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merit of any former service, that the characteristic activity of British officers, seamen, and marines, was never more zealously exerted than on this occasion; but I must not omit, at the same time, to inform their lordships, that a very considerable proportion of the labour of the arsenal has been performed with equal zeal and energy, by large working parties from the army, whose exertions entitle them to the same praise. I beg leave to express the great satisfaction I have felt from the zealous and attentive services of rear-admiral Essington, to whom the general superintendance of the numerous transports, and the re-embarkation of the army, with all its artillery and stores, has been committed. I embrace this opportunity to make a particular acknowledgement of the very able and judicious dispositions, which rearadmiral Keats has made, from time to time, of the force under his command, for guarding the belt; and the vigilant attention which his whole squadron have paid to this important branch of the service. Sir Home Popham has not ceased to manifest his usual zeal and ability, in the assistance he has rendered me, in the various services of the fleet; and I should not do justice to the diligent attention, and arduous endeavours of captain Mackenzie, to fulfil the civil duties of the arsenal, which were committed to his management and superintendance, if I did not, on this occasion, express my warm approbation of his exertions, and I beg leave to recommend him to their lordships' favourable notice. I have the honour to transmit herewith, a list of the Danish ships and vessels which have been brought away, and of those destroyed. The account of the stores shipped from the arsenal shall also be sent as soon as the several returns can be collected and arranged.

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N. B. The list of the Danish ships found at Copenhagen has been already published. Two ships of the line and two frigates have been destroyed.

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ARMY IN ZEALAND.

Head-quarters, Hellerup, near Copenhagen, September 7, 1807. GENERAL ORDERS. The commander of the forces cannot delay expressing his best thanks to all the general officers and staff, for the great and able assistance he has received from them in their several ranks and stations; and he feels himself, in like manner, indebted to all officers commanding brigades and regiments, and to the officers and soldiers under their command. He must, however, be allowed, in a particular manner, to express his thanks to major-general Bloomfield and colonel D'Arcy, and to the officers and corps of the royal artillery and engineers, whose labours, science, and success, collectively and individually, have been most remarkable, and reflect great credit on that branch of his majesty's service. The services and perseverance of lieutenant-colonel Smith, and the 82d regiment, in occupying and maintaining the windmill batteries, have been particularly distinguished, and claim peculiar thanks. The gallant conduct of lieutenant Light, of the 50th regiment, in command of a piquet of that regiment on the 31st, was particularly noticed."

THE EXPEDITION TO ZEALAND.

His Majesty's ship Prince of Wales, off Copenhagen, September 28, 1807. The admiral has the sincerest satisfaction in obeying the orders of the right honourable the lords commissioners of the admiralty, by conveying to the flag officers, captains, commanders, officers, seamen, and marines of the fleet, under his command, his majesty's most gracious approbation of their zealous and persevering exertions, and above all, their cordial co-operation with the army, under the command of lieutenant-general lord Cathcart, in carrying on the siege against Copenhagen, which, by its result, has added the navy of Denmark to that of the United Kingdom. The admiral also seizes this, as the fittest occasion, to express his sincere thanks to the flag officers, captains, commanders, officers, seamen, and marines, for their prompt execution of all his commands, by which he has been honoured with the most flattering testimony of his sovereign's approbation; and he assures them at the same time, that he shall not fail to convey to his majesty his most perfect conviction, that the alacrity with which they have fitted the late Danish navy for sea, is unexampled in history. (Signed) To the respective Captains and Commanders.

НОМЕ РОГНАМ.

Venice, Oct. 1.-The Gazette of this city, entitled Notizie del Mondo, contains, under the date of Corfu, 1st of September, the following State Paper:

FRENCH EMPIRE.

In the name of his majesty the emperor of the French and king of Italy; Napoleon I.

