British squadron, which had been driven from the unsheltered anchorage of St. Jean d'Acre by the equinoxial gales, had no sooner resumed its station than another sortie was determined upon, for the purpose of destroying a mine made by the enemy below the tower. In this operation, the British marines and seamen were to force their way into the mine, while the Turkish troops attacked the enemy's trenches on the right and left. The sally took place just before daylight; and lieutenant Wright, who commanded the seamen-pioneers, notwithstanding he received two shots in his right arm as he advanced, entered the mine with the pike. men, and proceeded to the bottom of it, where he verified its direction, and destroyed all that could be destroyed in its present state.

The Samaritan Arabs having made incursions even into the French camp, Buonaparte proceeded against them in person; and he found Kleber's division, consisting of two thousand Frenchman, who had previously been detached as a corps of observation, fighting at the foot of Mount Tabor, and nearly encircled by a large body of horse, which he obliged to retire behind the mount, where a great number were drowned in the river Jordan.

Buonaparte hastened to return to the camp before Acre, and the invaders at length completed the mine destined to destroy the tower, which had so long withstood all their efforts; but, although one of the angles was carried away, the breach remained as difficult of access as before. About this period the garrison sustained the loss of Phillippeaux, who died of a fever, contracted by want of rest, and extraordinary exertion. On the first of May, after many hours heavy cannonade from thirty pieces of artillery, brought by the enenry from Jaffa, a fourth attempt was made; but the Tigre, moored on one side, and the Theseus on the other, flanked the town walls; and the gun-boats, launches, and other row-boats, continued to flank the enemy's trenches to their great annoyance, till at length they were obliged to desist from the attack. Notwithstanding their various repulses the enemy continued to batter in breach with progressive success, and made nine several attempts to storm, but had as often been beaten back. The garrison had long been in expectation of a reinforcement, under Hassan Bey, who had originally received orders to advance against Alexandria, but was afterwards directed to proceed to the relief of Acre; it was not, however, till the fifty-first day of the siege that this fleet made its appearance. The approach of so much additional strength was the signal to Buonaparte for a vigor. ous assault, in hopes to get possession of the town before the reinforcement could disembark; and on the night of the eight of May he succeeded in making a lodgment in the second story of the northcast tower. Daylight on the ninth showed the French standard unfurled on the outer angle; and at this most critical point of the contest Hassan Bey's troops were still in their boats, not having advanced more than half-way towards the shore. Sir Sidney Smith, whose energy and talents gave effect to every operation, landed the crews of the gun-boats on the mole, and marched them to the breach, each man being armed with a pike. A heap of ruins between the besieged and besiegers served as a breast-work for both; the muzzles of the muskets touched, and the spear-heads of the standards locked. Ghezzar Pacha, hearing that the English were on the breach, quitted his station, where, according to the ancient Turkish custom, he was sitting to reward such as should bring him the heads of the enemy, and distributing cartridges with his own hands. This energetic old man, coming behind his British allies, pulled them down with violence, saying, "if any harm happen to our English friends, all will be lost." The whole of the reinforcements being now landed, the Pacha, with some difficulty, so far subdued his jealousy as to admit the Chifflick regiment, of one thousand men, into the garden of his scraglio, from whence a vigorous sally was made with an intention to obtain possession of the enemy's third parallel, or nearest trench; but the Turks, unequal to such a movement, were driven back in to the town with loss; and although the sortie did not succeed, it had the effect of obliging the enemy to expose themselves above their parapets, and the flanking fire of the garrison, aided by a few handgrenades, dislodged them from the tower. Determined to persevere, the enemy effected a new breach by an incessant fire directed to the south

ward, every shot knocking down whole sheets of a wall, much less solid than that of the tower, on which they had expended so much time and ammunition. At the suggestion of the Pacha the breach was not this time defended, but a certain number of the enemy was let in, and then closed upon according to the Turkish mode of war, when a sabre i one hand, and a dagger in the other, proving more than a match for the bayonets, the survivors bastened to sound a retreat. Thus ended a contest, continued with little intermission for five-and-twenty hours: ard in which nature, sinking under the exertion, demanded repose.

