the oppressed find an asylum-our cause is the same, the same be our danger, the same out reward. Come hither, and in despite of all the arts, and all the power of this inhuman despot, you shall witness how we will render dim his star, and be ourselves the creators of our own destiny.

(Signed) THE ARCHBISHOP OF LAODICEA, President. Pedro de RiveRO, Secretary.

Correspondence between Sir John Moore and Mr. Frere. It appears from the printed correspondence between Sir Jolm Moore and Mr. Frere, that Mr. Frere used all his influence, and attempted to exercise his authority over Sir John Moore to make him advance with the army, when it was decidedly the general's opinion that nothing was left for him but to retreat. Mr. Frere talks of the ardent and determined spirit of the Spaniards, and of the desperate resistance which they were resolved to make, but never hints at a concert of operations, of any arrangement that had been taken for this effect, or of any means by which a system of general co-operation might be established. Mr. Frere has not even yet ceased to dream about counter revolutions in France!

"Every great effort (says he) on the part of France has been pre, ceded by an interval of weakness, or internal disturbance; an advantage, therefore, which should be obtained at this moment would be of double importance, inasmuch as it would render a conscription for a third attempt upon Spaiù infinitely difficult."

And again

"The covering Madrid is surely a great matter for effort in Spain, and much more in France."

The following is the letter alluded to the other night by Lord Auckland, which was sent by Mr Frere to Gen. Moore, by a French

man:

"Talavera de la Reyna, Dec. 3, 1808.

"Sir,-In the event which I did not wish to presuppose, of your continuing in the determination already announced to me, of retiring with the army under your command, I have to request that the bearer of this, whose intelligence has been already referred to, may be previously examined before a council of war. I have the honour to be, &c.

(Signed)

"J. H. FRERE."

In reply to this petulant, presumptuous letter, Sir John Moore makes the following observation

"I have thought it my duty thus calmly to explain to you the reasons which have and do actuate my conduct, and I wish anxiously, as the King's Minister, to continue upon the most confidential footing with you; and I hope, as we have but one interest, the public welfare, though we may occasionally see it in different aspects, thin this will ot disturb the harmony that should subsist between us. Fully impressed as I am with these sentiments, I shall abstain from any remark upon the two letters from you delivered to me last night and this morning by, or on the message winch accompanied them.”

And in the same letter, alluding to some remarks which Mr Frere had made his first retreat, Sir John obsev —

"With respect to the determination which I made on the Hh 2 evening

evening of the 28th, upon receiving from Mr. Stuart the account of Castano's defeat, I should, had you been with me, have communicated it to you, but should never have thought of asking your advice or opinion, as that determination was founded on circumstances with which you could not be acquainted; and was, besides, a question merely military, of which I should have thought myself the best judge."

How ministers could have the boldness to assert that this correspondence did not at all respect the march of the army, when they were in possession of the following letter we cannot possibly conceive:

Copy of a Letter from the Right Hon. J. H. Frere to Lieut. Gen. Sir John Moore, dated Truxillo, 9th Dec. 1808.

"Sir,-After the representations which have been made to you from other quarters, I can hardly hope that a further remonstrance on my part can produce any effect, where high military rank and authority, and the influence of persons whom, I am told, you honour with your private esteem, have been found unavailing.

"The advantages which Mr. Stuart possesses in this respect will, I hope, enable him to urge you with the warmth of personal regard, what I may be allowed to state at least with impartiality and candour, towards a person with whom I am no otherwise acquainted than by the honour which he has done me by his correspondence; I mean the immense responsibility which you take upon yourself by adopting, upon a supposed military necessity, a measure which must be followed by the immediate, if not the final

ruin of our ally, and by the indelible disgrace to the country with whose resources you are intrusted.

