to Gorey on the nineteenth, and from thence towards Enniscorthy on the twentieth, for the purpose of co-operating in a plan formed by general Lake for surrounding the rebel station at Vinegarhill. For this purpose different divisions of the army moved at the same time from various quarters -that under lieutenant-general Dundas from Baltinglass; another, under majors-general Sir James Duff and Loftus, from Tullow; that from Arklow under general Needham; and a fourth from Ross, under majors-general Johnson and Eustace. On the march of the army from Ross, the rebel bands under father Philip Roche, on Lacken-hill, fled in the utmost confusion, and separated into two bodies, one of which directed its march to Wexford, and the other to Vinegar-hill. This famous eminence, with the town of Enniscorthy at its foot, and the country for many miles in circumference, had been in the possession of the rebels ever since the twenty-eighth of May, during which period continual apprehension of death had attended the hapless loyalists who had not succeeded in effecting their escape. The army commanded to march from different quarters to surround this post consisted, in the whole, of about thirteen thousand effective men, with a formidable train of artillery; and with such a strength, judiciously directed, the whole insurgent army, estimated at twenty thousand, might have been taken or destroyed. The troops, being divided into four distinct columns, advanced, early in the morning of the twenty-first, against the insurgents; while a fifth, under general Johnson, having carried the town of Enniscorthy, scaled the heights in different directions; but, notwithstanding these formidable preparations, the revolters were enabled, from the strength of their position, to defend the line during an hour and a half; and it was not till they were out-flanked, and nearly surrounded, that they gave way, leaving behind them thirteen light field-pieces. The slaughter was immense, for no quarter seems to have been given upon this occasion; and those who escaped the musket, when overtaken, perished by the bayonet; whilst the king's troops had not above one hundred either killed or wounded. The action was less bloody than might have been supposed, as the troops under general Needham, being unable to reach the position assigned them, left an opening through which the rebels retreated, and which, from that circumstance, was ludicrously called Needham's gap. Through this opening an immense column retreated by the east side of the Slaney, part of which entered Wexford; while another, and more numerous detachment, headed by the chiefs, Murphy and Roche, reached the Three Rocks, and, having held a hasty council of war, marched across the mountains to the county of Kilkenny. Wexford was relieved on the same day as Enniscorthy; brigadier-general Moore, whose troops had, on the preceding day, vanquished a rebel force of five or six thousand men at Goffs bridge, near Hore-town, having, on the morning of the twenty-first, received a proposal from the inhabitants to surrender the town, and to return to their allegiance, provided he would guarantee their lives and property. This proposal general Moore felt it his duty to transmit to general Lake, and, marching directly for Wexford, he stationed his army within a mile of that place, the loyalists of which, like those of Enniscorthy, had, since it fell into the hands of the insurgents, been in a state of incessant apprehension and suffering. SUPPRESSION OF THE REBELLION. THE Wexford insurgents, in the hope that their offer of surrender would be acceded to by general Lake, and conscious that it was impossible to oppose any effectual resistance to the overwhelming force brought against them, liberated lord Kingsborough, who had been some time a prisoner, and on the twenty-first surrendered the town into his hands. Contrary to their hopes, general Lake insisted upon the unconditional surrender of the place; and, in his answer to their proposal, informed the inhabitants that no terms could be granted to rebels in arms against their sovereign. On the evacuation of the town by the main body of insurgents, part of them, under Fitzgerald, Perry, and Edward Roche, passed over the bridge to the eastern side of the river Slaney, and the rest, under father Philip Roche, in an opposite direction, into the barony of Forth. 