talions, colonel McKerras, was shot while he was haranguing his men on the parade; the commander of the fort, colonel Fancourt, was kill ed as he was proceeding to the main guard; lieutenant Ely, of the 69th, was stabbed, with his infant son in his arms, in the presence of his wife. About seven o'clock two officers and a serjeant, who were quartered near the barracks, were enabled to introduce themselves among the soldiers there, and took the command of the four companies which remained. After a few rapid arrangements they sallied out and secured the six-pounder. At the moment they reached the gateway, which they did with extreme difficulty, col. Gillespie, with a troop of the 19th, from Arcot, which he had left at six o'clock, also arrived. He was drawn up by a rope, and, having taken the command, was about to charge the insurgents with the bayonet, when the galloper guns of the 19th arrived; and the gates being blown open, the 19th were admitted, and very soon overwhelmed the sepoys, who were ineffectually exhorted by their officers to make a decisive stand. About six hundred were cut down; two hundred, who had taken shelter, were dragged from their lurkingplaces, and shot; five hundred escaped, it was imagined, through the sally port, but many of these were afterwards taken. The second battalion of the 23d had been raised to the southward, and consisted chiefly of Collories. It was imagined that their officers had received bribes from one of the princes for the delivery of the fort, (after the possession of which, it was stated, they were to have been joined by a vast force from Mysore within a few days,) and found in these troops a perfect disposition

to co-operation in the project. Soon after the firing commenced, Tippoo's standard was hoisted on the palace, and under the first impulse of resentment, colonel Gillespie was on the point of ordering the palace; to be given up to the plunder of the soldiery: but this was prevented by the intercession of lieutenant-colonel Marriot, who stated his perfect conviction of the innocence of the princes. It appeared that a code of regulations had been recently introduced into the army, which had excited considerable disgust: a new turban, in particular, had been ordered to be worn by the sepoys, similar to a drummer's cap: they were also commanded to shave their upper lip, and the peculiar marks of their cast fixed on their forehead were to be removed. A few weeks beforethis event, one corps had been removed to Madras, in consequence of a refusal to adopt the turban, which, with other circumstances of dress that had excited alienation, were speedily ordered by lord William Bentinck to be no longer enforced. Commissioners were immediately appointed to investigate the causes of this dreadful catastrophe, and to bring to punishment all those concerned in it, who had not fallen victims to their treachery. Besides those already mentioned were killed, major Armstrong, captain Milne, lieutenants Winchoppe, Jolly, O'Reilly, Fitchbenner, Popham, Smith paymaster, and Mann commissary of stores: besides the rank and file killed, eighty-eight were wounded. The report of the commissioners, when it appears, will probably be found a document of considerable interest, and, it is to be hoped, will effectually prevent those interferences with the religious prejudices of the na

tives, which, if we can admit them to have been exercised in the present instance, may easily account for this deplorable calamity, but ought to bring down heavy punishment on those in authority who could wantonly furnish such fuel for mutinous disaffection and fanatic. zeal.

The laurels of victory which the marquis Wellesley had collected during his Indian administration were no security against his being charged with delinquency of a very serious and important nature, by Mr. Paull, who, on this subject, manifested a spirit and perseverance of no common character. He had to contend with obloquy in all its various forms, for discharging what he conceived a most solemn duty; and, without pretending to decide on the merits of the case he undertook, it is impossible not to admire the firmness which he manifested in it. At the same time it might be lamented that the importance of the undertaking did not lead him to see the expediency of procuring the cordial and assiduous co-operation of other members, instead of relying exclusively on his own strength. One charge laid on the table of the house against the noble marquis, imputed to him the wanton and profuse expenditure of the money of the company for his own individual luxury and vanity, and another related to his conduct to the na

bub of Oude. Mr. Paull charged the noble marquis with exacting from this prince, without any provocation, in opposition to express orders from the company at home, and existing treaties with the nabob, the most exorbitant sums of money; with demanding from him the surrender of territories guarantied by positive compact; with

