On the 7 th of March, the subject was brought regu larly before the House of Commons, when the Honoura ble Mr Wellesley Pole, the Irish secretary, was present. The assembly, said Mr Ponsonby, which had been des cribed in the circular letter as an unlawful meeting, had been for many years in existence, and in the habit of meeting to promote the object for which it had been ap pointed : nay, it had actually taken measures for aug menting its number, twenty-four days before the pro mulgation of the circular letter. \Vhat, then, was the reason why this assembly had been so long suffered to continue its proceedings, without any interference on the part of government ? With respect to the conven tion act, in which the circular letter was printed, it had never been put in force. Even by the act itself, the mere publishing of notices was not an offence ; for it ex pressly declares, that, in order to commit the offence, a man must be guilty of voting, as well as of attending ; whereas the circular letter required that all who attend ed might be arrested. In reply to these observations, Mr Pole stated, that no obstruction would have been given to the proceedings of the Catholic committee, while they met solely for the purpose of petitioning ; that, at the committee of 1810, the most violent and in flammatory speeches were delivered, in which the Eng lish government were represented as hostile to Ireland and its Catholic inhabitants ; and that a sub-committee had been appointed to enquire into the grievances which the Catholics had suffered from a bigotted government. Mr Pole enumerated many other instances, in which he thought the Catholic committee had gone beyond the ob ject for which they were appointed, and which he con sidered as sufficient grounds for enforcing the conven tion act.
On the ninth of July, a meeting of the Catholics of Ireland was held in Dublin, and a series of resolutions were passed relative to the measures which were thought necessary for obtaining. signatures to their petition from all parts of Ireland, and for bringing it before both houses of parliament. In consequence of this meeting, the Irish government issued a proclamation, declaring all such meetings illegal, and ordering the sheriffs and magistrates to disperse them in terms of the convention act.
No sooner was this proclamation issued, than an ex traordinary meeting of the Catholic committee was held in Dublin, at which they determined to continue their meetings for the purpose of electing delegates to the committee. These meetings, which were held in seve ral of the parishes of Dublin, experienced no interrup tion till the Sth of August, when several Catholic gen tlemen were arrested under a warrant from the Lord Chief-Justice Downes. The Catholics, however, con tinued to hold their meetings, and some of the delegates were arrested. On the 8th of November, new bills were found against several of the delegates by the grand jury of Dublin ; and, on the 21st of November, Dr Sheridan was fried before the Court of King's Bench. Tile trial lasted two days, and the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. The issue of this trial being decisive with re spect to the other delegates who had been arrested for the same offence, the atto•ney-general moved for leave to send up new bills of indictment to the grand jury on the ground of informality. Informations ex officio were also filed against Lord Fingal, and several other gentle men, for attending the Catholic meetings, and for pub lishing an account of their proceedings.
The attention of parliament was called, during the present session, to the state of commercial credit, and a select committee was appointed to report upon this subject. The great embarrassments which prevailed in the commercial world appear to have first arisen out of extensive speculations, which commenced on the opening of the South American markets. The im mense cargoes which were sent to the ports of South America, overstocked the markets, and the merchants were obliged to bring back their cargoes to England.
On their return, they found the country glutted ; and as no market remained for them on the continent of Europe, the exporters were unable to pay the manufac turers when their bills became clue, and, of course, the manufacturers were involved in the same distress. This embarrassment seemed to prevail principally among the cotton manufacturers. In order to relieve this distress as much as possible, siX millions of Exchequer bills were issued, on condition that the merchants who ob tained aid should give security for repayment at a li mited time.
In consequence of a message from the Prince Regent, the attention of both houses of parliament was called to the subject of a subsidy to Portugal. The sum of one million had been granted in the year 1810, for the pur pose of taking Portuguese troops into British pay, and having them disciplined and commanded by British of ficers. The success with which this plan was attended, and the courage and perseverance which had been dis• played by the Portuguese in the last, campaign, were held out by ministers as a reason for increasing the sub sidy to two millions. The opposition represented this system of policy as an enormous drain on the resources of the country ; and they expressed their belief, that whatever temporary success might attend the allied arms, Portugal must ultimately fall under the over whelming power of France. The grant, however, was carried without a division.
The year 1811 was distinguished by the fall of the last colony of France. About the middle of summer, an expedition sailed from India, for the purpose of reducing the settlement of Batavia. Lord Minto, the governor general of India, attended It in person, while the army was commanded by Sir Samuel Auchmuty, and the naval part of the expedition by Rear-Aduiiral Stopford. The troops landed on the 4th of August at the village of Chillingching, about twelve miles to the east of the city of Batavia, and advanced to the capital by the road along the coast. The bridge over the Anjol having been broken down by the enemy, the army passed the river in boats on the 7th, and lodged themselves in the su burbs of the.city. A temporary bridge, capable of sup porting light artillery, was constructed on the 8th ; and, on the same day, the town of Batavia surrendered with out opposition, and the garrison retreated to \Vcltcv reede. Early on the morning of the 10th, Colonel Gillespie moved with his corps towards the enemy's cantonments at Weltevreede, supported by two brigades of infantry that followed his route. The cantonment was abandoned, but the enemy held a strong position about two miles in advance of their works at Cornelis, and defended by an abbatis, occupied by 3000 of their best troops and four guns of horse artillery. After an obstinate resistance, this position was carried at the point of the bayonet, the enemy were completly routed, and their guns taken. A strong column advanced to their support from Fort Cornelis; but the British line having arrived, it was instantly driven under the shelter of their batteries. In this affair, the enemy lost about 500 men, with Brigadier-General Alberti dangerously wounded. The enemy, who greatly outnumbered the British troops, were now strongly entrenched between the great River Jacatra and an artificial watercourse, called the Sloken, neither of which were fordable. A deep trench, strongly pallisadoed, enclosed this posi tion ; and the most commanding grounds within the lines were occupied with seven redoubts, and numerous batteries mounted with heavy cannon. The fort of Cor nelis was in the centre, and all the works were defended by a numerous and well organized artillery. For the purpose of carrying the works by assault, several bat teries were erected, and a heavy fire kept up for two days from twenty eighteen pounders, and eight mortars and howitzers, silenced their nearest batteries, and dis turbed every part of their position.