of war: that the militia who had already withdrawn to their habitations should be protected in person and property, but that those who were still in arms should be treated as prisoners of war, and sent away that no individual should be molested by the British government on account of his political conduct to the present moment: and that the laws, and private property on shore, should be respected. All the forts, redoubts, &c. in the island, with magazines, arms, and every thing military, were to be delivered to the British troops; and all persons under arms were to surrender them.

By later intelligence from the ⚫ West Indies it appeared that Guadaloupe, though completely in the martial occupation of Great Britain, was not reduced to a state of tranquillity. A number of French soldiers who had deserted previously to the surrender of the island, took refuge in the woods, whence they carried on a desultory and ferocious war against the posts of the English, several of whom were killed in their desperate sallies. Many of the inhabitants of Point-a-Petre, who formerly pursued the trade of privateering, were suspected of holding correspondence with them, and supplying them with provisions and ammunition. Measures had however been taken to prevent this intercourse, and a force had been sent against the insurgents. A letter from Basseterre, dated Nov. 2d, asserts that about 300 of Buonaparte's adherents in the island had been apprehended, and that a ship load had been sent to Europe, many still remaining under

strong guard in the fort. An exact police was maintained in the capital, by which order was perfectly preserved, though it was evident that the French inhabitants looked upon their conquerors with great aversion.

Some important proceedings in the House of Assembly of Jamaica have been reported as taking place in the month of October. They originated from the receipt in that island of the copy of the bill relative to the registry and regulation of slaves, introduced by Mr. Wilberforce to the House of Commons in the last session. A committee had been appointed by the House of Assembly to take into consideration the bill in question, which in their report gave an opinion that a more solemn investigation, by a committee vested with fuller powers, ought to be made into the allegations and facts set forth in the bill. They also recommended that the House should without delay take into consideration the constitutional question arising out of the said bill, concerning the legislative authority within the island. With relation to this point, they drew up and offered certain resolutions, declaratory of what they considered as the constitutional and unalienable rights of the inhabitants of Jamaica. The first of these declares the right of the colonists of Jamaica to enjoy, so long as they have no representatives in the British parliament, a distinct and entire civil government. The subsequent resolutions are supplemental to the claim advanced in the first. The fifth, however, acknowledges the authority of parliament to make laws for the ge

neral

neral benefit of the empire; but the sixth alleges that the parliament has "in fact, but not of right," made laws depriving the colonists of their legal privileges in cases mentioned; and the eighth is expressly directed against the provisons of Mr. Wilberforce's bill.

On October 31st the House, having resolved itself into a committee of the whole House, took into consideration the above report and resolutions, which were agreed to nem, con.; and copies of

the same were ordered to be sent to the agent, with directions that they should be laid before the ministers of the Prince Regent, expressing at the same time a confident expectation that the discussions on Mr. Wilberforce's bill would be delayed, until an opportunity was obtained of sending over evidence that there are no grounds for the measures proposed in it, as far as they relate to Jamaica.

CHAPTER

TH

HE vast extension of the British Company's possessions in the East Indies having proportionally enlarged the sphere of their contact with the neighbouring powers, always either jealous of their sway, or envious of their prosperity, it cannot be expected that they should long remain in the enjoyment of perfect peace, even supposing no ambitious views on the part of their own servants; and the present year has afforded some interesting intelligence of the military kind from that quarter of the world.

A dispatch from the Adjutantgeneral of the Company's forces in Bengal, dated Lucknow, Nov. 9th, 1814, communicated an account of the unfortunate result of an attack upon the fort of Kalunga, in the Dhoon district, made by Major-gen. Gillespie, on Oct. 31st. After various unsuccessful attacks on the fort, attended with a great loss of officers and men, the General himself gallantly cheering on his men within thirty yards of the gateway, received a mortal wound, and the attempt was given up. A battering train having been brought from Delhi, operations against Kalunga were resumed on November 25th, and a practicable breach being re

ported on the 27th, an assault was directed by Colonel Mawby. The storming party, however, met with insuperable obstacles; and after the exposure during two hours to a galling fire, they were ordered to abandon the attack.Their efforts, though unsuccessful at the time, produced such an effect on the enemy, that the fort was evacuated by its Nepaulese garrison on the 30th, and left to the occupation of the British. In the same month some small forts garrisoned from Gorkah in Nepaul were taken; and a Nepaulese Subah was surprized in his posi、 tion, and slain.