PROVISIONAL ORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SEVEN ISLANDS. The Republic of the Seven Islands forms a part of the states which depend on the French empire. The inhabitants of the Seven Islands are subjects of his majesty the emperor of the French and king of Italy, and the arms and standards of the empire are the same in both countries. All the cities depending on the Republic of the Seven Islands, shall provisionally retain their present organization. The liberty of worship is guaranteed, and the Greek religion shall be the predominant one. The courts of justice shall continue to judge criminal, correctional, civil, and other matters, the same as heretofore. The laws and other judicial acts are maintained in their full force. The senate shall continue to exercise their functions until further orders. A senatorial deputation of five members shall meet every Monday and Thursday, in order to present their labours to the governor, and to propose to him whatever may contribute to the public prosperity. The senate must have all their decrees and deliberations confirmed by the governor-general, in the name of his majesty the emperor and king; without which approbation they are to remain without effect. The secretaries of State are reduced to three. Mr. Sordina is charged with the financial department; Mr. Flamburiari with that of the interior; and Mr. Garazin with the united departments of justice and general police. The secretaryship of state for the department of foreign affairs, is suppressed. There shall be attached to the governor-general a privy council, which he shall assemble whenever he may judge fit. It is to be composed of three secretaries of state, and of his excellency the president of the senate. General Cardeno, commandant of the troops, is charged with whatever relates to the military. A statement of all the magazines, and of every object whatever, moveable and immoveable, which have been ceded by his majesty the emperor of all the Russias, shall be delivered to the governor-general; there shall, in like manner, be delivered to him a state of all the sums due to the government of the Seven Islands, by his excellency the minister plenipotentiary, Moncenigo, in the name of his majesty the emperor of Russia. The troops of the Seven Islands in the pay of the existing government are retained upon the former footing, and shall continue to receive the same pay until further orders. The Albanese who were in the Russian service are discharged, and shall provisionally pass into that of France. They shall be paid by the government of the Seven Islands, and be distributed throughout them all. None of the troops organized in the Seven Islands can receive any orders but from the governor, or from a French commandant. They shall take the oath of allegiance to his majesty the emperor and king, and shall swear to remain united with the French troops, of which they form a part, against all the enemies of the French empire. The staff of the Albanese shall reside provisionally at Corfu. From amongst them a company shall be raised, in order to be incorporated in the government guard, and two other companies besides, from each Albanese corps, shall be united with each French regiment, in order to act as light in fantry in the mountains. The present ordinance shall be notified to the members of the senate, in order that it may be executed in its form and tenor, the day of its pub lication. There shall be a copy respectfully addressed, by the governor, to his majesty the emperor of the French and king of Italy, his sovereign. Corfu, 1st of September, 1807.

(Signed)

The Commander in Chief, Governor-general of Corfu and its dependencies,

CESAR BERTHIER.

Printed and published by G. SIDNEY, No. 1, Northumberland-Street, Strand; Sold by H. T. HODGSON, Wimpole-street; J. BELL, Sweeting's-alley, Cornhill; and by all the News-venders in Town and Country.

Vol: III. No: 20. Saturday, November 14, 1807.

369

HISTORICAL DIGEST.

Price 10d.

Since the publication of our last digest, there has occurred scarcely any event in the political world, deserving of particular animadversion. A dead calm, the sure forefunner of a storm has hovered over our hemisphere for more than six weeks. Where the thunderbolt will next fall, it is difficult to conjecture. From Portugal we have received merely contradictory statements, and the only fact which we can record with safety is, the removal of the English factory from Lisbon, as a preliminary to our exclusion from all commerce with that country. It does not appear that the prince of Brazil intends to follow the advice of Horace to the Romans, or that the nobles of Portugal are disposed to leave their country, and seek a new seat, by way of cure for the corruption of their manners, and to avoid the tyranny of French influence. The English have quitted the dominions of their ancient ally, taking with them their property; and every facility has been hitherto afforded them by the Portuguese government. A very short space of time must determine what course that government will pursue, between its just dread of the ambition, injustice, and rapacity of its continental oppres tors, and its unwillingness to offend its maritime, and uniformly faithful ally. The Portuguese fleet must be taken into our hands as a pledge, until the restoration of peace, should the harbours of Portugal be shut against our commerce; and as to the rans-atlantic settlements of that power. I have already prescribed a rule for our conduct in relation to them. For the present, therefore, I shall not enlarge upon this topic.

