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intentions of Government, and take every measure for their prompt

execution.

Propofitions made by Lord Minto, the English Ambassador, to the Emperor of Germany*.

1. THE English ambaffador proposes, fhould the Emperor continue the war, to maintain in Italy an army of 35,000 fighting men of English chofen troops, under the command of General Abercrombie, and which shall remain there till a general peace.

2. To attack the islands of Zealand with a numerous body of troops, and to proclaim the Stadtholder there. After making the conqueft of it, to keep an army there, which fhall continually menace Holland and Belgium, and thus force the French government to keep a confiderable force conftantly in that country.

3. To pay the House of Austria a new and very considerable fubfidy, under the title of a loan, on the moft advantageous conditions; befides which, England would pay an army of 50,000 Auftrians for twelve months.

Decree of the Confuls, 16th Auguft.

THE
HE Confuls of the republic, in pursuance of the report of the
Minister of General Police, and after hearing the reafons
affigned by the Council of State, decree :-

Art. 1. The paffports or letters of safe conduct granted by the ministers and other diplomatic agents of the allied and neutral powers, whether granted to individuals not belonging to their nation, or to Frenchmen naturalized in the dominions of those powers fince the 14th of July 1789, fhall not be admitted into France.

2. The perfons described in the preceding article are prohibited from entering the territory of the republic, under the penalty of being treated as contumacious, or as emigrants.

3. All foreigners actually in France, by virtue of passports delivered to them by a minifter or agent of an allied or neutral power, and who are placed in the cafe defcribed in the first article of the present decree, are bound to prove between this time and the ift of September, by the certificates of the minifter or agent

These details reft upon the authority of letters from Vienna. They were published in feveral Paris journals in the beginning of Auguft; but the Editor does not pledge himself for their authenticity.

of their nation refident in France, that they are of the nation in the name of which fuch passports have been granted.

4. Every foreigner who is placed in the cafe described in the first article, and who may not conform to the above-mentioned regulations, fhall be arrested, and conducted out of the territory of the republic.

་་*

5. Every individual, a native of France, and actually in France, by virtue of a foreign paffport, fhall be bound, for the purpose of enabling him to continue his refidence, to provide himfelf within the fpace of three days for Paris, and of two decades for the departments, with the exprefs licenfe of the Minifter of General Police, under the penalty of being arraigned as an emigrant.

Official Report of Captain Krabbe, of the Danish Frigate Freya, relative to the late Engagement of that Ship with an English Frigate, and the Detention of the Veffels under Convoy; published at Copenhagen, under the Date of Auguft 19.

CAPT

APTAIN Krabbe, who commands the frigate Freya, has informed the Board of Admiralty, by two reports, dated from the Dawns the 26th and 28th ult. that on the 25th of the faid month, at two o'clock, in the afternoon, he fell in, at the mouth of the Channel, with four English frigates, a brig, and a lugger. At four o'clock, the foremost English frigate, whofe arrival he awaited, came up with him. Having taken her ftation alongfide his fhip, the fent an officer on board, who, after the ufual queftions refpecting the deftination of the Danish frigate, and the number of fhips fhe had under convoy, left the former, and returned on board the English frigate which kept rather aftern of the reft. She returned, however, very foon, and fent an officer on board the Freya, who defired to fearch the convoy. Captain Krabbe replied, that, without acting contrary to his inftructions, he could not allow the convoy to be fearched, but offered to lay all the fhips' papers before the commander of the British fhips. But the English officer perfifted in the name of the commodore, in his demand of fearching the convoy, which was peremptorily refufed. The English officer left the Danish frigate, and the English frigate ftood for the convoy, which received the fignal from the Freya to close up as well as they could. In the mean while another English frigate made up to the Freya, and fired with ball on a fhip of the convoy. This fhot was returned, but in fuch a direction that the ball went over the English frigate.

About eight o'clock in the evening the commodore of the Englifh fquadron laid his fhip alongside of the Freya, and repeated his demand that the convoy fhould be fearched without oppofition; and he was going to execute this measure, and to fend boats for

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that purpose on board the merchantmen; but Captain Krabbe affured him, as he did before, that this proceeding was diametrically oppofite to his inftructions, and that the boats would be fired at.

The English commodore, perfifting in his demand, ordered his boat to proceed to the fhip of the convoy which lay nearest. Captain Krabbe ordered accordingly the boat to be fired at; but the gun flashed, and the fhot had no effect.

The English commodore, whofe fhip lay nearly abreast of the Freya, at the distance of about the fourth part of a cable's length, gave her a full broadfide, which was inftantaneously returned; three of the other English frigates lay at the time rather ahead of the Freya, on her larboard quarter, about two cables length diftant, and one was aftern of the Danish frigate, which was now engaged with them. Captain Krabbe having fuftained the unequal combat for an hour, and being deprived of all hopes to come off victorious, on account of the decided fuperiority of his opponents, ftruck his colours. The English commodore made thereupon for the Downs, with the frigate as well as the convoy; but Captain Krabbe was brought on board the English commodore's fhip, where he remained until the 26th, when, by order of the English admiral who commands in the Downs, he was fent back on board the Freya, to draw up the reports of what had happened. The Freya is lying in the Downs, alongside of the English admiral's fhip, and has, by order of the English admiral, the Danish flag and pendant hoifted. She has on board two English officers and 13 men, who are not armed.

