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cause themselves to be carried into the public squares, to excite the courage of the warriors, and preach hatred against the enemies of the republic.

2. The national edifices shall be converted into store-houses; the ground of the cellars shall be washed with lie, to obtain salt-petre.

3. The musquets and military fire-arms, shall be immediately delivered to those who are to march against the enemy: the internal service of the republic shall be performed with fowling pieces.

4. All saddle-horses shall be given up to complete the cavalry: the draught horses and others, except those employed for purposes of agriculture, shall convey the artillery and provisions.

5. The committee of public welfare is charged to take all necessary measures to establish, without delay, an extraordinary manufacture of arms of all kinds, suitable to the efforts of the French nation. It is authorised, in consequence, to form all the establishments, manufactories, and working places, which shall be deemed necessary for the execution of those works; and to summon, throughout the republic, all the artists and workmen who can contribute to their success. The sum of thirty millions shall be at the disposal of the minister at war, to be taken out of the four hundred and twenty-eight millions in assignats, which are in reserve in the chest with three keys. The central establishment of this extraordinary manufacture shall be at Paris.

6. The representatives of the people sent into the departments to execute the present law, shall have the same authority, and shall con

cert measures, with the committee of public welfare: they are invested with the unlimited powers attributed to the representatives of the people with the armies.

7. No Frenchman summoned to serve, shall be suffered to send a substitute. The public functionaries shall remain on their post.

S. The rising or movement shall be general; the unmarried or widowed citizens, from the age of eighteen to twenty-five, shall march first: they shall form, without delay, in the chief place of their district: they shall daily be exercised till the day of their departure.

9. The representatives. of the people shall regulate the calls and the marches, so that the armed citizens may not reach the place of their rendezvous, before the supplies and ammunition, and all the mechanical parts shall have been brought together in a competent proportion.

10. The general points of rendezvous shall be determined by circumstances, and pointed out by the representatives of the people, sent out to enforce the execution of the present law, by advice of the generals, in concert with the committee of public welfare and the provisory executive counsel.

11. The battalions, which shall be organised in every district, shall be ranged under a banner, with this inscription: The French nation risen against tyrants.

12. The battalion shall be organised according to the established laws, and their pay shall be the same as that of the battalions now on the frontiers.

13. In order to collect a suffi-.

cient quantity of provisions, the farmers and stewards of the national lands shall pour into the principal rendezvous of every district, a sufficient quantity of corn, the produce of the said lands.

14. The proprietors, farmers, and holders of corn, shall be obliged to pay their arrears of taxes in the produce of the fields, and also twothirds of the taxes for 1793..

15. The national convention appoints citizens Chabot, Tallien, Carpentier, Renaud, Dartgoytte, La Planche of Vievre, Mallarme, Legendre, Lanot, Roux-Fuzillac, Pagenel, Boisset, Tallifer, Baile, Pinet, Fayan, Lacroix, and Ingrand, as adjuncts to the representatives of the people, who are actually in the armies, and in the departments, in order to execute in concert with them the present decree.

16. The commissioners of the primary assemblies are invited to repair, without delay, into the departments, to fulfil the civic mission entrusted to them by the decree of the 14th of August, and to receive the commissioners to be assigned to them by the representatives of the people.

17. The minister of war is charged to take all the measures necessary for the execution of the present decree. The sum of fifty millions shall be placed at his disposal, to be taken out of the four hundred and fifty-eight millions of assignats in the chest with three keys.

18. The present decree shall be sent into the departments by extraordinary couriers."

That such a decree should be proposed cannot produce the least astonishment in the minds of those who are familiar with the history

of the convention, which was every hour producing something strange and monstrous; but that it should, in any degree, he received by the people, might not be altogether expected, on the avowed principles even of the French revolution. Jacobins, and the friends of Jacobins will, without doubt, consider the general consent to rise in a mass, as a proof of that ardent love of liberty, which is boasted, at this time, to have inspired every patriot heart in France. It must, indeed, be confessed, that a very active enthusiasm prevailed among the French people; but it was not founded on a knowledge or sense of genuine freedom: it was violent, cruel, and precipitate; it was easily called forth, and set in motion; but not operating on any principle, however it might be employed, its course must be licentious, and its tendency was rather to mischief than to good.

