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It has, since, been reported that, in reply to the explanations demanded by the Spanish Ambassador, Lord Hawkesbury said "that "the instructions given at the Custom-house "relative to the clearing out of vessels for

Spain and Portugal referred merely to Bri"tish vessels, and were to be considered only as a measure of precaution, that none might sail without convoy."

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MILITARY.—Private intelligence from the Continent states, that, on the 4th instant, Buonaparté reviewed a large body of troops intended to form part of the army which is intended to invade England; that, on the 13th, there were forty-two thousand men who would be ready to embark in ten days; and that the 10th demi brigade, which was in Holland, hd refused to volunteer in the invasion, and had been sent, in disgrace, to the banks of the Rhine.-Orders have been issued for erecting fire-beacons at White Bostil. and Mount Kerry, near Lewes; at Kailing bury Castle and Walseaberry Hill, near Brighton; at Shentenbury Hill, near Steyning; at Jevington Down, near East Bourn; and at Crowberoh, near Tuobridge Wells. Guards from the militia regiments are to be stationed at each beacon.--The defensive works at Pevensey, upon which two thousand men have been employed for this month past, are now completed. In both the northern and southern divisions of Pevensey Rape measures have been concerted for removing all the live stock into the interior of the country, in case the French shold land in Sussex.-Upward of three hundred persons have been employed since the 10th inst. in preparing the ground on the west side of Athione, for the purpose of erecting extensive fortifications there, to protect the grand military dépôt and garrison of that place. Some of the army of reserve have obstinately persisted in refusing to serve for any longer term than the continuation of the war, and, it is said, will therefore be sent to reinforce the garrisons of Guernsey and Jersey. On the 26th and 28th inst. his Majesty reviewed the volunteer corps of the metropolis in Hyde Park.

NAVAL.-Two French line of battle ships, which left the harbour of Cape François on the 24th of July, were pursued by his Majesty's ships the Vanguard and the Elephant. After a chase of twenty-four hours, the ship with which the Vanguard was engaged struck her colours, and was carried into Kingston, Jamaica. She is called the Du Quesne, and carries 74 guns. When the Vanguard left the fleet, the Elephant was engaged with the other ship, which is also a seventy-four, and is called the Du Guay Trouin. Dispatches have been brought from Sir James Saumarez, dated on the 17th instant, in Guernsey road: they have not yet been published, but they are said to inform the Lords of the Admiralty, that on the night of the 28th ult. seventeen flat-bottomed boats sailed from Granville, and got into a small port to the eastward, whence they proceeded the

following night to Dieppe, keeping all the time so close to the shore, that it was impossible to get near them.-His Majesty's ship Acasta has captured the French privatuer l'Aventure, of 20 guns and 150 men; she has also recaptured two ships from Jamaica.-On the 27th ult. Capt. Wolfe, in l'Aig's, cif Vigo, captured, after a chose of several hours, the French privateer l'Alerte, of 14 gans and $4 men; she had been sixty-five days from Bourdeaux, on a Cruize. A detachment has been seat from the Downs to attack the island of Marcou; among them are two bomb-vessels.-The squadron stationed upon the southern coast of Ireland consists of four seventy-four gun ships; one frigate of forty-six guns; one of thirty-eight; three of thirty-six; two of thirty-two; one ship of eighteen, and two of fourt en guns, and three smaller vessels; none of them are permitted to go more than six leagues from the land.-A small squadron, under the orders of a flag-officer, is to be sent for the protection of the Scotch coast. The Gorgon, armed en flute, is stationed at Leith, as a guard ship; and La Tourterelle, armed en flute, is to defend the Clyde.-The French squadron which got into Ferrol some time ago, has received a strong reinforcement of men from France, and is now lying in the inner harbour, with a Dutch ship of the line

and a corvette.

SUMMARY OF POLITICS.

