The Sun. — London, England, 1803-02-01 00:00:00

MA t LS. Nol land % Frenc.h 0 ILiaburgh x 4/t/t7VED. YRICE OF STOCKS, tuts DAY AT TWL,LVIO'CI t:onsols V w 7n THE SUN. SOL/14 QUXS DlCa¢l PALSUAI AUDIAT ? LONDON, FEBRUARY 1, 1803. TII IS morning arrived the I!amhurgh Iliad of the tBth ultimo, and two Dutch Mails. When the ~otters left ihiniburgh, four English Mails were clue there. - ty the Hambargh Mail we have received a Con. .Vention, signed at Paris on the 26th of December last, between France, Austria, and Russia, relative to the Indemnities of the GRAND DUKE of TUSCANY, This Convention, as our Readers will perceive, is mitered into in consequence of His IVlajesty the EtaPEROR of GERMANY having represented, that the Indemnities agreed to by the Deputation of the kmpire, could not be considered as agreeable to the spirit and letter of the Treaty of Ltme-od/e. This State Paper =lnu i t but be read with considerable itit~terest. The Expedition to Lerr;riarra is delayed by the teverity of the weather, the Ships destined for the voyage being all frozen in. An article from the Vagric states, that they are returning there to their old customs and institutions. Many of the friends of the PR tt,Tc E of ()RANG E have been admitted to Public O f fices, and the Guilds and Corporations of Amsterdam are all re.establi3hed. It is said that an arrangement is negotiating be. tween the Batavian Government and the PRINCE of ORANGE, by which the latter will receive an indem. nity for the toss of some of his property situated in the Dutch territory. It appears that this indemnity will he paid one part in actions on the State, and the other in money. However this may be, they write from Brunds, that a Gentleman in the ser. vice of the Prince, arrived in that City from the Rape with Dispatches for the Princes Commis.: sioner in that City. \Vs some time since intimated our intention of offering to our. Readers some observations upon the present state of Parties, which has to many persons presented so singular an appearance, and has led to 't so many curious and ungrounded speculations. This we shall now endeavour to el:ccute ; and, in the course of it, may perhaps find it difficult to 4void some cursory observations on the public , con.. dtia of a few of the leading persons who constitute them, After having for 'so many years been accustomed to see the two branches of the Legislature pretty regularly divided into a Ministerial and Anti. ministerial Party—into two distina Classes, namely, those who supported, and those who opposed the Measures of Government, much of what has of late oecuercd, especially in the House of Commons, cannot have failed, at first sight, to appear extra. ordinary, and almost unintelligible. When the pietent Administration was first Cilled to power by their Sovereign, they avowed their approbation of the general principles on which their Predecessors bad ;ded, and were . Warmly supported by the Gar NvILLES, and feebly opposed by the old Op. position. In the avowal of the support promised by the former, a few of Mr. PITY'S friends did not join ; nor did a few of the Leaders of the latter, amongst whom we reckon Mr. Ts ERNE y, 84e. seem disposed to concur in any . hostility against the new Covernmenr, Mr. PITT g4ll/C his cordial support from the first, and has continnO it without inter. „rup!ion to the present time. 'We have no reason to suspect that he has the least. disposition to %kith draw it. Since, however, the period to which we have ;hove 'referred, some conbitlerable alterations have taken place. At the present time, we find the tvhole GILUNVILL4 Party, headed in the House of, 00ininons try Mr. WINDHAM, embarked in a vio lent, determined, and systematic Opposition, which pn some occasions might, not incorre4ly,' perhaps, to called a fselious one, Amongst their Allies, though not yet sitting on the same -bench 'with them, may h , e reckoned Mr. CANN I NG, and his immediate friends, who declared . himself only in the present Session of Parliament. On the other hand, we find Mr. Fox regularly 'attending the House, 'and tleclaring (as has Mr. SUER I p AN) 1111 iitqq(l/VOC4I approbation of the conduet of His MAJESTY'S Ministers, ,-Mr. TIERNEY has been c ;ilent- 72 —Mr. Glt e* has not attended. Messrs, M 4 tT. LAND, Hositousa, and others of the_ same side, have openly and decidedly joined the Government rhalanx, .as ban tome of the Country Gentlemen who Were ie habits of opposing the I4st Adittini stration. We believe Mr. ERSKINE to be very friendly tc, the present Minister, though he has not publidly avowed himself so. In the Government itself, we mean the Cabinet, there has been no change whatever since its first appointment, ex. cepting in the valuable accession of Lord CASTLE. REACH to the Board of Control ; and a more united and cordially.conneaed one, we believe, never served His MAJESTY, notwithstanding the idle reports of occasional disagreements, wholly un founded, and, lately, between two individuals, of all others the least likely to disagree, we mean Lord fi.