273 Vinegar-hill, and penetrated into the county of The body of rebels which had retreated from Kilkenny by the Scullagh gap, which separates the counties of Carlow and Wexford, burned the village of Killedmond, and proceeded to Goresbridge, under the command of father John Murphy, of Boulavogue. Having advanced in column, they endeavoured to maintain his post against their were opposed by lieutenant Dixon, who in vain overwhelming disparity of force; but their success general Dunn and Sir Charles Asgill, and totally was of short duration, for they were pursued by defeated, on the twenty-sixth of June, at Kilcomney-hill, with a loss of from two to three hundred slain, and ten light pieces of cannon taken, with plunder. Murphy, the commander-in-chief, who seven hundred horses, and all the rest of their fled from the field of battle, was taken soon after, and, being conducted to the head-quarters of general Sir James Duff, at Tullow, was hanged the house. same day, and his head placed on the market pily approaching to its termination; and in the In the south the spirit of rebellion was now hapnorth the disaffected protestants, shocked at the enormities perpetrated and the intolerance displayed, and scandalized by the pretended miracles wrought by the blood-stained priests, Roche and Murphy, determined to resist the seduction. They indeed found means to keep possession of Antrim for a few days, though, ou being attacked with were driven out of the town with the loss of about cannon and musketry on the seventh of June, they commanded a regiment of Irish militia, had been two hundred slain, but not until lord O'Neill, who mortally wounded. They were also repulsed in an lynahinch they received a total overthrow. On the ill-concerted attack on Carrickfergus; and at Balsubsiding of this minor rebellion in Ulster, another local rising took place in Munster, which was easi ly suppressed. hill, and their consequent expulsion from EnnisAfter the signal defeat of the rebels at Vinegarcorthy, Wexford, &c., a considerable number dispersed, and returned to their usual occupations. The more desperate retired to the mountainous for a while, they waged a desultory warfare, but in parts of Wexford and Wicklow counties, where, the course of a few weeks were completely subdued; and those who still resisted might rather be lurked in the woods and mountains, and committed considered as small companies of banditti, who nocturnal depredations, than as an embodied force. At length the insurgent chiefs, Fitzgerald and Byrne, surrendered to generals Dundas and Moore; on the twenty-third of May, and raged with intense and this sanguinary insurrection, which broke out fury till the twenty-second of the following month, was finally extinguished on the twelfth of July. TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS FOR TREASON. tion, now became the theatre of public justice. DUBLIN, having escaped the horrors of insurrecThe first person brought to trial was a rebel chief of the name of Bacon, in an extensive line of business in the metropolis, and of the protestant persuasion, who, being found guilty of high treason, estate and respectably connected, who was conwas executed; Esmond, a Roman catholic, of good victed of heading the rebel forces, also suffered about the same time; Henry and John Sheares, the sons of a banker at Cork, and educated for the bar, were condemned on the clearest evidence, and John M'Cann, secretary to the provincial committee executed in the front of Newgate. The trial of of Leinster, followed on the seventeenth of July, and he suffered with Michael William Byrne, delegate for the committee of Wicklow. Oliver Bond, a man of considerable fortune, and one of the principal conspirators, at whose house the Leinster delegates had been arrested on the twelfth oi March, was arraigned for high-treason on the twenty-third of July, and his trial continued till seven o'clock on the morning of the twenty-fourth, jury; but in Wexford, and other parts of the when he was convicted. These trials were all by country, the more summary tribunals of courtsmartial were resorted to. June Matthew Keugh, the rebel governor of Wexford; the Rev. Philip Roche, the general; and On the twenty-fifth of seven others, having been previously convicted, were brought to the bridge at Wexford, and exe cuted. Among the persons who suffered for high LORD CORNWALLIS APPOINTED VICEROY REBELLION. course to the fabrication of pikes; that, from the vigorous and summary expedients resorted to by government, and the consequent exertions of the military, the leaders found themselves reduced to the alternative of immediate insurrection, or of be. ing deprived of the means on which they relied for effecting their purpose; and that to this cause was to be attributed the premature breaking out of the rebellion, and probably its ultimate failure. The principal prisoners, however, being found to FRENCH LAND AT KILLALA AND SURREN- THE marquis Cornwallis was appointed to succeed earl Camden, and made his entrance into the capital on the twentieth of June. He united conciliation with firmness; and, whilst displaying a system of moderation and mercy to the infatuated rabble, did not fail to make example of those who had misled them. On the third of July a proclama tion