reserve, forming in Italy, arrived on the 5th inst. at Rimini, whence he is going to Ancona. The second division of this army, which consists of Italian troops, under the command of GEN. LECCHI, and the second Helvetic demi-brigade, which was assembled in Romagna, has followed the first, and Another has entered the Roman states. division, destined to occupy Capua, is on its march for Tuscany. The Italian republic, having no marine, and being there fore unable to assist the French by maritime operations, will make great augmentations of its troops, which will be succesively sent and united with the GalloItalian army. All the ships of the Ligurian republic are to be equipped and placed at the disposal of the French government. NAVAL. June 24th.-The Doris captured the French privateer La Pelagie, of 4 guns and 37 men, from Nantes, na cruise.-25th.-Capt. Mundy in the Hyara, captured La Plabe and 2 swivels, French privateer, of 4 guns three days from Cherbourg.-27th.-Lieu tenants Temple and Bowen, of His Majesty's ship Loire, with three boats, boarded and carried, after a severe conflict of nearly ten minutes on the deck, the French national brig l'enteux, of 4 long 18-pounders and 6 36-pound brass carronades, and 82 men. The action was confined to two boats, as the third, from rowing heavy, did not get up till the brig was taken possession of The brig laid close under the batteries of the Isle of Bas, from which a heavy firing was kept up during the whole engagement. On board the boats, the boatswain, 4 seamen and a marine were wounded; and on board the brig the second captain and 2 seamen were killed, and the captain, 4 officers and 8 seamen wounded. SUMMARY OF POLITICS. THE BLOCKADE OF THE ELBE, of which we have already expressed our hearty approbation, as being well calcutated to convince some of those powers, who from fear or covetousness, now give the command of their territories to France, that such baseness will not save them from Tuin. The measure is, too, perfectly justified by every law and principle of war. Hamburgh, and persons trading to Hamburgh and other places on the Elbe, have no right to complain; for, while the French command that river, while they there exercise hostility against us, we have most assuredly a right to shut them up, to prevent them from sailing out against our They further urge, that, as to goods which Danes and Prussians, under penalty of losing their commerce, to expel those French from the banks of the Elbe, and to clear that river for the English; though we participate with them and with the world in condemning the unaccountable tardines. and neglect of ministers with regard to Hanover, we can by no means agree with the merchants in condemning the only step, by which a mitigation of that fatal neglect could possibly be obtained. Did we, indeed, consider the sale of English goods to the Northern nations as the principal object, which ministers ought, in this case, to have in view, we should assent to the reasoning of the merchants; but we are very far indeed from entertaining such an opinion; we shall, for the sake of defending and avenging our country, be very ready to part with a portion of our trade; "perish commerce; live the constitution!" words with which Mr. Windham was charged, without ever having uttered them; words which were long one of the favourite topics of factious discontent. These words are now echoed from one end of the country to the other, and the sentiment they express is, we believe, almost universally adopted. The latter part, "live the constitution," was, indeed, carefully omitted by the patriots of 1796, as, in another case, was all the context of the words "a vigour beyond the law," which were made use of as part of a declaration opposed to another of Messrs. Fox and Sheridan, who, in behalf of Thelwall and others of that description, recommended a defiance of the law; in reply to which Mr. Windham said, that he trusted the law would be strong enough to enforce the execution of its own provisions; but, if it was set at defiance, he hoped government would have a vigour beyond it. Nevertheless, the detached phrases were, in these instances, taken up, and circulated through the nation with all the malignant industry of which republicans and traitors are capable; and the ignorant, of every rank, soon adopted the belief, that Mr. Windham had expressed his wish that all commerce might perish, and that government would, at all times exercise vigour beyond the law, or, in other words, change the constitution of England into a despotisin like that of Algiers.