ment Seventeen Grievances, which they say must be redressed.

A LISBON MAIL arrived yesterday, with letters of the 20th ult. Accounts had been received there from Paris of the imprisonment of their Minister (M. D'ARAUJO) sent to negotiate a PEACE with the FRENCH REPUBLIC which had occasioned no little surprize and consternation.

M. D'ARAUJO was sent for by the Minister of Police on the night of the 27th December, and was taken from his bed, to which he had been for some time confined by illness. When he was suffered to return home, a Guard was set over his house; nor was he permitted to stir out till the 29th, when, by an order from the Directory, he was committed to the Temple; his Papers seized, &c. &c.

These circumstances (the reason of which has not been assigned) occasion most of the People at Lisbon to doubt the sincerity of the Pacific Dispositions so often and so loudly declared by the Directory.

PARIS.

We have received French Papers, and some private accounts, from France, up to the 27th of January. From the contents of the former, it is impossible to form any opinion of the present situation of affairs at Paris. The Liberty of the Press is now so completely crushed by the power of arbitrary transportation; and the wanton recurrence to this new System of Terror so frequent, as to banish entirely from the French Journals all observations and conjectures on the public occurrences of their own or

other

other countries, except such as obviously flatter the views, and coincide with the sentiments of the Directory. The few facts they are allowed, and the numerous falsehoods they are compelled to publish, are daily measured out to them by Government - they are never suffered to be in advance upon the former, or to run into arrears upon the latter; to add to the one, or to curtail the other.

Under this restraint, many circumstances of general notoriety and public interest remain unpublished, and falsehoods the most outrageous and barefaced, pass uncontradicted. Of this last description, are the infamous Reports made to the Council of Five Hundred by VILLERS and RIOU, and several statements officially published by the Directory, respecting the treatment of French Prisoners of War in England. It is impossible to suppose that such incredible and monstrous allegations as they have brought forward on this subject, can be conscientiously believed by the Frenchman the most inveterate against this Country. Whether this base and detestable policy, working upon the fears, the passions, or the prejudices of the people, will materially assist the threatened vengeance of the Directory against England, remains to be seen; but whilst we lament and apprehend the consequences to which our own Prisoners in France may be exposed, under the pretext of retaliation, we observe with satisfaction the impressions these charges have made upon the Public Mind of this Country. The contempt and abhorrence of a Government that can recur to such unjustifiable expedients, is, we believe, universal. Even our Jacobin Papers dare not any longer dissemble or deny the general feelings on this occasion. After countenancing and supporting the Directory in their calumnies, until they could no longer be maintained against the incontro

vertible

vertible facts we have laid before the Public upon

this sub

ject, they are Now compelled to brand them as guilty of "shameful falsehoods," and to avow," that the most sa"tisfactory evidence has been produced, that the French "Prisoners are treated with humanity and attention."* We shall take leave of this subject, by recommending to the perusal of such of our Readers as may wish for a more minute detail of the present situation of the French Prisoners in this Country, the very accurate Report of the MAYOR and MAGISTRACY of Liverpool, † respecting the Prison of that Town, published in several of the Daily Papers.

The Anniversary of the Murder of Louis the SIXTEENTH was celebrated at Paris with all the savage joy of Republican Festivity. Very long speeches, remarkable only for bombast language and cannibal sentiments, were made in each of the Councils, and by the President of the Directory, on this occasion. The strong and universal reprobation, loudly pronounced in January, 1797, in every corner of France, against the future observance

* Morning Chronicle, February 1, 1798.

The commendable Inquiry which led to this Report, was instituted in consequence of a Letter in the Courier, signed Philartbrofos, a Signature which the Jacobin cant has rendered justly suspicious to every honest man. The Libeller who assumed it on this occasion, on the one hand, to traduce the character and to belie the humanity of his Country, and on the other, to inflame the resentment and to justify the cruelties of an implacable Enemy against our galiant Defenders, whom the chance of war has placed in its power, will, we trust, be made to answer for this instance of Jacobin Philanthropy, before a Jury, unbiassed by these refined feelings, or by any feelings but those of Englishmen called upon to do justice to their insulted and injured Country.

of

of this disgraceful Anniversary, compared to the apparent exultation with which it has been as universally observed in January, 1798, is a striking and melancholy proof, that the spirit of the Nation is again completely subdued by the system of Terror and Jacobin Coercion. We know their general and genuine feelings on this event. For those feelings we are ready to give them credit individually, but that credit is perhaps better withheld, when we consider the disgrace it reflects on their character as a People, tamely and pusillanimously returning, for the second time, under such a yoke.

We are now told, in the French Papers, that “the "Directory had never entertained any design to attack "Hamburgh, or any of the Countries situated within "the line of neutrality."-" That the Directory re"turned for answer to the Prussian Minister, on his de

manding an explanation on this subject, that the French "Government would never violate its engagements, "and that they were justly surprized at a supposition "almost insulting." That their Answer is to this effect, we think very probable; but before the Northern Powers relax in the measures of precaution and defence which have procured to them such an Explanation, let them look around them at the impending fate of Switzerland, and other Countries that have placed any reliance on such assurances.

They may read, in the Manifesto published by the Rebels at Basle (evidently the production of the Directory) the doctrine which Republican France has uniformly followed, and now appears openly to avow, with respect to the most solemn engagements. To do them justice, we must copy their own expressions. "CLAIMS AND

Сс TRACTS (they observe) REST SOLELY ON THE RIGHT OF THE STRONGEST, AND ON THE FORCE "OF ARMS; AND ALL SUCH PRETENSIONS

HAVE

<c NO REALITY, BUT IN THE POWER OF MAINTAINING AND ENFORCING THEM. In offering this as a caution to this Country, and to the North of Europe, we still preserve a hope, that the Swiss will shew themselves possessed of that power of maintaining and enforcing; notwithstanding the unfavourable reports in these Papers respecting the progress of the Revolution in that Country, which, though we

positively contradict, we have reason to believe are exaggerated.

LIEN.

Perhaps the most remarkable event mentioned in these Papers, and, as we are induced to believe from private accounts, the most important, both from the circumstances that led to it, and the consequences it may involve, is the refusal of the Directory to receive M. CABARRUS as the Ambassador from Spain. This Gentleman, our Readers will recollect, is the Father of Madame TALWhether the influence of this Woman had any share in procuring to him the appointment, we cannot pretend to say, but it was well understood to have been conferred at Madrid, in order to conciliate some Party, and to serve some political intrigues at Paris. Without knowing precisely of whom this Party consisted, what objects they had in view, or what means they intended to adopt, we understand that BARRAS and BUONAPARTE are supposed to be at the head of it; that such alterations were in contemplation in the form and distribution of the Executive Government, as would have set aside, if not

the