The Sun. — London, England, 1801-02-09 00:00:00

THE SUN. SOLED( QOl3 DICEAI I ALSVM At7DLAT ? LONDON, YEBRUARY 9, 'Sol. WE never knew the public mind more agitated than it was yesterday, when Mr. Prres Resig nation becaine generally•known ; and it is surely a great calamity that, at a crisis like the present, the country should be deprived of the services of such men as Mr. PITT, Mr. DI/Nuns, Lord GRENV LLE, and Lord SPENCER. Although we' traced to their source many of the reports which were industriously circulated upon this subjed for some days past, and ascertained. that they were destitute of foundation, yet we have not been without our suspicions, that some dis -1 agreement had taken place in the Cabinet, and upon- a point on which a certain great Personage was supposed to have supported the opinion of the Minority. The delay of the King's Speech, at the open ing of the Session, arose, we believe, from this difference of opinion, and ultimately it was de ' cided that no reference should be made in the peecli to the question in dispute, which related to the present situation of the Catholics. . • Many of those who countenanced the Union, supported it solely under the idea that all re straints, with regard to Religious Opinions, might be done away-with safety, after the adop tion of that measure; and that - no material benefit would arise from. it,. unless it was accompanied by Universal Toleration, which alone, they thought, could bind to the interests of the Ern - vire, so great a proportion of- the Inhabitants of Ireland. The opinion of others was, that to give further Indulgeneies to the Catholics, Would be to endanger the Established Church; and the Great Personage. to whom we have alluded, is ,opposed to have had an additional objeftion, viz. that x consent to such a manure would be to violate his Coronation Oath. Upon this point of -difference we have only most anxious ly and sincerely to lament, that such explana. tions did not take place as might, possibly, have led to some compromise, before either Party had become so pledged as to render it perhaps dishOnourable to abandon their opi. nion, Every man must determine for himself, a question of Conscience. The words of the Co ronation. Oath are as follow "I promise, to.the utmost of my pallier, to main 'tabs the Limn of God, the true profession of the Gospel, and the Protestant Reformed Religion, established by Law ; and I quill preieme unto . the Bishops and Clergy of this Realm, and to the Churches committed to their Charge, all such Rights and Prieleget, as by Law do, or shall appertain unto them, or any of them.". To many it may appear, that by a measure by which none of the Rights 'of the Protes. tant Church were infringed, or even touched, this Oath could not possibly be considered as violated ; and that granting Privileges to Cult°. lies, unless the use of those Privileges might be come -dangerous to the 'Protestant ascendancy, could in no degree affeet this Oath. This reason ing is supported by the argument, that if it were otherwise, the iadulgencies given to the Catho lies in the course of the pmeot Reign, and par ticularly those conceded to them in the year t'/9t, must have been a breach of this Oath, but which they cannot justly be considered to have been; and as to . the danger, in the present times, of allowing Catholics to be eligible, either ' to Seats in Parliament, or to the High Offices of Slate, no great danger is apparently to be apprehended from such a concession. The Catholica'are among the best friends of Monarchy in the ,King's Dominions, nor can it be ,reasonably feared that we can now be, destroyed by the infl:icnce of the 'Pope. Those Laws which were admirably adapted to the circumstances of the succession of King WILL rAm, are inapplicable in the present day,—and the dangers with which the World is row threatened, are not .the dangers of this or that Seat of Chrbrlanity, of. this or that Reli gion, but of Irreligion and jae a hi llwn . This is the inclination of our opinion on these points, and we have been led into a short discus_ Sion upon them, as having given rise to the event which we so much deplore. No true Friend to the -Country can contemplate that event without Anxiety. By the efforts of those, of whose ser. vices we are• to be deprived, this Country has hitherto. warded off the blow which Jacobinism Alas so long aimed for its destruction. We trust_ . gd.that thwe.who Kiid manfully sustained the con. test. which (with all tfii sacritiCes it has entailed upon Us) has saved us from utter ruin, would have concluded that contest to a safe and ho. nourable conclusion.' They have been placed in a most arduous situation, in which it was nofa question, by what means Glory and Advantage were to be reaped for the Country, but how it. Alas to be best preserved from Ruin and Destrue•- tion. They have had many and unexampled dif ficulties to struggle with, arising out of the Times, and we trust their services were not lightly