Birmese at that place. A few loaded iron guns, a pair of colours, and a dead body, dreadfully mutilated, were found in the place. The Birmese, it was said, had, the day before their retreat, blown fourteen Assamese chiefs from the cannon's mouth. The British expedition directed against Rangoon, the principal sea-port of the Birmese, succeeded in its object, and took possession of the place after no great resistance from the forts and batteries; but the Birmese continued to make a resistance in the neighbourhood in small detached parties. On the other hand, the Birmese had gained some successes on the side of Chittagong, where there was a very small Company's force to oppose them; and two large ships be longing to Bombay had been ordered to proceed from Madras to Chittagong, with troops to meet the enemy in that quarter. The opinion prevails at Bombay that, from the plan of resistance adopted by the Birmese, although the issue of the contest could hardly be doubtful, its duration would be much greater than had been at first anticipated.

AFRICA.

CAPE COAST.-Dispatches have been received from Cape Coast Castle, dated the 13th and 18th of July, announcing the highly gratifying intelligence that the Ashantees were signally defeated in a general action on the 11th of July. It appears that their temporary success had raised their hopes of conquest to the highest pitch. The barbarian Sovereign, Assai Tootoo Quamina, with whom Mr Du. puis negociated, is dead. His brother, who succeeded him at the moment of victory over the late Sir Charles M'Car. thy, resolved to march down to the coast immediately, with an overwhelming force, and drive the English into the sca. He came accordingly with an army of 18.000 men; but before he made his attack, in full confidence of his approaching triumph, he sent a taunting message to the Castle, telling them, that though they might raise their walls, and strengthen their fortifications, nothing should prevent him from overthrowing and destroying them. With savages like himself these menaces might have produced some effect in the way of intimidation, but on the English garrison they were of course wasted. Vigorous preparations were made for resistance, and, when the enemy appeared in force under the walls, all was ready for his reception. After some days, during which his purpose seems to have varied, a general attack was commenced at two o'clock in the afternoon, and continued

until six in the evening, when the barbarians fell back in disorder, having sustained a very heavy loss. Our black auxiliaries fought with great bravery, though it was necessary to drive them to their post at the point of the bayonet. The battle was fought within three quarters of a mile from the shore. On the 12th and 13th some skirmishes took place with detachments of the enemy, in which they were again defeated with loss. One of the first results of our success was, the release of Mr Williams, who had so long been detained a prisoner by the Ashantees. After the defeat the Ashantee army broke up, and dispersed in every direction. The King revenged himself for his discomfiture by beheading four of the Chiefs, whom he had retaken after they had deserted from him. The British loss is very trifling. One officer only is killed, Lieutenant Swanzy, of the Royal African corps, and seven rank and file are wounded. The unorganised force of negroes in our service lost a total of 102 rank and file killed, and 440 rank and file wounded. Lieut.-Col. Sutherland, who commanded the British forces on the day of the vic tory, came home with the dispatches in the Thetis frigate. The charge had there. fore devolved on Colonel Grant.

AMERICA.

MEXICO. The rash enterprise of Augustin Iturbide, the discarded Emperor of Mexico, to disturb the existing Government of that country, has terminated in his capture and death. It appears that he landed with a few followers, at Soto la Marina, on the 15th of July last; and the official Gazette of Mexico gives an account of his apprehension on the 19th, which was immediately followed by his execution the same evening, at six o'clock, at the city of Padilla, without any other ceremony than that of reading to him a decree of Congress of the 28th April, patting him without the pale of the law, and providing for his instant death, should he ever be found within the Mexican terri tory. What he had expected or contemplated only appears from a prociamation issued on his landing, in which he says, he does not return as Emperor, but as a soldier and a Mexican, in order to contribute, by his counsel and his sword, to the preservation of the liberty and independence of the state, against the designs of the mother-country and the Holy Alliance. The Mexican Congress, however, had evident' given him no credit for his professions, and he seems to have made no sort of provision to proceed in defiance to opposition, but to have run

blindly on his fate. He does not appear to have mustered any adherents; but to have been quietly taken and shot, almost as soon as he landed. The sudden extinction of this enterprise by the American rulers displays an energy and vigi lance which will greatly commend them to foreign powers, and will pave the way for the recognition of their independent authority.

