ments of the continect affords the best prospect of the permanence of that peace which, in conjunction with his majesty's allies, I have concluded: and you may rely on my efforts being directed, at the approaching congress, to complete the settlement of Europe, which has been already so auspiciously begun; and to promote, upon principies of justice and impartiality, all those measures which may appear to be best calculated to secure the tranquillity and happiness of all the nations engaged in the late war.-I regret the continuance of hostilities with the United States of America. Notwithstanding the unprovoked aggression of the government of that country, and the circumstances under which it took place, I am sincerely desirous of the restoration of peace between the two nations upon conditions honourable to both. But, until this object can be obtained, 1 am persuaded you will see the necessity of my availing myself of the means now at my disposal, to prosecute the war with increased vigour.

Gentlemen of the house of

full justice is rendered throughout Europe to that manly perseverance which, amidst the convulsions on the continent, has preserved this country against all the designs of its enemies, has augmented the resources and extended the dominions of the British empire, and has proved in its result as beneficial to other nations as to our own. His majesty's subjects cannot fail to be deeply sensible of the distinguished advantages which they have possess ed; and I am persuaded that they will ascribe them, under Providence, to that constitution which it has now for a century been the ob ject of my family to maintain unimpaired, and under which the people of this realm have enjoyed more of real liberty at home, and of true glory abroad, than has ever fallen to the lot of any nation.

The lord chancellor then declared parliament to be prorogued to the 27th of August next.

NORWAY.

PROCLAMATION OF PRINCE CHRIS TIAN TO THE NORWEGIANS.

Norwegians, When upon the dissolution of your union with Denmark, we took upon ourself the direction of the affairs of Norway, it was to prevent your beloved country from being torn to pieces by civil war and factions. Your wishes called us to the throne of Norway: we obeyed the call. Your confidence and your good cause demanded our participation. We resolved to make every personal sacrifice, in order to secure to you those benefits. It is true we were aware of the dangers which threatened your hopes and ours in such an unequal contest; but we could not possibly conceive that the most powerful states of Europe would combine to

oppress

oppress a noble and innocent people, whose reasonable wish was liberty, and whose only desire was independence. Meanwhile, Sweden's powerful allies informed us by their envoys, that the union of Norway with Sweden was irrevocably determined on. It is known to you that we were willing to sacrifice our personal happy situation, if the great assembly of the nation should find it conducive to the happiness of the nation; but you likewise know, that the conditions upon which an armistice was at that time offered, were such that we could not accede to them till the fortune of war had been tried, because they were contrary to the fundamental laws. We saw with regret that our sincere endeavours to avoid a war in the north were fruitless. The extensive frontiers and sea coasts of Norway made it necessary to divide the troops. Sweden made great exertions to arm at different points; and in the uncertainty on what part of the kingdom the attack might be expected, from which we could cover the interior provinces of the kingdom, and at the same time hasten to the assistance of such points as were threatened or attacked; in all these respects Glommen seemed to present the most advantages. On being informed of the enemy's invasion by Ide-Sletten and Swinesund, we hastened to collect a corps at Rackestadt, in order, by an attack from that side, to stop the further progress of the enemy; but the unexpected surrender of Frederickstadt obliged us to take a position on the Glommen, the enemy having obtained a secure passage, so that the road to Christiania might be forced. The enemy being superior at sea, had it in his power by frequent landings to turn our right flank. A long blockade by the