"I am unwilling to enlarge upon a subject in which my feelings must either be stifled or expressed at the risk of offence, which, with such an interest at stake, I should feel unwilling to excite; but thus much I must say, that if the British army had been sent abroad for the express object of doing the utmost possible mischief to the cause of Spain, (with the single exception of not firing a shot against the Spanish troops,) they would, according to the measure now announced as about to be taken, have most completely fulfilled their purpose.

"That the defence of Gallicia should be abandoned, must appear incredible. I am, &c.

(Signed) "J. H. FRERE."

of the success he has just obtained in Finland-yet he is but half satisfied with General Buxhöwden, and he means to replace him. The reply of the English government deprives him of almost all hope of a speedy peace-yet he thinks that it is of importance always to keep a door open for negotiation, and afterwards, whatever be the success of it, to go forward-he has given an example of this in his reply to Prince Kourakin, who had given him an account of the little success he had in demanding of the court of Vienna the acknowledgment of Joseph the First. M. De Romanzoff read me this letter of the emperor to Prince Kourakin-I think your majesty will be satisfied with it. The Emperor of Russia is astonished at the refusal of Austria, under the pretext on which it is founded. Austria wishes first to know the result of the conferences of Erfurth.

"It is by disobliging,' says the Emperor, that she pretends to merit complaisance? Why is she uneasy at what has been signed at Erfurth? Far from having wished to injure the interests of Austria, there was stipulated there the integrity of that Monarchy. (This assertion is evidently a mistake of the Emperor's, who had not the Treaty before him, an error occasioned probably by the recollection of some conversations with your Majesty.) Thus whilst I am occupied with her interests,' continues the Emperor, she replies by a refusal to accede to the demand I had made of her, and in seeming to seek my friendship, she evinces to me her distrust of my conduct at Erfurth.'-The emperor accuses Austria of contradictions in all her

conduct, and in the language of M. De Metternich, M. De Stadion, and M. Vincent, he says that the acknowledgment demanded of her was but the effect of the management which it was wished to shew her, in thus dispensing with the demand of a categorical declaration upon the prodigious increase of her military force. He does not see what is the object which she is pursuing; and after having observed, that when King Joseph shall be at Madrid, the refusal of Austria to acknowledge him will only be an act of ridicule, he declares, that if she has formed the senseless project of framing a new Coalition, by leaguing herself with England, Turkey, and the Spanish insurgents, he is in a condition to oppose it, and that, united with the Emperor Napoleon, he could easily break that new league, which would be to Austria the cause of disasters, if not of total ruin.

"Such is the reply of the Emperor Alexander to Prince Kourakin; it was to be sent to the Russian Charge d'Affairs at Vienna, who has orders to communicate it to M. De Stadion. The Charge d'Affaires has lately written to M. Kourakin; it appears that this dispatch of the Emperor's had not reached him, though it is dated the 8th November.

"I could have wished that M. De Romanzoff would have left me a copy, but I soon perceived that he was desirous of presenting it himself to your Majesty, and that he was in hopes of your speedy return. That hope was too sweet to every Frenchman, as well as to M. De Romanzoff (who respects and admires your Majesty almost as much as a Frenchman), for me to Hh3

weaken

weaken the hope which I am fond of sharing with him-But if it cannot be soon realized, I shall renew to your Majesty the demand of repairing to you, if after the reply from England, my remaining here should appear useless.

"I had the satisfaction to announce to M. De Romanzoff, the arrival of your Majesty at St Martin, near Madrid, referring him for the details to the Bulletin which will appear to-morrow, of the contents of which I am not yet informed. "I am with respect, Sire, Your Majesty's most faithful,

And devoted servant and subject,

CHAMPAGNY."

At a General Court of Proprietors of the West India Dock Company, held at their House in Billiter-Square, on Friday the 6th of June, 1809, Thomas Hughan, Esq. in the chair; the Chairman read to the Meeting a Report from a Committee of Directors, on the General Conduct of the Company's Conce. ns, to the end of the year 1808; which was ordered to be printed for the use of the proprie

tors.

