the French off Toulon, sends word that they have embarked horses, a sure indication that they are not going far."

On the 11th of May, he sent orders to Nelson to rejoin him at Gibraltar, having received instructions from home to concentrate his whole force for some important movement.

On the 12th, ten sail of the line in the fleet off Cadiz were ordered to be victualled for six months, and every care taken that no species of stores should be wanting.

The Portuguese government, faithful to its treaties with Great Britain, ordered five sail of the line to join the Earl of St. Vincent, and requested his Lordship would name the officer who should command them; Lord St. Vincent recommended the Marquis de Niza: this squadron joined and acted under Nelson's orders at the blockade of Malta. The Portuguese, notwithstanding this, concluded a treaty of peace with the French republic.

To Consul Gregory he says, speaking on the same subject, "Since the Principe de la Paz (Godoy) has begun to scold, I am become doubtful of his sex does his Highness imagine that an unprovoked, impolitic, and monstrously unjust war on the part of Spain, will be carried on by me in making unmeaning complaints; if he does he is very much mistaken." Notwithstanding this his Lordship never lost an opportunity of conciliating the good-will of the Spaniards: he had a very great

esteem for Juan de Mazerado, the Spanish admiral, to whom he wrote as follows: "The new signature with which I subscribe myself, by the grace of my royal master, makes no alteration in the esteem and regard with which I have the honour to be, &c.

ST. VINCENT."

Mazerado wrote to acquaint him, that the plague had broken out in Corsica, for which information his Lordship thanked him, and concluded by saying, "I do assure you the sentiments of humanity, which reign in the breasts of officers I have the honour of being opposed to, relieve my mind from the horrors attendant on a state of warfare."

On the 28th of January, he writes to Don Rodrigo de Souza, bearing high testimony of the gallantry of the Spanish captain of the Orienté, in the late engagement.

On the 11th of February, 1798, the Spanish fleet put to sea, and drove off Sir William Parker, with his squadron of six sail of the line. Lord St. Vincent followed them as soon as he heard of it, but they returned to Cadiz before he could get sight of them. Their object was to break up the blockade.

On the 6th of March, he made a strong representation to the Honourable Horace Walpole on the partiality of the court of Portugal to the French, in permitting them to sell prizes in the

Tagus, and demanding, as a right, that our ships might be admitted to the same privileges.

In September he met with a vexatious and seri ous loss in his despatches, by the following accident:-The vessel was suddenly boarded by a Portuguese frigate, and the officer having charge of the despatches, supposing it an enemy, rushed to the taffrail, where they were slung with weights, and cut them away; after they had sunk he found his mistake.

To the Marquis de Niza, rear-admiral of Portugal, he says, "If I understood our friend de Chastenet right, you wish to have my opinion, whether it is consistent with your rank, as a flag-officer, to be employed in the ship on board of which your flag is hoisted, accompanied by a brig-corvette, on a cruise against the enemy's privateers? and being at all times desirous to obey your commands, I do not hesitate to declare that I think it highly derogatory to your rank to be so employed. I never heard of an admiral cruising with a ship and a sloop of war on any occasion."

The affairs of the Mediterranean, in the spring of the year 1798, began to assume a scope of action hitherto unknown and unconceived in the history of the world.

Never in any former war did France embark an army of such magnitude as that about to sail from Toulon, for the invasion of Egypt,-never was an army led by such able chiefs, so well supplied with every article necessary for its progress to

wards the great and ultimate object, the invasion of India--never was an army so well escorted by its maritime auxiliaries; and the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea was scarcely more complete than that of the fleets and the legions of France in Egypt, under the command of Admiral Bruies and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Before we proceed to give our readers an account of that wonderful campaign, and all its glories and its horrors, we must call their attention to the debates in the British parliament, by which they will be enabled to judge whether the ambition of the directory, or the counsels of Mr. Pitt, were most instrumental in the continuance of these multiplied instances of human sacrifice,-whether they were to gratify the ambition of France, or to secure the safety of the British empire.

CHAP. XI.

Unprincipled conduct of the directory-Recall of Mr. Wickham -Debates in parliament on negotiations-Loss of the Colossus in St. Mary's sound-Proposals for making Scilly and Falmouth naval depôts-Capture and loss of La Chérie-Reflections on French corvettes-Various captures-Loss of the Pallas in Plymouth-sound-Capture of the Hercule, by the Mars-Attack on islands of Marcou by French flotilla— Escape of Sir Sydney Smith-Success of Sir Francis Laforey -Capture of the Seine-Loss of the Pique-Lieutenant Shortland in boats of Melpomene-Butterfield in the Hazard takes Neptune-French frigates land troops in Killala-bay, and are defeated-Miscellaneous-United Irishmen-Shocking execution of a mutineer-Establishment of sea-fencibles.

WHILE the unprincipled directory put forth in the preceding year the grossest calumnies and most shameful falsehoods against the British government, it endeavoured by those insidious arts, of which we have had ample experience, to sow dissensions between the King and his people; and openly avowing a determination to invade England and Ireland, declared, in very confident terms, that it would find numerous supporters in both countries. The rupture of the negotiations with Lord Malmesbury may reasonably be referred to the hopes entertained by the directory, that an early and vigorous campaign would produce results far more beneficial to the cause of France than any thing they could obtain by a conference at Lisle. Projects of every description were spoken