and those in the House of Lords on the Army of Reserve and Clergy Bills. A very interesting debate also took place on the 13th inst. in the House of Commons, on the Income Tax Bill. The ministerial plan of taxing the Funds was opposed by Mr. Pitt in a speech of great length, and was streDuously defended by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Treasurer of the Navy. On a division of the House, 150 voted with Mr. Addington, and 50 with Mr. Pitt. The Hon, Galbraith Lowry Cole has been returned for the County of Fermanagh; and William Fitzhugh, Esq. for the Borough of Tiverton. The Secretary of War has given notice of a plan for arming the whole country.-Many of the counties of the United Kingdoms have met for the purpose of organizing measures of defence; and H. R. H. the Duke of York has addressed circular letters to the different Lord Lieutenants, giving directions for their conduct in case of an invasion. The City of Bristol and the Highland Society of Scotland, have come forward with addresses to the King assuring his Majesty of their loyalty and devotion. The Mayor and Aldermen of London have recommended the formation of volunteer corps throughout the City-On the 10th inst, the middle tower of Westminster Abbey was set on fire, through the carelessness of some workmen who were employed in repairing it; but the exertions of the firemen prevented the flames from extending beyond that part of the edifice in which they originated.

. MILITARY.-On the 24th ult. a courier arrived at the head quarters of Gen. Mortier, and brought, it is said, intelligence of the refusal of the King of Great Britain to ratify the capitulation of Hanover. A council of war was immediately called, and it was resolved, that the Hanoverian soldiery which had retired beyond the Elbe should be disarmed. The French troops were instantly put in motion, and the headquarters were removed to Lunebourg, at which place the army destined for this service is first to be assembled. Eighty large embarkations were collected at Hoopt on the canal of Lunebourg, and all the vessels there, at Stadt, and at Harbourg put in requisition. The passage will be effected near Marschaept, Chasseur-vert, and Artlenbourg. Part of the army which was forming at Dewenter under the command of Gen. Desolles will assist the operations of that commanded by Gen. Mortier.-The Hanoverians are determined to oppose this expedition, and are making preparations for defence. They have taken a strong position on the heights of Eschebourg, and

have established a battery behind Gusthacht. Detachments are posted on the Krimmel, in the neighbourhood of Hohenhorn, and, in the environs of Hendorf, and batteries have been erected on the right bank of the Elbe. The baggage of the army has been sent to Raizebourg.-A division of the Gallo-Italian army, composed of 12,000 men, has entered the Abruzzos, in the Neapolitan territories. Gen. Murat is daily expected at Genoa, to assemble all the troops which are spread over the Ligurian territories. A camp of 100,000 men is said to be forming at St. Omer, one of 60,000 at Cherbourg, and of 40.000 in Holland.The embodying of the militia and the marching of them to their various present destinations proceed with all possible expedition in England, Ireland, and Scotland. Great industry is exerted in filling up the regiments of the line; and the balloting for the Army of Reserve has already commenced.

NAVAL. On the 25th ult. the Hon. Capt. Paget, in the Endymion, captured, after a chase of 8 hours, the French Corvette La Bacchante of 18 12 pounders and 200 men. La Bacchante had her second captain and 7 men killed and 9 wounded. On the 29th, Capt. Dixon, in the Apollo, captured the French Brig La Dart, of 4 guns and 45 men. On the 5th inst. Capt. Wallis in the Naiad captured the French Schooner La Providence of 2 guns and 22 men, laden with cannon and ship-timber. Besides these captures, the list of which is taken from the London Gazette, many others have been made, and the prizes have been brought into our ports by different vessels cruizing against the enemy.-An English squadron was cruizing in the Road of Naples on the 23d ult. and, it was supposed, had taken possession of the Islands of Crabrera, Procida, and Ischia. Admiral Cornwallis has sent the Malta, Canopus, Sceptre, and Conqueror, to reinforce the fleet in the Mediterranean, and Sir Edward Pellew, with the Tonnant, Spartiate, and Mars, continues cruizing off Rochfort. Independent of these the channel fleet amounts to sixteen sail of the line.--On the 2d inst. the British Frigate Minerva, of 49 guns 230 men, under the command of Capt. Bren ton, run upon a rock on the French coast, and was taken. Several merchantmen from our West-India Islands have been taken by the French, and some of them have been sent into Spanish ports. Some English ships have also been recently captured by the pri vateers of France in the North Sea. Ninety English vessels, which were waiting there'