The Mexican Government, to shew their moderation, have brought forward a proposition in Congress for settling a pension of 8000 dollars on his widow, who, with two of his children, was the sharer of his calamitous expedition, and almost the spectatress of his death.

PERU. If the Royalists in Peru had continued united, they might have prolonged the struggle; their dissensions, however, have put the cause which they support in a fair way to be speedily altogether ruined. Intelligence concerning the affairs of that country that can be depended upon, has been brought by the Lion schooner, which sailed from Carthagena on the 2d of August, bringing letters and papers from Santa Fe de Bogota to the 20th of July. These papers contain two dispatches from Bolivar, one dated Huanchas, the 12th of May, and the other the middle of the same month. The first fully confirms the defection of Olaneta and his army from the Spanish

cause, to adopt that of the Independents, which had been previously reported in this country from various quarters. It ap pears that Caratalla, whom he had previously defeated, and made prisoner, was a Spanish General, sent against him by the Viceroy, La Serna. The junction of Valdez with the Viceroy, which the success of Olaneta had rendered necessary, would lay Lima open to the advance of Bolivar. The second dispatch expressed a confident expectation, that, after having been joined by the reinforcements on their way, Bolivar would be able to put an end to the campaign before the close of the month. His force, at the above date, is stated in the private letters from Carthagena at 14,000 men ; and it was supposed that in a few days after he would be joined by considerable reinforcements from Pa nama. About 4000 more troops, under the command of General Valisco, were to sail from Carthagena on the 4th ult. for Chagres, and thence to proceed by way of Panama to Peru. One of the letters by the Lion, dated Bogota, July 19, states that the President Bolivar, resolved to set an example of devotion to the national cause, had sent to Congress an offer to surrender up to the use of the Republic the income of 30,000 dollars which had been assigned to him by an act of Con gress.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-June 10.-The Bishop of Raphoe presented a petition from the parish of Kilmore, and signed by all the inhabitant householders, praying for a law to enable them to provide for their poor by a voluntary assessment. This is, we believe, the first step that has been taken towards a legal provision for the Irish poor.

The Irish Insurrection Act was read a third time; Earl Darnley and the Marquis of Lansdown admitting its necessity, while they lamented and deprecated the policy which rendered such a measure necessary. Lord Holland opposed the measure altogether, but did not divide the House.

The Earl of Liverpool moved the second reading of the Irish Tithes Bill. The Earl of Kingston opposed it, as unduly favourable to the Clergy. The Bishop of Limerick vindicated the Irish Church in a long and very able speech. He exposed the exaggeration of its wealth which had been put forth, advisedly as serting, that no Bishop in the South of

VOL. XV.

Ireland (the only part with which he was acquainted) enjoyed an income of £.5,000 a-year, while the average of their emoluments was below £.3,000. He denied any knowledge of the existence of one non-resident clergyman, possessed of a living in the arch-diocese of Cashel ; pointed out the fallacious appearance of pluralities, of which so much had been said, by showing that, in one case, the pluralist incumbent of an union of six parishes derived but £.260 a-year from them all. He then proceeded to contrast the advantage which the country derived from the residence and expenditure of the Clergy, with the evils produced by the almost universal absence of the Lay Proprietors. Lord King ridiculed the Right Rev. Prelate's defence of the Irish Church, as by much too complete. Bill read.

15 The Scotch Judicature Bill was passed.

The order for hearing counsel against the Equitable Loan Bill was discharged, upon a division, by a majority of 26 to 17. The Bill was then ordered to be read a

3 Q

second time, by a majority of 17 to 14. In the twofold discussion which led to these divisions, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Redesdale, and the Earl of Lauderdale, warmly opposed the measure, the Earl of Hardwick alone speaking in its favour. The Earl of Liverpool professed to approve of the principle of the measure, but declared that he saw many objections to the details.

