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this route.

U. S. Ship Hornet, Holmes'
Hole, March 29, 1813.

selves on the Russians, penetrated and drove them towards Harta. In this engagement we had 5 or 600 wounded, and took 1,000 Sir, I have the honour to inform you prisoners. The enemy lost 2,000 men on of the arrival at this port of the U. S. ship this day. General Bertrand being arriv- Hornet, under my command, from a cruise ed at Rochlitz, took there several convoys of 145 days, and to state to you, that after of sick and wounded, some baggage, and Commodore Bainbridge left the coast of made some prisoners. Upwards of 1,200 Brazils (Jan. 6), I continued off the harcarriages, with wounded, had passed by bour of St. Salvador, blockading the Bonne The King of Prussia and the Citoyenne, until the 24th, when the MonEmperor Alexander had slept at Rochlitz. tague, 74, hove in sight, and chased me -An Adjutant, sub-officer of the 17th into the harbour; but night coming on, I division, and who had been made prisoner wore and stood out to the southward. in the battle of the 2d, made his escape, Knowing that she had left Rio Janeiro for and gave information that the enemy had the express purpose of relieving the Bonne sustained great losses, and was retiring in Citoyenne, and the packet (which I had the utmost disorder; that during the battle also blockaded for 14 days, and obliged her the Russians and Prussians kept their coto send her mail to Rio, in a Portuguese lours in reserve, which was the cause why smack), I judged it most prudent to shift we could not take any of them; that they my cruising ground, and hauled by the have taken 102 prisoners from us, among wind to the westward, with the view of whom are 4 officers; that these prisoners cruising off Pernambuco, and on the 4th of were conducted to the rear, under the guard February captured the English brig Resoluof the detachment which had charge of the tion, of 10 guns, from Rio Janeiro, bound colours; that the Prussians treated their to Maranham, with coffee, &c., and about prisoners very ill; that two prisoners not 23,000 dollars in specie. I took out the being able to walk, through extreme fa- money, and set her on fire. I then ran tigue, they ran them through the body with down the coast for Maranham, and cruised their swords; that the astonishment of the there a short time, from thence run off SuRussians and Prussians at having found rinam. After cruising off that coast from such a numerous army, and so well disci- the 15th until the 22d of February, withplined and supplied with every thing, was out meeting a vessel, I stood for Demarara, extreme; that there existed a misunder- with an intention, should I not be fortunate standing between them, and that they muon that station, to run through the West tually accused each other as being the cause Indies on my way to the United States; of their losses.-General Count Lauriston but on the 24th, in the morning I discohas put himself in march from Wurtzen on vered a brig to the leeward, to which I the high road to Dresden.-The Prince gave chase-run into quarter less four, and of Moskwa has marched towards the Elbe, not having a pilot, was obliged to haul off; to raise the blockade of General Theilman, the fort at the entrance of Demerara river who commands at Torgau, take his position at this time bearing S. W. distant 2 at that point, and raise the blockade of leagues. Previous to giving up the chase, Wittenberg. It appears that this latter I discovered a vessel at anchor, without the place has made a fine defence, and repulsed bar, with English colours flying, apparentseveral attacks which have cost the enemy ly a brig of war. In beating round Carovery dear.- -The Prussians state that the lina Bank, in order to get to her, at halfEmperor Alexander, finding the battle past three P. M., I discovered another sail lost, rode through the Russian lines to ani- on my weather quarter, edging down for mate the soldiers, by exclaiming," Cou-us-at 4. 20. she hoisted English colours, rage! God is with us." They add, that the Prussian General Blucher is wounded, and that there were five other Prussian Generals of Division or Brigade either killed or wounded.

AMERICAN WAR.

Copy of a Letter from Captain Lawrence, of the United States Sloop of War Hornet, to the Secretary of the Navy.

at which time we discovered her to be a large man of war brig; beat to quarters, and cleared ship for action, and kept close by the wind, in order, if possible, to get the weather-gauge. At 5. 10. finding I could weather the enemy, I hoisted American colours and tacked. At 5. 25. in passing each other, exchanged broadsides within half pistol shot. Observing the enemy in the act of wearing, I bore ¡up, and received his starboard broadside, run