and

for convoy, have at length sailed under the protection of one of his Majesty's frigates. The French merchant ships which were on different parts of the Atlantic Ocean are daily arriving in the ports of the Republic and her allies. A fleet of 8 sail from St. Domingo, under convoy, got safely into Cadiz, and another valued at more than 7,000,000 livres into Marseilles. Their ships of war are said to have gone to the United States of America. The Dutch fleet under the command of Admiral De Winter has sailed from Ferrol for the Cape of Good Hope.-Within these few days past considerable apprehension has been excited by a report of several strange sail having been seen off the coast of Ireland; they are now said, however, to be a fleet of French merchantmen from the West-Indies bound to France.

SUMMARY OF POLITICS.

St. DOMINGO. It is impossible for us now to recollect how many times the evacuation of this island, by the French, has been asserted to have taken place. At last, however, it is credible that the French part may have been evacuated; and, if it bas not, it ought to be instantly destroyed, as a colony of France, an object that may be accomplished without sending to the WestIndies one additional soldier or sailor. Having been reduced, by the improvident measures of the ministers, by their conduct subsequent to the peace as well as by the peace itself, by their sins of omission as well as their sins of commission; having been thus reduced to confine all our views to the mere defence of our own homes, we seem to have forgotten what is passing in the rest of the world; wholly engrossed with the present moment, uncertain whether we are to live or die, future prospects, either of greatness or security, seem to have entirely sunk from our sight. Were not this the case St. Domingo never would have remained so long unnoticed. The commerce of this colony alone would, in a very few years, enable France to cope with us upon the sea; and, if she had remained five years at peace with us, if her insolence and impatience had not gone so far beyond all bounds, she would have had a fleet, if not equal to ours, capable, at least, of giving us very serious annoyance. St. Domingo, therefore, should be instantly blockaded, or so dealt with as to reader it perfectly useless to France, not only now but at any future period, within the space of twenty or thirty years.-On this subject we beg leave to refer the

Reader to the sentiments of our correspondent in page 78.

MARINES.The public have expressed great satisfaction at the promotion which has lately taken place in this corps, and also' at the addition which has been made to the bounty for recruits. But, we are sorry to find, that in consequence of a new regulation made by the present Board of Admiralty, the marines, upon being put on shore, at sick quarters, are to have their pay reduced, at once, to four pence a day, instead of remaining at a shilling a day for the first twenty-eight days, as was the regulation till Lord St. Vincent was at the head of the Admiralty. The hardship, not to say cruelty, here complained of is very great indeed, and, for reasons which we forbeat to state, it is peculiarly impolitic to inflict it at this time. The indignant feelings of those who have witnessed the services, and who now witness the neglect of this brave and loyal corps, it would be somewhat dangerous for us to express; but, that we amply participate in them we have no scruple to declare, and we trust, that, from some quarter or other, means will be found of counteracting the fatal influence under which the navy of Britain seems destined to perish.

CAUSES OF THE WAR.-When people take courage to look beyond the dangers of the present moment, they are puzzled to discover how this war is to end; and, this their embarrassment arises from a want of having duly considered the causes from whence it began. There was no single specific cause; nothing that could be named and hence it is that the French have all along had the better of the argument. We began the war, we refused to give up Malta; these are facts, which we cannot deny; they are facts that strike the mind, and that' make a lasting impression upon it. Bat, the real cause of the war was, as Mr. Addington expressed in his budget speech, "the impossibility of remaining at peace," and this impossibility arose from the ambitious views of the enemy, favoured by the vast extension of coast, left in his possession by the treaty of Amiens. When, therefore, we hear the Morning Chronicle descanting on the mediation of Russia and Prussia, we ask, what effect that mediation can have as to the result and termination of the war, unless its object is, to change the relative situation of England and France. The purpose of the war, as lately stated in the Morning Post, is, to convince BUONAPARTE, that be cannot conquer this country by invasion, and, to this end, the writer says, we ought