Chagrin began to be visible in the conduct of Buonaparte, who, for the first time in his life, beheld himself foiled, and that too by a town scarcely defensible according to the rules of art; while the surrounding hills were crowded with spectators, awaiting the result of the contest, to declare for the victor. The plague also found its way into the French camp, and seven hundred men had already fallen martyrs to that terrible malady. In this deplorable situation the French commander-in-chief determined to make a last effort, and general Kleber's division was recalled from the fords of Jordan, to take its turn in the daily efforts to mount the breach at Acre, in which every other division in succession had failed, with the loss of their bravest men, and about three-fourths of their officers. Before this reinforcement could commence its operations, another sally was made on the night of the tenth of May by the Turks, who succeeded in making themselves masters of the enemy's third parallel, and advanced to the second trench; but after a conflict of three hours they were driven back, leaving every thing in statu que, except the loss of men, which was considerable on both sides.

SIEGE RAISED-FRENCH RETURN FROM SYRIA TO EGYPT.

DETERMINED, at length, to raise the siege, Buonaparte first ordered his sick and wounded to bo sent away, and, to keep the besieged in check, increased the fire of his cannon and mortars. Ghezzar, remarking these dispositions for retreat, made frequent sallies, which were repulsed with vigour. The aspect of the field of carnage was horrible, the ditches and the reverses of the parapets were filled with the slain; the air was infected, and the proposition for a suspension of arms to bury the dead remained unanswered. After sixty days' continuance, Buonaparte, in a proclamation, announced to his army the raising of the siege, and resolved to return to Egypt, to defend its approach in the season of landing against the force assembled at Rhodes. On the twentieth of May, the very day on which the army began its march, general Le Grange repulsed two sallies, and forced the Turks back into the town. General Lannes' division led the march; Regnier's evacuated the trenches; Kleber formed a strong rear-guard; whilst Junot covered the left flank. Buonaparte threw into the sea the artillery, which he could not carry back through the desert; and his battering train, amounting to twenty-three pieces, fell into the hands of the English. After blowing up the fortifications of Jaffa and Gaza, and inflicting a terrible vengeance on those who had defended their country against the invaders, the French passed over the desert, and were received by the inhabitants of Cairo, ignorant of recent events, as victors.

TIPPOO SAIB'S HOSTILE PREPARATIONSSERINGAPATAM TAKEN, AND DEATH OF

TIPPOO.

BUONAPARTE, after his arrival in Egypt, apprized Tippoo Saib of his arrival on the shores of the Red Sea, and requested him to send some confidential person with whom he might confer on the subject of their mutual plans for expelling the English from their Indian possessions. This sovereign had negotiated with Zemaun Shah, a native prince of great power and influence, in order to concert such a formidable attack upon the English, as, it was hoped, they would be unable to resist: but the gov ernor-general, the earl of Mornington, afterwards marquis Wellesley, having assembled au adequate force, communicated to Tippon the knowledge which he had acquired of his hostile designs, and offered, if he would forego those projects, to send an officer to

treat with him for the establishment and preserva | tion of a friendly intercourse between him and the British government. The sultan sent an equivocal answer to this communication, and sought to elude the vigilance of the English policy; but lord Mornington did not suffer the least abatement of the spirit of naval or military preparation, and at the commencement of the year 1799 he ordered the British army to take the field. It was commanded in chief by lieutenant-general Harris, who, after a series of successful operations, set himself down before the capital of Tippoo's dominions at the lat ter end of April; and on the 4th of May, a practical breach having been effected, Seringapatam was taken by assault. Tippoo himself, and several of his chiefs perished in the action.

The East India company obtained additional territory by this conquest; other parts were allotted to the Nizam and the Mahrattas, and the remaining portion of the Mysore was conferred on a descendant of the ancient Rajahs, who had been dispossessed by Hyder. The British dominion in the east, by annihilating the most dangerous of all the native powers, was now established on a permanent foundation.

BUONAPARTE RETURNS TO FRANCE. BUONAPARTE, ruminating on his repulse at Acre, where he had, for the first time, experienced defeat and disgrace, resolved to repair to a country more congenial with his disposition and pursuits. This resolution to abandon his post, and to desert those gallant men who had braved every danger at his command, was only equalled by the mode in which it was accomplished. Leaving a sealed packet_addressed to general Kleber, nominating that officer to the command of the army in Egypt during his absence, he embarked suddenly, on the twenty-fourth of August, with generals Berthier, Lannes, Murat, and Andreossi, accompanied by Monge, Beutholet, and Arnaud, members of the Egyptian Institute, and attended by several Mamelukes, the future guards of his person. He communicated his design to none but those whom he intended to accompany him; and he left the army in a deplorable state. He was a deserter too, in every sense of the word; for he quitted his command without orders, and even without permission. That singular good fortune, however, to which he was so often indebted, attended him on this occasion; for, after repeatedly escaping the vigilance of the English cruisers, he landed, first at Ajaccio, and then at Frejus; and on his arrival at Paris, on the sixteenth of October, he was courted by all parties, and invited by the directory to a grand festival.