The Bankrupt Laws Amendment Bill was read a third time.

The Lord Chancellor alluded to the difficulty of the subject, and adverted to the new clauses which had been added; the most important is the one empowering the commissioners to sign a bankrupt certificate, notwithstanding the dissent of perverse creditors.

Lord Holland brought in a bill to enable the Duke of Norfolk and his Deputy to execute the offices of Earl Marshal and Deputy Earl Marshal of England, without taking the oath of supremacy. The Bill was read a first time.

The Irish Clergy Residence Bill was read a third time, Lord King having unsuccessfully attempted to superadd a clause disqualifying all incumbents, nonresident during six weeks, from suing for tithes.

Upon the committal of the Marine Insurance Bill, the Lord Chancellor gave notice, that he should propose, either in the shape of additional clauses or of a supplementary measure, certain protections for the creditors of the new joint companies. The principal of these he explained to be, the enrollment of the names of the proprietors, the continued liability of the persons originally enrolled, and the power reserved to the creditor to sue any tro proprietors whom he might think proper to select for that purpose. Their lordships had a conference with the Commons in the Painted Chamber upon the Vagrant Act, which was agreed to, the clauses objected to by the Lower House being given up.

21. The Earl Marshal's Qualification Bill was read a third time and passed, sub silentio.

Earl Bathurst moved the third reading of the Slave Laws Consolidation Bill. The Earl of Westmorland objected strongly to a clause, which proposed to forbid the transmission of slaves from island to island; a clause which, he said, might prejudice the slaves as much as their owners, by confining within inconvenient limits an overgrown population. He moved that the Bill should be recommited, to get rid of this clause. Earl Bathurst defended the clause as indispensable to protect the slaves from the most

cruel violation of their natural ties. The Earl of Rosslyn supported the amend ment. The Marquis of Lansdown de. clared that he looked upon the clause in question as the great recommendation of the Bill. The amendment was negatived, and the Bill read a third time and passed.

On the motion of Lord Bexley, the Marine Insurance Bill was read a third time and passed.

24. The Marquis of Lansdown expressed some surprise, that, notwithstanding the intimation of an intention to recognize the Independent Government of South America, given by Ministers at the commencement of the Session, Parliament was to be permitted to separate without any thing having been done in the matter. The Earl of Liverpool explained, that Ministers were merely wait. ing the arrival of proper information from the Commissioners who had been sent to South America.

Lord Holland then brought under the notice of the House the protest of the Duke of Newcastle and the Earl of Abingdon, to consider of which he had had the House summoned. He spoke at great length, to show that that part of the Protest which ascribed the passing of the Earl Marshal's Qualification Bill to a surprise, was unfounded, and succeeded in proving that the measure was not unexpected, that it was not introduced until some time after five o'clock, and that the attendance of inembers, when it passed, was considerably greater than it was afterwards, when a penal law of great severity was agreed to. In conclusion, he moved a resolution declaratory of the foregoing facts. The Duke of Newcastle and the Earl of Abingdon defended their conduct; the latter, however, explained that he was not disposed to adopt that part of the protest which ascribed the passing of the Earl Marshal's Bill to a surprise. The Lord Chancellor observed, that though the passing of the Bill might have been moved after five o'clock, its being taken out of its proper place among the orders of the day would have the effect of a surprise. His Lordship proposed some amendments explanatory of this circumstance, which, with the Resolution proposed by Lord Holland, were agreed to.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-May 18.Mr Calcraft moved the repeal of the leather-tax, which he designated as an impolitic and unproductive tax, only producing £.300,000.-The Chancellor of the Exchequer opposed the motion, not because he did not admit the force

of the objections that had been urged, but because he thought that, if there were

£.300,000 to spare, there were many taxes much more objectionable than the leather-tax. Lord Althorp, Sir J. Newport, Mr L. Maberly, Sir N. Colthurst, and Mr Maberly, severally supported the motion. The motion was eventually lost by the small majority of 71 to 55.

