The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-05-03 00:00:00

TitiVATk. LETTS*

M•YSURIM, APRIL 2&.
Here is a report, that overtimes have been made
by the French Minister Rhenard, for a new loan
•pon Hanover ; but that our Senate has refused to

give any answer before a Courier, who has been

sent to St. Pzersburgh. rectum. We have been
threatened w:th 1 French garriion ; but it could
hardly do ut more harm than their occupation of
the borders of the Me has already done.

It is a fast, that the Prussian Minister Count
Haugwitz has demanded permission to retire to his
estates in Silesia ; and that Baron Hardenberg has
the ;sort folio of the foreign department ad interim.
The late occurrences in Germany are said to be the
cause of this disgrace, which the French Minister
at Berlin tries to make as short as possible. The in-
vasion of the German Empire, and tar murder of
the Duke of Enghein, have produced a coldness
between the Courts of Berlin and Paris. The for-
mer is now approaching in its politics nearer to
those of the Courts of Vienna and of St. Peters-
burgh.

ebe 15rittob liNcso

LONDON,
THURSDAY, MAY 3.

It would be trifling with our readers, and a
waste of their time, to enumerate the various
reports which prevailed yesterday respeCting a
change of Ministry. We can state with confi-
dence, that they are all mere speculations, and that
no final arrangement has yet taken place. Mr.
PITT, we were assured, was to have had an audi-
ence yesterday of His MAJESTY upon the subjelt ;
but no such audience took place, and matters re-
main precisely in the same state in which they stood
on Tuesday. That Mr. ADDINGTON has refused
a peerage and a pension, as the price of his resign-
' tion; that the Pal tsc c has declared his determination
to throw all his influence into the scale of Opposi-
tion ; that in the event of a new Ministry, the Loan
CHIEF Bacon is to be Lord Chancellor of Ireland,
and Sir Wit.t.r AM GRANT, Lord Chancellor of Eng-
land; these and such like matters of detail we are
neither prepared to affirm or deny. IVe only say
that the new Ministry, for a change, either whole
or partial, appears inevitable, is not yet finally ar-
ranged, much less a Regency. A new system of
the latter description would, we believe, be resorted
to only in the case of a violent party spirit ; which
every good subjeCl must deprecate and deplore.
I. In touching upon this great subjeCt, we cannot with
all our patience pass any longer without notice the
disgusting apostacy of some of our contemporaries.
The Tunes and The Costrier, two of the most outrage-
ous bellowers against Mr. Pixy and Mr. Fox, now
that they see these Gentlemen as likely to come into
power, meanly recant their abuse,and advertise them-
selves ready to support them with the same zeal, with
which they prostituted themselves to the pre►ent Mi-
nistry. It is no feeling of envy or 'jealousy that has
dictated this observation. We only reprobate this
profligacy, this insult to their readers, because it is
a proof that the conductors of these papers are
weak or wicked enough to believe that public cha-
raFter is of no value ; that apostacy is no crime ;
and that they can impose, when they please, upon
public credulity.

The real or pretended plan of Mr. Fox to form
an union between all the Continental Powers, is phi-
lanthropic, but not novel. The Duke DE SULLY
and his Sovereign the Great HEN R Y IV. had it in
contemplation two centuries ago, and were the first
Prince and Minister who conceived it possible to es-
tablish an eternal peace between all the different
Members of the European Commonwealth, to finite

their opposite interests, and to make all civilised na-
tions a family of brothers. The Abbe Da Sr.
Pr and J. J. ROUSSEAU, revived, in the middle
of last century, this " philo,ithropic dr,am," as Vo L.
TAIRL called it. Cardinal Ds 1.-LEL:ay, the most
pacific of men, was then the Prime Minister of
Louis XV. Unfortunately this statesman had
hardly time to read through this project, before the
death of the German Emperor embroiled all Eu-
rope; the great Fa EDERICK conquered Silesia; but
the great Empress, MARIA THLRESA, preserved the
Imperial Sceptre for her infant son, and her other
dominions untouched, though attacked by all the
Continental Powers, and assisted only by Great
Britain. We mentioned last summer, that when
the usurpation of 13,41APARTE was recognised, by
the peace of Amiens, to delude the Continental
States into a fatal security ; to gain time to organise
the different clauses, which the ambition. of the
Usurper demanded in the Consular .t tit ion ; to
undermine the influence of England, and to sepa-
rate her interest from that of the Continent, Tar.-
r.s. RANI:), in the winter 180'4 presented to several
Continental Sovereigns of the first rank, a plan for
a Conterv,,tive perpetual Congrett, at which every
Prince upon the Continent should have a Represen-
tative ; all differences should be settled ; and all
Continental wars, if not prevented by mediation.
should be restrained by force of arms. The Treaty
of Luneville was to serve, together with the treaty
of indemnity at Ratisbon, for a basis. This plan,
we have heard, was sent to St. Petersburgh, Vienna,
and Berlin ; but the rupture with England pre-
casted, no doubt, this French plot to isolate the
British Empire entirelr from all Continental eon-

neElions ; to' accustom the Continent to regard tti ,
country not only with indifference, but with- jea-
lousy ; to suppose our politics not only separate, but
opposite to that of the Continent, from having the
intended diet% and it has therefore at least been put
of, if not laid aside entirely.

