was proper for him to inform the meeting of, in order to shew that so important an object had not been overlooked.

LORD CHIEF BARON rose and said, that he had listened to the statement of the learned Judge, and also to the resolutions which he had offered to the meeting. He, however, felt himself inclined to recommend the adoption of a mode similar to that which had been resorted to by the last meeting of the county. Upon that occasion a

Official Declaration of Neutrality of the Court of Purtugal, made by the Court of Lisbon, on the 14th of June, 1803, signed by the Prince Regent.

It having been the constant object of my pa

(Lord Hermand) something similar to that which was now proposed, respecting the enrolment of volunteers. He however took the liberty then of recommending, that before adopting that mode, application should be made to his Majesty's ministers to acquaint them of the sentiment of the county respecting the raising of these corps, and he was happy to observe that the desire of the County had been acquiesced in. He begged leave to recommend that the same line of procedure should be followed upon the present occasion, and he hoped the learned Judge would consent to withdraw his mo tion. He knew Mr. Yorke to be a gentleman of talents and of business, and he had no doubt that proper attention would be paid to any application on the part of the County The object of the motion was undoubtedly of great consequence to the safety of the coast, and of the metropolis, and would certainly meet his approbation; but the resolutions, from the little attention he had been enabled to give them, appeared to him to go rather too much into detail, and before he could give them his support, he thought they might require some alterations. As, however, the Government had evinced so much readiness to acquiesce with the sentiments of the county upon the late occasion, he thought that the same measures should be adopted in this, the more espe cially as his Grace the Lord Lieutenant had just informed the meeting that a memorial apon that subject had been drawn up and transmitted by him, in conjunction with the Lord Provost of the city. He would therefore request the learned Judge to withdraw his mo ion for the present, and in place of those resolutions, to substitute a general resolution of the following purport, viz."That his Grace the DUKE OF BUCCLEUGH

having informed them that he, in conjunction with the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, had transmitted to his Majesty's ministers a memorial, stating the import"ance of speedily appointing a stronger

maritime force for the defence of this "coast, the meeting UNANIMOUSLY agree in

bly maintain the pacific relation, subsisting between me and those powers to which I am allied and in amity; and resolving in the present circumstances of Europe to establish those principles which ought to regulate the inviolable system of neutrality which I propose to observe, in case (which God avert) a war should be commenced between powers who are my friends and allies, and having in view how much it is for the benefit of humanity and tranquillity of my domi nions and subjects, to remove all and every dispute which might result from a want of knowledge of the regulations tending to obtain the ends which I propose. I am pleased to declare that the cruizers of the Belligerent powers shall not be admitted into ports of my estates and dominions, nor the prizes made by them or by mea of war, frigates, or any other ships of war, whatsoever, without any other exception but that by which the laws of nations rendered hospitality in dispensible with this condition, notwithstanding, that in the same ports the sale or unloading of said prizes will not be permitted should they be brought in under the above-mentioned clause, nor shall they be permitted to delay longer than is necessary to avoid the danger or to receive those innocent helps which may be necessarythus re-establishing and putting in full force the observance of the decree of the 30th of Aug. of 1780, by which this subject was determined. Let the Council of War thus understand and have it executed, expediting immediately the necessary orders to the governors and commanders of provinces, fortifications, and maritime parts, in conformity to this decree.

FOREIGN OFFICIAL PAPERS. REPORT of the MINISTER OF WAR to the CONSULS of the FRENCH REPUBLIC, relative to the CAPTURED FRENCH STANDARDS FOUND AT HANOVER. Dated Paris, 5 Vendémiaire, An. 12.

CITIZEN CONSULS,General Mortier has sent to Paris nineteen pair of colours and sixteen standards, taken at different periods by the Hanoverian troops from the French, and laid up in the grand arsenal of Hanover. The greater part of these trophies, torn, stained with blood, and consisting only of tatters, shew how dearly the enemy must have paid for them. A standard representing on both sides a sun, had been taken on the 11th September, 1709, at the battle of Malplaquet, when the army of the allies, superior in numbers and commanded by the Duke of Marlborough and the Prince Eugene, obtained over the French, led on by Villars and Bouffleurs, a victory so long dis puted. A single tri-colour standard, with the motto "Liberty or Death" had belonged to a republican battalion at the commencement of the