THE VOLUNTEERS seem, at the present moment, to have attained the zenith of their glory. They were thanked by the House of Commons for services which they had not, and which they never will perform, and Mr. Sheridan, who proposed that vote of thanks, has now reviewed them in Hyde Park; for, as to the King, he was, if we are to believe the insolent newspapers, a very insignificant person when compared to Mr. Sheridan, who, we are told, was "conducted up to the Royal "Standard by a Ceneral Officer, and who "there conversed with the King very fami

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liarly for some time." There was only this wanted to give to the whole proceeding that farcical finish, which the several parts seem to demand.The ministers, after having thrown a slur on the army, after having made a most invidious distinction between it and the Volunteer Corps, after having given a decided preference to the latter, as far as the House of Commons could go, have now advised and prevailed upon his Majesty to do the same.-And why were the Volunteers of London to have the preference? Because they are the most inefficient? Because they were the most forward to make a refractory opposition to the reduction of their numbers? Or, is it because they are nearest to the Bank, and to White

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ciate, till, if multiplied beyond due bounds, they, as in the present instance, change their nature, become a sort of paper-currency, and, though they may, for some time, serve: as a kind of legal tender, no man and no body of men, who have sterling merit, and who seek for sterling fame, will ever covet their possession. The same may be said of the thanks of the House of Commons, which have been lavished on corps that did not vet exist, on persons who had not only not done any thing, but who were not yet known, and who, at last, for the far greater part, became Vo

tary service. If these thanks were hereafter to be transmitted to any part of the army who should repel the enemy, and save the state, what must be the sentiments of the officers and men, to whom such a tender should be made?

hall and Downing-street? Poor weak souls must those be, who expect to provide for their security by flattering such people as these.The Royal Standard has been hoisted at no review of the army. What has the army done, that it is to be thus studiously cast in the back ground? Surely the Corps that fought in Egypt, at Malta, at Martinico, and at a hundred other places, have as good claims to the gratitude of their Sovereign and their Country as Corps, the members of which never yet, at any rate, saw an enemy, nor ever slept a night out of their own houses.--But, these marks of Le-lunteers for the purpose of availing real miligislative and Royal Favour are intended to encourage the Volunteers. Since they are raised, since they, unfortunately, are to be, in some sort, depended upon for the defence of the metropolis and the country, they should certainly receive all due encouragement; but, no military honours should be bestowed on them, equal to those which the corps of the army are accustomed to receive. No small portion of the Volunteer Corps, in and about the capital, are called Royal. Why, royal is an epithet of honour, attached to the name of a corps as a reward only for most honourable and most signal services. The Marines, for instance, have lately been made a Royal corps, and their facings, if ever-varying caprice had not chopped them off, would have been blue, instead of white, as they were before. The army looked upon this change as a very great honour conferred on the corps of Marines; but, both the army and the nation agree, that it was an honour, which the bravery and unshaken fidelity that the Marines had evinced, at all times, but particularly during the mutiny in the fleet, fully deserved. But, if this honour is bestowed on corps which have never rendered any service at all; if it is scattered about, like the title of modern knighthood, merely to gratify emptiness and vanity; if it is made use of for the vile purpose of keeping the worst of the rabble, the talking, snarling, shopkeeping rabble, in good humour; if it is thus flung to the dogs, how can it possibly be any longer held in estimation by the army? One very valuable possession of the King is, therefore, now rendered nothing worth. Honours, and particularly military honours, are, as Burke most happily described them, "the cheap defence of nations;" but, he at the same time observed, that the road to those honours must be rugged, steep, and the object most difficult to attain. Honours of every kind are, in one respect, like money; their value is always in a d rect proportion to their rareness as they increase they depre

-One thing, however, in these reviews of the Volunteers seems to have been proper enough; the buzzaing, "the English huzza," as the Adjutant General calls it, the three cheers, the rabble-like shout, which this domestic army made, at one part of the cere mony. Did ever any man hear of an army's huzzaing at a Review, and in presence of their Sovereign, except in revolutionary times? Indeed, it is impossible to contemplate this parading of "citizen-soldiers," a compound term which they are careful to assume, this huzzaing of the King, this swearing allegiance; it is impossible to con template all this, without recollecting the Champ-de-Mars, and the mournful history of the monarch, who, by a weak and mob courting ministry, was led to throw aside his faithful army, and to commit his throne and his life to the guardianship of "citizen-sol"diers."--Being on the subject of Volunteer-Corps, it may not be amiss to make an observation or two on the turn, which the newspapers have attempted to give to the circumstance of Mr. Windham's having been appointed Captain of the Felbrigg VolunteerCorps. These candid vehicles of news have chosen to represent this as a striking mark of inconsistency in that gentleman, who had so strenuously opposed the establishment of this sort of corps, and who wished to have a voluntary force of another description. Felb rigg is the name of the place where Mr. Windham's estate, in Norfolk, lies. The corps there consists chiefly of his tenants, workmen, and neighbours, who, by the by, had been, I believe, in great part, at least, collected together by his direction, and partly armed at his expense, before the bill relative to volunteer-corps was brought into par-: liament. When it was determined to have,