NAPLES MADE A REPUBLIC-ENGAGEMENTS BETWEEN THE AUSTRIAN AND

FRENCH ARMIES ON THE RHINE. THE late expedition into the Roman territory having proved eminently disastrous to the king of Naples, now an exile from his kingdom, an armistice was signed by prince Pignatelli, on behalf of the Neapolitan government, on the seventh of January, 1799, by which the French forces under Championnet obtained possession of the city of Capua, and thence advanced to the capital, which they entered on the twenty-third, after a gallant but unavailing resistance. Naples was then proclaimed a republic, under the designation of the Parthenopean commonwealth; and the provisional government was confided to twenty-one citizens, chosen by the French general Championnet. At the same time, the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, in front of Coblentz, was obliged, after a memorable defence, to capitulate, on the twenty-fourth of January, to the French general D'Allemagne.

The emperor Paul, of Russia, entered into the new confederacy against the French republic with all zeal. An appearance of negotiation was still kept up at Rastadt; but the emperor of Germany, dissatisfied with the provisions of the treaty of Campo Formio, and certain of powerful co-operation in the event of a renewal of the contest, no longer concealed his sentiments. The French, by their unbounded encroachments on the rights of other nations, gave him a plausible pretence for re-arming; and in a short time a powerful force was in the field. The Archduke Charles assembled fifty-five thousand meu between the Inn and the

Lech; generals Starray and Hotze headed about twenty thousand more in the Palatinate and the country of the Grisons; general Bellegarde occu picd the Tyrol with about twenty-five thousand; and an army of about sixty thousand, under gen eral Kray, prepared to enter Italy, and re-conquer Lombardy. The command of the French "Army of the Danube" was confided to general Jourdan, who, on the first of March, crossed the Rhine in three places; and, whilst general Bernadotte blockaded the fortress of Philipsburg, Manheim opened its gates to another body of French troops: on the twentieth, however, the Archduke determined to give them battle, and the day was contested with great bravery on both sides, Jourdan maintaining his position until night put an end to the action, when, under cover of darkness, he retreated to a station near Engen. On the twenty-fifth a second battle was fought on the plain of Lieblingen, in the midst of woods; and such was the eagerness on both sides, that the two commanders in chief, after reconnoitring in person, instead of assuming, as usual, a centre position in the rear, fought at the head of their respective troops. Night, which again put an end to the combat, left the victory undecided; and on the ensuing morning the invaders renewed their attack; being, however, once more foiled, general Jourdan, after sustaining a loss of about four thousand men, retreated before the Archduke, and recressed the Rhine at Lauttemburg and Strasburg. Massena, to whom the command of the army of Switzerland was confided, had taken the field for the purpose of driving the Austrians from the mountainous regions inhabited by the Grisons; but the defeat of the grand army in Suabia checked his career. CAMPAIGN IN ITALY AND SWITZERLAND.

GENERAL SCHERER, to whom the chief command of the French armies in Italy had been transferred, directed his first efforts against Tuscany. Having obtained possession of the capital, the port of Leg horn was at the same time seized by general Miollis, and all the property appertaining to the subjects of Britain, Portugal, Austria, Russia, the Ottoman Porte, and the states of Barbary, subjected to sequestration; while the grand duke and his family were furnished with a guard of honour, and allowed to proceed to the German capital. Scherer then marched to Mantua, where it was determined to attack the enemy before they could receive any reinforcements from Suabia, or effect a junction with the Russians. The Austrians, under general Kray, at this time occupied Verona and its vicinity. On the twenty-sixth of March the action commenced in the neighbourhood of Castel Nuovo, when, after a most severe contest, the French were driven across the Adige. Three days after this sanguinary conflict, Scherer again attacked the Austrian posts, and was again defeated.

