Let

ENGLAND. THE REGENCY.--Answers of the Prince of Wales and the Queen to the Deputations from the Houses of Lords and Commons, presenting to them their Resolutions, relative to the Regency.-Friday, 11th January, 11.

seas which still resists that of the Conti-, code; and that code shall be the pallanent: a memorable, a terrible struggle, dium of the seas.-Let England abjure and of which the catastrophe, perhaps, her madness; let her reinstate neutrals not far distant, will long occupy the in their rights: justice has never ceased attention of future generations.--Let to demand this of her. If she had not us listen to the political writers of Eng rejected the counsels and the offers of land; their alarms confirm this truth, moderation, what dreadful consequences still less, however, than the desperate might she not have avoided! And to conmeasures of its government: if it were fine ourselves to the subject of our present not led on by the imminence of its dan- deliberation, she would not have forced ger, would it have dared, in the presence France to enrich herself by the ports and of civilized Europe, to tear the compact the arsenals of Holland; the Ems the of honour and of eternal justice which Weser, and the Elbe, would not have flowed connected neutral Powers with the Bel- under our dominion; and we should not ligerents? One would believe, in reading have seen the first country of the Gauls the acts of the English Ministry, that the washed by rivers united by an internal nalaw of nations exists no longer; and who, vigation to seas which were unknown to then, has substituted for its immutable them.-Where still are the boundaries of principles the excesses and the violence posibility? Let England answer it. of barbarism? England. So early as her meditate on the past, let her learn 1756, her first attempts upon the impre- the future. France and Napoleon will scriptible rights of nations compelled never change.-Your Committee unaniSweden and Denmark to defend them by mously propose that the Senatus Consulthe development of an armed neutrality. tum be adopted." Some years later, the 28th February, 1780, England pushing her endeavours still farther, Russia saw no safety for the honour of nations and that of Sovereigns but in a public exposition of the maxims acknowledged by all civilised people; she proclaimed the conditions on which her neutrality was to depend :- That neural ships should navigate freely, from port to port, and on the coasts of nations at war. That property belonging to the subjects of powers at war, should be free on board neutral ships, with the exception of contraband. That to determine what | characterises a blockaded port, that designation should only be given to such into which there was an evident danger of entering, in consequence of the ships of the attacking power being stationary and sufficiently near.'--Such were literally the declarations in which the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh laid down the rights of all Sovereigns. England replied by throwing off the mask; and signified to the States of Holland, that the flag does not cover the property. From that period she thought herself able, without danger as without obstacle, to give full swing to her usurpations.-It was necessary to wait for a period when powerful reprisals would compel her to return to justice. That day is arrived; the decrees of Berlin and Milan are the reply to her Orders in Council. The British Cabinet has, so to speak, dictated them to France.-Europe receives them for her

--

At two o'clock precisely, the deputation from the two Houses went up to Carlton House to present to his Royal Highness the Resolutions to which the two Houses, after long discussion, had agreed. The Lords and Gentlemen, all in full dress, were ushered through the superb suite of rooms to the Drawing Room, where his Royal Highness stood. His Chancellor, William Adam, esq. and earl Moira on his right hand; the Duke of Cumberland and Mr. Sheridan on his left; behind him four Officers of his Household, Mr. Tyrwhitt, Colonel Macmahon, Colonel Bloomfield, and General Turner. The deputation advanced according to their order of precedency. The Lord President, the Lord Privy Seal, the Chancellor of the Exche quer, Mr. Secretary Ryder, the President of the Board of Controul, and the Master of the Rolls; and they made the usual reverences.-The Lord President then read from a paper in his hand: That they were a Committee appointed to attend his Royal Highness with the Resolutions which had been agreed to by the Lords and Com mons, for the purpose of supplying the defect of the personal exercise of the

shall rely with confidence upon the Constitutional advice of an enlightened Parliament, and the zealous support of a generous and loyal People. I will use all the means left to me to merit both.

My Lords and Gentlemen.-You will communicate this my answer to the two Houses, accompanied by my most fervent wishes and prayers, that the Divine Will may extricate us and the nation from the grievous embarrassments of our present condition by the speedy restoration of his Majesty's health.

many ties and considerations, but by nothing so strongly as by their steady, loyal, and affectionate attachment to the best of Kings.

The Deputation then withdrew.

FRANCE-Report of the Minister of War laid before the Senate, Dec. 9, 1810.

SIRE. According to the laws of our military organization, the conscription should be raised on the 1st of January 1811. I therefore submit to your Majesty the projet of a Senatus Consultum.

In like manner the Deputation appointed-I have not distinguished the conscripto wait on the Queen, viz. Earl Harcourt, Earl of Moreton, Lord Viscount Palmerston, Lord Vis. Clive, Lord John Thynne, and Colonel Desbrow. proceeded to Windsor, and being admitted to her Majesty's presence, they presented the humble Address of the two Houses, expressing the hope which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons entertain, that her Majesty will be graciously pleased to undertake the important duties proposed to be invested in her Majesty, as soon as an Act of Parliament shall have been passed, for carrying the said Resolution into effect. Lord Harcourt read the Fifth Resolution; upon which her Majesty was pleased to return the following most gracious Answer:

Answer of the Queen.