-These expressions, however, these offensive expressions, have, by the necessities growing out of the Treaty of Amiens, been, of late, brought into a pretty decent train of practical elecida ion, and (strange to relate!) without creating the least alarm, or clamour, in favour either of Billingsgate or 66 perish the Old Bailey; insomuch that " commerce " and " vigcur beyond the law, now stalk forth in all their naked deformity and loathsomeness, without exciting the least indignation or disgust, either at St. Stephen's or in the newspaper offices. Blessed change! There is nothing like filling people with serious dread of inva sion now and then, which has, in politics, an effect similar to that which a dangerous fit of sickness has in morals. Away go all the fooleries of liberty and equality, all the licentious ravings against press-gangs and standing armies, all the empty talk about whiggism and the constitution as "established at the revolution"; away go all these pomps and vanities, and the trembling sinner gladly renounces them for ever, if he can, but for this time, escape with his life. FRENCH BISHOPS AND EMIGRANTS. In our last, we referred to the slanderous imputations, which had been thrown out against the French bishops indiscriminately, who, during the late war, took shelter, and were protected and provided for in England. The Morning Post and Oracle, and, indeed, almost all the London newspapers, had stated, that "those very bishops, who "had been FED by us, were now pray"ing for the success of the French against "England." Another ground of complaint was, that these bishops were praying "for an usurper, though they had formerly "taken the oath of fidelity to their lawful "king."-First, we are struck with the consistency of these editors, who reproved all the French emigrants, without distinction, that were guilty of what they termed 66 obstinately rejecting the amnesty offered "by the republican government," and who now censure those emigrants for acts which necessarily arise out of their acceptance of the amnesty, unless these editors expected of them to return to France for the sole purpose of starving, or of being executed as traitors. Secondly, we cannot help admiring the loyalty of those men, who were for ten years clamouring against every one that appeared to harbour a thought hostile to the legitimacy of the usurped government of France; those men, who justified the expulsion of the king, who applauded the rebellion of his subjects; those men who have, from time to time, called on His Majesty to make peace, to acknowledge as the lawful sovereign of France, all those men who have at any time been at the head of the rebellion, and who had ail taken an oath of fidelity to their king; those men who have poured out such tur rents of abuse on Lord Grenville for advising the letter which rejected the overtures of Buonaparté; those men, who never were easy, till they, at last, found fit materials to work on, till their clamours induced the present ministers to make peace with, and thereby solemnly to acknowledge the legality of the power of the Corsican Consul; those men who have, during fifteen years, been exerting themselves, in every possible way, to enfeeble and to break in sunder the bonds of allegiance, who have treated with contempt all the ties between subject and sovereign, and who have, in a more especial manner, reprobated every attempt to restore the king of France to the throne of his ancestors and to that sway over his people, which such a restoration must necessarily give him; these men it is, who have now the effrontery to rail against the French bishops, because they pray for an "usurper,” after having once taken an oath of fidelity" to “their lawful king;" that usurper whose authority these men have so often held to be lawful, that king whose person and whose family they have so often libelled, and whose claims of sovereignty they have constantly, treated with scorn! Thirdly, the notions of gratitude, which these gentlemen seem to entertain, are very well worthy of remark. But, here we must, however unwillingly, listen for a moment to the True Briton of the 6th instant. We long ago stated from undoubted in "formation, that the French emigrants who had been for years fostered in this country, and fed by its benevolence, had "given in innumerable plans to the chief "Consul, upon their return to France, for *the invasion of our island: we have no “doubt, should an invasion be attempted, "of seeing many of these infamous fellows amongst our invaders. Should such be "the cave, we would have them all hanged "upon gibbets mast-high, as memorials of "French gratitude and English folly."-So! it was English folly was it, which "fed" the French emigrants? What did England expect, then, by the allowance that was made them, and on which it is well known to government that hundreds of them literally starved to death? Did she "feed" them (for feed it must be, it seems) for her own purposes, or for theirs? Did she give them food from motives somewhat similar to those, with which a farmer's wife crams her turkeys; or did she feed them upon the pure and disinterested principles of charity? Did she consider them as persons whose lives, if preserved, might become. 66 valuable to herself; or did she regard them merely as strangers in distress? If the former, where is her pretension to benevolence; and, if the latter, where is the ground of her complaint? If the food which we gave the emigrants was, by us, regarded as the means of purchasing their neutrality, with respect to Britain, for the rest of their lives, our claim on their gratitude ceases of course; and, if no such compact was understood, even by ourselves, whence comes our right to select them in particular, out of an invading French army, for the purpose of "hanging them upon gibbets, mast "high" Besides, where is this claim on French gratitude to end? It will certainly embrace those Frenchmen now here, as well as those who have been here; and then, let the adherents of MONSIEUR beware; for, according to the London news-printers, they must, in case their sovereign should be restored to his