Finances and Commerce of Great Britain.

TH

HE annual statement laid before Parliament, of the finances and commerce of the country, relative to the revenue and expenditure, the imports and exports, of the year ending the 5th of January, 1813

The revenue of that year, including the loan, amounted to 95,712,6951. The gross receipt of the income tax, within the same period, was 13,131,9581.

The total expenditure during the year ending the 5th of Jan. 1813, was 104,398,2481.

The public debt during the same period cost the country 36,607,1281. of which the sum of 13,482,5101. passed into the hands of the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt.

The following is a comparative view of the imports of the country for three years, ending the 5th of Jan. in each year:

1811.. IMPORTS. . £36,427,722 1812... Ditto.... 24,520,329 1813.... Ditto. 22,994,843 The imports from India are not included in any of the three sums given above. They amounted, in the year ending the 5th of January 1812, to 4,106,2311.

The Sultan Hamangkubuana the Second, has, by his crimes and violation of treaty, shewn himself unworthy of the confidence of the British government, and unfit to be farther entrusted with the administration delegated to him. But a few months have elapsed since the Sultan experienced the utmost measure of forbearance, clemency, and generosity of the British government. He had violently seized upon the government from which his want of faith towards his late Sovereign had removed him, and: in the execution of his purpose, put to death the first minister of his government, an officer, whose office and person were solemnly protected in all the existing engagements, and, until his time, had been held inviolate. The British government, with a tender respect for his advanced age, his high rank, and supposed misfortunes, were willing to make a new trial of his conduct, and on his expressing a contrition for his past offences, even confirmed him in the throne he had presumed to usurp.

Scarcely, however, was he restored to power, when he caused to be assassinated the father of that minister with whose blood he had recently stained his hands a blameless and inoffensive old inan. He shortly thereafter ordered to be strangled seven of the highest and most respectable chiefs of the country, without even an alleged offence; men, whose persons were

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by the existing engagements under the immediate protection of the British government. He de graded and affronted the Hereditary Prince, lost to all sense of the dutiful respect with which he himself during his prior degradation had been treated by him; nay, he even publicly threatened the life of the Prince, and was hindered from putting his threats into execution, only by the direct interference of the British government. He refused to deliver over the lands and districts ceded to the late government, and confirmed to the British by the last treaty. He has entirely neglected and overlooked every minor stipulation of that treaty; and, lastly, he has been detected in intriguing with the court of the Soosoonan, in violation of the most solemn and most important engagement of all the treaties, with the avowed object of undermining and subverting the British supremacy in Java.

By such conduct, inimical to the peace, good government, and general tranquillity of the country at large, the Sultan has displayed to the world how unworthy he is of the high and important trust which the British government reposed in him. He has forfeited all claim to the future confidence of that government, and entirely lost the love and affection of his people, reducing the country to a state bordering upon anarchy. The Princes, the Chiefs, and the people of Djocjocarta at large, are therefore hereby informed that the Honourable the Lieutenant-Governor of the whole island of Java and its dependencies, is hereby pleased, in the name and on behalf of the British govern

ment, to depose the present Sultan, and in re-assuming the administration of the one half of the high lands of Java, known by the name of the kingdom of Mataram, again to delegate the same to the present Pangeran Adipati, avho is hereby proclaimed Sultan of Mataram, under the title of the Hamangkubuana the Third.

All persons are therefore required to obey him as their lawful Sovereign; and it is hereby declared, that all who presume to abet the dethroned Prince in his pretensions to the government, will be considered as traitors to their country, and dealt with accordingly. That no person may plead ignorance of this proclamation, the same is directed to be translated into the Javanese language, and affixed at the gates of the Craton, at the British fort and Residentiary-house, and in such other public places as proclamations and publications were usually affixed.

Done at Djocjocarta, this 18th day of June, 1812, by me, the Lieutenant-Governor of the island of Java, and its dependencies.

(Signed) T. S. RAFFLES. By order of the Honourable the Lieutenant-Governor,

J. CRAUFURD, Resident at Mataram.

Declaration of the Prince Regent.

The earnest endeavours of the Prince Regent to preserve the relations of peace and amity with the United States of America having unfortunately failed, his Royal Highness, acting in the name and on the behalf of His Majesty, deems

it proper publicly to declare the causes and origin of the war, in which the Government of the United States has compelled him to engage.

No desire of conquest, or other ordinary motive of aggression, has been, or can be with any colour of reason, in this case, imputed to Great Britain: that her commercial interests were on the side of peace, if war could have been avoided, without the sacrifice of her maritime rights, or without an injurious submission to France, is a truth which the American Government will not deny.

His Royal Highness does not, however, mean to rest on the favourable presumption to which he is entitled. He is prepared by an exposition of the circumstances which have led to the present war, to show that Great Britain has throughout acted towards the United States of America with a spirit of amity, forbearance, and conciliation; and to demonstrate the inadmissible nature of those pretensions which have at length unhappily involved the two countries in

war.

It is well known to the world, that it has been the invariable object of the Ruler of France to destroy the power and independence of the British Empire, as the chief obstacle to the accomplishment of his ambitious designs.

He first contemplated the possibility of assembling such a naval force in the Channel as, combined with a numerous flotilla, should enable him to disembark in England an army sufficient, in his conception, to subjugate this country; and through the conquest of Great

Britain he hoped to realize his project of universal empire.

By the adoption of an enlarged and provident system of internal defence, and by the valour of His Majesty's fleets and armies, this design was entirely frustrated; and the naval force of France, after the most signal defeats, was compelled to retire from the ocean.

An attempt was then made to effectuate the same purpose by other means; a system was brought forward, by which the Ruler of France hoped to annihilate the commerce of Great Britain, to shake her public credit, and to destroy her revenue; to render useless her maritime superiority, and so to avail himself of his continental ascendency, as to constitute himself, in a great measure, the arbiter of the ocean, notwithstanding the destruction of his fleets.

With this view, by the Decree of Berlin, followed by that of Milan, he declared the British territories to be in a state of blockade; and that all commerce, or even correspondence, with Great Britain was prohibited. He decreed that every vessel and cargo, which had entered, or was found proceeding to a British port, or which, under any circumstances, had been visited by a British ship of war, should be lawful prize: be declared all British goods and produce, wherever found, and however acquired, whether coming from the Mother Country or from her colonies, subject to confiscation: he further declared to be denationalized, the flag of all neutral ships that should be found offending against these his Decrees: and he gave to this project of universal tyranny, the

name