force under General Sucre, has taken Riva Aguero and his principal officers prisoners.

LIMA, Nov. 18.-You would learn by mine of the 21st of October, the dispersion of the Patriot force in the Intermedios. Bolivar, instead of marching against the Spaniards, has been obliged to embark his troops, consisting of Sucre's army from the Intermedios, and those that were in this city, amounting in all to about 6000 men, for Truxillo, to bring Riva Aguero to terms.

Dec. 4-Since writing you, as per duplicate annexed, accounts have arrived of Bolivar having taken Riva Aguero and his principal officers prisoners at Truxillo. This was facilitated, it seems, by his ca valry having revolted. One impediment has thus been removed in the way of concluding the war; and should the Spanish Commissioners (who left Buenos for Cusco,

The

for the purpose of communicating with the Vice-King and the Spanish General, upon the propriety of an accommodation) not succeed in bringing about a peace, Bolivar will at least have a fair chance of trying what the strength of his arms can do against those of the Royalists. forces under his command are, in welltried troops, 15,000. Transports had sailed from Guayaquil to Panama for 3000 Colombian veterans, who were ready to embark at an hour's notice; and their Commander-in-Chief had sent off orders for 3000 more, to be got ready for service in Peru without delay. Gen. Miller is appointed to command the Peruvian army, and supersede Santa Cruz. To carry on the campaign another loan was required from the people and merchants in Lima, which was immediately raised.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-March 9.-Lords Calthorp and Holland complained of the new regulation with respect to the hearing of Appeals: it tended to lower the House in the estimation of the public. Lord Liverpool said, that the regulation alluded to had been adopted on the suggestion of an impartial and intelligent committee, and that it was not intended to be permanent. Some observations were made from the opposition benches, upon the reduced importance of the House as a branch of the legislature; scarcely any bills were now originated there; of the public business, they had too little at the beginning of the Session, and too inuch at the end; so that they could do little more than register or reject, on a very partial examination, the enactments of the Commons. To these remarks no answer was given.

15. The Marquis of Lansdown moved an address to the Throne, recommending the immediate recognition of the South American States, and enforced his motion by arguments drawn from the strength and stability of the States in question, the utter impossibility of their being ever re-conquered by Spain, and the wisdom and justice of Great Britain's forming the most intimate connexion with the free governments of the New World, as a support and counterpoise against the conspiracy of despots on the Continent of Europe. The Earl of Liverpool avowed his cordial concurrence in all the general propositions and principles advanced by the Noble Marquis, but defended the deliberation of Ministers in acknow. ledging the independence of the South

American States, by a reference to the history of Spain and her colonies during the period which had elapsed from the first manifestation of a desire of independence on the part of the latter. Through the early part of this period, he said, we were in the closest alliance with Spain, and could not therefore interfere to aid her revolted colonies; and, subsequently, the weak and distracted state of that kingdom would have rendered any unkind interference on our part in the highest degree dishonourable. He maintained, however, that though under the circumstances the British Government has abstained from a formal recognition, it had, by its injunction against foreign interference, and by the abjuration of such interference which it extorted from France, rendered services to the South Americans worth a thousand recognitions. He concluded by proposing an amendment expressive of the confidence of the House in the measures of Government.-Lords Calthorpe and Roseberry supported the amendment, and Lord Ellenborough opposed it. On a division, the Amendment was carried by a majority of 95 to 24.

30.-Earl Bathurst moved the third reading of the Slave Trade Piracy Bill; and in order that the measure might be carried into a law in time to be conveyed to America before the separation of the Congress, he proposed that the usual form of referring it to a committee might be dispensed with. Earl Grosvenor expressed his concurrence in the wish that this measure should not be unnecessarily retarded; and animadverted with some severity upon the intemperate conduct of

the Colonial legislative assemblies. The Marquis of Lansdown gave his hearty commendation to the measure, and, the committee being negatived, the bill was read a third time, and unanimously passed.