My Lords and Gentlemen.-That sense of duty and gratitude to the King, and of obligation to this country, which induced me in the year 1789 readily to promise my most earnest attention to the anxious and momentous trust at that time intended to be reposed in me by Parliament, is strengthened, if possible, by the uninterrupted enjoyment of those blessiugs which I have continued to experience under the protection of his Majesty since that period and I should be wanting to all my duties if I hesitated to accept the sacred trust which is now offered to me.-The assistance in point of council and advice, which the wisdom of Parliament proposes to provide for me will make me undertake the charge with greater hopes that I may be able satisfactorily to fulfil the important duties which it must impose upon me.Of the nature and importance of that charge, I cannot but be duly sensible, involving, as it does, every thing which is valuable to myself, as well as the highest interests of a people endeared to me by so

tion of this year into active and reserve contingents, because it appeared to me, that the intention of your Majesty was only to make levies progressively, and in the course of the year.-In proportion as the new conscripts arrive under their colours, an equal number of old soldiers must be sent back to their homes. A great many have already re-entered them, and your Majesty will take into your consideration the circumstances of the war in Spain and Portugal, in order to authorise me to grant more or less definitive discharges.-The conscription is the basis of the prosperity of France; it is that which, for so many years, has removed far from our territory the scourges of war.—When your Majesty shall have concluded a maritime peace, and shall be able to disband your armies, it will be equally necessary to raise, every year, a part of the conscription, for the purpose of maintaining the forces of your Majesty on a footing which is suitable to your empire; but 1 do not reckon that there will then be any necessity for more than a third of the conscription which I propose to raise at present, which will form at the most only one ninth of the males liable to be called upon as conscripts. It is obvious, then, how much that contribution will be lightened -the first in importance of those which the French owe to their country. The militia, which appeared a moderated institution, but which was aggravated by a multitude of exemptions, weighed heavily on the nation after the wars of Louis XIV. and even the wars of Flanders and Bohemia.-The conscription of 1811 will occasion extraordinary expences for the first clothing and equipment, for the expences of the march, &c. of so sonsiderable a number of men. I have brought them to the budget of the year, and they are com prehended in the general arrangement

which your Majesty has made for the finances of that service, without that augmentation of expence, rendering necessary any augmentation of taxes. My department feels the effects of the prosperous state of your Majesty's finances. Scarcely do a few contested accounts, and which require examination, remain to be paid; no part of the service languishes, and all my expences formerly so much in arrear, are brought up to the present day.I am with respect, &c.

sacrifice.-For it is not thus that we are ever to designate the levy of the conscription-a personal tribute, a pledge of the independence of the power and of the glory of the empire, and which must, in time of peace as in time of war, be paid every year either in a greater or less a proportion.-And the minimum of that proportion must always be even in peace, in a component ratio, first of the result of the ordinary mortality, and secondly, of the number of discharges that are given.The number of discharges will then be that of a fifth of the army, if it should not happen that a great number of Frenchmen prefer the military life, its glorious chances, and its honourable dangers to a repose or a labour of which they have got out of the habit.-These brave men thus voluntarily, and for a time which often embraces the duration of their lives, pay the debt of a part of their fellow-citizens, at the same time that they form in all the corps of the army that inexhaustible reserve, that stock of old warriors, upon whose example the new levies are formedand who ensure victory-When reflecting on the extent of their devotion, on the duration of their services, what Frenchman can hesitate to join them, when he hears the voice of the country which calls him, of the law which commands him, and of the glory which awaits him.

The Duke of FELTRE, Minister of War. Speech of the President upon the Report. Senators,-When his Majesty summoned under his eagles the conscriptions of 1809 and 1810, before the ordinary period, he announced victory and peace as the reward of the devotion of his young soldiers.-The Emperor kept his word: he vanquished and pacified, without having any need to anticipate again the period when it is the duty of Frenchmen subject to the conscription to pay their debt to their country.-Time has brought round the return of the periodic term, when a call must take place.-At the commencement of 1811, the conscripts of that year must prepare themselves to enter accessively the ranks in order to replace either those brave men who have fallen in battle, or the veterans who repair to the bosom of their families, carrying with them their glory, and seeking repose. The number raised on the anterior conscriptions has been 120,000 men; but the call has only been made to you successively, and with the distinction of imme- The late Decree of the Cortes, ordering diate destination and that of reserve.- a statue to be erected in honour of their Even though the whole of a levy equal to august and generous Ally, George the that of preceding conscriptions may not third, was inclosed in the subsequent letter be necessary at present, yet his Majesty from the Minister of State, to the Right has thought that it was better to place at Honourable Henry Wellesley, Minister of the disposal of his War-Minister the num- his Britannic Majesty at Cadiz :-Sir,-I ber of conscrips employed in preceding have the honour to inclose to your Excelyears. They shall not be forthwith called lency, by the order of the Council of Reupon, but successively, in virtue of de-gency, the annexed copy of a Decree crees of his Majesty, and as often as they shall be wanted.—No augmentation of revenue will be necessary, and the funds assigned by the budget of 1810 for that service or disposable for that of 1811, will suffice for the expences of these two years, and for all the branches of the service.To maintain herself in an honourable attitude, to shew herself protecting or threatening in the eyes of her friends or her enemies, France has no need, Gentlemen, any new effort, of any extraordinary

