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This is a fyftem which may yet produce the defolation of a great part of Europe, but which cannot be durable.

From an attentive confideration of the relative fituation of the French and Auftrians; from a knowledge that the former have been employed, for many months pait, in making active preparations for the renewal of a war, which they were always refolved to purfue, and in fecuring thofe important pofts which will materially facilitate their future operations; from a certainty that the latter have been guilty of the moft culpable tardinefs, fo much fo, that the Archduke, even by the aid of forced marches, did not take poffeffion of the important poft of Ulm until the French were within four days march of the place, we are ftrongly difpofed to believe that the Republicans will be fuccefsful in their firft efforts. Indeed, it would feem, from the rapidity of their march, without artillery, without baggage, and without magazines, that the object of Jourdan is to take the fortreffes of the Empire by furprize, and to push forward, in the hope of defeating the ARCHDUKE CHARLES, before he can have assembled his forces and fettled his plan of operations, and then direct his march towards Vienna, with a view to intimidate the Emperor into a compliance with the ruinous conditions prefcribed by the Directory.

The fummons to furrender, fent by the French General, Bernadotte, to the commander of the fortrefs of Phillipfburgh, exhibits a true fpecimen of Gallic eloquence and Gallic modefty. To call upon a commander firft to be guilty of a bafe act of treachery, by violating the truft reposed in him; to tell him next that a discharge of his duty would produce the defection of his officers and men; then to warn him of the folly and danger of leading troops to action against their will; and, laftly, to threaten him with vengeance if he dare to refift, is a gradation of infolence and profligacy, truly becoming the leader of a French army. This Bernadotte was himself a corporal before the revolution, and is now leading to action a band of men who were preffed into the fervice, and dragged from their homes, by military force, and fent, hand-cuffed, like vile flaves, as they are, to the army!

The tone of the manifeftoes of the Directory is, of course, marked by the fame spirit as the proclamations of their agents. Fidelity, justice, and peace, in their mouths; but perfidy, violence, and war, in their hearts. The experience of every day confirms the melancholy truth, that, with the existence of the prefent government of France, the tranquillity, the fafety, of Europe, is incompatible. The war, now renewed, must be confidered, fuch as the early revolutionists of France long fince declared it-BELLUM INTERNECINUM; either the Republic of France muft now be deftroyed, or plunder, defolation, and anarchy, extended over the whole furface of the European continent. For this dreadful alternative the Sovereigns and the people of Europe must be prepared; there is now no medium; and those who flatter themselves that any palliative can be fubftituted for the fword will be most miferably deceived. In the country of the Grifons the French

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French troops have already furprized a ftrong body of Auftrians, and taken them all prifoners, together with their General, AUFFENBURGH, and the whole of his ftaff. This is a neceffary confequence of that vile fyftem of delay, that wretched temporizing policy, which, for the last twelve months, has fo ftrongly marked the proceedings of the cabinet of Vienna. The mistaken advisers of his Imperial Majefty have already, by their timid, ftupid, or unprincipled, councils, reduced their mafter to the brink of destruction. In vain have the inhabitants of Germany, ftill fmarting under the lafh of the Gallic marauders, hitherto looked up for protection to their fovereigns. Deferted by thofe whofe duty it is to defend them, the greatest confternation and terror now prevail among them; and the requifitions levied by the invaders of their country, immediately after the folemn promife of respect for property, publicly proclaimed by Jourdan, unfortunately fhew that they have but too much reafon for their fears!

It has been a diftinguishing feature in the politics of the Directory, as we have had frequent occafion to obferve, to fow diffention among the Powers whofe union alone can tend to defeat their perfidious machinations, and to fruftrate their abominable fchemes. To this Machiavelian fyftem they have had recourfe on the prefent occafion, and, in order to deter the Pruffian Monarch from entering into a coalition against France, they have inftructed the arch-apoftate, SIEYES, to communicate to that Prince the Secret Articles of the Treaty of Campo Formio. If thefe Articles, as published by the French, be authentic, we may deplore the inconceiveable folly of the Emperor, in leaving the Empire to its fate, and acquiefcing in the poffeffion of its ftrongest fortreffes by the most inveterate and dangerous enemy which he ever had to encounter, in return for a precarious and inadequate conceffion in Italy; but we are unable to defcry any ftipulations of which the King of Pruffia has juft reafon to complain. As to the Princes of the Empire, who, by the execution of thefe Articles, would be the greatest fufferers, their conduct has been fo fhamefully disloyal, fo meanly felfifh, fo bafely pufillanimous, that, were their fate wholly unconnected with that of Europe, nor their fufferings, nor yet their fall, could excite, in any reflecting mind, one fentiment of compaflion. They began by a breach of their fworn allegiance to the head of the Empire, and, in direct violation of the Germanic Conftitution, which they were bound in duty to defend, by making a feparate peace with the common enemy; and by that act alone they fubjected themselves to the ban of the Empire, and to a forfeiture of their dominions;-and, fince the establishment of a Congress at Raftadt, instead of betraying an anxiety to preferve the honour, the independence, and integrity of the Empire, (the laft of which, indeed, they had before confented to deftroy,) they have been exclufively occupied in arranging the indemnifications to be received by themfelves for the territories which they had abandoned to the French; in other words, in fettling the plunder of their neighbours,