Mr

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-Feb. 20.In a Committee of Supply, Lord Palmerston moved," that 73,341 men, together with 3454 men for the battalions in Ireland, be maintained for the service of the year 1824, exclusive of the forces in India, and the non-commissioned officers." From the details of the estimates, as given by the Secretary at War, it appears that six new regiments are to be added to the force of last year, and 200 men added to each of the veteran battalions, making an augmentation of 4,560 men, officers included. This would give rise to an attendant increase of charge of £.158,000, or rather of £.103,464, for it appears, that since the estimates were laid upon the table of the House, a small blunder, to the amount of nearly £.55,000, has been discovered in them. Lord P. stated, that the sole reason of this augmentation of force was the present condition of the West-India Colonies; and that it was in no respect owing to any hostile appearances on the continent of Europe or elsewhere. The House was assured that the new arrangements had been formed upon a plan of the strictest economy. Hume contended that the proposed vote was in the highest degree extravagant. Sixty-nine thousand men had been voted, last year, expressly on the ground of the disturbed state of Europe; and now, when the King's Speech breathed nothing but congratulation upon the state of the empire, both in her foreign and domestic relations, Parliament was called upon, not to reduce the extraordinary estimate of last Session, but to augment it by an allowance of nearly 5,000 men. On an average of ten years after the American war, our army did not amount to more than 33,000 men; and now, in a period of profound peace, and, according to Ministers, of perfect security, it was to be 73,000. When it was considered, that, in addition to this number, there were 19,000 men in the artillery, veterans, and marines,-77,000 militia enrolled for Great Britain and Ireland,-and a yeomanry amounting to 74,000-he could not but think our army would be somewhat too large for times of such happiness and safety. And, with respect to the principles of economy on which the proposed increase was to be made, why did not the Noble Lord, in place of raising new regiments, with their expensive staffs, add so many men to each company of the existing regiments, so that an augmenta

66

Ge

tion, if necessary at all, might be made at a comparatively trifling expense? He concluded by moving as an amendment to the original motion, that the number of 73,341 men proposed by Lord Palmer. ston should be reduced to 63,000. neral Gascoigne and Mr Wodehouse lamented that Ministers should have reduced the army so much already: in fact, our standing force was too small. At the same time, it was matter of consolation that Ministers were beginning to open their eyes to the evils of small establishments, and, in some measure, to atone for their excessive and unjustifiable parsimony. According to the present system," said the gallant General," it is impossible to relieve our regiments abroad, as they ought to be. Some of them have been absent, on unhealthy stations, for many years. Therefore the numbers should be increased." "No," replies Mr Bernal," your object may be attained in a different way: let Ministers abolish the system of favouritism which is at present manifested towards certain regiments, and let the labours of the service be divided more equally.". The views of Mr Hume were supported by Mr Hobhouse and Mr Bernal, while Mr Calcraft preferred the proposal of Ministers. On a division, Mr Hume's amendment was negatived by a large majority

A long conversation then took place upon the subject of the Navy Estimates, but all the Ministerial proposals were agreed to.

23. The Budget.-The Chancellor of the Exchequer made a full exposition of his financial scheme for the present and two following years. He commenced with a concise statement of the public income and expenditure, and took the opportunity of congratulating the House of Commons upon the unequivocal proofs of progressive prosperity afforded by the flourishing condition of the Customs, and the other chief branches of the revenue. The whole amount of income, including one and a half million received from Austria, was £.57,385,000; the estimated expenditure was £.56,332,924; leaving a surplus of £.1,052,076. He entered at some length into the details of the Excise, in order to reconcile a falling off in the returns of that department with the general improvement; his explanations were candid and satisfactory. Having paid some handsome compliments to the Emperor of Austria for the modicum of his debt which he has condescended to discharge, the Chancellor of the Exchequer proceed. ed to communicate the measures which he should propose for the arrangement and disposition of the Revenue. The

"God send" from Austria, he said, afforded, in the first place, an opportunity for fulfilling the declared intention of Parliament, by a further grant in favour of the interests of religion; he should therefore propose £.500,000 for the erection of churches. He should also propose to grant £.300,000, by two annual instalments, for the repairs of Windsor Castle, and other grants for the King's library, and for the purchase of Mr Angerstein's pictures, which were, he said, valued at £.57,000, and would lay a foundation for a national gallery of paintings worthy of the taste and wealth of England. These were all the contingent expenses, which, he observed, were more than provided for by the contingent revenue.