The Russian general Suworow arrived at Verona in April, and took upon himself the command of the Austro-Russian army, now estimated at one hundred thousand men. Scherer resigned to Moreau the command of his reduced and dispersed army; and, a retreat having become absolutely necessary, the fortresses of Peschiera and Mantua were abandoned to their fate, and generals Kray and Klanau blockaded them with twenty-five thou sand men. Suworow hastened to avail himself of the advantages he enjoyed over a retreating foe; the town and citadel of Brescia, with a garrison of a thousand men, capitulated to the troops under his command; and an engagement, fought on the twenty-seventh of April, determined the fate of the Cisalpine republic: on the following day the conquerors entered the city of Milan, and about the same time count de Bellegarde obtained an unin terrupted series of successes in the mountainous regions of the Engadine; while Hotze dislodged the French troops in the Grison country from all their positions between Luciensteig and Coire. In Switzerland several partial insurrections against the French authorities took place; the canton of Uri was in arms; the Valais had risen in mass; and a great part of the Valteline was in possession of the imperialists. Peschiera also surrendered, after a short siege, to count St. Julien; and Moreau, yielding to superior numbers, was obliged to abandon his strong position between the Po and Tenaro, after defeating general Vukassowich on the banks of the Bormida. The disasters of the Frenc

in Italy were productive of extraordinary changes in the southern part of that peninsula, and subjected those who had taken part in the revolu tions in Naples and Rome to the most terrible responsibility.

In Calabria, cardinal Ruffo, on receiving information that the French troops had retreated from Naples, raised a number of new levies round the royal standard, collected the wreck of general Mack's army, and, being joined by a body of Engglish and Russians, marched against the capital, when the executive directory, and all those who had countenanced the Parthenopean republic, were obliged to take shelter within the fortresses, which fell in succession into the hands of the royal forces; and, ou the thirteenth of July, fort St. Elmo, the strongest of them, was obliged to capitulate to the allies, assisted by a body of British seamen under captain Troubridge. In Tuscany forty thousand of the inhabitants, on learning the disasters of Moreau and Macdonald, attacked the republicans on every side; the garrison of Florence abandoned the capital; and the ancient magistrates assumed their functions. A few days after, a column of Austrians obliged the invaders to abandon Lucca; and Leghorn was evacuated by capitulation: Rome, however, remained unconquered, but the most vigorous measures were now taken to subdue that city; and, while a body of Tuscan and Neapolitan troops invested the ancient capital of the world, captain Troubridge, who had appeared off the mouth of the Tiber, summoned general Grenier, the commander of the garrison, to surrender. On the twentieth of September a convention was concluded, by which it was agreed to evacuate Rome, Civita Vecchia, and the posts adjacent, on condition that the troops should be sent to France.

General Macdonald, having reached Florence, collected the scattered French forces throughout Tuscany; and, finding himself at the head of thirty-eight thousand troops, he determined imme. diately to act on the offensive. After forcing the allies to raise the siege of Fort Urbino, he despatched Olivier against Modena, of which he obtained possession on the twelfth of June, and drove the Austrians beyond the Po; while general Kray, alarmed at the progress of the enemy, drew off his heavy artillery from before Mantua, and posted himself in such a situation as to prevent that city from being relieved. Macdonald continued to advance; and having arrived at Piacenza, and formed a junction with general Victor, he obliged general Ott to fall back on the castle of Giovanni. As soon as Suworow had obtained intelligence of the victorious career of the French general, he proceeded to Alexandria, leaving general Kaim to prosecute the siege of Turin; and advanced to the support of general Ott, who was in full retreat. At a village, six miles from Piacenza, a general engagement took place on the seventeenth, which, having been continued through the following day, terminated in favour of the allies. The vanquished army took advantage of the approach of night to retire in two columns to Piacenza, where four French generals, with several field officers, and between four and five thousand soldiers, who had been wounded in the late murderous actions, fell into the hands of the enemy.

