We hear from Copenhagen, that, the ice being broke, the Sound is again open for the ships; and that they hoped his Majesty would return sooner than they at first expected.

Letters from the Hague, dated May the 4th, N.S., say that an express arrived there on the 1st from Prince Eugene to his Grace the Duke of Marlborough.  The States are advised, that the auxiliaries of Saxony were arrived on the frontiers of the United Provinces; as also, that the two regiments of Wolfembuttel, and 4000 troops from Wirtemberg, which are to serve in Flanders, are in full march thither.  Letters from Flanders, say that the great convoy of ammunition and provisions which set out from Ghent for Lille, was safely arrived at Courtray.  We hear from Paris, that the King has ordered the militia on the coasts of Normandy and Bretagne to be in a readiness to march; and that the Court was in apprehension of a descent, to animate the people to rise in the midst of their present hardships.

They write from Spain, that the Pope’s Nuncio left Madrid the 10th of April, in order to go to Bayonne; that the Marquis de Bay was at Badajos to observe the motions of the Portuguese; and that the Count d’Estain, with a body of 5000 men, was on his march to attack Gironne.  The Duke of Anjou has deposed the Bishop of Lerida, as being a favourer of the interest of King Charles; and has summoned a convocation at Madrid, composed of the archbishops, bishops and states of that kingdom, wherein he hopes they will come to a resolution to send for no more bulls to Rome.

[Footnote 130:  John Morphew was the publisher of the Tatler.]

[Footnote 131:  See No. 4.]

[Footnote 132:  Stockjobbers, who contract for a sale of stock which they do not possess, are called sellers of bearskins; and universally whoever sells what he does not possess was said to sell the bear’s skin, while the bear runs in the woods.  “You never heard such bellowing about the town of the state of the nation, especially among the sharpers, sellers of bearskins—­i.e. stockjobbers, &c.” (Swift).  See No. 38.]

[Footnote 133:  Dr. Richard Bentley, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, took a leading part in the controversy regarding the genuineness of the Epistles of Phalaris.  In 1709 he published critical notes on the Tusculan Disputations.]

[Footnote 134:  There are several sneers at the members of the Royal Society in the Tatler.]

[Footnote 135:  See No. 1.]

[Footnote 136:  See No. 4.]

[Footnote 137:  William Bullock was a comic actor whose abilities are praised by Gildon and others.  He was the original Sir Tunbelly Clumsy in Vanbrugh’s “Relapse.”  Later on in this number (p. 70), Steele says that Bullock had a peculiar talent of looking like a fool, and in No. 188 he compares Bullock and Pinkethman in a satirical vein.]

[Footnote 138:  Perhaps Colonel Hunter, afterwards Governor of New York; or Colonel Brett, one of the managers of Drury Lane Theatre.]