from the new viceroy appeared in the Dublin gazette, authorizing his majesty's generals to afford protection to such insurgents as, having been simply guilty of rebellion, should surrender their arms, abjure all unlawful engagements, and take the oath of allegiance. To give the full sanction of law to this measure, a message was delivered from his excellency to the Irish parliament, on the seventeenth, on which was grounded an act of amnesty to all THOUGH the French directory had contemplated who, not being leaders, had not committed man- the progress of the civil war in Ireland with tran slaughter, except in the heat of battle, and who quillity; yet when only the faint sparks of expiring should comply with the conditions of the proclama- rebellion could be perceived, an expedition under tion. This act was followed by a treaty between general Humbert, consisting of about eleven bunthe government and the chiefs of the United Irish- dred men, embarked from Rochelle, in three fri men, negotiated by Mr. counsellor Dobbs, a mem- gates, and landing on the twenty-second of August, ber of the house of commons, bearing date the in the bay of Killala, in the county of Mayo, took twenty-ninth of July, and expressed in the follow-up their head-quarters at the bishop's palace. AL ing terms:-" That the undersigned state prisoners, though a green flag was erected, accompanied by in the three prisons of Newgate, Kilmainham, and the emblem of a harp, encircled with the motto of Bridewell, engage to give every information in their Erin go Bragh, (Ireland for ever,) but few of the power of the whole of the internal transactions of peasantry could be prevailed on to join the invadthe United Irishmen; and that each of the prison- ers. Having left a small garrison under colonel ers shall give detailed information of every transac- Charost at Killala, to keep up the communication, tion that has passed between the United Irishmen and receive supplies, general Humbert clothed and and foreign states; but that the prisoners are not, armed those who repaired to his standard, and imby naming or describing, to implicate any person mediately marched towards Castlebar, experiencing whatever; and that they are ready to emigrate to no obstacle in his route. The army collected there, such country as shall be agreed on between them under general Lake, commander-in-chief of the and government, and give security not to return to forces in Connaught, consisted of from two to three this country without the permission of government, thousand regulars; and Humbert, relying chiefly and not to pass into an enemy's country, if, on so for success on his own troops, contrived to post his doing, they are to be freed from prosecution; and new levies on the flanks in such a manner as to also Mr. Oliver Bond (then under sentence of death) protect his column from the fire of the enemy. be permitted to take the benefit of this proposal. The field of battle, to which he advanced on the The state prisoners also hope that the benefit of morning of the twenty-seventh, consisted of a hill, this proposal may be extended to such persons in at the north-west extremity of the town, where the custody as may choose to benefit by it." English forces were drawn up in two lines, which crowned its summit; a small reserve was stationed in the rear, in a valley; and some guns posted in front, commanded a rising ground, over which the enemy must necessarily pass. By an unfortunate precipitancy, the fire of the English lines, instead of being reserved, was expended before it could be available-a mistake of which the enemy taking advantage, rushed forward with his main body; and the sharp-shooters evincing a desigu to penetrate into the rear, the detachment posted for the purpose of supporting the guns abandoned their charge in a panic. The earls of Ormond, Longford, and Granard, endeavoured to rally their men, and so far succeeded as to impede the progress of the assailants, but they were pursued with alacrity; and the royal Irish artillery, who had gallantly defended the bridge by means of a single gun, were nearly cut off. The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded exceeded two hundred, and that of the British was still more considerable. Arthur O'Conner, Thomas Eddis Emmett, Dr. M'Nevin, Samuel Neilson, and other principals of the conspiracy, gave details on oath, in their examinations before the secret committees of the two houses of parliament, from which it appeared that the rebellion originated in a system formed, not with a view of obtaining either catholic emancipation, or any reform compatible with the existence of the constitution, but for the purpose of subvert ing the government, separating Ireland from Great Britain, and forming a democratic republic; that the means resorted to for the attainment of