HAVRE-DE-GRACE BOMBARDED.

Having taken notice of all the remarkable captures and exploits that were made and achieved by single ships since the commencement of the present year, we shall now proceed to describe the actions that were performed in this period by the different squadrons that constituted the naval power of Great Britain. Intelligence having been received that the enemy meditated an invasion upon some of the British territories, and that a number of flat-bottomed boats were prepared at Havre-de-Grace, for the purpose of disembarking troops, rear-admiral Rodney was, in the beginning of July, detached with a small squadron of ships and bombs to annoy and overawe that part of the coast of France. He accordingly anchored in the road of Havre, and made a disposition to execute the instructions he had received. The bomb vessels, being placed in the narrow channel of the river leading to Ronfleur, began to throw their shells, and continued the bombardment for two-and-fifty hours, without intermission, during which a numerous body of French troops were employed in throwing up intrenchments, erecting new batteries, and firing both with shot and shells upon the assailants. The town was set on fire in several places, and burned with great fury; some of the boats were overturned, and a few of them reduced to ashes, while the inhabitants forsook the place in the utmost consternation: nevertheless, the damage done to the enemy was too inconsiderable to make amends for the expense of the armament, and the loss of nineteen hundred shells and eleven hundred carcasses, which were expended in this expedition. Bombardments of this kind are at best but expensive and unprofitable operations, and may be deemed a barbarous method of prosecuting war, inasmuch as the damage falls upon the wretched inhabitants, who have given no cause of offence, and who are generally spared by a humane enemy, unless they have committed some particular act of provocation.