throne, never draw a sword for him, in any war that he may happen to have with this country, lest, if they should be taken prisoners, they should swing upon a gibbet mast high!" So base, so detestable an idea, never was, for one moment, entertained by any human being, the London news-printers excepted! As to the facts, however, from which these notions have arisen, they are as false as the notions are grovelling and savage. There have been, during the revolution, 3 French archbishops and 16 bishops residing in England, to wit, arcl.bishops of Narbonne, Aix, Bordeaux; bishops of Arras, Montpellier, Noyon, Perigueux, Troyes, Leon, Avranches, Varrens, Uzei, Rodez, Nantes, Lescar, Angoulême, Lombez, Cominges, Moulins. Of these, five only have submitted to the new order of things, and returned to France, to wit, archbishops of Aix and Bordeaux, and the bishops of Cominges, Troyes, and Lescar, the last of whom is since dead. So that, out of nineteen, only five have returned to France, and four only now found amongst those who are praying for the success of Buonaparté. This explanation proves, that it is malignity against those Emigrants who remain here, and not anger against those who have returned, by which the London news-printers are actuated. They say to the public: "this is the recompense you "will receive for feeding these Frenchusen." And, indeed, it is no very unintelligible hint for the mob to commit acts of violence on them. If this base hint should be taken, we trust, however, that such violence wil not be committed with impunity.-Again: on the subject of gratitude from the French Emigrants to this country, it is, it seems, due for protection as well as for food; now, be it known, to the eternal shame and disgrace of the London press, that it was no longer ago than the month of September last, that these very news-printers were unanimous in recommending, that the Vendéan Royalists, men who had long fought against Buonaparté, in alliance with GreatBritain, should not only be deprived of protection, should not only be sent out of the country, but should be given up to Buonaparte, to that very man, against whom they had fought for us, that very man whom these news printers now represent as an inexorable tyrant," a "barbarous mon"ster," but to whom they then wished the Royalists to be surrendered as a means of preserving peace! and these, good heavens! these are the men, who propose to hang French Royalists upon "gib"bets mast high," because they are not sufficiently grateful for the protection they have received in this country! 66 to THE THREATS OF BUONAPARTÉ surpass those of the Convention and the Directory; they are more insolent than those of Barras, more bloody than those of Rabespierre. This is the man, in whom Lord Hawkesbury had the sagacity to perceive, every mark of sincere friendship wards England; this is the man, for doubting the sincerity of whose friendship Mr. Elliot was severely reproached, if not abused and bullied, by the late Attorney General. The toasts, drunk at Calais, on the 29th ult. at a public dinner, given by Commissary Mengaud to the new Prefect, breathe the spirit of those who gave them: The Commandant of the Troops, "To him who "shall first distribute the billets for lodging "the troops at Dover."-The Colonel of the 28th of the Line, "The first review of the "French troops in St. James's Park."The Commissary at War, "Plenty of all in "England, and may John Bull make suit able preparation for the republican army, "to shew the zeal and talents of the com"missaries at war."-The Consul of the United States, "The union of the two countries, "whence have sprung the hopes of the "return of the human species to liberty. "May the properly extended efforts of the "chiefs of the two governments disappoint 66 every scheme of usurpation and monopoly." But, neither these toasts nor the placards that are stuck up in the towns and villages in France, holding England out as an object of plunder, and threatening its inhabitants with death, in case of resistance; none of these ought to be com plained of, none of them can be called insolent, towards those who made, who supported, or who approved of the peace of Amiens. That peace was made upon the base principle of acknowledged inferiority; upon the principle that any thing is better than war; that war is an evil at all times, and under all circumstances, and that to avoid it, no disgrace is too great. Upon this principle it was that the honour of the flag was given up, that Portugal, Sardinia, the Stadtholder, and the Vendéan Royalists, were abandoned, in defiance of the most solemn engagements. Those who had no feeling on this account, who were callous as iron to all these acts of perfidy and cruelty, who slandered, and who, if their cowardice had not been greater than their malignity, would have murdered the few persons, who opposed and reprobated the infamous peace; these people are now crying out against Buonaparté! They have now discovered, that he is "the "most abominable miscreant that ever "breathed!" And for what? What has he done now more than he had done before the Treaty of Amiens? The murders of Toulon, Paris, Pavia, Alexandria, and Jaffa, were all committed before; and our acknowledgement of the legitimacy of his authority could not, certainly, make him more a rebel and usurper" than he was previous to that acknowledgement. Yet, behold, those very persons, who applauded the peace made with him, who paid him compliments the most fulsome, who even praised his government, are now exhausting on him the whole vocabulary of abuse; and, rebel, usurper, traitor, tyrant, murderer, and monster, are applied to him with as little ceremony as if Mr. Pel tier had not, within these five months, been tried and convicted, before a British court and jury, for "devising and intend "ing to traduce, defame and vilify the "said Napoleon Buonaparté !"