these designs was a secret systematic combination, artfully linked and connected together, with a view of forming the mass of the lower ranks into a revolutionary force, acting in concert, and moving as one body; that, for the further accomplishment of their object, the leaders of the conspiracy concluded an alliance with the French directory in 1796, by which it was stipulated that an adequate force should be sent for the invasion of Ireland, subsidiary to the preparations that were making for a general insurrection; that in pursuance of this design, measures were adopted by the chiefs of the Conspiracy for giving to their societies a military form; that, for arming their adherents, they had re. Castlebar, a place of some importance, on account of its situation, now became the head-quarters of the invaders. Aware of the danger that might arise to the country from the presence of an invading army, lord Cornwallis determined to take the field in person, and, quitting Dublin on the twenty fourth of August, arrived on the twenty-eight at Athlone, where he received the unwelcome intelligence of the defeat of general Lake; and, after a halt of two days, proceeded in the direction of Hollymount, where he arrived on the fourth of September: but on finding that the invader had quitted Cas. tlebar, his lordship repassed the Shannon at Carrick; and the French forces, being surrounded by a British army amounting to twenty thousand men, surrendered after an ineffectual resistance. The rebel auxiliaries, now accumulated to about fifteen hundred, who had accompanied the French to this fatal field, being excluded from quarter, fled in all directions, and about five hundred of their number were slain in the pursuit, exclusive of about one hundred taken prisoners; among whom were found Teeling, Blake, and Roach, three of their chiefs. The num ber of French troops who surrendered on this occa sion amounted to ninety-six officers, and seven hundred and forty-eight non-commissioned officers and privates; having sustained a loss of two hundred and eighty-eight since their first landing at Killala. Previonsly to the march of general Humbert from Castlebar, on the fourth of September, he had call ed in all his forces, with the exception of three of -ficers left at Killala, and one at Ballina, in command of the rebel garrisons at those places. At length, on the twenty second of September, the king's forces arrived at Ballina, and obliged the garrison to retreat to Killala, where a large body of troops under-general Trench arrived on the following day and a contest ensued, in which about four hundred of the rebel forces were slain. The courts-martial assembled the day after the battle of Killala, and were not dissolved till they had disposed of one hundred and eighty five prisoners: among others general Bellew, of an ancient Irish family, who had served eighteen years in Germany, was found guilty of treason, and executed. The French offi cers taken at Killala were sent to Dublin, and thence to London, where three of their number, Charost, Boudet, and Ponson, were, on the favour able report of Dr. Stock, the Bishop of Killala, set at liberty, and sent home without exchange." In other parts of the country, also, a number of rebel chiefs and inferior insurgents were tried and executed; among whom were two Irishmen by birth, who had been in the military service of France be fore the invasion, and had come to Ireland in the French fleet. The little army landed at Killala had been in tended, it appears, only as a van-guard to a much more formidable force, which was in a short time to follow: providentially, however, for the safety of the British empire, the French government had been as tardy in seconding the operations of Humbert as they had been in sending succours to the support of the rebel force in the south of Ireland. The want of money is assigned as the cause of delay in the equipment of the second fleet, and, in the interim, before its appearance on the Irish coast, the Anacreon brig from France arrived at the little island of Rutland, from which were landed three boats full of men, and a number of officers, among whom was James Napper Tandy, one of the Irish emissaries to the French directory, and who had attained to the rank of general of brigade in the French service. This brig was full of arms and accoutrements, and contained a train of artillery; but when the adventurers found that the people, instead of joining them, fled to the mountains, and that the rebellion in Ireland was entirely suppressed, they re-embarked, after distributing a number of inflammatory papers. Some time afterwards, Napper Tandy, and two other Irish rebels, were apprehended by the agents of Great Britain at Hamburgh, and conveyed to Ireland, where Tandy was indicted for high treason, in the year 1801, when, having