Jenks's Portland Gazette

General View of the Military Prospects
in Europe.

[From a London paper--August 28.]

The capture of Mantua and of Alexandria
has placed nearly 40,000 men at the disposal
of the Allies, which may be divided between
Marshal Suwarrow and the Archduke, increasing
thus the superiority of the former, and
rendering the latter equal in strength to Massena. We have reason to suppose that in the
course of this month the French will be entirely
driven from the State of Genoa, and that if they
are not entirely so from Switzerland, the Arch-
duke will at least be in a situation to preserve
his present position there, and even to improve
it.

The next month will present a more exten-
sive and more interesting scene, both in a politi-
cal and military point of view, than any of the
months which have elapsed of this eventful
year. Marshal Suwarrow will arrive with his
victorious phalanxes on the Frontiers of Pro-
vence and of Dauphiny; the Archduke power-
fully reinforced by the new Russian army, will
fight his way in order to penetrate to the
Frontiers of France and Alsace; General
Ztary will probably force the French to aban-
don the right bank of the Rhine; a new Army
of 50,000 English, or Russians, supplying the
place, but with greater strength, of the old
army of the Lower Rhine, in 1794, will pro-
ceed to effect the deliverance of the North
West of Europe. It is then that the republi-
cans will be attacked on the whole line, from
the shores of the Mediterranean to those of the
North Sea, and will have to support themselves
against the exertion of 300,000 Austrians, Ru-
sians, and English, with the probable support
of 100,000 Imperialists, Swiss, Piedmontees,
or other Italians. Against this force, what
means have the Republicans of defence? We
gave a few days ago the exact statement of their
effective force from the Texel to Genoa, and
we shewed that it did not amount to more than
190,000 men, twenty thousand of which were
Dutch; a statement which we can vouch as
correct, and which is confirmed by all the for-
eign accounts. It is calculating the outside
when we suppose, that on the 1st of September
the French army can have 20,000 men more
than it had on the 1st of August, when we take
into consideration the losses which it will have
sustained in the course of this month, the
draught of troops which will become necessary
in consequence of the new insurrections that
have broken out in France--Insurrections which
originate with the conscripts, and which are
thus the occasion of a double loss to the Repub-
lican troops. We may therefore with truth
assert, that next month the Allies will have at
least 100,000 men in arms more than their
adversaries, and perhaps much more if, as we
have reason to believe, an army of the Empire
is forming. According to the regulations
which were made on this subject at the end of
the last century, the Quintuple Contingent of the
Empire is 700,000 men, and it would be very
easy for it to furnish a fourth part immediately:
its army nearly amounted to that proportion in
1794. The picture of the financial distress and
political disorganization of France, which our
readers have had before their eyes during the
last two months, gives us no reason to apprehend
any unexpected display of force. More than
nine months have elapsed since the levy of
200,000 Conscripts has been decreed, and not-
withstanding the rigour with which it has been
executed, the French army has been neverthe-
les reduced to the weakness which we have just
pointed out. It is hardly necessary for us to
insist on the few pecuniary resources of the
French Government, since in spite of the hun-
dred sittings dedicated to the subject of Finance,
by the two Councils, the Directory have been
for more than two months unable to raise a
loan of 10,000,000 sterling, and since we see their
Tiers Consolidé reduced to a value of no more
than seven livres per cent. The opposition of
the Jacobins to the Government, but still more
the actual war which has broken out in several
parts of France, the Royalists, and the apathy
of the rest of the nation, leave no possibility of
a powerful union of hearts and of hands in
favour of the Directory. We consider ourselves
as having shewn the great advantages which
the allies have in several most important respects
over their enemies: we flatter ourselves that
the result will be agreeable to all probabilities,
and that fortune will range herself on that side
on which justice, strength and the interest of
the human species are to be found.