any terms with rebels with arms in their hands; though to the deladet multitude he promised pardon, on condition of delivering up their leaders and returning to their allegiance. The rebel troops immediately evacuated the town; their general, Bagenal Harvey, had quitted them foon after the battle of New Rofs, but being discovered and taken with fome others in a cave, he was tried by a court-martial, and executed on the bridge of Wexford.

In the beginning of June alarming commotions likewife took place in the North of Ireland, and the infurrection foon became almost general in the counties of Down and Antrim; but on the 12th the rebels received a complete defeat at Ballynahinch, where they loft upwards of four hundred men. They fought with great obftinacy, and their leader Munro was taken prifoner, and afterwards executed.

The English government, in the mean time, though not diffatisfied with the conduct of lord Camden, refolved to give Ireland a military lord-lieutenant; and the marquis Cornwallis arrived at Dublin in that capacity on the 20th of June, and immediately affumed the reins of government. The conduct of his lordship was temporate and judicious. On the 17th of July he fent a meffage to the houfe of commons by lord Caftlereagh, intimating that he had received his majesty's commands to acquaint them "that he had fignified his gracious intention of granting a general pardon for all offences committed on or before a certain day, upon fuch conditions, and with fuch exceptions, as might be compatible with the general fafety."-But" thefe offers of mercy to the repentent were not to preclude measures of vigour against the obftinate."

A fpecial commiffion was now opened in Dublin for the trial of the principal delinquents, feveral of whom were tried and executed. Among them Mr. Oliver Bond was tried, convicted, and condemned, and in his fate the other confpirators began to forefee their own. The rebellion appeared to be completely crufhed; the fugitive rebels were every where returning to their allegiance, and delivering up their arms, and no hope remained of any effectual affiftance from France. In this fituation a negociation was opened between the Irish government and the flate prifoners, the iffue of which was, that government confented to pardon Mr. Bond, and defift from any farther profecution of the other leaders of the confpiracy, who on their parts engaged to make a full confeffion of all the proceedings and plans of the fociety; after which they were to be permitted to tranfport themfelves to any country not at war with his majesty. The information they communicated was laid before the Irish houfe of commons, and has furnished materials for the brief account here given. Mr. Oliver Bond furvived his pardon only a few days, and Mr. Arthur O'Connor, Dr. M'Nevin, and the reft, after having been a confiderable time confined in Ireland, were removed to prifons in Scotland, where they ftill remain.

After the failure of the expedition under general Hoche, France, fortunately for Great Britain, made no attempt to affift the Irish infurgents till it was too late; and the aid they then fent was very feeble and inadequate to the end propofed. On the 22d of Auguft, fome frigates and tranfports from France appeared in Killala Bay, and landed about a thousand men, with a quantity of arms and ammunition. The number of infurgents who joined the invaders was not confiderable; but the French general Humbert, by his conduct, proved himself an officer of ability, and worthy of command where there was a fairer profpect of

fuccefs. He advanced without lofs of time to Caftlebar, where general Lake was collecting his forces, attacked, and compelled him to retreat with the lofs of fix pieces of cannon and a few men, after which he advanced towards Tuam; but on the 7th of September the marquis Cornwallis came up with the French in the vicinity of Castlebar, when they retreated, and the next morning, after a flight refiftance, furrendered at difcretion. The rebels who had joined them were difperfed, and a great number of them killed or taken. Another effort was afterwards made by the French to fupport, or rather to rekindle the flames of rebellion in Ireland. On the 17th of September a fleet failed from France, confifting of one fhip of the line (the Hoche) and eight frigates, with troops and ammunition on board, deftined for Ireland; but this armament was completely defeated by the fquadron under the command of Sir John Borlafe Warren, as has been already related in our fummary of the affairs of England.

The few remaining troops of rebels, who were difperfed among the woods and mountains, now fucceffively laid down their arms. A chief of the name of Holt, at the head of a number of banditti, continued for fome time to commit depredations in the mountainous parts of the county of Wicklow; but at last it was believed that he made terms with government, and was permitted to fave his life by relinquishing for ever his native country.

Every estimate of the number of thofe who loft their lives in this deplorable conteft muft neceffarily be vague and uncertain. Some have stated it at thirty thousand, while others have fwelled it to a hundred thousand, of whom they fay, nine tenths were of the infurgents; the lofs of the royalifts being about ten thousand men. Siaughter and defolation have at length procured a kind of peace; but the great problem is to difcover by what means the flames of difcord may be prevented from bursting out afresh. As the most effectual preventative of a repetition of thefe calamities, government has recommended, and appears determined to effect, a legislative union of the two kingdoms. A propofition for fuch an union was fubmitted to the parliament of England and Ireland on the fame day (January 22, 1799), and in both houses of the English parliament, the addrefs, which is confidered as an approbation of the measure, paffed without divifion. A fimilar addrefs was carried in the Irish house of lords by a majority of thirty-three, but rejected in the commons by a majority of two, which the next day increafed to fix against the measure, which was therefore laid afide for that time. Government, however, by no means totally abandoned it; for in the beginning of the next feffion, on the 15th of January, 1800, the propofition was again fubmitted to the parliament of Ireland; when the addrefs in the house of lords paffed without a debate, and, after an animated difcuffion in the commons, which lafted till the noon of the following day, was approved by a majority of forty-two. The articles of this union, which have fince been voted, import,

"That the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall, upon the ift day of January, which fhall be in the year of our Lord 1801, and for ever after, be united into one kingdom, by the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland;"-" that of the peers of Ireland at the time of the union, four fpiritual lords, by rotation of feffions, and twenty-eight temporal peers for life, fhall be the number to fit and vote in the house of lords; and one hundred commoners (viz. two for each county of Ireland, two for the city of Dublin, two for the city of

towns, and boroughs), be the number of the reprefentatives of Ireland in the house of commons of the parliament of the United Kingdom.” It is also provided by thefe articles" that, for the space of twenty years after the union fhall take place, the contribution of Great Britain and Ireland refpectively towards the expenditure of the united kingdom in each year fhall be defrayed in the proportion of fifteen parts for Great Britain, and two parts for Ireland," this proportion of the expiration of that time to be fubject to revision and regulation from other confiderations.

