AMERICAN WAR.

DECLARATION OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT.

WE mentioned, at page 62 of our last Number, that the British Government had issued a state paper containing the grounds upon which it justified a continuance of the war with America. This docu

ment was published in a supplement to the London Gazette of the 9th of January, and begins by stating, that "The earnest endeavours of the Prince Regent to preserve the relations of peace and amity with the United States of America having unfortunately failed, his Royal Highness deems it proper publicly to declare the causes and origin of the war, in which the Government of the United States has compelled Him to engage."

The Declaration then recapitulates the grievances of England against the United States and France, and enters into an exposition of the circumstances which preceded and which have followed the Declaration of War by the United States; the leading principles by which the conduct of Great Britain has been regulated in the transac tions connected with these discussions concludes the Declaration, and which are as follow :

"His Royal Highness can never acknowledge any blockade whatsoever to be illegal, which has been duly notified, and is supported by an adequate force, merely upon the ground of its extent, or because the ports or coasts blockaded are not at the same time invested by land.

"His Royal Highness can never admit that neutral trade with Great Britain can be constituted a public crime, the commission of which can expose the ships of any power whatever to be denationalized.

"His Royal Highness can never admit that Great Britain can be debarred of its right of just and necessary retaliation, thro' the fear of eventually affecting the interest of a neutral.

"His Royal Highness can never admit, that in the exercise of the undoubted and hitherto undisputed right of searching neutral merchant vessels in time of war, the impressment of British seamen, when found Feb. 1813.

therein, can be deemed any violation of a neutral flag. Neither can he admit, that the taking such seamen from on board such vessels can be considered by any Neutral State as a hostile measure, or a justifiable cause of war.

"There is no right more clearly established than the right which a Sovereign has to the allegiance of his subjects, more especially in time of war. Their allegiance is no optional duty, which they can decline and resume at pleasure. It is a call which they are bound to obey: it began with their birth, and can only terminate with their existence.

"If a similarity of language and manners may make the exercise of this right more liable to partial mistakes, and occasional abuse, when practised towards vessels of the United States, the same circumstance makes it also a right, with the exercise of which, in regard to such vessels, it is more difficult to dispense.

"But if, to the practice of the United States to harbour British seamen, be added their assumed right to transfer the allegiance of British subjects, and thus to cancel the jurisdiction of their legitimate Sovereign by acts of naturalization and certificates of citizenship, which they pretend to be as valid out of their own territory as within it, it is obvious that, to abandon this ancient right of Great Britain, and to admit these novel pretensions of the United States, would be to expose to danger the very foundation of our maritime strength.

"Without entering minutely into the other topics which have been brought forward by the Government of the United States, it may be proper to remark, that whatever the Declaration of the United States may have asserted, Great Britain never did demand that they should force British manufactures into France; and she formally declared her willingness entirely to forego, or modify, in concert with the United States, the system, by which a commercial intercourse with the enemy had been allowed under the protection of licenses, provided the United States would act towards her and towards France with real impartiality.

"The Government of America, if the differences between States are not interminable, has as little right to notice the affair

of

of the Chesapeak. The aggression, in this instance, on the part of a British Officer, was acknowledged, his conduct was disapproved, and a reparation was regularly tendered by Mr Foster on the part of his Majesty, and accepted by the Government of the United States.

"It is not less unwarranted in its allusion to the mission of Mr Henry; a mission undertaken without the authority, or even knowledge of his Majesty's Government, and which Mr Foster was authorised formally and officially to disavow.

"The charge of exciting the Indians to offensive measures against the United States, is equally void of foundation. Before the war began, a policy the most opposite had been uniformly pursued, and proof of this was tendered by Mr Foster to the American Government.

"Such are the causes of war which have been put forward by the Government of the United States. But the real origin of the present contest will be found in that spirit which has long unhappily actuated the councils of the United States; their marked partiality in palliating and assisting the aggressive tyranny of France; their systematic endeavours to inflame their people against the defensive measures of Great Britain; their ungenerous conduct towards Spain, the intimate ally of Great Britain; and their unworthy desertion of the cause of other neutral nations. It is thro' the prevalence of such councils that America has been associated in policy with France, and committed in war against Great Britain.