‘witeseintY and Mr. ADDINGTON, This being the outline of the present state of Parties, if it may be properly so called, we can hardly be surprized that Speculation should have been pretty busy, and that Politicians should have fancied they saw the ground laid for new, important changes, and new political alliances. No incon. siderable part of these theories might perhaps have been precluded, had Mr. PITT'S state of health enabled him to attend the House at the beginning of the Session ; as we sincerely hope it may admit of his doing after the Adjournment. Had he been present, one description of his Friends would per. haps have hardly risked *heir declaration of the. absolute necessity of his return to Power, and another, of a still more inveterate charader, might possibly have. abstained from those expressions of personal rancour, whose dirdlion and motive seemed to be, as they were indeed universally understood, to disunite two great Public Charmers, whose friendship has. g. Grown with their growth, and strengthen'd with their strength ;" and which, at the same time, was calculated to jure the reputation of one of them, which for tunately stood too high to be affeded by such con. ddt, by inducing a doubt of his real feelings, opinions, and intentions of the late measures of Government, and towards the Individuals who con.. saluted it. Such declarations, language and con. duet, on the part of those with whom Mr. PITT had acted for so many years, and with whom he preserves a personal intimacy, naturally excited in some breasts mistrusts and anxieties that he was about to depart from that manly, generous, and public-spirited line which has marked his whole conduct} since he ceased to be Minister, and for which he has so justly experienced the applause and admiration of the Country. Speculations of another description appear to have originated in the support given to Government by the Leaders of the Old Oppw,il:.m. It seem; to be the fashion of the .present day, to be ever looking out for some secret and selfish motive, by which the condua of all Public Men is direeted. In many cases this may Undonbeedly be just : but to adopt it universally, would, in our opinion, be an un. warrantable Libel on human Nature. In the pre sent case, what claim to common consistency could the Gentlemen, of whom we are speaking, have maintained, had they persisted in opposition to the present Minister ? They had for ten years been crying out for Peace—He has obtained it—They had deprecated its being interrupted by Continental Considerations.—He has preserved it. But does it necessarily grow out of this approbation, so ex pressed, that a Political Union must take place be tween the Aciors and the Approvers ? Does it follow that those who support One leading line of condua, have abandoned their old principles, as to other Measures ; or that those who experience such Support, have adopted them ? And if neither were the case, we see very great obstacles in the way of such Unions, as some Papers have amused their Readers with the Reports of, but to which we never for a moment, gave the least credit.—Not that we approve of a proscribing system, and have read and seen enough o the State of Parties in this Country, and know enough of Mankind, to be fully satisfied of the nonsense and absurdity of it. Had the Go. vernmcnt been weak, these rumours might have made some impression on us ; being strong, and daily increasing in strength, and therefore in no want of such Alliances, we disbelieved them. The necesti.±y of such an Union, we can only in one case anticipate : and that is one which of all others, we the most deprecate, but about which we are quite at ease. Whilst on, thin part of the subjel, we cannot help noticing, with astonishment and disgust, some animadversions which 'we have heard made by in. discreet and bigotted ?artisans, on the Minister's acelting (as it has been strangely called) such sup. port, and on his not standing forward on all occa sions to repel the incessant attacks which have been made on the measures and conduEt of his great Pre. drcessor. These are charges equally foolish, insi. dious and cruel. To the first—we would only ask, Where did ever exist such an idea; of a Mini. ster as would tefuse to 9 ccept support, from what. ever quarter it might be tendered ? Where was ever yet co be focind an