290] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1797. 
theirauthority those whomthey con- 
sidered as inimical to the Snter- 
ests and claims of the common men ; 
or such as had exceeded the bounds 
of due moderation: in the exercise 
of their command, and rendered 
themselves obnoxious by the unne- 
eessary’ severity and the harsh- 
ness of their behaviour. The rea- 
diness with which the whole mul- 
titude of the malcontents retuined 
to their wonted ‘submission, the mo- 
ment they became satisfied that 
their petitions would be granted, 
evinced the sincerity of their pro- 
fessions of loyalty, and that they 
harboured'no other views than of 
securing better usage than they 
had met with’heretofore. 
But the insurrection at the Nore 
was attended with far more menac- 
ing circumstances. The demands 
_ of the mutineers seemed in some in- 
stances to be framed with an ex- 
pectation to be refused, and the be- 
haviour of their agents appeared 
ealculated ta excite the resent= 
ment of their superiors, and to set 
them at defiance. They proceeded 
to acts of violence totally unnecese 
sary, and unjustifiable, and which 
amounted in fact to the. commis- 
sion of hostilities against their fel- 
low-subjects. 
Taking these various particu- 
lars into consideration, some per- 
sons strongly suspected that there 
‘were, among the mutineers, in- 
dividuals who acted. the part of 
emissaries from the enemy, and 
strove to push them on to extveml- 
ties. Certain itis, that, when the 
intelligence of the mutiny at Ports- 
mouth arrived at Paris, it excited 
great satisfaction in the republican 
patty.- Sanguine hopes were im- 
inediately conceived, that it might 
prove the prelude of more serious 
inswrections; at all events, the de- 
sertion of the British navy was an 
incident that prognosticated, in 
the imagination of the French, all 
kinds of disasters to this country. 
Deprived of this indispensible sup- 
port, at a period when it was more 
than ever needed, Great Britain 
would lose, at once, its influence 1” 
the affairs of Europe, and sink into 
a state of absolute insignificance, ' 
That awe in which it had kept sure 
rounding ‘nations, would vanish; 
none ‘of them yould any longer 
¢ither dread its power or court its 
allegiance : its very political exist= 
ence, as an independent country, 
would become precarious, and no- 
thing, in short, of its former: 
strenoth and importance would res 
main. eerie 
Such were the subjects of exul-: 
tation, throughout France, on this 
critical occasion. They did: not 
subside on the pacification effected 
by the prudent concessions of go-" 
vernment, ‘It was still hoped, in 
France, that causes of a similar na- 
ture to those that had produced the 
‘first mutiny, might give birth to a 
second, As, wntortunately for this © 
country, they were not disappoint- 
ed in their expectations, which had 
been loud, ‘and expressed with 
much confidence, numbers were led 
to believe that they had not been in- 
a tive im creating them. 
The advantages that must obvi- 
ously have resulted to the French 
republic, by fomenting discords of 
so fatal a tendency to this country, 
were undeniable. This induced 
people to think, that conformablyte - 
the syetem which they had pursued, 
‘so successfully in other countries, 
they would have exerted their 
noted talents for intrigue m encou= 
raging and extending the vari- 
ances that had arisen here. But 
heweyer inviting the opportunity 
that, 
