persons and things, cannot long remain the dupes of these hypocrites, who, while they have the desire of your welfare in the next world, constantly on their lips, are manifestly intent upon securing to themselves, in this world, ease and plenty at the public expense.

Wм. COBBETT. POSTSCRIPT.-The following is the decree of the king of Spain, re-establishing the inquisition, published in a supplement to the Madrid Gazette, 23d of July, 1814.

"The king our lord has been pleased to enact the following decree. The glorious title of Catholic, by which the kings of Spain are distinguished among the other Christian princes, because they do not tolerate in their kingdom any one who professes another religion than the Catholic Apostolic and Roman, has powerfully excited my heart to employ all the means which God has placed in my hands, in order to make myself worthy of it. The past troubles. and war which afflicted all the provinces of the kingdom during the space of six years; the residence therein, during that time, of foreign troops of different sects, almost all infected with abhorrence and hatred to the Catholic religion; and the disorder that these evils always bring with them, together with the little care which was taken for some time in providing for what concerned the things of religion, gave to the wicked unlimited license to live after their free will, and to introduce in this kingdom, and fix in many persons, pernicious opinions, by the same means with which they had been propagated in other countries. Desiring, therefore, to provide a remedy against so great an evil, and preserve in my dominions the holy religion of Jesus Christ, which my people love, and in which they

have lived and do live happily, both by the duty which the fundamental laws of the kingdom impose on the prince which shall reign over it, and I have to observe and fulfil, as likewise being the most proper means to preserve my subjects from intestine dissentions, and maintain them in peace and tranquillity, I have thought it would be very convenient in the present circumstances that the tribunal of the holy office should return to the exercise of its jurisdiction. Upon which subject wise and virtuous prelates and many corporations and serious persons, both ecclesiastical and secular, have represented to me that it was owing to this tribunal that Spain was not contaminated in the 16th century, with the errors that caused so much affliction in other kingdoms, the nation flourishing at that time in all kinds of literature, in great men, in holiness and virtue. And that one of the principal means employed by the oppressor of Europe, in order to Sow corruption and discord, from which he derived so many advantages, was to destroy it under pretence that the light of the age could not bear its continuance any longer; and which afterwards the self-styled general Cortes with the same pretence, and that of the constitution, which they had tumultuously framed, annulled, to the great sorrow of the nation. Wherefore they have ardently requested me to re-establish that tribunal; and, according to their requests and the wishes of the people, who, from love to the religion of their fathers, have restored, of their own accord, some of the subaltern tribunals to their functions, I have resolved that the council of the inquisition, and the other tribunals of the holy office, should be restored, and continued in the exercise of their jurisdiction, both ecclesiastical, which, at the request of my august predeces

sors, the pontiffs gave to it, and the royal, which the kings granted to it, observing, in the exercise of both, the ordinances by which they were governed in 1808, and the laws and processions, which, to avoid certain abuses, and moderate some privileges, it was mete to take at different times. As besides these provisions it may perhaps be suitable to adopt others; and my intention being to improve this establishment that the greatest utility may arise to my subjects from it, I wish that as soon as the council of the inquisition shall meet, two of its members, with two others of my royal council, both of which I shall nominate, should examine the form and mode of proceeding in the causes appertaining to the holy office, and the method established for the censure and prohibition of books; and if there should be found any thing in it contrary to the good of my subjects, and the upright administration of justice, or that ought to be altered, it shall be proposed to me, that I may determine what shall be proper. This communicated for your information, and of whom it may concern.

"Palace, 21st July, 1814.

"THE KING.

To Don Pedro de Macanaz."

FROM COBBETT'S WEEKLY REGISTER, OF SEPT. 24.

American War.-The following account of a battle, and of a victory, on our part, gained over the Americans, is, perhaps, the most curious of any that ever was published, even in this enlightened Lancaster-school country. Before I insert it, let me observe, that the scene of action lies in the heart of Canada, though, from the accounts that we have had, any one, not armed against the system of deception that prevails here, must have supposed, that there was not a single American remaining in Canada. The victory in question is said to have been gained near the famous falls of Niagara; and we shall now see what sort of victory it was, according to the account of the commander himself, and which account will become a subject of remark, after I have inserted it.

[Here he inserts the British official account of the battle of the 25th July, in which they admit a loss of killed 84— wounded 559-missing 193-prisoners 42. Total 878.]

Was I not right, reader, in calling this a curious account? Did you ever before hear, except from the mouths or pens of some of our own commanders, of a victory of this sort before? It is a fault which I have always to point out in our histories of battles, that we never begin as the historians of all other countries do, by stating the strength of the armies on both sides. We are left here to guess at the force in the field. We are not told what was

even our own strength on the occasion. If we had been furnished with this information, we should have been able to judge pretty correctly of the nature of the combat, and of the merits of the two armies. When we find that there has been a total loss of 878 men, including a vast proportion of officers, we must conclude that the "drubbing" has been on the Americans only; for the army under gen. Drummond did not, in all probability, amount to more than three or four thousand men! There appears to have been only four battalions of regulars engaged, which would hardly surpass 2000 men. What the militia might have amounted to I cannot tell; but as far as I am able to judge from the account, I should suppose that we have lost, on this occasion, one man out of every five; so that this is a sort of victory that is very costly, at any rate. But, except in victories of this kind, whoever heard before of such numbers of missing and prisoners on the part of the victors? When armies are defeated, they have, generally pretty long lists of missing and prisoners; but when they gain a victory, and, of course, remain masters of the spot on which the battle has taken place, how odd it is to hear that they have so many people taken and lost, the latter of whom they can give no account of! And, especially, how odd it is, that so many of these taken and lost persons should be officers, and officers of very high rank too! Never, surely, was there before, a victory attended with circumstances so much resembling the usual circumstances of a defeat. The commander severely wounded; the second in command severely wounded, and made prisoner into the bargain: the aid-de-camp to the commander made prisoner; several colonels and lieutenant colonels wounded; a great number