rived at St. Kitt's on the 10th; where we waited the arrival of captain Woolley, of his majesty's ship Arethusa, who had been sent to Tortola and St. Thomas, to procure pilots and guides. This occasioned the delay of a few days.

On Monday the 17th, we made the island of Porto-Rico, and came to an anchor off Congrejos-point. The whole of the north side of this island is bounded by a reef, and it was with much difficulty that a channel was discovered, about three leagues to eastward of the town, through which his majesty's sloops the Beaver and Fury, with the fighter vessels, passed into a small bay, in which the troops, on the next morning, were disembarked with little opposition from about 100 of the enemy, who were concealed in the bushes at the landingplace. In the afternoon of the same day the troops advanced, and took a position very favourable for our numbers, with our right to the sea, and our left to a lagoon, which extends far into the country. The artillery was brought up without loss of time, and every preparation made to force a passage into the island on which the town of PortoRico is situated.

It is necessary here to observe, that as the Moro castle completely commands the passage into the harbour, the enemy kept open their communication with the southern and western part of the island, and even teazed and harassed our left flank with their numerous gunboats. The only point, therefore, on which we could attack the town, was on the eastern side, where it is defended by the castle and lines of St. Christopher, to approach which it was necessary to force our way over the lagoon, which forms this side of the island. This passage

was strongly defended by two redoubts and gun-boats, and the enemy had destroyed the bridge which connects, in the narrowest channel, the island with the main land. After every effort on our part, we never could sufficiently silence the fire of the enemy, (who had likewise entrenched themselves in the rear of these redoubts) to hazard forcing the passage into the island with so small a force: and this indeed would have been in vain, as the enemy could support a fire ten times more powerful than we could have brought against them. The only thing left was to endeavour to bombard the town from a point to the southward of it, near to a large magazine abandoned by the enemy. This was tried. for several days, without any great effect, on account of the distance.

It appearing, therefore, that no act of vigour on our part, nor that any combined operation between the sea and land service could in any manner avail, I determined to withdraw, and to re-embark the troops; which was done on the night of the 30th of April, with the greatest order and regularity.

All our artillery and stores were brought off, except seven iron guns, four iron mortars, and two brass howitzers, which were rendered unserviceable, it being impossible to remove them. Not a sick or wounded soldier was left behind, and nothing of any value fell into the hands of the enemy.

During the whole of our operations, I have experienced from admiral Harvey the most cordial cooperation, and every act of personal kindness. At my request he landed 300 seamen, under captains Toddy and Browne, of the royal navy; to whose exertions while on shore we are under the greatest obligations.

From

From the arrangements of the admiral, the landing and re-embarking of the troops were conducted in the best order. To capt. Renou, of the royal navy, principal agent of the transports, I desire to express the sense I have of his good conduct upon all occasions.

I beg leave to assure you, that the behaviour of the troops has been meritorious: they were patient under labour, regular and orderly in their conduct, and spirited when an opportunity to shew it occurred. All the departments of the army exerted themselves to my satisfaction. A return of our killed and wounded accompanies this dispatch.

I have the honour to be, &c. RALPH ABERCROMBY. P. S. I have omitted to say, that four Spanish brass field-pieces fell into our hands, which were brought off.

Total return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing, at Porto-Rico, May 2. One lieutenant-colonel, wounded; one captain, killed; one ditto, wounded; one ditto, missing; two lieutenants, missing; thirty rank and file, killed; sixty-eight, ditto, wounded; 121 missing. Names of the Officers killed,

wounded, or missing. 53d regiment.--Capt. Rynd, wounded; capt. Dover, missing, supposed taken prisoner.

Lowestein's chasseurs.-Lieutenant-colonel Stammendorf, wounded; lieutenant De Gand, missing, supposed taken prisoner,

Ditto fusileers.-Capt. Grasse, killed; lieutenant Montagnac, missing.

JOHN HOPE, adjutant-general. The same gazette contains a letter from admiral sir Hyde Parker, commander in chief at Jamaica, inclosing a copy of a letter from capt. Ogilvy, of the Thunderer, con

taining an account of his destroying the Hermione French frigate, of 44 guns; and another, of capt. Pigot's bringing out of Jean Rabel one ship, three brigs, three schooners, and two sloops; and also the two following letters. LaMagicienne, Calabash Bay, April 8. SIR,

I have the satisfaction to inform you, that the boats belonging to the Magicienne and Regulus, officered and manned by volunteers from the two ships, in the night of the 6th instant, entered the harbour of Cape Roxo in this island, the great receptacle for French privateers and their prizes, when they captured, sunk, and burnt thirteen sail of square-rigged vessels and schooners, the whole in the port (except a Danish ship), and destroyed two batteries of two guns each, six and four pounders, at the entrance and head of the harbour, without the loss of a man.