Scots Parochial Stipends' Act.-The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in moving that the House should resolve itself into a Committee on the above Act, took occasion to observe, that, a few years ago, the Legislature passed a bill for raising the stipends of the Scottish inferior clergy to the sum of £150 per annum.— There was, however, in the Act which had been passed to ameliorate their situation, a provision that had a very bad effect. The law which provided for the amount of the salary, provided also that a portion of it should be levied according to the price of grain. The Act was passed in the year 1809-10, when, as every body knew, the price of grain was very high. The average value of every living was fixed on the price of grain at the period when the demand was made, and no other. The consequence was, that grain being then high, the value was raised to a considerable amount; but when that article fell in price, as it had since done, the value became proportion ably less; and there was no provision whatever in the Act authorising a renewed valuation. Therefore the money collected was at present very inadequate to raise the revenue of several small livings to £.150 per annum. To remedy this defect, it would be provided by the bill which he meant to introduce, that the amount of stipend should be regulated by the average price of corn every seven years. There was another point also to which the new measure would have reference. The sum granted by the former Act, to keep up those sti pends, was £.10,000 a-year. That sum was not quite adequate to effect the proposed object. He should therefore call for £.2000 per annum additional. That this sum should not be an expense to the public, he meant to move for the repeal of part of another Act, which grant ed the sum of £.10,000 a-year for the purpose of building manses. That Act had been in force for three years, but it was never found practicable to apply the money thus voted. Therefore this sum of £.30,000, which had been granted for three years, would meet the additional £.2000 a year which it was necessary to call for. The Right Hon. Gentleman concluded by moving a series of resolutions conformably with the above statement, which were agreed to.

21.-Numerous petitions against the Beer Duties' Bill continuing to load the table of the House of Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer this evening stated, that, although he was quite satisfied that the scale of duties was founded on a just principle, still, as it met with much opposition in the House, and in consequence of the feeling against it, he should propose that it be excluded, but as to the other portion of the Bill which concerned the retail of Beer, he should feel it his duty to retain it.

Mr Hume presented the Report of the Committee on the Combination Laws, Artisans, &c. founded on the great body of evidence collected by them. It directs the Chairman, Mr Hume, to move for leave to bring in various Bills, which that Hon. Member gave notice he should do last night.

The House was afterwards occupied with the Committee on the Bill for the importation and exportation of wool. Mr S. Wortley divided the House upon the export clause, which was, however, carried by a majority of 180 to 20; an amendment proposed by Sir E. Knatchbull, reducing the duty from 2d. to ld. per pound, was carried on a division.

25.-Mr Lambton presented a long petition from Mr Buckingham, Editor and Proprietor of the Calcutta Journal. The petition stated, that the Marquis of Hastings had found a censorship in India, and abolished it. He, however, was frequently offended by Mr Buckingham's political criticism in the Calcutta Journal, and as frequently admonished him to be more careful, under pain of being sent out of India. Mr Adam, the tem. porary Governor, soon after the Noble Marquis had left India, executed the deportation of Mr Buckingham. This was the main point of complaint. Mr Wynn, the President of the Board of Control, contented himself with saying, that Mr Buckingham had, in January last, commenced proceedings, in order to bring the subject to a judicial issue, and that therefore Parliament ought not to interfere. Mr Hume gave an account of a proposition made by twenty-three out of twenty-four Directors to Mr Canning, when President of the Board of Control, to rescind the Marquis of Hastings' Act, and restore the censorship, which Mr Canning kept locked up until he left office. He thought it a misfortune for India that Mr Canning did not go to that country as Governor-General. Mr Canning admitted the locking up of the proposal of the Directors, and withholding the assent of the Crown; contrasted the regulations of the Marquisses of Wel