"And under what conduct, on the part of France, has the Government of the United States thus lent itself to the enemy y? The contemptuous violation of the Commercial Treaty of the year 1800 between France and the United States; the treacherous seizure of all American vessels and cargoes in every harbour subject to the controul of the French arms: the tyrannical principles of the Berlin and Milan Decrees, and the confiscations under them; the subsequent condemnations under the Rambouillet Decree, ante-dated or concealed, to render it the more effectual; the French commercial regulations which render the traffic of the United States with France almost illusory; the burning of their merchant ships at sea, long after the alleged repeal of the French Decrees all these acts of violence on the part of France produce from the Government of the United States only such complaints as end in acquiescence and submission, or are accompanied by suggestions for enabling France to give the semblance of a legal form to her usurpations, by converting them into municipal regulations.

"This disposition of the Government of the United States-this complete subserviency to the Ruler of France-this hostile temper towards Great Britain-are evident in almost every page of the official correspondence of the American with the French Go vernment.

"Against this course of conduct, the real cause of the present war, the Prince Regent solemnly protests. Whilst contending against France, in defence not only of the liberties of Great Britain, but of the world, his Royal Highness was entitled to look for a far different result. From their professed principles of freedom and independence, the United States were the last Power, in which Great Britain could have expected to find a willing instrument and abettor of French tyranny.

"Disappointed in this his just expectation, the Prince Regent will still pursue the policy, which the British Government has so long and invariably maintained, in repelling injustice, and in supporting the general rights of nations; and, under the favour of Providence, relying on the justice of his cause, and the tried loyalty and firmness of the British nation, his Royal Highness confidently looks forward to a successful issue to the contest, in which he has thus been compelled most reluctantly to engage. "Westminster, Jan. 9. 1813."

[The first document is from Mr Russel to Mr Munroe, dated the 19th September, informing him that his second proposal for an armistice had been rejected, and that he was about to leave London that evening.]

Postscript.-An interesting interview took place between Lord Castlereagh and myself on the 16th instant, the account of which I must, for want of time, reserve until I have the honour to see you.

MR RUSSEL TO LORD CASTLEREAGH.

"18, Bentinck Street, Sept. 12. "MY LORD,-I hasten, authorised by instructions recently received from the Government

vernment of the United States, and urged by an unfeigned anxiety to arrest the calamities of war, to propose to your Lordship a convention for the suspension of hostili ties, to take effect at such a time as may be mutually agreed upon, and stipulating that each party shall forthwith appoint commissioners, with full powers to form a treaty, which shall provide, by reciprocal arrangements, for the security of their seamen, from being taken or employed in the service of the other power; for the regulation of their commerce, and all other interesting questions now depending between them, and that the armistice shall not cease without such previous notice by one to the other party, as may be agreed upon, and shall not be understood as having any other effect, than merely to suspend military operations by land and by sea.

In proposing to your Lordship those terms for a suspension of hostilities, I am instructed to come to a clear and distinct understanding with his Britannic Majesty's Government, without requiring it to be formal, concerning impressment, comprising in it the discharge of the citizens of the United States already impressed, and concerning future blockades, the revocation of the orders in Council being confirmed.

"Your Lordship is aware that the power of the Government of the United States to prohibit the employment of British seamen must be exercised in the sense and spirit of the Constitution; but there is no reason to doubt but that it will be so exercised effectually and with good faith.

"Such a measure, as it might by suitable regulations and penalties be made completely effectual and satisfactory, would operate almost exclusively in favour of Great Britain; for as few American seamen enter voluntarily into the British service, the reciprocity would be nominal, and it is sincerely believed that it would be more than an equivalent for any advantage she may derive from impressment.

"By the proposition which I have now the honour to make in behalf of my Government, your Lordship will perceive the earnest desire of the President to remove every obstacle to an accommodation, which consists merely of form, and to secure the rights and interests of the United States in ■ manner the most satisfactory and honourable to Great Britain as well as to America.

"The importance of the overture now made, will, I trust, obtain for it the early consideration of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and I shall detain the vessel in which I have taken my passage to the United States, until I have the honour to learn his decision,

"I have the honour to be, my Lord, with high consideration, your Lordship's most obedient servant,

"JONA. RUSSELL." "Lord Viscount Castlereagh, &c. &c. &c." [Two notes follow this letter, one from Lord Castlereagh, desiring to see Mr Russell on the 16th September. Another from Mr Hamilton to Mr Russell, informing him that Lord Castlereagh cannot reply to his letter of the 12th for a few days. To this Mr Russell replies, by acquainting Mr Hamilton, that he should only remain in town till the 20th September, when, unless some satisfactory reason be assigned for a longer delay, he shall leave London.]

LORD CASTLEREAGH TO MR RUSSELL.

"Foreign-Office, Sept. 18.

