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some of them being posted on the tops of houses, and at the ends of the streets, and received him with a brisk fire. Messengers, too, were instantly despatched to Altamira, to demand reinforcements from Barradas. The Mexicans were soon in possession of the whole of the town, with the exception of the square, into which the Spaniards retired from their other positions; and, being supported by the fire of a gun-boat stationed on the river, they there maintained an obstinate conflict from day-break till two o'clock in the afternoon, in hourly expectation of the appearance of assistance from Altamira. The governor, at length, sent out a flag of truce, and communications took place towards arranging the terms of a capitulation. They had not yet been settled, when Barradas came up with his whole army, and the state of things was immediately reversed. Santa Ana had never reckoned that La Garza would allow Barradas to accomplish a hasty retreat from Altamira undisturbed. "If general Garza" he wrote in his despatch of the occurrences of the day, "had attacked the enemy on his retrograde movement from Altamira, the 21st of August would have been the last of the existence of the Spanish army. But that attack unfortunately was not made." His own situation was now critical in the extreme. In his rear was a river a mile broad, separating him from his camp, and the great body of his army: in front was the enemy in numbers so superior as to render fighting an act of desperation: he was saved by the strange conduct of Barradas himself. The Spanish general, instead of immediately attacking, requested an interview with Santa Ana; and the interVOL. LXXI.

view ended in an agreement that Santa Ana should, on the one hand, deliver up the town which he was no longer able to keep, and on the other, should be allowed to retire undisturbed with his men to his camp on the other side of the river.

During the remaining days of August, no other active operations took place, but the situation of the Spaniards was daily becoming more desperate. Barradas; cooped up in Tampico, expected reinforcements in vain; while disease, heightened in its effects by scarcity of provisions, was thinning his ranks. Santa Ana's army, on the contrary, was constantly receiving new accessions of troops and artillery from all parts of the country, and had already grown to a strength which rendered hopeless the case of the invaders, even if their numbers had been much stronger than they were. Santa Ana, soon after the events of the 21st, had occupied Altamira with a strong body of troops under general Teran. He next directed that officer to take up a position between the bar and Tampico; and, this movement being effected on the 7th of September, all communication between the Spanish posts was cut off. A summons was then sent to Barradas to surrender, and 48 hours were allowed to him to come to a determination; but before the summons was notified, he hoisted the white flag, and sent a messenger to the Mexican camp, offering to evacuate the territory of the republic, and adding, that, for this purpose, he wished to enter into a treaty. The offer was rejected, and he was told that he must surrender at discretion. Next morning Barradas sent an officer with a second flag of truce, repeating the previous offer. The offer was

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again rejected. A suspension of arms was then solicited, and granted. Next day, a hurricane occurred which so swelled the river and lakes, as to destroy the redoubts and intrenchments of the Mexicans, and to place the men in considerable danger. The Spaniards, suffering equally from its violence, abandoned the fort at the bar, and betook themselves to the woods to escape from the fury of the storm. Santa Ana immediately marched to take possession of the fort; but, the storm having ceased, the Spaniards had re-entered it. The fort was then attacked, and, in a short time, the first line of entrenchments was carried. Night coming on, further operations were suspended; but the Mexicans retained the position they had gained. At sunrise, on the following day, the 11th of September, when the Mexicans were preparing to renew the assault, the Spaniards capitulated. By the terms granted to them, they were to deliver up their arms, ammunition, and standards, with the exception that the officers were to be allowed to retain their swords. The officers and men were to march to the city of Victoria, and there to remain, till transports should be provided to convey them to Cuba; and they, as well as their commander, were to give their solemn promise, never to return, or to take up arms against the Mexican republic. Tampico and its forts were given up on the two following days, and Santa Ana returned in triumph to Vera Cruz having achieved a victory which confirmed the irregularly and newly-acquired power of his party.

