FOREIGN POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE.

DUNKIRK.

A division of forty corvettes, besides smaller vessels, is said to have been fitted out in the port of Dunkirk, and others are reported to be now on the stocks. The account must, however, in our opinion, have been greatly exaggerated. It is added, that as soon as this armament shall be completed, it is to proceed to Ostend, to join the flotilla, which is lying in the road of that port, under the orders of Commodore Magens. This junction is not to be attempted, till all the other invading armaments are in an equal state of readiness for the expedition. HOLLAND.

Very spirited remonstrances have been made from various municipalities in Hotland, against the requisition made by the Batavian government for a number of fishing boats, belonging to the different seaport towns, to be employed for the transport of troops in the meditated expedition. These requisitions have therefore been abandoned, in consequence of the universal opposition they have experienced; and the Government have been compelled to order, at a very considerable increase of expence, and delay in their plans, every national vessel that could be found, however much out of repair and aged, to be immediately refitted; besides which, it is said they have been under the necessity of purchasing others, to make up the number required.

These circumstances have been attended with vast disappointment in the calculations made by the enemy, of a speedy equipment in Holland; but they have thought it prudent not to enforce measures, seeing they were so extremely unpopular; and, moreover, a general threat amongst the Dutch fishermen having been hinted, of their resolution even to destroy their boats, rather than part with them thus by compulsion; the sullen, determined temper of this class of Dutchmen, is proverbial, and the French have been well advised, in not attempting to wrest from them what they prize even more than their wives and children. It was always our opinion, that the great rescurce of the enemy, for any enterprise against this country, would be in the Dutch boats, and we cannot refrain from expressing particular satisfaction, at the idea of this resource being lopped off. It seems, indeed, to us, sufficient to account for the protracted period of the invasion. Yet, whatever may be the state of preparation as to transports in Holland, the French seem to be pouring in troops on all sides; principally from Hanover; but whether this arises from the want of subsistence in that devoted country, or from the proximity of the moment of embarkation, or from the apprehensions of that spirit of insubordination, which has of late been almost universally manifested by the Dutch, is a point nat altogether ascertainable!

GERMANY.

The Emperor has ordered the establishment of a General Consistory for the Protestant Churches in Gallicia. His Majesty has appointed M. Mercard, Secretary of the Royal and Imperial Legation, to the circle of Franconia.

The Elector, the Arch Chancellor, has named Baron Frankenstein, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Electoral Court of Bavaria.

ITALY

The Legislative Body of the Italian Republic has voted 5,500,000 Milanese Livres. to be immediately raised by a land tax, and to be placed at the disposal of the executive power, for the purpose of constructing two frigates and twelve gun boats, as well as for the equipment of troops, to be employed in the expedition of France against England. The greater part of these troops had already marched for France, in five separate columns, and the two remaining columns were expected to leave Milan the latter end of November. They were all to march by the way of the Simplon and the Valois, to enter France through Geneva.

The only changes that have taken place in the position of the French troops in Italy, consist in the reduction of the French garrison of Leghorn to fifteen hundred men, and the reinforcement, by these and other regiments, of the ports in the vicinity of the Neapolitan territory.

Genoa was not blockaded by the English at the latter end of November, though that event was expected every day. In consequence of this apprehension, and owing to the frequent appearance of British cruisers off the coast, the Genoese* vessels confined themselves as closely as if actually blockaded, and commerce was completely at a stand.

The English have a squadron of a considerable force lying at anchor off Sicily, independent of Lord Nelson's fleet; from which frigates and light vessels aré continually dispatched to the Adriatic and to the Levant, for the purpose of reconnoitring; and a line of battle ships is constantly stationed in the entrance of the bay of Naples.

FLANDERS.

Immense quantities of biscuit have been lately baked at Brussels for the use of the Army of England. Upwards of twelve thousand oars have been manufactured in the interior, and transported to Ostend; and it is said that as many more are ordered. The number seems ridiculously extravagant, unless every soldier of the invading army is to pull himself across, in which case there will be glorious confusion amongst the rowers.

" SWITZERLAND..

It is said that General Ney has promised, in the name of the First Consul, to withdraw all the French troops, amounting to between four and five thousand, immediately, from Switzerland. A commercial treaty, between France and the Helvetic Republic, is now arranging at Berne.

A Congress was opened at Schaffhausen, on the 1st of December, for the purpose of adjusting matters between Helvetia and Germany.

DENMARK.

Copenhagan,› Nov. 26.-Government has forbid the changing the name of DanishTM vessels, without an express permission; every owner is obliged to inscribe upon the main-mast these words:" Danish property."-No. vessel, thus marked, can be sold to a foreigner, without the authority of the agents of government, who shall take care that the inscription be taken off. The measurement of the vessel shall be ascertained anew.

POSTSCRIPT.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 18044

BREST FLEET.

Advices are this instant received from Admiral CORNWALLIS, who has resumed his station off Brest, where the enemy's ships remain as before the late gales.

FRENCH FLOTILLA.

