and tumultuously accused of treason by each other. Bournonville, minister at war, having been called to the bar of National Convention, was forced to to read the following letter.

LETTER FROM THE COMMISSIONERS SENT TO BELGIUM.

Liege, March 3. 1793.

"CITIZENS OUR COLLEAGUES, "As you will have laid before you the letter which we have addressed to the National Convention, we shall not here repeat the contents of it. But we must add, that every thing is in a most alarming situation; that the army which retired from Aix la Chappelle, and the environs, is almost entirely disbanded; that the enemy will perhaps to-morrow, or perhaps this evening, be in Leige,-in Leige where all our provisions are collected, and which contains immense treasures! We give this account from the information of general Valence, at whose house we now write. He afsures us that if Dumourier himself does not arrive, he cannot answer for the consequen

ces.

"We are endeavouring to rally the fugitives, and are using our utmost endeavours with the provisional administration and the citizens, that the people of Leige may second us, and supply the wants of our army. The dangers resulting from this want are so much the greater, as the enemy are very strong in cavalry, while we have scarcely any at all.

But he denied that things could be in the situation the commissioners had represented it; and said he had given orders to Dumourier to march directly to lay seige to Maestricht in form. Without doors the ferment was not lefs, as will appear by the following addrefs.

PROCLAMATION BY THE COMMUNE OF PARIS.

"To arms citizens to arms! If you delay, all is lost A great part of the republic is over-run; Aix la Chapelle, Leige, Brussels, must be in the possefsion of the enemy; the heavy artillery, the baggage, the treasure of the army, are retreating with precipitation to Valenciennes, the only place that can stop the enemy for a moment. What cannot follow will be thrown into the Meuse. Dumourier is making conquests in Holland; but, if not supported by considerable forces, Dumourier, and with him the flower of the French armies, may be swallowed up.

"Parisians! behold the greatness of the danger; will you permit the enemy again to lay waste the land of Liberty, and to burn your towns and villages?

"Parisians! it is against you in particular that this abominable war is directed; it is your wives and children that are to be mafsacred; it is Paris that is to be reduced to afhes; recollect that the insolent Brunswick has sworn not to leave one stone on another.

"Parisians! once more save the commonwealth, give an example once more; arise, arm, march, and these bands of slaves will again give way before

you.

"It is necessary to make a great effort, a terrible stroke, a last blow! This campaign must decide the fate of the world; we must dismay, we must

exterminate kings! Men of the 4th of July, of the 5th of October; men of the 10th of August, awake!

"Your brethren, your children, pursued by the enemy, surrounded, perhaps, call to you! Your brethren, your children, massacred on the 10th of August, on the plains of Champagne, under the smoaking ruins of Lisle; your brethren slain at Jemappe ;-Arise! they must be revenged!

"Let all the arms be carried into the sections; let every citizen meet there; let us swear to save our country; let us save it. Misfortune light on him who fhall hesitate! Let to-morrow thousands of men leave Paris. This is the deadly combat between men and kings; between bondage and liberty.

PACHE Mayor
COLOMEAU, Secretary."

Marat, Roberspierre, and the rest of that sanguinary party, were not idle on this occasion. Attempts were made to shut the barriers, which was generally believed to be the certain signal for another mafsacre, but by the vigilance of the magistrates and Santerre, the commander in chief in Paris, that was happily prevented; so that a temporary tranquillity was once more established.

A fhort while ago a decree had been passed with a view to complete the levies of men necefsary for the armies, requiring every person in the nation, between eighteen and forty, to march out as soldiers to join the armies, when called upon by certain commissioners named for that purpose. This severe and arbitrary measure, (which can in truth be viewed in no other light than as a law, authorising these commifsioners to pillage at will every person of property, and to opprefs those who have none,) it seems has failed to produce the intended effect; for the armies were nearly as deficient in numbers as before. Another decree, still more arbitrary and more despotic, was now passed, erecting a tribunal for the purpose of bringing to trial, and summary punishment, all persons suspected of uncivism, or entertaining antirevolutionary principles. This tremendous tribunal was to consist of six persons, and is to have power to summon before them whoever they please; and in a summary manner to examine all circumstances that may to them appear of a suspicious nature; and to pronounce immediate judgement; and execute these decisions without appeal. The decree is in the following words:

1. The Revolutionary Tribunal fhall take cognizance of every enterprise, plot, and attempt against the liberty and sovereignty of the people, and the unity, indivisibility, and external, as well as internal safety of the republic; of every plan tending to establish royalty, and of every crime relating to the fabrication of forged afsignats.

