Horror, and a lafting Monument of your Anger and Indignation, against the Inhabitants of a Town long fince overwhelmed with Grief. So many Thoufands, Mighty Sir! reduc'd to Want and Mifery, might have pleaded for your Commiferation: But you were (pardon the Expreffion) Implacable; their Doom was gone out, and you would not Alter or Reverse it.

Whither fhould fo many wretched Families betake themfelves? Could they look up6 on themselves devoted, by fo great a Lover • and Benefactor to Mankind as Tour Mightiness, to utter Mifery and Difperfion? Far be that Thought from our Hearts. But fcarce had 'we made a fmall Settlement of fome few Families at Mardyke, when the melancholy News Feach'd our Ears, of the Umbrage taken against us at Your Mightiness's Court; contrived by Evil-minded Men, the Enemies of Society; intending to make you Jealous of us, as if we were about to Fortifie and Erect another Dunkirk there; a Work, alas! as much unequal to our Circumftances, as it is diftant. from our Intentions; whereby we might once more become the deplorable Objects of your Vengeance.

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To prevent this Blow, we now lay our felves at Your Might inefs's Feet; intreating: you to fatisfie your juftice with our prefent Mifery.

Here, Sir, is what you were pleafed to fay, or what Mr. Tugghe fays, in your Paper. A Memorial was handed about the Publick Streets, praying that Dunkirk might not be Demolished, tho' the Memorialist acknowledged her Majefty

had.

had fignified to him by her Secretary of State, the Lord Bullingbroke, that the Queen would have it demolished. Mr. Steele, to prevent the Poifon which that Piece might difperfe among the People, writ a Difcourfe against it, and expofed the fpecious Infinuations of Compaffion to a devoted People, and the like, and defended** the Queen's Refolution with fo much Zeal and Warmth, that he drew upon himself the Anger of all the Courtly Writers, at the head of whom is defervedly placed your Eminence. He is a very unhappy Man, that could not speak again't what was rejected at Court, without incurring the Displeasure of thofe who pretend to write for it. Supported by fo good an Authority as the Queen and her Minifter, he thought it a good Action to convince all the World of the Neceffity of Demolishing that Harbour, and that Neceffity is very diftinely reprefented in the 26th Page of the Pamphlet, called, The Importance of Dunkirk confidered.

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The Port of London, fays the Author, is allowed to carry Two Parts in Three, or Six Parts in Nine, of the Foreign Trade of England. We may give one Ninth to the Ports on the South Coalts of this Inland, which South Coaft is oppofite to the North Coast of France; 'the Sea between which is what we call the Channel.

• The East End of this, on our Side, is the North Foreland, which ftands oppofite to • Newport in France; the Weft End, on our Side, is the Land's-End, over-againft Ubant, 6. or Breft in France; they allow one Ninth of the Trade to the East Coast washed by the • Germans

⚫ German. Ocean; and the other Ninth to the 'West Coast, which looks on the Irish Seas.

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• Dunkirk is from the South Foreland about 13 Leagues, and the Coaft from Dunkirk to the Foreland, Weft, North-Weft, to the Entrance ' of the River Thames, is North-Weft about 20 'Leagues; fo that any Eafterly Wind, which carries our Ships down the Channel, at the 'fame time brings thofe of Dunkirk to meet ⚫ and intercept them: The French have very frequently this laft War reaped the Advantage of this Situation, by furprising many rich Ships, and taking others as they lay at Anchor in the Downs; when the French are difpoffeffed of Dunkirk, the dread and danger of their Men ' of War, of any confiderable Force, will be removed as far as Breft, which is a hundred and twenty Leagues, or three hundred and 'fixty Miles; and that of their Privateers, of any Confideration, as far as St. Malo's, which is 78 Leagues, or 234 Miles.

Breft lies without the Channel, under this great Incapacity to hurt us, that the fame Wind ⚫ which carries our Trade down the Channel prevents the Ships of Breft from coming into • it.

The East End of the Channel which is fo 'much exposed to Dunkirk is but 7 Leagues broad, and gives an Enemy an Opportunity of เ feeing our Ships from Side to Side.

The West End of the Channel, for which the greatest Fears are from Breft, is 28 Leagues broad, and of course there is at that End a greater Chance of efcaping the Enemy.

If Ships from Brest are appointed to Waylay our Ships in the Channel, they must take

• the

the Opportunity of Wefterly Winds, to come into it; and wait the coming of an Eafterly • Wind to carry our Ships down it; by this means they must all that time be at Sea, ex· pofed to all Dangers for want of a Port in which to Harbour their Men of War, or re" turn to Brest, which they cannot do with the Wind that brought them out.

'We must add to this, that if the French from Breft fhould be hovering to the Eastward of Plimouth, they are between two Fires, from those Ships in the Downs, and those from Pli• mouth; and our Ships from Portsmouth may chace them either Way, while they are way• laid at each End of the Channel by the others,

not having the Port of Dunkirk, or any other ' in the Channel, to afford them Shelter. Thus, 'fhould they be chafed up the Channel by a too great Force, before they can return to Breft, they must either run into the German Ocean, and wait another Opportunity of coming down again, with the Hazard of meeting all our Men ' of War; or else fail North about Great Bri 'tain, which is at leaft 550 Leagues more than they need have failed, with the Port of Dunkirk 'to fly to.

'This Want of Dunkirk will expose them to ⚫ the fame Inconvenience, to which the Fear of it often obliged our running Ships from the 'South Parts of the World, as well as our East'India Men, during the late War: To this Di 'ftrefs you are to add Wages, Provifion, lofs of 'Time, and the dangerous Navigation of the • North Seas.

From hence it plainly appears, that by the 'Demolition of Dunkirk, in cafe of a Rupture ⚫ with

with France, Six Parts in Nine of our Trade, from the Port of London, is 330 Miles removed from the Hazards of the last War; and though part of this must be expofed when it • paffes through the Chopps, or Western Entrance of the Channel, it must be confidered, that this it was alfo liable to before, befides the Ter'rors of Dunkirk, and that this is only the • Southern Trade; and all that go to Holland, Hamborough, and other Northern Countries, will be quite out of Danger.

The Ninth of our Trade on the East Coast ' would be still fafer..

'From these diftin& Confiderations, you obferve only one Ninth of the Trade on the Irish Seas and Briftol Channel, and part of the other Ninth in the Coaft of the Channel (to come at which they are in danger from Portsmouth to Plimouth) is the whole of the .6 British Trade, which after the Demolition of • Dunkirk will lie open to the Affaults of the French. The Demolition of Dunkirk will in a great Measure fecure feven Ninths of the Trade of England, from the Power of France at Sea, the French having no Port in the Channel but St. Malo's, which can harbour any great Ships, and that it felf can receive none which exceeds 30 or 40 Guns. Breft lies 35 Leagues from the Lizard Point, which is the nearest Land of England; their Ships must have an Eafterly Wind to come out, and that will • ferve them no farther than to the Chopps of the Channel, because it blows directly down • it.

The Courfe to go from Breft to cruife off the Lizard Point in order to annoy Us, is