358 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of commons a motion for an address to the prince- VICE-CHANCELLOR APPOINTED-DECLA- IN consequence of the great accumulation of business in the court of chancery, a bill, proposed by lord Redesdale, was passed this session for the appointment of a vice chancellor of England, with full power to determine all cases of law and equity in the court of chancery, to the same extent as the chancellors had been accustomed to determine; and his decrees were to be of equal validity, but subject to the revision of the lord-chancellor, and not to be enrolled until signed by him. On the ninth of January, a declaration was issued, in which the prince-regent stated that he could never acknowledge any blockade which had been duly notified, and which was supported by an adequate force, to be illegal, merely upon the ground of its extent, or because the ports or coasts were not at the same time invested by land; neither could he admit that neutral trade with Great Britain could be constituted a public crime, subjecting the ships of any power to be denationalized; that Great Britain could be debarred of her just and necessary retaliation through the fear of eventually affecting the interests of a neutral; or that the right of searching neutral merchant vessels in time of war, and the impressment of British seamen found therein, could be deemed any violation of a neutral flag. PROCEEDINGS OF PARLIAMENT. On the twenty-fifth of February, a motion for referring the catholic claims to a committee of the whole house, was carried in the commons by two hundred and sixty-four votes against two hundred and twenty-four; and, on the thirtieth of April, Grattan presented a bill for the removal of the civil and military disqualifications under which his majesty's Roman catholic subjects laboured. On its passage through a committee, Abbot, the speaker, divided the house on the clause by which Roman catholic members were to be admitted to a seat in parliament; and, on its being rejected by a majority of two hundred and fifty-one against two hundred and forty-seven, the bill was abandoned by its friends. The extensive principles of religious toleration professed in the discussions on this question rendered the time favourable for relieving persons impugning the doctrine of the Trinity from the pains and penalties to which they were by law subject, and William Smith moved for leave to bring in a bill for this purpose. As the law stood, he said, any one denying the existence of any of the Persons of the Trinity was disabled from holding any office, civil, ecclesiastical, or military; and, if a second time convicted, he was disabled to sue or prosecute in any action or information, or to be the guardian of any child, and was liable to imprisonment for three years. The bill underwent no opposition in either house. It may also be here mentioned that an act was passed, during this session, for establishing some proportion between the stipends of curates and the value of the livings which they served; the necessitous condition of many who performed the duty of non-resident clergymen having too long been a reproach to the The heavy expenses of the war rendered a new The renewal of the charter of the East India company, concerning which innumerable petitions had been presented, came before the house of commons on the twenty-second of March, lord Castlereagh having stated, that the term of the existing charter would expire in May, 1814, and that his majesty's ministers had to consider three propositions-Whether the existing government in India should be allowed to continue in its present state-whether an entire change should take On a question of so much place in the system-or whether a middle course should be adopted. importance it was deemed necessary to hear evidence at the bar; and the witnesses, chiefly persons who had occupied high stations in India, were generally against opening the trade, or allowing missionaries to repair to the east for the purpose of converting the natives. On this subject, however, so much zeal had been displayed in many of the petitions, that, after much discussion, it was at length resolved that such measures ought to be adopted as might tend to the introduction of useful knowledge, and of religious and moral improvement, among the natives; and that facilities should be afforded to persons desirous of going to, and remaining in, India for these purposes. After the subject had occupied the attention of parlia ment for some months, a bill, founded on certain resolutions proposed by lord Castlereagh, was introduced, and read a third time on the thirteenth of July. It secured to the company, for a further term of twenty years, or until April, 1834, all their possessions in India, including the later acquisitions, continental and insular, to the north of the equator. Their exclusive right to commercial intercourse with China, and to the trade in tea, was confirmed. British subjects in general were per mitted to trade to and from all ports within the limits of the charter, under certain provisions: all ships engaging in this private trade to be of the burden of three hundred and fifty tons or upwards, and those for the settlements of Fort William, Fort St. George, Bombay, and Prince of Wales's Island, to be provided with a license, which the court of directors were bound to grant: to all other places a special license