pleaded guilty, by previous arrangement, he was suffered to leave the kingdom, and take up his residence in France. SIR J. B. WARREN'S NAVAL VICTORYCLOSE OF THE INSURRECTION, ANOTHER attempt of the French to revive a lost cause was equally unsuccessful. A squadron from Brest, consisting of one ship of the line, eight frigates, a schooner, and a brig, with a strong reinforcement, intended to co-operate with the force under general Humbert in Ireland, was fallen in with on the eleventh of October, off the northwestern coast of that island, by Sir John Borlase Warren, who was cruising with seven sail of the line off Lough Swilly. The British admiral instantly threw out the signal for a general chase, and gave orders to form in succession as each ship of war reached her antagonist; but it was found impossible to commence the action before the next morning, at which time it was discovered that the enemy's large ship had lost her main top mast. Still confident in their own strength, the French squadron bore down, and formed a line of battle in close order; on which an action of three hours and forty minutes ensued, when the enemy's three-decker, the Hoche, and three of the frigates, hauled down their colours after a gallant resistance: five of tho frigates, the schooner, and the brig, escaped, but three of the former were afterwards captured. The whole squadron, it appeared, was entirely new, and full of troops, stores, and every other equip ment for the support and establishment of the invading force in Ireland. Amongst the prisoners taken in the Hoche was Theobald Wolfe Tone, the projector of the society of United Irishmen, long considered as the most active and able negotiator among the Irish fugitives at Paris, and as the great adviser of most of the measures pursued by his rebellious countryinen. He was no sooner landed in Ireland than he was conveyed to Dublin, and put upon his trial by a court-martial, before which he defended himself with considerable ability and firmness, not attempting either to deny or to palliate his offence. The plea on which he rested was that of being a denizen of France, and an officer in the service of the republic; but, when he found that this defence was unavailing, he requested that he might die like a soldier, and not as a felon; and be shot, according to military usage, rather than hanged. The court, however, did not judge it proper to accede to his request, and the unhappy culprit attempted to escape the ignominy that awaited him, by cutting his throat in the prison. The wound was at first supposed not to be mortal, but, after languishing a short time, it terminated his existence. Holt, the last of the rebel chiefs, obtained the boon of his forfeited life, by exiling himself for ever from his native country. Thus ended the insurrection in Ireland, in which it is estimated that not less than thirty thousand lives were sacrificed, and property was destroyed to an amount of which it is difficult to speak with accuracy; but some idea may be formed from the conflagrations that took place in different towns, and from the compensation claimed by one class of sufferers. The towns of Carnew, Tinealy, Hacketstown, Donard, Blessington, and Killedmond, were all destroyed by fire; in Ross about three hundred houses, mostly those of the labouring classes, were consumed; the greater part of Enniscorthy was laid in ashes; and in the open country a vast number of cabins, farm-houses, and gentlemen's seats, were destroyed. By a message delivered to the house of commons by lord Castlereagh, on the seventeenth of July, it was proposed to afford compensation to the suffering loyalists, on their claims being duly verified before commissioners; and an act of parliament soon after passed, under which the claims of the loyalists alone amounted to upwards of a million pounds-a sum of great magnitude, but, it is supposed, not equal to more then one-third of the entire property destroyed by a rebellion, in support of which it is believed that seventy thou sand men were at one time in arms. CHAPTER XXX. Hostile Movements of the French against Switzerland-They enter Berne, after several Contests-New Constitution-Revolution at Rome, and Subversion of the Papal Government-Grand Expedition to Egypt under Buonaparte-Malta taken-Alexandria and Rosetta subdued-Severe Engagements with the Mamelukes-Cairo taken-Victory of the Nile-New Coalition against the French Turkey, Russia, and Naples, severally declare War against France-The Neapolitan Troops, after advancing to Rome, signally defeated, and Ferdinand IV. compelled to quit the Continent-Expedition against Ostend Capture of Minorca-Evacuation of St. Domingo-Meeting of Parliament-Finance-Income Tax first imposed-Union with Ireland proposed-Proceedings thereon. FRENCH MOVE AGAINST SWITZERLAND | ENTER