lesley and Hastings, and highly eulogized Lord Amherst. He said he should as soon believe that Lord Amherst had be come a tiger, as that he had turned a tyrant. It would be the most extraordinary physical phenomenon he had ever heard of. Mr Denman maintained that an amiable private man might become an oppressor when he got into power. Mr Adam had been his schoolfellow, and a most gentle and amiable youth he had been, yet the act here charged against him, and made out by his own defence, was utterly unjustifiable. Mr Buckingham had taken his advice professionally. His advice had been, not to attempt judicial proceedings, and Mr Buckingham had now abandoned all idea of bringing the case into a Court of Justice. Mr Astell, Sir C. Forbes, and Sir Francis Burdett, had spoken at length before Mr Canning had risen. Sir Francis recom. mended a distinct inquiry into this subject, besides the more general inquiry into the state of the press in India, which Mr Lambton had given notice of his intention to move early in the next Session. Mr Lambton declined moving for an inquiry. His object was publicity. There was no division, after the discussion, up. on the presentation of Mr Buckingham's petition.

27.-Several petitions were presented; among them was one from a Mr Blount, of Staffordshire, a Roman Catholic gen. tleman, complaining of the circulation, in his neighbourhood, by a Doctor Bell, of a theological work called "The Protestant's Catechism," in which were contained many unjust imputations upon Roman Catholics. The petition added, that this work had at first been drawn up for the Protestant Charter Schools in Ireland, but it was quickly suppressed, on account of its illiberal testimony; and it was now circulated under the sanction of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Mr Peel expressed regret that any thing caculated to wound the feelings of the Catholics had been disseminated; and admitted the correctness of the statement, that "the Protestant's Catechism" had, on account of its offensive tendency, been discontinued in the Irish schools.

Mr Hume then moved for returns of all the persons committed on criminal charges to the different gaols of England and Wales, during the year 1823, with the names of the committing Magistrates. He stated that his object was to warn Magistrates against rash committals; and entered into a long calculation, to show the disparity between the proportion of convictions to committals in different dis

tricts, a disparity which could only be explained by the hypothesis, that, in the places where the proportion of convictions to committals was least, Magistrates were somewhat careless of the grounds upon which they committed. Mr Peel oppos. ed the motion as invidious, and tending to lower the Magistracy in the opinion of the public. He vindicated the general honour and justice of the unpaid Magis. tracy, and made a specific defence for some of the stipendiary Magistrates, whom Mr Hume had attacked on a for.

mer evening. Mr Denman supported Mr Hume's motion. He ridiculed the practice of complimenting the Magis. trates whenever any allusion was made to them.

Sir E. Knatchbull, Mr H. Sum.

ner, Mr Curwen, Lord Stanley, Sir C. Burrell, Mr Dickenson, and Mr Lockhart, opposed the motion. Mr Hume proposed to withdraw it for the present, but Mr Peel refused to listen to any term of compromise; and on a division, the motion was rejected by a majority of 81 to 8.

28. Counsel were heard against the Marine Insurance Bill, and after some discussion, the second reading of the Bill was carried by a majority of 51 to 33.

On the third reading of the Irish Clergy Residence Bill, Mr Hume proposed a clause, disabling every beneficed clergy. man from the recovery, by action or otherwise, of tithe for any year during nine months of which he had not resided upon his benefice. Sir J. Newport seconded the motion. Mr Goulburn opposed it, as imposing a pecuniary penal restriction upon a body of men who were entitled to admiration and support. The motion was rejected without a division, and the Bill passed.

31.-Mr Plunket presented the petition of the Catholic Association, and spoke at some length in its recommendation; to one passage only-a passage re flecting in the grossest manner upon the hierarchy of the Established Church-he objected; but his objection only went to the impolicy of introducing polemics into a political petition.

Mr Brownlow then presented a petition, signed by a number of freemen and freeholders of Dublin, complaining of the seditious and inflammatory conduct of "the Catholic Association" (the body whose petition Mr Plunkett had just presented.) The Honourable Member then entered into a detail of the proceedings by which this body had laboured to exasperate the Catholics of Ireland against their Protestant fellow-subjects, against the Church, the Magistracy, and even the heir to the throne, and alluded somewhat pointedly to a very prevalent opinion