him close on board on the starboardquarter, and kept up such a heavy and well-directed fire, that in less than 15 minutes she surrendered (being totally cut to pieces), and hoisted an ensign, union down, from his fore-rigging, as a signal of distress. Shortly after, her mainmast went by the board. Dispatched Lieut. Shobrick on board, who soon returned with her First Lieutenant, who reported her to be His Britannic Majesty's late brig Peacock, commanded by Captain William Peake, who fell in the latter part of the action; that a number of her crew were killed and wounded; and that she was sinking fast, she having then six feet water in her hold. Dispatched the boats immediately for the wounded, and brought both vessels to anchor. Such shot-holes as could be got at were then plugged; guns thrown overboard, and every possible exertion used to keep her afloat, until the prisoners could be removed, by pumping and bailing, but without effect, as she unfortunately sunk in five fathoms and a half water, carrying down 13 of her crew, and three of my brave fellows. Lieutenant Connor and Midshipman Cooper, and the remainder of my men employed in removing the prisoners, with difficulty saved themselves by jumping into a boat that was lying on the booms as she went down. Four men of the 13 mentioned were so fortunate as to gain the foretop, and were afterwards taken off by our boats. Previous to her going down, four of her men took to her stern boat that had been much damaged during the action, who, I sincerely hope, reached the shore. I have not been able to ascertain from her officers the exact number of killed. Captain Peake and four men were found dead on board. The master, one midshipman, carpenter, and captain's clerk, and 29 men wounded, most of them very severely, three of which died of their wounds after being removed, and nine drowned. Our loss was trifling in comparison. John Place, killed; Samuel Coulson and Joseph Dalrymple, slightly wounded; George Coffin and Lewis Todd, severely burnt by the explosion of a cartridge. Todd survived only a few days. Our rigging and sails were much cut. One shot through the fore-mast, and the bowspit slightly injured. Our hull received

little or no damage. At the time I brought the Peacock to action, the Espiegle (the brig mentioned as being at anchor), mounting 16 two-and-thirty pound carronades, and 2 long nines, lay about six miles in-shore of me, and could plainly see the whole of the action. Apprehensive she would beat out to the assistance of her consort, such exertions were used by my officers and crew, and repairing damages, &c.; that by nine o'clock our boats were stowed, a new set of sails bent, and the ship completely ready for action, At two, A. M. got under weigh, and stood by the wind to the northward and westward under easy sail. On mustering next morning, found we had two hundred and seventy-seven souls on board (including the crew of the American brig Hunter, of Portland, taken a few days before by the Peacock).— The Peacock was deservedly styled one of the finest vessels of her class in the British Navy. I should judge her to be about the tonnage of the Hornet. Her beam was greater by five inches, but her extreme length not so great by four feet. She mounted 16 four-and-twenty-pound carronades, 2 long nines, 1 twelve-pound carronade on her top-gallant forecastle, as a shifting gun, and one four or six-pounder, and two swivels mounted aft. I find by her quarter bill that her crew consisted of 134 men, four of whom were absent in a prize. -The cool and determined conduct of my officers and crew during the action, and their almost unexampled exertions afterwards, entitle them to my warmest acknowledgments; and I beg leave most earnestly to recommend them to the notice of Government.

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Published by R. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent-Garden.
LONDON: Printed by J. M'Creery, Black-Horse-Court, Fleet-street.

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COBBETT'S WEEKLY POLITICAL REGISTER.

VOL. XXIII. No. 22.] LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1813.

$769]

[Price 1s.

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been defeated; and they will continue to believe so, though Hamburgh should fall, and though Napoleon should reach Dantzic and even Petersburgh.- -How are they to believe otherwise? The Allies claim, always claim, the victory. Their accounts, in nineteen twentieths of our news-papers, are said to be true; and, though the French bulletins are published, they are always

asserting them to be false.The mass of the people in the country have no channel of information other than these newspapers; and, of course, they must be deceived. The profligate men, who conduct these papers, know well how false their contents are, and they, amongst themselves, laugh heartily at the frauds they are practising; but the people do not know this; they have no idea of the existence of any thing so impudent and base; they believe, and that is all their deceivers care about.

SUMMARY OF POLITICS. NORTHERN WAR.-Below will be found the official dispatch of Lord Cathcart, relating to the Battle of Lutzen. To read this dispatch there is no one who would not believe that the Allies were completely victorious. Here are all the signs of complete victory. We are told, that the French were driven back; we are told that the Al-accompanied with an editorial comment, lies made prisoners and took cannon; and we are distinctly told, that the Allies prepared for attacking the French again in the morning, but that "the enemy did not "wait for it, and, that it was judged expe"dient not to pursue."-English reader; good, thinking, English reader, what do you understand from this! What can you understand from it? What is its clear meaning? Why, it is this: That the French were defeated, and that, being about to be attacked again in the morning, they ran away. -Is not this the only meaning that this dispatch can convey? And yet, thanks to the French Empress's bulletins, we know, that the French, so far from running away, advanced the day after the battle, and that, when the last of those bulletins came away, the Emperor was in possession of Dresden, which is on the banks of the river Elbe, and which is, at least, fifty English miles in advance of the place where the battle was fought.- We know, from the same source, that the Emperor Alexander had passed through Dres-source of the power of our Government to den a little time before the French arrived. -We know, that these are facts; or, that the Emperor Napoleon has promulgated barefaced lies to the people of France, which, if he has done it now, is what, as far as I can remember, he never before did, in any of his bulletins. However, there is not, I believe, one single person, at all conversant in such matters, who believes, that Napoleon is not arrived at Dresden; and, if that be the case, it is undoubtedly true, that he did defeat the Allies, because what can be a proof of defeat, if retreating before the enemy be not such proof.Nevertheless, the people in the country in England will believe that the French have

