. That he surrendered the fortress at a time when it had only sustained a bombardment of thirtysix hours, when the garrison was still composed of more than 4000 men, when no breach was made in the rampart, and the enemy was yet more than 800 metres distant from the fortress, and when our troops were yet in possession of the outworks, and when, consequently, the place was not really besieged. That the General is therefore guilty of gross misconduct, which cannot be attributed to any other motive than cowardice and treason. And the council declares, moreover, that the General is guilty of extortion and embezzlement, since it appears in evidence, that he did receive, or cause to be received, for his own private benefit and use, from the year 1803 to the year 1806, the sum of ten Dutch stivers, or twenty sous Tournois, for each half anker geneva which was exported. (Signed) COUNT RAMPON, Count d'ALZVELLE, Vice-Adın. HERENOUD. Counts SONGER & BASSON. The above sentence was confirmed by the emperor and king on the 6th instant. SPAIN. Royal Decree, dated Seville, Sep tember 1. His majesty would neither fulfill his own wishes, nor the hopes of his people, if, at the same time when he labours to free the country from the oppression of its tyrant, he did not make every exertion to correct the vices which exist in the interior administration, and to raise this magnanimous and generous nation to the high degree of splendour and power to which it is intitled by the fruitfulness of its soil, the benignity of its climate, the extension of its coasts, and the possession of its rich colonies. Among the obstacles which have constantly opposed the progress of our agricul tural industry and commerce, the first place is held by the contributions, called Alcabalas, Cientas, and Millones, imposts, which obstructing the interior circulation, and pressing unequally on the productions of the land, on manufactures, and, in general, on all objects of commerce, not only have banished from our unfortunate country that liberty, without which there can be neither arts, cultivation, or commerce; not only have rendered odious the fiscal administration, and even industry itself; but, which is more, inflicting on it incurable wounds, have ever been only a feeble resource for supplying the necessities of the state. Observation and experience have shewn their prejudicial effects; the people have cried out for a remedy; the decline of our manufactures, and the mercantile system unanimously embraced by all the nations of Europe. But though the government knew these defects, and reformed them partially, these reforms were a new vice, which only still more embroiled the system. At length the time is arrived when good principles shall triumph over ignorance, and the nation which has appeared great and majestic in the eyes of all Europe by its valour and its virtue, shall be so also by the liberality of its principles and the goodness of its interior administration. The supreme junta of government of the kingdom is well convinced, that the riches of individuals are the riches of the state, and that no nation can be rich without encouraging its agriculture, commerce, and industry; and that industry in general does not increase but remove the obstacles which may obstruct both the fiscal and civil laws. From these considerations the supreme junta cannot cannot omit occupying itself with this work, beginning with the most urgent reform, which is that of the contributions, and providing, in the place of those abolished, others upon such things as can more properly be required to contribute, distributing them equally among the contributors, exacting them in the time and manner least offensive, and collecting them with the least expense possible. Thus the contributions, which are always an evil, shall fall only on those who can contribute, shall be applied to their true objects, and not to the maintenance of an innumerable multitude of tax-gatherers, who are unproductive consumers, and so many hands lost to industry. In consequence, therefore, of these principles, the king our Lord Don Ferdinand VII. and in his royal name the supreme junta of the government of the kingdom decrees as follows:-Art. 1. The contributions known by the name of Alcabalas, Censo, and Millones, shall be abolished, as soon as those which are appointed MARQUIS OF ASTORGA, President. AMERICA. British Deserters. Case of the Men arrested as Deserters from the Frigate L'Africaine, by John Hunter, Esq. Sheriff of Baltimore, at the request of William Wood, Esq. British Consul for the Port of Baltimore. An habeas corpus was applied for to Judge Scott, late on Thurs day evening, on behalf of seven men, arrested and held in custody by the sheriff at the request, and on [The Alcabala is a tribute or royal duty which is paid upon every article sold, in the form of a per-centage, according to the value of the commodity. This per-centage is varied; but all the laws and ordinances respecting it, to remove ambiguity and to prevent exactions, are collected in a book called the Alcabalotorio. There is a Spanish proverb which sufficiently shews the unpopularity of this form of taxation-Quien descubre a Alcabalacse lo paga. "Whoever informs of the Alcabala should pay it." In the Recopilacion de los Lues the superior clergy and judges are exempted from it. The Censo, which has been improperly called Ciensos and Ciensas in the newspapers, is a rate collected on the rents of houses and estates. The Millones is an aid that the kingdom granted to the sovereign on the consumption of six articles of domestic use, wine, vinegar, oil, butcher's meat, soap, and tallow candles. Among the accommodations at court, in the council of finances, there is an apartment called the Sala de Millones. In this room or hall the affairs relating to this due to the king, are transacted, as well as some others regarding the tax on tobacco, cocoa, and a few other commodities. The persons appointed to superintend this business consist of some members of the council of finances, and several deputies nominated by such of the cities of Spain as have authority to vote for representatives (Procuradores) in the Cortes.] the statement of the British consul that they were deserters, by their counsel. The habeas corpus was issued as prayed for, returnable the next morning at nine o'clock. Accordingly, this morning, the men were brought up amidst an immense concourse of citizens, who filled the court-house and the neighbour ing street, and the sheriff made return that he had arrested and detained the men in custody, in virtue of the following, from the British consul : Sir, "British Consul's Office, Baltimore, Sept. 6, 1809. Having received information that thirteen seamen have deserted from L'Africaine frigate, and are now in this city, I have to request that you will be pleased to secure them till they can be sent on board.