to have two hundred thousand men in arms, This is, too, a very fashionable notion of the object of the war; it was first put forth by the Sec. at War, and having been adopted by the minister, it, of course, became à la mode, both in town and country. But, how vain and foolish this notion is, requires but little sagacity to perceive. You fit out and send to sea as many vessels as you can man; you raise an army of two hundred thousand strong; you establish corps of sea-fencibles; you arm the whole nation cap-à-piéd; and, because Buonaparté is convinced, that he cannot conquer you by force of arms tubile you are in this state of preparation, you think he will be convinced that he cannot conquer you when you are no longer in that state. This must be the opinion of those, who found their hopes on the conviction of Buonaparté; or, they must mean, that the country is always to maintain the naval and military force, now raised and intended to be raised; in which latter case, we shall, as Lord Folkestone, some time ago observed, sink down and die under the weight of our own armour. No; "" we

are at war, because we cannot be at peace;" because, the perfidious traitor, who governs France, fancies himself not to be safe, while Britain is free; because he does, and will seek our destruction; and, because, while he has Belgium and Holland in his hands, he always will possess the means of effecting that destruction, either by force of arms, or by the no less certain force of burthens laid upon the people, till they can no longer bear them. Holland, therefore, must be completely freed from his controul: there must be a barrier erected between him and that republic; such a barrier as would cost him a campaign to break through, and, thereby give us time to prepare, time to augment our peace establishment; and, if the war ends, without having obtained this object, we shall be amongst those who will say, that peace, even with the loss of Malta, would have been preferable to hostilities. Holland is, as it was well described by Dr. Laurence, the principal out work, of a fortress, of which this kingdom may be called the body of the place, and Engiand the citadel. While this out-work, therefore, is in possession of the enemy, what tranquillity, what safety, can we possibly enjoy? Our slips may, indeed, continue, for some time, to go in and out unmolested; we may trade with most parts of the world; but, the outwork will constantly wear a threatening aspect; we can never lay down our arms, even for a day, without exposing ourselves to the consequences of an assault.

Were the anxiety, created by this state of things reciprocal, we might, indeed, then hope that mutual interest, would, finally, put an end to the evil. But, the anxiety. as well as the expense, must be all on one side. The enemy is perfectly tranquil; he loses no time, runs no risk, he lives at free quarter, and, by the very means which he employs to menace us, he holds Holland in subjection and vassalage. From this post, this all-important post, this key to the heart of the British Empire, he must be dislodged; and, if there be any man, who hopes to ef fect this object, without a long, vigorous, and well conducted contest, we may envy him his consolatory disposition, but we must despise his understanding.

FINANCE. The disgusting cant about "consols,"" the market," &c. &c. is, we are happy to perceive, very fast falling into disuse; and, we cannot but hope, that the day will soon come, when such phrases as those of "magnificent receipts" and "commer "cial grandeur" will be banished from beneath the ancient and venerable roofs of Westminster to the mansions of those Lords, whose transitory honours are derived from the favours of Mammon. The London newsprinters, however, find it very difficult to lay aside their long-indulged habits; and, being, in general, stock-jobbers themselves, no small portion of their immense columns is occupied with lamentations at the fall of the English funds, while those of France continue to rise. This is a consequence, not of our situation, not of the physical force, with which the enemy menaces our shores, not of the real danger which exists with respect to our government and country; but, of the imaginary danger, the absence of imaginary security, the want of confidence, of that confidence, of which Lord Hawkesbury boasted, as one of the principal means of resisting the power of France. This consequence, which we, long ago, said would arise out of the peace of Amiens, is a mark, not of our want of ability, but of our want of will, to defend our interests and our honour. Mr. Pitt put our "increase of wealth' into the scale against the extension of French territory, and the glory of French arms; but, as we observed, in remarking upon the speech, to which we now allude, a nation, which sets more value upon its wealth than upon its valour, will never be even a rich nation for any great length of time; because, the men of money, who are, as to their own private concerns, the most cunning of all creatures, will always remove their dearly beloved treasure to the place of the greatest security, to the place where there

