i State of Public Affairs in Ful, 1803. 
that river to the Englih. Tt was imme- 
diately determined that j it fhould be block- 
aded by Britith thips of war, A com- 
munication to this effect was made by. 
Lord Hawkefbury to the Foreign Minifters | 
on the 28th of June, and a notice convey- 
ing fimilar information was pofted up at 
Lioyd’s at the fame time. This meafure 
it appears has caufed a confiderable fen- 
fation on the continent. The French by 
their intrigues have been exciting the 
Northern powers ; and fome of their jour- 
nals proceed fo far as to aflert that a new 
confederacy is formed, on the old principle, 
that free bottoms make free goods. Thefe 
powers, itis true, may poflibly entertain 
fome jealoufy of the naval power of Eng- 
Jand; but they cannot be totally blind 
to the ambition of the Firft Conful. They 
cannot fail to fee that if Great Britain was 
crufhed, there would probably not be left 
an independent ftate in Europe. They 
muft alfo be aware that however favour- 
able the period might be for enforcing 
this claim, which was embraced by the 
politic Catharine, when the fleets of 
France and Spain tode triumphant in the 
Britifh channel, that the prefent is by no 
means the crifis to renew it, when the 
Brit fh marine is fuperior to that of the 
whole world. A more probable report 
therefore 1s, that the Courts of Berlin, &c. 
are endeavouring by negeciations with 
both parties to obtain that the navigation 
of the Elbe-fhall remain upon the fame 
footing as in the courfe of the aft war. 
It is fuppofed that a further motive: swith. 
the Britifn cabinet for blockading the 
Elbe, was an intimation that an’ Expedi- 
tion was intended from that port-for the 
invafion of Scotland. 
When the crates was made with 
the Regency of £ Hanover, it is evident the 
irf& Confal muft have feen that it was 
impoffible it could receive the ratification 
of the King of England, who regarded the 
invafion of that electorate as a violation of 
the neutrality of Germany, and on that 
plea had appea'ed co the guaranteeing 
powérs. The French Government, when 
it fuited their purpofe, admitted that the 
Ele&tor of Hanover, and the King of 
Great Britain were characters diftinct 
from each other in’ a political. point of 
view ; but-when an act of aggreffion might 
be profitable to France, it chofe to infift 
on their actual senaelshde From the cir- 
cumftance of the capitulation not being ra-- 
tified however by the Britih court, the 
Chief Conful has taken occafion to annul 
it altogether. At firft be infifted on the 
‘Hanoverianarimy furrendering as prifoners 
‘to. publifh them. 
_a well known partifan of French philofo- 
phy and politics, went to the Commandant: 
about your bufinefs!° 
Aug. r, 
of war, and being fent to France, but 
finding them determined to refilt this ins. 
folent propofition to the utmof, he at 
_latt contented himfelf with feizing their 
horfes and army, and compelling them to 
difband. 
We are forry to add, that the conduct 
of the French in the Eleétorate, has been 
fuch as is truly difgraceful to a pegple 
which calls itfelf civilized. The foliow. 
ing picture may be fomewhat exaggerated; 
but we have realon to think that it is not_ 
deittitute of foundation. It is extraéted 
from a morning paper of laft week, and is 
faid to contain the fubttance of feveral 
private but authentic letters. 
«¢ Ever fince the conqueft, the Electorate 
has been a f{cene of piilage and butchery, 
which is faid to yield only to the fate of 
Switzerland in Spring, 1798. The French 
foldiers have the moft- unbounded indul- 
gence of their ruling paflions of rapacity, 
crucity, and luft. In the city of Hanover, 
and even in the public ftreets, women of 
the higheft rank have been violated by the 
loweft of that brutal foldiery, in the pre- 
fence of their hufbands and fathers, aud 
fubjected at the fame time to fuch addt- 
tional and undefcribable outrages as the - 
brutal fury of the violators, enflamed by . 
drunkennefs, could contrive. We have 
feen the names of fome of thofe unfortu- 
nate ladies; but the honour of their fami- 
lies, and ihe’ peace of their own future 
lives, (if they can have peace,) forbid us 
The Baron de K 
of Hanover, and claimed his proteéticn, 
as an admirer of the French Revolutién. 
But he found no, more favour in the fight 
of the Aga of Sultan Bonaparte” s Janifia- 
ries, than the mot loyal nobleman in 
Hanover. The French Officer told him— 
‘all Jacobinifin is now out of fafhion—Go 
Nor have we heard 
that the philofophers of Goettingen, the 
enthufiafts of equality and perfectibility, 
have been at all better treated. 
“‘ What happens in the great towns, 
and what befals perfons of rank, are of 
courfe better known than the calamities of 
the body of the people. It is for this 
reafon only that we have feleéted them. 
They are, in fact, a perfeétly fair {peci- 
men of the treatment of the whole mife-~ 
rable people. Every village exhibits the 
fame fcenes in miniature. The peafants, 
who have more fpirit, patriotifm, and loy- 
alty, than their-fuperiors, have already, 
in feveral parts of the country, been driven 
into infurreétion ; many villages have been 
burnt 
