[JAN. 23, 1804. MANLEY. The squadron at present consists of eight sail of the line, two frigates, a sloop of war, two cutters, and eight transports, with stores, &c. for their use.

The outward bound West India convoy had not sailed from Cork.

Two of the homeward-bound Leeward-Island Fleet have arrived at Plymouth. They sailed from Tortola on the 3d December, with 51 sail. About a month ago, they parted from the fleet in a gale of wind.

An extraordinary circumstance occurred, on the coast of Cornwall, previous to the gale of wind coming on last week. The tide ebbed and flowed, with great velocity, three times in four hours; and it is remarkable, that precisely the same thing was observed on that shore, at the very moment of the great earthquake at Lisbon in 1755,

Vague reports have been in circulation of the resignation of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, which are, doubless, without foundation; as the most perfect cordiality subsists between his Majesty and the Commander in Chief.

The public will rejoice to hear, that the noble veteran, the Marquis Cornwallis, has accepted of the command of the district of Suffolk and Essex-and thus, from his rank, the nation will have to trust to him as the second in command, if the invasion should actually be attempted.

POSTSCRIPT.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1804.

WE learn by a letter just received from Deal, that the CERBERUS has taken two of the enemy's gun vessels,, which were stealing along shore.

It is said that accounts of an unfavourable nature were yesterday received from Bombay. The Company's troops have had some severe actions with the Mahrattas They twice attempted to storm a fortress in the possession of the latter, but were repulsed with loss. They returned, however, to the charge a third time, and succeeded. It is with concern we have learned, that this suceess has been dearly purchased by the fall of several valuable officers and men,

By the Dublin mail which arrived yesterday, it appears that some alarm has been excited in that City, in consequence of Government having demanded that a Piquet Guard, out of each Company, in the several Yeomanry Corps, should be held in readiness to act.

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC.

There having been but few important Public Papers this month, and no Debates, and as it is neither our wish, nor our design, to fill a MONTHLY SUPPLEMENTARỲ NUMBER at all events-we propose to delay the publication of that part of the Work, from time to time, till a sufficient quantity of interesting matter has occurred.

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The commencement of most wars has been sanctioned by the voice of the country. Some injury offered to her citizens, or allies, or some insult to the honour of the state, has excited the indignation, and animated the zeal, of the people, The first months, however, of the present contest, although it involved our political existence as a nation, affords us one memorable exception to the universality of the observation. An unsocial indifference, too nearly allied to despair, appeared to paralize the exertions of all classes of the community. The successive subjugation of many of the continental powers, the political annihilation of others, and the insolent language and extensive preparations of our implacable enemy, neither created inquiry nor awakened alarm.

The sailing of a powerful naval armament, the distribution of our military force, the appointment of new men to high official situations, the increase of public burthens, and the demand of personal sacrifices, were contemplated as objects of the most common and ordinary occurrence. This selfish and unnatural revolution in public feeling, was a subject of melancholy consideration both to the patriot and the philosopher. The partizans of Lord Grenville and Mr. Windham, most eagerly attributed it to a total want of confidence in the men who composed the administration, and it is possible that this opinion, most industriously circulated, might have been as generally adopted, if, fortunately for the security of British liberty, Lord Temple, in a fit of youthful transport and unguarded candour, had not betrayed in a parliamentary debate, the family motives of the new opposition. If

these vigorous statesmen had taken a cursory review of their own measures, they would have discovered the cause of this suspension of national sentiment in the consequences of their own administration. The unbending obstinacy of Lord Grenville, supported by the alarmed Ex-Minister of war, who, to a wild and romantic enthusiasm, added the intemperate zeal of proselytism, had by an obstinate perseverance in a contest without an object abroad, and by the unrelenting exercise of a vigour beyond the law at home, exhausted the resources of the country, and depressed the spirit of the people. Abroad, the Netherlands were united to the Republic of France, and Switzerland occupied by her armies :-Piedmont and Savoy subdued:-The Stadtholder and King of Sardinia stripped of their hereditary and continental dominions :-The states of Italy conquered-Spain reduced to a state of vassalage; and Bonaparte established on the throne of the Bourbons. At home, the internal affairs of the kingdom had been conducted by a dangerous system of state-secrecy, which terminated in the preclusion of investigation and responsibility. The people were in a state of continual terror and agitated alarm, their opinions held captive by endless rumours of seditions and treasonable conspiracies, and their confidence commanded through the medium of their fears. A thousand ridiculous tests were invented as touchstones for loyalty, and the most ordinary transactions of common life accompanied with suspicions that disgraced the character of man. Strong correctives were applied by the laws, more dangerous than the evils they were intended to remedy. The King was taught to suspect the fidelity of his subjects, and his subjects the integrity of their parliamentary representatives. If it be asked where this complication of plot, sedition and conspiracy is now to be found,-my answer is, the history of them closed with the Grenville administration!!!

· But the evils of this system had made a most indelible impression on the public mind, and the fear least any future arrangements might recall these ill-omened statesmen to his Majesty's counsels, was the real and immediate cause of this apathy, and not any want of confidence in the present ministers of the crown. The conduct of the people affords the safest interpretation of their opinions. As soon as the public was satisfied of the impossibility of Lord Grenville's and Mr. Windham's return to power, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer had explained the situation of the country, the preparations of the enemy, and that the United Kingdom was destined to become the theatre of war, the loyalty and enthusiasm of the people, blazed forth in every part of the empire.