was required, which the directors might grant or refuse, subject to an appeal to the board of control. The church establishment in the British territories in India was placed under the direction of a bishop and three archdeacons. The application of the company's territorial revenues was directed to the maintenance of the military force and of the establishments at their settlements, the payment of the interest of their debts in England, the liquidation of their territorial debt, their bond debt at home, and such other purposes as the directors, with the approbation of the board of control, might appoint. The dividend on India stock was limited to ten per cent. until the fund, called the separate fund, should be exhausted, when it was to be ten and a half per cent.; and the number of king's troops, for which payment was to be made by the company, was limited to twenty thousand, unless a greater number should be sent to India at the request of the directors. Thus the new charter secured to the East India company all the political power they could reasonably desire, whilst the continuance of their exclusive right of trading between China and Great Britain left the most valuable portion of their mercantile business without competition. TREATY WITH SWEDEN. THE treaty with Sweden was laid before parliament on the eleventh of June, and excited strong animadversions. The king of Sweden having engaged to employ a force of not less than thirty thousand men in concert with the Russians, Great Britain so far acceded to a compact between the courts of Stockholm and Petersburgh, as not only to oppose no obstacle to the annexation of Norway to Sweden, but to assist, if necessary, in obtaining that object, by a naval co-operation; his Britannic majesty also engaging, independently of other succours, to furnish to Sweden, for the service of the current campaign, the sum of one million pounds, and to cede to her the island of Guadaloupe. The king of Sweden reciprocally granted to the subjects of his Britannic majesty, for twenty years, the right of entrepôt in the ports of Gottenburg, Carlsham, and Stralsund, for all commodities of Great Britain and her colonies, upon a duty of one per cent. ad valorem. Lord Holland deprecated the transfer of Norway, denounced the cession of Guadaloupe, and opposed the subsidy as inconsistent with the financial difficulties under which the country was labouring. His proposal, however, to suspend the execution of the treaty, was rejected. The session closed on the twenty-second of July with a speech from the throne, expressing satisfaction at the favourable state of affairs on the continent, and regret at the continuance of war with the United States; declaring, however, that the prince-regent could not consent to purchase peace by a sacrifice of the maritime rights of Great Britain. He approved of the arrangements for the government of British India, and expressed his resolution to employ the means placed in his hands by parliament, in such a manner as might be best calculated to reduce the extravagant pretensions of the enemy, and facilitate the attainment of a safe and honourable peace. CHAPTER XLI. Prussia declares against France-Battle of Lutzen-Armistice-Renewal of hostilities-Austria joins the grand alliance-Battle before Dresden-Battle of Dennevitz-Bavaria joins the allies-Rout of Buonaparte at Leipzic-Revolution in Holland and successes in Spain-Battle of Vittoria-Capture of St. Sebastian-Lord Wellington enters France-Failure of Sir John Murray before TarragonaCampaign in America-Naval Engagements-Meeting of Parliament-Proceedings-Peace with Den mark-Transfer of Norway to Sweden-Murat joins the Allies-Lord Wellington crosses the AdeurBattle of Orthes-Soult retreats to Toulouse-The Allies cross the Rhine, and enter France-Treaty of Chaumont-Battle of Craone-Occupation of Paris by Capitulation-Abdication of BuonaparteBattle of Toulouse-Convention of Paris-Entrance of Louis XVIII:-Treaty of Peace-Royal visiters to England-Restoration of the Pope-Return of Ferdinand to Spain-South American affairs-Par. liamentary proceedings-Honours conferred on Duke of Wellington-Princess of Wales-State of Ireland-Treaty with Holland-Congress of Vienna. PRUSSIA DECLARES AGAINST FRANCEBATTLE OF LUTZEN. 1813, the of which occurred was the defection of the Prussian general, D'Yorck, who entered into a convention with the Russian general, Wittgenstein, now appointed to the command in chief on the death of the veteran Kutusoff, but shortly afterwards succeeded by Barclay de Tolly. That convention the king of Prussia, then within the grasp of Buonaparte, refused to ratify; but no sooner had he freed himself from the apprehension of peril-no sooner did he perceive that there was a chance of emancipation for himself and for his country-than he conferred the most distinguished approbation upon D'Yorck. As the year advanced a Russian envoy was despatched to Vienna; an Austrian ambassador arrived in London; and Sweden, by landing a considerable force in Swedish Pomerania, struck the first decisive blow against the French. During the three first months Buonaparte strained every nerve to recruit his armies, or, more properly speaking, to create new ones. By the third of April, decrees had been passed for levies to the amount of five hundred and thirty-five thousand men; and it was then estimated that he would have four hundred thousand on the Elbe, two hundred