war. The part of the silk on which the name of the battalion should have appeared has been cut away. Other inscriptions refer to the affairs of Veltingen, of Langhensalza, of Villinghausen, of Minden, and the dates of 27th June, 1743; 1st June, 1758; 1st August, 1759; 15th February and 16th June, 1761; and 24th June, 1762. The remainder of standards and colours appear to belong to the same epochs, and to have been lost in the unfortunate actions which followed the battle of Rosbach. Thus they recall the war of 1755, begun by the English without any previous declaration, and signalised by an assassination, that of Jumonville. They recall successes very little honourable to the enemy, since they were in a great measure owing to the perfidy which violated the Convention of Closterseven. They recall the weakness which then reigned in the councils of the French government, and which at last consented to the ignominious treaty of 1763.In the very beginning of a new war, undertaken to avenge the faith of treaties, to punish perfidy, and to wash out the many insults offered to the French name, we see the monuments of our antient misfortunes changed in our hands into monuments of glory. We may now place, with pride, these colours which we have recovered, in the midst of those taken from the enemy, with which French valour has decorated the dome of the invalids. More than one veteran recognising, with emotion, the standard under which he had fought, which he had perhaps stained with his blood, will bless those who have made an ornament of his last asylum.— The new trophies, added to those which ten years of victory had accumulated, are the presage to Frenchmen of the fresh successes promised them by the justice of their cause, the heroism of their warriors, and the genius of him who commands them have the honour to propose that government shall order the colours sent home by General Mortier to be hung up in the Temple of the Invalids, with the following inscription :Signa nostris restituit sacris Direpta Parthorum superbis Postibus.-HOR.

DOMESTIC OFFICIAL PAPERS.

HIS MAJESTY'S PROCLAMATION FOR CONVENING PARLIAMENT ON THE 22D OF Novembrr, 1803. GEORGE R. Whereas our Parliament stands prorogued to Thursday the third day of November next: We, with the advice of our Privy Council, do hereby publish and declare, That the said Parliament shall be further prorogued on the said third day of November next to Tuesday the 22d day of November next: And we have given order to our Chancellor of that part of our United Kingdom called Great Britain, to prepare a commission for proroguing the same accordingly. And we do further hereby, with the advice aforesaid, declare our Royal will and pleasure, that the said Parliament shall, on the said 22d day of November next, be held and fit for the dispatch of divers urgent and important affairs: And the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, and the Commissioners for Shires and Burghs, of the House of Commons, are hereby required and commanded to give their attendance accordingly at Westminster on the said twentysecond day of November next.Given at our Court at St. James's, the twelfth-day of October, One

Thousand Eight Hundred and Three, in the Forty-third Year of our Reign.

GENERAL ORDERS for all the OFFICERS appointed to the battalions OF THE ARMY OF RESERVE, and the SECOND BATTALION of the regiments of the LINE, to JOIN their regiments before the IST. OF NOVEMBER. Dated Horse-Guards, October 13, 1803.

It is his Majesty's Command, that all Officers appointed to the Battalions of the Army of Re serve, and to the Second Battalions of the Regiments of the Line which have received men from that Corps, shall forthwith join their respective Regiments. His Royal Highness the Commander in Chief will lay before his Majesty the names of Officers belonging to these Battalions, who shall not have joined before the 1st of next month, (whose absence is not satisfactorily accounted for throught their Commanding Officers,) in order that they may be superseded. Officers, on being appointed to any of the Regiments above-mentioned, are required immediately to report them selves to Lieutenant-General Hewitt, at his Office, No. 6, Suffolk-street, Charing cross, from whom they will receive further instructions.By his Royal Highness's command,

HARRY CALVERT, Adjutant General.

INTELLIGENCE.

