severe disappointment on this occasion, and that it is now persuaded that its Friends in Switzerland had given very false accounts both of their own strength, and of the temper and spirit of the Government and the Inhabitants.

In the mean time, Switzerland continues to be inundated with French Libels; the disaffected Subjects, who have quitted their respective Cantons, are invited to Civic Feasts in the house of the new French Minister at Basle; and the whole attention of the French Government seems now to be directed to the separating some one or more of the Cantons from the Confederacy. In this attempt, it is generally believed that the French will succeed only with the Canton of Basle. Since the French have obtained possession of the Porentrui, and the Country called the Frichthal (which the Austrians appear to have ceded by some secret Article of the Treaty of Campo Formio) this small Canton is left entirely at the mercy of the French.

We are happy in having an opportunity to lay before our Readers the Note that Mr. WICKHAM delivered to the Helvetic Body on his recal.

In the language and conduct which the BRITISH MINISTER was directed to hold upon this occasion, the world will see a new proof of the extreme moderation by which His Majesty's conduct towards NEUTRAL NATIONS has uniformly been guided.

[TRANSLATION.]

Frankfort, Nov. 22, 1797.

"Magnificent and powerful Lords,

Although your Lordships have not communicated to

me the demand which the Executive Directory of France

7

lately

lately made to you concerning my mission, I could not, however, be ignorant of what was notorious to all Switzerland, and I in consequence deemed it my duty to communicate it to my Court, not omitting, at the same time, to point out the insulting manner in which it was transmitted to your Lordships.

"In the whole of this transaction, which attacks alike the law of Nations, and your ancient dignity and independence, the KING has not failed to observe the perfidious intention of dissolving the ties of friendship which have at all times attached HIS MAJESTY to your States, and the premeditated plan of undermining the very foundations of your confederacy.

"Persuaded of this truth, HIS MAJESTY, who, in sending his Minister into Switzerland, wished to give a proof of his good will and friendship towards you, will not allow his residence there to serve as a pretext to the hostile projects of a neighbour, whose ambition respects neither Justice nor the Laws of Sovereignty, and who is actuated with no other desire than to introduce into your happy countries that destructive system, from which, by the help of Divine Providence, you have been hitherto enabled to protect them.-The KING has in consequence signified his commands, that his whole mission should withdraw from your territories without loss of time.

"In communicating this resolution to your Lordships, I have the King's express commands to assure you, that it is dictated by no other motive than his anxious solicitude for the preservation of your tranquillity; and that your Lordships may fully rely on a continuance of that goodwill and friendship which have ever formed the basis of his Majesty's conduct in all his transactions with your States.

"I eagerly embrace this opportunity to express to you individually, my acknowledgements for the manner in which your Lordships have been pleased to receive me during my mission, and my regret at being no longer the organ of the benevolent sentiments of my Sovereign towards you.

"In offering up my sincerest prayers for the prosperity and tranquillity of your States, I have the honour to be, with the highest consideration,

Magnificent and powerful Lords,

(Signed)

" W. WICKHAM.”

N°

N° XII.—MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 1798.

Sed per deos immortales, vos ego appello, qui semper domos, villas, signa, tabulas vestras pluris, quam rempublicam, fecistis; si ista, cujuscumque modi sint, quæ amplexamini, retinere, si voluptatibus vestris otium præbere vultis; expergiscimini aliquando et capessite rempublicam. — Non agitur de vectigalibus, non de sociorum injuriis: libertas et anima nostra in dubio est.

SALLUST. BELL. CATILIN.

FINANCE.

A

FTER having fully discussed, and, we trust, sufficiently established, the indispensable necessity of raising within the year, a large part of the supplies, we intended to take a short review of the principal objections to the particular mode adopted by the Legisla ture, in the bill lately passed for raising a contribution for this purpose, charged in proportion to the payment to the Assessed Taxes. This task we are peculiarly desirous to execute, because we hold it to be of the utmost importance to the Public Interest, that this question should be fully understood in its details, as well as its general principles, and that the false reasoning, and factious clamour, by which the emissaries of those confederate powers, the Whig Club, and the Corresponding Society, have endeavoured to defeat it, should be detected and exposed as they deserve.

There is, however, another practical point connected with the same object of providing for the supplies of the year, which appears to us more urgent than the retrospective examination of a measure on which the Legislature has already decided, and to which we are all bound to conform. The point to which we refer, is one not enforced upon us by law, but left to the free exercise of our own discretion.

The vigour and firmness of Parliament have, to a certain extent, provided, by the sanction of law, for the public exigencies; and have, perhaps, carried that compulsory provision as far as the novelty and difficulty of the measure, in the first instance, would admit. But if in this respect it has performed the task which properly belonged to the collective wisdom of the representatives, and the Government of the Country, it has, at the same time, wisely left an opening to voluntary zeal and individual

exertion.

The clause in the act, which regulates the mode bywhich Voluntary Contributions may be received in aid of the Funds destined for the service of the year, is a public and solemn call, addressed to all the subjects of this free and great country. If they have a spark of generosity and patriotism; if they have a sense of the blessings which it rests with themselves to preserve, or of the evils which their own exertions only can avert; if they tender the public interest, or their own safety; if they love either their Country or themselves; such a call will not be disregarded.

If the situation were such as in ordinary times, in which the extent of the supplies is to be regulated by a comparison of the pressure of immediate burdens with the prospect of future and contingent evils; if we

were