As Mr. Fox, during his stay at Paris in the sum-
mer of 1802, had frequent opportunities to commu-
nicate b,:th with r,ONAPARTIL and TALLY It AND,
he might have perhaps heard of this favourite
scheme of the Consular government. would be
worthy of his talents as a statesman, his love of
liberty Is a patriot, and his love of mankind as a
philosopher, to extend this plan to all nations ; and
to turn what the hatred of the Usurper, and the
malice of his Minister, intended agaiast this coun-
try, to the benefit of the world.

Yesterday accounts were received of the safe
arrival at Ilfracombe, of the Speculator South Sea-
man ; she sailed from St. Helena the 15th March,
and left there the Company's ships, Admiral Gardner,
.tin Stephen Lushington, Charlton, and Earl Home,
homeward-bound from Bengal, which place they kit
Dec. 21 ; and the Britannia and Georrana, outward•
bound. The Huddart sailed for England 14th March
from Bombay. The Speculator fell in with tlu ee ships
in crossing the Line, one a French corvette, `LO guns,
with a large ship, apparently Dutch built, supposed
under convoy for the Cape. They hoisted English
colours, and the Speculator did not know them to be
enemies till the corvette commenced a fire upon
her. She sailed fast, and was chased for some
time, firing her stern guns. The Speculator was for-
merly a gun-brig, and had false guns mounted,
which must have deceived the enemy.

--....am1....--

A Hamburgh Mail arrived yesterday. Its con-
tents are in the preceding column.

It appears from an account laid before the House
of Commons, that the quantity of wine imported
and exported, remaining under bond on the .ith of
January 1803, was 12,782 tuns.
The amount of the duties upon the export of
British linens from Great Britain was, for th h
year ending the sth of January, 1813, 7,4031. 1:1,.
3d. and for the whole year, ending the 5t!.. of

1844, '23,4781. ss.
A Commercial House, of considerable conse-
quence in the West India trade, has stopped pay-
ment for upwards of 800,000 1. A meeting of crc.
ditors has been held, whose report is rather fa-
vourable.

The Senate of liambnrgh has acceded to the de-
mand of the French Minister, and has, at his in-
stance, permitted domiciliary visits to be made in
that city, to discover any persons who may be ob-
noxious to the French Governnv-st. or who may
hare any papers that can lead t the discos ery of
any plots or designs that may be formed against it.
The following is an account of a Shoal, which
some of Admiral RAINILII.% squadron passed over

on their passage to Bombay :
On the 27th September last, at noon, the Coo--
tier on, on sounding, found only 17 fathoms water,
shortly after '2l fathoms, and then no ground at
is fathoms.

The Lancaster being about a mile to the south-
ward from the Centigram, sounded at the same time,
and had only ten fathoms of water, two rocks being
then in sight, one on each side of the ship, which
appeared to have much less water on them. After
passing by those rocks the water deepened gradually
to 17 fathoms, and then no ground at 50 fathoms.

The result of the observation made by the ships
at noon, determines the latitude of the shoal to be 7
deg. 41 min. South, and its longitude, by means of
several Lunar observations made about the time, is
P 2 deg. 52 min. East.
The French frigate, Ataleata, now cruising in the
Indian Seas, is commanded by an offii er who was
our prisoner the greatest part of the last war. 'this
frigate is said to be distinguished by the close simi-
larity of her general appearance and man.euvres to
cur own ships and discipline. She has on boatel the
guns of the .I,renn frigate, 18-pounders, which was
lost on the coast of France in 1798. We have little
doubt but the Captain of the "'Wawa will soon
again experience the hospitality of a generous
enemy.
IS failure in the crops has produced a scarcity
of grain in several parts of India; and the prices
have been considerably enhanced in the province of
13ernzus, and in the ceded provinces. Proclamations
were in consequence published, by His Excellency
the Gov r nos GEISER/11., prohibiting the exportation
of grain from those provinces in which there ex-
isted a scarcity, and offering bounties on its importa
tion from other ports it; India, within a lindtesi
period.
That spirit of insubordination that had manifested
itself in many of the provinces of China, still con• ,
chilies to exist, and seems at no very distant period
to threaten a Rovolution is that ancient and exten-
sive Empire.
A lawless set of banditti continue to infest the
coasts of China, particularly to the Northward,
where they commis dreadful depredations on the
coassing trade; these marauders are by no means
formidable to European vessels, who are upon their
guard, and never venture to attack them.
Yesterday a Conrt of Directors was held at the
East-India House, which adjourned at ti o'clock
till Tuesday next.
The ship Warren Hastivs, in going up the river
Hoogly, unfortunately struck on a sand, and heeled
over to much AS to be in imminent danger of being
lost. Mr. WILLIAMS, a gentleman °a the Ben-
coolen Civil Establishment, who was a passenger,
jumped into a small boat which was along side,
followed by several other persons ; but scarcely had
the boat got clear of the ship, when it became in-
volved in the vortex of a violent eddy—went down
head foremost, and every person perished, before
any assistance could be afforded them.

FFITAPI4.
The ii owing is a ?araphrase in the Oriental style, of the In,
scription un the tomb of the late Tippoo Sultans)

When Timm° t 3 Mil the Crescent's fari...
And an the it,ty war fate sewed Wroaer.—
Ile, s”ltataii, Lke prefered a cleattilaillsoe,
Awl leitan earthly--for a martyr% ciown.

Mark here, the date of that alchange b low,
Seard witb b;s bl iod in Shilkur's brJliatt tide ;
Whence tatuie ages thall adtn;sing know,
beat'aly star, our faiths drieit;ter slaines.