dispensed with. It is no triging compli nient to those who have governed under such cir cumstances, that we are able to say with truth, that we are still entire, while every other neigh bouring Nation has yielded to the Artifices or to the Arms of France. It is some consolation to us to hear, that in the change which is about to take place, His MAJESTY has fixed upon those who arc most likely to maintain the Principles which have hitherto secured us from Revolutionary danger. The Person who is mentioned as Mr. Purr's Suc cessor, is a Gentleman who has long filled a very, high Office, much to his own credit, and in every respeft to the satisfaelion and advantage of the Public. It is impossible not to approve the choice, if a new choice, under the present circum stances, is to be made—lt is the best security to the Public against the introduction of any of those dangerous Measures, to which the Members of the present Opposition are so unequivocally pledged ; and the adoption of any one of which, we should look upon as the forerunner of all the Horrors of a Jacobinical Revolution. Mr. AD DIt{OTON, we are sure, will unite the wishes of every good Man for his success, and he will inspire the confidence and good opinion of the 1 2 9blic— Believing him to be a true friend to the Consti . tution, knowing his heart to be pure, and his mind enlightened, he may depend upon any poor services we can render him ; and we are con vinced,, that in supporting his Administration, we shall uphold, as we did under that of Mr. PITT, - the true Interests and Honour of - the Country. The rumours yesterday were various with re spea to the Persons who were to succeed to the vacant Offices of the State. On this head, we believe, little can be with accuracy known, be cause little is settled. All the Ministers that formed the Cabinet retire, with the exception, we believe, of the LORD CHANCELLOR, the Duke Of PORTLAND, Lord WESTMORLAND, and Lord LI VERPOOL. We have heard Lord MACART NET mentioned, and with probability, as the Successor of Mr. DustoAs ; but we do not ima gine, that any other Minister, except those al ready mentioned, is publicly known. Lord Ho- DART is to be employed in a high Situation, and it is supposed he will go as Lord Lieutenant to Ireland; the Marquis CORNWALLIS retiring from that Situation upon the samcgrounds as the Ministers here. Lord CASTLEREAGH has like. wise retiredfrona his Office of Mipister for Ire land. Sir JoHN MITFORD, the Attorney-General, will, it is supposed, be elefied Speaker, in the room of Mr, ADDINGTON. Mr. PITT will continue, it is imagined, to discharge the duties of his late office, as Chan cellor of the Exchequer, till after the t Bth inst. the day fixed for the Budget, that no interruption may be given to the essential business of the country. We shall endeavour to present our Readers with such further information on this interesting übjeft as may come to our knowledge, upon grounds on which we can rely. Wt early this morning received, B EXPR ESS Paris Papers to .tbe 7th instant. They are important, . by enabling us to contradia the intelligence whiCh some of our journalists confi dently asserted, and of the truth of which we expressed our doubts, that the signing of the Preliminaries of Peace was an event noti fied in the Paris -Papers of the 31st ult.— That event, if it has taken place, has not yet been deemed ripe for publication, and the only circumstance which can warrant the supposition is, the extraordinary rise which took place in the French Funds on the zd inst. on which day they were 59; three per cent. higher than on the 3 Ist ultimo. The Sittings of the Tribunate have been dis tinguished for some violence of discussion, but the most prominent article is the news from Italy, of the operctions of the French Army against the feeble Enemy which yet remained to be subdued by them in that quarter. • A Letter from General BRUNE, dated from Head-quarters at Verona, on the 22d ult. gives an account of an Attack upon the Neapolitan Troops in the States of the PorE, in which the French, as might be supposed, were completely successful. To this Letter is subjoined an article in the journal des &Inas, stating that General MU R AT, inibrmed of the Attack of the Neapoli• tans, had, by a skilful movement, forced the Austrians to enter Ancona, and the Neapolitans to fly with precipitation into the Roman terri .tort'. Ancona having been surrendered by the Austri ans, in compliance with the Terms of the Ar mistice, General Mu RAT sent off the Troops of General .tot. is to join the main Army. Ge neral MURAT occupied Tuscany, and General DAMAS, mentioned in the preceding Letter, had written to him to demand an Armistice. General Bn RTH I ER, in.a letter from his Head quarters at Florence, of a subsequ . ent date (the 28th Jan.) gives an account of the arrangements made by General MURAT, subsequent to these events. In the conclusion of this letter he men tions his having that moment received a Courier from