-And, do we believe, that the world is too stupid to perceive this? Is there any one foolish enough to hope, that our baseness will escape the observation and contempt of the rest of mankind? THE FUNDS have, during the last week, experienced great fluctuation. They have risen a little from the state in which they were some days ago, in consequence, it is said, of the minister's having determined, at the instance of the Bank Directors, to abandon his project of a tax collected at the Bank. It appears, that these gentlemen did not like to be put upon a level with excisemen, or rather, indeed, with tything men, seeing that the tax was to be taken in kind. The fact is, they perceived, that this tax, so collected, must be regarded as neither more nor less than a payment of nineteen shillings in the pound, which, together with the hard-heartedness of Parliament in restraining them from paying their notes in specie, would, they foresaw, strongly tend to reduce the paper of their manufactory to a value somewhat beneath that of its parent rags. While most men of any reflection are perceiving, and trembling at, the fatel influence of the funds upon political measures, and events, Mr. George Rose seems to rejoice at the increase of that influence, and, with apparent exultation, informs the Parliament, that fifty-thousand men, belonging to Friendly Societies, are now participating in the feelings created by the said influence: " in fact," says he, " they are "stockholders." Stockholders, indeed! They belong to clubs, each of which, by collecting a shilling a month, or something thereabouts, from each man, at last gets a sum, which is laid out in stock; so that each of these labourers and journeymen, whose portion of the aggregate sum does not amount, perhaps, to more than ten shillings, conceits himself a proprietor in the funds; and thus, if Mr. Rose's statement be correct, there are, by this scheme of Friendly Societies, no less than 50,000 labourers and journeymen turned into speculators and calculators of per cents; fifty-thousand of the men, who ought to fight the battles of their country, are, by this blessed plan, made to hate the very sound of war, to wish for peace, at all times, and upon any terms. Out of these clubs have grown others for the purpose of finding substitutes to serve in the militia in room of any of the members, who may hap-upon the subje. t, the plan was laid aside, language that becomes every man, particularly a nobleman. The funding system is eating out the heart of the nobility; it is sting every high and honourable feeling; it is now engaged in a desperate contest against the aristocracy and monarchy of England, and this contest must finally, and, perhaps, at no very distant period, terminate in the destruction of one or the other. pen to be drawn; a sort of mutual insurance companies, where men are sheltered from the service of their country as property is protected from accidents by fire! The truth is, that the whole nation is fast becoming a fraternity of clubs, all operating in the most mischievous way, and all arising out of the parent club in Thread-NeedleStreet. We are, however, happy to percrive, that the dangers of the country, which have awakened men's attention to things before overlooked, have given rise to the utterance of some very correct and manly sentiments on this subject, and others closely connected with it. Lord Darnley observed, in the debate of the 5th instant, that, were all the Jew-brokers become DEFENCE OF THE COUNTRY.-On the subject of the Conscript Bill, we beg leave to refer our Readers to the letters of INQUISITOR, p. 51, which have been sent us from the country, and which appear to have been written by a person, who has narrowly watched the progress of the bill. We cannot, however, refrain from pointing out to our Readers the shameful remisness of the ministers as to military concerns. Oa the 7th of March they inform the Parliament, that there are preparations, on the coasts of France and Holland, which render it necessary to take measures to meet an invasion. A few days later they actually call out the militia, which is tantamount to a declaration that imminent danger of invasion exists; and, it has now transpired, in a very late debate on the subject of defence, that, only two months ago, they were asking military men, and Colonel Crawfurd amongst the rest, for plans of defence; so that, they suffered two whole months to elapse, after they thought there was imminent danger of invasion, without coming to any resolution as to the way of resisting that invasion! Then, again, as to the Conscript Bill, they now say, that, what has been finally determined on was their original plan; that it was even so presented to bis Majesty; but that, the military men differing in opinion and the bill brought in with all the imper- |