General Moreau, taking advantage of Suworow's absence, left Genoa at the head of twenty-nine thousand men, and on the twentieth of June attacked and beat field-marshal Bellegarde, who had been left to superintend the blockade of Alexandria. The Russian field-marshal immediately abandoned the pursuit of Macdonald, and endeavoured by a rapid countermarch to overtake Moreau, who, after fighting another battle, retreated within the Ligurian territory. Suworow, however, was consoled in this disappointment by the intelli gence of the surrender of Turin on the twentysecond of June, and with the capture of Bologna, which fell into the hands of the allies eight days afterwards. Macdonald then entered the Genoese territory, and formed a junction with Moreau.

the allies by threatening to fall upon their rear. The young men of the requisition were, at the same time, put in motion on the frontier, and Championnet was employed in assembling an army of forty thousand men in the vicinity of Grenoble. Supplies were also sent to the army of Italy, and the chief command of that force was transferred from general Moreau to general Joubert, who advanced at the head of thirty-six thousand men, and encamped on the fifteenth of August, upon the heights of Novi. The allies were superior in numbers; Suworow and Melas were at the head of thirty-five thousand troops, of their respective nations; fifteen thousand Piedmontese, who had formerly obliged the garrison of Cevi to surrender, now acted as light troops; while general Kray entered the camp on that very day with eighteen thousand men, set at liberty by the fall of Mantua. Suworow, determined to anticipate the French, whom he knew to be most formidable when they were the assailants, attacked their left wing. General Joubert, in advancing at the head of his staff, was struck with a ball, which pierced his heart; but the loss of their general diminished not the ardour of the soldiers: thrice did Suworow charge the enemy in person, at the head of his gallant veterans, and thrice was he repulsed by the French legions, of which Moreau again took the command; but, in the mean time, general Melas succeeded in turning the right flank of the French army, which decided the victory. The danger of being surrounded compelled the French general to abandon the field of battle to the allies, who took four generals and four thousand prisoners; and night alone enabled him to rally his scattered forces, and once more to occupy his former position near Genoa.

No sooner did the French cease to be formidable than the fatal effects of jealousy began to be visible, both in the councils and in the camps of the two nations; and the suspicion and distrust of the armies had at length attained such an alarming height, that it was deemed impolitic to confine their exertions to the same theatre: it was consequently resolved that Melas should continue the war in Italy, while the Russians, under Suworow, should enter Switzerland, and, after defeating Massena, penetrate the territories of the French republic. The commencement of the campaign in Switzerland was peculiarly auspicious to the French, but their successes were of short duration; for in April Schaffhausen and Peterhausen fell into the hands of the Austrians, who, after a succession of engagements, established their head-quarters at Zurich on the seventh of June, and obliged Massena to retreat to Mount Albis. That general, however, having received fresh supplies of men and provisions, recommenced operations against the archduke; and a column of republicans, detached across the Limmat, penetrated the Austrian camp on the fourteenth of August. To relieve Massena, general Muller established his head-quarters at Manheim, and pushed his advanced guard as far as Heidelberg, while Baragnay d'Hilliers imposed a contribution upon Frankfort, passed the Maine, and joined his countrymen in the territories of Darmstadt. When the archduke learnt that a body of French troops, after entering Suabia, was levying contributions, and seizing on the rich harvests of Germany, he conferred the command of the Austrian army in Switzerland on general Hotze, and recrossed the Rhine in person. Mas. sena, availing himself of the absence of the prince, and determined to obtain a superiority in Switzerland before the arrival of Suworow, approached Zurich on the twenty-fourth of September, and on the following morning the battle commenced. General Hotze, however, received a mortal wound early in the engagement; aud general Petrasch and prince Koraskow were obliged to give way; on which the French troops carried Zurich by assault, and captured a considerable body of Russians posted in that city.

SUWOROW RETREATS.

SUWOROW, having crossed the plains of Piedmont, and possessed himself of the heights of St. Gothard, was now about to enter the canton of Uri, when he received an imperfect account of the defeat of the allies at Zurich; and this disastrous

see the Russian legions fly before their adversaries, he intimated to prince Koraskow that he should answer with his head if he made another retrograde step. Eager to vindicate his character to so gallant a chief, the prince immediately reassembled the wreck of his troops; and, having been joined by a body of Austrians, the corps of Condé, and the Bavarian contingent, determined to attempt a diversion in favour of his commander, by reassuming his former position before Zurich, during the absence of Massena; but the latter proved his superiority by securing all the intermediate passes. At length, amidst incessant toils and continual combats, the Russians arrived, on the third of October, in the valley of Mutten, and took possession of the bridge after a most obstinate resistance. The post of Brunnen was also carried the next day: but here ended the progress of the Russian hero. Suworow, after penetrating into the canton of Schweitz, was so conscious of his critical situa tion, that he determined, for the first time in his life, on a retreat, and effected it in a masterly

manner.