FOREIGN. The Albanians, who com menced the revolt in Egypt, have, since their junction with the Mamelukes, submitted themselves entirely to the direction of the Beys. The mass of the people in Egypt is favourable to their cause; and, from the great success which they have already ob tained, there can scarcely be any doubt that the whole province will soon be brought under their authority.The civil war in Arabia still continues: Medina, it is now said, is in possession of the Turks, but Mecca is held by a Sheeriff under Abdul Wachab, who has retired into the desert to re-inforce his troops.Accounts which have been recently received from America, corroborate the rumours which lately prevailed in the ports of the Mediterranean, the some acts of hostility had taken place be tween the subjects of the Emperor of Morocco and of the Dey of Algiers and the ci tizens of the United States.- -Great alarm prevails among the English merchants at Lisbon, in consequence of the hostile influence which France has obtained over Por tugal. A meeting of the factory was held for the purpose of considering what measures were necessary to be pursued; and it was determined that all British property ought iminediately to be embarked. Private formally recommended that every thing letters state that his Majesty's Consul had should be in such a state as to be ready for an immediate removal; as it was probable that it would not much longer be safe to remain there. Gen, Lasnes, it appears, his

dined with the Prince Regent, who with his consort were sponsors to one of the Am bassador's children, who was christened at the Royal Palace on the 29th of September.

The foreign papers continue to speak of the existence of a negotiation between some of the great continental powers for restoring the free navigation of the Elbe and the Weser; and some of these papers assert that this egotiation has also the pacification of England and France for its object.The anniversary of the French Republic was celebrated throughout France, without any splendid shows or extraordinary festivities, either in the capital or the departments. The prefect of the police at Paris has reported to the Grand Judge, that, during the last year, four hundred and ninety men and one hundred and sixty-seven women comitted suicide in that metropolis; eightyone men and sixty-nine women were murdered; six hundred and forty-four divorces took place; one hundred and fifty-five murderers have been executed; twelve hundred and ten persons were condemned to the gallies, the pillory, or chains, sixteen hundred to hard labour and imprisonment, and sixty-four marked with hot irons: during the same period, twelve thousand and seventy-six public women were registered, and paid for the protection of the police; fifteen hundred and fifty-two kept mistresses were noted at the prefecture; and three hundred and eight brothels were licensed.

DOMESTIC. -On the 5th inst. Redmond, the Irish traitor was tried and condemued, and on the next day was executed, as were, also, Mackintosh and Keenan who had been previously convicted. They all confessed their guilt, before they were executed; and Redmond acknowledged that he had held an official station under the provisional government.A commission was opened at Downpatrick on the 10th inst. and another at Carrickfergus on the 13th.On the 12th a proclamation was issued by the Lord Lieutenant offering rewards for the apprehension of the following persons accused of high treason:-W. Dowdall, J. Allen, N. Stafford, T. Wilde, and J. Mahon, of Dublin; W. Hamilton, of Enniskillen; Mc. Quigley, of Rathcoffey; O. Lyons, of Maynooth; T. Kerghan, of Crewe-hill; and T. Frayne, of Boreen.-Quigley and Stafford have since been apprehended and lodged in Kilmainham jail, where there are now about thirty persons confined on suspicion. In consequence of the promotion of Mr. Justice Downes to the Chief Justiceship of Ireland, Mr. Baron Dally will go to the King's Bench, and will

be succeeded by the Solicitor-General Mr. Cleland, whose place will be filled by Mr. Plunkett. Lord Cathcart, who was appointed to succeed Gen. Fox, arrived in Dublin on the 14th inst.--Gen. Tarleton bas left Ireland, and it is said, is to take the command of the Severn district in the room of H R. H Prince William of Gloucester.

Lord Moira is appointed to the military command of Scotland. A grace has passed the Senate of the University of Cambridge permitting those students who belong to Volunteer Corps to be absent during the ensuing term.- His Majesty has issued a proclamation for convening parliament, for the dispatch of business, on the 22d of November. The Mameluke Chief, Mahomed Bey Elphi Morat, accompanied by his suite, has arrived in town, to claim from this country the fulfilment of the promises which were made to the Beys, when the Br tish army in Egypt solicited their assistance. A printer in the neighbourhood of Tottenham-Court-Road, was taken into cus tody on the 14th inst, on suspicion of having printed and distributed seditious papers: some of the papers were found in his possession, and he was sent to the Secretary_of State's Office for examination.--The General Fast was respectfully observed throughout the metropolis and its vicinity, where the different Volunteer Corps attended their respective churches in full uniform.-The Lords Lieutenant of the county and of the city of Edinburgh have issued a proclamation recommending the inhabitants to supply themselves with a stock of flour, oatmeal, and biscuit; because, in case of inva sion it may be necessary to break up the roads, and the horses may be put in a state of requisition, and regular supplies of provision cannot then be obtained.