This service was so admirably well executed, that I think it a duty incumbent upon me to make known to you the name of every officer employed on it.

I have the honour to be, &c. W. H. RICKETTS. Hermione, at Cape Nichola, April 15. I have the honour to inform you, that, on the 22d of March, standing in between the island of Zacheo and the west end of Porto-Rico, I discovered a brig and several smaller vessels at anchor close in shore, and had the good fortune to succeed in bringing the Hermione to an anchor within half a mile of them, and abreast of a small battery,which immediately opened a fire upon the ship, but was very shortly silenced.

I sent the boats, under the direction of lieutenants Reid and Douglas, to take possession of the vessels; and though they were aground, and (G2) a small

a small fire of musquetry kept up by the enemy, they brought them all out but two, which were sunk, and I am happy to say without a man being hurt. The following day I sent the boats, under the direction of lieutenant Reid, to land and endeavour to spike and dismount the guns, which they effected without loss; and the enemy had, on our first appearance, taken the sails of the vessels away, and otherwise dismantled them. I set fire to them all but the brig, three of which were French privateers, and the others their prizes, making in all fifteen, besides the brig.

In executing the service, 1 feel it but justice to the officers and ship's company under my command, to express my approbation of their conduct and exertions, particularly those employed in the boats, which service was attended with much risk and fatigue, and executed with the greatest cheerfulness, spirit, and good judgment.

The brig belongs to Bremen, and was captured by one of the privateers a month before; she is loaded very deep, and is a very valuable vessel. I have the honour to be, &c. &c. &c.

(Signed) HUGH PIGOT. The same gazette also contains an account of the capture of the Portau-Paix, a French privateer schooner, 2 swivels and 17 men, by capt. Fowke of the Swallow, and of the Le Pichegru, French privateer, 1 gun and 39 men, by lieut. Huggett, of the Resolution brig.

Downing-street, June 9, 1797. A messenger arrived yesterday at lord Grenville's office from sir Charles Whitworth, K. B. his majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at the court of Petersburgh, with his imperial majesty's ratification of the treaty of com

merce concluded between his majesty and the emperor of Russia. The ratifications were exchanged at Moscow on the 17th ult.

10. This gazette contains an account of the capture of the Adolphe French lugger privateer, pierced for 12 guns, part of which she threw overboard, and 8 swivels, with 35 men, after being chased 4 hours, by his majesty's sloops Nautilus and Sea-gull; also, of a French lugger privateer from Brest, mounting? carriage-guns, and 8 swivels, with muskets, pikes, pole-axes, &c. and 36 men, by the Dolphin revenue cruiser;-and, also, of a French lugsail privateer, called the Flying Fish, with 2 swivel-guns, a number of muskets, and 24 men, out three days from Morlaix, by the Lively, a cutter of the customs.

17. In the court of King's Bench, an action was brought by Mr. Dunnage against sir Thomas Turton for crim. con. with Mrs. Dunnage. The damages were laid at 10,000l. After a long trial, the jury gave a verdict for the plaintiff, damages 5,000!.

This gazette contains an account of the capture of the Stulver Dutch privateer, of 10 guns, and 48 men, from Amsterdam, by his majesty's 1 ship the Astrea, capt. Davies.

Portsmouth, June 20. Yesterday morning at nine o'clock a courtmartial was assembled on board his majesty's ship Royal William, at Spithead, consisting of the hon. Thomas Pakenham, president, capt. Aplin, capt. Legge, capt. Montague, capt. Barker, capt. Faulkner, capt. Middleton, capt. Pickmore, capt. Wilkinson, capt. Peyton, capt. Fraser, capt. Yorke, capt. Herbert, for the trial of Gutherie, Calloway, Ashley, Johnson, and Davies, for making and endeavouring to make mutinous assemblies on board his majesty's ship Le Pompée; and

James

James Braham, for being present at such assemblies, all of them belonging to that ship.

Ten witnesses were examined yesterday on the part of the prosecution, which all tended to criminate Calloway, Ashley, Gutherie, and Johnson. Hitherto nothing has appeared against Braham; and nothing farther against Davies, than that the other four held their meetings in his birth, and that it was the place they swore all such people as they could, through ignorance or otherwise, prevail on to take an oath to assist their views in petitioning for peace, which could not be brought about, they said, without the dismissal of his majesty's ministers, and which, they added, they had determined to effect. Calloway, who seems to be the most hardened fellow among them, observed to one of the people to whom he administered the oath of being true to each other, to obtain by all possible means peace and liberty, that he was an old man, and that his life could not be of much consequence; however, he would freely sacrifice it, see his heart's blood flow, and drink it afterwards, sooner than relinquish the object of forcing the minister out of place, and having an immediate peace. All the evidences in this day's proceeding were respectable-looking men, and gave their testimony in a manner perfectly clear.