From this excess of loyalty arose the adoption of the Volunteer System! The sudden and rapid encampment of the French army along an unbroken line of coast from the Texel to the Bay of Biscay, consisting of 300,000 veteran troops, elated by promises of plunder, and grown desperate by frequent massacres, required our ministers to embody a proportionate military force, in the least possible time, for the protection of England. The return of the regular army in this island did not then exceed 40,000 men. To this force, in the short period of two months, was added an auxiliary one of 300,000 men, raised, clothed, armed, and supported at an annual expence of less than one million! Supposing, therefore, the enemy had at

that period eluded the vigilance of the British Navy, and effected a landing in different parts of our coast, we had a strong military power distributed throughout the whole kingdom prepared to co-operate with the regular army. A force in general acquainted with the military exercise, and whose officers knew something at least of military tactics; for many of the volunteer corps are composed of the same men and officers as were embodied during the last war, but with an increase in numbers and a greater range of service. If the enemy delayed the attack either from a conviction of its impracticability, or from any internal causes, Government had time to increase the regular army by the customary modes of recruiting it, without having recourse to compulsory levies.

If Ministers, disregarding the Volunteer System, had in this emergency augmented the regular army to that extent which the security of the country required, without adverting to that jealousy which at all periods of the English history has subsisted between the King and his People, in the exercise of this branch of the Royal Prerogative, as being dangerous to the interests and liberties of the people, the taking from the active population of our island such an undue proportion of its industrious inhabitants must have been attended with the ruin of the country, from the immense expence that would have been required for the support of such a system. The men also, from the nature of the levy and the service, must have been taken from the lowest orders of society, uninstructed in military duties, and without any proportion of experienced officers, to form and command them. But admitting, for the sake of argument, the possibility of having raised, armed, clothed, and maintained, for a limited period, such an extensive force, I say, for a limited period; because a war of invasion cannot be of any long continuance :-the disbandonment of so large a body must have been attended with the greatest possible danger to public security. The volunteers, on the contrary, may be divided into two classes-the first, consisting of men of regular habits of life, and fixed occupations; the second, (to use a general and comprehensive phrase) of men unsettled in the world. The system itself is calculated to interfere, as little as possible, with the avocations and employments of both. The former, when their country no longer requires their services, will resume their occupations, with little comparative loss, either to themselves or their families; whilst the latter, from the love of military fame, will afford a constant supply to the regular army-And it is at this time a complaint with the commanders of volunteer corps, that their youngest, and most active men, are constantly leaving them for that service.

But it is said, the system is incomplete! As a system of military defence, standing by itself, granted that it is. The art of war is complicated, and arrived at its present state of perfection, by slow and progressive degrees, uniting itself, and keeping pace with the patient and laborious improvements of mechanism and the arts. Since the doubtful policy of standing armies was introduced into the different states of Europe, the soldier has become a distinct and insulated character, and separated by necessity from the great mass of his fellow citizens-his sole occupation is war; he contributes but little to the productive labour of his country, while he is himself fed by it. This force, therefore, in a military sense, is the most perfect. But the militia

[FEB.4, 1804. differs in thi respect-the time of service is limited, and the militia man unites, with the character of the soldier, that of the labourer and artificer-The militia, therefore, is a less perfect force than the regulars; and for some reasons, the Volunteer force is still less perfect than the militia. At the same time it must be observed, that the volunteers supply that want of regularity and prompt obedience, which is the characteristic of the regular army, by the spirit that first raised the force, and has since maintained it. But neither the militia, nor the volunteer system, was ever intended to supersede the necessity, or to interfere with the appointments, of the army. Against this system, however, Messrs.Cobbett and Windham have directed their principal attack upon the present ministry. The Volunteers were first represented as a shewy, swaggering, snarling, shopkeeping rabble; of whose courage Mr. Cobbett entertained such serious doubts, that he did not believe they would meet the enemy-and of whose fidelity he thought so meanly, that he hoped his Majesty would mount his horse, and ride off to Windsor, if euer the guardianship of the metropolis and his "palace were entrusted to their care." It was extremely natural, that Mr. Cobbett's disappointment, at the general loyalty of the people, and the unpopularity of Lord Grenville and Mr. Windham, should display itself in these sarcastic pleasantries. but they were laughed at and despised; and the illiberality and intemperate warmth of the observations, only prejudiced the cause they were intended to support.

The volunteers continued faithful to their engagements and their duties; and the weekly admonitions of the Political Register could not persuade One of them to desert his ranks, or raise one voice to hail the return to power of these vigorous and enlightened statesmen. Poor Cobbett then grew outrageous!-Every little dissention in the corps throughout the country, was carefully selected, misrepresented, and published. The act of a few misguided individuals, in one of the best disciplined and appointed corps in the kingdom, expressing their wishes by acclamations to wear a velvet instead of a leather stock, (a circumstance in itself of most insignificant importance) when exercising in separate companies, and not on general pa rade, was exhibited as disobedient, mutinous, and seditious! And lastly, 300,000 of the most loyal of his Majesty's subjects, who are in arms for the sole purpose of protecting the country and the throne, were basely calumniated as "concealed "republicans, who hailed the introduction of the Volunteer System, as enabling "them to introduce that anarchy and confusion, which they had otherwise despaired "of accomplishing." The system was next attacked-more particularly, the committees and the election of officers, as being replete with every species of republican mischief!!!

Upon these subjects I shall offer a few observations. Upon the first formation of Volunteer Corps, which, in general, are composed of men living within a particular district, and personally known to each other, certain individuals, and those few in number, distinguished for their wealth, their experience, and their honour, were selected to compose what was called THE COMMITTEE. The establishment of these committees had, for the most part, two objects in view-the first, to prevent the introduction of members, either objectionable in principle or character-the second, the care and appropriation of the funds raised for the support of the corps, to enter into contracts for clothing the men, and to defray all necessary and incidental ex