BERNE-NEW CONSTITUTION-ST. DOMINGO EVACUATED. THE congress of Rastadt, in which it was proposed to discuss and settle all the disputes between the French republic and the German empire, assembled at this period; the emperor, as the head of the Germanic body, in his capacity of king of Hungary and Bohemia, had acceded to the demands of the directory, to render the Rhine the boundary of the commonwealth, and surrender Ehrenbreitstein and Mentz; and it was imagined that the system of sacrifices and indemnities might be speedily adjusted. But, whilst the French plenipotentiaries were giving the most solemn assurances that their government panted for tranquillity, a war was suddenly declared against Switzerland, which, after a peace that had lasted for ages, was now condemned to experience all the horrors of hostility. Towards the end of the year 1797, certain menacing demands had been made by the French directory on the Swiss cantons, under some alleged pretexts of insults or injuries, and the government of Berne, in particular, was accused of having publicly enrolled emigrants, and given shelter to French deserters. The Helvetic diet, assembled at Arau, showed an intention of resistance, by ordering a levy of twenty-six thousand men, while the armed force of two cantons, under the command of colonel de Weiss, was sent, on the fourteenth of January 1798, into the Pays de Vaud, to suppress a popular tumult, which had for its object the establishment of a democratic government. As soon as the French executive learned that Berne and Friburg had despatched a body of soldiers and a train of artillery into the Pays de Vaud, a division of French troops just returned from Italy was put in motion, and general Menard appeared upon the Genevan frontier. The Vaudois in the mean time adopted a democratical form of government, and assumed the appellation of the Republic of Leman: the cantons of Basle, Zurich, and Soleure, followed their example; but the senates of Berne and Friburg persisted in maintaining their ancient form of government. The management of the war being confided to the French general Brune, he entered the terri. tories of Berne on the twenty-fifth of January, and published a proclamation, containing professions which appear to have been made only to be violated. Some unsuccessful attempts were made to obtain a truce; but a body of the invaders, having advanced against the castle of Dornach, seized that little fortress, while thirteen thousand troops summoned Soleure, which immediately opened its gates. Friburg, better prepared for resistance, determined to oppose the French; but Burne, having advanced at the head of a column, took it by assault, and on the fifth of March, after several well contested actions, the French army entered Berne. The ruling families were immediately displaced, the nature of the government was changed, the most respectable of the senators were sent into exile, and, although the French professed to come in the character of protectors and deliverers, the treasuries of the state were confiscated, and large military contributions exacted for the supply of the invading army. The directory, determined on the subjugation of Switzerland, resolved to change the government from the federal into an united republic, which, by means of a close and intimate union with France, might be kept in continual dependence. After some opposition from the smaller states of Uri, Schweitz, Underwalden, Glaris, and Appenzel, all Switzerland subscribed to the new constitution; Lucerne was chosen as the seat of government; and an alliance, offensive and defensive, entered into between the French and Helvetic republics: the French directory, however, still continued to levy contributions and impose exactions to an enormous extent. REVOLUTION AT ROME-PAPAL AUTHORITY SUBVERTED. THE same thirst of dominion prompted the French to erect the territories of the pope into a commonwealth dependent on their power. On the twenty-eighth of December, 1797, a mob, consisting of about one hundred persons, assembled at the palace of the French ambassador, Joseph Buonaparte, and demanded the assistance of France, for the purpose of overthrowing what they termed the papal tyranny, and establishing a republic in its stead. The ambassador despatched general Duphot to disperse the insurgents, and to prevail upon the papal troops to retire from the precincts of his court; but in the affray he was shot by a Roman fusileer, and Joseph Buonaparte retired into Tuscany. This outrage, for which every possible satisfaction was offered, afforded a pretext for sending general Berthier to Rome with a large body of troops; and on the eleventh of February, 1798, the castle of St. Angelo, containing the pope and the greater part of his cardinals, surrendered on the first summons. The inhabitants, encouraged