Macbride, in the 32-gun frigate Quebec, successfully cooperated with a detachment of the British army, commanded by General Sir Charles Grey, in expelling the French from the important posts of Ostende and Nieuport, and compelling them to retire upon Dunkerque.

Painful would be the task of recording an interchange of destructive firing between two ships of one and the same nation: it is not, however, to confirm, but to contradict, a statement of the kind, that the names of two English ships are here introduced. A work, which, being ostensibly written by a naval officer, ought to be of very high accreditation on naval subjects, contains the. following statement: " On the night of the 11th of April (1793), the Bedford, of 74 guns, Captain Robert Mann, and Leopard, of 50 guns, Captain John Maude, fell in with each other off Scilly: the night being extremely dark, they either mistook or did not distinctly see each other's signals, and commenced a smart action. Unfortunately, the mistake was not discovered until several men were wounded on both sides."

The fact is, that neither ship was off Scilly on the night in question; nor were the two ships within several hundred leagues of each other. Neither did they at any other time, or at any other place, exchange a shot. It is ascertained, also, that the Bedford, and it is believed that the Leopard, never had such an accident befal her. Moreover, no traces can be found of any two English ships of war having, met and engaged, out of which a statement, so discreditable to both, could possibly have arisen.

On the 14th of April, in latitude 41� 43' north longitude 25� west, the British squadron under Rear-admiral Gell, already mentioned as bound to the Mediterranean, and which consisted of the:

chased two sail in the north-west. The frigate soon overtook one of them, which proved to be the San-Iago, a large Spanish galleon, under French colours. Dropping a boat as she passed, the Phaëton left this vessel to be taken possession of by the Ganges, then coming up, and stood on in pursuit of the headmost enemy's ship. At the end of two hours the latter was also captured, and proved to be the French privateer General Dumourier, of 22 long 6-pounders and 196 men, convoying to a port of France the richly-laden ship, which, eleven days before,