I cannot learn with any certainty, what probability there is of any other powers entering next year into the present war. On that subject, your Minister here, as his situation gives him the means, will furnish you with earlier and surer information than it is possible for me to obtain. But the following are nearly the plans of the French and British cabinets for the next campaign. Fourteen ships of seventyfour guns, and 8000 troops, are to be sent from hence to the West Indies. The twelve expected home with Count d’Estaing, being refitted with eight new ones, added to the sixteen remaining of those which form the present fleet, and fifteen Spanish ships, will make fiftyone sail, which are to convoy fifty thousand troops from Brest, where they are all to be collected, to whatever part of the coast of England is fixed upon for a descent. By this disposition of the fleet and army, it is expected that the delay and disappointments which render this campaign abortive will be avoided. The bulk of the Spanish fleet is to secure the Mediterranean and press Gibraltar, while the army continues its approaches by land. The English cabinet are resolved to send all the troops they can possibly collect, which they say will amount to 8 or 10,000 against you, and stand upon the defensive at home. Their situation, however, is not a little embarrassing. The Irish nation are so generally determined upon having a free trade, that the Court was obliged to allow it to be inserted in the address of both Houses, that a free trade is their right and they must have it. To support this, there are, besides the unanimous voice of the people, upwards of 15,000 men, in volunteer companies actually in arms, without the permission or control of government. To delay or refuse the granting of free trade, will endanger a general and most formidable insurrection in that kingdom. To grant it, will produce commotions of no less magnitude in England, of which they have already had some fearful examples in and about Manchester. These insurrections, whenever they happen, will be exasperated by great and real distress. For the fact is, that if it be refused to Ireland, that country will be undone, and if it be granted, the woollen and other manufactures of England will be ruined. In such a situation, it is difficult to imagine a medium by which the violences will be prevented, that must otherwise call for the troops at home, which they have destined for us. In Scotland the discontent is such, that a highland regiment actually seized the castle of Edinburgh, and shut the gates against their officers. This mutiny has been quelled, but the spirit that produced it is not altered.