MILLTARY.Of the military preparations on the Continent it is almost impossi ble to give any satisfactory account. The intelligence from there is so irregularly received, and so imperfectly detailed, and, at the same time, so uncertain and so contradictory that no accurate notion can be formed of the number of troops which are collecting, of the precise places where they are to be assembled, or whence they are to be embarked, or of the generals by whom they are to be commanded. It is is said, however, that the French troops who occupy Hanover so far from preparing to retire, are Sortifying themselves in the different posts in the Electorate, and particularly on the banks of the Elbe; that great numbers of French and Batavian troops are spread along the coasts and southern borders of the Bata

vian Republic, and that large bodies are stationed at Bergen-op-Zoom and Breda; and in the islands of Walcheren and Cadsand where large detachments are constantly arriving, and where considerable preparations are making for defence; that the organization of the army forming between the Scheldt and the Lys goes on with great activity, that troops are marching there from the interior departments, through Brussels, Namur, and Charleroi, and that by the middie of the present month the number of troops between Ghent, Deyuse, and Bruges. will amount to eighty-thousand men; that the division stationed between Dunkirk, Nieuport, and Ostend is in a state of complete arrangement; and that the army of the Pyrenees assembling at Bayonne, under the command of Angereau will amount to sixty-thousand men, to which will be added an immense park of artillery under Gens. Avril and Ducos.--It is also said, that the French troops in the Italian states bordering on the Austrian frontiers in the neighbourhood of Venice are daily increasing, and that the Emperor has directed some Hungarian regiments to join those which he has already raised in the Venetian territory; that the Gallo-Italian army is very powerful on the borders of the Adriatic, and that measures are taking to transport a large force over to the Morea. -The military preparations for defending the British coast proceed as usual.

NAVAL--The French privateers La Caroline of eight guns and thirty-five men, and La Sophie of ten guns and forty men, which were fitted out at Harburgh in Hanover, descended the Elbe on the 18th ult, and on the 20th. came out of Cuxhaven. Captain Griffiths, who was stationed off there in his Majesty's ship Constance, got sight of them, and immediately dispatched all his boats after them, under the command of Lieut. Napier, but the wind and tide would not suffer him to attack them. The next day, however, Capt. Griffiths captured the Caroline, and sent his boats against the Sophie, who had got on shore, she struck her colours, but the sea ran so high that it was impossible to get the people out. During the night the wind changed, and she succeeded in getting off, and reached Cuxhaven.

SUMMARY OF POLITICS. NEGLIGENCE OF MINISTERS.-After carrying their forbearance to a degree heretotore unheard of; after having silently borne thousands of injuries and insults, any one of which would have called forth their remon

strances against a ministry worthy of their confidence; after this long night of popular. torper and baseness, the people appear to be awakening, if not to a sense of their shame, at least, to a sense of their danger.: The dawn has opened in the North, and it is to be hoped, that it will, in a little time, reach from one end of the country to the other. The County of Edinburgh have held a meeting, for the purpose of taking into consideration the means of obtaining from the Government the force necessary to the protection of their coast, which they openly declare, in printed publications, to have been "shamefully neglected by the minis"ters," and which they represent as in a state of absolute defencelessness, their "only

means of security consisting of a forty"four gun frigate, and she lying in Leith "Road." In consequence of this, it was proposed to the meeting, by LORD MEADOWBANK, to present "an address to his "Majesty, respectfully stating the defence"less state of the coast, and expressing their "hope, that his Majesty would take it into "his most gracious consideration." It was proposed to modify this proposition, so as to wait for an answer from the ministers, previous to the presenting an address to his Majesty; bur," the meeting unanimously "agreed in the necessity there was of mak"ing a representation to Government on "the subject "This charge of neglect of duty has constantly been denied by the ministers and their friends; and, most people will remember, that Mr. Windham and Colonel Craufurd were most outrageously assaulted, because they, even in the month of June last, represented the country as in danger from the invading powers of the enemy. Now, one would naturally think, a little more attention would be paid to the representations of Mr. Windham and his friends; but, no; still less, perhaps ; for, there is, in the mind of the coward, a perversity unknown to the minds of other men. "Seeing he will not see, and hearing "he will not hear." The time, however, must come, when the people of this country will feel what it is silently and basely to yield to the sway of the Addingtons and Hawkesburies; and, as feeling alone will have any effect on them, as feeling alore will goad them on to those exertions, by which alone they can save themselves and their posterity from indelible infamy, the sooner that time comes the better,To return to the subject of the proceedings at

* See a sketch of the whole of the proceedings, page 554.

