of exciting, by any reasoning or representation, feelings which would be adequate to the momentous crisis in which we are called upon to act. But even if we were so depressed, and subdued in spirit, as to be prepared to suffer rather than to act - the extent of what, in that case, we may expect to have inflicted upon us, would be of itself well worthy our consideration. If such as we have seen is the violence exercised upon unoffending, and comparatively, powerless Countries, in the mere wantonness of force, or, at best, for the sake of Plunder, for the ag grandisement of Territory, or for the propagation of the principles of Anarchy and Irreligion-What is to be the lot of this Country, against whom the Great Nation has lashed itself into a phrenzy of rage, and in whom she has long seen the only rival of her greatness, the only obstacle to her ambition, and the only check upon her power?

That the INVASION of this Country is a serious and settled object with France that, until the attempt shall have been made, and shall have failed, or until the firmness and determination of the People, and the vigourous exertions of the Government of these Kingdoms, shall have operated upon the mad pride of the Directory, and the inflamed imaginations of the French Nation, a conviction of the utter impracticability of such an attempt

there is no chance of a sincere, of a tolerable Peace, of a Peace that would secure our Existence as an Independent Country for an hour.-Of this it is no longer possible to doubt. It is our business to be prepared.

IRELAND.

IRELAND.

As we were the first to controvert the Unfounded Assertions of Lord MOIRA, respecting Ireland, in the English House of Peers, we think it right to notice (which is all we can do at present) that the Irish Papers are just arrived, with an account of the Noble Lord's Speech in the House of Peers there. The only circumstance that strikes us and it is rather a curious one is, that whereas he thought it right to descend to particular charges HERE, where, though disbelieved, they could not of course be specifically contradicted THERE, where they could, and would, he has only made a general charge, referring for particulars to his Statements in this Country— Statements which the Noble Lord ought to have known, an Irish House of Peers could not constitutionally notice.

We think it right to observe, that we have no other authority for what we have quoted, than the Irish and English Papers. If it should hereafter appear, that Lord MOIRA really particularized any act of cruelty in the Soldiery, we shall be extremely ready to do him justice.

1

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

THE spirited Ode to the D. of N. we reluctantly decline inserting: but having already treated His Grace's Conduct with that seriousness it seemed to us to require; and still looking forward to a more solemn animadversion which it will probably receive, we cannot consent to offer it to our Readers in any lighter point of view. — This, we hope, wili plead our excuse with the ingenious author, for

omitting

omitting a production which, from its humour, we would otherwise

have inserted with pleasure.

TWO IMITATIONS of HORACE - DORUS Two JACOBINS ANTI-JACOBINS A FRIEND

AGRICOLA

NYMOUS Communications, are received.

-“and a variety of Ano

D. R. may be assured we never entertained a thought of making him a Candidate for the Prize of Dullness; but we cannot in this place enter into our reasons for omitting his Favours.

A ROYALIST is entitled to our best thanks: we shall avail ourselves of his friendly information.

We again entreat our Correspondents to use more discriminating Signatures than those of JACOBIN and ANTI-JACOBIN.

N°

N° XVII.—MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1798.

I

BLOCKADE OF THE SEINE.

is with the sincerest satisfaction we announce to our

Readers, that at the very moment when the Enemy is venting his rage against this Country, in insulting and arrogant Menaces, the decided Superiority of the NAVAL FORCE of Great Britain has enabled His Majesty's Ministers to employ a small portion of it, under Sir RICHARD STRACHAN, for the BLOCKADE of the Mouth of the River Seine; by the operation of which wise and spirited measure, the Ports of HAVRE and ROUEN, and even the City of PARIS itself, are completely excluded from all communication with the Sea.

In recurring to this mode of distressing its Enemy, the British Government, faithful to those principles of Justice which in the progress of this War have uniformly marked its conduct towards NEUTRAL NATIONS, has not failed formally to apprize the Ministers of Neutral Powers, accredited to this Court, that the Mouth of the River Seine is in a state of Blockade, and that all Neutral Ships attempting to enter it, after this notice, will be treated conformably to the principles of the Law of Na

tions. And, in order to evince its scrupulous respect for the Rights of other Independent Powers, and to obviate those doubts which in former periods have subsisted with regard to the precise circumstances which authorize the Notification of a Blockade, the British Government has conformed to the strictest position on this subject that has ever been laid down by any Writer on the Law of Nations, and has employed a Naval Force so adequate to the purpose which it is intended to effect, that it will henceforward be impossible, so long as the Blockade shall subsist, for any vessel to enter the Seine, without being exposed almost to the certainty of Capture.

With regard to the impression which this measure has made on the French Government, so short a period has elapsed since its execution, that little can be learnt. All that we know with certainty, is collected from one of the last French Newspapers, which states, in an Article from Havre, that an English Squadron, consisting of a Ship of the Line, and some Frigates, had, after carefully examining that Port, anchored in its vicinity.

The impression which the cotinuance of this measure will hereafter necessarily make on the "Great Nation,” must be very serious - exclusively of the advantage resulting to GREAT BRITAIN, from thus rendering useless the exertions of her Enemy in that quarter. The extravagant threats of vengeance denounced by the Tyrants of France on the Country, against the power of which they are now proved incapable of protecting their own Territory, will be listened to with contempt and ridicule by their own Subjects. The BLOCKADE of the Seine will inflict the last and fatal blow on two of the greatest Trading Towns of France (HAVRE and ROUEN) which have hitherto sustained a temporary, though languishing

commercial