Such being the posture of affairs, no surprise was excited when, on the 23d of August, two commissioners came off to the Victory, Lord Hood's flag-ship, to treat for the conditional surrender of the port and shipping to the British. These commissioners represented themselves to be charged with full powers from the sections of the departments of the mouths of the Rhone, in which Marseille was situated, to treat for peace; expressly stating, that the leading object of their negotiation was to effect the re-establishment of a monarchical government in France. They expected, they said, the immediate arrival of deputies, similarly authorized, from the section of the department of Var, of which Toulon was the principal town.

To encourage the inhabitants of both departments to make a free avowal of their sentiments, Lord Hood issued, without delay, a preliminary declaration, in which he pledged himself, that, if a candid and explicit declaration of monarchy should be made at Toulon and Marseille, the standard of royalty hoisted, the ships in Toulon dismantled, and the harbour and forts placed provisionally at his disposal, so as to admit of egress and regress to the British fleet, the people of Provence should have all the assistance and support which that fleet could afford ; that not an atom of private property should be touched; that a peace upon just, liberal, and honourable principles was the sole object of the treaty; and that, on such an event taking place, the port of Toulon, its batteries, and shipping, with the stores of every kind, as particularized in a schedule to be drawn up, should be restored to France. To this succeeded a very animated proclamation, addressed to the inhabitants of the towns and provinces in the south of France; wherein the miseries of the nation were forcibly, yet truly, depicted, and assurances given, that the coalesced powers would willingly co-operate with the well-disposed, in putting down the odious faction that governed the country. As the republican forces, under General Carteau, were pressing hard upon Marseille, the British admiral was