nothing but volunteer-corps, Mr. Windham was, of course, compelled to head his people, under that establishment, or not to head them at all; so that, if he has, in this respect, acted inconsistently, every one who has opposed the passing of a law, and who afterwards obeys that law, is chargeable with inconsistent conduct. But, it may be said, that there was no law which he would have disobeyed in not becoming Captain of the Felbrigg Corps: yes, there are two laws, the law of nature and the law of honour; those laws which oblige him to seek for the preservation of his property and his life, and which no less imperiously call upon a man like him to endeavour to prevent the disgrace of his country. Every man, who seriously wishes to assist in the defence of the kingdom, wishes to be furnished with a musket; but, if the government will give him nothing but a piece of sharp iron upon the end of a stick, which is now sublimated into the name of pike, would any one think of charging him with inconsistency, if he endeavoured to defend himself with the said pike? Mr. Windham is situated in a country, lying just opposite the grand depository of the French invading force, and having a sea coast of more than a hundred miles in extent, defended by two 'troops of heavy horse, one regiment of militia, and about a dozen or eighteen pieces of cannon! This is not a situation, in which a person can be disposed to hesitate about the sort of force, which he shall use: like a man beset with thieves, he lays hold of the first thing that comes within his reach. Mr. Windham does not pay for paragraphs in the news-papers; he does not, like Mr. Sheridan, hawk his person about to be seen and smiled upon by the silly babbling shop-keepers of London and its environs; but he is not, for that reason, inattentive to the interests of his country, or inactive in promoting those interests. Since the prorogation of parliament, he has been constantly employed in endeavouring to put the county of Norfolk in a state of defence; he has visited every part of its extensive and naked coast, has roused the people to exertions which they before thought not of, and has shown the voters of Norwich, those lovers of peace and a large loaf, that his patriotism is not to be lessened by any degree of ingratitude or injustice.

IRELAND. Buonaparte's game is so sure, if he can only keep us, for a year or two, in our present state, that many persons think he will with regard to the invasion of England, master his impetuosity. In fact, he has placed us in a state of siege, and, if he were

to seize neutral vessels coming into any of our ports, arguments from our internal situation might be brought to justify the proceeding.

He has not as yet made an assault, neither have we made a sally; but, on our eastern side he has broken ground, while his flying troops are ready to storm us in the north, the south, or the west. Ireland is the point, to which most people think he is looking; and, therefore, the state of Ireland should be a constant object of our inquiry; for we have had some most fatal proofs, that neither the opinions nor the promises of ministers are, in this respect, to be trusted. The people of England seem to think Ireland restored to a state of perfect security, just as they thought Scotland well defended, till the resolutions of the county of Edinburgh publicly proved the contrary they seem to think, that the spirit of insurrection has been completely quelled by the execution of a few rebels, though two thirds of the people are discontented: they think Treland is sufficiently guarded by a few thousand regulars, by the Irish militia, respecting whose disposition it may be prudent not to say much. and by the yeomanry, to whom arms have been so indiscriminately given, that suspicion, in some parts of Ireland, pervades haif the ranks. The Irish government declare, that they are entirely safe; as if, by shutting their own eyes, they could shut Buonaparte's. Nothing can be more impolite than to say, that the late rebellion was any thing more than a rior, though, in consequence thereof, the parliament, in the course of one night, passed laws for suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, and for placing the country under martial law. We have sent the Irish a lord-lieutenant, unknown, absolutely unknown. in the military or political world; an equity lawyer we have sent them, a great judge, perhaps, but certainly no statesman, or he would not, at a time like this, have volunteered as a polemic divine, contending, with more than Lutherean zeal, for opinions, which the bench of bishops, and which his Majesty, as head of the church. have now solemnly declared to be

doubiful."* The government of Ireland is a government of lawyers and of clerks. The