English and Swedish naval force had hindered us from furnishing our magazines in a sufficient manner; they were nearly exhausted, and want of the first necessaries threatened to break that courage which the superior force of the enemy could not bend. The deputies from the diet were not received by the English ministry, and, therefore, returned without any hope of assistance or a relaxation of the inimical measures of that kingdom. Under these circumstances Sweden proposed an armistice; of the two fortresses, the occupation of which by Swedish troops had been refused in the negotiations that were broken off, one was already in their hands, and the other cut off from all relief and bombarded. The fortune of war had declared against us, and the continuation of the contest would, in such circumstances, have led only to the total ruin of our country. To prevent this, and to give the nation an opportunity of learning the condition of the kingdom by a meeting of the diet, we repeated our offer of voluntarily retiring from that happy situation to which your confidence had called us. The armistice and convention. of the 14th inst. were signed; and in consequence thereof, we have by our rescript of this day, directed to the chief magistrates, caused an extraordinary diet to be summoned, to meet at Christiania, on Friday, the 7th of October, this year.-Beloved people of Norway! only imperious necessity, this you cannot doubt, could have induced us to take a step which your attachment to us renders doubly painful. Our desire was to deserve your love; our comfort is the conviction of your sentiments, and the consciousness, that your welfare was the object of all our actions.Given

at

at Moss, August 16, 1814, under our hand and the seal of the kingdom.

CHRISTIAN FREDERICK.

AMERICA.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A proclamation.

Whereas the enemy by a sudden incursion have succeeded in invading the capital of the nation, defended at the moment by troops less numerous than their own, and almost entirely of the militia; during their possession of which, though for a single day only, they wantonly destroyed the public edifices having no relation in their structure to operations of war, nor used at the time for military annoyance; some of these edifices being also costly mo. numents of taste and of the arts, and others repositories of the public archives, not only precious to the nation as the memorials of its origin and its early transactions, but interesting to all nations, as contributions to the general stock of historical instruction and political science. And whereas advantage has been taken of the loss of a fort, more immediately guarding the neighbouring town of Alexandria, to place the town within the range of a naval force, too long and too much in the habit of abusing its superiority wherever it can be applied, to require, as the alternative of a general conflagration, an undisturb. ed plunder of private property, which has been executed in a manner peculiarly distressing to the inhabitants, who had inconsiderately cast themselves upon the justice and generosity of the victor. And whereas it now appears, by a direct communication from the British commander on the American sta

tion, to be his avowed purpose to employ the force under his direction, in destroying and laying waste such towns and districts upon the coast as may be found assailable;" adding to this declaration the insulting pretext that it is in retaliation for a wanton destruction committed by the army of the United States in Upper Canada, when it is notorious that no destruction has been committed, which, notwithstanding the multiplied outrages previously committed by the enemy, was not unauthorised and promptly shown to be so; and that the United States have been as constant in their endeavours to reclaim the enemy from such outrages, by the contrast of their own example, as they have been ready to terminate, on reasonable conditions, the war itself. And whereas these proceedings and declared purposes, which exhibit a deliberate disregard of the principles of humanity and the rules of civilized warfare, and which must give to the existing war a character of extended devastation and barbarism, at the very moment of negotiations for peace, invited by the enemy himself, leave no prospect of safety to any thing within the reach of his predatory and incendiary operations, but in manful and universal determination to chastise and expel the invader. Now, therefore, I, James Madison, president of the United States, do issue this my proclamation, exhorting all the good people thereof to unite their hearts and hands in giving effect to the ample means possessed for that purpose. 1 enjoin it on all officers, civil and military, to exert themselves in executing the duties with which they are respectively charged. And more especially, I require the officers commanding the respective military

military districts to be vigilant and alert in providing for the defence thereof; for the more effectual accomplishment of which they are authorized to call to the defence of exposed and threatened places portions of the militia most convenient thereto, whether they be or be not parts of the quotas detached for the service of the United States under requisitions of the general government. On an occasion which appeals so forcibly to the proud feelings and patriotic devotion of the American people, none will forget what they owe to themselves, what they owe to their country and the high destinies which await it; what to the glory acquired by their fathers, in establishing the independence which is now to be maintained by their sons, with the augmented strength and resources with which time and Heaven have blessed them. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be fixed to these presents.-Done at the city of Washington, the first day of September, in the year of our Lord 1814, and of the independence of the United States the 39th. JAMES MADISON.

