As to guarantees, that they are as farcical as any of the exhibitions of Mr. Sheridan, whether on the town of provincial stage, wants no o.her proof than that which has been afforded by the result of the treaty of Luneville. And should, hereafter, a change take place in the politics of the Court of St. Petersburgh, we shall, by giving up Malta, have put it out of the power of a ministry friendly to us to adopt any line of policy favourable to our interests. As long as we retain Malta, Russia will not quarrel with us; but, we, for our parts, shall not be at all surprised to find, that the surren der of Malta, under some shuffling pretext or other, is the main point, on which the present negotiation with Russia turns. The ministers are at work: Lord Hawkesbury has got his pen in hand; and we all know with what fatal secrecy, with what deadly baste, he proceeds in bartering away the interests and honour of our country.

THE LONDON PRESS, which has always been conspicuous for baseness, is, at this moment, exhibiting that quality in a degree far surpassing any thing of the kind ever before witnessed. Our readers must well remember the manner in which the London newspapers, the Morning Post particalarly, spoke of Sir Francis Burdett and the Middlesex election; they must well remember the libels which this paper poured forth❘ against MR. ARIS, MR. MAIN WARING, and, indeed, against all the magistrates of the county; they must remember, that it was to this paper, principally, that Sir Francis owed his success; it justified all his pro ceedings, approved of all his sentiments, echoed his outrageous language, circulated his daring doctrines, joined him most heartily in his defiance of "bired Sheriffs, Par"liaments, and Kings! Yet, this paper is now railing against Sir Francis Burdett for acting upon the very same principles, on which it before supported him; railing against him in good set terms, and, not only railing against him for what he has said, but shamefully misrepresenting him, and, moreover, imputing to him sentiments which be has, both in and out of Parliament, positively disowned. We are, however, by no means sorry, that Sir Francis Burdett has experienced this sort of treatment: it will be a lesson for him and for other rich men, who are foolish or wicked enough to think of becoming demagogues. The man of the Morning Post is more sagacious than Sir Francis, and, indeed, is made of more pliant materials. A dread of the French has, amongst the people, got

and philanthropy are out of fashion; they will not, now-a days, se'l for so much as

"

loyalty." and a batred of the French, and, therefore it is, that the man of the Morning Post does not bring the former to market, while poor Sir Francis is weak enough to continue his old traffic. Besides, the man of the Morning Post, and others of his description, have a peculiar and powerful stimulus to "loyalty" in the dread of Cayenne, with which Buonaparté has threatened them. They remember the fate of their old friends ollot d'Herbois, and his associates in murder, whom the Morning Post loaded with praises; they remember the dismal accounts given by those who escaped from Cayenne; the ideas of dreary woods and burning sands, fogs and fevers, lizards and vipers, musquitoes and gallinippers, constantly haunt their minds. They have the sense to perceive, that nothing but the duration of the monarchy can prevent them from taking a trip to the other side of the equinox, and, therefore, they are loyal; but, if they could obtain a positive assurance, that they should remain untouched, their columns would, at this moment, be filled with culogies on the man, to whom they are now applying every term and epithet descriptive of wickedness. No acr of baseness, on the part of such men, can excite much astonishment; but, till one takes time to reflect on their characters and motives, one really does wonder, that they should have the im pudence now to represent, as a “fiend in "buman shape," the very man with whom, twelve months ago, they rejoiced that their country had made a treaty of amity.-What, too, must the candid ministry think of the language that is now made use of against Buonaparté? It would be well worth while to collect together all the things now said, all the pictures now exhibited, and compare them with what was said and represented by the same persons only a year ago. Through the same window, nay, through the very same pane of glass, where we beheld Buonaparié shaking bands with the King, we now behold him hanging upon a gallows! And, let it be observed, that this change has not been produced by any new crimes, on his part. All the atrocities, which are now justly imputed to him, he had committed before his hand was put into that of his Majesty; before his levee was crowded with crouching nobility and gentry from Eng. land; before the Duchesses of Gordon and of Dorset curtsied to his wife; before the vila news printers of London abused Lord Grenville for "not treating him with suffi

