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V-- . * * » *♦ » * . ed by the presence of a few vessels of respectable force ; and that I consider professional knowledge, on the part of our officers, which can be best acquir ed abroad, as of high national impor* lance. With respect to the expediency of modifying the, laws in relation to the navy department, it appears to me that some altenuion* are necessary. By the act authorising the employ ment ot an additional naval force, pas sed at the last session of Congress, it appears that the executive is restricted from sending our vessels, equipped un tier 'hat act, beyond our coast. If it shall now be deemed expedient to send any of them to the Mediterranean, or any oilier foreign station, this restric tion ought to be removed, or so modi fied as to give to the executive power adequate to the purpose. 1 avail myself of tins occasion, res pectfully to submit to consideration the memorial of the officers of the navy, some lime since presented to Congress, a copy of which, with copies of a letter from my predecessor to Mr. Montgo mery, chairman of a committee of the Mouse of Representatives, dated Ist April, 1808, and of a letter from cap tain liainbridge to me, upon the same subject, are herewith transmitted, and marked D. Having attentively perus ed this memorial, I cannot withhold the expr-ssion of mv opinion that the pray er thereof is perfectly reasonable. Na tional considerations ought surely to in duce ns to foster that just and honora ble pride, that truly patriotic .ambition, to which our navy officers, and especi ally those well skilled in seamanship, obviously sacrifice their pecuniary in terests. To another and not an uninteresting subject, embraced by the queries which you have propounded to me, I will also invite your serious attention. By the act further to amend the several acts for the establishment and regulation of the Treasury, War and Navy Depart ments, it is p-ovided that the commis sions to navy agents shall not exceed one per centum, nor in any instance the compensation allowed by law to the purveyor of public supplies. The Trea sury construction of this statute will ap pear by the letters F. and F. herewith 1 sent. That construction prohibits any allowance under any circumstances, for either clerk hire, porters, office rent, fuel, or stationary. The whole receipts of the agents are confined to one per centum, and the product of that per centage is limited to 2000 dollars per annum. In our large sea-port towns, and es pecially in Norfolk, Baltimore, Phila delphia, and New-fork, our purchases will necessarily lie extensive; often so much sn, as to occupy exclusively the time of the agent. In these places clerks must he indispensable, and por ters highly useful—and wherever we have an agent, it appears to me proper that the public should allow whatever the agent may reasonably pay for office rent, fuel, and stationary. It is not probable that the commissions to the agents will in any other places than those mentioned, viz. Norfolk, Balti more, Philadelphia, and New-York, amount to 2000 dollars; and in either of these places will the clear receipts of; either of the agents amount'to more than 550 dollars' per annum, as will \ more particularly appear by the accom / punying exhibit marked Cl. In other places, the commissions will not amount to as much as is now given to the most common clerk in a meichant’s counting house. To make the commissions amount to 2000 dollars, it \vould require that 200,- 000 dollars should be disbursed; and if agent should disburse one million of dollars, or any sum exceeding that, the gross amount of his pay for such dis bursements is limited to 2000 dollars; the nett amount of which cannot rea sonably be calculated at more than 550 dollars. Willi this view of the subject, 1 can not rely upon the present agents con tinuing to hold their appointments, or upon other fit persons accepting such appointments, without the law in ques tion being so modified as to make them a reasonable allowance for their servi- S cos, and the expenses inseparably con- J nected with the discharge of their offi cial duties. In disbursing so large a sum of money as an agent must dis burse to entitle him to the smalt com pensation of 550 dollars per annum, he ! hazards the loss of ten times as much, from irregularity in vouchers, errone- j Sous calculations, misinterpretation of j instructions, from not strictly conform ing in each and every purchase to the specific restrictions of the existing law, j and from various other causes, to which j the most correct are and ever will be li- { c ab'le "n a greater or less degree. The copy of a letter from General Strieker, navy agent at Baltimore, a gentleman justly of high standing in so ciety, and I am told as good an agent as could be procured in any country, herewith sent and marked 11. will ex plain to you his situation under the ex isting law ; and other agents of equal merit, are similarly situated. Deeming it my duty, under the lati tude you have allowed, to be perfectly explicit and full in my communication to you upon this subject, and being sin cerely anxious to manage the business of the department in such mannei as to promote the interests of the nation, I trust 1 shall not be thought presump tuous, when I suggest the indispensa ble necessity of being aided by able agents. I flatter myself, Sir, with a belief that I have afforded the information requir ed, and I regret that I have not been able to do it at an earlier moment. I am, with great respect, Sir, your obedient servant, PAUL HAMILTON, lion. Joseph Anderson, Chairman of the Committee of the Senate. [C-] Lstimate of the Annual Expense of maintaining one Gun-Boat in actual si rvicc ; and of the Annual Expense , of maintaining twenty fourGun-Boats in actual service at Ncw-Orleans. One Cun-Boat—Pay and Subsistence. 