neighbours will always be liable to share in that dreadful calamity. The isle of Corfu, the centre of the insular administration, was visited by a pestilential infection at the beginning of the present year, which was not extirpated during some months, though its devastations were confined within a narrow limit.

An eloquent oration, highly laudatory of the English, and predicting the happiest results from the connection entered into between the republic and this nation, was pronounced at Corfu on the 23d of April, before a great concourse in the church of the patron saint, by the Baron Theoloky, President of the senate of Corfu. Sir Thomas Maitland, his Britannic Majesty's Commis sioner, is mentioned with singular eulogy for his liberal conduct towards the islanders, in respect to their religion, commerce, and other objects tending to improve their condition. Thomas, who soon after returned from a voyage to the other islands, was received with every demonstration of respect.

Sir

One of the measures which doubtless particularly ingratiated him with the Greek natives, was a proclamation issued by him relative to the rights and privileges of the dominant church. After affirming it to be a fixed maxim of the policy of Great Britain with respect to all foreign countries under her sovereignty or protection, to guarantee their religious establishments, he said, he had observed that the French had forcibly taken away many of the piaces of worship in the city of Corfu, and convert.

ed them to military and other uses. He had further understood, from a report lately made to him by the high police, that some officers of that department had entered a church in pursuit of a person suspected of a heinous offence. In consequence, his Excellency directed, 1st, That every place of public worship shall be evacuated and given up to the head of the religion to which it belonged: 2. That no soldier, officer of police, or other person, shall pursue any suspected offender into the sanctuary or interior of any church, but shall confine himself to placing sentinels round it to prevent his escape, at the same time giving an account of the circumstance to the governor.

Sir Thomas Maitland afterwards issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of the Ionian isles, informing them, that he was going to England for the purpose of receiving instructions respecting the definitive formation of a constitution for the island: desiring that no innovation might be made during his absence; and expressing his hope, that nothing would prevent his calling together the representative body on his return.

Turkey. The Porte, after its long and sanguinary contests with the Servians, concluded a treaty, of which the following were the principal articles :

1st. Servia recognises the Grand Signior as Sovereign.

2d. It retains the liberty of exercising its religion.

3d. Every chief of a family pays annually a ducat, and, besides that, a piastre per head.

4th. No Servian can settle in

Turkey,

Turkey, but he is allowed to be there on commercial business. 5th. The fortress of Belgrade remains occupied by Valipy Pasha.

6th. In time of peace the Grand Signior has the free disposal of a corps of 12,000 Servian troops.

7th. Servia is always to have an accredited agent to the Divan, at Constantinople.

A French ambassador was received with distinction at Constantinople, and the most amicable sentiments were expressed towards Louis XVIII.

In August the Porte exercised its usual mode of calling to account one of the great officers of the Empire. On the 25th, the fleet of the Captain Pashaw or Grand Admiral, 44 sail in number, cast anchor in the road of Smyrna. On the second visit

paid to him on board the fleet by the Governor of the city, Hadgi Mahomet Kialep Oglou, the latter was arrested by his order, decapitated on the same evening, and his head sent by a Tartar to Constantinople. The event threw all the Europeans in Smyrna into great consternation, the governor having protected them by a very rigorous police; but the Captain Pashaw, being informed of their alarm, sent word to the consuls that he would strictly maintain the general tranquillity. Among the crimes imputed to Oglou was his enriching himself by illicit trade; but it is supposed, that the favour shewn by him to the government of Algiers, and the violences which he exercised in dispatching recruits to the Dey, were the real causes of his punishment.

CHAPTER

TH

HE bill for carrying into effect the commercial treaty with Great Britain, which had passed the House of Representatives, was rejected in the Senate on January 19th, by a majority of 21 to 10. The objections made to it had no reference to the merits of the treaty, but took the ground 1st, that it was unnecessary, since the sanction the treaty had received by the President and two thirds of the Senate gave it the full force of a law: 2dly, that to re-enact it by way of bill tended to confer on the House of Representatives a concurrence in the ratification of treaties which the constitution had denied to it, and in effect gave it a power of cancelling arrangements with foreign states constitutionally concluded and ratified.

The treaties of peace with the Indian tribes on the north-west frontier were ratified; and orders were issued, that such subjects of the United States as, without consent, had settled within the Indian territories, should immediately withdraw from them on pain of military compulsion.

