Herald Of The United States

The funds declined considerably yesterday, towards the close of the Market. Omnium fell 1/2 per cent. The fall was attributed to a rumour that letters had been received via Holland, stating that the Emperor of Russia had made a separate peace with France. Another report was, that a negotiation for that purpose was only on foot.

Bonaparte has taken possession of the little Republic of Ragusa, alleging as his reason, that the enemies of France exercised too much influence in the Republic—but he will evacuate it when the Russians shall have evacuated, not only Dalmatia, but Corfu and all the Seven Islands, and have retired from the Adriatic.

JUNE 23.

NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE.

Half past ten o'clock on Saturday morning, Mr. Wilbraham, an English Gentleman, landed at Dover with dispatches from M. Talleyrand, for Mr. Fox. He came out of Boulogne in a French row-boat on Friday evening and was taken up by the Vestal frigate; it being a calm, the frigate sent her boat with him. After rowing nearly all night, the boat landed him on Saturday morning at Dover, and he immediately set off for London.

It is now, we think, beyond a doubt, that a negotiation of peace is going on, and that the negotiation is carried on direct between Mr. Fox and M. Talleyrand. When they have agreed upon certain bases, each government will appoint negotiators. Perhaps Mr. Wilbraham brought the necessary passports.

We are not only of opinion that a negotiation has been concerted upon, but, we are not unprepared to expect the speedy signature of preliminaries of Peace. As Bonaparte would of course demand in Limini as the basis and foundation of all negotiation, that we should acquiesce in all his arrangements with respect to the Continent, the negotiation would of course have been broken off instantly had Mr. Fox (who is evidently the Prime Minister, for in no one instance since the formation of the new Ministry have we discovered the Grenvilles to be predominant) had Mr. Fox, we repeat, not been prepared to acquiesce in those arrangements. The negotiation is generally believed to have been going on for some time; and it is said that the dispatches from our government have been sent by the French Officers permitted to return home, and that the dispatches from the French government have been brought by English gentlemen detained since the commencement of the war, and allowed to return to their own country. Mr. Wilbraham was one of those gentlemen. On condition of our acquiescence in, and acknowledgement of, the recent changes on the Continent, Bonaparte, it is rumoured, will not object to our keeping Malta and the Cape, and will even give back Hanover to his Britannic Majesty. That Prussia has taken Hanover as a compensation for Anspach and other territories ceded to France and Bavaria, will not be any obstacle to the arrangement just mentioned. For it must be recollected, that Bonaparte has never declared that Hanover belonged definitely to Prussia; and indeed it must be recollected that, not long ago it was said in the Moniteur, that what he had got was infinitely more than an equivalent for what he had given up. Bonaparte will dispose Prussia with as little ceremony as he violated her territory of Anspach.

JUNE 24.

We have received Dutch papers to the 21st inst. It was on the 27th May that a division of the French army, under the command of Gen. Lauriston, took possession of Ragusa. It is evident from the proclamation which he published on the occasion, that no progress towards an accommodation between France and Russia had been then made. It seems to be the determined resolution of France to exclude the Russians from the Mediterranean, or, at least from the Adriatic. If we could conceive Lauriston's proclamation to be founded upon instructions previously transmitted to him from Paris, we should conclude that the period of the re-establishment of peace between these two powers was very remote indeed. It is possible that Russia will submit to retire from Albania and the Ionian Islands; and for what? To have them occupied by a French force the moment that the squadron with which she now commands the Adriatic gulf was out of sight? Indeed, when the ambitious views of Bonaparte in that quarter are so openly revealed, it excites no little surprise in us that the Emperor Alexander should have consented to evacuate Cattaro. Spain has made at a last naval effort, by equipping 20 sail of the line. Of this number eight are at Carthagena, and nine at Cadiz. Bonaparte had insisted that she should either declare against Russia, or shut her ports against the ships of that nation; but now that he is anxious for a reconciliation with Russia, the intended proceeding, it is thought, will not be carried into effect. M. d'Oubril is certainly gone to Paris, and it has been supposed that he is gone to propose a joint negotiation by this country and Russia with France. But those who indulge that supposition forget that it is Bonaparte's policy to negotiate separately. That Russia is disposed to make peace with France, we are prepared to believe. A change is understood to have taken place in her sentiments, produced in all probability by the death of Mr. Pitt, and the consequent change in the British Ministry. The appointment of a man containing such opinions with respect to the war and Bonaparte, as Mr. Fox is known to entertain, was calculated to give much confidence to those powers who might wish to make further efforts to check the inordinate ambition and encroachments of France.—Courier.