The British government in India was now engaged in a direct war with the state of Nepaul; and the Vice-president at Fort William thought it proper to publish, on January 6th, a declaration of the causes which had produced hostilities between them. It begins with observing, that the course of the Gorkah (Nepaulese) conquests having approximated their frontier to that of the company, of its ally the Nawaub Vizier, and of the protected Sikh chieftains, through a great extent of country, it was scarcely to be expected that differences would not arise among the inhabitants and publie

officers

officers of the contiguous districts. A minute relation is then given of instances in which these have taken place, in all of which the Nepaulese government is charged with a premeditated system of encroachment. It is affirmed that the Rajah of Nepaul made a proposition for commissioners on each side to meet on the spot, and decide the respective claims of the parties, which was accepted, and Major Bradshaw met two commissioners from Nepaul. Their proceedings, after much procrastination, were brought to a close, and irrefragable proof was adduced of the British right to the whole of what were termed the Low Lands. The Rajah, how ever, refused to give them up; and further application proving ineffectual, the British government determined to take up arms, with the resolution not to lay them down, till it had obtained full justice.

The chief command of the forces against Nepaul having been entrusted to Major-gen. Sir David Ochterlony, he began his operations by an attempt to take possession of three points in front of his right, by which the supplies of the enemy from the interior would be cut off. For this purpose Lieutenant-col. Thompson was sent at night, on December 27th, with a detachment to dislodge them from the stockades which they had erected on two of these points. The difficulties of the road having prevented him from reaching the first point till late on the following morning, he found the stockade too strong to be carried by assault, and brought up his artillery against it. Whilst he was

engaged in preparing a battery, he was attacked by the enemy in great numbers, who attempted to surround him. The warm reception they met with obliged them to retire with loss; and having evacuated one stockade, they took possession of a post at a small distance with all their force.

About the close of 1814 and the beginning of 1815, an advance of the divisions, commanded by Major-generals Wood and Morley, was successfully resisted by the enemy, who, with much superior numbers, obliged the assailants to retreat. An attack also, upon a stockaded fort, made by the division under Major-gen. Martindell, was repulsed with considerable loss. The particulars of these petty actions in this remote and little known country, as given in the dispatches, are totally unintelligible for want of maps and plans.

It appears that the army of Nepaul in the early months of the year occupied a fortified position on the Malown range of mountains, from which Gen. Ochterloney expelled them by a series of operations on the 14th and 15th of April, terminating in the establishment of the British troops on that range. On the 16th a desperate attempt was made by the Gorkah commander in person to storm the position of the reserve under Lieut.-col. Thompson, which terminated in the total defeat of the enemy with severe loss. In the same month Colonel Nicholls was employed in another part of the Nepaul frontier, where he carried, by assault, the fortified heights and town of Almora, repulsed the enemy in a night at

tack

tack on the British positions, and on the 27th concluded a convention with the principal Gorkah chiefs of the province of Kemaoon. The result of these combined operations was the surrender of the Gorkah Commander-in-chief, Ummer Sing Thappa, the evacuation of the fortresses of Malown and Iyetuck, and the cession of, the whole country from Kemaoon to the Sutlege; for which success, the Governor-general directed that a royal salute should be fired at all the principal stations of the army. It seems evident, however, from the details which have been published, that the contest has been with a bold and adventurous foe, with whom the establishment of a lasting pacification is perhaps more to be desired than expected.

At the opposite extremity of the Indian peninsula, the island also of Ceylon afforded employment in this year for the British arms. On the transfer of that island from Holland to Great Britain, the latter succeeded to a singularly circumstanced possession, the ring of sea-coast being under European occupation or authority, whilst the central parts were held by the native Sovereign of Candy. Such a divided dominion could not fail of being the cause of frequent difference; and in 1803 an expedition was undertaken by the British government against the Candian king, which, after the temporary conquest of the capital, fatally terminated in the massacre or imprisonment of the whole British detachment. The Candian troops afterwards advanced to the British frontier, and hostilities were for some time carried on;

till at length a suspension of warfare, rather than a renewal of amicable intercourse, succeeded, the Candian monarch still refusing to release Major Davie and the officers captured with him, and treating them with the greatest barbarity. His tyrannical government becoming insupportable to his subjects, many of them removed from the interior to the British settlements, and some of the chiefs applied for military aid to protect them against oppression, which, however, our government declined granting. The atrocious act perpetrated in October, 1814, of seizing and cruelly mutilating ten natives of the British province of Columbo who were pursuing their traffic in the Candian territory, joined with à revolt of the people on the frontier provinces, against their tyrant, finally determined the English governor to take up arms; and troops were put in motion in January, whilst a proclamation was issued promising security and protection to the Candians, and announcing that the court alone was the object of hostility.

The Governor and Commanderin-chief, Lieut.-gen. Brownrigg, arranged the march of the army in divisions to avoid the difficulty in supplying it with provisions. This, and the ruggedness of the roads and rainy weather, were in fact the only obstacles they had to contend with; for at no point did they meet with armed resistance, and the Adigars were all ready to join them as soon as they found it could be done with safety to their families. A detachment entered Candy on Feb. 11th, which was found entirely deserted