Gazette Of The United States

By the latest accounts there were fifteen sail of the line, besides a number of frigates, lying in Brest harbor.

It appears to be the opinion of the British publicists that the French intend seriously to assist their Ally, Spain, with a powerful navy; but this depends on quelling the mutiny which they say prevails in every French ship.

Mr. Pitt, it is said, has given up the right of establishing a settlement on the North West coast of America, if so, as Spain has consented to make restitution for the Merchant Ships, what cause of war between the two nations exists? And yet the English are making immense preparations—of provisions—but as for men—they are to be created—for so scarce are they, that a frigate lately returned from a six months cruize in the Atlantic ocean—not in search of an enemy, but of their own countrymen.

Every circumstance concurs to evince the truth of the sentiment long since uttered, that in case of a war, Great-Britain, dismembered from America, would feel most sensibly the diminution of her naval strength: The proposition in a late English paper, of hiring American seamen, is a fresh corroboration of the fact, if it had not before been abundantly verified by the arbitrary impressing of our countrymen into their service.