SPAIN.- Correspondence, relative to the Statue to be erected in honour of the King of England.-November 19, 1810.

of

issued by the Cortes of the kingdom. The Council of Regency, in commanding me to execute this pleasing office, has desired me to express in the strongest terms the affection and gratitude they feel to the whole British nation, and they fondly hope that by this solemn avowal of the Cortes, a new and powerful motive will be supplied to draw closer than ever the political relations between the two countries.-I have also the honour to acquaint your cellency, by order of the same Council, in

Ex

order that your Excellency may commu- Spanish cause, shewn by the Cabinet Mi-: nicate the fact to your august Sovereign, nisters of his Majesty, will impart peculiar that the Cortes deeply impressed with the satisfaction to the Members of his Governzeal, interest, and efficacy with which the ment; but it is fit that I should inform worthy Ministers which compose the Ca- you that the endeavours employed to asbinet of his Britannic Majesty have ful- sist the glorious efforts of the Spanish peofilled his instructions to assist and support ple, are not only consistent with the inthe sacred cause of the Spanish nation, tentions of his Majesty, or with the purand not less sensible do they feel the he- poses of his Ministers, but with the anxious roic efforts of Lord Wellington, for the wishes of the whole British nation,,in preservation of Spain, so gloriously ex- which there is not a single individual who hibited on their soil in the memorable does not feel an equal interest with those battle of Talavera, and which are now dis- who compose the Government, for the played in Portugal, securing by his dis- happy result of the sacred and powerful tinguished military talents the protection cause which constitutes the principal bond of a kingdom, the defence of which is of union between Great Britain and Spain. immediately connected with the welfare-I will avail myself of the first opportuof the whole Peninsula. Finally, Sir, Inity to send to Lord Wellington a copy of may be permitted to assure you of the your Excellency's letter, and of the Deextraordinary satisfaction I receive per- cree of the Cortes, and I am persuaded sonally in being the medium of announc- that the opinion of the Cortes, which your ing to your Excellency the ardent and Excellency has communicated with reprofound sensibility common to the whole spect to the services of Lord Wellington nation towards the Illustrious Sovereign of towards the Spanish nation, will be con Great Britain, and I flatter myself that it sidered by him as an honourable and inwill be graciously received by his Britan- valuable testimony of the sentiments of the nic Majesty, and will tend to consolidate whole of Spain towards him.-I cannot that perfect union and friendship which conclude this letter without declaring the should ever exist between the two Mo- pleasing sensations I have felt while I have narchs. I am, &c. with high considera- been witness to the early deliberations of tion, and pray God to preserve you many a Congress, from the persevering wisdom years, EUSIBIO BANDAXI Y AZARA," of which I confidently expect the ultimate expulsion of the enemy, and the preserva tion of the integrity and independence of the Monarchy. It only remains that I should signify to your Excellency my gratitude for the way in which you have condescended to communicate the wishes of the Council of Regency, and the liberal motives in which the Decree of the Cortes has originated.-I am, with high consideration, &c. WELLESLEY.

The Answer to the above.

Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's letter, in which, by order of the Council of Regency, you transmit me the Decree of the Cortes of the 19th of this month, expressive of the gratitude of the illustrious Congress for the assistance his Britannic Ma jesty has given to the Spanish nation since the commencement of the arduous conflict in which it is engaged for its liberty and independence -A testimony so satisfactory of the sensibility of the Cortes to the generous motives by which his Majesty was actuated, in employing the resources of his kingdom in favour of Spain, must make a deep and durable impression on his Royal mind, and must strengthen the confidence of the Spanish nation in the persuasion of the sincerity of his acknowledged solicitude for the preservation of the integrity of their Monarchy, and their independence, the promotion of its true interests, and its permanent prosperity.The opinion formed by the Cortes, as expressed in the letter of your Excellency, with regard to the zeal and interest in the

Real, Isla de Leon, Nov. 20, 1810.
To Segnor D. Eusibio Bandaxi y Azara.

PORTUGAL.-Downing-street, December 31, 1810. A Dispatch, of which the following is an Extract, was yesterday received at Lord Liverpool's Office, addressed to his Lordship by Lieutenant-Gen. Viscount Wellington, dated Cartaxo, 15th December, 1810.

No alteration has been made in the enemy's position in front of this army since I had the honour of addressing you on the 8th instant, and all the deserters and prisoners continue to report the dis tress which the troops suffer. The enemy detached a body of cavalry, consisting of