Viewing page 2 of 4

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Foreign Intelligence.

DANTZICK, Sept. 26.

WE have accounts from Russia that the harvest has not been so plentiful this year as it has at first thought to be; there was more straw than grain. They have bought here and at Elbing a quantity of corn for Russia. The price of grain of course increases; rye is from 320 to 330 florins, and barley from 430 to 460 per last.

VIENNA, October 13.

The field-marshal Count Lacy is set off for Hungary. It is yet uncertain whether the Emperor will follow him, and more problematical still whether our court will take an active part in the war against the Porte. We think, for many reasons, that even if we enter in it we shall only furnish Russia the succours agreed on in the treaty. Others think the advantages the Porte is ready to grant our court will determine them, in concert with France, to use every possible method to get an accommodation made between the Porte and Russia during the course of the winter: yet the preparations are as great as if the Emperor was already resolved to act offensively against the Turks. Time, however, will shew what all these preparations mean

Oct. 27. Some letters have been received here, informing us, that the noted Rhyngrave of Salm, after having been stopped for some days at Francfort on the Main, and receiving there the amount of two bills of exchange for 50,000 German crowns, set out to visit his brother the reigning Count of Crombach.

Nov. 6. It is confirmed, that the Emperor, before he declares open war against the Turks, will wait for the final result of affairs between Prussia, England, and France. If a formal rupture takes place between those powers, we shall attack the Porte with all our forces - but if they arrange matters amicably, we shall only furnish Russia with the stipulated corps of troops, and remain content with the cordon which we have established for the safety of our frontiers.

The Emperor has appointed four consuls general for the East Indies, on the Coast of Malabar, at the Cape and the Isle of France. Our funds begin to fall upon the situation of affairs with the Porte. The obligations of the Bank and the Moffice[[?]], which hitherto bore a premium of 212 per cent is at present at par.

ANTWERP, October 22.
The messenger who was sent to the Emperor on the 22d of last month, with the decree with Gen. Murray published to the people in the preceding evening, and the news that in consequence thereof all the disturbances arisen in the Low Countries were settled, returned from Vienna to Brussels in the morning of the 15th instant. The contents of his dispatches have not yet been made known, but we learn in general that he has brought the Emperor's ratification of the above decree, a ratification which, nevertheless, extends no further than the terms of that declaration; that is to say, that all was to be re-established on the same footing as it was on the first of April 1787. His majesty desires that the changes made since that time be annulled and repaired; by virtue of which principle the general seminary ought to be re-established and regulated according to the new institution, already instituted and executed before that time. But this affair (as those generally are which concern the Ecclesiastical discipline) is still subjected to a great many difficulties; and it is chiefly on this that the States of Brabant insist in their new remonstrances to the Emperor; and after his majesty's intentions were communicated to them, they held a long assembly, and flatter themselves, that by further explanations this affair may be terminated in a happy manner.

AMSTERDAM, Nov. 26.
We have received copies of a proposition made by his Highness the Stadtholder to the States of Holland, for granting an amnesty to all those who were associated, either armed or not armed, or who signed addresses, petitions, declarations, &c. tending to overturn our ancient constitution.

By letters from Warsaw, just arrived, we learn, that the Turks have made themselves masters of the fortress of Kinburn, after an attach which lasted nine hours. The garrison were cut to pieces, and General Suwarow mastered in a barbarous manner. This defeat is ascribed to the negligence of the army, in not sending proper assistance to the place. These letters are dated the 7th. This victory, if true, secures to the Turks the mouth of the Nieper, and renders Oczakow perfectly safe.

HAGUE, Nov. 18.
The deputies from the town of Hoorn proposed to the states of Holland to rescind the resolutions entered into during the late troubles against Louis Duke of Brunswick, Field Marechal in the service of the States as they were founded on misunderstanding and party. This was agreed to by the States.

WARSAW, Nov 3.
The Russian troops are advancing fast on this side of the Neister, and are forming a cordon with proper forts. The Turks are doing the same on their side of the Neister, and have formed their line towards Choczim, to which fortress the Dziurogin-Achmet Pacha is advancing with a body of 18,000 men. A Turkish force of 40,000 men remains at the Danube, in the neighbourhood of Ismaillow, to support Bender and Choczim, in case of attack. To facilitate their passage, they have thrown a bridge over the Pruth near Falezi. The Austrian troops are already arrived at the rivers Pruth and Sereth. On the Poland side, all is quiet. The accounts from the Turkish army are so contradictory, that we know not as yet what to believe.