1 Lieutenant, commanding, 50 dollars i per month, 4 rations per day, gj 892 | 1 Lieutenant, 40 dollars, 3 rations, 699 ! 2 Midshipmen, 19 dollars, 1 ration, 602 I 1 Boa swain, 20 dollars, 2 rations, 386 i I Gunner, 20 dollars, 2 rations, 386 1 Steward, 18 dollars, 1 ration, 289 i 3,554 ! Deduct one ration per day for each officer, it being estimated in the article of provisions, be cause each officer will -draw one ration in kind, 2,555 ra tions, at 20 cents, 511 ! 2.,743 | 8 able Seamen, 12 dolls. 1150" j rations, • j 16 ordinary do. 8 dolls. 1536 [ , rations, Marines, 1,500 Provisions, 3,570 Repairs, See. 750 Medicine Sc Hospital Stores, See. 250 S 11,499 (Say, 11,500 dollars.) As one gun-boat will cost 11,500 dolls, per annum, twenty-four • j guu-boats will cost 275,000 i Estimate of the Annual Expense of main taining■ in actual service , twenty-four Gun-Boats, at j\cw-Orlcans . 1 Captain commanding, 100 dollars per month, 16 rations per day, 2,368 j 5 Surgeons, 50 dollars per month, 3,000 ! 1 Purser, 40 dollars, 4*o | 4 Surgeon’s Mates, 30 dollars, 1,440 ! 5,110 rations, at 20 cents, 1,022 i 8,310 j j Annual Expence of 24 Gun- Boats, not including the a bove essential officers, 276,000 j — _______ * Total amount of expense of 24 Gun-Boats, in actual service at New-Oiileans, S 284,310 Note. —ln the above Estimate, full crews are allowed to the gun-boats; but orders have been given to reduce f the crews of the Gun-Boats at New-Or leans, to a number merely sufficient for their navigation and safety. The reduc tion is left to the commanding officer at ; New-Orleans, who from a full view of; all circumstances, can form the most 1 satisfactory judgment upon this point, j We have not bad time to hear from him what the actual reduction has been— i hut we may estimate that this reduc- j tion, from the time it shall be made, ! will reduce their annual expense to ; 250,000 dollars. The following Political Picture of j Great-Britain we extract from the I .on- ! don Sunday Review of April 16. Democratic Press 1 patrioticaieetings. Never lias the tide of public spirit! ran so high or so extensive as at the present moment, since the institution; of the ConespondingSocieiy, and the plan of reform projected and suppor ted by Mr. Pitt and the duke of Rich-. mond, in their best days of patriotism i & independence. The important fae’ts disclosed by Mr. Waddle’s very extra ordinary investigation, has roused the whole Country into one unanimous vote of thanks to him for bis boldness, circumspection, and perseverance ; and it has also roused it to a general demand of a Reform in Parliament, as the only means of effectually guarding against similar atrocities in future ; and more especially as the only means of bring ing such attrocitesto light, by distroy ing the corrupt influence of ministers, whose perpetual object it appears to be to quash, instead of promoting, all en quiry into their nature; and more es pecially still, as the only means of obtaining honesty and independency in the majority of the representative house, and verdicts founded upon the evidence before the house, and conse quently in unison with the plain blunt sense and honest feeling of the people at large. We have already noticed the meet ings of this sort that have taken place at Westminster Hall, and Guildhall, the former very numerously attended by in habitants of the highest respectability, and the latter by as many of the Liveif as cold crowd within the walls. We have also noticed, that a meet ing for the same object we held by the common council of the Metropolis, who concurred almost unanimously, not only in voting Mr. Wardle the free dom of the city in a gold-box, but in re solving that the ministry had lost the confidence of the nation, and in assert ; ing that the late decison of the majori j ty of the house wus in direct opposition J to the evidence before them, and apa* . rently given from corrupt motives. We now proceed to state that the metropolitan county has haJ. a meeting of a similar description, and that a j series of similar Resolutions has been followed up with equal unanimity and l spirit; that the Borough of Southwark ! has imitated so patriotic an example ; ! and while it has foreborn to pass a vote of censure on its representatives who : was in the majority, in consequence of ! Ids general respectability of character, was as severally done in the cases of the city and of the Middlesex meetings, it has exacted a pledge of both its mem bers, that they will support the principle of a parliamentary reform whenever it shall be introduced before the house. Liverpool, Nottingham and a multi tude of other cities and towns have felt the same impulse, and ptrsued the same conduct; and Norwich and many others are on the point of proceeding passibus .Equis. At Liverpool, a piece of plate of 1000/. value was voted to Mr. Wardle, with an appropriate inscription. ! We trust therefore we shall not stop where we are ; other meetings, and in connection with the grand object of pre venting simular abuses in future, by more effectual means than the mere dead-lettered report parliamentary com i mittees, and parlimentary commission ers, are already arriving and, as we | hope, are about to bring forward with ! temper and moderation, the great na | tional question that has been so long suffered to lie dormant. “ England,” “said Montesquieu, most admirably, can only be ruined by her own parlia ment;’’ and it is now high time to take care that she fall not a sacrifice to ; tins only means of her distraction, j But should nothing more be done than : has been accomplished much would ; have be en accomplished already ; for j ever y CILIAAXwho may chance to be I employed