THE FRENCH THREATEN GREAT BRITAIN WITH AN INVASION.

The court of Versailles, while they presented remonstrances which they knew would prove ineffectual, and exclaimed against the conduct of Great Britain with all the arts of calumny and exaggeration at every court in Christendom, continued nevertheless to make such preparations as denoted a design to prosecute the war with uncommon vigour. They began to repair and fortify Dunkirk; orders were published that all British subjects should quit the dominions of France; many English vessels were seized in the different ports of that kingdom, and their crews sent to prison. At the same time an edict was issued, inviting the French subjects to equip privateers, offering a premium of forty livres for every gun, and as much for every man they should take from the enemy; and promising that, in case a peace should be speedily concluded, the king would purchase the privateers at prime cost. They employed great numbers of artificers and seamen in equipping a formidable squadron of ships at Brest; and assembling a strong body of land-forces, as well as a considerable number of transports, threatened the island of Great Britain with a dangerous invasion.