DRESDEN, Nov. 5.
Most of the Imperial troops under-mentioned are already on their march towards the frontiers of Turkey; and which, with those under marching orders for the same destination, amount to

94 battalions of infantry of 1400 men each, 135,360
3 battalions artillery, 1000 each, 3,000
63 divisions of cavalry, 400 each, 25,200
In the whole, 160,560

To command which the following general officers are appointed, viz. one chief general, one quarter-master, two generals of cavalry, three generals of artillery, 14 lieutenant-generals, and 27 major-generals.

FRANKFORT, Nov. 6.
We are assured, that the emperor's troops, which are to form a line in Gallicia, Hungary, Transylvania, Esclavonia, and Croatia, will consist of 162,562 men, of whom 135,360 are infantry.

LONDON, Nov. 6.
While two such great empires as Russia and Turkey are in a state of warfare, and the emperor is bound by treaty to assist the former with a powerful body of forces, there is no doubt but most of the European nations will keep a respectable naval force in readiness, not only to be prepared against contingencies, but also to preserve, as far as possible, the balance of power, left a gret acquisition of dominion to the conquerors might render them too powerful in future for the united efforts of every other state to contend with, and therefore deprive them hereafter of their proper weight and importance in the scale of nations. When Peter the Great visited England, and worked for some time in one of the dock-yards like a common ship-carpenter it was then little thought that before a century should elapse, the fleets of Muscovy would become formidable in the Baltic and Euxine Seas, and that those, joined with their present numerous armies, should threaten destruction to the Ottoman Empire, which for above three centuries had been the terror of Europe almost in general.
Nov. 10. Mr. Eden left Paris on Wednesday last and is now on his rout to Madrid as ambassador plenipotentiary from Great-Britain to the court of Spain.
Nov. 12. Bishop Porteus succeeds not only to the See of London, but to the deanery of the Chapel.
Nov. 17. There is now a Polish prince in town, not more than ten or eleven years old, who is allowed to be one of the handsomest boys in Europe. He was sent to this kingdom to be educated, and is entirely attended by English masters.
Extract of a letter from Lisbon, Nov. 7[[or Nov. 1?]]
"The Nostra Senhora del Minho, is arrived here in 52 days from St. Salvadore in the Brazils; where we learn, that the savage nations are again at war, and seemed disposed to attack our back settlements, on which account the principal inhabitants have fled in disorder to the towns on the coast, and abandoned their late dwellings. These savages are more to be feared, as the renegado Europeans, from different settlements, have taught them the use of arms, of which they have plenty among them. The chief hope is, they must want ammunition."
Nov. 21. According to letters from the Orkneys dated about ten days since, the winter had begun to set in with prodigious severity in those parts, and had every appearance of a long succession of cold and severe weather. The Aurora Borealis made a most awful appearance every night, and continued with large streams of light for four hours together; nothing of this kind had occurred before for near fifty years. The fisheries were in complete order, and that of lobsters in particular, from some late improvements, bids fair to be more lucrative to the person employed in it than for many years before.
Extract of a letter from Paris, Nov. 8.
"If we may believe certain advices received from Flanders, Haynault and Artois, many Dutch families appeared in those provinces demanding to be employed in the service of France; the party that has triumphed in the republic shew but little moderation towards the vanquished side; the possessions of the patriots are sold at the lowest prices, under the pretence of employing the sums arising from the sale, to pay the indemnities due on account of the inundations. It should seem that if policy authorises a similar rigour, the need of a great population common to all states, ought to have proscribed it; for as such means must necessarily weaken the republic, she will find herself less able than ever to shake off any yoke whatever that her neighbours may want to impose on her. Such is the melancholy result of civil wars in democracies, where liberty never knows, and where she seldom sees, the point where she ought to stop, in the first heat of triumph!
"It is said that the Rhyngrave of Salm is at Paris at this very moment. Notwithstanding the care he has taken to justify his conduct in a memorial he addressed to the court, a short time after his flight from Holland, the people's minds are so prejudiced against him, that the strictest incognito is become indispensable to his present situation."
Extract of a letter from Dublin, Nov. 15.