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to make themfelves amends for the loffes fuftained by the devastations of their enemies. At the head of these degraded men, was the Duke of DEUXPONTS, now Elector of BAVARIA, from whom not the fmallest exertion of vigour, not the fmalleft difplay of political wif dom, not any thing, in fhort, which would fhew him worthy of the fituation to which he is railed, can poffibly be expected by thofe who know him. If, as we before faid, the Secret Articles now published be authentic, our reafonings refpecting the ceffion of Bavaria to the Emperor were erroneous. On their authenticity, however, we have not, at prefent, the means of deciding. It is not yet known what effect the communication of these articles has had on the decifions of the King of Pruffia. If he be weak enough (which we are unwilling to believe) fo far to favour the views of the Directory as to be deterred from joining the coalition, he must be a wretched Politician indeed. The Prince who, with the example of the laft feven years before him, could confent to facrifice to a fpirit of jealoufy; rivalfhip, or refentment, the fafety of his own dominions and the independence of Eu rope, would neither poffefs the mind of a statefman, nor the heart of a The only facrifice that fhould now be made by Sovereigns is the facrifice of all animofity, all competition, all felfish views, all private and perfonal confiderations, to a fenfe of that prefent and inminent danger which ftares them all in the face; and which calls upon them, with a voice of thunder, to combine against that deftruc tive foe, who threatens to involve all their thrones in one common ruin. Surely, if any one Sovereign is more bound than another to make fuch a facrifice, the KING OF PRUSSIA is that Sovereign; fince to the mifguided Councils of the Cabinet of BERLIN may the prefent alarming fituation of Europe be, in a great meafure, afcribed. Happy, moft happy, are we to recognize, in the conduct of the EMPEROR of Russia, thofe juft and manly fentiments, the general prevalence of which would fuffice to refcue Europe from the yoke of its fanguinary tyrants, and to inflict exemplary vengeance on the devoted heads of thofe unprincipled regicides who have wantonly deftroyed its tranquil. lity, and murdered its inhabitants, for the gratification of their own rapacity, and ambition; and who have been recently moit aptly cha racterized by one of their own accomplices, the Director CARNOT, as "IMPOSTORS, BANDITTI, ASSASSINS." This Prince is refolved to employ the whole force of his empire against the French. The firft detachment of his army, deftined to co-operate with the Auftrians, confifts of 24,000 men, who are directing their march to Italy, where we are truly pleafed to find General SUWARROW is to have the chief command. Thefe will be fpeedily followed by a fecond body of nearly the fame force, and a much larger army is preparing to enter the Auftrian dominions. It will be fome time, indeed, before these troops can be brought into action; but provided the Archduke Charles can only keep the French in check till they are able to co. operate with him, we have little doubt but that, even should Pruffia remain neuter, the campaign will ultimately prove favourable to the

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Allies. It was certainly, with a view to prevent this co-operation, as well as to provide for that army in a foreign country which they were wholly unable to pay, to clothe, or to feed, from their own exhaufted treasury, that the Directory accelerated the long meditated invafion of Germany. We again repeat, that we expect the first operations of the Campaign to be favourable to the invading army; but we are convinced, that, on the firft turn of fortune, on the first difafter experienced by the French in Germany and Italy, the embers of revolt which now visibly glow in all the different countries fubdued by their arms, will burst into a flame, from the Scheldt to the Tiber. The difcontents are general throughout the new Republics, but until the enemies of France fhall have obtained fome advantage over her armies, they cannot be expected to be productive of any beneficial effects. At all events, matters are now brought to a crifis; it is a dreadful period; every thing that endears existence to focial, civilized man is at ftake: may the exertion prove adequate to the exigency! hefitation will increafe the danger; a temporizing policy will be an act of fuicide; and a decifion of will and of action can alone avert the blow and produce the falvation of Europe.

