Important intelligence has been received from Bahia. After three days
fighting and much slaughter, the insurgents were driven out of the town by the troops of the Imperial Government. About sixty houses and a considerable quantity of merchandes were destroyed by the insurgents, who set fire to the town in two places. Business had recummeliced, and all was quiet when the last accounts were despatched.
Now that trade there will resume its regular channels, and,
per- haps specie may be occasionally bent to England, it is possible that the commanders of some of the British mea-of-war, who were so careful not to give aid and security to British merchants during the late disturbances, may find the station off Bahia an agreeable one. The Captain of the &mann may return from Pio. That vessel sailed from Bahia, leaving only two brigs of war, though a requisition from the British merchants was presented to the Cap- tain, through the Consul, requesting that lie would not withdraw protection considered necessary for the safety of British property. There are, or recently were, as we learn by letters from Bahia, three Admirals stationed off the Brazilian coast ; but not one of them made his appearance at Bahia during the late disturbances. The British commanders are too intent upon getting freight "round the Horn " to do their duty. It is high time that the conduct of British naval officers on foreign stations were made the subject of serious complaint in the House of Commons—or it will be better done by Lord HeotronAst in the Lords. Applications to the Admiralty are made in vain. It is a fact, which we have on undoubted autho- rity, that British merchants prefer applying in any emergency to American ships of' war, rather than starer the insult and neglect almost universal upon application to British " protection," which has become a nominal phrase without real meaning. No experi- enced merchant of this country, residing abroad, ever expects as- sistance in the quarter from which it ought to be proffered.
Previous page