thousand in Spain, and two hundred thousand partly on the Rhine, and partly in Italy. On the fifteenth of April he left Paris the empress Maria Louisa having first been declared regent of the French empire "till the moment when victory should return the emperor." Previously to this the king of Prussia had issued an edict, abolishing the continental system; the emperor of Austria was understood to have formed the resolution of taking part against France, unless Buonaparte should listen to his offer of mediation; and the crown-prince of Sweden, over whose intentions some clouds of doubt yet hung, had resolved to place himself at the head of the Swedish armies. About this time a Danish mission arrived in England, and for a while the hope was indulged that peace between Britain and Denmark would be restored; but the demands of the latter being inadmissible, or, according to other accounts, the cession of Norway to Sweden being demanded by this country, occasioned the failure of the negotiation. On the second of May was fought the great battle of Lutzen, in which the village of Gros-Gorschen was six times taken and retaken by the bayonet; but the allies at length drove the French from their positions, and remained masters of the field; though they subsequently found it necessary to fall back beyond the Elbe, which they effected in perfect order. Here they received considerable reinforcements, and another dreadful battle, or rather a succession of battles, took place from the nineteenth to the twenty-second, at and near Bautzen, of the same character as the action at Lutsen; the result of which, according to the French accounts, was, that they lost between eleven and twelve thousand men in killed and wounded, and the allies ten thousand; and that they advanced about thirty miles, the allies retiring before them, unbroken and formidable, into the Prussian territory. These engagements were fatally ominous to Buonaparte: in the action of the twenty-first he was deserted by a part of the Saxon and of the Wirtemberg troops and on the twenty-second the ce lebrated marshal Duroc was mortally wounded. In an engagement previous to the battle of Lutzen the French also lost marshal Bessieres, who was killed by a cannon ball. AUSTRIA JOINS THE ALLIANCE. BUONAPARTE now listened, or affected to listen, to the proposition for a congress to be holden at Prague, for negotiating a general peace; and, in pursuance of that object, a suspension of hostilities was agreed upon on the first of June; and on the fourth an armistice, to continue on all points till the twentieth of July, was finally concluded and ratified -hostilities not to recommence without six days notice. At the request of Austria, who appears to have been the prime mover in this affair, the armistice was prolonged till the tenth of August: every attempt, however, at negotiation failed;, and on the seventeenth, agreeably to notice, hostilities again commenced. Austria, having signed a treaty by which she became a member of the grand alliance, having for its object the recovery of the independence of Europe, had issued a declaration of war against France; and at the different interviews which, during the armistice, had taken place be tween the respective sovereigns and their ministers, it had been determined that the crown-prince of Sweden should be invested with the chief command of the combined forces. BATTLES OF DRESDEN, DENNEVITZ, AND LEIPZIC. VARIOUS movements and affairs of posts took place immediately on the renewal of hostilities; but it was not until the twenty-eighth of August that a general battle was fought before Dresden, in which general Vandamme and six other French generals, with many officers of rank, six standards, sixty pieces of artillery, and ten thousand prisoners were taken. On the twenty-sixth general Blucher, whose active and intrepid exertions obtained him that distinction which has attached so much glory to his name, had taken fifty pieces of artillery, thirty tumbrils and ammunition waggons, and ten thousand prisoners; and, renewing the contest on the following day, he took thirty more pieces of cannon, and five thousand prisoners. The loss of the French was also increased, and the allies proportionately strengthened, by the desertion of two Westphalian regiments during the principal battle. In the action of the twenty-eighth the brave, but unfortunate, general Moreau received a mortal wound while in earnest conversation with the em peror of Russia. He had arrived at Gottenburgh from America in May, and proceeding to join his countryman and early companion in arms, Bernadotte, was appointed to the high station of majorgeneral of the allied army. His judicious advice respecting the plan of the campaign was considered of high importance, and his loss was much regret ted by the allies. On the twenty-ninth general Blucher again defeated the enemy, taking general Putton prisoner, with twenty eagles, and twentytwo pieces of cannon. The crown-prince achieved a signal victory on the sixth of September, at Dennevitz, over marshal Ney, on which occasion the loss of the French was stated at sixteen thousand men. From the recommencement of hostilities, down to this period, the entire loss of the enemy was estimated at upwards of a hundred thousand men, and two hundred and fifty pieces of cannon. Feeling the severity of their losses an extraordinary sitting of the French senate was holden on the