Out expedition against Denmark, has safely returned, laden with the spolia opima of that kingdom. All the Danish ships of war that were in the harbour of Copenhagen have been brought to this country, and all the materials contained in their arsenals, are deposited in our stores. No conversion has been wrought upon the mind of the crown prince: he has formally declared war against us, and it will be seen amongst our state papers of this week, that our government has not been backward in returning the compliment. In about two months, therefore, we may expect that an official ac count will be published of the capture of Santa Cruz, and St. Thomas, by the British arms; and their East India settlement at Tranquibar will share the same fate, with all convenient speed. The hostility of Denmark will be ruinous to herself, and not at all injurious to England; for the numerous privateers which she is said to have fitted out against our maritime commerce, will not only thwart the invasive designs of Buonaparte, but they will infallibly add, after the first ebullitions of resentment shall have subsided, to the number of our able-bodied seamen. A few of our sloops of war and armed brigs, properly stationed in the north sea, and between the Orkneys and the north of Ireland, will effectually intercept their marauding speculations; and I have such

*The application of the lines of Horace to the present state of the Portuguese, and to their fertile colony of Brazil, is too striking to be here omitted.

-Secunda

Ratem occupare quid moramur alite?

Nos manet oceanus circumyagus: arva, beata

Petamus arva, divites et insulas,

Reddit ubi cererem tellus inarata quotannis,
Et imputata floret usque vinea;

Germinat et nunquam fallentis termes olivæ,
Suamque pulla ficus ornat arborem ;
Mella cava manant ex ilice; montibus altis
Levis crepante lympha desilit pede.

Hor. Carm. 16. lib. 5.

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VOL. II-NO, 20,

a perfect reliance in the vigilance and activity of the present first lord of the admiralty, from the earnest he has already given of his administration, that I may safely predict, the Danish privateers, well-manned as they may be, will gain little else besides hard blows and salt water. The Danes will soon experience the difference between British and French amity; and when, perhaps, it is too late, the crown prince will repent of that panctilious obduracy, which has precipitated the fall of his country. If any additional circumstances were necessary to justify the expediency and policy of the conduct of our government toward Denmark, the refusal of the crown prince to listen to all proffers of reconciliation, and the marked inveteracy of his resentment, would be sufficient to convict him of an undue connection with France, and of a clandestine in tention to co-operate against us when the opportunity should have presented itself.

The arrival of the hereditary sovereign of France in this country, has been already noticed in an article in our last number, which I recommend to the attention of the reader. For the present, I must decline entering into any disquisition on the nature and object of this visit, having not yet had any opportunity of making inquiry respecting so unexpected an event.*

The only remaining articles of intelligence relates to the transactions of the Turkish government. These are detailed in the Vienna court gazette of October 14, 15, and 21st, and which I have inserted in its own words, as they do not require any com

ment.

"In consequence of the armistice concluded between Russia and the Ottoman Porte, the navigation of the Black Sea is become free; but the advanced state of the season will permit only a small number of vessels to profit by this liberty The Russian officers and soldiers, prisoners of war, have been released from the slave pri son, where they were confined at Constantinople. They will be conveyed to Odessa in Ragusian vessels. The Turks have nominated Silistria as the place for carrying on the negociations for a definitive treaty of peace; but many obstacles seem to stand in way of the approaching opening of the congress. The Janissaries, after some fresh motions towards a rebellion, on the first of September, received their pay, which had been in arrear for a considerable time. The 10th of September, General Gar danne, ambassador from France to Persia, passed over from Tophana, to Scutari, on his journey to Tehram, by the way of Bagdad. This minister is accompanied by Mirzer Mahmoud, envoy from the Shah of Persia, the French officers destined for the East Indies, commercial agents, and missionaries."

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The following are the articles of the armistice concluded between the Turks and Servians: The first states, That there shall be a cessation of hostilities for an unlimited time. 2. That orders should immediately be expedited to both armies to cease hostilities. 3. The armistice to extend to the two armies in Bulgaria, as well as the troops in and on the frontiers of Servia. 4. The two armies to remain in their respec tive positions. 5. Either party to break the armistice at pleasure; but five or six hours to elapse before resuming hostilities. 6. The soldiers of each army prohibited from going into the camp of the other. The armistice is signed by George Petrowitz, commander-in-chief of the Servian army of insurrection, Issrailow, general of a division of Russian troops, and Ibrahim Pacha, of Macedonia and Romelia.

66

According to the last advices, Wallachia is entirely evacuated by the Russians. They are preparing also to abandon Moldavia; the troops are already marching to wards the frontiers of that principality. The quarter-master-general de Suchtelen, kas proceeded from Bucharest to Jassy, to accelerate the evacuation. Prince Prosorowski has at present the command in chief of the Russian forces in that country. On the other hand we are informed that the grand vizir has gone into winter quarters, at Adrianople and in the environs."

