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 struggling 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 confederation, 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, 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. Guate mala 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 governments, since borrowing first began, present no instance of a national bankruptcy on so small a scale. CHRONICLE. JANUARY. FAL case. ALSE IMPRISONMENT. to have more time for getting in -GUILDHALL, Jan. 8.-Bas- the monies than was usually alham v. Sir William Lumley.-Sir lowed by the select vestry. That James Scarlett stated the plaintiff's body held a meeting on the 1st of The plaintiff was a resident June, 1821, at which they came to in the island of St. George, one of a resolution directing that the the Bermudas. The defendant, sir whole of the monies in arrear William Lumley, the brother of should be collected; but, it appearthe late earl of Scarborough, was ing that those of the inhabitants an officer in the army, and, at the who had not paid were persons of time of committing the act of responsibility, it was determined to which the plaintiff complained, was extend the time to sixty days, and governor of the Bermudas. It had the vestry then passed a resolution been usual for the churchwardens in these words:-"1st of June, 1821. (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 of fice 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. The 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 B tenance of Thomas Flynn, 71.; Mr. A. Holmes, for printing, 20l.; the committee for managing memorial to the throne, 30l.; Mr. J. Roxburgh, as voted the 17th of June, 1820, 201." This was the resolution passed at the vestry meeting of the 1st of June. With respect to the item of 307. which the vestry had ordered the churchwardens to pay to the committee for managing a memorial to the throne, the fact was, that sir W. Lumley had, by some conduct of his, induced the inhabitants of St. George's Island to prepare a memorial to his majesty containing a complaint against him, which had reference principally to his having caused the soldiers to attend at the church, instead of having divine service performed at the barracks, as had been the custom before sir William came to the island. The preparation of this memorial had made some noise in the island; and, sir W. Lumley having determined to oppose the proceedings of the select vestry, attended at a meeting held on the 11th of June, and placed himself in the chair, though he was not a select vestryman, and had no right to interfere in their proceedings. The minutes which were made of this meeting were in these words: "Parish of St. George, Monday, 11th June, 1821. The minutes of the vestry on the 1st instant were perused by the rector, who declared that he protested against the said proceedings ordering the late churchwardens to pay certain sums in their hands; he then produced a written document which he desired should be read, and was accordingly read by the clerk." By this it appeared that the rector had taken part with the governor, whose own language, as recorded at the meeting, was in these words:-"It is my decided opinion, that, if the vestry of St. George's persevere in their decision of the 1st of June, they will commit a most illegal act. I shall cite them before me as ordinary, or in the Court of Chancery, and if they persist in the order to the late churchwardens, and the latter should obey it, I shall direct a prosecution against all parties in the Ecclesiastical Court; and the parishioners are hereby authorized to refuse the rate. The late churchwardens will be guilty of a fraud if they pay any monies for any purpose, to any persons whatever, except to their successors; and the actual churchwardens will be equally guilty of a fraud, if they dispose of any monies except for church purposes; and I am determined to punish the parties if such frauds are committed. “WM. LUMLEY, "Lt.-Gen. Governor and Commander-in-chief, and Ordinary. "Government House, June 6, 1821. "To the Rev. J. Lough, Rector of St. George's. The minutes of the vestry meeting, in which this letter of the governor's was recorded, proceeded thus: "Immediately after the above was read, his excellency sir William Lumley entered the vestryroom, and addressed himself to the vestry in language to the purport of the above note. Mr. James Till, one of the churchwardens, having declared that the sums of money ordered by the vestry, as above alluded to, had really been paid by him, his excellency observed, that he had acted illegally, and desired him, as one of the late churchwardens, to produce their accounts with the parish to him the go |