Taking the present state of the revenue as his term of computation, he calculated that, at the termination of three years, were not the present peace interrupted, we should have, upon the four years ending in 1827, a clear surplus of £4,136,000. The whole of this surplus he would apply to the remission of taxes to the amount of a million annually, according to the following classification :A Reduction of the Rum duty 1s. 14d. per gallon.

£150,000

A Remission of the London Coal duty of 3s. 4d. per chaldron, accompanied by a permission to introduce inland coalnominal loss £.200,000.

Actual lossman ***100,000 A Reduction of the Import and of the Export duties on wool, each to one penny per pound

A Reduction of the Silk duties as follows:
Raw Silk from the East Indies from 4s.
to 3d. per lb.
to 3d. per lb.

-China from 5s. 6d.

-Brazil from 14s. to

7s. 6d. per lb. Manufactured Silk, now prohibited, to be admitted on paying, for plain goods 2s. per lb., for flowered 30s. and for all other 30s. per cent. ad valorem. The whole of Silk duties he would calculate at...

350,000

462,000

£1,062,000

He intended also to repeal the remaining part of the Salt duty. In the earlier part of his exposition, the Chancellor of the Exchequer declared an intention of abolishing the whole system of bounties, beginning with the bounties on the whale and herring fisheries, and the bounties upon coarse linens (under 7d. a yard,) and proceeding by a gradual reduction of the bounties on other linens, at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum. With respect to the liquidation of the 4 per cents. which was the immediate object of his motion, Mr Robinson observed, that the necessity of giving six months notice of payment, which existed in the case of the 4 per cents. rendered it impossible for him to follow exactly the course taken by his predecessor in dealing with the 5 per

cents. with regard to which no notice was required. The necessity of notice compelled him to invite the assent of the Stockholders to a commutation, instead of challenging their dissent. He would therefore, he said, give notice to the holders of 5 per cent. stock, that if they did not accept stock at 34 per cent. (£100 for £.100) they should be paid off in October next; but that such as would accept the proposed commutation should be entitled to a guarantee that their 34 per cent. should not be paid off for five years. The whole amount of 5 per cents. outstanding he rated at 75 millions, one-third of which he proposed to pay off or commute annually, until the whole should be liquidated.

24

Court of Chancery.—Mr Williams, pursuant to notice, brought for ward his motion for an inquiry into abuses existing in the Court of Chancery. The Learned Gentleman began by showing the importance of inquiry-the prece dents afforded for such investigations by the earlier parts of our history-and the difficulties he had encountered în obtaining the requisite information, owing to the fact, that the Solicitors in Chancery were apprehensive of the consequence to them. selves of giving such information. He then proceeded to enumerate several strong cases, illustrative of the delay and expence attendant upon Chancery pro ceedings. The first was a suit which commenced in the year 1784, and on which judgment was finally given in 1823. During the progress of that suit, the solicitor had died, and the unfortunate client had suffered most severely in health and constitution, from the anxiety to which he had been exposed. Another case was heard for the first time in January 1817. Papers, however, were lost; fresh counsel were to be retained, the original advocates having been removed either by death or promotion; judgment was promised time after time, and as often delayed; till, at length, the parties found themselves compelled to compromise the matter, neither venturing to proceed in a course in which each be. lieved himself right." If this," said Mr Williams, "was not a denial of justice, what was it but a failure of justice ? All the expence that had been incurred on both sides was wasted, and the proceedings, so far as they had gone, were rendered of no effect, from the apparent impracticability of bringing them to a conclusion." A third case was that of a gentleman who, in marrying his wife, had married a Chancery suit at the same time; and who was ultimately compelled to relinquish one half of her fortune, for