-It must be confessed, however, that there is a wonderful pre-disposition in the people themselves to be deceived. They have, by means of a base press, been made to believe, that their own personal safety depends upon the destruction of Napoleon and his government; and, that being the case, their ears are open only to what encourages their hope of seeing that destruction take place. Like all the rest of mankind, they are ever ready to believe that which they wish for. This is the great

carry on the war. People grumble at the taxes; they smart under the effects of the war; but, they endure, because they are persuaded, that the war, with all its evils, is preferable to what a peace, leaving Napoleon in power, would produce. -The agricultural part of the kingdom, too, imagine that the war, by wasting the products of the earth and preventing importation of corn, is conducive to the high price of their property. This is a wrong notion, the loss being to them greater than the gain; but, as it is not reasonable to expect, in the mass of these persons, any views beyond those of immediate interest, so it would be unreasonable to expect them to be hostile to

the continuance of the war. A farmer, who, while such vast improvements have taken place in ali other arts and sciences, still continues to cultivate his land in precisely the same way that it was cultivated when people believed that the earth stood still, and that the sun and moon set in the sea; a farmer, who does this, cannot be expected to dive into questions of political economy, and to perceive, that he may thrive by selling his wheat at ten pounds a load, and be ruined by selling it at forty pounds a load.The very confined views of the mass of this description of persons, and which views are utterly incomprehensible to persons unaccustomed to see their effect and to trace them to their source; these views are a main support of the Government in the prosecution of the war. Where will you find a farmer, who wishes to put a stop to the export of oats, or grain of any sort, to Portugal, or Spain, or Sicily, or to any other place? And, what are we to expect from Counties, while these false notions of interest prevail? And prevail they must, from the same cause, that it is almost as hard for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle as to induce a common farmer to attempt any, even the slightest, alteration in the mode of managing his land, though he has what to any other set of men would amount to demonstration of the benefit of such alteration.- -When to this cause of support of the war we add the interests, the real interests, of all the persons in the Army, the Navy, the Barrack Department, the Dock Yards, the Tax Offices; and all their families and friends; when we look at the buildings at Blackwater, at Wycombe, at Woolwich, &c. &c. and consider the thousands of young persons here breeding up for the purposes of

war,

and consider the hopes of their parents and relations, who have in this way placed them; when we add this most powerful cause to the former, are we to wonder, that the war has so many supporters? --The fund-holder, too, though the war daily diminishes the value of his property, has lurking in his mind the notion, that a peace which should ratify the power of Napoleon would destroy that property altogether. Thus he, too, the most timid of all, is for a prosecution of the war. He hopes, and his hopes are fed by the news-papers, that war may, at last, put down Napoleon, and the funds will then rise in value. While he groans under the effects of war, his mind is haunted with the fears of peace, which, some

how or other, he identifies with the triumph of Jacobin principles. It is in vain to tell him, that Napoleon is an Emperor, and no friend of Jacobins. It is in vain to remind him, that he himself thinks, or, at least, says, that the Emperor of France is a military despot. Still he connects the idea of triumphant democracy with the success of Napoleon in war or in peace; and he does this even at the very moment, and in almost the very same breath, that he asserts the people of Germany to be in arms against Napoleon as their oppressor. -It would be a waste of time to attempt to account for the way of thinking of such a person. We know the fact; and the effect is an unqualified support of the war,