In the same month the President communicated to the House

of Representatives three documents, consisting of two letters from the Spanish minister to the American secretary of state, and the secretary's reply. In the first of these, a demand is made of the restitution to Spain of the territory in Florida, west of the Perdido which was taken possession of by the United States in consequence of the Louisiana treaty, intimating, however, tht after it has been given up, the two governments may discuss the right to it. Complaint is also made of the armaments fitted out in Louisiana against the Spanish possessions; and it is required, that the revolutionary flag of South America shall not be admitted into the ports of the United States. The second letter complains, that two bodies of troops of 1000 men each, raised in Kentucky and commanded by American citizens, were to join the expedition fitting out at New Orleans by the traitor Toledo. The American secretary in his answer, speaks of injuries received by them from the Spanish government, which the latter ought to redress rather than make demands upon the American go

vernment;

vernment; proposes to submit the question of territory to nego. ciation; and denies any knowledge of the existence of such troops as those stated, in Kentucky. With respect to the exclusion of the revolutionary flag, he affirms, that the government of the United States has by a general rule aụthorized the admission into its ports of all flags except those of pirates, and therefore is not disposed to prohibit the reception of the flag of the colonies, which have established independent

states.

The Spanish minister had afterwards an interview with the President, the result of which is said to have been so little satisfactory, that he left Washington, declaring a resolution not to

return.

The decline of the American manufactures since the peace had restored the commercial communication with Great Britain, caused memorials to be presented to the House of Representatives from the persons concerned in the cotton fabrics, which were referred to a committee. In February they gave in their report, which was prolix and rhetorical, but contained some facts and observations deserving of notice. The increase of the cotton manufactory of the United States within a few years is very striking. The number of bales manufactured in 1800 is stated at no more than 500: in 1810 it had risen to 10,000; and in 1815 to 90,000. This rapid advance was obviously occasioned by the want of competition; for the goods here fabricated could not contend at an open market in

cheapness with those imported from Europe or India. "The American manufacturers (says the report) expect to meet with all the embarrassments which a jealous and monopolizing policy can suggest-and they have good reason for their apprehensions. The foreign manufacturers and merchants will employ all the powers of ingenuity and art to prevent the American establishments from taking root, and by the allowance of bounties and drawbacks they will be furnished with additional means for carrying on the contest." It is further stated, that the balance due for British manufactures is more than 17 millions of dollars, a sum greater than the value of all the exports from the United States to foreign countries.

In conclusion, the committee propose the following resolution : "That from and after the 30th of June next, in lieu of the duties now authorised by law, there be levied on cotton goods imported into the United States from any foreign country what

ever

~~ per centum valorem, being not less than -- cents per square yard."

In the summer, the American government issued an official notice, that no private bank paper would be taken after Feb. 20th 1817, in payment for duties, taxes, &c. due to government, unless such bank was prepared to pay its notes in cash when required, and unless it took the treasury notes at par. Mr. Dallas, secretary of the treasury, in a circular document of office dated July 22d, addressed the state banks for the purpose of facili

tating the execution of the resolution passed to resume cash payments, the objection to which payments, he says, rest chiefly with the banks of the middle states. A notice is then given by the treasury, for the consideration of the state banks, recommending as a preliminary measure, that all small notes under five dollars should not be taken after October 1st, unless the bank is suing it should pay the amount when required. Several banks

sent deputies to Philadelphia, in order to consult on the present state of the currency; and it is said in the New York paper, that the delegates from the banks of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Virginia, agreed on resuming payments in specie, on July 1st, 1817.

A notice issued from the Treasury department on Sept. 12th, mentions, that the payment of small sums in coin on October 1st, has been generally declined by the state banks; and as an arrangement for supplying the people with a requisite imedium to pay their duties and taxes independently of those banks cannot conveniently be made until the bank of the United States shall be in operation, no further measures will be taken with a view to the collection of the revenue in coin on the above day. In pursuance, however, of a resolution of Congress on April 29th, notice is given, that from the 27th of February 1817, all debts or sums of money becoming due to the United States must be paid in the legal currency, or treasury notes, or notes of the bank of the United States, or in notes of banks paya

ble on demand in the legal currency, and not otherwise.

Some of the earlier American papers speak of bickerings on the Canadian lakes between the vessels of the two powers; which will be very liable to arise in tracts of divided sovereignty, and which have so lately been the theatre of severe contest. There does not, however, appear any present danger of serious differences from this source. At the other extremity of the territory of the United States, where they come in contact by land and sea with the Transatlantic dominion of Spain, the hazard of national quarrel is much more urgent, especially on the undetermined limits of maritime possession ; and an act of hostility in the Gulf of Mexico practised by a Spanish squadron upon an American vessel, excited much indignation in the United States towards the close of the year. But instead of entering upon the dubious details of this and other circumstances related in the public papers, we shall have recourse to the President's speech for a concluding view of the general state of this republic.

On December 3d, the President transmitted a message to both Houses of Congress, of which the following were the most important particulars. It began with adverting to the peculiarity of the seasons, which had threatened some districts with scarcity; but upon the whole, the aggregate resources were said to be more than sufficient for the aggregate wants. It was then regretted that a depression had been experienced by particular branches