"another element to maintain, as well as water, by attempting to land, in almost every mari<time county.

"THEN, how are you to withstand them? why, truly, by the fame means that you might at firft have checked them; not by a "fmall body of mercenary troops, which, (though valiant, and very ufeful to quell any popular tumult) can never be equal to the many calls " and movements of a fudden invafion, efpecially in fuch wide countries as these his Majefty's Imperial dominions. No! in this case, "we can never be fo properly affifted, as by an

сс

able, faithful, and every where extended MI"LITIA. Look back, I beseech you, to the "example and experience of your forefathers. "Their conduct will never delude you; time, "fame, and fortune have set their feals to their "wisdom.

"How was it, that our Edwards and our "Henries conquered France? they had shipping "in proportion to the French, as we have now, "or more :-but they had men as well as shipping; and whence had they their men, but "from their MILITIA? I would afk but one queftion more; how did they use them? Why, "when the enemy grew turbulent, and were for fpreading themselves beyond their boundary, they made a descent upon their territory, and "found them proper employment in their own "country."

ર

Now, Mr. Freeholder, I take this advice to be very good: because it promises the entire defeat of a scheme, which has lately been projected in France upon the idea of our national weakness, and lofs of our martial fpirit. I give it the reader in the manner in which it has appeared in the public papers.

Paris, July 18. We are told, that the court, notwithstanding all the defenfive preparations made in Great-Britain, ftill meditates a descent on that ifland, well-knowing "how fatal would be the feat of war to that flourishing nation, and how little difpofed its " inhabitants are to be fpectators of it: a recent "inftance of which we have in the last inva"fion in Scotland, when the inroads of a few paultry vagabonds, headed by an handful of "his Majefty's troops, gave the finishing ftroke "to the war; being more effectual for procuring the fucceeding peace, than all our fucceffes "in the Netherlands; the love of ease and self"indulgence, the prefent characteristic of the English nation, rendering them entirely inI capable to fupport a war, but at a distance. "A project is therefore on foot, to strike the

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enemy in the most fenfible part; the num"berlefs refources, which we must draw from "abroad, and they find at home, making fuch " conduct abfolutely neceffary: the court conceiving, that by a long diftant war; in fupport of its pretenfions, a greater facrifice will "be made of its fubjects, and probably to lefs

purpose,

purpose, than by a speedy, though bloody enterprize directed home. It is faid also, that "this expedition will attend the most favour"able opportunity, when, as the fteps already "taken will abfolutely require, the force of "the enemy is divided'; at which time it will "be attempted in two diftant parts of the. kingdom, by which we hope to determine "the limits of Acadia, better in the garden " of Great-Britain than in the wilds of Ame<< rica."

Ir these be the advantages, which the French propofe to reap, by making England the feat of war: common fenfe must incline us to follow the doctor's advice, for turning thefe miferies from our own coaft to theirs, and being before-hand with them in an invafion.

To make this the more fuccéfsful, I will fuppofe, that Adiniral Hawke fhall immediately join the Corficans, which will occafion a great draught from the French forces, for another expedition in the Mediterranean. The King of Sardinia, if he fees us fo active, may then give thofe which remain no little trouble on the fide of Provence: and while these things are doing to the fouth and eaft; and the King of Pruffia advances from the north: fuppofe we make a fmall experiment upon the west.

WHY fhould not our forces, for the fake of exercise, learn the method of quick debark

ing as well as the French? and why should not this be done on fome of the islands very near the continent, Chaufey, for inftance: or else on fome part of the coaft of Normandy itself? and as this is an ancient appendage of the crown of England, and the Normans have lately fhewn themselves greatly offended at the ill-behaviour of the French court toward their parliaments, suppose our foldiers were to carry in their hands fome thousands of his Majefty's gracious declaration:-"That out of a paternal concern for "his ancient subjects of the Dutchy of Normandy, he cannot tamely look on, and fee their

privileges fo grofly invaded by the ufurping "power of the court of France; and therefore, "he hath fent a large detachment of his forces "to affift them, in the recovery of their loft liberty, and will not only grant to them the "free feffion of thofe municipal affemblies, "which they call a parliament, but also the

meeting of their ancient ftates, under a Duke "of their own, of whom nothing more shall be "demanded, but that he be an homager, and “ally of England, &c."

SUCH an attempt and declaration as this might make no small stir amongst the hardy Normans, which would occafion an immediate movement in the camp of Dunkirk; and not only fet them at a greater diftance from the coast of England; but also, as my author expreffes it, find them proper employment in their own country. How a project of this fort may appear to fome of our

politicians,

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politicans, I cannot tell; but as the French have fhewn to the world, that they penetrate much farther into things than we; I fhall give this occafion their own fentiments, which fufficiently declare the jealousy they have, of the use we may make of Normandy. A French. writer had been asked, why the children of France did not bear the title of Dukes of Normandy; and he replies, C'est parce qu'il au"roit fallu faire un appanage: et cette province "etant celle, qui rend le plus au Roi, et le plus

voifine de L'Angleterre, elle auroit etè une oc"cafion a fon Prince de Caufer de troubles dans "le Royaume"-La Science des perfonnes de la cour, Tom. ii. p. 18.

LEAVING my countrymen to consider of this hint, and how foon it might give a turn to the affairs of France: I remain, Brother Freeholder,

Yours,

An ANTIGALLICAN.

SIR,

To the MONITOR.

HAVING loft all the great advantages with which we set out against the French, and from the most promifing profpect of affairs, been reduced both in Europe and America to the most desperate state, which either carelessness, ignorance, treachery, or all together, could in