"SIR,-Under the explanations you have afforded me of the nature of the instructions which you have received from your Government, I have, as on the preceding occasion, been induced to lay your letter of the 12th instant before his Royal Highness the Prince Regent.

"His Royal Highness commands me to express to you his regret that he cannot perceive any substantial difference between the proposition for a suspension of hostilities which you are now directed to make, and that which was contained in your letter of the 24th of August last. The form of the proposed arrangement, it is true, is different; but it only appears to him as executing the same purpose in a more covert, and, therefore, in a more objectionable manner.

"You are now directed to require, as preliminary to a suspension of hostilities, a clear and distinct understanding, without, however, requiring it to be formal, on all the points referred to in your former proposition. It is obvious, that were this proposal acceded to, the discussion on the several points must substantially precede the understanding required.

"This course of proceeding, as bearing on the face of it a character of disguise, is not only felt to be in principle inadmissible, but as unlikely to lead in practice to any advantageous result; as it does not appear, on the important subject of impressment, that you are either authorised to propose any specific plan, with reference to which the suspension of that practice could be made a subject of deliberation, or that you have received any instructions for the gui dance of your conduct on some of the leading principles, which such a discussion must in the first instance involve.

"Under these circumstances the Prince

Regent

Regent sincerely laments, that he does not feel himself entitled to depart from the decision, which I was directed to convey to you in my letter of the 2d inst.

"CASTLEREAGH."

"Jonathen Russell, Esq,"

MR RUSSELL TO LORD CASTLEREAGH.

London, 12th Sept. 1812.

"MY LORD,-I had the honour to receive, last evening, your Lordship's note of yesterday and have learnt with great regret and disappointment, that his Royal Highness the Prince Regent has again rejected the just and moderate propositions for a suspension of hostilities, which I have been instructed to present on the part of my Government. After the verbal explanations which I had the honour to afford your Lordship on the 10th inst. both as to the object and sufficiency of my instructions, 1 did not expect to hear repeated any objections on these points. For itself, the American Government has nothing to disguise; and by varying the proposition as to the manner of coming to a preliminary understanding, it merely intended to leave to the British Government that which might be most congenial to its feelings. The propositions presented by me, however, on the 24th of August and 12th inst. are distinguishable by a diversity in the substance as well as in the mode of the object which they embraced; as by the former the discontinuance of the practice of impressment was to be immediate, and to precede prohibitory law of the United States relative to the employment of British seamen, when by the latter both these measures are deferred to take effect simultaneously hereafter.

"Having made a precise tender of such law, and exhibited the instructions which warranted it to your Lordship, I have learnt with surprise that it does not appear to your Lordship that I am authorised to propose any specific plan on the subject of impressment. I still hope that the overtures made by me may again be taken into consideration by his Britannic Majesty's Government, and as I leave town this afternoon for the United States, that it will authorise some agent to proceed thither, and adopt them as a basis for reconciliation between the two countries; an event so devoutedly to be wished.

"I have the honour to be, my Lord, your obedient humble servant,

"JONA. RUSSELL."

[The Correspondence ends with a note from Mr Russel, to Mr Munroe, dated 7th November, informing him of his arrival at

New York, and of his being of opinion that a vigorous prosecution of the war, appears to be the only honourable alternative left.]

LORD CASTLEREAGH AND MR RUSSELL.

Boston, Nov. 21.

The National Intelligencer contains Mr Russell's account of a conversation with Lord Castlereagh on the 15th of September. The British Minister doubted the sufficiency of the powers of Mr R.-considered any arrangement as a substitute for the existing mode of taking Eng ish seamen as almost hopeless-remarked on the great sensibility of the people of England on the subject, and observed, that great hopes were entertained of the favourable effect at Washington of the intelligence of the revocation of the orders in Council. Mr Russell flattered himself that an arrangement was practicable, and contended for the sufficiency of his authority.-Mr Russell then proceeds :

"I finally offered, in order to answer at once all the observations and inquiries of Lord Castlereagh, that the proposed understanding should be expressed in the most general terms-that the laws, to take effect on the discontinuance of the practice of impressment, should prohibit the employment of the native subjects or citizens of the one State, excepting such only as had already' been naturalized on board the private and public ships of the other-thus removing any objection that might have been raised with regard to the future effect of naturalization, or the formal renunciation of any pretended right. With regard to blockades, I proposed to follow the same course, and only to agree that none should be instituted by either party which were not conformable to the acknowledged laws of nations-leaving the definition of such blockades, and all other details, to be settled by the Commissioner in the definitive treaty.