By the President,
JAS. MONROE, Sec. of state.

delay might happen in providing for the result of the negotiation on foot with Great Britain, whether it should require arrangements adapt. ed to a return of peace, or further and more effective provisions for prosecuting the war.

The result is not yet known: if on one hand the repeal of the orders in council, and the general pacification of Europe, which withdrew the occasion on which impressments from American vessels were prac tised, suggest expectations that peace and amity may be established, we are compelled on the other hand, by the refusal of the British. government to accept the offered mediation of the emperor of Russia, by the delays in giving effect to its own proposals of a direct negotia tion, and, above all, by the principles and manner in which the war is now avowedly carried on, to infer that a strict hostility is indulged more violent than ever against the rights and prosperity of this country.

This increased violence is best explained by two important circumstances, that the great contest in Europe for an equilibrium, guarantying all its states against the ambition of any, has been closed without any check on the overbearing power of Great Britain on the ocean, and that it has left in her hands disposable armoury, with which, forgetting the difficulties of a remote war against a free people, and yielding to the intoxication of success with the example of a great victim to it before her eyes, she cherishes hopes of still further ag grandising a power already formi dable in its abuses to the tranquillity, of the civilized and commercial world. But whatever may have inspired the enemy with these more violent purposes, the public councils of a nation, more able to maintaia

than

than it was to acquire its independence, and with a devotion to it rendered more ardent by the experience of its blessings, can never de liberate but on the means most effectual for defeating the extravagant measures of unwarrantable passion, with which alone the war can now be pursued against us. In the events of the present campaign, with all its augmented means and wanton use of them, he has little ground for exultation, unless he can feel it in the success of his recent enterprise against this metropolis and the neighbouring town of Alexandria, from both of which his retreats were as precipitate as his attempts were 'bold and fortunate. In his other incursions on our Atlantic frontier, his progress, often checked and chastised by the martial spirit of the neighbouring citizens, has had more effect in distressing individuals and in dishonouring his arms, than in promoting any object of legitimate warfare. And in the two instances mentioned, however deeply to be regretted on our part, in his transient success, which interrupted for a moment only the ordinary public business at the seat of government, no compensation can accrue for the loss of character with the world, by his violation of private property, and his destruction of public edifices, protected as monuments of the arts by the laws of civilised warfare. On our side we can appeal to a series of achievements which have given few lustre to the American arms. Besides the brilliant incidents in the minor operations of the campaign, the splendid victories gained on the Canadian side of the Niagara by the American forces under major-general Brown, and brigadies Scott and Gaines, have gained for these heroes and their emulated companions

the most unfading laurels; and hav ing triumphantly proved the progressive discipline of the American soldiery, have taught the enemy that the longer he protracts his hostile efforts, the more certain and decisive will be his final discomfiture. On the southern border vic- ́ tory has continued also to follow the American standard. The bold and skilful operations of major-general Jackson, conducting troops drawn from the militia of the states least distant, particularly of Tenessee, have subdued the principal tribes of hostiles avages; and by establishing a peace with them, preceded by recent and exemplary chastisement, we have guarded against the mischief of their co-operations with the British enterprises which may be planned against this quarter of our country. Important tribes of Indians on our north-western frontier have also acceded to stipulations which bind them to the interest of our United States, and to consider our enemy as theirs also.

In the recent attempts of the enemy on Baltimore, defended by militia and volunteers, aided by a small body of regulars and seamen, he was received with a spirit which produced a rapid retreat to the ships, whilst a concurrent attack by a large fleet was successfully resisted by the steady and well directed. fire of the fort and batteries opposed to it. In another recent attack by a powerful force on our troops at Plattsburg, of which regulars made a part only, the enemy, after a perseverance for many hours, was finally compelled to seek safety in a hasty retreat, our gallant bands pressing upon him. On the lakes, so much contested throughout the war, the great exertions for the command made on our part have been well repaid on Lake Ontario.

Our