individual at the !. , :d of an Executive Government, so besotted and so said. ' dical, as to resist and to disclaim support sponta neously offered to him, unclogged with conditiona of any► sort, and by doing which he might risk the failure of measures on which he thought the welfare and security of the Country depended, and, howevir remotely, the permanence of his own Government ? On the second part of this charge, we shall only observe, that we are, and ever shall be, quite as sensitive to any calumnies that may be uttered against the late Minister, as any of those can be who may be ranked amongst the number of his per. sonal friends. Mr. PITT is (thank God) not de stitute of numerous friends in the House, men of consequence, rank, and talents, abundantly equal to the task of answering and repelling such attacks as may be made in his absence. The event has fully proved it. When present, he wants none. Mr. ADDINCTON has, on every occasion that particu. larly called for it, and on a great many that did not, testified in the most unqualified terms his ad. miration of the measures, and his devotion to the principles which marked the condo& of the Admi nistration which , preceded him, and has no less generously than justly, attributed part of his own success ? to his having aded up to the same prin. ciples and the same system. Had we not witnessed it, we could not have conceived it possible that any expeaation so barbarously and extravagantly unreasonable, could have been formed, as that a Minister, who has quite enough on his hands to justify and defend his own measures, however me. ritorious they may be, must have the double duty imposed on him, of individually undertaking the justification of all those of a preceding Govern ment, On the condua of the Opposition, now properly so called, we cannot help observing, that it appears to us inexplicable. Soon after the change in His Majesty's Councils took place, Lord GRENVILLE promised his cordial, zealous, and alive Support to the new Ministry. Against that Ministry he has, for the last year and a half, direded his cordial, zealous, acrd aftive Opposition; and according to his own statement, because they had been guilty of the Convention with the Northern Powers, which relieved Great Britain from the formidable hostility of four great Continental Powers and afterwards of the Preliminaries with France, which restored. Peace to this Country and to Europe. To, these two great Measures Mr. Ptit. gave his most un. equivocal nipport and approbation. And yet this consistent Statesman tells us, that Mr. PITT is the only 'person,' at the present crisis, capable of saving the Country. To ' the great talents and splendid services of that truly conaistentStatesman we most ' . .readily bow :,--but is . he to "sive the C4ontry by !!acing up to those Measures which he hris so de. cidedly approved, or by attempting to undo them ? By which line of condua would Mr. PITT become entitled to the confidence of Lord GRENv LLE and his Associates ? This consistent Statesman, and his consistent Associates will be puzzled to answer this question. To sum up the whole—we see but one course for the present Government to pursue; which is, to aft steadily up to the line which they appear to have chalked out for themselves. The present state of Parties is the best comment on, and the surest test of the public approbation of their past condua. They need not deprecate the continuance of an Opposition which has so recently stigmatized itself by its resistance to a measure for the reform of Abuses, which was so loudly called for, and the necessity of which has been so long acknowledged; and by a desperate attempt to stop the Supplies in the House of Lords—an attempt, we believe, new in the annals of that part of the Legislature. The Measures of a Government may be very wise and highly salutary to the Country, whose affairs are intrusted to its management, though unaccom panied with the display of extraordinary oratorical talents. Like the powers of Mechanism, the af fairs of State may generally be considered as going on the most correEtly and satisfactorily, when there is the least appearance of effort. Et - Stillest streams " Oft water fairest meadows, and the hird " That flutters least is longest_on the wing." 01 this quotation we willingly leatre to the judgment of our Readers;aod to the course of time, the justice and propriety of the application. Yesterday morning HER MAJESTY, attended by the Princesbeh izAu ETU, MARY, and Atm LISTA, took an airing in Hyde Park in Her IVlajehty's Car. ridge, and paid a visit to the Countess , of CAR Dl c AN. At half past two o'clock they returned to Buckingham.house. Hi; j EST Y did not leave the house. This day, we believe, General Sir THOMAS TR. Iva embarked at Portsmouth on board: the Ama. zon Frigate for Gibraltar, Saturday morning the PR I've tt of WALEi'S an_ nual donation, consisting of prime beef, bread, and potatoes, to the amount al 501.