"Give grace, we beseech thee, to his rebel"lious subjects in Ireland, to see and confess the "wickedness of their ways. Bring them to a due

sense of the enormity of their crime in rising in open rebellion against the crown of their lawful "Sovereign, forgetful of the blessings they have "enjoyed under his mild and equitable govern-" "ment: that so returning to their duty, they may "become objects of thy mercy and forgiveness. "And give us all grace, to put away from us all 06 rancour of religious dissention, that they who

agree in the essentials of our most holy faith, "and look for pardon through the merits and in"tercession of the Saviour, may, notwithstand "ing their differences upon points of doubtful opinion, "and in the forms of external worship, still be "united in the bonds of Christian charity."-FORM OF PRAYER FOR THE LATE FAST.

peers and great landed gentlemen are not consulted; they are offended, and impute the neglect to the Union. The rulers, like all weak ones, court the natural enemies of the state, and, thereby, without gaining friends, lose those whom they possessed, and whom they might rely on. The Irish militia should be exchanged. In their stead troops should be sent, whose fidelity might be relied on, and who would be fit to meet an experienced enemy in the field. As there is no Irish parliament, the peers and great landed gentlemen of the country should be consulted. If troops cannot be spared from Great Britain, transports should, at any rate, be kept ready at Liverpool, &c. and a part of the army held in constant readiness to embark. These are measures dictated by common sense, but, perhaps, that circumstance affords little encouragement to hope, that they will be adopted by the ministers, till, as in the case of Hanover, it be too late.

THE EDINBURGH RESOLUTIONS, at length, will be found in the preceding part of this sheet. They are well worthy of attentive perusal; though they have brought upon the people of Scotland the calumny of the ministerial newswriters, who deseribe Scotland as "the most "factious part of his Majesty's dominions." This is the constant practice of the Addingtons, with whom it seems to be a maxim, that they have a right to accuse of factiousness all those who, though for the sake of saving their own lives, venture to utter one word that has a tendency to expose the ignorance, the negligence, or the selfishness of the ministry.

THE LLOYD'S FUND seems to have past its meridian. A trifle or two has been bestowed from it; but it will not do. The trick has been seen through; and the committee have not, it seems, been able to squeeze from "the women "of the united kingdom of reat Britain and Ire"land" more than about 4001. though the subscription extended from duchesses down to the pea-podders of Brentford. It is, however, to be hoped that some member of parliament will move for an inquiry as to the authority by virtue of which Mr. Freeling, an officer of the government, addressed the precepts of the commmittee to all the magistrates of the kingdom.

"THE BLACK EMPIRE," in Saint Domingo, is, it appears, about to be re-established under the auspices of Mr. Addington! There will, it is hoped, be some one h nest and vigilant enough to institute an inquiry into the measures pursued, with respect to this island, since the peace.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.-On the 27th another message, relative to the trade with these powers, was sent from the Treasury to the Custom-House; and, it is hardly necessary to say, that it bespoke the irresolution and indecision of the ministry. It stated, that there was no objection to "Spanish, Portuguese, and other neutral

"vessels clearing out for the ports of "Spain and Portugal; but that, British "vessels cannot clear out for those ports "till a convoy is appointed." It has been truly observed, that, while the convoy-law remains in force, this prohibition is superfluous; so that, the orders, which have been given on this subject, amount to just nothing at all, and cannot possibly have any other effect than that of producing a most serious injury to the persons engaged in the Spanish and Portuguese trade. As no convoy is appointed, the British property, destined for Spain and Portugal, will, of course, be shipped and conveyed on board of neutral ships.

ESPRIT-DE-CORPS.-The spirits of Volunteer Corps are, at this moment, very high. These "gentlemen," for so they call themselves, have been reviewed by his Majesty and Mr. Sheridan; and, which has, perhaps, contributed not a little to elate them, they have been informed, by their faithful friends and monitors of the news-papers, that Buonaparté is not prepared to attack us, that his boats are neither cannon proof nor sea worthy, and that (oh! comforting reflection!) it is possible, and even probable, that he will not come at all! Lest, however, any untoward circumstance should produce a relapse, we are, fortunately, furnished with a recipe, which, it appears from the following account, published in the public prints, has been most successfully ap plied to a corps in the county of Essex. "On "the 13th inst. as a party of the Loyal Vo"lunteers of Braintree were at drill, near "the house of the Rt. Hon. Lord Charles

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Ansley, his lady, with an air of deco"rum becoming her dignity, stepped into "the field, and saluted them with a con"gratulatory speech on their coming for"ward with such promptitude and zeal in "defence of their King and Country, at this "most important crisis. After which, her

ladyship ordered every man a glass of spi"rits, she herself drinking in the first place to "the success of the Braintree and Bocking "Volunteers, which condescension was re"ceived with the loudest plaudits by all pre"seat."--It is to be lamented, that we are uninformed of the sort of spirits, whether brandy, rum, or gin. Your genuine British spirits one would hope to see used on such occasions; and, it has been repeatedly proved, that the natives of America always fight hardest upon yankey, or home made,

rum.

