Letters from the Hague of the 23rd instant, N.S., say, that the Allies were so forward in the siege of Tournay, that they were preparing for a general assault, which, it was supposed, would be made within a few days.  Deserters from the town gave an account, that the garrison was carrying their ammunition and provisions into the citadel, which occasioned a tumult among the inhabitants of the town.  The French army had laid bridges over the Scarp, and made a motion as if they intended to pass that river; but though they are joined by the reinforcement expected from Germany, it was not believed they should make any attempt towards relieving Tournay.  Letters from Brabant say, there has been a discovery made of a design to deliver up Antwerp to the enemy.  The States of Holland have agreed to a general naturalisation of all Protestants who shall fly into their dominions; to which purpose, a proclamation was to be issued within few days.

They write from France, that the great misery and want under which that nation has so long laboured, has ended in a pestilence, which began to appear in Burgundy and Dauphine.  They add, that in the town of Mazon, three hundred persons had died in the space of ten days.  Letters from Lille of the 24th instant advise, that great numbers of deserters came daily into that city, the most part of whom are dragoons.  We are advised from France, that the Loire having overflowed its banks, hath laid the country under water for three hundred miles together.

[Footnote 416:  See Nos. 1 and 11.  In No. 29 of the Guardian Steele accused the world of ingratitude in not properly “rewarding the jocose labours of my friend, Mr. Durfey”; and in No. 67 Addison urged the town to go to a performance at the theatre given for Durfey’s benefit.  “He has made the town merry, and I hope they will make him easy, so long as he stays among us.”]

[Footnote 417:  Sir William Scawen, a merchant who was knighted in 1692.]

[Footnote 418:  Probably Sir Francis Child and Sir Stephen Evance, the bankers.  The latter was ruined at the time of the South Sea mania.  The following advertisement appeared in the Postman for Jan. 1, 1709:  “Lost or mislaid, some time the last summer, at Winchester House, in Chelsea, a gold snuff-box, a cypher graved on the cover, with trophies round it, and over the cypher these words, ’DD.  Illust.  Princ.  Jac.  Duci Ormond.’  Whoever brings it to Sir Stephen Evance, at the Black Boy in Lombard Street, shall have ten guineas reward, and be asked no questions.”]

[Footnote 419:  This seems to be a banter upon Mr. Whiston’s book intituled, “Praelectiones Physicae Mathematicae; sive Philosophia clarissimi Newtoni Mathematica illustrata, 1710”; wherein he explained the Newtonian philosophy, which now began to grow into vogue.  Both Addison and Steele, however, very much befriended Whiston; and after his banishment from Cambridge, promoted a subscription for his astronomical lectures at Button’s Coffee-house (Nichols).—­See No. 251.]