II. This tribunal fhall consist of six judges, divided into two sections. Three members in each section fhall be sufficient to examine facts denoun ced.

III. The judges fhall be chosen by the National Convention, by the Appeal Nominal, and by a Relative Majority.

IV. To this tribunal fhall belong a public accuser, and two afsistants, named by the Convention in the same manner as the judges. A commifsion of six members fhall also be appointed to draw up the decrees of accusation which may be passed by the Convention,

w. The jurors shall be in number twelve, and their substitutes three. They fhall be taken from the department of Paris until the 1st of May next, an epoch when the electoral bodies must renew their jurors.

VI. Crimes against general safety, afsigned heretofore to the cognizance of municipalities, shall in future be judged by the revolutionary tribu- · nal.

VII. There shall be no appeal from the sentence.

VIII. Sentence pafsed in the absence of the accused,fhall have the same effect as if they were present.

IX. Persons accused who fhall not appear within three months, fhall be considered as emigrants, and treated as such.

During this state of ferment and confusion, Bournonville, the minister at war, gave in a letter to the Convention, containing his resignation of that office, and requesting permifsion to go and serve in the army on the frontiers. This gave occasion to violent debates, recriminations, and abuse, in the Convention. Some members proposing that the minister fhould be interrogated as to his reasons for resigning, and others opposing it. Danton proposed that ministers in future fhould be chosen from among the members of the Convention; but this motion for the present was not relished. Fnally, Bournonville's resignation was accepted; but he was not permitted to join the army till his accounts fhall have been passed.

Some time ago Condorcet read from the Committee of Legislation a new plan of a constitution for France, which has been now printed, and detailed in all the English newspapers; but which our narrow limits prevent us from inserting; and which seems indeed the less necessary, as it will not in all probability be ever carried into effect, seeing the Jacobin Club, the rulers of which direct every thing in France, have rejected it. The following is an extract from the papers on that subject.

Very vehement debates have taken place amongst the Jacobins on the plan of a new constitution presented to France, Anthoine said, it was a masterpiece of nonsense and treachery. Couthon complained that a clear exposition of the Natural Rights of Man was not to be found in it. The principle of resistance to opprefsion was exprefsed in an absurd and most unintelligible manner. The theory of election was too complicated, and favoured the intrigues of the rich. Above all, he found it ridiculous to indicate a legal manner of resisting opprefsions; as if, said he, when an afsafsin is to be got rid of, time ought to be allowed him to consummate his guilty designs.

The society came to the following resolutions. That they considered the plan of the constitution as a public calamity, and would make incessant efforts to prcvent the adoption of it by the people.

The society also took into consideration the means of punishing such deputies as had voted against the execution of the late king.

This plainly discovers, that the domineering party in France wish to have no check upon their power, even by the appearance of law; but that they only desire to perpetuate that bloody system of proscription and assassination which they have hitherto so successfully employed. Some faint attempts have been made by means of the mob, to try if the people are yet prepared

to go the lengths they wish, by proclaiming Egalitè regent; but this propo sal was received with such marked disapprobation as to check their proceeding farther in that path for the present. These motions have been just sufficient to discover what is the ultimate object of their wishes.

Such is the present distracted state of France. The crisis now seems to be at hand; and we fhould by no means be surprised, if, in our next chronicle, we had occasion to announce some dreadful convulsion, which has once more precipitated many thousands to the grave, and others to misery and wretch. edness, in that distracted country! Who does not wish that a speedy termination could be put to these multiplied scenes of confusion and disturbance!