fourth of October, the empress Maria Louisa attending in person. The object of this sitting was to pass a decree for another levy of two hundred and eighty thousand men. But France had yet greater, severer losses to sustain. The defection of the king of Bavaria, and his junction with the allied powers; the defeat, the total rout of Buonaparte at Leipzic on the sixteenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth of October, with the loss of one hundred and twenty thousand men, and one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, were yet to be proclaimed to the world. Previously to this last and decisive conflict, (during which seventeen battalions of German infantry, with all their staff, and two regiments of Westphalian huzzars, with twenty-two pieces of artillery, came over to the allies,) Buonaparte had been concentrating his forces at Leipzic, while the allies extended themselves on every side, and prepared for battle. In the grand contest for this city a greater force was assembled than had almost ever acted on so confined a theatre, and the attack of the allies on the sixteenth, after much slaughter, left both armies in nearly the positions they held at its commencement. The seventeenth passed chiefly in preparation for the great action of the next day, which was directed upon the town itself, and at the conclusion of which Buonaparte had lost forty thousand men, and sixty-five pieces of cannon. His army began to defile toward Weissenfels during the night, and in the morning of the nineteenth the magistrates of Leipzic requested a suspension of arms, for the purpose of arranging a capitulation; but, as it was easily seen that this was an artifice to facilitate the escape of the French, the emperor Alexander would allow no respite, and the allied forces were led to the attack. After a short resis tance they carried the city, which was entered by the emperor of Russia, the king of Prussia, and the crown prince of Sweden, about two hours after Buonaparte had quitted it. The French were flying in utter confusion over the Elster; the bridge was blocked up; prisoners were taken by thousands; and many who plunged into the stream perished. The whole of the rear guard fell into the hands of the allies; among the prisoners were Regnier, Brune, Vallery, Bertrand, and Lauriston, together with the king of Saxony and his whole court; Macdonald with difficulty gained the opposite bank, and prince Poniatowski was drowned in the attempt. Buonaparte retreated through Erfurt with about seventy or eighty thousand men, and at Hanau was opposed by thirty thousand Bavarians, under general Wrede, who did not retire until they had sus tained a considerable loss. On the second of November he reached Mentz, and, continuing his retreat through Frankfort, crossed the Rhine on the seventh of November, when he again deserted the shattered remains of his army, and fled to Paris. The immediate consequences of this grand overthrow were great and glorious beyond expectation. The house of Orange was reinstated in Holland; Hanover and Brunswick were restored to their rightful sovereigns; the confederation of the Rhine was dissolved; the Rhine itself was passed by the allies; and the " sacred territory" of France covered, as it had been, by so many vassal states, was now laid open to its very frontier. The first steps of Buonaparte, after his arrival at Paris, were to throw an oppressive weight of taxation upon the people, and to decree a new levy of three hundred thousaud conscripts, to be sacrificed at the shrine of unprincipled ambition. Shortly af ter the issuing of this decree, the allied powers promulgated a declaration, offering peace to Buonaparte on the liberal basis of guaranteeing to the French empire" an extent of territory which France, under her kings, never knew." On this basis Buonaparte professed himself willing to treat; and a congress was therefore expected to assemble at Manheim to negotiate a general peace. It was the desire of Buonaparte that, during the negotiating, an armistice should be proclaimed; but to this the allies very prudently refused to assent. REVOLUTION IN HOLLAND. THE revolution in Holland appeared as the sudden burst of public feeling, though it did not take place without previous concert. The people of Amsterdam rose in a body, and, with the old cry of Oranje Boven, put up the Orange colours, and proclaimed the sovereignty of that house. On the sixteenth of November an administration was organized under the direction of the armed burghers, and many of the leading citizens took upon themselves the care of preserving order. Similar measures were adopted at the Hague, Rotterdam, and other places. The intelligence of these events was brought over on the twenty-first to London, by a deputation, for the purpose of inviting the prince of Orange to place himself at the head of his countrymen--a call which he readily obeyed. On the twenty-fifth of November he embarked at Deal, accompanied by the earl of Clancarty, and on the third of December made his solemn entry into Amsterdam, where he was proclaimed by the title of William the first, sovereign prince of the united Netherlands. SUCCESSES IN SPAIN-BATTLE OF VIT TORIA. IN Spain lord Wellington had, on the twentysixth of May, entered Salamanca, the French precipitately evacuating the city on his approach; and on the following day, apparently fearful of being cut off by the rapid advance