It is not certain, however, whether the discomfiture of general Melas is not in fome meafure to be afcribed to a defign, which appears to have been entertained by the English miniftry, of raising the white flag in the fouth of France under the fons of the count d'Artois and of the late duke of Orleans.-His movements on the fide of Niece have been fuppofed by fome to have had a reference to that intended expedition. We have not, however, received any certain information on this fubject.

In eftimating the merits of the oppofite commanders, it is proper, in juftice to general Melas, to take notice of the fingular advantage which the French generals poffeffed in the concert of their operations. The Auftrian generals were to be guided, in all their principal movements, by a council of war at Vienna: while Buonaparte could take his meafures on the fpot, and accommodate the tactics of both Moreau and Berthier to rifing events.

It would be unpardonable in an annalift to pafs over, without due notice and applaufe, the wife and magnanimous conduct of the chief conful, in being ever ready, and even defirous, in the hour of the greatest victories, to fufpend the career of war, and come to terms of peace.

While his imperial majefty was in danger of lofing his territories, his tremendous adverfary, Buonaparte, was in danger of lofing his life. On the twenty-fourth of December, when he was on his way to the theatre, a fudden explosion broke the windows of his carriage, killed feveral perfons, and wounded others. This mifchief was occafioned by a barrel, in which were combuftibles. and a kind of rifle-gun, placed on a fmall carriage, fo difpofed as to obftruct the paffage through the ftreets. This infernal confpiracy was clearly traced to the jacobins, Some of the confpirators were convicted, and fuffered the punishment due to their crimes.

CHAP

HA

AVING taking a fummary review of affairs on the theatre of war, on the continent, we return to thofe of Great Britain.

Soon after the parliament had been prorogued, apprehenfions of tumult and riot alarmed the affluent and eafy inhabitants of London. On the fourteenth of Auguft, the prifoners in the house of correction, in Cold-Bath-Fields, rendered impatient, perhaps,* by the friendly vifits of certain members of parliament, whofe philanthropy, it was obferved, was directed chiefly to men obnoxious to government, and to objects, from which there was the greatest reafon to hope for the reputation of benevolence, exhibited ipecimens of turbulence, and a defire of escaping from their confinement. They refufed to fubmit, in the evening, to the ufual futting in of their cells; and when they were compelled to

Spes addita fufciat iras. Virg.

The volun

give way, on this point, they uttered loud complaints of the miferies to which they were fubjected. A multitude of people was drawn to the walls of the prifon; and it was apprehended that the mob would attempt to releafe the prifoners. At this crifis, the keeper, Aris, a rigorous and hard-hearted man, fallied out, and procured the aid of fome peace-officers, for the defence of his poft teers of Clerkenwel, St. Sepulchre, and other adjoining diftricis, repaired, from their fhops, to affift in quelling the disturbance; and peace and order were at length reftored. The contagion of this example was the more to be dreaded, that the price of bread, from a bad featon, from the war, but, probably, above all, from an overflow of money, fuch as it was, had fen to an exorbitant height. This evil was perhaps occationed alio, in fome

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fmall degree, by the avarice and arts of regraters and foreftallers. Mr. Ruby and others were punished for fuch offences; but, by fuch profecutions, the difcontents of the people were not fufficiently allayed. In various parts of the country, many of the inhabitants endeavoured to procure, by intimidation and force, a reduction of the price of corn, and other articles of confumption, Some depredations and outrages were committed, but the progrefs of riot was prevented by the appearance of military parties. At Birmingham, the flops of the bakers were, on the eighth of September, attacked by the populace, and thole who refufed to fell bread, at the rate which they prefcribed, were infulted and robbed. The chief object of their rage, the next day, was a team-mill. The defenders of this, having wounded fome of the affailants or fpectators, the mill would have probably been destroyed, but for the opportune arrival of a party of dragoons. In the evening of the tenth, the foldiers, who paraded the fireets, were an noyed by the mob with ftones; but thefe marks of difcontent gradually declined.

On the fifteenth of December, disturbances commenced in London. Inflammatory bills, pofted on the Monument, in the night préceding, urged the people to refcue themfelves from famine by their own exertions, and to take vengeance on monopolifts and foreftallers. In the morning, a mob appeared in Mark-Lane, infulted the dealers in corn, and clamoroufly demanded an abatement in the price of that neceflary article. The chief magifrate, Mr. alderman Combe, addreffing the most forward of the po

pulace, fhewed that their turbulence would only aggravate the evil of which they complained. Finding his perfuafions fruitlets, he ordered the act against riots to be read; and, without military aid, tranquillity was reftored. The riot being renewed in the evening, the deputymarshal and fome of the conftables received fevere blows; but the volunteers who attended were not ordered to fire, as the lord-mayor thought that fuch violence, on fuch an occafion, as a tumult excited by fo fevere a preffure, might be deem ed rafh and inhuman. On several fucceeding days, riotous affemblies difturbed different parts of the city; but the ready attendance of the volunteers, and the firmness of their countenance, alarmed the populace, and, without the actual ufe of firearms, repreffed the commotions.