Captain Krabbe has demanded, that either thefe Englishmen fhould be withdrawn from on board the Freya, or his frigate taken poffeffion of by the English; but on the 28th he had not received any anfwer. Captain Krabbe has been conftantly allowed a free intercourfe with the thore, but the fhips of the convoy do not experience the fame indulgence.

The Freya has two men killed, and five wounded, two of them badly, and thirty fhots in the hull. The foremast and mizenmaft are much damaged, and great part of the rigging is destroyed.

By the account of the English officers, the above English frigates are the Nemefis, of 28 guns; Prevoyante, of 36 guns; Terpsichore, of 32 guns; and Arrow, of 20 guns, including carronades, with which the English at the beginning of the engagement did confiderable damage to the rigging of the Freya, and prevented her from making any rapid manoeuvres.

The damage received by the English frigates is, in the opinion of Captain Krabbe, as confiderable as that fuftained by the Freya. They are faid to have five men killed and feveral wounded, among whom is an officer of marines.

Obfervations

IT

Obfervations on France and Auftria.

T was under circumstances nearly fimilar, and by the fame perfonages, that the preliminaries of Leoben were regulated in 1797. At that period all the journals of the continent proclaimed Bonaparte the pacificator of Europe, the friend of humanity. Their mifguided bleffings were applied even to thofe who meditated the greatest divifions or the newest conquefts. Philanthropists, who fo easily chafe from your memory the image of fo many cruel profcriptions, in order to fhudder at the idea of a foldier, do you expect a more just, more moral, more folid peace, than that of Campo Formio? With regard to Auftria, would it abandon to confufion the fine countries in the fouth of Italy to indemnify itself elsewhere? Do you not fejealoufies arife, and prepare ferious and long quarrels? Do you not fee in the proclamations of that Conful, defcribed in his own journals as fo moderate, those revolutionary lights which throw a terrifying radiance round his real intentions? Do you not fee that all the treaties he negotiates are filled with nought but claufes productive of future wars? In vain will you trust to the tranquillity which Europe seems on the point of enjoying. It cannot be called repofe. It is the fortuitous equilibrium of a moment. The war will foon be revived. We have often faid it would be fatal. We can only repeat what we have fo often faid-What! have we every thing to fear, and nothing but fatal truths to predict?-As the ftate of peace appears near, we will in the first place direct our confiderations to that object, and will develope them in our next number.

The greatest obftacle that opposes itfelf to the good understanding between the powers of Europe and France, proceeds from the fpirit of profelytifm which characterizes its republican government: its First Conful and its minifters inceffantly proclaim that the revolution is finifhed; that France, wearied of her convulfions, defires only to live in peace under her new laws, without troubling her neighbours. Some believe it, others pretend to believe it; it is generally repeated, and that dangerous error has made great progrefs. In fact, fince Bonaparte has governed, his conduct in many refpects has afforded the hope of his political converfion. It is fuppofed that what he has hitherto done is but a prelude to a better order of things. But we must correct this opinion now that we fee him purfuing the vulgar route of his predeceffors. We cannot fay whether Bonaparte will throw himself into the arms of revolutionists, or whether he has genius fufficient to fubdue them. In order to judge, we must consider the characters of the two men who direct them, the most prominent of whom is Carnot; his pamphlet against Bailleul has obtained him the confidence of the public. It is remembered that Carnot, fructidorized by his colleagues, has neither abjured his directorial

maxims,

maxims, nor even the grand principle of the Committee of Public Safety a Director of the French republic was, in his eye, the first man in the world, and he could not confole himself for having failed, on one occafion, of revolutionizing all America. The intimate connexion of Bonaparte with men of that ftamp is not all. If we refer to his fpeeches, we trace the man who kiffed the foot of the Pope while he was defpoiling him, and who profeffed the religion of Mahomet, and wrote to his friend that it was neceffary to lull fanaticifm in order more eafily to extirpate it; who propofed to the Grand Vizier a treaty for the evacuation of Egypt, while he was giving inftructions to Kleber to maintain himself. It was only to deliver the people of Italy from the Auftrian yoke, to eftablish the dethroned princes, and to bruit abroad French juftice, that he defcended the Alps at the head of the army of referve. When the victory of Marengo had put the fate of Italy in his hands, he declared in a folemn fpeech pronounced at Milan, that Lombardy, Liguria, and Piedmont fhould form only one republic, preparing thus the melting down of thefe ridiculous governments, which he had modelled under directorial France, and taking from the King of Sardinia his states to aggrandize the republic which he wishes to place between the Emperor and the fovereigns of Italy. His views on Egypt are not abandoned. The famous convention of El-Arifch has been more cenfured at Paris than in London *.

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Note from the Minifters of feveral neutral Powers, at Ratisbon, to
General Moreau, refpecting the Contributions impofed upon that
City.

THE

HE underfigned minifters of their Majefties the Kings of Pruffia, Denmark, and Sweden, their plenipotentiaries to the Diet, have the honour, at the request of the deputies from the free Imperial city of Ratifbon, of addreffing the General in Chief of the French army by the prefent letter, to atteft and corroborate all that the deputies of that city, conjointly with the deputation from the clergy, will have the honour of reprefenting to him, refpecting the inability of paying the contribution which has been impofed upon the city. They can atteft, that the city of Ratifbon contains only from 18 to 19,000 inhabitants, a third part of whom only pay contributions, and are under the jurifdiction of the magiftrates. Among thefe there are only 800 burghers with their families, and about 1000 inhabitants without any

*The above obfervations are extracted from the Courier de Londres of Auguit the 5th.

trade,

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