The New Hampshire Gazette

LONDON, June 8.

On the probable Destination of the
BREST FLEET

IT has been rightly observed by a public
writer, the armaments made by
the French, in the year 1756, in the
ports of Normandy and Brittany, and the nume-
rous land forces they brought down to the coasts
of those provinces, were only intended to cloak
their real design, which was to make themselves
masters of Minorca; for after they had carried
their point there, the project of invading England
was dropt, and the enemy turned their thoughts
to the kindling a war on the Continent; yet, I
think, among the variety of conjectures he has of-
fered, concerning the destination of the present na-
val armaments of the French, he has not hit upon
the right one; therefore, with his and your leave,
I shall endeavour to grope for it.

From the strength of the fleet that is said to
be gone out of Brest, it is apparent that it cannot
be designed to invade either of these three king-
doms; for supposing there are eighteen thousand
men on board, yet, as they have but fifty trans-
ports, we must take it for granted, that the sailors
are included in this number; and so there may
not be above nine thousand land forces in the fleet.
With such a force they will not venture to land
in any part of Great Britain or Ireland, on ac-
count of the hazard of having their men of war
beaten or destroyed by a superior squadron; and
then all their troops on shore would be cut in pie-
ces or made prisoners. Therefore, it is highly
probable, that their destination is for America;
though they may not be bound to Guadaloupe in
particular, as some of the public papers suppose.
However valuable that Island may be to the
French, they can bear the loss of it, and still
have plantations enough to supply themselves and
many European markets with sugar, rum, indigo,
coffee, &c. The Island of Martinico, and what
they possess in Hispaniola, will always give them
a large share of the West-India trade, even tho'
they should never recover Guadaloupe by treaty
or otherwise. But, without the possession of
Louisbourg, Canada will become of little value
to them: Along with Cape Breton they have lost
their Cod fishery, which used to employ many
thousands of seamen; they are likewise deprived
of the means to execute their project of destry-
ing our infant colony of Nova-Scotia, and must
never more hope to make any figure in North Ame-
rica unless they can recover that important island:
and as they have no prospect, at present, of be-
ing able to get it by a treaty of peace, I apprehend
it is incumbent on them to make a bold push for
it, as their succeeding in such an attempt might
facilitate the conclusion of a peace; since they
cannot but be sensible how difficult it would be to
negotiate the British nation out of that valuable
acquisition. Therefore they must endeavour to
terrify us with an apparatus for an invasion.
But, whatever their design may be, it is to be
hoped care has been taken to disappoint them on
every side; as it would be a great disgrace to a
nation that boasts of having 300 ships of war in
commission, to suffer itself to be beat out of a con-
guest of such consequence as Cape Breton is, by
not making due provision for its defence, or from
an apprehension that 20 ships of war with 8 or
9000 land forces would venture to pay a visit to
this kingdom or Ireland.

My supposition therefore is, that the Brest fleet
are going to try what may be done at Louisbourg,
and it arises from a consideration of the poor
figures the French armies make in Germany. If
they and their allies were successful, we might
possibly restore Cape Breton, in order to save our
allies and put a period to the war. But now we
see the army of the Empire, though backed by a
good body of Austrians, flying before the Prussians
for want of support from the French, who are for-
ced to intrench themselves after their so much
boasted victory at Bergen: a plain confession of
their not being able to stand before our allies
upon even ground.

The Austrian Fabius too (as they affect to call
him, and not without reason) lies upon the de-
ive, expecting support from the Russians; and