"I was disappointed and grieved to find that these propositions, moderate and liberal as they were, should be treated in a manner which forbade me to expect their acceptance. I was even asked by Mr Hamilton, if the United States would deliver up the native British scamen who might be naturalized in America? Although shocked at this demand, I mildly replied that such a procedure would be disgraceful to America, without being useful to Great Britainthat the habits of the seamen were so peculiarly unaccommodating, that no one would go through the long probation re quired by law, to become the citizen of a country where he could not pursue his professional occupations and that not to em

ploy

ploy him in this way, would be virtually to surrender him to Great Britain.

"I was disposed to believe, however, that a reciprocal arrangement might be made for giving up deserters from public vessels.

Here, perhaps, I owe an apology to ry Government, for having, without its precise commands, hazarded the overture above-mentioned, relative to British subjects who may hereafter become citizens of the United States. In taking this step, however, I persuaded myself that I did not trespass against the spirit of the instructions which I had received: and had the proposition been accepted, I should not have been without all hope that it would have been approved by the President, as its prospective operation would have prevented injustice, and its reciprocity disgrace."

THE NORTHERN WAR.

RUSSIAN ACCOUNTS.

(Continued from page 67.)
[From the London Gazette.]

EXTRACTS OF DISPATCHES FROM LORD
CATCHCART.

St Petersburgh, Dee. 12. 1812. MY LORD-I now avail myself of a Swedish courier to forward translations of two bulletins, viz. one from Major-Gen. Kotousoff, Aide-de-Camp-General, of Dec. 2, and one from General Count Wittgenstein, of the 4th December.

Your Lordship will perceive by their reports, that the passage of the Beresina has cost the French upwards of 20,000 men, in killed, wounded, drowned, and made prisoners, and that the remains of Bonaparte's army, with which he is still present, are endeavouring to proceed towards Veleska, while Gen. Wittgenstein's corps is moving upon its right, with every expectation of getting before it; the Moldavian army, upon the left, is moving upon Molodetehno, and the main army under Count Tormazoff is moving in a parallel direction to that of the Moldavian army, at no great distance from it, while Count Platoff, with a strong detachment of Cossacks, light cavalry, and light artillery, with the infantry, under General Ermaloff, is understood to be in front of the French, in the very line they are pursuing.

The Russian patriotic levies continue to Come forward with unabated zeal, and a new army of 50,000 infantry, and 20,000 cavalry, from some of the Southern Provinces, is reported ready for service and assembled.

The French march by night, and halt during the day, in hollow squares; surrounded as they are by Cossacks, their supplies must be very precarious, and numbers are said to be found dead of cold and famine on every ground their army quits. The Field Marshal is with the Moldavian army.

Marshal Macdonald is reported, by the commandant at Riga, to occupy an arc, cutting off the angle formed by the Dwina with the Baltic; his right at Fredericksham, his left at Tukumą, and his centre at Eskay. He menaces Riga, but probably with intention to prevent interruption to the supplies he wishes to send to meet the French army. I have the honour to be, &c. CATHCART.

St Petersburgh, Dec. 17, 1812. MY LORD,-In my dispatch of the 12th instant, your Lordship would find bulletins, containing reports of Major-Gen. Kutusoff, of the 2d Dec. and of Count Wittgenstein on the 4th Dec. These reports described Buonaparte, with the remains of his army, as, marching from Zembine upon Wilna, through Veleika; the Admiral, and General Count Wittgenstein moving upon the same point of Wilna, the former through Molodetchno, the latter by Narotch and Nementchina.

In this part of the pursuit, the Russian corps have stuck very close to the enemy; but the light troops which got before were not of sufficient force to stop him.

His course was altered in consequence of some of the flank attacks, and he arrived at Molodetchno instead of Veleika; and having gained some time by destroying the bridge, he continued his march through Smorgono to Wilna, which place he appears to have reached on Dec. 10.

The advanced guards of the several Russian columns arrived in the immediate neighbourhood of Wilna, nearly at the same time, and the retiring army was compelled to continue its retreat from that town, almost without a halt.

It is said, that an Aide-de-Camp of Marshal Davoust was sent to order the rearguard to defend itself before Wilna as long as possible; but instead of the French rearguard, this officer found the Russian advanced guard, which made him prisoner, having already demolished, or sent to the rear, the whole of the French rear guard.

Thanksgiving and Te Deum will form part of the church service to-morrow, (being the festival of Saint Nicholas) for the defeat of the French army, the capture of 150 pieces of ordnance, and several general