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From thefe fcenes of internal commotion, we proceed to the ef fects of the national energy, directed against the common enemy. fquadron, under the command of fir Edward Pellew, on the 4th of June, attacked the fouth-west of the peninfula of Quiberon, on the coaft of Bretagne, filenced the forts, and cleared the fore of the enemy. A party of foldiers then landed and deffroyed the forts, An attack was afterwards made on various pofts, and fix brigs, floops, and gun-veffels, were taken, a corvette burned, and a fort difmantled. This fuccefs was foon followed by an interception of fupplies defined for the ufe of the French fleet, at Breft. Eight boats were employed in this fervice, under lieutenant Burke and other officers, who, amidst a fevere fire of cannon and mutketry, took three armed veffels, with eight laden with provifions, and drove others

near

Hear the rocks of St. Croix. Some French fhips having escaped to Quimper River, boats were fent, on the twenty-third of June, to attack them; but they removed to an inacceffible distance up the river. However, two parties of marines difembarked, and blew up a battery and other fortifications. Lieutenant Burke was afterwards fent to Bour-neuf-bay, to attack fome vessels of war that were moored in a strong pofition. Five were captured, befides fome trading fhips; but the impracticability of bringing them out, induced the captors to burn them. It unfortunately happened, that our gun-boats, in returning, ftruck upon fand-banks, and above ninety men were made prifoners.

About this time, fir Charles Hamilton, making his appearance, with a Imall fquadron, near Goree, an ifle on the coaft of Africa, the governor thought proper to furrender; and a British garrifon took immediate poffeffion of the forts, and of Joul, a dependent factory.

On the eighth of July, an attempt was made to take or deftroy four frigates, in the road of Dunkirk, Captain Campbell, of the Dart, took the La Defirée; but the other fhips, in number, three, efcaped, though not without confiderable damage. In Auguft, a fleet, under the command of fir John Borlafe Warren, with a military force, under the orders of fir James Murray Pulteney, fet fail on a fecret expedition. One object of this was the conqueft of Belle-Ife, but the ftrong works that had been provided for the defence of that ifland difcouraged the attempt. The armament therefore proceeded to the coaft of Spain, and, on the twenty-fifth of Auguft,

arrived before the harbour of Ferrol. The troops landed without oppofition, and advanced towards the heights which overlook the port. A fkirmish with a body of Spaniards enfued, which terminated in favour of the invaders. Lieutenant-colonel Stewart, who commanded the British, was wounded. The next morning another engagement enfued, in which alfo the Spaniards were defeated. About one hundred of the Spaniards were killed or wounded. The lofs of the Englifh, who were now in poffeffion of the commanding eminences, did not exceed half that number. The op portunity of furvey, afforded by the heights, did not give the British commander any hope of fuccefs, particularly when he learned, from the report of the prifone that the place was furnished with the means of defence. He therefore ordered the troops to re-embark, and they were not molefted in their retreat. It was confidently affirmed, by a noble lerd, in the British houfe of peers, that, at the very time when the British army received orders to re-embark, the proper officer was coming with the keys of the town to furrender; but, of the evidence on which this was affirmed, we are altogether ignorant. After this, fir Ralph Abercromby moved towards Leghorn, but, at the earnest entreaty of the Tufcan gevernment, who dreaded a vifit, in cafe of his coming on fhore, from the French, he moved off, to reconnoitre Malta: whither we shall pretently follow him.

In confequence of a notification from baron Thugut, on the ninth of Auguft, that lord Minto, the British ambaffador at the court of Vienna, had fignified the defire of his Britannic majefty, to be included [P3]

in

in a negociation for peace between the emperor and the French republic, Mr. Otto, the French commiffary, or agent for the exchange of prifoners in England, was authorized to demand an explanation of the proposals of the court of London, and to request that a truce fhould immediately be concluded between the French and British forces, by fea and land. The British government declared its readinefs to fend a plenipotentiary to any place that might be appointed for a congrefs; but, intimated at the fame time, that an armiftice with regard to naval operations had at no time been adjufted between Britain and France, during a negociation for peace, or before preliminaries had been figned. That it could not, therefore, be confidered as a step necessary to negociation; and, that from the difputes to which it might give rife, it might even obftruct rather than promote a pacification. Mr. Otto anfwered, that France would infift on a truce with Great Britain, and that, indeed, the continuance of the German armiftice would depend on the conclufion of a fimilar agreement with the English, as the advantages, that might be derived from the latter, would form an equivalent to the French for the obvious difadvantages of the truce with Auftria. He afterwards prefented a sketch for an armiftice, importing, that the fhips of Great Britain and France hould enjoy a freedom of navigation as before the war: that Belleifle, Malta, and Alexandria, should be in a fimilar predicament with Ulm, Philipfburg, and Ingolstadt, and, that, accordingly, ali French and neutral veffels fhould be permitted

to fupply each garrifon with provi fions and flores; and, that the fquadrons which formed the blockade of Flushing, Breft, Cadiz, and Toulon, fhould return into their own harbours, or at leaft retire from the refpective coafts. This plan, or in the language of the French, projet, was objected to by the British government, as repugnant to the obvious and established principle of an armiftice, by which neither party ought to acquire fresh advantages, or new means of annoying the enemy. Lord Grenville, the British fecretary for foreign affairs, then offered a counter-tketch, more nearly correlponding with that principle of equality, on which alone his fovereign would confent to treat. It prohibited all means of defence from being conveyed into the island of Malta, or any of the parts of Egypt, but allowed the neceffaries of life to be introduced from time to time: it provided for the difcontinuance of the blockade at Breft, Toulon, and other French ports, but tended to prevent all naval or military ftores from being conveyed thither by fea; and the fhips of war, in thofe ports, from being removed to any other ftation. The French government, not fatisfied with thefe propofitions, offered this alternative: If Great Britain would agree to a feparate negociation, her fcheme would be adopted. But, if the fhould infift on a general negociation, the French projet must be accepted. Lord Grenville infifted on the terms that had been already offered by Great Britain. Mr. Otto now delivered a fecond projet: by which, among other alterations, fmall fhips of war were to be allowed to go out of the

French