The emperor Paul, indignant that the Germanic states were not actuated by a zeal ardent as that with which he was inspired, issued an official notification, addressed to all the members of the Germanic empire, calling upon them to unite their forces with his, and expressing his determination, if properly supported, never to sheath the sword till he had seen the downfal of the monster which threatened to crush all legal authorities. Scarcely had this declaration reached those to whom it was addressed, than Suworow, alike discontented with his allies and his colleagues, and tired of incessant combats, where valour was unavailing, and even victory was unattended with its usual advantages, collected the wreck of his army at Coire, ordered the remains of Koraskow's troops and the corps of Condé to form a junction with him at that place, and, after some delay, proceeded to Bohemia, where he spent the winter. Of one hundred thousand men, who had either left Russia with him eight months before, or joined his army within that period, scarcely fifty thousand reached the banks of the Lech. Thus the co-operation of Russia terminated, and Suworow, overwhelmed with grief and disappointment, retired to his native country, where he did not long survive the frowns of fortune. He was coldly received by the emperor, and died on the eighteenth of May, 1800, aged seventy-one.

The French had become once more masters of Switzerland, had retaken St. Gothard, and begun to menace the country of the Grisons. General Muller again penetrated into Germany, seized on Francfort, Manheim, and Heidelberg, and threatened to lay all that portion of the empire

under contribution.

No sooner had the Austrian army, under Melas, advanced into the neighbourhood of Coni, and prepared to lay siege to that fortress, than general Championnet, collecting his whole force, marched to Savigliano to give him battle; but on the fourth of November a furious attack, directed against the column of general Grenier by general Ott, forced the republicans to retreat towards Genola, and the approach of night again saved the French army from ruin. The siege of Coni was now prosecuted with vigour, and on the second of January, 1800, the French commander agreed to capitulate, when two thousand five hundred republicans became prisoners of war. The success of the allied arms in Italy served to compensate the sovereigns of Europe for the losses they had this year sustained in other quarters; but, on the whole, the campaign was less auspicious in its conclusion than at its commencement; and the defection of the emperor of Russia damped the future expectations of the court of Vienna.

EXPEDITION TO NORTH HOLLAND-CAPTURE OF SURINAM.

THE English government, after a long course of preparation, caused a descent to be made, on the twenty-seventh of August, 1799, to the south west of the Helder point, on the coast of North Holland. A body of seven thousand men, French and Dutch, encountered the English, under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who with difficulty gained the advantage. Above one thousand of the enemy were killed or wounded, and of the British about feur hundred

and fifty. It was the intention of Sir Ralph to attack the Helder fort the next morning; but it was evacuated in the night, and he found in it a considerable train of artillery. Vice-admiral Mitchell then made arrangements for entering the harbour of the Texel. Having summoned the commander of the Dutch fleet to hoist the flag of the prince of Orange, and accept the friendship of Great Britain, he received an answer from rear-admiral Story, promising to deliver up his squadron, as the men refused to fight. The ships were twelve in number, and eight of them mounted from fifty-four to seven.y-four guns.

While the invading army waited for the arrival of reinforcements, about twelve thousand French and Dutch attacked them with vigour on the tenth of September: but so strong was the post of the Zuyp, and so firmly did the English defend it, that about eight hundred of the assailants were killed or wounded, while only two hundred suffered on the part of their opponents. The duke of York now landed with three brigades, and a Russian army also disembarked. As the allied army amounted to thirty-five thousand men, the duke and general d'Hermann ventured upon a speedy action. The Russians, by au impetuous onset, September the ninteenth, made great havoc, and pushed forward to Bergen; Abercrombie's column penetrated to Hoorn; and the two other columns were successful in their attacks; but the rash confidence of the Russians exposed them to such danger, that the retreat of the whole force soon became necessary.

The battle of Egmont, on the second of October, was severe, but indecisive. The evening put an end to the engagement, and the troops rested upon their arms. At day-break the retreat of the enemy gave the English and Russians an opportunity of taking several posts; but, though they pushed forward for that purpose, they were precluded by fatigue from effectually harassing the republican troops. The killed and wounded of the British amounted to about fifteen hundred and fifty; of the Russians about six hundred suffered or were captured, and of the French and Dutch the loss exceeded three thousand. The English officers seemed to be marked out, as an unusual proportion received wounds.