by the presence of the French army, assembled in the Campo Vaccino, the ancient Roman forum, planted the tree of liberty in the front of the capitol, proclaimed their independence, and instituted the Roman republic. All the splendour and magnificence of which the catholic worship is susceptible were employed to celebrate this memorable victory over the head of its faith; every church in Rome resounded with thanks to the Supreme Disposer of events for the glorious revolution that had taken place; and, while the dome of St. Peter's was illuminated without, fourteen cardinals, dressed in the gorgeous apparel appertaining to functions they were fated soon after to abdicate, presided at a solemn Te Deum within the walls of that superb temple. The deposed Pontiff was conveyed, by order of the directory, first to Briancon, and afterwards to Valence, in France, where he terminated his existence, on the twenty-ninth of August, 1799, in the eighty-second year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his pontificate. EXPEDITION TO EGYPT UNDER BUONAPARTE-MALTA TAKEN AND ALEXANDRIA. THE directory, eager to find employment for armies which the plunder of Piedmont and Lombardy had sharpened rather than satiated, and for a general in whose presence and by whose talents and popularity, all their power seemed to be eclipsed, committed to general Buonaparte the conduct of a vast and romantic expedition, to attempt the subversion of the British dominion in Hindostan, to which the invasion and occupation of Egypt was deemed necessary, although the sublime Porte had kept its faith with the French republic inviolate. The ports of Marseilles and Toulon were busied in refitting and launching ships, the fabrication of cordage, and the preparation of military stores; and, while all Europe was contemplating the extent and destination of the armament, general Buonaparte, accompanied by a few of his chief officers, and a multitude of artists and men of learning, hastened from Paris to the borders of the Mediter ranean. He set sail from Toulon on the twentieth of May, with a formidable veteran army, and an immense quantity of artillery and military stores, and, leaving Sicily on the left, was joined by a squadron of Venetian men of war; rear-admiral Brueys was intrusted with the command of the fleet. This armament, consisting of about three hundred sail, including ships of the line, frigates, and transports, descried Malta on the ninth of June, and at break of day the next morning commenced a general landing of troops and artillery upon the coast, without encountering any very formidable opposition. At the dawn of the succeeding morning the enemy had encircled the city of Valetta, and on the twelfth the French entered the city, and became masters of the whole island, this almost impregnable place surrendering with so little resistance as to furnish reason to suspect a previous concert between the captors and the Knights. The grand master, Hompesch, who had ranked as a sovereign prince, quitted the island, and received a sum of money at his departure, with an engagement for a pension from the French treasury, no part of which was ever paid. Thus Buonaparte contrived to obtain possession of the island of Malta, containing a population of sixty thousand souls, and affording one of the most advantageous stations in the Mediterranean sea; while the ancient order of St. John of Jerusalem beheld itself bereaved of its territories, after possessing them nearly three centuries. Having appointed a provisional government, and intrusted the care of his new acquisition to general Vaubois, the fleet again put to sea, and in the evening of the thirtieth of June anchored in the roads of Alexandria. As soon as the French admiral had cast anchor on the coast of Egypt, Buonaparte disembarked his troops, and attacked and entered Alexandria on the fifth of July. General Desaix was despatched towards Cairo, and Buonaparte, in the mean time, issued orders for the fleet to shelter itself from the enemy in the old port of Alexandria; but on sounding the channel it was found that there was not suf ficient depth of water for the Orient, and the road of Aboukir was therefore chosen as the fittest anchorage. Buonaparte having defeated the Beys, Mamelukes, and Fellahs in several actions, which he skilfully exaggerated into heroic exploits, basely conciliated the confidence of the sheiks and the principal inhabitants, by proclamations in which he distinctly professed himself a Mahometan, asserting that he reverenced, more than the Mamelukes themselves, God, his prophet Mahomet, and the Koran, that having thrown down the cross in the west, he was come to establish the true religion; and having organized a provisional government, Buonaparte marched against Murad Bey, whom he forced to take refuge in Upper