ion
maintained the appearance of candour in the midst of their hostilities.
The merchant ships, of which a great number had been taken from the
French, were not sold and divided among the captors, according to the
practice of war; but carefully sequestered, with all their cargoes
and effects, in order to be restored to the right owners, in case the
disputes between the two nations should not be productive of an open
rupture. In this particular, however, it was a pity that a little common
sense had not been blended with their honourable intention. Great part
of the cargoes consisted of fish, and other perishable commodities,
which were left to rot and putrefy, and afterwards thrown overboard,
to prevent contagion; so that the owners and captors were equally
disappointed, and the value of them lost to both nations.

THE FRENCH THREATEN GREAT BRITAIN WITH AN INVASION.

The court of Versailles, while they presented remonstrances which they
knew would prove ineffectual, and exclaimed against the conduct of Great
Britain with all the arts of calumny and exaggeration at every court in
Christendom, continued nevertheless to make such preparations as denoted
a design to prosecute the war with uncommon vigour. They began to repair
and fortify Dunkirk; orders were published that all British subjects
should quit the dominions of France; many English vessels were seized in
the different ports of that kingdom, and their crews sent to prison. At
the same time an edict was issued, inviting the French subjects to equip
privateers, offering a premium of forty livres for every gun, and as
much for every man they should take from the enemy; and promising that,
in case a peace should be speedily concluded, the king would purchase
the privateers at prime cost. They employed great numbers of artificers
and seamen in equipping a formidable squadron of ships at Brest; and
assembling a strong body of land-forces, as well as a considerable
number of transports, threatened the island of Great Britain with a
dangerous invasion.

REQUISITION OF SIX THOUSAND DUTCH TROOPS.

The English people were seized with consternation; the ministry were
alarmed and perplexed. Colonel Yorke, the British resident at the Hague,
was ordered by his majesty to make a requisition of the six thousand
men whom the states-general are obliged by treaty to furnish, when
Great Britain shall be threatened with an invasion; and in February
he presented a memoria