DIPLOMATIC CORPS.

An article appeared in the Morning Chronicle last week, upon the subject of the choice of our foreign ministers, which must not be allowed to pass unobserved. It seems to have been the main object of the writer, to gloss over the diplomatic appointments made under the late administration, and to cast an indirect reproach upon the

* For the last six weeks, the editor of this review has been confined to his bed by a most painful illness, and he is not yet able to quit his room.

present ministers, for their nomination of Mr. Rose, jun: to execute a certain special mission to the United States of America. The manner in which the writer of the article in question has discussed the point, shews that his zeal has outstripped his prudence, otherwise he would not have committed the credit of his party so egregiously as to publish the names of the persons who were selected to fill the situations of our residents abroad, and to challenge his contemporaries to dispute their talents and capacity. It certainly is not judicious to provoke an investigation of this kind, unless the writer is sure that his favourites are without blemish, or, in other words, that they are sufficiently accomplished to go through, without derogation, the ordeal of a public scrutiny. But this is the concern of the partizan, not ours; and if he will voluntarily expose his friends to the lash of criticism, he must not complain of the chastisement that is inflicted upon him, since he himself has put the rod into our hands. I shall apply the touchstone of truth to the fallacies contained in this laboured article of the Morning Chronicle; and, indeed, it is a duty which I owe to myself to expose then in a proper light, because, at the period of those diplomatic appointments, I was, I believe, the only writer who denounced them to the public.

Before we proceed, it will not be irrelevant to remind the reader of the letter that I addressed to the late Mr. Fox, upon the appointment of our foreign ministers, in the 13th number of the first volume of this work. I had adverted to the same subject during the life of Mr. Pitt ;* and when "All the Talents" took upon themselves the management of our affairs, after the death of the Great Patriot, it was natural to expect, that men of such high promise would be particular in detaching a portion of those talents to represent us at foreign courts. Anxious for the honour and character of our country, both of which I apprehended would suffer under such a partycoloured piece of Mosaic as the late ministry, I did not hesitate to remonstrate with Mr. Fox, for the want of judgment and respect towards the feelings, both of this nation and of foreign countries, which he had displayed, in the appointments of Mr. Adair, (whom I shall no longer call Bobby Adair) of lord Douglas, and of Mr. Erskine, not forgetting the precious choice of Jemmy Green to the consulate of Morocco. At the time when the several animadversions were written, the party might have justified the wisdom and patriotism of their leader, if they had been justifiable; for they were fairly and openly challenged. But, whether these gentlemen were so conscious of their weak side, or whether they were so busied in striving each man to secure for himself a slice of the good things which had devolved to the party by the death of the great statesman who had controlled their insatiable propensities, it is most certain that the challenge was never accepted, that the appointments passed on their part sub silentio, and that we considered ourselves as the undisputed masters of the field. This, however, our opponents are not willing to allow, and, therefore, they revive the controversy, in the false hope that our former reasonings have sunk into oblivion, or that a change of ministry will necessarily occasion a change also in the estimation which the people had before entertained of public characters. But this is a mistaken hope. The same causes which provoked the public indignation at the appointment of such men, operate with equal force to strengthen their reflections now. The times, indeed, are altered, but the men remain, and they would have remained unnoticed, if it had not been for this ill-judged attempt to extol the reputation of a censured and degraded ministry, who, for endeavouring to split the vessel against a rock, are happily put under the hatches. As long, however, as I can wield a pen, that constellation of state empirics shall not attempt to creep once upon deck without an effort, on my part, to thrust them down again; and this object cannot be better attained, than by a manly exposure of their quackeries, ignorance, and follies. Let us begin in the north.

According to the Morning Chronicle, the marquis Douglas, who was chosen by Mr. Fox to be our minister at the court of St. Petersburg, was better fitted than any other man in the united empire for that situation, on account not only of his rank, but also of his talents and splendid acquirements. To the rank of his lordship no exception is made, and it is extremely edifying to see the Chronicle advert with reverence to hereditary nobility, as entitled to a preference in the enjoyment of important

* See No. 6. of Vol. 1.

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