The anxieties of the week are removed!-the cause of the heavy cannonading off Boulogne is explained-and in a way that must rejoice all British hearts!-Two only of our vessels, the Immortalité frigate, and the Archer gun brig, have proved themselves a match for at least fifty of the enemy's gun boats-five of them are al ready brought into the Downs, and many more have been driven on shore and detroyed. Amongst those captured are several boats intended for the transportation of cavalry. The fate of this detachment will be a severe blow upon the spirits of the invading army, but it may possibly screw up the despot to the phrenzy of hi threatened attempt.

We insert the following letter from Dover, as giving a detailed account of this glorious achievement.

Dover, January 5.

"We are all exultation here, but extremely impatient to receive farther details of the proceedings of L'Immortalité Frigate, and Archer gun brig, in their attack on the enemy's craft. All that we know to a certainty is, that in consequence of the signal announced in my last, these two vessels having got under weigh with great alacrity, were fortunate enough soon to fall in with the enemy. Report says, their number was nearly sixty sail, bound to Boulogne. They attacked them instantly with great bravery; and, if we might depend upon rumour, I should inform you they had succeeded in taking about one half of the fleet. Those, however, who are acquainted with maritime affairs, say it is hardly possible to conceive they should' have been able to capture quite so many, when it is considered they would endea vour to escape in every direction."

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SIR, Cambridge, Jan. 11, 1804. THE unbiassed discussion of all questions, that involve the safety and dignity of the empire, is one of the numerous privileges that belong to us as Englishmen ;and no elevation of rank, can protect the ministers of the crown from the severest scrutiny of public opinion. But when the characters of men, whose gradual advancement to the highest honours of the state has been accompanied with the honourable esteem and approbation of their country, are suffered to be traduced by the wilful misrepresentation of facts, and the invention of falsehoods, when calumny is reduced to a system, and every man, who has courage to oppose the political dogmas of Lord Grenville and Mr. Windham, is pressed into the long catalogue of knaves or fools, I am warranted in concluding, that the author of such malevolence is influenced by motives much beyond the sacrifice of a minister, or the interest of a haughty, disappointed, and uncontrollable faction.

The editor of the Weekly Political Register, upon two memorable occasions, has made a brilliant display of "love and veneration" to his sovereign, and profound respect to the branches of his royal house.-But, as in the ordinary transactions of common life, great professions are not usually attended with sincerity of inten tion, my mind was awakened to a suspicion, which reflection afterwards confirmed, that this overflowing of allegiance, this abject humiliation, this prostrate obedience, was false and hollow; and an artfully intended imposition on youthful inexperience and party credulity.

The passages to which I allude, are Mr. Cobbett's introductory address to his observations on the king's speech, and the reason assigned by him for not publishing the royal correspondence in the Register.

If the evidence of facts were wanting, the whining cant of incorrigible hypocrisy is eminently distinguishable in the frame and construction of the sentiment. What! Cobbett grown courteous and timid! delicate in expression, and purely nice in thought! Kind-hearted, tender Cobbett! If there be any truth in thine utterance, how have thine acts belied thee! And could thy gentle spirit really think, that any subject in the united kingdom was so uninformed in the political history of his country, as not to know that the speech of the king, for all purposes of observation, was the speech of the minister? But

"Look, when he fawns, he bites, and when he bites,

"His venom tooth will rankle to the death.

i "Have not to do with him."

66

This man, who talks so loud and bold of " affection, gratitude, and allegiance to"wards his Sovereign, and whose sacred person God has commanded him to ho"nour," this man, I say, this eminent example of refined duplicity, has dared, in the black malignity of his heart, to insult that Sovereign himself, (whom he affects to soothe with such a mockery of adoration,) in his immediate personal representative, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The people of that unfortunate country, distracted by political and religious dissentions, are told, in a series of letters, (avowedly written in consequence of the Dublin press refusing to print and circulate the letter of Mr. Cobbett to Mr. Windham,) that their Government was unable to protect the loyalist, and disarm the traitor-that the ministry of the United Kingdom, having ventured to make a job of the kingdom of Ireland, had entrusted the care of it to a very eminent sheep-feeder from Cambridgeshire, whose life produced no one act to entitle him to claim one particle of trust or confidence from the public.

"Equo ne credite Teucri," was a watchword given out to all ranks of the people, to animate the disaffected, to intimidate the fearful, and to determine the wavering resolution of those, who, in the vicissitudes of success that characterise the progress of civil discord, are too ready to unite with the most clamorous party. If it should be asked, at what period was this publication made? I answer, a few weeks after a most dangerous insurrection had been suppressed, consisting of the lowest and most profligate orders of the people, educated in rebellion, and organized by leaders of desperate ambition, and who impatiently expected the co-operation of a most powerful force from France. When the public mind had not recovered itself from a state of terror and agitated alarm-when the faithful yeomanry, consisting of sixty thousand, had been placed on permanent duty-when the collected and deliberative wisdom of parliament, had suspended the Habeas Corpus act, and sanctioned the proclamation of martial law—I ask, was this the language or the conduct of loyalty?

But lest the degradation of representative loyalty, should leave this expansive system of disaffection incomplete in its operation, lest the rebellious temper of the times should be restrained within the limits of obedience, by an attachment to the laws and customs of their country, the law itself is attacked, by impeaching the honour and integrity of the Chancellor. In his professional career, he is represented as a man" in sordida arte versatus ;" as a statesman "so ignorant of his duty, that his exertions must inevitably tend to the disgrace of his country"-in the discharge of the