Egypt, while Ibrahim Bey, taking a contrary direction, fled towards Syria. VICTORY OF THE NILE. THE object of Buonaparte's expedition appears to have been altogether unknown in England at the time of its sailing; but instructions were in consequence sent to earl St. Vincent, then stationed off Cadiz, to select a sufficient number of line of battle ships to defeat his armament, whatever | might be its destination; and a desacùment of ten sail of the line, under captain Troubridge, was ordered to join Sir Horatio Nelson, who had been despatched to the Mediterraneau with a flying squadron. Rear-admiral Nelson, thus invested with the command of a fleet of fourteen ships, thirteen of which carried seventy-four, and one fifty guns, steered his course towards Malta, and arrived off that island on the twenty-second of June, when he found that the enemy had quitted that place five days before, taking an eastward direction. Conjecturing that Egypt must be the place of their destination, he sailed for the port of Alexandria, where he arrived on the twenty-eighth; but, as they had not been seen on that coast, he shaped his course northward for Caramania, and thence returned to Sicily. After obtaining supplies in the bay of Syracuse, he once more sailed for Alexandria, and, on the first of August, discovered the enemy's fleet, moored in a strong and compact line, in the bay of Aboukir, the headmost vessel being close to the shoals on the N. W. and the rest forming a kind of curve along the line of deep water, so as not to be turned on the S. W. The advantage of numbers, both in ships, guns, and men, was in favour of the French; they had thirteen ships of the line, and four frigates, carrying eleven hundred and ninety guns, and ten thousand eight hundred and ten men. The English had the same number of ships of the line, and one fifty gun ship, carrying in all ten hundred and twelve guns, and eight thousand and sixty-eight men. The English ships of the line were all seventy-fours; the Freuch had three eighty-gun ships, and one three-decker of one hundred and twenty guns; and the enemy's squadron was, in the opinion of the French commissary of the fleet, moored in such a situation as to bid defiance to double their force. Nelson decided for an immediate attack, and at six o'clock in the evening of the first of August the engagement commenced. Captain Foley, who led the British van in the Goliath, darted ahead of the enemy's foremost ship, Le Gurrier, doubled her larboard side, and, having poured a destructive fire into the Frenchman, moved on to the Conquerant, whom he charged with tremendous fury, and in ten minutes shot away her masts: next followed the Zealous, captain Hood, which attacked the Guerrier on the side next the shore, and in twelve minutes totally dis abled her the Orion, Sir James Saumarez, took her station between the enemy's fifth and sixth ships: the Theseus, captain Miller, following the same example, encountered the third ship of the enemy: the Audacious, captain Gould, moved round to the fifth then advanced the Vanguard, carrying the heroic Nelson, and his no less heroic captain, Berry, and anchored on the outside of the enemy's third ship, with six colours flying in his rigging, lest they should be shot away. Having veered half a cable, he instantly opened a tremendous fire; under cover of which the other four ships of his division, the Minotaur, Bellerophon, Defence, and Majestic, sailed on ahead of the admiral. In a few minutes every man stationed at the first six guns, in the fore part of the Vanguard's deck, was killed or wounded; and three times in succession did the destructive fire of the enemy sweep away the seamen that served these guns. Captain Louis, in the Minotaur, nobly supported his commander, and, anchoring next ahead of the Vanguard; took off the fire of the Aquilon, the fourth in the French line. The Defence, captain Peyton, took her station ahead of the Minotaur, and engaged the Franklin, of eighty guns, the sixth ship of the enemy, which bore the flag of admiral Blanquet de Chelard, the second in command. Thus, by the masterly seamanship of the British commanders, nine of our ships were so disposed as to bear their force upon six of the enemy. The seventh of the French line was the Orient, the admiral's ship, a vessel of immense size, bearing one hundred and twenty guns: this stupendous adversary was undertaken by the Bellerophon, captain Darby; while the Majestic, captain Westcott, who engaged the Heureux, the ninth ship on the starboard bow, received also at the same time the fire of the Tonnant, which was the eighth in the line. The other four ships of the British squadron, having been de tached previously to the discovery of the French, were at a considerable distance when the action commenced, and the shades of night began to close |