docks and shipping in the harbor might have been destroyed without difficulty. Fortunately this was not known to the confederate commanders; and on the approach of the equinox Count d'Orvilliers steered his course back to Brest, without effecting any thing farther than the capture of the Ardent man of war, which had accidentally fallen in with the combined fleets. But the most remarkable consequence resulting from the appearance of this vast armament in the British seas, was the extraordinary vigor and resolution with which it fuddenly inspired the inhabitants of the kingdom of Ireland, who had hitherto contented themselves with feeble lamentations and unavailing complaints. Seeing themselves in a manner abandoned by England, their troops withdrawn, their commerce unprotected, their grievances unredressed, military and mercantile associations began every where to be formed; and in a short time, to the astonishment of the world, an army of fifty thousand volunteers, as if by magic, was created, disciplined, and equipped; and resolutions almost universally passed against the use of British manufactures.

The English Ministers, whose fears and apprehenfions on this occafion happily supplied their deficiency in justice and liberality, instead of oppofing this national rage, furnished the new raised army with arms from the royal magazines; and thus gave a sanction to a measure which had been adopted adopted without any regard to their consent or approbation, The Irish Parliament met on the 12th of October; and to the usual address brought forward by the courtiers, an amendment was moved, and adopted by a great majority, to infert in the body of the address the following words" We beg leave humbly to represent to your Majesty, that it is not by temporary expedients, but by a FREE TRADE, that this nation is now to be faved from impending ruin." In this the Lords concurred, and the addresses were carried up to the Lord Lieutenant with great parade amidst the acclamations of the people the Duke of Leinster, who commanded the Dublin volunteers, escorting the Speaker in person, while the streets were lined with the different military companies on both fides from the Parliament House to the Castle,

The thanks of both Houses were unanimously voted to the volunteer corps throughout the kingdom, for their patriotic exertions; and a fix months Money Bill passed the Commons, in order to prevent a fudden prorogation.

Before we investigate the consequences of this new and alarming spirit, it may be proper to notice a farther occafion of misunderstanding between the Courts of London and the Hague, from an encounter which took place in the course of the present summer between Sir Richard Pearson of the Serapis man of war, accompanied by the Scarborough borough frigate, having under their convoy the trade from the Baltic, and Captain Paul Jones, an adventurer of desperate fortune and defperate courage, who was commander of a small American squadron, which had for some time past infested the British seas. After a very fierce and bloody action, both the Serapis and Scarborough, the convoy being first secured, were compelled to strike their colors, and were carried by the captors to the Texel. On this a very strong memorial was presented to the States General by Sir Joseph Yorke, who urged in the most preffing terms, " that those ships and their crews may be stopped and delivered up, which the pirate Paul Jones, who is a rebel subject, and a criminal of the state, has taken." But their High Mightineffes answered, " that they will in no respect whatever pretend to judge of the legality or illegality of the actions of those who have on the open seas taken any vessels which do not belong to this country, and bring them into any ports of the Republic; and that they are not authorized to pass judgment either on those prizes, or on the person of Paul Jones." This was an answer hard of digeftion to the English Court, and which indeed clearly indicated the partiality of the Republic to the cause of America; but the quarrel between the two countries, though evidently growing more and more ferious, was not yet fufficiently matured for an actual rupture.

Very early intelligence of the war with France having been fent by express over land to India, the city of Pondicherry was invested by the troops of the Company and of the Government, in the autumn of the prefent year; and, after a gallant resistance by M. de Bellecombe, the Governor, it furrendered to the arms of his Britannic Majefty. On the other hand, the settlement of Senegal, and the British forts on the river Gambia, were captured by a French squadron under M. de Lauzun.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.