REFORT.-The committee of Review, in compliance with the Resolution of the Court of Directors of the 20th December last, directing that they should "Report to the Court the present state of business at the Docks, and such circumstances respecting the Company's Concerns during the last Season, as may appear to them to require observation," present the following Report.

The season just elapsed having been one of peculiar difficulty in the conduct of the Company's con

cerns, and in which the efficacy and resources of the Establishment have been called into action, and put to the test, it is matter of singular gratification to your Committee to be enabled to state, that the exertions of your officers and servants have been successful in the discharge of their duty; and that the business of the year, in all its various departments, although impeded by circumstances embarrassing and unprecedented, has been completed at a period unusually early. To the details which are necessarily connected with this (the more immediate) object of your Committee, they premise a few remarks, founded upon those facts and incontrovertible principles to which your Establishment owes both its origin and its utility.

However unwilling some persons may be to awaken the recollection, yet it cannot be generally forgotten, what were the excessive delays, increasing difficulties, and glaring abuses, which not many years ago obstructed, in an especial manner, the West-India Trade at this port, and called aloud for a remedy. The records exist which prove the enormity of the evil, progressively af fecting the credit of the port, the safe collection of the revenue, and the property of individuals connected with the trade, in times otherwise prosperous, and seriously contributing to degrade and corrupt the morals of the people. To these causes your Establishment owes its origin, an effectual reform could only be sought in a great and costly effort. The individuals who formed and who composed the Company, undertook, at very considerable risk, to make the effort requisite for a purpose so desirable.

The obstacles that must occur in

combating

combating numerous and powerful classes of opponents determined by prejudice, or stimulated by interest, could only be surmounted by that union of zeal, perseverance, and ability, which were on this occasion combined, and being sanctioned by a provident policy in the legislature, (fortunately for the commercial prosperity of London,) proved successful. These opponents although silenced were not reconciled. To the origin and character of the Establishment itself, as opposed to individual and petty exactions, may be traced the source of much of that spirit of discontent and hostility which it has since encountered, and which has pursued its object, by misrepresentations, most gross, and yet too frequently credited; but it is a rigid enquiry into their conduct, and an impartial investigation of their principles and proceedings, that will furnish to the Company the surest means of vindicating themselves, and demonstrating, that they have, in all liberal construction, accomplished the good purposes of the undertaking, and fulfilled their engagements to the public.

By the general view of its merits and demerits, and not by its adaptation to any one particular occurrence, ought every public Establishment in fairness to be tried; but your Committee are confident that the Company need not shrink from a more minute scrutiny, and enquiry, how far its provisions and regulations are already compatible with the separate and distinct interests of different bodies connected with the West-India trade; although they may and will on the test of experiment, and by suggestions of those most interested, be ultimately still farther perfected.

The security afforded to property, and the prevention of frauds, are purposes which your institution is universally admitted to have ate tained, and in these objects, the interests of the public revenue of the importers and proprietors of goods, and of the ship owners, are all intimately blended, and most essentially promoted; and yet these topics, of the highest importance to the state, and to individuals, (when clamour is to be excited against your system), are seldom adverted to, and although it would be no difficult task to prove that the duty saved to the revenue, and the property preserved to individuals, by these means, amounts annually to many hundred thousand pounds, yet your Committee abstain from a superfluous illustration of a fact so generally acknowledged, and proceed to details which are more connected with some late discussions concerning the conduct of your Establishmert.

If the Warehousing System be productive of great practical benefit both to internal and foreign commerce, it must not be overlooked, that so far as the West India trade is concerned, it could not have been carried into effect, without some Establishment equivalent to that which thus originated. It is well known that during many years of his administration, the advanlages that might result from that system both to the revenue and to the trade, had presented themselves to the comprehensive mind of that able minister, the late Mr. Pitt, and that he only sus pended its adoption, until some adequate improvement should be made in the port of London, under which it might be safely carried inHh 4

to