PROCEEDINGS OF THE FRENCH MINISTRY.

The domestic occurrences of France were tissued with a continuation of the disputes between the parliaments and clergy, touching the bull Unigenitus. In vain the king had interposed his authority: first proposing an accommodation; then commanding the parliament to forbear taking cognizance of a religious contest, which did not fall under their jurisdiction; and, thirdly, banishing their persons, and abrogating their power. He afterwards found it necessary to the peace of his dominions to recall and reinstate those venerable patriots; and being convinced of the intolerable insolence and turbulent spirit of the archbishop of Paris, had exiled that prelate in his turn. He was no sooner re-admitted to his function, than he resumed his former conduct, touching the denial of the sacraments to those who refused to acknowledge the bull Unigenitus: he even acted with redoubled zeal; intrigued with the other prelates; caballed among the inferior clergy; and not only revived, but augmented, the troubles throughout the whole kingdom. Bishops, curates, and monks, presumed to withhold spiritual consolation from persons in extremity, and were punished by the civil power. Other parliaments of the kingdom followed the example exhibited by that of Paris, in asserting their authority and privileges. The king commanded them to desist, on pain of incurring his indignation; they remonstrated, and persevered; while the archbishop repeated his injunctions and censures, and continued to inflame the dispute to such a dangerous degree, that he was given to understand he should be again obliged to quit the capital, if he did not proceed with more moderation. But the chief care of the French ministry was employed in regulating the finances, and establishing funds of credit for raising money to pay subsidies, and maintain the war in Europe and America. In the course of this year they had not only considerably reinforced their armies in Germany, but made surprising efforts to supply the colony of Canada with troops, artillery, stores, and ammunition, for its defence against the operations of the British forces, which greatly outnumbered the French upon the continent. The court of Versailles practised every stratagem to elude the vigilance of the English cruisers. The ships destined for America they detached, both single and in convoys, sometimes from the Mediterranean, sometimes from their harbours in the channel. They assembled transports in one port, in order to withdraw the attention of their enemies from another, where their convoys lay ready for sailing; and in boisterous weather, when the English could no longer block up their harbours, their store-ships came forth, and hazarded the voyage for the relief of their American settlements. Those that had the good fortune to arrive on the coast of that continent, were obliged to have recourse to different expedients for escaping the British squadrons stationed at Halifax, or cruising in the bay of St. Laurence. They either ventured to navigate the river before it was clear of the ice, so early in the spring, that the enemy had not yet quitted the harbour of Nova-Scotia; or they waited on the coast of Newfoundland for such thick fogs as might screen them from the notice of the English cruisers, in sailing up the gulf; lastly, they penetrated through the straits of Belleisle, a dangerous passage, which, however, led them directly into the river St. Laurence, at a considerable distance above the station of the British squadron. Though the French navy was by this time so reduced, that it could neither face the English at sea nor furnish proper convoys for commerce, her ministry nevertheless attempted to alarm the subjects of Great Britain with the project of an invasion. Flat-bottomed boats were built, transports collected, large ships of the line equipped, and troops ordered to assemble on the coast for embarkation; but this was no more than a feint to arouse the apprehension of the English, disconcert the administration, prejudice the national credit, and deter the government from sending forces to keep alive the war in Germany. A much more effectual method they took to distress the trade of England, by laying up their useless ships of war, and encouraging the equipment of stout privateers, which did considerable damage to the commerce of Great Britain and Ireland, by cruising in the seas of Europe and America. Some of them lay close in the harbours of the channel, fronting the coast of England, and darted out occasionally on the trading ships of this nation, as they received intelligence from boats employed for that purpose. Some chose their station in the North sea, where a great number of captures were made upon the coast of Scotland; others cruised in the chops of the channel, and even to the westward of Ireland; but the far greater number scoured the seas in the neighbourhood of the Leeward Islands in the West Indies, where they took a prodigious number of British ships, sailing to and from the sugar colonies, and conveyed them to their own settlements in Martinique, Guadeloupe, or St. Domingo.