"Accounts are received from different parts of the country, and particularly the county of Galway, of the great damages done by the floods, in consequence of the heavy rains that have fallen, and so swelled the springs and rivers as to cause in many places a general inundation, by which numbers of the poor peasantry are subject to the most distressing calamities."
The putrid fever, which has of late raged with such violence in some parts of Suffolk, and particularly at Sudbury, has, it is said, within these few days, extended itself to Long-Melford, where it has continued with the same devastation; few persons have survived its attacks above twenty four hours. Amongst other melancholy instances of those who have fallen victims, is a person of the name Fuller, a superintendant of the estate of Sir Harry Parker, who, with three beautiful daughters, died of it in one day. Of this unhappy family, the mother alone was left, who was constrained to remain for some days amid such a scene of horror, as no one, from the malignancy of the disorder, would approach the house to afford that consolation which she was heard to implore in the most piercing tones of agony and supplication.
Nov. 26. Poland is in that irksome situation wherein it is dangerous to move and dangerous to sit still. That unhappy kingdom is doomed to be the ravenous victim of its powerful neighbors, in 
their agreements and in their disagreements. Europe saw, in a time of profound tranquillity a tripartite partition of territories, dismembered from her, with a colour or pretence of right or reason!
What may she not fear or dread now among great contending empires!
The largest ship that was ever built for the service of the East India Company, was launched on Saturday at Blackwall. This ship is built on the bottom of the Ceres, and is of the vast burthen of 1162 tons, bound to Madeira and China, and is to proceed under the command of captain Price.
Extract of a letter from Clonmel, Nov. 15.
"In consequence of the late heavy rains, our river rose to a height not known within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. The calamities occasioned by the uncommon inundation, are inconceivably great and general; so much so, that every house contiguous to the river, at both sides, was flooded, with from four to eight feet of water; and many very comfortable and respectable inhabitants have been reduced to a state of poverty and wretchedness, having lost their all.
"A subscription was opened yesterday morning for the relief of the unhappy sufferers, and in a few hours above 200 guineas were collected."
Extract of a letter from Francfort, Nov. 10.
"We have received from all parts the most melancholy accounts of the damage done by the inundations, which have never before in the memory of man been so great at this season of the year. The last accounts from Saltzbourg mention that all the streets at the place, near the river, were under water; the bridge is carried away, and much other damage done; at Lauffer the water rose 31 feet above its usual height; the damage done by the overflowing of the Salzachstroom is the greater, as all the water works which were erected last year at a very great expence are destroyed; at Vienna the flood on the 29th of October was uncommonly high; Leopolstadt, and all the suburbs next to the Danube were under water.
"From Munich we learn, that from the 25th to the 30th of October they had the most tremendous storms of rain and wind ever remembered, particularly on the 29th, when the rain fell like one continued water spout, the wind blowing violently from the west and south-west. The damage done to the rafts of timber on the river and every thing within reach of the overflowing is very considerable. We have received afflicting accounts from all parts upon the borders of the Danube and Iser."
Extract of a letter from Portsmouth, Nov. 22.
"This day Sir Edmund Affleck struck his flag on board the Bedford, as did Commodore Elliot his broad pendant in the Salsbury, lately from Newfoundland. The hauling down of Rear Admiral Affleck's flag is the first signal we have received for the dismantling of any part of our fleet since the late armament took place. Orders are daily expected to put the navy on the peaceable establishment. They are already come down to pay off the Victory."
Nov. 27. The very flourishing state this country is in at present, and the influx of money for several months past, far exceeds any period of time in the memory of the eldest person living, which has occasioned a very rapid increase in the value of lands in England, and gives us the most cogent reasons to believe, that they will continue to increase much faster than they were even known to do.
Extract of a letter from Aberdeen, Nov. 20.
"Winter seems now to be set in, with all its rigours. The weather for some weeks past has been very rainy and cold; but on Saturday and Sunday we had a heavy fall of snow, attended with severe frost; the snow lies very deep in the country, where, we are sorry to add, much of the crop remains to be got in."
Extract of a letter from Limerick, Nov. 15.