While the rulers of the French Republic are thus feeking to extend the misery which they have inflicted on their own fubjects over the whole face of Europe; while intent upon fchemes of foreign plunder and foreign deftruction, they are not a little embarraffed at home by the approach of the period of election. In a proclamation which they have recently iffued, preferibing to the people the conduct to be obferved in their choice of reprefentatives, they have drawn a complete picture of themselves:

"It has been fully proved by experience, that nothing can bring back to reason thofe perfidious or infane men, who laugh at the most folemn engagements. They are ambitious, and attempt, by every method, to poffefs themfelves once more of the bloody fceptre of def potifm. They are ftung with remorfe, and dread to be configned to punishment in every place where they do not predominate."

This is a juft character of the Executive Directory of France. The language which thefe men hold to the people; the grofs deceptions which they feek to impofe on them; the flagrant falfehoods which fill all their meffages, proclamations, and addreffes, fhew, in the most striking manner, the extreme degradation in which the wretched inhabitants of France are involved. The Directory have lately proclaimed to the world the utter annihilation of their com merce; not a fhip, they fay, can fail from their ports under the national flag, and the equipment of privateers has only ferved to croud the prifons of England with 20,000 of their feamen; this is one of the numerous bleflings of Republican freedom! The declara. tion has been made with a view to fanétion a total change of fyftem. All the privateers have been laid up, and all their remaining feamen preffed to man the fhips at Breft, which are deftined to carry troops to join the rebels in Ireland. A fquadron in the Texel is fitting out

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for the fame purpofe; and we have little doubt that their utmost efforts will be employed to give activity to the councils of Spain, in order to procure the co-operation of the Spanish navy. They may, poffibly, once more elude the vigilance of our fleets, and, by effecting a defcent upon Ireland, increase, for a time, the confufion that prevails in that distracted country, but of their ultimate failure and deftruction we have not a doubt.

The declaration of war against the DUKE of TUSCANY is a counterpart of that fo lately iffued against the unhappy SOVEREIGN of SARDINIA. Neither of these Princes had fhewn the smallest difpofition to refift even the most unjust pretenfions of the Directory; they had both fubmitted to be oppreffed, infulted, plundered, robbed, by thefe regenerators of the human race; republican gratitude has rewarded the one with depofition, and the other will experience a fimilar compenfation, if the ability of the French armies fhould be found adequate to enforce the will of their rulers. The immediate objects of this declaration are, PLUNDER, and the poffeffion of Leghorn.

Our accounts from America come down to a late period. From the public papers it would appear, that the hopes which we formerly expreffed of the ftate of the public mind were fulfilled; that the great mafs of the people, convinced of the fatal tendency of Jacobinical principles, held them in utter averfion, and that, rouzed to a proper fenfe of national dignity, national honour, and national safety, they were fully prepared to fecond the operations of their government, and to take a decided part with thofe powers who have hitherto oppofed an effectual barrier to the ultimate fuccefs of the truly diabolical defigns of the French Directory. Some falutary measures, calculated to ftrengthen this idea, have lately been adopted by the American Legiflature. It has been refolved to extend their navy, to augment their army, and to put their coafts in a refpectable state of defence. In an able report of Mr. Pickering, the Secretary of State, communicated by the Prefident, on the 18th of January, to the House of Representatives, the profligate conduct of the French Directory, and the lying evations of their minifter, Talleyrand, refpecting the late negociations between the two countries, are fo clearly and fo fully expofed, as to leave no room for fubterfuge or palliation to the moft ingenioas advocates for the principles and politics of the Great Nation-Great, pre-eminently great, in infamy and fin.

The knowledge of the intrigues, carried on by the difaffected in America, as well as by the difaffected in other countries, with the French government, fuggefted the neceffity of a new law, to prevent "the commencing or carrying on, without the authority of the American government, any correfpondence, written or verbal, with a foreign government, its officers or agents, with intent to influence the conduct or measures of fuch foreign government, in relation to any difputes or controverfies with the United States, or to defeat the meafures of the government of the United States." This bill was molt ably fupported by that firm and vigorous champion of religion,

morals,

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