We shall now leave, for a short time, the commotions of Europe, to consider and record the events of the West Indies-a very interesting part of the globe to the nations of Europe.-Admiral Laforey had sailed from Barbadoes, on the 12th of April, accompanied by major-gene ral Cuyler, who commanded the land forces, destined for an attack on the island of Tobago. They ar rived there on the 14th, and the troops were disembarked by three in the afternoon. The commandant refused to surrender on the summons, the works were effectually stormed, and carried against a strong resistance, with inconsiderable loss. The number of the enemy that defended the place were equal to the troops who made the attack.

In the beginning of the follow

ing month, the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon surrendered at discretion to the British forces, under the command of captain Affleck, of his majesty's ship Alliga tor, and brigadier-general Ogilvie. An attempt was also made on the island of Martinico, by a body of troops, consisting of about 1100 men, under the command of majorgeneral Bruce, in consequence of an invitation from the royalists in that island. The British forces made good their landing on the 16th of June. The plan, which had been concerted was to attack two batteries that defended Saint Pierre; the taking of which would produce an immediate possession of that town. The morning of the 18th was the time fixed for executing this project, and the whole force marched forward, before day-break, in two columns; the one consisting of the British troops, and the other of the French royalists: but the latter, by some mistake, began by firing upon each other, and the whole body of them were so disconcerted by this circumstance, as to retire instantly, and in great confusion, to the post from whence they had advanced. This conduct rendered the expectation of any assistance from them very doubtful; and as the British troops were not equal to the attack of Saint Pierre by themselves, they returned to their former post, from whence they embarked on the 19th. The 20th and 21st were employed in embarking the royalists, who, if they had been left behind, would have fallen a sacrifice to republican vengeance.

A considerable number of the most respectable inhabitants of St.

Domingo, lamenting the situation of France, and groaning beneath the tyranny of the commissioners, Polverel and Santhonax, whom the French convention had sent to regulate the affairs of that colony, had implored the British government to take them, on certain conditions, under its protection till a general peace, when the sovereignty of Saint Domingo would be finally settled. Accordingly majorgeneral Williamson sailed from Jamaica on the 9th of September, with commodore Ford, having on board the 13th regiment, two flank companies of the 49th, and a detachment of artillery, to take possession of the town and forts of Jeremie. This was effected on the nineteenth, the British colours were hoisted on both forts, and the troops were received with loud acclamations by all ranks of people. The commodore sailed from thence to the Mole, where he arrived on the 22d; when a deputation of twenty persons from thence came on board, to beg that he would take possession of it, on the same conditions which had been granted to Jeremie. This proposition was accepted, and Cape Nicholas Mole was also received into the protection of the British crown.

Before we return to the affairs of Europe, it will be necessary to mention the success of the British arms in the East Indies, by the capture of all the French settlements in that part of the globe.

Advice having been received at Fort Saint George, on the 2d, and at Fort William on the 11th of June, from Mr. Baldwin, his majesty's consul at Alexandria, that France had declared war against

Great

Great Britain and Holland, all the small factories belonging to the French on the continent of India, as well as the ships of that nation in any of the ports, were immediately seized, while the government of Fort St. George made instant preparations to attack the important fortress of Pondicherry. Marquis Cornwallis also declared his intention to undertake the conduct of the siege; but by the activity of colonel Braithwaite, and the troops

under his command, the place was surrendered before he could arrive. This was a most important conquest, and gave complete security to the oriental possessions of Great Britain. The French settlements on the coast of Malabar, as well as those which were in the vicinity of Bengal surrendered to the British arms so that the colours of France were no longer seen to wave on the continent of India.

CHAP. VIII.