The enemy having taken a very strong position, and being in expectation of a reinforcement, the duke of York resolved upon another attack before the erection of new works, and when he had no knowledge of the arrival of fresh troops to oppose him. The Russians had a greater share in this action of the sixth of October than in the preceding; and they were so vigorously resisted, that Sir Ralph Abercrombie was obliged to advance with a strong body to their relief. The whole hostile force then put itself in motion, and the action, which became general along the line, from Limmen to the sea, terminated to the honour of the invaders, as they were left masters of the field; but the loss on both sides was very severe, and the enemy, who soon after received a reinforcement of six thousand troops, maintained their position between Beverwyck and Wyck-op-Zee.

The allied army now found itself placed in a situation so critical as to require the greatest military talents, united with the most mature experience, to direct its future operations. Directly opposite lay the enemy, in a position almost impregnable, and rendered confident by the acces sion of strength just received. A naked, barren, and exhausted country, scarcely affording shelter for the wounded, extended all around. The right wing of the allied army was indeed protected by the ocean; but a considerable body of troops, occupying an almost inaccessible position, threatened the left. The weather, too, since the evening of the sixth of October, had set in with increased inclemency; and it was with extreme difficulty that the urgent necessities of the troops could be supplied. To these complicated evils the whole army lay exposed on the unsheltered sand-hills of North Holland, while the stadtholderian party remained inactive, and apparently indifferent to the success of the common cause. Under these circumstances, the duke of York, in the evening of the seventh, the night being extremely dark, and the rain descending in torrents, issued an unexpected order for the troops to assemble, and at ten o'clock the whole army was in full retreat towards

Peilen and Alkmaar. As they could not, however, be embarked in the face of a superior army without considerable loss, the duke of York and admiral Mitchell entered into a negotiation with general Brune, and on the seventeenth of October an armistice was agreed upon, in which it was stipulated that the combined English and Russian army should evacuate the territories of the Batavian republic by the thirtieth of November; that the Dutch admiral, De Winter, should be considered as exchanged; that the mounted batteries at the Helder should be restored in their present state; that eight thousand prisoners of war, French and Batavians, taken before the present campaign, and now detained in England, should be restored without conditions to their respective countries; and that major-general Knox should remain with the French to guarantee the execution of this convention. The proposition of restoring the Batavian fleet surrendered by admiral Story, which was advanced by general Brune, was received with indignation; and the duke threatened, in case of perseverance on this int, to cut the sea-dykes, and inundate the whole country. Nearly four thousand Dutch deserters were brought to England with the British troops, who were embarked without delay: and the Rus sians were landed and quartered in Guerusey and Jorsey.

In this year, the flourishing settlement of Surinam was wrested from the Dutch by a body of troops, collected in the islands of Grenada, St. Lucie, and Martinico, by lieutenant-general Trigge, and embarked on board two line-of-battle ships and five frigates, under the command of vice-admiral lord Hugh Seymour. On their arrival off the mouth of the river Surinam, governor Frederici capitulated, on the twentieth of August, without firing a gun. The British navy, during the whole of this year, did not lose a single vessel of war; while twenty frigates, corvettes, and luggers, belonging to France, and ten to Spain, were either taken or run on shore. The Dutch navy may be said to have been annihilated. In addition to the ships of war seized by admiral Mitchell in the Nieuve Diep and the Texel, the Batavian republic lost a forty-gun ship, the Hortog Van Brunswick, in the Straits of Sunda; and as the sailors were obviously disaffected to the new government, all further exertions by sea, on the part of that power, were interdicted.

