The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

S A L E M. August 22.

Yesterday morning a third Cartel from England arrived at Marblehead. She sailed from Falmouth on the 7th ult. and has brought in 116 Americans, lately confined in Mill-prison.

A gentleman of this town, who came in the cartel, informs, that the combined fleet of France and Spain, amounting to 46 sail of the line, were at sea, and had captured 22 sail of a fleet of merchantmen bound to Newfoundland: four sail only, with the convoy, escaped: That Britain had recalled her squadron from the North Sea, in order to increase her channel fleet, which, in the whole, would amount to no more than 33 sail, while, with the expected addition of 15 or 16 sail of Dutch men of war, ready for sea, the combined naval armament of our friends and allies would consist of upwards of 60 sail of capital ships: That this great force was intended for the British Channel (in the chops of which the French and Spanish were arrived) not only with a view of distressing the enemy's trade, but more particularly for the purpose of intercepting any succours which might be sent out for the relief of Gibraltar, which important fortress, it was supposed in England, was nearly reduced by the Spaniards.

We find no intelligence, in the latest paper received from England, sufficiently authentic to induce a belief that peace is near at hand, though it appears by several paragraphs of the latest dates, inserted in this page, that the negotiation for accomplishing so desirable an event, continued to be carried on at Paris.--The idea of a general peace was so little entertained in England, that the gentleman above mentioned heard no conversation upon the subject, nor indeed did he learn that any negotiation was upon the carpet at the time of his sailing: But he observed that the people cherished the delusive hope of a separate peace with America.