General Mutt AT, announcing that the Nea politan Army had retreated under the walls of Rome, and that a weak advanced guard was all that was left at Viterbo. This Letter of General BERT/11ER is accom panied by Papers referred 'to in it—a Letter of MURAT to the POI.E on entering his territory— the application of General DAMAS for an Armis tice—and the reply of MURAT to that applica - - tion. He calls upon the Neapolitan General to evacuate all the States of the Church and the Castle of St. Angelo : to cease to claim any benefit from the Armistice of Treviso, in which no mention is made of his Sovereign ; and,to entertain no long er any hopes from the influence of a power who must no more protea him. The only Sovereign, he obserVes, who can afford him any proteaion is the Emperor of Russ lA, for whom the Chief Consul has so high a personal esteem. The way to conciliate the esteem of that Prince, says the French Gene ral, is by laying an Embargo on all the Ports in Sicily and Naples, on the British Ships, in .return for that which the KING of ENLAND has so un justly imposed on the Danes, Swedes, and Rus sians. When all this is done, an Arrnistice is promised as the earnest of an equitable Peace, Of. the Four Hamburgb Mails which were due.yesterday, the three of the oldest date ar rived in the course of the day. • They bring us one very important article of intelligence, that of General TAMARA, the Russian Anibassador at Constantinople, having, by order °ibis SoVereign" made a requisition of the Su 13L I . ME PORTE, that no British Troops should be permitted to disembark in Egypt, and intimated, that their So' doing . would be considered by the Cabinet of Peters kffrgk, as an aet of hostility on the part of that of Cow/ant/flop/es This embarrassing Note, dietated by the policy and the interests. of the Chief Consul,, has thrown the Divan into the. greatest perplexity. An extraordinary Assembly of it was immediately called, but it would, be found difficult to escape from the serious dilemma in which it was placed. It must determine 'to submit, either decidedly to the loss of Egypt, or to expose the Empire itself to destruftion. Per haps both these misfortunes may _await it. Another article of some interest is brought by the Mails.- 7 The history of the famous Challenge in the Petersburgh Court Gazette, has not only been followed by the Dismissal of Baton ROSEN CRANTZ, but also by the Recall of the Russian Minister hiniself at Copenhagen. This measure has not, however, it is said, prevented the rati fication of the Treaty of Neutrality by the latter Court ; but its embarassment is; we may well believe, not less than the uneasiness of the Pub lic there on the same head. At Copenbagen, as at Constantinople, they are placed between the hammer and the anvil. The cash is nearly the same at Stockholm, where the young King had arrived on the I.2ch, after having met with some danger in his voyage. The Intelligence from Vienna and Germany is not more interesting than it generally is when that Country is not the Theatre of War. From Italy we learn nothing except the report, certai9- ly very probable, that the Court of Naples is treating for Peace with the Republic, under the r. mediation of Russia. Several articles brought by the Mail. mention the disembarkation of r 8,000 of our Troops in Egypt. According to others, they have merely landed at Rhodes, after a storm, which had prov ed more fatal to the Turkish tfan to our Ships. The first accounts appears to us partly true : as we have already stated, our Troops must at least a fortnight ago haveattempted to disembark on the land of Egypt. It is sincerely our wish that they may have been successful, and that they may be able to maintain themselves there. Yesterday morning Messrs. Vrox, HUNTER, and JOHNSTONE, arrived at Lord GRENVILLE'S Office with Government Dispatches from the Court of Vienna (being also intrusted with Ad vices from the different Northern Powers) through the medium of the Etnreror of Germany. PATUS, FP s tt) Y;'6. Several persons have been taken up, who are accused of ha viig entered into a conspiracy to give up Belleisle to the English Fleet. • A party of Chouans have been surrounded in a village called Loudenc, in the Department of the Cotes du Nord. The celebrated leader, GEORGES, was in one of the hotss;.s ; and some of his party were killed, but it is said that GEORGES escaped. An article dateci'Brst, the •zsth of last month, contains the following. particulars :—" I inform. ed you by the last post, that the Division under the command of' Rear.,Admiral GANTHEAUME had received orders to prepare for sailing. The same day at six o'clock in the afternoon it got under sail, and at midnight it procueci,ed on its ,voyage to the Southward, with the wind .at N. E. We confidently trust, that with the help of this breeze it will make considerable way. It is also very probable that it .will escape the observation of the English, since they were counted yesterday to, the