of the allied army, they commenced a hasty evacuation of Madrid, and of all the posts in its vicinity. Lord Wellington continued to advance, the French flying before him in every direction; and, on the thirteenth of June, they blew up the inner walls of Burgos, fled from that fortress, and abandoned the whole of the coun try to the Ebro, which general Graham immediately passed. Lord Wellington's next laurels were gath ered on the plains of Vittoria, where, on the twentyfirst of June, he obtained a complete victory over Marshal Jourdan. The French lost one hundred and fifty one pieces of cannon, four hundred and fifteen waggons of ammunition, all their baggage, provisions, and treasure, with their commander's baton of a marshal of France. Lord Wellington continued the pursuit, and on the twenty-fifth took their only remaining gun. The battle of Vittoria was celebrated in England by general illuminations and splendid fetes; in Spain medals were struck on the occa sion; and the cortes, by an unanimous vote, decreed a territorial property to lord Wellington, in testimony of the gratitude of the Spanish nation. Buonaparte immediately superseded Jourdan and appointed Soult to succeed him, with the title, or rank, of lieutenant-general of the emperor, an honour never before conferred upon any of Buonaparte's generals. Previously to his joining the army he issued a proclamation, stating that his imperial majesty's instructions, and his own intentions, were, to drive the allies across the Ebro, and to celebrate the emperor's birth-day in the town of Vittoria! Soult, however, was destined, in his turn, to acknowledge the superiority of British prowess. From the twenty-fifth of July to the second of August, a series of engagements took place, the result of which was the retreat of the enemy into France, with a loss of fifteen to twenty thousand men, four thousand of whom were prisoners. CAPTURE OF ST. SEBASTIAN-WELLING TON ENTERS FRANCE. THE siege of St. Sebastian, which had been in vested shortly after the battle of Vittoria, was conducted by Sir Thomas Graham'; and, on the twenty-fifth of July, an attempt to storm the fortress proved unsuccessful. As the port was ne cessary for the supply of provisions and other ne. cessaries by sea, not a day was lost in prosecuting the siege; but it was not till the thirty-first of August that another assault was undertaken. The breach, which, at a distance, appeared very ample, proved to be of such a nature that it would admit the men only in single files; and, if any succeeded in gaining the narrow ridge of the curtain, his station proved instantly fatal. Two hours of severe but fruitless exertion ensued, and the attack was almost in a desperate state, when Sir Thomas Graham adopted the expedient of directing the guns against the curtain over the heads of his own troops. The firing was executed with such admirable precision and effect, that in an hour the defenders were driven from their works, and retired to the castle, leaving the town in full possession of the allies, who sustained the severe loss of two thousand three hundred men in killed and wounded. The importance of the place induced Soult to cross the Bidassoa in great force for its relief; but he was gallantly repulsed by the Spanish troops alone. The castle surrendered on the eighth of September, and the garrison, now reduced to about eighteen hundred men, were made prisoners. On the seventh of October the allied army crossed the Bidassoa, and planted the British standard in France. Pampeluna, the siege of which had been left to the care of the Spanish general Don Carlos D'Espagna, surrendered on the thirty-first of October; a circumstance which relieved ford Wellington from every apprehension respecting his rear, and enabled him to concentrate and dispose of his forces at pleasure. His march was impeded by heavy rains; but, on the tenth of November, the French were driven from an intrenched position along the Nivelle, and pursued to Bayonne. On the ninth of December, and four following days, Soult, who intended to drive the allies across the Ebro, and to celebrate Buonaparte's birth-day in Vittoria, sustained another series of defeats on the banks of the Adour. Immediately after the action three German regiments, apprized of the important changes which had taken place in the northern parts of the continent, went over in a body to the allies. FAILURE BEFORE TARRAGONA. FROM this brilliant career of success in the north of Spain, we must now turn to the eastern coast of the Peninsula, where general Sir John Murray disembarked his forces on the thirty-first of May, and, on the third of June, invested Tarragona; but, after advancing his batteries against it, he received reports that Suchet was marching from Valencia, for its relief, with a superior force, and he immedi ately re-embarked his army, leaving his cannon in the batteries, although admiral Hallowell was of opinion that they might have been brought off if he had remained till night. Sir John Murray's conduct afterwards underwent an investigation be. | fore a military tribunal, but it was attributed to an error in judgment. Lord William Bentinck, who succeeded him in the command, resumed the siege of Tarragona in August, and Suchet, who had retired into Catalonia, advanced to Villa Franca; and, the British general having withdrawn, he entered Tarragona, destroyed the works, withdrew the garrison, and again