"The heavy rain on Monday last, and the preceding week, was on Tuesday and yesterday happily succeeded by a smart Easterly wind, but the mountain floods are so great, that the high water of the Shannon has not abated, and was last night ten inches higher than the parapet of the upper lock of the canal. Boats and cots cannot pass up or down with turf, and the distress of the poor at this moment is beyond all description."
A few days ago, General Sir William Howe had nearly lost his life by the falling of his horse, when hunting with a party near Newton-Tony; he received a severe wound in his head, which occasioned much effusion of blood, and gave great alarm for the consequences; the best assistance possible was procured instantly, and we are happy to say the General is now in a fair way of speedy recovery; but for wearing a jockey cap, it is presumed, he must have been killed.
Extract of a letter from Newcastle, Nov. 24.
"The inhabitants of that part of the Sandhill, which is on the south side of the mount of earth called the Half Moon, near the Castle garth, whereon a range of building was lately built, the property of Sir John Turner, have for some time entertained the most serious apprehensions, for the safety of themselves and their property. The late rains having brought down a great quantity of earth upon the back parts of the houses, they have been projected considerably out of their perpendicular direction toward the street, from whence they have a most frightful appearance. Some of the inhabitants have already removed their property out of the houses, and others are preparing to do it as expeditiously as possible.
"We hear that very great quantities of unmanufactured tobacco are now smuggled from Holland and other foreign parts into this kingdom--and that the inhabitants upon the Yorkshire coast partake very largely in this illicit trade."
Extract of a leiter from Lewes, Nov. 26.
"Last Friday the following whimsical wager was decided:--Two capital farmers of Mayfield, whose ages together make 126 years, being each of them 63, betted a considerable sum that they walked from the above place, each carrying a bushel of beans, to Mr. Hearden's, the Wheatsheaf, in Malling-street, near this town, and back again, which is thirty-four miles, in twelve hours--they accordingly set out, and performed it with ease in eleven hours.
"A single potatoe, planted in the garden of Mr. Technor, of Cuckfield, produced this year an increase of 258, which weighed 89lb. and measured one bushel and a half."
If the Turks have succeeded at Kinburn, the stroke must be heavily felt by the Russian army.--In fact, it stops their progress in that quarter, and renders Choczim impregnable.
A letter from Petersburg, dated Oct. 30. makes no mention of this; on the contrary, the town was illuminated, on account of their having beat the Turks at that place.
The various accounts from Russia, relative to the progress of their arms have been so contradictory, that there is no making any thing of them--most of the letters are without dates, which renders the confusion the greater.
Lord Mansfield's first circuit produced him the exact sum of one guinea and a half.--How much is litigation increased now, when any petty gownsman brings home a pocket full of money on one circuit.
Nov. 29. At Gertenti, a town of Sicily, in the province of Maxara, on the south shore, fifty five miles south-east of Palermo, the ancient Agrigentum, the see of a bishop, there has lately been discovered a very curious manuscript, which proves, upon inspection, to be an Arabick translation of the works of Titus Livius. The decades, that have been hitherto wanted, are supposed to be contained in this valuable translation.
Extract of a letter from Northampton. Nov 29.
"On Monday last a person named Goward led his wife (who is far advanced in pregnancy) to the market place at Nuneaton, and there sold and delivered her up, with a halter about her, to one White, for the sum of three guineas; on their way Goward asked his wife if she was not ashamed of being brought to open market to be sold; she said she was not, and was happy to think that she was going to have another husband, for she well knew who would be her purchaser. When he came to the place, Goward embraced his wife and wished her well, upon which she returned the compliment.--White declared himself extremely well satisfied, and paid down the money, assuring the quondam husband, it was good and full weight. The purchase being completed, White gave the ringers a handsome treat to ring a peal, and they spent the remainder of the day with the greatest joy imaginable."
Nov. 30. The French king has sent out orders to Bathune, to form a particular legion of the Dutch patriots, who have retired from Holland--and who are to be taken into the immediate pay of France.
The new French council of war have given it as their opinion, That the army of France ought to be kept full and complete to the number of 200,000 men; in consequence of which, the necessary orders have been issued for completing that number.
The Protestant Swiss Cantons have agreed to enter into the Germanic League