urging the disbanding of his armies; and with such treatment of disrespect and severity, such degridation in the eyes of his subjects, whom the marquis is stated perpetually to have inflamed to disaffection and rebellion, as were calculated and intended to produce his resignation: in addition to which was also made the solemn accusation of murder. Whether the charges were deemed by the majority of the house but ill supported; or whether the late governor's connection with some of the existing ministry gave him any advantage on this occa sion, more natural than just, no resolution of impeachment was adopted by the house; which seemed to feel but little interest on the subject, and contented itself with the examination, at the bar, of a few witnesses. The testimony of these persons, who, it should be observed, possessed great respectability and information, went to prove, that the late governor had possessed the complete confidence of the marquis Cornwallis, and of lord Teignmouth, and, in every after of consequence, of his own council, and had so conciliated the natives of Oude, that, after the beneficial treatment they had experienced from him, they could never hear of his being accus d, on his return to England, of oppression, rajine, & d murder, but with the most perfect surprise and indignation. trial by impeachment, in cases of Indian peculation and oppression, was, on the subject of the in inquis's case, arraigned by Mr. Fox, as incapable of answering the cuds of justice, and what he should oppose decidedly, from the experience he hadhad of its dilatory and inefficient operation; notwithstanding which, he admitted that the power of inpeachment was among the mes die stinguished

Y 2

e

tinguished rights and privileges of the house, not inferior, indeed, to its power of legislation, and the exercise of it, in many cases, a matter of extreme facility as well as effect. The mode suggested by Mr. Banks of a trial before a tribunal, the arrangements of which are expressly stated by an act of parliament, and exclusively applied to the cognisance of offences in India, a tribunal consisting of a certain number of peers and commons, with one judge from each of the courts of law, seemed rather to be inclined to by Mr. Fox, but was opposed by others, equally tedious and unsatisfactory with the proceedings by impeachment ;-the only case in which this occasional court had been ever engaged, having occupied no less time than the case of Mr. Hastings. It must be acknowledged, that it would appear somewhat unfortunate, if of fences against law were to escape punishment from the difficulty attending any particular mode of trial; and surely, if no effectual provision be yet established, by which the delinquencies of provincial administration may become the subject of legal discussion and decision, with all the speed consistent with the gravity and peculiar circumstances of their nature, one of the most urgent objects of parliamentary attention must be the supply of this deficiency. In any thing that has been stated on this subject, it is very far from being intended to anticipate any judicial result on the conduct of the noble marquis, whose military government has been splendid, whose civil administration has, in various instances, shown a combination of the noblest philosophy and humanity, and who, if clear of the offences so gravely

imputed to him by a British sena tor, must wish for nothing more ardently than an opportunity to vindicate his innocence.

The circumstances of the East India company, it will be seen, by a reference to the debates of the year, have excited considerable attention, although by no means that profound and continued discussion, leading to decisive measures of reform, which they would naturally suggest. The situation of the company, for a succession of years, has been stated by ministers to be, in relation to its fiances, in the highest degree flourishing: yet, amidst these prosperous and improving circumstances, its debt has been accumulated to the immense sum of thirty millions sterling; and only m one year, since its stipulation to pay 500 thousand pounds per ammum, in consideration of its renewed charter, has that payment been actually made. It was therefore truly observed by Mr. Fox, that since the grant of that renewal the company's affairs must have been managed with the most gross and criminal neglect, or that parliament were deluded at the time of the grant, by an impudent and fallacious statement. The deterioration of the company's affairs was clearly admitted by lord Morpeth,in his speech on the East India budget, from the accounts within the three last years, to which a statement could be made up; and it is ascri bed to those continued wars in which the company has been involved, and which, without question, must have contributed to the production of it. The necessity of these wars themselves, however, at least in part, is still a question open to discussion; and even admitting their urgency, the dilapida

ted

ted state of the company's financial affairs will be thought scarcely attributable to their operation alone. The state of the company in this respect, is considered by the best judges on the subject to call loudly for immediate and minute investigation; and one of the most competent of all persons to give an opinion on so importanta topic, to which his attention has been devoted during a long and active life, the greater part of it spent in the company's service in India, has explicitly declared in parliament, that the best mode of relieving the difficulties of the proprietors, and of establishing the security of the empire, is to blend their debt with that of the nation, to detach the dominion from the trade, to limit the company to those mercantile concerns to which, and to which alone, it can be sup. posed effectually competent, while the administration of India should devolve wholly and completely on the sovereignty of the British empire. This plan of Mr. Francis, advanced by him in the present year in parliament, is by no means new. The obstacles to its execution, at first appearing to many in surmountable, would gradually and every day diminish. The time, it is hoped, may be considered as rapidly approaching, in which the sovereignty and the debt will both be transferred to the government of this country; after which that unnatural monopoly, by which Britons are permitted to exclude their fellow-subjects from a trade to which they admit the inhabitants of other countries without hesitation, cannot long survive, and English capital and enterprise will possess the fair chance which alone seeins necessary to ensure them a superiority over every competitor.