retired towards Barcelona. As the grand effort against France was making on the side of the western Pyrenees, the third Spanish army was detached in order to co-operate with lord Wellington, and the remainder of the troops in this quarter acted on the defensive. Suchet, however, although able to maintain his footing in Spain, could not hope to gain any material ad vantage; and such was now the commanding situ ation of lord Wellington, that the liberation of the Peninsula might be considered as accomplished. CAMPAIGN IN AMERICA-NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS THE events of the war with the United States were at this period, when continental affairs were so highly important, viewed with comparatively little interest. The Americans collected a large force in the back settlements, and again approached Detroit, when colonel Proctor, on the twentysecond of January, routed their advanced guard, and captured five hundred men, including their commander, general Winchester. In the end of April the American general Dearborn, with five thousand men, took possession of York, at the bead of Lake Ontario, from whence general Sheaffe, who had not one thousand men was compelled to retire. About the same time general Vincent was obliged, by superiority of numbers, to evacuate Fort George, on the Niagara frontier, and, on the fifth of June, he compelled the enemy again to fall back on Niagara; but soon afterwards colonel Proctor was attacked by the American general Harrison, with ten thousand men, who captured nearly the whole of his force; he himself escaping with a few atten dants. On the tenth of September nine American vessels encountered six British on Lake Erie, in which unequal contest the American commander's vessel at one time struck; but at length the whole British squadron, reduced to a complete wreck, fell into the hands of the enemy. In the end of October three American armies, each amounting to ten thousand men, marched from different points upon Lower Canada; but this great effort was completely frustrated, and, on the whole, the campaign was honourable to the British arms. Great Britain did not fully maintain that decided superiority in naval combats which had so long distinguished her, although in none did she suffer disgrace. The preceding year closed with the loss of the English frigate Java, captain Lambert, with lieutenant-general Hislop and his staff on board, bound to Bombay. She was met off the coast of Brazil by the American frigate Constitution, captain Bainbridge, of much superior force; and after a furious action, in which she was dismasted, and completely disabled, she surrendered to her antagonist in a state which obliged him to set her on fire as soon as the wounded were removed. Captain Lambert and many of his crew were killed. The Peacock British sloop, of eighteen guns, was also sunk in an engagement with the American sloop Hornet. The time, however, arrived, in which the British flag was to recover its glory. Captain Broke, of the Shannon frigate, had been cruising for some time near the port of Boston, where the Chesapeake frigate then lay; and that the enemy might not be prevented from coming out, by the apprehension of having more than one opponent to deal with, captain Broke, on the first of June, drew up before the harbour in a posture of defiance. Captain Lawrence, of the Chesapeake, accepted the challenge, and put to sea; while crowds of the inhabitants, in the greatest confidence as to the issue, lined the beach to witness the approaching conflict. After the exchange of twɔ or three broadsides, the Chesapeake fell on board the Shannon, and they were locked together. At this critical moment captain Broke, observing that the enemy flinched from their guns, gave orders to board. In less than ten minutes the whole of the British crew were on the decks of the Chesapeake; and in two minutes more the enemy were driven, swoid in hand, from every point; the American flag was hauled down; and the British Union floated over it in triumph. In another minute they ceased firing from below, and called for quarter; and the whole service was performed in fifteen minutes from its commencement. Both ships came out of action in the most beautiful order, their rigging appearing as perfect as if they had only been exchanging a salute. The Shannon sailed immediately with her prize for Halifax, where captain Lawrence died of his wounds. The loss, on both sides, was very severe for so short a contest; that of the English being twenty-three killed and fifty-six wounded and the Americans about_seventy killed and one hundred wounded. In St. George's channel the American sloop of war Argus was also captured by the British sloop Pelican. PARLIAMENT. PARLIAMENT was opened so early as the fourth of November, by the prince-regent, with a speech from the throne, of which the new alliances against France, and the war with America formed the principal topics. The prince declared that no disposition to require from France sacrifices inconsistent with her honour, or just pretensions as a nation, would ever be an obstacle to peace; and that he was ready to enter into discussions with the United States on principles not inconsistent with the established maxims of public law, and with the maritime rights of the British empire. The addresses on the speech were carried without opposition. After the treaties with Russia and Prussia had been laid be |