Edinburgh; we find that a memorial was, long ago, presented to the ministers, relative to the defenceless state of the Eastern coast of Scotland; but that, even an answer had not been received; so that, the capital of the North, an object next in importance after London and our naval arsenals, has, with the utmost indifference, been left in a state of perfect nakedness, for no better reason, perhaps, than that Mr. Addington, his family, and his colleagues, happen to have nothing to lose in Scotland. The truth, however, is, that these ignorant men begin most sorely to feel what it is to be put systematically upon the defensive in war. Naturally confused, because they are weak and altogether destitute of those talents, which rise in proportion to the demands of the public service or their resources, they are inextricably perplexed and distracted with the multiplicity of the objects around them, and the numerous applications of individuals and public bodies in various quarters, each seeing his own immediate danger and anxious to remove it from himself and from those who are dearest to him, while the ministers, who should hear, consider, judge, arrange, and combine all into one consistent whole, having nothing prepared in their own minds, having formed no general plan, and being incapable of forming any, look, like the rest, only at the part which is directly before their eyes, and contemplate London almost alone, because on the credulity of the monied men and the humour of the populace in the capital, hangs not only their continuance in office, but, perhaps, their very existence on the face of the earth.LoRD MEADOWBANK very properly exposes the indecency of the excuse for wanting arms, that government did not expect such a spirit in the country. These are the men, who "follow the people!" and who anticipate from the people, whom they follow, and whom they calumniate while they attempt to flatter, nothing generous, nothing manly, nothing worthy of themselves. When, therefore, they profess, to follow the people, they, in fact, tell the world, that meanness and pusillanimity are to their own taste; for, they, at length, avow, that they expected to find in the people nothing but what is mean and pusillanimous. It was the ingenious MR. SHERIDAN, who discovered for them this notable maxim of following the people. The measures for the defence of the country were bot sooner adopted, said he, "because the people would not sooner bave BORNE them." What a fearful truth, if a truth it were!

*

* See Mr. Yorke's Letter, p. 497.

This argument was distinctly repeated by Mr. Addington; and, it has been still more amply dwelt on, it has been swelled quite into topic, in the pamphlet, which has lately. been published and circulated under the di rection of the Treasury, and at the expense of the public. "It is true," say they "that "Mr. Pitt and the Grenvilles thought a

great deal more might have been done, "and a great deal quicker. But this is the "characteristic failing and misfortune of "their family. For they would have had it "their measure, and not the nation's; it "would have been their act, and now it is "the people's! These are exactly the sentiments of all those ministers, in all countries, in whose hands the ancient governments have fallen to pieces. And yet, these, are the sentiments, this is the maxim and the rule of conduct of the men, to whom the honour and the very existence of Britain are now committed!- -But, what excuse, as to the want of arms, can be grounded upon the eagerness of the people to come forward, when every one well knows, that if not a single volunteer-corps had offered, the number of arms necessary for the training under the general defence bill would have been, at least, one-fourth greater than the whole num ber of volunteers? The volunteers, supposing the corps all to be complete, cannot contain more than seventy-five for every hundred that were to have been brought out and trained under the defence bill; if, therefore, there are not arms enough for the volunteers, and, it is well known, that there are not, even now, more than balf enough, where would arms have been found for the drilling under the defence bill? To state, then, the unexpected zeal of the people, as an excuse for not having provided a sufficiency of arms for them, is an attempt at imposition, which might have been looked for in the Addingtons and Hawkesburies, but which one cannot help lamenting to meet with in Mr. Yorke. "As to the reproach of tardi"ness," says the Addington pamphlet, "it

66

can have no other source than ignorance, "or detraction; ignorance profound and "pitiable, if its authors think the ministers "could have brought in the bill" [the gene. ral defence bill] "till the PEOPLE called "for it." This is another assertion of that doctrine, which is fast democratizing the British government; but, suppose, for a moment, that the ministers could not have brought in a bill to arm the people, till the people themselves called for such a bill, most certainly no such apology can be pleaded with regard to arms? The providing of arms required no bill; required no call on the part of the people; an order from the