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

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 =lnuit 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 ()RANGE have been admitted to
Public Offices, 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