exquisite address, extensively and
wisely indulged to me by the supreme powers. My author, I will dare to
assert, shows the most universal knowledge of any writer who has
appeared this century. He is a poet, and merchant, which is seen in two
master-words, Credit Blossoms. He is a grammarian, and a politician; for
he says, the uniting the two kingdoms is the emphasis of the security to
the Protestant Succession. Some would be apt to say he is a conjurer;
for he has found that a republic is not made up of every body of
animals, but is composed of men only, and not of horses. Liberty and
property have chosen their retreat within the emulating circle of a
human commonwealth. He is a physician; for he says, "I observe a
constant equality in its pulse, and a just quickness of its vigorous
circulation." And again: "I view the strength of our Constitution
plainly appear in the sanguine and ruddy complexion of a well-contented
city." He is a divine; for he says, "I cannot but bless myself." And
indeed, this excellent treatise has had that good effect upon me, who am
far from being superstitious, that I, also, can't but bless myself.

St. James's Coffee-house, May 18.

This day arrived a mail from Lisbon, with letters of the 13th instant,
N.S., containing a particular account of the late action in Portugal. On
the 7th instant, the army of Portugal, under the command of the Marquis
de Frontera, lay on the side of the Caya, and the army of the Duke of
Anjou, commanded by the Marquis de Bay, on the other. The latter
commander having an ambition to ravage the country, in a manner in sight
of the Portuguese, made a motion with the whole body of his horse toward
Fort St. Christopher, near the town of Badajos. The generals of the
Portuguese, disdaining that such an insult should be offered to their
arms, took a resolution to pass the river, and oppose the designs of the
enemy. The Earl of Galway represented to them, that the present posture
of affairs was such on the side of the Allies, that there needed no more
to be done at present in that country, but to carry on a defensive part.
But his arguments could not avail in the council of war. Upon which, a
great detachment of foot, and the whole of the horse of the King of
Portugal's army, passed the river, and with some pieces of cannon did
good execution on the enemy. Upon observing this, the Marquis de Bay
advanced with his horse, and attacked the right wing of the Portuguese
cavalr