is the greatest degree of physical force ani. mated by the greatest degree of courage. Credit, capital, and confidence," did, indeed, previously to the French revolution, depend more upon the moral than the mili tary character of a nation. When from wars little else was expected than victories, and defeats; and when treaties of peace generally turned upon the abandonment of a pretension, the recognition of a right, or, extended, at farthest, to the demolition of a fortress, or the transfer of a province or a colony; then, indeed, public credit, in the nations of Europe, depended upon the moral character and pecuniary means of the governments of those nations respectively; but, now that the existence of the governments themselves depends upon the result of the war, when peace is seldom made without bartering a nation, now men of wealth, particularly if that wealth be moveable, will, if obliged to choose amongst belligerent nations, give the preference to that, which they regard as being the strongest and most brave; and, however mortifying the fact may be, it is nevertheless a fact, that, since the alarm of invasion has prevailed, considerable sums have been sold out of the English funds for the purpose of purchasing

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"which had been stipulated to be paid for an old one, he should be glad to know upon what terms government could expect to borrow money in future." With respect to the extending of the proportion, iț was a prominent idea of our own, where we stated, that the 5 per centum now laid upon the interest was only a small beginning in the good work, which was finally to relieve us from that mill-stone, which has so long been sinking us, deeper and deeper, into every species of disgrace. -Here, however, we disagree with Mr. Pitt, who does not seem to segard the tax upon the funds as necessary to the salvation of the state; whereas, we regard the destruction of the monarchy as certain, unless the funded debt be annihilated; and this cannot, as far as we are able to perceive, be conveniently and effectually done, except by a tax, a direct and unequivocal tax, upon the funds; or, in other words, a deduction from the inte rest due to individuals on the capital stock, We hear a terrible out-cry, excited by this opinion; but we despise this sort of clanour and abuse as much as we did the howling of the mob, when they broke our windows, because we refused to rejoice at the peace. We are fully persuaded, that our opinion is correct. It is the result of long thinking upon the subject; and has now been communicated to our readers not from any factions or party motive but from a desire gradually to prepare them for an event, which we regard as at no great distance, and which, if it came upon the country all at once, and totally unexpected, might be productive of infinite mischief, but which, if anticipated, and if met with only common

therewith into the funds of France.-When, on this subject, we, some time ago, stated, that the direct tax upon the funds, proposed to be collected at the Bank, must be regarded as "a breach of national faith," unless it could be clearly made out, that such a tax was necessary to the existence of the state, we were loudly censured by many persons, and particularly by the political friends of Mr. Pitt. What, then, must have been the mortification of those persons to hear this mischievous statement" (for such it was called) confirmed by Mr Pitt himself, who, in the debate of the 13th instant, declared that the tax on the funds " was a violation of a positive compact with the public creditor, and, in his opinion, gave the first blow to public credit." He desired it to be remembered, "that there was not a loan "which had been made, in which Pariiament had not pledged itself, that the in"terest should be paid without any deduc"tion." That these are almost the very words, which we made use of, on this subject, on the 18th of June, will be seen by referring to Vol. ill. p. 918. Mr. Pitt, said, too, that, the present tax was, certainly "sniall, but, that, if the principle was once established, the proportion might easily "be extendid, and if it was once admitted, that the interest for a new loan might be provided by deducting from the interest

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fortitude, cannot fail to raise this nation to a degree of power and glory that it never before attained. It is very natural for Mr.. Pitt to express his wishes that Parliament, "will not overturn that edifice, which it has. "erected with so much pains ;" and, he might, have added, with so much national shame, and disgrace. The Right Honourablé Gen-, tleman well knows, that this edifice must. be his sepulchral monument, or, that there, will not be a stone to tell where he lies., We do not say, or insinuate, that he is actuated by selfishness, in this or in any other part of his conduct; but, it is evident, that, in the fare of the funding system, his present reputation and influence, as well as his future fame, are deeply, if not exclusively, interested. In war and in negotiation he bas