the sake of preserving the other. A fourth case had originated in the year 1812, and, after having been forty times in the Chancellor's paper of causes appointed for judgment, no judgment had yet been given. A fifth was the case of an unfortunate wind-mill in the neighbourhood of Chichester, which had been thrown into Chancery in the year 1793, and which, in 1818, had perished, like many of the suitors in that Court, through mere decay, though the suit in equity which had been originally built upon it, was, even at the present day, undecided. These five cases the Learned Gentleman adduced as specimens of the delay imputable to Chancery proceedings. As for the ruin ous expense, it might be presumed in each, but the Learned Gentleman actually produced the bill of costs in the last, which was of such a nature as to excite a very strong sensation throughout the House. Indeed the expenses attendant upon equity proceedings were described by Mr W. as existing in every stage of a suitor's progress, particularly in the cost of those documents which are familiarly known to persons in that unfortunate situation by the name of decrees and master's reports. These expenses arise, not only from an oppressive stamp-duty, but from a practice now become nearly inveterate, of inserting in those documents, at unwarrantable length, matters wholly immaterial to their object, and which serve only to increase the burdens of the suitor. Other abuses were pointed out by the Learned Gentleman, arising from the modern interference of the Chancellor in cases of bankruptcy-from the practice of appealing, first from the Vice-Chancellor to the Chancellor, then from the Chancellor in his own Court to the same judge in the House of Lords-and, above all, from the combination of the political with the judicial functions of that high office. Upon the whole, Mr Williams urged the necessity of instant, earnest, and effectual investigation, with the joint view of ascertaining the extent of the evil, and determining the remedy which it would be most prudent to apply. For this purpose, he moved, "That a select committee be appointed for the purpose of inquiring into the expense and delays in the Court of Chancery, and the causes thereof." Mr Peel fully admitted, that the proceedings of that Court form a fair and necessary subject for inquiry. The attention of Government had been for some time directed to the acknowledged evil, and it was their intention, on the suggestion of Lord 'Eldon himself, to appoint a Commission, with a view of investigating the whole matter. "To be

sure," said the Right Honourable Gentleman," that Commission will have no power to inquire into the policy of combining the political and judicial duties of the Chancellor; those duties have been so long united, that they are not now tó be touched lightly or suddenly." He argued, that the delays complained of were not attributable to Lord Eldon, but to the great increase of business in his Court. Since the time of Lord Hardwicke, one department had been augmented in a five-fold proportion, and every department had experienced a very considerable increase. The proposed Com. mission was to consist of judges of the higher practitioners of the law, and of those who had retired from the judicial seat. Mr Abercromby considered the partial acquiescence of Ministers in the project of Mr Williams in no other light than as a capitulation at the opening of the second campaign. Mr Brougham expressed an apprehension that the promised Commission would be a mere mockery. The public would never be satisfied that Lord Eldon himself, as one of the Cabinet, should have a voice in the nomination of these Commissioners; out of doors, it would be universally believed, that one of the main objects of the Commission would be so to shape the inquiry, that the result should in no way affect the Chancellor. Mr Canning stated, that the inquiries of the Commissioners were to be directed to three points:-1. To lessen the time consumed in equity suits. 2. To lessen the expence of the proceedings. 3. To inquire whether any part of the business which is now thrown upon the Chancellor, may be transferred from him to any other, and to what other of ficer. Mr Williams then consented to withdraw his motion.

26.-A conversation took place upon the new ministerial project of taking off the bounties on the exportation of linens. Some members contended that the plan was so framed as to bear very unequally on different parts of the country: to Scotland, for example, and the West of Ireland, it would be a measure of great severity to remove (as Ministers propose) the whole bounty on the exportation of the coarser kinds of linen.