"cient respect;" before the man of the Merning Post thought it necessary to observe, that "Madame Buonaparte's virtues "entitled her to the envied caresses and "affections of the illustrious personage, who "had chosen her for his spouse!" It was before all this was said and done, that Buoparté had pillaged, massacred, poisoned, and apostatized. Where, then, will the world be able to find any honourable motive for the present conduct of the London press?

FRENCH BISHOPS AND EMIGRANTS.The observations published, in the True Briton and Morning Post relative to these gentlemen, have drawn forth a reply from the Mercure de France, which reply has been inserted in the Moniteur. It is a complete piece of reasoning, and it cannot fail to excite, amongst the nations of Europe, a just abhorrence of the principles of those by whom the London news-papers are conducted. We shall insert, in our next, a Translation of the article, of which we are here speaking, and, in the mean time, our readers will, we hope, do us the justice to recollect, that we reprobated the publications of which the French writers so justly complain, and in which all the London papers, the Morning Chronicle excepted, took a part.

THE DEFENCE BILLS, as they are called, have already been found to be incapable of execution. They appear to have effected no purpose but that of throwing the whole country into confusion. No man knows what to do: there is a stir, and a stir is good; but no other good has been produced. The people are ready to come forward; but, they have neither arms nor leaders; and, we understand, that all the offices connected with military affairs are crowded with applications for an interpretation of the laws. Not a man of the Army of Reserve is yet put under the command of any military officer. I saw on Tuesday last, from thirty to forty men for this army, whom the magistrates knew not where to send, or what to do with. There was no officer to receive them, nor was there any person that could tell where such officer was to be looked for, or where any information, relative to the matter, was to be obtained. This is just what was foretold: "the men are run

ning about bleating for officers." It was, I thought, settled, that they should be sent to join old regiments; but this part of the plan has, I fear, been frustrated, by the eager desire of increasing patronage! These, assuredly, are not the times for indulging a propensity of this sort.So great is the confusion of ideas created by the Defence

Bills and their numerous regulations, that, in many places, one bill is not distinguished from the other. The very names of the bills are not clearly known. The first is sometimes called the Army of Reserve Bill, sometimes the Additional Army Bill, sometimes the Conscript Bill, sometimes the Pressing Bill; and, as to the last bill, it has never yet obtained any name at all, good, bad, or indifferent. Then, as to the provisions, they are so numerous, so complicated, and, in many cases, so contradictory to each other, that it is absolutely impossible to execute them. There is no want of willingness on the part of the people, no want of attention and zeal in the gentry, clergy, or magistrates; all the nerves and limbs are ready to perform their functions; but there wants the head, the directing mind; these should be possessed by the ministry, who, unfortu nately possess no such thing. The Secretary at War, some time ago, passed a very severe censure upon the magistrates of the county of Surrey for their neglect in not completing the militia; but, the deficiency in the Surrey Militia can be proved to have arisen from the inadequacy of the Militia-Bill, a bill brought in by the Right Honourable Secretary himself. Some of the counties have, indeed, completed their regiment of militia, while Surrey, out of 2,200 men, or there. abouts, has not embodied above 700. This is a shameful defalcation; but the fault lies with the government and not with the magistrates of the county, who are as intelligent, as zealous, and as active as the magisirates of any county in the kingdom. Jt may be convenient, but it is not over just, for ministers to lay their own faults upon the shoulders of the magistrates. Every magistrate in Surrey was included in the sweeping charge of the Secretary at War, who, if he had given himself time to reflect, must have perceived, that their arduous and disinterested labours deserved from the government something very different from harsh and opprobious language.-The truth is, that every thing relating to the military defence of the country has constantly been put off so long before it has come before parliament, that, when, at last, it has come, there has not been time to bestow on it a proper degree of consideration; and every measure has thus been hastened along without receiving any of the benefits, which might otherwise have been derived from legislative discussion. The last bill, I mean the bill for a general enrollment, and for a partial training, should have been before the House of Commons for a month, at least; whereas, it came in of a Mouday, and it be

came a law the Monday following. Thus passed how should an act be perfect? How should it approach near to perfection?