number of fourteen sail. " The following are the names of the Ships, that are employed in this Expedition : Oums. Ships. Guns. L'lndivisible, Vic-Adm. a _ Le Dix Aosit - 74 GANTHEAUME SO La Constitution - 74 Le Formidable, Li trois So La Creole - - 4* • L'lndoinptable - So La BraVoure - 4o Le Desam - • 74 Le Vauteut - • 14 Le Jean Bart - - 74 General SMIUQU ET, Commander of the Land - ' Forces, and L'EscALL R it, are on hoard tbidi ,visible. The destination of this Expedition has not transpired. GENERAL. BRUNE TO THE MINISTER AT WAR. " Head-Quarters, Pima* " CITIZEN MINISTER, Jig. 22, ISo P. " A Corps of Neapolitan Troops stationed in the State* of the Yore, has been threatening Tuscany with an In. vasjon, and were to he second:Ll by tl:a Austrians and Tuscans, under the command of M. SrANOCCaI. Thcy consisted together of 16,000 men, 8000 of whom are Nea politans; commanded by Messrs. DAMAS and VENTS.. MIL LE. We bad on the whole 3000 men to oppose to this mass, and these General Alioxis manoeuvred with, equal skill and good fortune. " After having dissipated and , terrifieit by a rapid march the Austro:Tuscans who had taken possession of.AreiTO and Cortona, lie again concentrated his force. • The N politans advanced. The had Posts five miles on this side of Sienna, of which they were masters. General MIOL I S attacked, them on the 14th, carried their A 41,.. vanced POsts; drove in the Posts of . Sienna with his artU lery, and put4ucii them with Indefatigable ardour. " The daywas remarkable for sixteen hours of rapid marches and fighting. One column only of the Enemy supported otir shock : the other, stationed in the fear, tied precipitately, and could not be overtaken. Mare-thita 20G Prisoners and three pieces o,f cannon, one of them.a tx r pounder, were taken iron the Enemy, togethar w►th their WagOlis. Tuscany is entirely free from them.-,- Here follows the commendation of particular Regiments.. (Signed) BRU E... Our private Letters by the Mail, ezpreso little hopes of an accommodation between Eng. land. and the Northern Powers, The KING of SWEDaN, by accepting from the EMPEROR, whey at Petersburg& the Cross of Malta, has recognized His IMPERIAL MAJESTY as Grand Master., The Kira of PRussiA, according to one of our Correspondents, has the same objeft in view ? in conjon4tion with Russia, which his Father, i n , the Turkish ,War, had in conjuntlion with England, that of forcing the contending Parties, if possible, to a Peace ; and LUCHaiINI is bail to be now occupied with the same objects at Paris i , as he effeaed in 1790, at Reichenbash. The KING on Saturday took the diversion of huntincr, accompanied by the E of Cu mis ER. LAND, Earl SANVW ICH, Sir HENRY GOTT, Mr. VILLIERS, Mr. COLUAN, and? numerous Qom. pany of Gentlemen Sportsmen. The Deer being closely pursued through Beaconsfield, at Cook. ham Ferry crossed the Thames near Marlow ; the KI No and his Suite were ferried over, and the animal was taken near Maidenhead Thicket. HIS MAJ ESTY Was on horseback from half past nine till four in the afternoon. Yesterday morning the ROY AL FAMILY, ac, companied by the DUKE of CUMBERLAND, COI. WALDE git Ayr,' General GARTH, and their At tendants, went to St. Gorge's Chapel,' where the Right Rev. 'Bishop of Noßw ten preached a Sermon from the xth Chapter of the Book of Proverbs, and part ofthe 18th Verse. " He that uttereth a S Linder is a Fool. " After Divine Service the ROYAL FAMILY ,re. turned to the Lodge. The Loan CIIANC ra . .I,C3R. gave agrand dinnet on Saturday tb a number of Noblemen and Gen,- tlemen, at his house in Bolton.row. The LORD CHANC L;.op.'s Levee on Saturday evening was very fully attended. _ The SPEAKER of the House of Commons last night held his first Levee for the season, which was very numerously attended. Mr. STUR is Motion on the Ferrol Expedl_ tion, which stood for this day, is, we 14n4er, stood, put off. Mr. Sit ealoAN's postponed Motion, on the last intercourse with the French Government on the Subjed of Peace, stands for to-morrow. Lieutenant WArt . E arrived at the Admiralty. Office yesterday, with Dispatches to their Lord. shies from Admiral DICKSON, Commander in thwf4.His Majesty's Squadron in the North Seas.. A considerable number of Letters were on Sa. turday delivered from the Post-Office, from Lip. bon and the Mediterranean, brought to Ports, mouth by the Chi/dol. and her Convoy. The Mercury Frigate, Captain R 00.4.45, had arrived -at Gibraltar from the Coast of Egypt ; and through this channel Letters have been received, dared Bassa Bay, and off Arab's Tower, Alexan dria, Sept. 12,,• 13, 26, and 30. The GRAND V 1 it ta is stated to he still at Pafft, with to,ooo men, whom General KOEHLER, with forty-six British, six Officers included, were inStruaing- . to march in double line, their Artillery in 'the in tervals, and the Cavalry upon the wings. Numerous works were ercaed about Jaffa, to render it a place of arms; and Captain, was employed. in ereeting regular Bastions about El Arish.