Towards the close of December,

war was proclaimed at Constantine. ple against Russia. The troops to be employed in this contest, which she had for some time expected, as well as provoked, were committed to the command of general Michelson, who soon surrounded Choczim and Bender. The division of the forces of Russia, occasioned by her being involved in this additional war to what she previ ously carried on with France and Prussia, was an evidence, if not of good policy, of good fortune, on the side of Bonaparte. Turkey, on the other hand, presenting the spectacle of a government cajoled by its pretended friends and invaded by its enemies, with hesitation in its councils and rebellion in its pro vinces, possessed no security for her existence but what flowed from the difficulty of dividing her as spoil, and increased the ardour of those hopes which have so long been cherished by the friends of humanity, of the speedy arrival of the period, when this abject and polluted despotism shall be swept from the surface of the European continent, and Greece shall again behold her sciences and arts, her patriots and sages, in the room of bashaws, bigots, and the Koran.

Spain exhibited another impressive, and indeed disgusting, instance of national degradation. Her navy had been sacrificed to the temerity of her impetuous and domineering ally; her foreign provinces were about to be rescued from her grasp by daring adventurers, or the regular forces of her enemies; and although she levied troops for their recovery or assistance, she was destitute of the means of transferring these troops to the scene of action. Her North American settlements were bestowed on France in grati tude for its protecting cares, and

sold

sold by that power to fill its exchequer, by which it might extend its usurpation. The intimate relation of her sovereign was dethroned by her professing friend, with no decorous reserve, no palliated and remorseful hostility, but with circumstances of the most aggravating in sult. The possessor, and the heir apparent of the Spanish throne were under the control of a minister, himself dependent for support, not on her own degraded nobility, but on a foreign power, to whose vast empire this once proud and independent nation was bending in tributary subjection. The commerce of Spain was approaching rapidly to annihilation; her revenues were failing; she flourish. ed only in bigotry, poverty, and humiliation. Her reduced and miserable population, partly and principally, sought redress for their affairs in resorting to beads and processions, to priests and images; while the remaining few saw no resource but in that effectual reform of public establishments, which it seemed impossible to accomplish without incurring the horrors of the most sanguine revolution.

Portugal was not a little alarmed at the commencement of the year by the idea of a Spanish invasion, which has so frequently aided the completion of Bonaparte's requisitions on that country, and, through her, answered another important object of his policy-the embarrassment of the credit and commerce of Great Britain. In the course of the year a British squadron, under lord St. Vincent, entered the Tagus, accompanied with circumstances of mystery, which excited the attention and suspicion of the Portuguese, and which do not appear to have been completely explained. It was concluded, that, in

the event of the menaced invasion, which Portugal could not have effectually resisted, if undertaken on a large scale, it was the wish of the court to remove to its South Ame rican possessions, and that the detachment of the British navy was appointed to be in readiness for the accommodation of this desire. Without attempting to explain the wishes and mysteries of cabinets, it may be pronounced, that such a project would not have disgraced the court of Portugal. The extensive territory of the Brasils, abounding in all the means of subsistence, luxury, and power, and situated in one of the finest climates of the globe, supplies the basis of an empire, which, under the legislation of wisdom, would rapidly attain all the characteristics of national greatness. Institutions scarcely susceptible of control in the old country, which had formed its manners and prejudices, and, notwithstanding their deleterious influence, were supported by what they had thus produced, might be easily prevented in the new; and the prosperity, as well as magnitude, of the South American kingdom would soon leave but little room to regret the transfer of the seat of power.

Switzerland was materially affected by the recent treaty of Presburg, which, by distributing the Tyrol between powers in intimate alliance with France, or rather in complete subjection to her, invested the Cantons with a chain of fortresses, which rendered their independence, if possible, less real than before. The exclusion of English goods from this territory, and particularly from Basil, the grand depot, through which they had found their way, by the agents of France, into that country, was urged, by the mandate of Bona