Martinsburgh Gazette

Compiler,

IMPORTANT.

BALTIMORE, January 9.

THE NEWS OF PEACE.

While we consider it a duty to publish the information which our Philadelphia correspondent has so obligingly communicated, the doubts which he expresses as to its authenticity, will, we trust, be a sufficient caution to prevent such a reliance on it as might lead to an unpleasant disappointment.

The impression very generally received from the last despatches of our commissioners at Ghent was certainly such as to induce an expectation, that an accommodation of the matters in dispute would soon be effected. If the same impression and expectation prevailed in Europe it would as naturally give rise to reports of a pacification, as the impression received from the first despatches did to the report of a termination of the negotiation in an open breach, and the departure of our commissioners from Ghent.

It would appear from the statement on the books of the Coffee House in Philadelphia, that there is very satisfactory evidence of the information having been received from a British vessel in the Delaware, and, the circumstance of the white flag flying at the foretop of that vessel renders it probable that the information as communicated was believed by the commander. But whatever may be the wishes of the community, or their opinion of the probable truth of the report. Still it must be considered as only a report which ought to be received with caution.

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT

Office of the Freeman's Journal,

Philadelphia, Jan. 7-evening.

Extract of a letter. dated

" Cape May, Jan. 6, 1815.

" There is a British ship in the Bay said to be a 74. They sent a flag on shore on Monday last, and they report that they had spoke a brig bound to Halifax from England, in a short passage of 18 days, which told them, that preliminaries of peace had been signed by our Commissioners at Ghent. I hope it may prove true--but I have my doubts."

Extract of another letter from Philadelphia. dated Jan. 7th.

There is the following on the Coffee House books this evening. " Mr. Hughes writes from cape May the 4th inst. that the Spencer of 74 guns came into the capes last Saturday evening with a WHITE FLAG at the fore-top, which was still flying, and sent on shore and stated, they had spoke a vessel from England bound to Halifax in a short passage, who informed them, Preliminaries of Peace had been signed between this country and England."

Another letter -from the Post-master, dated the 5th inst to the same effect."

[Mr. Hughes, the writer of the letter referred to, is known by a gentleman in this city, who states, that he is a respectable man, on whose information every reliance may be placed.--Ed. of Fed. Gazette.]