Lately as some men were lounging on the seacoast by Happisburgh, instead of attending the important duties of the Sabbath, they observed a large cod-fish which having been bruised against the rocks by the dashing of waves, was left in the shallow water by the retreat of the tide. One of the persons swore that he would go and fetch it to land, and stripped himself accordingly. He reached the fish, and returning with it, his companions threw a rope for his assistance; but he vowed with horrid imprecations on himself, that he would bring it, as he first proposed, safe to land himself. Scarcely had he uttered the word, when he fell a lifeless corpse, his body floating on the water.
One good effect arises to the French from their present embarrassments. The government are turning their eyes towards reformation in every department. Mr. Guibert, who was made secretary to the newly instituted council of war, has given in a plan to the Archbishop of Thoulouse, by which a saving will be made of 34 millions in the army, which he nevertheless purposes to increase to the number of 280,000 men, at the same time that he augments the pay of the soldier.
Some appointments have lately taken place at Vienna, from which we may venture to prognosticate a rupture between the court and the king of Prussia: Generals Laudohn, De Wurmfer, and Prince Charles de Lichtenstein, have been appointed to the command of the troops in Bohemia and Silesia. The reputation of the first of these officers stands, perhaps, the highest of any in Germany; and the Emperor would never think of sending such a man to command in a quarter, where he could have no opportunity of displaying his great abilities.
Captain Landers in the merchants service, having invented a machine for working the chain pumps, a trial was made on board his Majesty's ship Flora, at Deptford, on Saturday the 17th inst. As no mention, however, has been made in any of the public papers, in justice to the inventor, as well as for the satisfaction of all concerned in shipping, the navy in particular, that this machine has the advantage over any method now in use for working the chain pumps, both for ease to the men, and to be able to deliver, in the space of one hour, 40,000 gallons of water more than can be delivered by an equal number of men at the winches, in the same space of time, which was proved in the presence of several Lieutenants of the navy, and Commanders of merchant ships; but unfortunately for the inventor, the officers of Deptford yard seemed all to be against giving the machine a fair trial, which every body present observed with concern; the Lieutenants of the navy expressed their highest approbation of the many good qualities which would attend this new method of working the pumps on board king's ships. It is therefore to be hoped that the proper officers of his Majesty's navy will inform themselves of the utility of this machine, and not let so useful a thing be lost to the king's service, for the caprice of a master attendant, or builder of a dock-yard.
The account of the Russians having defeated the Turks at Kinburn, is certainly not confirmed.--They repulsed them more than once, and with dreadful havock, for which great rejoicings took place at St. Petersbargh; but it is certain that accounts were afterwards received of the Turks having got possession of that fortress, with all the circumstances of dreadful massacre. This event was subsequent to the 30th of October, when the accounts were received from Petersburgh of the rejoicings.
The tobacco-trade has puzzled the ministry not a little, especially with the instance of Sir Robert Walpole, who endeavoured to bring that article under the excise, but was not able to accomplish it; nor has it ever been attempted since that time, which is not 54 years ago.
Dec. 6. The duchess of Gordon was yesterday in the gallery of the house of commons, but as soon as the speaker came in, and prayers were over, Mr. Colman, the serjeant, came up to her grace and informed her, that it was contrary to the rule of the house to suffer ladies to be present at the debates. Her grace being anxious to stay, commenced a negociation with the speaker, in which the serjeant was employed as plenipotentiary; after three conferences, in the last of which it was intimated to her grace, that the unavoidable result of her continuance in her seat, would be a motion for clearing the gallery, her grace politely said, "that sooner than deprive so many gentlemen of a rational and interesting amusement, she would forego the participation of it herself," and withdrew. We had hoped her grace would have gone out Grand Compounder, and have been admitted ad eundem with her royal highness the duchess of Cumberland, who last session, or in that preceding, sat during a debate, before the door of the speaker's chamber.
Yesterday evening the mail for America and the West-Indies, was sent off from the general post-office to Falmouth.
A letter from Stockholm, dated Nov. 23. says, The kind of Sweden having taken into consideration the war between the Russians and Turks,