Portsmouth, June 21. At nine this morning the court-martial re-assembled, and proceeded on the trial of the six mutineers belonging to the Pompée. All the evidences, to the number of 17, on the part of the prosecution, went strongly this day to condemn the prisoners Gutherie, Calloway, Ashley, and Johnson; and some circumstances tended to make Davies and Braham more con

nected with this business than what appeared yesterday. In the course of the evidences called and questioned, it appeared that these disaffected men were not able to get a real seaman to sign their paper, or to take the oath tendered to them. Such men as took the oath did it through impressions of fear, and were the illiterate part of the crew, most of whom could not write their names, or understand what they had sworn to. It is but justice to the well-affected part of the ship's company, to say, that no praise can equal the propriety of their conduct, in exposing the proceedings of the six prisoners, and some others, who, from what has come out in evidence this day, will be brought to trial. The conduct of serjeant Sweet, of the marines, was particularly commendable. The evidence on the part of the crown closed at four o'clock. Several papers, very essential to clear up this black and mysterious business, have been destroyed; the only thing found was among Johnson's clothes, which was a form of an oath, as follows: "Ido swear to stand true till death, in promoting the cause of liberty with equity, while a prospect of obtaining it remains." Here the paper was torn, which shews there was something more to follow. The trial was both days so numerously attended from the ships and the shore, that props were obliged to be put under the beams of the Royal William, to support the immense number of people who flocked on board.

Portsmouth, June 23. The courtmartial ended this evening at halfpast six. By the sentence of the court, Calloway, Gutherie, Johnson, and Ashley, are to suffer death; but the two former are recommended for mercy. A fifth muti(G3)

neer

neer is to be imprisoned twelve months; and the sixth acquitted. This sentence has since been confirmed; and Johnson and Ashley were executed on the 28th.

24. Came on, in the court of King's Bench, Westminster, before lord Kenyon and a special jury, the trial of Mr. Williams, for publishing the first and second parts of Paine's Age of Reason:

Mr. Erskine, as counsel for the prosecution, began a long and comprehensive speech by stating that not having the honour to be sworn as counsel for the king, it had much oftener fallen to his lot to defend indictments for libels than to assist in the prosecution of them; that nevertheless he felt no embarrassment from the recollection of his former and frequent duties; the principles which he had always laid down in defending others, he should rigidly adhere to in the prosecution of this defendant. The liberty of the press was of the highest importance to mankind. Its liberal and unlicenced freedom had led to all the blessings both of religion and government which Great Britain enjoyed; and indeed a free press never could exist any where without (subject to the laborious process of all human improve ments) bringing the world to a higher pitch of civilization and happiness.

Mr. Erskine then defined the principles and limits of the press, both as they depended upon sound policy, and upon the particular law of England, and cited several authorities to establish, that, though controversial points of divinity might be the legal subject of discussion, and though even profound and complicated reasonings, which in their conclusions might touch many of the tenets of the Christian

church were admissible, yet that the utter denial of the existence of Christianity, much more a grossly indecent invective upon the whole of its doctrines, and a mockery of all its evidences, had ever been held to be a high misdemeanour, and punished as a disgraceful, infamous offence.

Mr. Erskine said, that, though the law, as he had stated it, and which was settled beyond all ques, tion, was enough to bind the con sciences of the jury, yet, upon a subject so momentous to the public, he thought it his duty to explain its principles, that the people might feel, that instead of being unjustly bridled by its restraints, and kept in ignorance by its prohibitions, the weak and simple were protected against the artifices of wickedness, whilst all that reason could collect for sincere and enlightened reflection was left open for meditation and controversy. This task Mr. Erskine went through at some length, taking at the same time the highest possible grounds in support of the rights of juries, and the liberty of the press.

[He next proceeded to comment upon each of the passages selected by the indictment, and exposed their dangerous tendency, as well as their utter repugnancy to every licence of printers which the law could possibly tolerate.]

Mr. Erskine said, that for himself he was devoted to the truths of the Christian religion, not from the prejudices of education, though he had been religiously educated by the best of parents, but from the re flection of his riper years and understanding; that it was the great consolation of his life; that without it he should consider the long course of his health and prosperity, toolong and too uninterrupted to be per

haps