542 
as we recollect the very ground and rea- 
~ fon on which thofe Ministers obtained the 
fufpenfion of the Habeas Corpus A& 
was, that no innocent perfon be debarred 
from ‘a legal remedy for falfe and unjut 
imprifonment. It may be faid, that no 
perfons of this defcription have been ar- 
refted; but of what ule then is an A&t of 
Indemnity? Thote who are really crimi- 
nal would no more obtain redrefS from a 
Jury, than thofe who are innocent would 
claim it in vain ; hence we may conceive 
what enormities have been committed- 
under the Sufpenfion Act ; fince the’ per- 
petrators dare not abide the judgment of 
their peers.) Let a wretch devoid of all 
‘ principle, accufe his friend, his proteétor, 
the man on whofe bounty he fubfifts, the 
villain will continue his intimacy un‘uf- 
pected on one fide, and be applauded on 
the other. Generofity is always open; 
he will torture every thing that has been 
* faid into a guilty conftruction, and add 
~ all that is neceflary to iafhion it to the 
wifhes of his employers. 
Official ftatements have been received 
from Gen. Hutchinfon, dated Camp_be- 
fore Alexandria, April 20th, which an- 
nounce the fuccefs of the Turks and Bri- 
tifh, under the command of Colonel Spen- 
cer. They were ordered from the camp 
before Alexandria about ten days previous 
for the purpofe of forcing the enemy from 
~ the town and cattle ot Rofetta, which 
command the navigation of the Nile. 
This operation has perfectly fucceeded. — 
The Enclifh are now matters of the Wett- 
‘ern branch of that river, and, of courfe, 
have opened a communication with the 
Delta, from which they will derive ‘all 
neceflary fupplies, as the French have 
fcarcely any troops there, and none capa~ 
ble of making a ferious refittance. The 
French had about 800 men at Rofetta 
when they were attacked. They made 
but a feeble refiftance and retired to the 
right bank of the Nile, leaving a few 
men killed and prifoners. They left a 
~ garrifon in the fort, againft which the 
Englith batteries opened on the 16th, 
and it furrendered on the rgth inft. The 
conditions are the fame as were granted to 
the Cattle of Aboukir. 
Official letters have alfo been received 
from- Lord Elgin, dated Conftantinople, 
May 9, which announce that the French 
remained in their ftreng pofition upon the 
heights near the eaftern walls of Alexan- 
dria; their number about 6000 men. 
They were ftill in anxious expectation of 
receiving reinforcements, particularly that 
which had been announced to them as 
= 
State of Public Affairs in “Fune, 1801. 
{June 1, 
coming from Admiral Gantheaume. The 
lois ‘of the French in the action of the 
z1it of March according tothe numerous 
reports which had been collected, certainly 
exceeds 3000 men, and a great propor- 
t.on of officers ; four Generals are known 
to have been killed. Among other 
things they were taught to expect no quar- 
ter from the Britifhe Rahmanieh was 
fill in tne hands of the French ; they had 
fortified it with a view to -fecure their 
communications fr.m the upper part of. 
the Delta, and Upper Egypt, whence 
they received their provifions. 
Hutchinfon was to transter his head quar- 
ters to Rofetta on the 23d of April, to 
which place he had already fent forward 
a ftrong detachment, amounting to-about 
4000 Britifh, including Col. Spescer’s 
corps; and he was immediately to proceed 
from thence, with nearly an equal number 
of the Captain Pacha’s troeps, againit © 
Rhamanieh, where the French were un- 
derfiood to have afiembled 3000 men, 
Lord Elgin fays the utmoft degree of una- 
nimity prevails between the Britith and 
Turkifh troops. 
The following is a fummary of the 
principal bufinefs of the Imperial Parlia- 
ment fince our laf number. The Houfe 
having refolved itfelf into a Committee of 
Ways and Means on the 20th of May, 
the Chancellor of the Exehequer faid, it 
would be recollected by the Committee, 
that a Right Honcurable Gentleman who 
had propofed the Ways and Means of the 
year, had included a tax upon pepper ex- 
ported, and a tax on printed cottons, &c, 
Thefe taxes it had been thought adyifeable 
to abandon ; the former in confequence of 
a firong reprefentation made upon the fub- 
ject by the Eaft-India Company, and the 
latter in  coniequence of a_ repréfen- 
tation made by a great number of the 
manufacturers of printed goods. The 
eftimated produce of the duty on printed 
goods, was 140,000].; -that of pepper, 
100,0001. from which, deducting 8oool. 
arifing from the duty on pepper tor home 
-conftmption which was not to be aban- 
doned, there remained 92,000]. The 
whele {um therefore to be provided for, 
amounted to 232,0001. To make good 
this {um, he propoted, in the firft place, 
a tax on all prebates of wills, where the 
property bequeathed amounted to 6ool. 
and upwards, increafing in proportion te 
the amount of the property. At prefent 
he faid the duty on probates was the fame 
from 10,e00l. upwards. He propofed to 
lay a {mall additional duty upon thofe from 
600]. to 10,0901, and a proportionally 
Soe ingreakn g 
General _ 