• was distributed Among the i)oor in*itants of 131ii.,,T10n.i 141A . PAL PORTSMOUTH, JAN. 31. ARRIVED this evening, His Majesty's Ship Dyad, from Weymouth. Several outward-bound Ships. arrived this even ing from the Eastward ; amongst which were• Whale Fishery Ship, and a West Indiaman. Arrived the Dove, HE/M.112W, Betsey, FEATHEit!,.,,-: STONE, and John and Robert, WEST, from London; and Catharine, MONTGAR.DIN, from Havre-de- Grace. Sailed the Providence, SAXTON, and Fritndship, OAK, for London; and Tuo Friends, GRvrisstiLs For Ryc, HARWICH, JAN. 31. A Dutch Schuyt is this moment arrived front Scheveling, with the Dutch Mail and Hanover Messenger. The eight Hambro' Mails are to be forwarded by the Prince of Wahl. Packet, Capt. HEARN, to Scheveling, from whence they are to be forwarded by land to Hambro' ; and the King George, Capt. DEANE, has on board the three Dutch Mails : these Packets will sail the first faTeurable opportunity.. DEAL, JAN. 3T. THE Sir Stephen Lushington Eist India VW sailed last night on her voyage. The Ship Cif ) . of London, for Sr. Helena and Ben., gal, came down this morning from the River, 4 114 proceeded through the Downs without anchoringt Arrived His Majesty's Frigate Tbetis, from OW Westward, and remains. BRITISH NAVY. STATEMENT OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE NAVAL BRITISH FORCE, TO THIS DAY. .... - Line In Port and fitting, and 2 with sealed orders 5 5 Guard-ships . - - o In the English and pish ? Channels - - S o On the Downs and North J. Sea stations - At the :Vest 1 ndia Islands Z 2 and on the Passage On the Jamaica station 9 American & Newtbund- Z land stations - S C. of G, Hope, E. Ind. ? 6 and on the Passage S Coast of Africa .. C! Portugal and Gibraltar . o Mediterranean and on passage ro hospital and Prison Ship* .• a ' - --- -- so's Frig 32 Sps. 43 Total in Commission 37 Receiving Ships - 7 Serviceable and repairing for Service t S 30 In ordinary - r - 99 Building , Total jr STAT.% Of AIL oltDixAk) Line. Pcutsmouth Plymouth - 4 Math:tin , 43 Sheernest River AT & 50'S 101 7 9 9i tO) 3;ce, ACH P I Fri 6 2tl Tot. 84 4$ 11 10 ' 9 ofi ISps. , fir 60 Tot. 7, 6, Total 136 ! q 1 tot i 1 1 1 31/ NEWCASTLE, JAN. 29. Tots Seamen at Shields, on Saturday and SundaY last, again proceeded to ass of irregularity, perarn., bulating the streets in a riotous manner, and even going on board different ships in the harbour, insist ing that the men on board should not proceed to se3l unless their wages were advanced to Eight Guineas' —The wind, since that time, being adverse to the ships sailing, they have desisted from further pro ceedings; but it is much feared they will resume their efforts as soon as the wind favours their pot'. pose.—We trust, however, should that be the case. the timely and ac" ive interference of our Chief M •gistrate, &c. will prevent any serious consequences arising therefrom. The arrivals of , ships from different Ports, an nounced yesterday at Lloyd's Coffee-House, were very numerous ; many of them had to contend with the late bad weather, and suffered' great damage. Some ships were also mentioned to have been lasts The Devonthire, MiCoaNtsm, from J,imaica to London, is put into the Bahamas, leaky • the SO' priz e , C ARLISLE , f rom Af r ic a and Barbadoes to the Havannah, is lost, people saved ; Pr7.teers Mvw err, is arrived ar BeauMauris, with damage; the Hero, Etsfox, from Newfoundland to Waterf°‘" is lost near Baltimore, in Ireland. A Court Martial was held on Saturday, at Porto: mouth, on Patrick . Smith, for deserting from His Majesty's ship Loire, and entering on board the Hydra; being found guilty, he was sentenced to receive so lashes on board the former ship.--CoP t • Day V, President. The Right Hon. Mr. WICKHAM left Limerick, on his return to Dublin, on Friday se'nnight. General Dovt.a gave a most splendid Ento Lain. ment at Guernsey, in honour of the Qua E e s Birth day on the 18th ult. The ball was opened by Gc neral Doy LE and Lady SAUMAREZ. An account lately received from Bombay men' tions the death, at Verapo li, near Cochin, of the most Rev. Father in Goo,_ DON F. Law .15 r MARIA DE Juin, Bishop of Verapoli, Apottolic Vicar of Malabar, and of the order of Carmelitcs, aged 58 years. The private silver which has been permitted by th e Eas - tinciia company to be sent to the East In dies, in' the ships of the present season, is said , to Amiga to attic short of tialla million of oonco• ) , i