by government will be in no triding degree deterred from pursuing the suggestions of his o\»n base heart , by a dread of speedy and condign punish ment. 1 iiis, however, is not the whole that has flowed from Mr. Waddle’s most salutary investigation. A prosecution I has already taken place, under the di rection of the minister himself, against i a set of wretched agents concerned in I negociating for the sale of places un der government. The church is likely j to he purified in some degree from the ; same contaminating spirit of barter : one reverend gentleman has actually ; been discharged from a lucrative office, : in consequence of the late disclosures ; ; and if report speak correctly, the prince S of Wales and the duke of Clarence, are I both on the point of discharging sever al of their chaplains from their patron -1 age, for having bemired their hards in the j same filthy stream. j The East India Company is likely to | bo as much benefited by this most 1 wholesome investigation; as the nation i ‘it large. One of its directors has al ; ready fallen a victim to the searching ; spirit that is abroad ; and he is by no means the only one that is likely to suf j for. The case of Mr. G. W. Thelius ■ son is as clear us the day-light, not witnstanding all the f-;Sorts that have been made to white-wash him also from the charge of connivance or corrupt participat’on. He stands convicted In ins own evidence, and that of other witnesses, before the committee of the house of commons, of having (exclu sively of an improper distribution ol ca detships) from year to year, for three years successively, sold to his cousin, Mr. Emperor Woodford, his nomina tion to a writership, valued at from 30001. to SSOOI. each, in purchase of the place of receiver of rents issuing from freeholds, bought under the will of tlie late .Mr. Thellusson, by the a foresaici Emperor Woodford, as one ch the executors named in the said will, and as one of the trustees o*' the estates purchased. Lord Castlereagh hffords, however, a more atrocious instance still of a cor rupt application of means to a political ?»</».. This immaculate minister stands at this moment convicted, by evidence given before the same committee, of having endeavored to purchace a seat in the house of commons for his friend lord Chncarty, by giving to the person who could procure it a writership in the East-India Company, value, we have before observed, at 35001. It may be said here was no actual offer of money; but it was a much worse negociation than H it had been ; for, where money is offered, the traffic is only dishonor able and corrupt on the one side of th« barter: in the present instance it is a dishonorable anti corrupt traffic on both sides : it is a double sale of illicit com modities, equally atrocious towards tne East India Company as towards the purity and privileges of parliament; and unless parliamentary precedents go for nothing in the present day, the no ble lord must either, like the duke off \oik, ww-volunturily resign, or be for cibly expelled. But the question is al ready before the house, and in the able > hands of Lord A. Hamilton, who has given notice of his intention to bring it forward on Friday next; and in this nobleman’s hands vve shall leave it for the present. Translated for Jackson's Register., Extract of a letter from the Havanna, dated sth of June, ISOtf. “ The news from Spain by a king's packet brig just arrived, is very favor able. La lfomana has taken Tuy in Gallicia, and besides the killed * and wounded of the enemy, he has made 2,500 prisoners ; we have great hopes of the ultimate success of the patriotic cause of Spain.” Tetter Jr om a person of note in Spain , to hisjritnd in the Havana ; “ The battle of Medellin, has been | the most bloody one fought this war ! the enemy had 24 cannons, we 10; theirs very badly served, ours discharg ed for the space of two hours and a half, a continual shower of grape. Our in fantry charged with bayonet up to the N very walls of the houses of the village in pursuit of the enemy. The impe rial guards fled, as well as gen. Vic- ' tor at the head of his staff. The ma rine battalions and the Spanish guards-, have, covered themselves with glory— they threw away their muskets, and O seizing hold their bayonets by the han- die, they fell upon, stabbed, overthrew f and pent up the invincible. \ “ If our cavelry had not fallen hack, ' it w-ould have been the most memora ble battle of the Campaign. Never-f theless, the enemy has no* seen, to his sorrow, what we are. Much blood has been spilt; 11,000 dead on both sides, covered the banks of the Guardiana : they have lost upwads of 7000 and we nearly 4000 men. “ As the right wing was abandoned by the cavalry, although the centre, * composed of the infantry, had consider ably the advantage, and was advancing in pursuit ol the enemy, it was neces sary to retreat, to avoid the enemy ' from outflanking the army. At 4o’clock in the afternoon of Wednesday the 29th of March, (the day of the battle) the l enemie’s cannonading ceased, and both armys have retired to their respective positions, leaving the field of battle in the middle, neither of the armies re mained masters of it. “ Although we have not gained much yet vve have lost nothing by it : on the contrary, we have obtained some advantages, namely, that of making head against the enemy, and causing them to fly—l he retreat of the cavaj ry, it appears, was owing to a mistake, at least with respect to those regimels who followed that of Maria Louisa, whom they understood had received orders to retreat. Gen. Cuesta retreated with his army to \ illanueva to rest his troops he afterwards pioceeded with hjs staff to Campillo, to re-unite his cavalry, partially dispersed Sc he informs ofhav already accomplished this.