THE FRENCH DIRECTORY OVERTHROWN

BUONAPARTE MADE FIRST CONSUL. THE French directory, which had long been in the enjoyment of supreme power, was rapidly verging towards its dissolution, when Buonaparte arrived from Egypt, and was received in Paris with every possible demonstration of public favour. The Abbe Sieyes, constantly intriguing, was secretly gratified with the popularity enjoyed by Buonaparte, and, after disclosing to him certain projects which he entertained, solicited his powerful aid, for the purpose of carrying them into execution. At five o'clock in the morning of the eighteenth of Brumaire, (November the ninth,) by a manoeuvre of the conspirators in the council of Ancients, it was proposed, without communicating with the directory, that the assembly should adjourn to St. Cloud; that general Buonaparte should be charged to put the decree in execution; and that for that purpose he should be appointed commander of all the forces; which being passed by a great majority, the sitting was then dissolved. Buonaparte instantly issued two proclamations, announcing his appointment to the cominand of the city guard and of the army, and inviting them to support their general in his endeavours to restore to the public the blessings of liberty, victory, and peace. He then marched ten thousand troops to the Thuilleries, and guarded every avenue to that place so effectually, that no one was permitted to pass. Three of the directors, and all the citizens of Paris, were, for the first time, acquainted with the proceedings that had taken place by the proclamations with which the walls of the capital soon became placarded. The director, Barras, who had refused to give in his resignation, was exiled to his country seat under a guard of cavalry, while Goheir and Moulins remained almost passive spectators of the events which deprived them of power, and imposed a new form of government upon their country. In the mean time the council of Five

Hundred had assembled, filled with astonishment and distrust; and although Lucien Buonaparte, brother to the general, was at this time its presi dent, an uproar arose on the entrance of the latter, in which even his life was endangered, until general Lefebvre at length rushed into the hall with a body of armed grenadiers, and rescued their chief from the dangers with which he was environed. The members instantly decreed that the council of Ancients had no power to invest Buonaparte with the command, as that authority could be conferred by the directory alone, and an outlawry was proposed; but the president refused to pronounce the decree against his brother, and quitted the chair. Immediately pistols and poinards were presented to his breast to compel him to resume his office, but he remained inflexible until the military arrived to his protection. The chamber was soon cleared of the members of the council, and cries of "Long live the republic!" "Long live Buonaparte!" sent forth by the military, announced the event and the means by which it was accomplished. The first imperfect intelligence of these events had filled the metropolis with apprehension; but no sooner were the circumstances attending this military usurpation made known, than the Parisians appeared overjoyed at the final subversion of the jacobin power, and cherished the hope of a new and better government.

The existing constitution being dissolved, a provisional government was appointed, consisting of three consuls, Sieyes, Ducos, and Buonaparte, who were invested with the full powers of the directory, and, on the following day, entered upon the public functions at the palace of the Luxembourg. The legislative commissioners at the same time commenced their sittings. In forming the new administration, Lucien Buonaparte was constituted minister of the interior, and M. Talleyrand reinstated in his office of minister for foreign affairs. A new constitution was shortly after submitted to the French nation, and almost unanimously approved. It consisted of an executive composed of three consuls, one bearing the title of chief, and in fact possessing all the authority; a Conservative Senate, composed of eighty members, appointed for life, and nominated by the consuls; and a Legislative Body of three hundred members, with a tribunate of one hundred. Buonaparte was nominated first or chief consul for a term of ten years.

BUONAPARTE MAKES PROPOSALS OF PEACE REJECTED BY THE BRITISH

GOVERNMENT.

THE new sovereign of France, as he had now in effect become, finding himself quietly placed in possession of supreme power, and of the palace of the Bourbons, addressed a letter to the king of Great Britain, on Christmas day, for the purpose of entering on a negotiation for peace. "Called by the wishes of the French nation," said he, " to occupy the first magistracy of the republic, I think it proper, on entering into office, to make a direct communication of it to your majesty. The war which has for eight years ravaged the four quarters of the world, must it be eternal? Are there no means of coming to au understanding? How can the two most enlightened nations of Europe, powerful and strong beyond what their safety and independence require, sacrifice, to ideas of vain grandeur, commerce, prosperity, and peace? How is it that they do not feel that peace is of the first importance, as well as the highest glory? These sentiments cannot be foreign to the heart of your majesty, who reigns over a free nation with the sole view of rendering it happy. Your majesty will see in this overture my sincere wish to contribute efficaciously, for the second time, to a general pacification, by a step speedy, entirely of confidence, and disengaged from those forms which, perhaps necessary to disguise the independence of weak states, proves, in those that are strong, only the desire of deceiving each other. France and England, by the abuse of their strength, may still for a long time, for the misfortune of all nations, retard the period of their being exhausted; but, I will venture to say it, the fate of all civilized nations is attached to the termination of a war, which involves the whole world."

1800.-On the fourth of January, 1800, a letter was sent by lord Grenville to Talleyrand, containing an official note, in which it was observed, that the