In GUATEMALA, or the republic of Central America, where civil war continued to rage within a territory,

the smallness of which made its miseries still more sensibly felt than in the larger states, the campaign of the present year gave the victory to the party who, taking their names from the city of St. Salvador, had long been strug gling to drive their adversaries from the capital. On the 31st of January, the San Salvadorians, with an army of about 3000 men, commanded by general Morazan, formed the siege of Guatemala, occupying three different stations a mile distant from the wall. The siege continued for more than two months, in the course of which time numerous small engagements took place, and sallies were made. Success was generally on the side of the assailants, who thus gradually brought their works nearer and nearer to the town. On the 9th of April they attacked and carried the suburbs. From thence they opened batteries upon the town, and after a bombardment of three days, it surrendered by capitulation, on the 13th of April. Morazan assumed the administration of the government, till Congress should be convoked. His first act was to commit to prison the president, and vice-president, the minister of state of the confeder ation, and about eighty other persons, the most distinguished members of the defeated party. Congress assembled in the month of June; it elected Don Joze Francisco Barundia to be provisional president, and compelled him to accept of the office, though he had the good sense repeatedly to decline it. The case of the imprisoned members of the late government being next taken into consideration, Congress passed an act declaring that they had been guilty of high treason. Most of them,

however, were allowed to avoid a trial by voluntary expatriation, and the sacrifice of a third part of their fortunes to the new rulers. In no quarter even of South America, where every state seemed to have been sown with the dragon's teeth, could they expect to find less tranquillity, or to enjoy in a lower degree the comforts which spring from a stable government, and a well ordered frame of society. In this small territory, the devastations of war, and the siege of the capital, had reduced many opulent families to beggary, had put to flight all manufacturing industry and commercial intercourse, had annihilated all the restraints of law, and had fostered habitual excesses of crime and oppression. Morazan,

even when despotic master of the capital as a conqueror, requested re-inforcements from Salvador to enforce measures of local administration, called for by "the state of demoralization to which Guatemala had been reduced by civil war."— Amid such scenes national credit could have no existence. Guatemala had been able to negociate a loan in the English market; it amounted only to 160,000l.; the interest even of this small debt had already fallen into arrear, and the interest of the present year, too, was allowed to lie over unpaid. The financial transactions of vernments, since borrowing first began, present no instance of a national bankruptcy on so small a scale.

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the monies than was usually allowed by the select vestry. That body held a meeting on the 1st of June, 1821, at which they came to a resolution directing that the whole of the monies in arrear should be collected; but, it appearing that those of the inhabitants who had not paid were persons of responsibility, it was determined to extend the time to sixty days, and the vestry then passed a resolution in these words:-"1st of June, 1821.

ALSE IMPRISONMENT. to have more time for getting in -GUILDHALL, Jan. 8.-Basham v. Sir William Lumley.-Sir James Scarlett stated the plaintiff's The plaintiff was a resident in the island of St. George, one of the Bermudas. The defendant, sir William Lumley, the brother of the late earl of Scarborough, was an officer in the army, and, at the time of committing the act of which the plaintiff complained, was governor of the Bermudas. It had been usual for the churchwardens (who were appointed annually) to collect the rates made by the select vestry of the parish, and they were to account to the vestry for the monies they received. The time usually allowed for them to render their accounts and pay over the balance to their successors was thirty days after the time of their going out of office had expired. In consequence of an epidemic disorder which was prevalent in the year 1819, no assessment was made for that year, and consequently the churchwardens who came into office for the ensuing year had a double duty to perform. The plaintiff and a Mr. James Till were chosen churchwardens for the year 1820. They had to make collections not only for the current year, but for that of the former year, in which no rate had been made. They found it necessary, therefore, VOL. LXXI.

Pursuant to an adjournment of the 30th ult., the vestry met this day. Mr. James Till, one of the late churchwardens, presented to the vestry a statement of their accounts with the parish, and observed, that several persons had not yet paid their assessments, for which reason he requested to be allowed the term of sixty days from this date for the collection of those sums, and the completion of the churchwardens' accounts. same was agreed to, and they were directed to give public notice in the Bermuda Gazette, that all persons who did not pay the assessments within ten days from that date, would be proceeded against as the law directs for the recovery thereof. They were also ordered to pay the following sums, so soon as they had as much funds in their hands; To Mr. John Nowlen, for main

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