That this plan of union will be ultimately carried into effect, little doubt appears now to remain. How far it will prove a remedy for the diftreffed condition and discontents of the poor, time muft discover. At first view it seems difficult to fay how a legislative union can remove the cause of the civil commotions which have lately diftracted that unfortunate kingdom; how it can leffen religious prejudices, or prevent, what it feems rather calculated to increafe, the expenditure of Irish property at a distance from the country whence it is derived. Yet must it not be denied that unity in government has many advantages, and is indeed effentially neceffary; and that a clofe connection and firm confolidation of the three kingdoms, with an impartial and equal diftribution of protection and rights, fairly granted and faithfully maintained, muft tend to infuse new life into every part of the united nation, while it adds to the profperity, the wealth, and the power of the whole.

HAVING

FRANCE.

gone over the British ifles, we shall now return to the continent, beginning with the extenfive and powerful country of France, being the nearest to England, though part of Germany and Poland lies to the northward of France.

SITUATION and EXTENT.

Miles.

Length 600

Breadth 500

between {

Degrees.

S5 Weft and 8 East longitude. 42 and 51 North latitude. Containing 160,374 fquare miles, with 155 inhabitants to each.

BOUNDARIES.] It is bounded by the English Channel and the Netherlands on the North; by Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, Eaft; by the Mediterranean and the Pyrenean mountains, which divide ir from Spain, South; and by the Bay of Biscay, Weft.

DIVISIONS.] The ancient provinces of this kingdom were divides by the first national affembly into 83 departments, as follow:

These are the original eighty-three departments into which France divided by the first national assembly. But, by later decrees, the partment of Rhône and Loire has been divided into two departments: department of the RHÔNE, the chief town Lyons; and that of the IRE, the chief town Montbrisson. Corsica has likewise been divided to two departments: GOLO, the chief town Bastia; and LIAMONE, e chief town Ajaccio. Savoy has also been annexed to the republic, nder the name of the department of MONT BLANC, the chief town hamberry; as has likewise a part of Switzerland, lately belonging to

the bishop of Basle, by the name of the department of MONT TERRIBLE, the chief town Porentrui. The county of Nice has been declared a department of France, by the name of the MARITIME ALPS,—the chief town Nice. The territory of Avignon and county of Venaissin, which, in the original division, were included in Corsica, now form the department of VAUCLUSE, the chief town Avignon. These make the number of the departments eighty-nine, to which the French add nine more, into which they lrave divided Belgium, or the Austrian Netherlands, ceded to them by the treaty of Campo Formio. Every department is subdivided into districts, and each district into cantons.

NAME AND CLIMATE.] France took its name from the Francs, 7 Freeman, a German nation, restless and enterprising, who conquered the Gauls, the ancient inhabitants : and the Roman force not being able to repress them, they were permitted to settle in the country by treaty. B its situation, it is the most compact kingdom perhaps in the world, and well fitted for every purpose of power and commerce; and since the beginning of the 15th century, the inhabitants have availed themselves of many of their natural advantages. The air, particularly that the interior parts of the country, is in general mild and wholesome; but some late authors think it is not nearly so salubrious as is pretended; and it must be acknowledged, that the French have been but too successful in giving the inhabitants of Great Britain false prepossessions in favour of their own country. It must indeed be owned that their weather is more clear and settled than in England. In the norther provinces, however, the winters are more intensely cold, and the inhabitants not so well supplied with firing, which in France is chietly of

wood.

SOIL AND WATER.] France is happy in an excellent soil, which produces corn, wine, oil, and almost every luxury of life. Some of their fruits have a higher flavour than those of England; but neither the paturage nor tillage is comparable to ours. The heats, in many parts, burn up the ground, so that it has no verdure; and the soil barely produces as much rye and chesnuts as serve to subsist the poor inhabi:ants: but the chief misfortune attending the French soil is, that the m habitants, having been uncertain of enjoying the full fruits of their labour, have not applied themselves sufficiently to agriculture. But nature has done wonders for them; and both animal and vegetable productions are found there in vast plenty.

Notwithstanding great efforts made in agriculture, much of the lan. remains uncultivated; and although some provinces, as Alsace and Languedoc, yield an exuberance of corn, it is frequently imported.-Indeed all Europe, one year with another, does not produce sufficient con for its own consumption; and it is necessary to have supplies from the luxuriant harvests of America.

The French had endeavoured to supply the loss arising from their precarious title to their lands, by instituting academies of agriculture, and proposing premiums for its improvement, as in England; but thes expedients, however successful they may be in particular instances, ca: never become of national utility in any but a free country, where the husbandman is sure of enjoying the fruit of his labour. No nation is better supplied than France is with wholesome springs and water; which the inhabitants make excellent use, by the help of art und engines, for all the conveniences of life. Of their canals and mineral waters dis tinct notice will be hereafter taken,