The

Occurrences in the Low Countries. Action at Lincelles. Expedition against Dunkirk. Surrender of Quesnoy. The French attack the Frontier Posts of the Allies. Prince de Cobourg is forced to repass the Sambre. Arrival of Sir Charles Grey, and a British Armament; at Ostend. French Armies augmented. State of the revolted Parts. An Army ordered against Marseilles, which surrenders. Toulon yielded to Lord Hood. Lyons besieged and taken by the Republican Army. Enormities practised on its Inhabitants. Custine recalled and beheaded. Cruelties exercised on the Queen. Her Trial and Murder. The New Calendar. Trial and Execution of Brissot, and several Members of his Party. Execution of the Duke of Orleans and Madame Roland. Bishops and Priests resign their Functions, and disclaim the Christian Religion before the Convention. Lines of Weissemburg forced by General Wurmser. The Allies defeated at Hagenau. Weissembourg retaken. Siege of Landau raised. Toulon given up to the French. The French Fleet, Arsenals, and Store-houses, destroyed. Occurrences on the Side of Spain and Italy. Assistance given to Corsica. Lord Moira's Expedition to the Coast of France.

WE

E must now return to the affairs of the Low Countries; and the most prominent circumstance to be observed there, is the attempt of the duke of York to restore Dunkirk to the British Empire. On the 18th of August his royal highness marched from Turcoin to a camp near Menin. The Dutch who were stationed there, after some advantages gained over the French, were so pressed by them in their turn, that the here

ditary prince of Orange requested the assistance of three battalions from the British forces; and they were immediately ordered to march under the command of general Lake. The enemy occupied a redoubt of uncommon size and strength, upon an height adjoining the high road in front of the village of Lincelles. The road itself was defended by other works, which were strongly pallisadoed, while woods and ditches covered

their flanks. The battalions were instantly formed, and advanced, with order and intrepidity, under a very heavy fire. After firing a few rounds, they rushed on with their bayonets, stormed the redoubts, and drove the enemy through the village: at the end of it, however, the latter attempted to rally under the protection of other troops, but were again defeated and entirely put to the rout. This was a most brilliant action, in which the British soldiery maintained the honour of their name and character.

On the 22d, the duke of York proceeded from Furnes, with the besieging army, in order to attack the camp at Ghivelde, and ap. proach the town of Dunkirk. The enemy abandoned the camp to him, and he was almost immediately enabled to take the ground, which it was his intention to occupy during the siege; leaving field-marshal Freytag with a covering army of twelve thousand Hanoverians, to overawe the garrison of Bergues, and the camp of Mont Cassel. On the 24th, his royal highness attacked the French, and drove them with some loss into the town. In this action, lieutenant-general D'Alton, an officer of merit, in the Imperial army, lost his life. The siege, which began with some prospect of success, soon wore a very dubious appearance. The arrival of the heavy artillery was too long delayed; and the naval force, which was to have co-operated with the army, did not sail in time to do any essential service. During these tardy operations, in which two weeks were consumed, the French government had put in requisition VOL. XXXV.

every species of vehicle, and collected from all the garrisons in the north, and even from the armies of the Sambre and Meuse, such an enormous mass of soldiery, that the covering army of Freytag was attacked; and, after various repulses of the enemy, was, at length, overpowered by superior numbers. In the retreat, his royal highness prince Adolphus and the field-marshal, were, for a short time, in the possession of the enemy. A patrole of cavalry, which ought to have been in their front, having taken another road, they went to the village of Rexpede, through which one of the columns was to pass, but was then occupied by the enemy. From this situation they were fortunately relieved, by the intrepidity and presence of mind of general Walmoden, who, on discovering that the enemy were in possession of Rexpede, had immediately collected a body of troops, attacked it without hesitation, and defeated them with great slaughter.

The duke of York now felt himself obliged to raise the siege. The military chest was saved, but the heavy artillery, and a large quantity of ammunition, were abandoned. The convention, who had been persuaded, or at least pretended to believe, that Houchard, who commander Dunkirk, did not take the advantage which he possessed, to drive the besieging army into the sea, summoned him to the revolutionary tribunal, from whence he was shortly transferred to the scaffold. The British ministers have been very much blamed for permitting the duke of York to separate from the prince de Cobourg, after the capture of Valen[T] ciennes,

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