Virginia Argus

BOSTON, October 3.

By the arrival of the Packet, captain McLellan, at Portland, in 43 days from Liverpool, London newspapers have been received there, to the 14th of August. We have been favored with a letter from a gentleman in Portland, to his brothers in this town, containing the following interesting extracts.

London, Aug 15.

"A cabinet council met yesterday, at 1 o'clock, and sat until 3 o'clock, and at half past 10 dispatches were sent off by M. Basilica to Lord Lauderdale.

The fluctuations in the funds yesterday was, we believe, greater than upon any one day, since the last peace. In the morning, as soon as the arrival of the messenger was known the funds rose rather more than 1 per cent: but about one o'clock, a sudden alteration took place. Stocks began to fall; and at one time, Omnium was as low as 5 3-4 per cent. It left off at last at 6 1-4.

Lord Lauderdale reached Paris on Tuesday and demanded an interview. The French minister declined seeing him, until Saturday or Sunday following! The separate peace between Russia & France has changed the French tone against England, and (the editor of the Sun observes) although we do not take upon us to say there is no probability of peace, we have reason to believe it is considerably diminished.

On the dispatches sent off to Lord Lauderdale as above, the same Editor says, "we have no doubt they are of a decisive nature." It is therefore likely that the negociation will be brought to a decisive issue, one way or the other, in a very short time. He further observes that the Paris and Dutch papers to the 9th and 12th are not calculated to excite any hopes of peace.

By a decree of the 3d, Bonaparte has ordered out 80,000 conscripts, a measure which cannot be accounted for, upon the idea of peace, though the French editors pretended to give something like a reason for it.

The writer of the letter from Portland adds, that "from the papers and from a conversation I had with a passenger, my opinion is against the idea of peace."

The New Packet for Boston sailed in company.

Since copying the above, we have met a gentleman from Portland, who had seen the paper containing these extracts, & a London paper of the 16th, which asserted that it was not true that Lord Lauderdale had been so unfavorably received as had been reported. The gentleman says, however, that the passengers are all of opinion that the negociation will fail.