LONDON,

** I condemn the principle of having recourse to Volunteer-Corps, instead of having recourse to volun"teer service, in other modes. From the sort of training which these corps receive, one may judge "of the way, in which they will be brought into action. The companies will be collected into regiments, and the regiments into brigades. I do not think they will be good for any thing in that "way; neither do I think that any judicious officer will accept of them. It is not true, that num"bers always make strength, neither can that other comfortable reflection, that if they do no good "they will do no harm, be applied in this instance. They would encumber the movements, ob"struct the roads, and consume the provisions; and, which would be a main consideration, they "would be a great depository of panic, if, as was not unlikely, they once caught it."—Mr. Windham's Speech, August 10, 1803.

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AFFAIRS OF IRELAND.
LETTER III. *

Dublin, 29th Oct. 1803. SIR," Equo ne credite teucri," was the advice which, in a dangerous moment, Laocoon gave to the Trojans. It will be remembered that the equus, against which that sagacious adviser cautioned his countrymen, was a wOODEN one. His countrymen did not regard Laocoon. They received the wooden representative of wisdom. They approached it as if it possessed authority and power. Its wooden bead towered above their houses. But, though the machine itself was innoxious wood, the credulous Tro. jans found its hollow head and exalted sides were nothing less than receptacles for greedy peculators and blood-thirsty assassins. The ingenious author of the story did not mean to confine the lesson, which it inculcates, to the tale of Troy alone. He meant to take advantage of that easy metaphorical expression, which, by the common assent of mankind, has moulded itself into most languages, and by which a certain species of head (which the moderns, by various moral experiments, have ascertained to be a nonconductor of ideas) has been denominated a wooden head. He meant to caution future nations not to put trust or confidence in the apparent innocence of any such wooden instrument; and not to suffer themselves to be led to exalt it into consequence, or to pay it any respect. He meant to tell them that any people, who submitted to be governed by a wooden head, would not find their se curity in its supposed innoxiousness, as its hollowness would soon be occupied by instruments of mischief. When I found, Sir, this portion of the kingdom overwhelmed by such consequences to our property as the rapacity of Mr. Marsden and his friends, and such consequences to our lives as the pikes of

For the introductory letter see page 586; and, for Letter II, see page 545. VOL. IV.

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Mr. Emmett and his friends have lately produced: when I could trace all these evils as the inevitable issue from the head and body of such a government as that of Lord Hardwicke, and I am told of his innoxiousness and his firmness, I still reply the story of the wooden horse, and I shall still, note withstanding the fate of Laocoon, raise my voice to my countrymen and cry, equo ne credite teucri. Not, Sir, that I would be understood literally. I do not mean to assert that the head of my Lord Hardwicke is absolutely built of timber. My application, like that of the original author of the tale, is only metaphorical. Yet, at the same time, I cannot avoid suspecting, that if the head of his Excellency, were submitted to the analysis of any such investigator of nature as Lavoisier, it would be found to contain a superabundant portion of particles of a very ligneous tendency. This, Sir, is the Lord Hardwicke of Doctor Addington, against whose government "not a murmur of com

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plaint has been heard"-while our property has been subject to the plunder of his clerks, and our persons have been exposed to the pikes of the rebels. Still, however, the innocence of Lord Hardwicke, as to any intention of mischief, is held forth. But, I reply in the words of Mr. Burke: "they who

truly mean well must be fearful of acting "ill. Delusive good inteation is no excuse "for presumption." And I may add, in my own words, that the government of a harmless man is not, therefore, a harmless government, Give me leave to suppose, (I even suppose with trembling, for God long preserve the person of our King, far, far. from such scenes as I have witnessed), that his Majesty had himself been where his, r presentative for Ireland was on the 23d of July. Give me leave to suppose, that the King had been as Lord Castlereagh asserted his Lord Lieutenant had been, fully apprized of the conspiracy, would the King, when his proud capital was menaced, and when X

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