-I am, &c. Wм. WOOD." "John Hunter, Esq." By virtue of this authority, I have arrested and put in prison the following persons, to wit: John Nowland, William Whokes, Denis Murphy, Richard Hewes, John Earp, John Burwell, and Jacob Lamb. The judge said that he had conceived it his duty to give notice to Mr. Wood (the British consul) of the application, so that he might appear and shew cause, if any he had, why the men should be detained, In the course of a few minutes Mr. Wood came into court, and the counsel for the prisoners, Messrs. Glenn and J. L. Donaldson, moved the court that the men be discharged, sufficient cause for their detention not appearing on their return. Mr. Wood's counsel, Mr. Walter Dorsey, requested to be allowed time to inquire into the law; and said, that they would be ready to prove that these men were de serters from his Britannic majesty's ship. The counsel for the prisoners objected to the delay. The chief justice stated, that the opinion of the secretary of state had satisfied him, that deserters from British vessels ought not to be arrested or detained under the authority of the government of the United States, for the purpose of delivering them up to the officers of the British government; he therefore ordered the prisoners to be immediately discharged. The audience expressed their approbation of his decision by three loud and tumultuous huzzas and execrations of the tories, and carried off the deserters in triumph! Report made to his Majesty the Emperor and King, protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, by His Excellency Count de Huneburgh, Minister of War, Sept. 15, 1809. SIRE, If the numerous victories of your majesty, and and the extraordinary successes of your armies, be at the same time the work of your genius, the result of the most scientific military combinations, of your inherent intrepidity, and of the courage of so many brave men, these victories and successes are no less owing to your admirable foresight. It is this which has inspired your majesty with the idea of assembling at first, in the interior of the empire, whatever might be the complexion of affairs, the youth of France who are successively called to serve their country, and of making them constantly pay their contribution to the safety of the state, at the same time that they accustom themselves to arms. The temporary dereliction of this system would be productive of some danger to the empire, and it would be placing rather too great a reliance upon the future, future, however flattering appearances might be at present, to suffer the depots in the interior of France to want the regular supply of recruits, whenever a part of the young soldiers who fill them should be called into actual service. A short glance at the state of your majesty's armies will be sufficient to shew, that the levy, which I feel it my duty to propose, is sufficient at present. Master of Vienna, and of more than half the Austrian monarchy, your majesty is at the head of the most formidable army that France ever had beyond the Rhine; and to judge of what it is capable of effecting, it is only necessary to mention, that it was hardly formed when it conquered Austria, in the fields of Thaun, of Abersberg, and of Eckmuhl. Whether the negotiations of Althenburgh terminate in peace, or whether the war continue, your majesty has in your depots troops enough, fit to take the field, to recruit your army in Germany. In the month of January your majesty pursued the English army in Gallicia. While you were engaged in it, your majesty was informed that the court of Vienna intended to break its engagements. Though such an event seemed to call the principal part of your forces into Germany, your majesty nevertheless thought proper to leave your veteran army in Spain; not that the whole of that army was actually necessary to complete the subjugation of the Spanish rebels, but to deprive England of the possibility of prolonging that rebellion, of which she is the cause. That power seeing in the new system established in Spain, the presage of her own ruin, did not, however, despair of overturning it; and her efforts upon this occasion have greatly surpassed all that we have seen her make upon similar occasions. General Moore had not been able to bring off from Gallicia the half of his troops. The immense losses which his army sustained, did not dissuade the English government from sending a fresh army, consisting of 40,000 men, to Lisbon. It penetrated to the centre of Spain, and rallied round it the various corps of insurgents.__The banks of the Alberche and the Tagus witnessed their flight and their confusion. Compelled to retreat to the further side of that river, and pursued at the point of the bayonet, they totally evacuated Spain, and the Portuguese saw them return in disorder to their territory. At the same period, an army of equal force suddenly made its appearance at the entrance of the Scheldt, with the intention of burning the dock-yards at Antwerp; there our enemies were covered with confusion. At their approach, Flushing was provided with a numerous garrison; 12,000 picked troops marched from St. Omer, under the orders of the Senator General Rampon; and eight demi-brigades of reserve, which were at Boulogne, Louvaine, and Paris, proceeded post to the points that were menaced. These troops were of themselves sufficient for the defence of Antwerp. That place, which is covered by a stronger rampart, and the advanced works which your majesty caused to be constructed four years ago, is still further protected by extensive inundations; and on the left bank of the Scheldt, the fort of La Tete da Flandre, which is itself surrounded by an inundation of 2,000 toises, secures the communication of Antwerp with our fortresses in the north. The English expedition was formed upon the supposition, that Antwerp was only an open city, whereas that fortress could not be taken but after |