DOMESTIC.

THE levies continue to go forward with increasing alacrity; and no man

ever saw, in Scotland at least, such a number of recruits obtained in so short a time, either for the navy or land service, as at present. The nation seems, indeed, to believe, almost with unanimity, that the war was unavoidable; but they are as universally satisfied, that it is of great importance it should be of as short duration as possible. It is this sentiment animating every bo som, which has induced almost every description of men to exert themselves as if the success of the war depended on them alone, in order that, by the great vigour of our arms, the contest may be rendered so unequal as to terminate in a permanent peace almost at once. Even the members of opposi tion profess to have adopted the same principles. Administration, at the same time, professes that it has no desires hostile to France. And it is to be hoped these professions are sincere on both sides; for if they be, the nation at large will forward these views with the most cordial unanimity. Never, indeed, before did this nation seem to be, so sensible of the mischievous tendency of war; nor was its effects ever so sensibly and so speedily felt as at present. Monied men have been so eager to avail themselves of the profits that they hope to derive from this fort spurt of war, as it is generally supposed it will be, that they have called in their credits from the mercantile and manufacturing part of the community so rapidly as to have produced already very serious effects. Many bankruptcies in great banking houses, where the money was lodged at command, have already taken place; and more are feared. The discounting of bills, on which the credit of our very extensive manufactures greatly depends, has been almost universally discontinued, which occasions an unexpected scarcity of cash, that is severely felt, and which, if long continued, would be productive of very wide and mischievous consequences. Every one, therefore, who feels these inconveniences, looks forward towards the termination of the war with the most impatient anxiety; so that were admini stration to avoid embracing the earliest opportunity of terminating the war in such a manner as to insure the safety, without aggrandising the territories

of Britain, the popular tide would turn very quickly, and ebb with a greater degree of rapidity than it has flowed.

In parliament nothing remarkable has occurred since our last, unless it be the opening of the budget, which took place in a Committee of Supply on the 11th of March, when the minister, after giving in estimates of the expence, and stating the Ways and Means for the current year, found there would be a deficiency amounting to L. 2,900,000, which he proposed to raise by way of loan; and the bill proposed by the Attorney General," For the more effectually preventing the holding treasonable correspondence with the enemies of his majesty's subjects, aiding, abetting, or comforting the said enemies." The intention of this bill is, in the first place, to prevent British subjects from sending to the enemies of this country, during the continuance of the war, supplies of arms, ammunition, victuals, or warlike stores of any sort. 2d, To prohibit them from buying lands in France, or from vesting money in the French funds. 3d, To prevent any persons from going to France, without his majesty's permission under the privy seal. 4th, To prevent any person from coming into this country from France, without certain precautions therein stated. And, lastly, To prohibit the insurance of French ships by British subjects. This bill is only announced, and has not yet been brought into parliament. It is a strong step; but whether the present circumstances of the country may not be sufficient to authorise it, we pretend not to say. We doubt not but administration will take care so to conduct themselves under its authority, as to give no just occasion for complaint. Some may think it has been too long delayed; and that, now, it is like shutting the stable door after the steed has been stolen.

The French have made a vigorous push to fit out a fleet at Brest which sailed some days ago, and is supposed to be now cruising in the chops of the channel, waiting for captain Gardener's rich convoy. It consists of seven fhips of the line, and three frigates. By the last accounts, a fleet of nine ships of the line were ready to sail from Spithead in quest of it. Should it be so fortunate as fall in with and beat the French squadron, it is hoped that circumstance would contribute much to pave the way for a speedy termination of the war.

MISCELLANEOUS.

IN Ireland the Roman Catholic bill, which is meant to restore to the privi

leges of citizens that numerous body of men, having now nearly passed in parliament, though not without considerable opposition, seems to give very general satisfaction; and we would fain hope will contribute much towards eradicating that tendency to licentiousnefs, which has too long pervaded that fine country.