Foreign Intelligence: Heligoland, March 22

The refractory spirit manifested by the Hamburgh City Guard, on being ordered to assume the French cockade, appears to have been of a more serious nature than was first supposed; and had not the most prompt and energetic measures been adopted to suppress it, might have led to a very general ferment. They had threatened the house of the French Commandant and had actually taken possession of the gate of the town, before a sufficient number of French troops assembled and forced them to desist.

They were afterwards marched out of the town, and 150 of them, who continued to show a disposition for mutiny were brought back, chained together, two by two, thus exhibiting to the inhabitants of this once free and prosperous city, the most melancholy proofs of the degradation and slavery to which they have sunk. Notwithstanding their fetters, they are said to have re-entered the city with shouts of 'Long live the King of England'. Part of them, will no doubt, be shot. Ten of the guards, in crossing from Hamburgh to Harburgh, threw themselves into the river, and were drowned.

The spirits of the Hamburghers appear compleely broken, and despair and consternation are everywhere visible. Several have put an end to their existence, and the final extinction of their importance as a State is fixed. The disposition to emigrate is general, and some idividuals have already withdrawn to Russia.

The conscription in the towns lately incorporated, is considered as a most grievous measure. Thirty of the young men liable to be drawn, fled over to this island on the 16th instant, to avoid being sent to the army. There have been many insytances of wives having maimed their husbands, by cutting off their hands to avoid being drawn, so strong is the aversion to the measure.

General Chronicle

More Notes

#7 Hamburg City Guard
#8 Regimental Messes