IRELAND is said to be tranquil. We hope it is so; but we beg leave to caution our readers against the assertions, which the ministers and their Irish partizans may make on this subject. They have, for these eighteen months past, been boasting of the state of tranquillity and contentment, produced in Ireland, by the peace of Amiens. When people objected to the peace, the reply was, that, whatever opinions might be entertained with regard to Great Britain, "all the world "must allow that peace was absolutely ne

cessary to the tranquillity of Ireland." Mr. Ogle, during the debate on the treaty, said, that "there was not a man of loyalty in Ire"land, who did not receive the tidings of

peace with joy and satisfaction, and, on "the contrary, not a rebel or disaffected in"dividual, who did not receive it with

disapprobation and regret." Whence the Chancellor of the Exchequer modestly concluded, that Mr. Windham and his friends

were countenanced in their opposition by "the opinions of the disaffected, and that, so "far as their feelings were hurt at the

peace, their feelings were in unison with "those of the United Irishmen *."-These silly vapourings about the tranquillity of Ireland were renewed at the commencement of the present session of Parliament. It was in adverting to some of them that Mr. Elliot said," he saw nothing to make him be"lieve, that Buonaparté would neglect to "avail himself of any seditious combina"tions, which might exist either in England "or in Ireland;" and, said he, "it must "be admitted, that the intercourse of peace

is calculated to mature a system of organiza"tion with greater facility than it could have "been carried on in war." This notion was reprobated by the ministry and their Irish members, who all declared, that the seeds of discontent were totally destroyed in Ireland. There has, then, been a rapid growth since the 24th of November last! But, the fact is, and we have it from authority, on which we can rely, that the government is now in possession of positive proof, that the rebellion, which has lately broke out in Ireland, was planned during the peace, and in conjunction wilb persons acting immediately under the vernment of France. Nor have we any doubt, that Despard's conspiracy might easily have been traced to the same source; but, at that

go

See Debates, Register, Vol. II. p. 1790 and 1191.

+ See Debates, Register, Vol. II. p. 1685.

time, the ministers were in hopes of prolonging the duration of their peace, and, for that reason, they kept out of sight the connexion between Buonaparté and the traitors in London. With regard to the conduct of the government, as relating to the Irish rebellion, every day brings forth fresh proof of remissness, of downright carelessness, or of total incapacity. Had we read, in some legend, of rebels having secreted, within the bounds of a city, thousands of stands of arms, clothing for ten thousand men, pieces of ordnance, and a powder mill, we might have borne the relation, as a bold stretch of the romantic; but it is past all bearing to hear the same thing related as having actually taken place under a government, in the vigilance of which we are, nevertheless, told to place implicit confidence!

THE FORTIFYING OF LONDON has become the topic of discussion in the House of Comm ns. It was no longer ago than the 23d of June last, that Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Addington represented almost as a sort of treason the supposition that an invading army would ever reach London. These two persons, together with Mr. Sheridan and another or two that could be mentioned, do, if the news-paper statements be correct, make it a constant practice to misrepresent Mr. Windham. On the occasion, to which I now more particularly allude, that Rt. Hon. Gentleman, having before heard it advanced, as a maxim not to be departed from, that, if the enemy landed, battle must be given him before he reached London; having heard this from an authority of weight, he thought it his duty to say, that he hoped no such maxim would be imposed on the commander of the army; because, circumstances might be such as to render a battle, so given, the means of losing the country altogether, to which it certainly would be preferable to see the enemy in London. He did not state, that it was likely for the enemy to reach the capital: the utmost amount of his observations was, that the enemy might possibly reach it; yet, did the news-papers ascribe to the two persons aforementioned speeches abounding with the most furious assault upon him; they were made to represent him as disheartening the people, and as endeavouring to render the exertions of government useless; and Lord Castlereagh was made to assert, that, if the enemy advanced so far from the coast as to expose London to an attack, the people of this country must be the most base and corvardly of mankind. After hearing such language from the lips of the King's prime minister; and from one of his principal coadjutors,

