THE BATTLE OF PUTNEY HEATH. [From the Morning Herald.] GOD profper long our noble King, From foul mishaps of every fort, When fome fall out, it hath been said Two orators, whofe venom tongues The one a fquire, of manners blunt, A patriot ftaunch within; The other of a lordly breed, There be hard fubftances and soft, Forth went these wights one Sabbath morn; Ill luck fuch acts betide! Was there no other to be found, Of all the days befide ? Ye tremble, varlets,-well ye may, With fuch unfteady hands, what hope Hath either to fucceed? Look at that pendent form hard by, And think what judgment due awaits F 6 1 Thus 1 Thus Ipoke their friends, or might have spoke. But arguments were vain, The bloody-minded twain. The ground they took, the mortal tube Both vanish'd out of fight. Again they prim'd, again they fir'd, * Such was the mist that veil'd from view STATE NEGOTIATIONS. [From the fame.] MR. EDITOR, THE HE famous treaty of Aix la Chapelle, it is well known, was negotiated in 1748, between the late John Earl of Sandwich, as the British Plenipotentiary, then a very young man, and Monfieur le Comte of nearly the fame age and promifing talents. They met, and opened their embaffy with projets and contre-projets, as remote from mutual conceffion as the late memorable ones of Charles Delacroix and Lord Malmbury, though, both were invested with full powers to conclude the peace on fuch terms as either might be enabled to obtain. On the third interview, finding no ground gained on either fide, Lord Sandwich thus addreffed his opponent ne * Vide ILIAD, Book 17. gotiator: gotiator: Look ye, Monfieur le Comte, you and I come here, I perceive, precifely with the fame views of ferving our refpective countries, and exalting our own political reputation to the utmost of our power t it ftrikes me, that if we fritter it down by mutual concedings, neither of us will give public fatisfaction, and both be probably difgraced!I have to propose, therefore, a mode of decifion on the question, that will secure to one of us the full credit, which must be loft to both, if fubdivided by a further partition-treaty viz. by the impartial tofs-up of a GUINEA!"-The Comte, without hefitation, agreed to the terms; the Earl toffed up-the Comte called head, and loft; and, in confequence, the British Plenipo came home with the full ratification of his own terms, and thus eftablished a reputation, through every Court of Europe, as a statesman who had fo ably wrought for his country a chef d'œuvre of diplomatic polity! This extraordinary circumftance was related to the writer by the Noble Earl himself, in ridicule of the affected folemnity of State Negotiations. Yours, VARRO DIPLOMATIC ANECDOTE OF THE LATE [From the London Chronicle.] 1: WHEN his Grace negotiated the peace of Paris, he figned the preliminaries with the French Minifter Choifeul, and ftipulated no farther for the poffeffions of the Eaft India Company, than he was advised to ftipulate by the Court of Directors. A gentleman (a Dutch Jew of great abilities and character) hearing this, wrote a letter to the Duke of Bedford, informing him that the English Eaft-India Company had materially neglected their own interests, as their chief conquefts were made fubfequent to the pe riod at which they had fixed their claim of sovereignty; and if these latter conquefts were to be restored, an immenfe annual revenue would neceffarily be taken from England. The Duke, ftruck with the force of the fact, yet embarraffed how to act, as preliminaries were really figned, repaired to Choifeul at Versailles, and addressed him thus:-" My Lord, I have committed a great mistake in figning the preliminaries, as the affair of the India poffeffions must be carried down to the last conqueft in Afia." To this Choiseul replied, "Your Grace aftonishes me; I thought I had been treating with the Minister of a great nation, and not with a student in politics, who does not confider the validity of written engagements."-" Your re. proach, my Lord, is juft," returned the Duke; "but I will not add treachery to negligence, nor betray my country deliberately, because I have overlooked her intereft unaccountably in a single circumftance: therefore, unless your Lordship agrees to cede the latter conquefts in India, I fhall return home in twelve hours, and fubmit the fate of my head to the difcretion of an English Parliament." Choifeul, ftaggered at the Duke's intrepidity, complied; and this country now enjoys about half a million annually, through the firmnefs of a man, whofe virtues have never yet received justice from the community. On the termination of the affair to his fatisfaction, he gave his informant, the Dutch gentleman, the warmeft recommendations to England, who accordingly came over, and received a penfion of 500l. a year from the India Compány, as a reward for his fervices. A NEW A NEW POLITICAL DANCE. [From the Oracle.] I HAD knock'd my laft pipe out, and stept into bed, When the strangest conceits found their way to my head, My mind all the day had been thinking on France, SARDINIA, GERMANY, PRUSSIA, and SPAIN, Tho' the figure was chang'd they still flourish'd their toes, FRANCE took out her fnuff-box, and turn'd up her nose, Then the jump'd, and fhe footed, and frisk'd it to Lifle, All the company faid, "the advanc'd in good ftyle;" Such dancing must harass poor mortals to death; Poor PRUSSIA, fatigued, was the next to begin But Spain starting back faid-"If Pruffia gives in, I dreamt there must now be an end to the fun, But |