-The Aristocracy and the Church support the war upon more rational grounds, it being notorious, that the Napoleon system strikes at the root of both. A man, who is new to power himself, all whose nobles are new, whose system is that of making all honours grow out of personal merit and well-known services, cannot be regarded as other than the enemy of an hereditary nobility. His system strikes t the root of all pretensions founded on family antiquity; and the surprising talents which that system, which was borrowed from the Jacobins, has brought into action, gall the very souls of those, whose rank is owing to their birth.- The Church naturally are hostile to a system, which has taken away its wealth, and made the land free of an encumbrance, which the mass of its occupiers, though through wrong notions, in some respects, endure with impatience. The Church must naturally fear the effects of a free communication with a country wherein tithes have been abolished; for, such communication could not fail to give rise to the publication of statements most injurious in their tendency to the establishment. Therefore, the Church, as we always see, is for a vigorous prosecution "of the war." Another reason why Napoleon is hated by all those, who enjoy the emoluments attached to the education of youth in the public schools and colleges, is, that he has, by his regulations, stripped their trade of its principal support. He has made a knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages unnecessary to the admission to degrees in his learned institutions. He has, in fact, destroyed the last remains of monkery, by showing the world, that men may be truly learned without its aid. For this reason is he held in abhorrence by the Clergy, who think, and very correctly,

that a free communication with France | deceived?—I do not blame the ministers could not long exist without giving a fatal much for not attempting to make peace blow to their pretensions to superiority in during the last winter; because, as I have point of learning, as well as to the whole said before, my opinion is, that there can of those notions from which they derive be no real peace in England, unless the their vast power. These are the causes power of Napoleon be first greatly dimiof the support invariably given to the war, nished, or, unless we have a total change and of the readiness with which every re- of system. But, is it not reasonable to port of success against Napoleon is credited. suppose, that, if he now succeed, no terms Were it not for these causes, which all of peace so good as he last offered, will unite to make people hope for the destruc- ever be obtained by us? -In my opinion, tion of Napoleon, and to make them be- the worst thing that could be done by lieve, like all other people, what they hope, us was done at the time of Napoleon's it would have been quite impossible for the retreat out of Russia. At that time the lanpress to gain belief in the statements guage of our press (which, I dare say, was about insurrections in France, about the faithfully given to the people of France) soldiers marching to the army in chains, was, that the only way to peace was over and now in the statements about Napoleon's the dead body of the Emperor. This was defeat at Lutzen.- Reader (for let me very bad; but, it was infinitely worse, or, hope that I shall find one, at least, to listen at least, more unwise, to say, as the Times to reason); then, I ask you, reader, if newspaper did, that the whole French nayou, upon reflection, do really believe, lion ought to be punished. They were rethat the Allies are likely to be triumphant presented as a wicked, a base, a bloodyin this war? You, as well as I, were minded race; they were, we were told, the assured, that the Allies had wholly de- willing instruments of his cruelty and rastroyed the army of Napoleon; that it was pacity, though, only a few days before, he impossible for him to raise another; that was represented as having dragged them to the people of France were ready to rise his army in chains. As long as it suited against him; that they placarded the walls the purpose of these vile scribes to reprewith accusations of tyranny and cowardice sent the people of France as oppressed by against him; that he dared not quit France him, and as being an object of our pity, again.- -We have found all this to be they so represented them; but, when these false. Every jot of it has been proved to corrupt conductors of newspapers thought be false. We are now quite sure of its it expedient to change their tone, then the falsehood. And, will you still place re- people of France, not only the army, but liance on what is told us through the same the whole nation, became his willing inchannel? -We were assured, in terms struments! -The effect of this is too equally positive, that the people of Ger- obvious to need pointing out. The people many, having felt his grinding tyranny, of France, upon hearing this language, had risen every where against his authority; upon reading these denunciations against that they were embodying themselves into them, must have said: "So, then, while corps and legions and armies for the pur- you thought our chief so strong that nopose of waging war against him; that their "thing but our defection from him could fury against him was absolutely ungovern- " afford you a chance of resistance, you enable; that Frenchmen were every where "deavoured to produce that defection by murdered by them; that his troops would "calling us an oppressed people, and by be driven back, not only to the Rhine, but" saying that we were dragged to his armies within the boundaries of the old territories" in chains; but, the moment you thought, of France.. -Has not all this been now "that he was down, and that his power proved to be false? Has he not already" was destroyed for ever, you changed your traversed great part of Germany? Have" tone with regard to us, declared us to the people, in any one instance, risen against him? Have not the allied armies retreated before him?And will you, can you, sensible reader, confide in any thing; can you put your faith in any assurance, that shall reach you through the same channel? Will you join in calling an enemy of his country the man who shall endeavour to prevent you from being again

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"have been his willing instruments, and "inculcated the justice of making us sharers "in the punishment with which you menac"ed him."--- -If this was not the precise language, it must of necessity have been the feeling, of the French nation, who thus saw their fate inseparable from that of their chief, and who, as it was natural to expect, made immense sacrifices to give him the

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