had not the parliament and the people a right to be astonished and offended at the Official Note from Lord Catchcart to the Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, a document by which the nation and the whole world are informed, that, if an enemy should land, he may possibly and even probably march to London, and that, therefore, London ought to be fortified, and that arrangements for that purpose ought to be made "without an "bour's delay "The same Note, however, which talked of arrangements, talked about postponing the completion" of the works intended to be raised. The completion of a work is generally postponed till the said work is begun. But, a trace to all criticisms on this Note, which, without any disrespect to the noble author, I must declare to be one of the most incorrect and unintelligible productions that I ever had the mortification to peruse; and, his lordship will have the goodness to excuse me, if I express my serious concern, that any portion of the army, which is destined to defend the liberties of my country and the throne of my Sovereign, should be liable, in the hour of emergency, to receive orders couched in the same ambiguous and inexplicable style. The principal point to be ascertained in the meaning of Lord Cathcart's Note, was, whether the fortifications to be made round the cities of London and Westminster, were intended to be begun immediately, or whether the beginning of them was to be postponed, till the enemy was actually upon the coast. The latter appearing to be the intention of government, Colonel Craufurd brought the subject before the House of Comwons, on the 2d instant, when, at the close of a very long and very able speech, he moved the following resolution: "That, it now ap

motion was withdrawn. Never, surely, was any thing more reasonable than the opinion contained in this resolution. As to the scite, the nature, or the extent of the works proposed to be erected round the metropolis, or rather, proposed to be talked about, I shall only say, that, if His Royal Highness the Commander in Chief has, agreeably to the assertion of Lord Cathcart, really "directed "his thoughts to the consideration of this sub"ject;" if he has finally determined that these two cities are to be defended by lines, works and batteries, sweeping round a circumference of forty miles; if this be the determination of His Royal Highness, why, then, it is my determination to say no more about that matter, but to confine myself to the point of time, when these, or any works, ought to be erected. The ministers very prudently cleared the galleries of the House of Commons upon the utterance of the first sarcastic sentence from the lips of Colonel Craufurd. He began his speech by explicitly stating, that he should carefully abstain from saying any thing, which might be supposed to convey intelligence to the enemy, of which, to say the truth, ministers thought much less, than of the intelligence, which they knew he would convey to the press, trelative to their ignorance and procrastination.-The time required to make fortificaions agreeably to the plan of Lord Cathcart would be about ten years; but works, such as a person like Colonel Craufurd would approve of, might be rendered useful in a few weeks, and be completed more at leisure. If ever the French reach London, or its neighbourhood, it must be in a very few days, not more than five or six at the utmost, after they make a landing on the coast. What fortifications can be raised in the space of six days? But, the Secretary of War, who, from the name of his office, one would expect to understand some trifle on this subject, proposed to wait till the enemy was seen to draw out his ships or boats ready for the expedition; just as if by any thing in the appearance of the French vessels ope posite Havre, Dunkirk, or Flushing, we should be able to discover, the precise route, by which the army on board those vessels would make its first approaches against London! But, suppose this were the case; we should then have but tight days wherein to erect our fortifications; and, with the news of the enemy upou the coast, with the wo men and children frightened half to death, with all the mercantile wealth in jeopardy, with a general desire in every man to get a few pounds worth of hard money in exchange for bank-notes or for goods, in the