Representation of Edinburgh- A motion was made, pursuant to notice, by Mr Abercromby, for leave to bring in a bill for amending the representation of Edinburgh. He described the present mode of election in the following manner: Edinburgh contains 100,000 inhabitants. Of this number, the elective franchise is vested nominally in 33, but particularly in a controlling majority of 19. The

electors consist of the magistrates and town council; a body which is formed upon a principle of self-election. It is natural to suppose, argued the Hon, and Learned Gentleman, that a body like this will be, in no degree, under the influence of their fellow-citizens-that they will exercise their elective rights solely with a view to their own individual interests, and in no degree for those of the public; and this is not only the deduction of theory, but it is a fact determined by long experience. Whenever we hear of the body who possess the efficient representation of Edinburgh, it is only when they are at variance with the great majority of their fellow-citizens. The Corporation of Edinburgh always look out for a representative who has connections with the dispensers of patronage, and a ready access to the Treasury. Supposing London, or Westminster, or Bristol, to be in the hands of a small compact body of nineteen persons-a body possessing no claim to nomination either from property or intelligence-who would refuse to amend a representation so defective? Mr Steuart Wortley declared, that he could see no shadow of an argument for the proposed change. It behoved the House to take care, lest, by listening to a proposal for a particular reform, they should endanger the whole of the present system of representation. Unless an overt

MARCH.

act of corruption could be established on the part of the Magistrates and Town Council of Edinburgh, there could be no pretext for interference with the present system. Indeed there would be another difficulty in the way of an alteration, even could the principle be conceded, arising from the fact that, at the time of the Union with Scotland, the integrity of the Burghs and Corporations appears to have been guaranteed. It was now pro. posed to destroy rights which the Constitution had imparted. No doubt, there were some modes of returning Members to Parliament which were irregular and anomalous; but, under the present sys tem of representation, the country had risen to a state of unexampled prosperity. Similar assertions and arguments were used by Lord Binning. Lord John Russel ridiculed the notion of the inviolability of a Scotch Burgh. That Scotland could be supposed solemnly to stipulate at the Union, that 19 persons in Edinburgh should return a Representative to the House of Commons, in spite of, and sometimes in contradiction to, the im mense body of inhabitants, was so complete an absurdity, that he could not believe it ever entered any heads, but such as were sometimes to be found in that House. The motion was lost by the small majority of 24. The number being 99 to 75.

1.-HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY. Murder. This day, Robert Macleod, alias Charles M'Ewen, with three other aliases, was arraigned on the charge of murdering a poor woman, who went by the name of Elizabeth Money, or some other name to the prosecutor unknown. The prisoner represented himself, in his declarations, to be a journeyman coppersmith, to have learned his trade in Ireland, and to have since gained his livelihood as a travelling tinker, in which capacity he had for a number of years been in the habit of visiting the principal counties of Scotland, England, and Wales. The deceased was a poor pedlar woman, aged about 30, who travelled the country with a basket of tea-canisters, and small articles of hardware. From the evidence, it appears that she had, for several days prior to her death, travelled in company with the prisoner, and, according to the prisoner's own declarations, had during that time passed for his wife. Several witnesses proved the finding of the body

of the pedlar woman at Firmouth, near the junction of the shires of Forfar and Aberdeen. The report of Drs Garie and Murray proved that the woman died from loss of blood, on account of wounds received on her head. A box of tools was found on the prisoner when he was seized, from which the two surgeons selected a small anvil of a peculiar construction, and the body was disinterred, to compare the instrument with the wounds. These were in the form of curves, and, in the opinion of Dr Garie, had been effected with the edge of the concave side of the anvil, or a similar instrument. There was a wound behind the ear, which corresponded with another before it, and both of which were of the exact dimensions and distance from each other, as the two ends of the concave side of the anvil. Dr Murray had, however, some doubts on the subject, and did not seem to think that the wounds could have been effected with the anvil, unless they had been subsequently jagged or lacerated by the corpse having been dragged on the ground. Three witnesses, who were