failed; in oratory he shines transcendant, but mere oratory, unaccompanied with wise plans and successful measures, is, assuredly, not the sort of merit by which he would de

sire to be known to posterity.Let it not be said, that we, by the promulgation of these sentiments, create despondency in the country; for, neither our wishes nor our aetions have any such tendency. Those, on the contrary, who insist, that the existence of the nation depends upon the existence of the debt, are the persons who are most likely to plunge their hearers in despair; for, every man, however great his confidence in the solidity of the funds, believes that they must fail first or last; and, therefore, if he also believes that the fate of the nation is interwoven with that of the funds, how great, if he loves his country, must be his anxiety! A man, so believing, must view a depreciating stock table with the same sort of emotion that agitates the sick clown when he hears the ticking of the death watch. "I would," says the author of the Pursuits of Literature, "I would inculcate one truth "with peculiar earnestness, namely, that a revolution is NOT the necessary consequence of "national bankruptcy." This is the truth, which we inculcate, with all the earnestness in our power; and, we entertain a wellgrounded hope of seeing it, at no very distant period, universally prevail.

During

DEFENCE OF THE COUNTRY. the same evening, on which the debate took place, relative to the tax upon the funds, the Secretary at War gave notice, that he should pos pone, 'till Monday next, his motion for leave to bring in a bill for a further arming of the country; upon which Mr. Pitt rose, and, in a short speech, expressed his impatience at the procrastination of his Majesty's aristers. To this Mr. Addington replied, 1 no one could be more anxious than ministers were to hasten every measure connected with the defence of the country; but that, a bill such as it was now intended to introduce, " ought not to be brought for"ward in a crude and imperfect state; it was too gigantic to be so dealt with; and, he "was in hopes, that, in the end, much time "would have been saved by the present apparent delay, because the less imperfect "the measure might be, when brought for

ward, the more expeditiously would it pass through Parliament." This reply was a very good one, only it must have sounded extremely ridiculous from the lips of Mr. Addington, who had so lately brought in a bill, necessarily much less complicated than the present, which bill, before it passed into a law, underwent so complete a metamorphosis, that it, at last, changed its very name. It must be confessed, however, that the minister would have proved himself “a

"hardened sinner" indeed, if he had not profited from such lesson; and, it really does appear a little unreasonable, that, after the derision, to which the ministers so lately exposed themselves in complaisance to Mr. Pitt, they should be so soon scolded for not again placing themselves in a similar predi cament. The Conscript Bill originated with Mr. Pitt, who defended it as it at first stood, and who led the ministry into the whole of their conduct, respecting it, which conduct was certainly the most childish that ever was exhibited in any assembly of grown persons of either sex. After such an instance of the fallibility of Mr. Pitt; after feeling so severely the consequences of yielding a blind acquiesence to his will; no one will deny, that the ministers did well to pause before they brought forward another military measure dictated by him, especially a measure which is to have an influence so great and extensive as to affect, directly and even personally, almost every family and every man in the kingdom. The charge of dilatoriness, of neglect of duty, does, we think, come with rather a bad grace from Mr. Pitt, who suffered all the former part of the session of parliament to slide away, without one single day's attendance, while the news-papers more immediately under the controul of his friends, were continually rejoicing at his excellent health. That the war found the country in a wretched state of defence, or rather of exposure, is most certain; and, that the work of calling out and augmenting our force has hitherto gone most slowly, feebly, and inefficiently on, must be allowed; but, though we, though all the small party (and small, indeed, it was) who condemned the peace of Amiens, and who in sisted that it could not last a year, without producing the utter ruin of England; though we have a right to complain of the dismantling, and disbanding system, and of the tardy and reluctant conduct of ministers; those who applauded the peace, those who defended it, and especially those who assisted to make it, as was the case with Mr. Pitt, have, we insist, no reason whatever to complain of any deficiency that may now exist with respect to military and naval means. Mr. Pitt defended the peace chiefly upon the principle of economy; how was that economy to be practised, without retrenching the expenses of war? And how were these retrenchments to be effected, without diminishing the strength of the fleet and the army? He wished the treasure of the nation "not to be LAVISH "ED AWAY in continuing a confest with the

and